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After much deliberating, the decision was made to combine Casey's blog and Sydney's blog into one. There were several factors that weighed into the decision, but the main reason the switch was made is because more and more, da boys are doing the same activities, and experiencing the same things. All of the old blog posts from both blogs have been transferred over and are arranged in chronological order. The combined blog can be found HERE

Please bookmark the new blog!!

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Night Time Potty Training

We are trying to take the next step in Casey's potty training. Until now, he has been using 'big boy underwear' during the day. For the most part, he is pretty good about getting to a toilet whenever he needs to pee. Daddy is trying to teach him to "P!ss like a man.." ie: pee while standing up. I'd say it's about 80-20 sitting vs. standing. But the important thing is that he is going in a toilet. However, at night, he was still wearing 'naptime underwear' ie: pullups. Well, the volume of pee during the night apparently exceeds the capacity of the pullups. That means soaked bed sheets. So, logic dictated, if the sheets are gonna be soaked every night, no harm in working on the nighttime training.
Thus, we have a new nighttime routine. We 'pee' him right before he goes to bed. Additionally, just before WE goto bed, we wake him up, escort him to the toilet and have him pee again. Last night was the first night we did it. When we woke him, he was (understandably) groggy and kept moaning, "Why are you doing this?". Despite his weak protests, he sat on the potty and p!ssed like a racehorse!!!
Stay tuned for the exciting adventures of night time potty training!!

UPDATE... Tonight, before we went to bed (approx. 10:30PM) we went to wake Casey up to pee him. Only he, his clothes, and his bed were all SOAKED. We changed him, changed the sheets on his bed, and peed him. Fast forward to 2:30AM. Went to check on his again... SOAKED... This ain't working so well... May have to switch strategies.

Day 2 UPDATE.. In the morning, Casey comes into our room and proudly says, 'I peed in the potty'. Sure enough, he had different pajama pants on. We were so proud of his new accomplishment... Then Mommy must have gotten suspicious. She says wait, if you peed in the potty, why did you change your pajama pants? Casey sheepishly replied, 'They might have gotten a little bit wet; just a little bit'. Then Mommy asks about his bed. Casey says, 'It might be a little wet, but it's ok!'
On the bright side, Casey did get up and go potty by himself. Albeit, AFTER he peed the bed... Baby steps..

Cookie in the Milk

Christmas, 2012. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, packages kept arriving at the front door. Of course, Casey wanted to open each and every one the moment they arrived. But we kept telling him to wait until Christmas. The days passed, and the pile of presents under the Christmas tree grew. Finally, it was Christmas Eve. Before going to bed, Casey helped leave Santa Claus some cookies. He personally choose three frosted Animal Cookies, and three chocolate chip cookies. We poured a small mug of milk and wrote a note to Santa. "Help yourself to some milk and cookies- Merry Christmas" Fast forward to Christmas morning. Casey came down to the dining table, looked at the cookie bowl, and said, "He left a piece of cookie!". Then he looked inside the mug and said, "He dropped a piece of cookie in his milk. Let's save it for him".

Looks like Santa left a note... and a piece of cookie in the bowl!

A Thank You Note from Santa!

Santa dropped a piece of cookie in his milk!

Carsland!

For years, Casey's favorite movie has been Cars. He owns the two movies, books and a boatload of the toy cars. He knows all the names of the characters/cars. So, when Disney announced they were opening a theme park named Carsland, I knew it was only a matter of time before we HAD to take Casey there. We sure were not going to go on opening day, we managed to miss the summer crowds, we didn't go on a weekend, we planned the excursion for a weekday in early December. Consider it a stroke of luck, but the day finally came, and it was dark, drizzly and a little chilly... In other words- perfect weather. Apparently, the thread of rain kept the crowds away, because with the exception of one ride, there were NO lines longer than 5 minutes. Before leaving, I consulted with many friends with prior Disney experience, and asked for advice. The most succinct advice I received? 'Don't go'
We got to the park, and went straight for the Carsland Racers. Casey and Daddy waited in line for about 90 minutes. Surprisingly, Casey did pretty good in line. I thought he would be bored out of his skull and going crazy. We finally got on the ride, and Casey was a little scared, but had fun. Toward the end of the ride, he looked over at me, and said, "I'm a little scared". Too cute. When the ride ended, Casey had the option of immediately going again, with Mommy. He didn't hesitate, and wanted to go again. I guess fun won out over scared!
From there, we rode Mater's crazy tractors, and Luigi's flying tires. After exhausting Carsland, we proceeded to Bug's Life. We rode the flying something or anothers.. Dont remember exactly what it was called, 'cept I do know mounted what looked like a giant Chinese Food to-go container for a ride in the sky. Then Casey saw the bumper cars. As we approached the cars, Casey pushed me out of the way, and announced, "I'm driving"! Apparently, he likes driving and crashing, cause he insisted we do this ride multiple times!
Casey requested we ride the giant ferris wheel. After that, we got some ice cream before heading over the Monster's Inc. attraction. For a spell, Monster's Inc. was a close runner up to Cars for Casey's favorite movie. Sure enough, he requested we take multiple turns on this ride as well. Thankfully, there were minimal lines, which made all these multiple rides real quick and easy. Our day ended with a front row seat for the Disney character parade. It featured characters from movies such as Monsters Inc, Toy Story, Finding Nemo, etc... It was so cool watching Casey recognize the characters and movies.
All in all, a wonderful family day. It went better than anyone imagined. Minimal lines, NO meltdowns, both boys throughly enjoying themselves ALL DAY long.

Carsland- Radiator Springs Racers Ride

"I'm a little scared"

"I'm a little scared"

Lighting McQueen

Crazy Tractors

Merry-go-round

Mater's Crazy Tractors

Casey driving bumper cars

Casey driving bumper cars

The boys on the ferris wheel

Ivory Clouds

Casey and I enjoyed a fun rainy day project today while Sydney was napping.  

We made Ivory soap Clouds. You take a bar of Ivory soap and put it on a piece of wax paper then put it in the microwave for a few minutes. It can make quite a mess but it is fun to crumble it and make it look like snow flakes falling.

Casey and his Ivory Cloud

Crumbling his cloud into "snow flakes."

It's fun to crumble it.

 After we crumbled it we added a little bit of warm water and some food coloring and mushed it back into more of a solid.  Then we used cookie cutters and made soaps in different shapes, a truck, star, candy cane, and circle. Once they dry we can give them as gifts or use them in the bathtub for some cleaning fun.

Casey's very own little soaps.

It was a fun time and apparently tiring because Casey fell asleep on the couch while mommy cleaned up.

Brotherly Love

Dialogue between Casey and me (mom) on September 27th...

It was afternoon Sydney was taking his nap and Casey was playing cars.  Sydney started making noise and Casey ran to check the video monitor....

"Mommy Sydney's awake."
"See look, see him, right here." (as he turns the video monitor to me so I can see)
"I'm gonna go play with him."

No Casey, he's not feeling good, he likes to wake up slow.

"but I want to play with him"

Casey, mommy will go get him, you stay here.

"Why? Sydney doesn't like me?" (sadness in his face and voice, mommy's heart breaks!)

He loves you baby! He's just not feeling good, he's sick and doesn't want to play too much right now.

"I go get him." (he takes off up the stairs)

Casey WAIT! (He waits then when I am half way up the stairs he heads up the rest of the stairs and opens the door)

"HI SYDNEY!!"

Poor Sydney was not ready to be awake. He just wanted to cuddle and go back to sleep. Of course he couldn't with big brother in the room because every few minutes Casey would make some noise or come over and try to tickle or hold Sydney.  Big brother just wanted to hug and comfort his little brother but Sydney wanted no part of it. 

I felt so bad when Casey said "Sydney doesn't like me?" I don't want him to think his baby brother doesn't like him.  I think my poor big boy is feeling neglected since Sydney has been getting so much attention and extra cuddles this week.  I need to give him some extra love!

He LOVES his little brother!!!

Halloween 2012

This being this third time around, Casey is getting pretty good at this. Weeks ago, he went costume shopping with Mommy. He saw a brown UPS outfit, and he fell in love with it. His first day home, he wore it, and insisted that he sleep in it! In the days leading up to Halloween he would blurt out, 'I want to go trick or treating'. I would ask him what he was going to dress up as, and he would reply, 'Brown delivery truck man'. To help celebrate the season, Casey had a field trip to the pumpkin patch. But we wanted to do a family outing to the pumpkin patch to introduce Sydney to the concept. Ol' Casey was a veteran, and was anxious to show his lil bro how to feed the animals and pick pumpkins.

Then came time for the main event: Halloween night. In what has become somewhat of a tradition, Casey went trick or treating with his buddies... Allison, CJ, Ian, Sammy. Often Casey the elephant led the charge from house to house. Despite all the excitement, he minded his P's and Q's, saying thank you to each and every house!

Casey the UPS Delivery Man

Feeding the goats

Hoisting the pumpkin

Group Shot

Trick or Treat!

Leading the Charge

Big Bro and Little Bro taking a break from trick or treating