Layton is 23 months!

Just one more month and then you are TWO, Layt!  Can't believe it.  You are a busy busy boy these days.  You are into everything and still love to CLIMB!!!  Here you were watching Dash.  You like to do this.  This time you found a stool and I think were trying to open the door.  Luckily, you haven't done it since.  Once you really figure out you can do this and get out, I am in trouble.

You found my Sonic drink one day and helped yourself.

So proud of yourself.

I just love your smile.  It is definitely contagious.  You have the cutest personality and can make some of the funniest faces.  Lincoln and Hannah crack up at some of your faces too!

You still love "beep beeps."  You won't call them cars no matter how hard I try to get you to say it.  You love your riding toys and it is nice to have hardwood floors because you can ride them around the house and love to do it.

This is a pic of you at the Arthritis Family Day having a snack.  You were hungry.  You are still eating pretty well, but are getting a bit more picky.  You still love chicken, pork, steak, green beans, salad, eggs, fruit snacks, and any kind of fruit.  All drinks are called "mal" for milk.  You have had some Capri Suns and Hawaiian Punch bottles and love them!  Popsicles are also a big hit with you now that the weather calls for them so often!  You are not a huge breakfast eater.  I give you quite a variety and haven't really discovered anything that you just love other than scrambled eggs.

You absolutely LOVE your Daddy!!!!  He is pretty crazy about you too!!  You just light up when you see him and will randomly ask about him throughout the day.  You'll say "Daddy?" with that question in your voice and I'll say "Where's Daddy?"  You have learned to say "wor" for work.  You still think that every white suv is your Daddy and scream "Daddy!" when you see one!  I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the two of you and hope you always have a close relationship with your Daddy.

You also love the tractors in this picture.  The blue one was your dad's I think when he was little.  You are constantly asking me to get them down from your chest of drawers so you can play with them.

I am still amazed at how you always want to "help" your Daddy when he is working on something.  He was doing something to our bikes one day and you just had to be right there helping him out with your tools.

You are still not into tv much yet, but I caught this sweet moment between you and Linc one day while he was watching tv.

I still love to find you like this.

You wore this outfit a couple of weeks ago to church.  I had to take your picture because this was Lincoln's outfit too.  Such handsome boys!

Lincoln at about 14 months when it fit him!  He was a big ole boy!!!

You have discovered you love candy and helped yourself to some one day.  You like to help yourself to things!  Ha!  I guess you walked along the counter for a bit to get to the candy cabinet because the chair was   few feet down.  I caught you like this and it scared me, but I had to run and get my camera.  :)

Everyone in my family keeps asking me when you are going to talk more.  You don't say a lot but I can definitely understand you and know what you are thinking most of the time.  A few more words I've been hearing lately are gone, broke, cheese (you say this when smiling for the camera), see or see it (when you wanted to see a picture I took of you on the camera), mine, moon, please, and I know there are more.

You still love to be outside and try to say "outside".  If I ask you if you want to go outside, you run to go get your shoes and bring them to me.  Sometimes you go get them first and bring them to me and say "outside."

You are doing pretty well going poo poo on the potty some.  So, we are just going with the flow with that.  One day prior to when this all started, I was changing a poopy diaper on the changing table.  I showed you Lincoln's underwear and told you that when you learned to go poo poo in the potty, you could wear big boy underwear like Linc.  I told you I'd get you some Elmo ones.  A few minutes later, I found you in Linc's underwear drawer wanting to get to the underwear.  I had to explain again to you about when you could wear them because you were upset and wanted to wear them right then.  A bit later I found you walking around with a big arm full of them saying "mine!"  Ha!!

You are still quite the fit thrower.  I actually had to leave Kohl's one day because you were throwing such a fit and I couldn't get you to calm down.  You wanted your pacy and I didn't have one with me.  Bad Mommy.  You still love your pacy, but we try to only let you have it at nap time or when you are super tired or when I am out shopping and it is just easier for me than to fight you about it.  I don't know when we will try to get rid of it.  I don't even want to think about it right now and that is okay.

You still like to be rocked and sung to a bit before going to bed, but there are some times when you point to your bed because you are just ready to go.  I just cherish those snuggles with you, though, when you let me rock you.  Layton, you are such a bright light in my life right now and I can not thank God enough for the blessing that you are!!!

Layton - 23 months

Potty Time???

So over the last 2 weeks or so, Layton has been going poo poo in the potty!!!  Yay!!! It all kind of started because one day I noticed that after he finished his lunch and while he was still sitting in his high chair, he looked like he needed to go.  I asked him if he needed to go poo poo and he shook his head yes.  I asked him if he wanted to go sit on the big boy potty and he said yes again.  So, off we went.  I sat beside him and talked to him a bit about going potty and about the shower curtain (because it is so fascinating) and the toilet paper.  I watched him stuff some down in the potty because that is what you are supposed to do, right?  (I then decided to take the roll off and put in on the counter or else he would have kept going and going.)  He wasn't doing anything, but I really thought he needed to.  I decided to go back in the kitchen for a few minutes so I could finish my lunch.  I left the door open where he could see me.  I went back to check on him once and he was doing fine--still hadn't gone.  I went back in the kitchen again and a few minutes later, he yells for me with some excitement.  I rushed back in and asked him if he did it, and he was very proud to shake his head yes and say, "Uh huh!"

I did the potty dance, screamed and shouted, gave him a high-five, clapped, and told him what a big boy he was over and over again.  I think he got that I was excited and proud of him and that he had done something really big!!!  Ha!

After all the excitement died down, I wiped him and then told him to look at his poo poo.  I don't know if this was a good idea or not.  I guess I just thought he needed to see what he had done.  It didn't really dawn on me that he had never really seen this before.

I think it was a bit shocking...

and maybe a bit scary!!!!

Cracked me up!!!  He didn't want to flush the toilet after that.

He has not gone every day, but I would say it has been 5 or 6 times now.  He has gotten better every time.  I usually just leave the room and it may take a time or two, but usually he goes and yells for me.  He has started trying to flush the toilet and even tells the poo poo bye bye!  Ha!  He went again today and even went more while I was sitting in there with him.  He knew what he was doing and knew he needed to go more.  He also pee peed and realized it for the first time too today!!!

Of course, this is very exciting news in our house and I had to tell his Daddy and Mimi and a few friends.  I was kind of giddy.  I'm not going to kid myself and think that this is necessarily "it" and he is on his way to being potty trained.  However, I am going to go with it as much as possible.  It would be SO nice if I could get him potty trained soon.  My grocery budget would benefit greatly from not having to buy diapers or wipes!!

He is such a cutie and I just wanted to remember this monumental occasion with my baby!!!!  :-)

Field Trip with Hannah

Last week the boys and I went to Krispy Kreme with Hannah's class one morning.  We actually got there before they did and had a yummy breakfast.

When Hannah got there, we waited outside with her until it was her class's turn to take the doughnut making tour inside.

This picture cracks me up.  The little boy with his arm around Hannah is Owen.  Apparently he got moved to Hannah's class half-way through the year for some reason.  I think he must be a handful.  Anyway, Hannah's teacher sat him next to Hannah in class specifically because she knew that he would not distract Hannah or make Hannah misbehave.  This was quite the compliment to our Hannah and it made me proud.  She has such good behavior at school and I know her teacher appreciates this.  I think she and Owen got along pretty well actually.  She had to put him in his place a time or two she told me.  He would ask for an answer and she told me that she told him she couldn't tell him and that he had to do his own work!

They got to see how the doughnuts are made.  By the way, this field trip was not what they had originally planned to do.  They were supposed to go to Bishop Park and go fishing.  For some reason, this fell through and so Krispy Kreme was where they ended up going.

They all got to hold some dough and play with it and then they saw how they made the filled doughnuts and the chocolate glazed ones.

After doughnuts, we all headed to Mills Park to eat lunch and play.  Lincoln loves to swing.  So glad he can swing himself now.  :)

They played in the sand and had so much fun!

I am so glad that we have gotten to hang out a bit lately with Hannah at school.  Lincoln and Layton have really enjoyed it too.

Bike Ridin'

Kris and I just finished a Dynamic Marriage Class at church.  It was an 8 week class.  We met with 6 other couples, mostly from our Life Group, each Sunday night from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m.  We had homework 6 nights a week that we had to do together.  It was an amazing class and really changed our marriage for the better.  We were able to talk through some things that needed to be talked through, prayed together, and then shared quite a bit with our class.  It really was life changing.  I highly recommend it.

Anyway, one of the things that we talked about was recreational activities.  We do like to do a lot of the same things, but we got to brain storm some things that we could do together as a family.  One thing that came up was bike riding.  So, we decided to go get bikes for ourselves.  The kids have bikes already.  The only problem was what to do with Layton.  We were just going to buy one of those things that you hook up to the back of your bike that a child can ride in.  Well, we didn't have to because one of Kris' coworkers had one that he gave us.  Sweet!  So, I went and got Kris, Layton, and I helmets.

So, we were all set and off we went!!!

I took this picture with my phone while riding my bike.  That's why it is not very good, but you can see our little family riding our bicycles to the park.  Ha!

Layton likes it.

Now it was my turn to give pulling Layton a try.  It is not too hard--if you aren't going up a hill.

Anyway, I think it is going to be fun.  I hope we can go on some good bike rides this summer--maybe even go to the Two Rivers Bridge or the Big Dam Bridge at some point.  We've got to get the big kids to learn to ride without training wheels.  That is a goal for the summer.  We told them they could get new bikes if they'd learn.  We'll see.

Layton and I went for a ride this morning while Lincoln was at school.  This was actually our last morning just the two of us until next fall.  I can't believe it will just be he and I next year.  I plan on doing this quite often then.  It is awesome exercise and a great way to get to the park so Layt can play!

Yay for new hobbies!!!

JA Family Day

A couple of Saturdays ago, we went to the first Arthritis Foundation Juvenile Arthritis Family Day at The Museum of Discovery.  We had never been to the museum before and they had just recently redone it, so the kids were really looking forward to going.  Walking in and seeing some of the exhibits, I could tell they were going to have a blast. 

Kris and I really didn't get to see much because we were in with all the other parents and AF staff having a meeting.  They had volunteers who took the kids around and watched them so that we could focus on meeting other parents from all around Arkansas as well as hear from one of the pediatric rheumatologists from Arkansas Children's Hospital, Dr. Dare.  We are so fortunate to live in LR and have ready access to 2 great pediatric rheumatologists.  Dr. Morris is Hannah's doctor, but we know Dr. Dare because he is a friend of some of our friends from church and actually is a member of the church himself.  We also got to hear about Camp AcheAway, which is a week long camp for children from 6 to 16 who have juvenile arthritis.  The really cool thing is that it is in our city at Camp Aldersgate.  It looks like it would be so much fun, but we are not quite ready to let go of Hannah over night for a whole week.  I think in a few more years, it would be a really neat thing for her to do and hopefully one of her little friends, Maylee, will go with her.


Kris stood up and talked about our trip last year to the Advocacy Summit in D.C.  

There weren't a lot of people there, but it really was a good turnout.  There were people from Jonesboro, Cabot, Benton, Hot Springs and a few more places. I think they plan on making this a yearly event.  Hopefully it will be bigger next year.

We got to listen to a panel question and answer session with Dr. Dare, and a couple of parents that we know from LR, as well as the Director of the AF.  It was really good and very informative.

It was good to meet other parents of kids with arthritis but honestly, it was also hard.  I talked to one dad about his 12 year old daughter who was diagnosed around the same age as Hannah - 2.  After a few years of treatment, she went into remission.  However, last summer her arthritis came back with a vengeance he said.  She is having a lot of pain and taking several more meds.  She is active, but her mom says she pays for it afterwards.  It just broke my heart and I just about lost it standing there.  I couldn't help but think about Hannah.  I have really tried to push the thought of arthritis out of my mind as much as possible.  She is symptom free, on no meds, and you would never know anything had ever been wrong.  We have been so blessed.  It scared me to death, though, hearing this dad talk.  He talked about the meds and how it was so concerning what the long term effects of them could be.  He mentioned sterility.  It just heart me so bad.  I know I can't live in fear of the arthritis coming back, but that thought is ever at the back of my mind.  All I know to do is pray.  Pray that this disease will stay away from Hannah and never come back.