Easter Candy

Oh boy I am so glad that the Easter Candy is seasonal.  I can normally get through all the holidays without caving until Easter time.  Easter candy is my weakness, and I was actually at a point where I had cut out all sugar out of my diet and then the company Cadbury took over my will power!

I am not even sure why I enjoy Easter candy so much, but I tell you Starburst Jellybeans and Mini Eggs by Cadbury are like crack in my house.  They kids totally take advantage of this too.  They see mom sneaking candy because that is what I have to do or I am forced to share, and then they get this glazed over zombie look and beg for candy.  Great...I have three crack, I mean candy, addicts in the house.  Tyler, well I cannot even reference his love of sweets because the guy can have whatever sweet he likes and not gain anything so I am leaving him out for now.

The crazy thing is that I had basically gotten rid of all sugar out of my system and my skin was beginning to look fabulous, and my scalp issue was gone as well.  Now my addiction of Easter candy is probably going to send me back to square one, but it is totally worth every piece.  Eventually I won't be able to get this yummy goodness until next year and I will battle the temptations once again, but until then I will be hoarding my jellybeans and mini eggs and enjoying them for the rest of the week.  Unfortunately I will then begin the sugar detox and workout routines hard core once we are back from our vacation, but until then I will just enjoy instead of feeling so guilty.  Okay I may feel a little guilty if I eat an entire bag by myself, so maybe that is a sign that it is okay to share with my kiddos so I do not get to the eating an entire bag of jellybeans by myself stage.  Thanks little humans!

Bed Time

Bed time is very routine at our house, and Tyler and I have worked very hard to keep things consistent and calm for the kiddos bedtime routine.  Lately however I think bedtime routine has become chaos.  The kids are in their beds after stories have been read and it is taking them longer and longer each evening to fall asleep.  I am not sure if it is because we are not letting them fall asleep in our bed like we have done previously, well Audrey has not Ayden.  Or if it is simply because the kids still are crazy due to the time change?  Whatever the case may be it is exhausting and we are definitely at our whits end.

Not going to bed on time for the kiddos for some reason equals and early rise time as well.  Then it is a viscous battle of not getting enough sleep.  The kiddos then become cranky by about 6 pm, they throw epic tantrums and then they wind up by the time it is bed time.  I am not sure why this happens with the kids, but I have seen that this is a common thing.  It wouldn't be so bad if my kids still napped.  The bed time would be pushed back and the early morning would continue, but they would at least get added sleep in the day to help with that brain development.  Unfortunately that is not happening and we will continue to push through with this stage.

I do hope though that as the weather turns warmer and the kids get more fresh air than we get our routine back.  Or maybe this is just how it is.  Some parents have kiddos that still do not sleep through the night and they are school age.  I guess I would prefer my "me" time to be interrupted so that I may sleep through the night, but it is so funny to me how quickly routines can be changed.  We didn't change, but I guess the kids did.

Not only have they changed their bed time, but their behavior and ability to push the envelope is starting to arise.  They are really trying to define who they are as individuals and it is a little exhausting as we try to redirect them in the appropriate direction.  We will get through this just like we get through every other week and maybe one day we will look back upon this time and giggle at the chaos.  However right now the tears and the kid chosen bed time needs to cease.

Yelling

Some days, okay lets be honest, most days I feel my words fall upon deaf ears in this house.

Earlier this evening Tyler and I were talking about how what we used to get reactions from in terms of our stern talking to is now falling upon deaf ears and we have had to take our talking to the next level, yelling.  I know I hate to admit it, but we have become yellers.  I sometimes feel I "bark" just as much as that stupid dog that is next door that barks all the time.  No wonder my kids don't listen when all I do is holler and nag them.  However I have to admit that since I have been so exhausted it is easier to "bark" than find the alternative solutions to redirect my kids.  As I type this I do realize how ridiculous this sounds.  I am complaining about how I yell, but then again I don't want to fester up energy to redirect.  Sigh...this is an issue.

This is a start though because I am admitting it is an issue right?  So what is it that I am going to do?  Well for one I think we need to start taking away the novelties in our house.  The kids need to go back to earning things rather than them just being given to them.  I truly feel that sometimes we are getting on the kids for being ungrateful, but then again we are the problem because we are providing everything for them.  Now it is our job as parents to provide certain things for the kids, but the extras, you know the screen time or the new book or toy, that stuff needs to stop.

I sometimes feel that since we can afford to provide these fun things for the kids that we should, but then I recall my childhood and how grateful we were for the little things.  I want my children to have a sense of pride that they earn things and that the sense of entitlement needs to be wrestled in so that my kids actually appreciate things.  Don't worry, I don't have complete spoiled brats and they do act grateful towards others gestures and gifts, but to their parents that is a different story.  I also have to remember they are only 2 and 4, but boy I would like to get through a day when I am not nagging the kiddos or getting frustrated with them because they seem not to care.

So as you can see this is a problem we have and I don't think we are the only family out there dealing with this particular behavior.  I have come to realize that this set back we are having right now is not something we can solve over night either.  We will have to work hard, both the kids and parents to get to a point where we feel we need to be.  It will definitely take patience and time, but we will get there.  Until then I will be attempting to redirect as much as possible, but I can't guarantee I will be on my "A" game all the time.  :)

Emotions

Ugh...the emotions are raw in the Evans house.

Now I thought it was just Audrey because she is probably the loudest in our house currently.  This may be shocking to some of you who know me because I think I have met my match with this one.  :)  She is loud and everything is a big deal.  We tell her to do something that she doesn't like, and well she verbalizes it and in her own four and a half year old way is telling us where to stick our words.  I know it is just a phase, but we are trying our hardest to have her learn the boundaries and what is acceptable.  It is draining, but it is our job.  And after I am beginning to feel better from my terrible cold and Tyler recovers from his food poisoning, I have realized she hasn't been the only emotional one in the house.

I am afraid to admit it, but I have been quite the hot mess.  It has a lot to do with lack of sleep and being sick, but boy as I reflect on what set me off the past couple days I have realized how emotional I am.

Now it may also be a little insecurity too.  I have never been an insecure person, but when it comes to being a mom I think I probably may be very insecure.  I feel I have people always judging and watching my every move on how I am going to handle the tantrum or the out of control toddler.  It comes with the territory and that is okay, but what I notice is that I become insecure in other areas too.  I read into emails and messages and begin to wonder what the underlying purpose is.  My mind always goes to, "Am I not enough?" or "Am I really allowing myself to be perceived as that bad of a person who is complaining?"  The thing is, maybe I am not enough or I am being perceived as a bad person, but you know what it doesn't really matter what others think.  Even though it hurts sometimes, it truly doesn't matter.  I only have one person that I need to turn to and have care about what is going on in my world.  However when the emotions are raging it is hard to remember that.

I think I will prescribe myself some reading, lots of cuddles with my babies, and sleep!

The Quiet House

It is late and I am still awake.

This rarely happens that I get out of the house and I come home and I am not completely exhausted.  Normally I go to bed by 9 pm, and I am sure I will be needing a coffee IV tomorrow morning, but there is something bittersweet about a silent house.  I love that no one is tugging at me asking me to play or for a snack.  I mean the cat has obviously hunkered down for the night because she did not even greet me as I sit typing at the dining room table.  The quiet is bliss and I am able to just be me.

So why am I writing about this anyway?  The reason I have for writing is because I can.  I am not being bothered by anyone and my thoughts are clear and you know what I cannot stop thinking about?  I can't stop thinking about how much I want to talk to my family that is slumbering upstairs.

Seriously, what is wrong with me?  I just typed an entire paragraph on how I enjoy the quiet and the ability to just be alone, and I am then completely doing a 180 and talking about how much I want to talk to the family.  I don't know what it is, but I was only gone for three and a half hours and I missed my kids and Tyler so much.  Maybe I need to get out more, but I even took the time to write notes to the kids and place them at their settings at the table.  Have I become that crazy mom?  Yes friends, I have, and I think that it is okay because I am starting to realize how blessed I truly am.  Now that the fog of my sickness has begun to clear, I realize that without Tyler and the kids I used to be Lindsay.  Now that I have everyone in my life I have become Audrey's mom, Ayden's mom, or Tyler's wife.  I some days crave to be Lindsay without any responsibilities, but then again I realize what I have in front of me, and well even though the chaos can get loud and messy, I wouldn't trade it for the world!

And it is okay for you all to remind me of this post when I am pulling my hair out two days from now because I have lost sight of what I have to be blessed about.  For now I will just be grateful:)

2 years and 7 months

On January 10, 2015, I lost my grandfather.  In two years and seven months I had lost all of my grandparents.  I was so angry and had such a heavy heart.  The grief that I took on was like a weight that was tied to my ankle and dragging me down to the bottom of the ocean.  

Now I know I am not the first person in the world to lose someone, but when I lost my grandfather it was final.  The end of a chapter in my life was ending and I had absolutely no control over it.  Now I am the type of person who has control issues.  I like to feel that I have a handle on something, but something as large as life and death, how could I ever feel I would be able to control that?  Even when my family placed the phone up to my grandfather's ear as I said my final good bye, I still was telling him that this was not part of the plan and he needed to just stay longer so I could have my one last visit that was only in one week.  Honestly that last visit wasn't going to make his leaving this Earth any easier, but in the heat of the moment I thought that was what I needed.  

What I needed?  Why is it when in times of crisis we become so hyper focus on what will make us better?  Why is it that I felt so betrayed by the person I prayed to not even an hour before saying that if my grandfather had to pass away I would be okay with it as long as he was no longer suffering, and then an hour later I was praying for him to bring my grandfather back?  When I think about this, I often wonder if God thinks I am a little confusing or crazy at times.  Who am I kidding, he made me this way so he must have known what he was doing right?

I am not sure how I thought things would go after my grandfather's funeral.  I thought there would be closure, and to a certain extent there was.  I said my good byes and celebrated his life with all the people who loved him dearly, but when I got home the hole in my heart was still there and I was not dealing with the grief as I probably should have.  I was constantly busying myself with the chaos of life and I was just shoving those feelings down further and further.  Every time I talked about a grandparent, I broke down, which I feel is normal because I was once again sad that this chapter in my life was ending.  That my children would never experience their great grandparents as I experienced my grandparents, however it wasn't until my grandparent's house was being cleaned out and getting ready to go on the market, did I know I had a problem.  

Now when I say problem, I am not sure that is the best way to refer to it.  I would have to say that this struggle was something that reared its ugly head the moment my grandparent's home had interested buyers.  I began to feel my childhood memories were being sold.  Can you believe that was what I was thinking?  Memories aren't made of things, but are made by the experience, yet I was so afraid of losing that one thing that allowed so many experiences to happen I thought I was going to lose the house and the memories of my grandparents.  It definitely sounds a little crazy, but that was the place I was at.  And somehow during all this, I would lash out at my parents when they updated me on things, but I would just keep living my life here with my kids as if nothing was wrong.  

It wasn't until recently I realized that I needed to stop making excuses for myself and allow myself to grieve because as we know children learn from example and I was afraid my kids were going to have this grieving experience as their example and it scared me.  During all this I truly had been reading a lot and I began looking at some of the messages I was getting from the books I was reading and actually making it applicable to my grieving.  One book I was reading was One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. With this book, I read a couple things that began sparking a little understanding of attempting to deal with the grief.  

From Ann Voskamp's book she discusses the hard eucaristeo and how even these eucaristeos can be turned into a joy.  Now at first I was still asking myself, how in the world can I turn this closed chapter in my life into a joy when I hurt so much?  How could I turn this pain ultimately into joy?  Then I began thinking about how Jesus turned the Last Supper into an eucharisteo.  By taking the pain, thanking the Lord for it, and then transforming it into a joy still seems like a challenge as I am still in the trenches with my grief.  However I have come to the conclusion that my grandparents made me so happy.  I have so many fond memories of them and I decided that as I reflect upon them individually I can become a better person if I attempt to do things that they all did in their lives.  It is almost as if I am going to take a few small things in each of their lives and add them to my every day lifestyle.  I have created my list of things I want to do, however I still have not began to add them to my every day life.  I need to make that next step, but doing it then truly means I am ready to move on, but am I really ready?

I have begun to see a glimmer in my future.  With all the sadness I have endured, I have taken time to reflect and see all these great qualities of my grandparents in myself, family members, and even some quirky ones in my children.  It is great to get to a point where I can see that brighter future.  I still cry as I talk about the stories and memories, and I am sure I will for awhile because only time heals the pain.  But at this point now I know that I am not alone.  There will be many more endings to chapters in my life, but I do know that if I attempt to cope with these closings on my own, I will never make it.  We are never alone, and we will always have someone to help us up when we are down, all we have to do is turn to Him.

Weather

I am not sure exactly what happens, but once warm weather starts showing up I begin to feel fabulous.  I am sure it has a lot to the vitamin D aspect of things, but I tell you what this week we have been outside every day and I am loving it!  The only down side of being outside every day is that the kids and I are absolutely exhausted at the end of the day!

This week is Audrey's spring break and we have taken full advantage of doing an outdoor activity every day.  Yesterday we did the zoo and I busted out my t-shirt and flip flops and totally rocked them.  Now by the end of the excursion my toes were sore because they are at that stage of not having anything between the big toe for so long, but I think I have started that summer callous so lets bring on the warm weather.  Now mind you we haven't busted out the shorts or tank tops, but boy do I ever want to.  It is only March and it is crazy to take note of how much I missed summer.  I think everyone can agree that this weather has been nice, however it is Nebraska so I am awaiting the blizzard in a couple weeks:)

Regardless if the weather is here to stay or not, it sure has been a great way to cope with the time change and have such a gorgeous spring break for Audrey!  The only thing that would make this spring break complete in Ayden's eyes is if we could go to the Safari Park.  The kid is obsessed with that place and is counting down the days to the opening in April.  He started back in January asking to go to the Safari Park, so hopefully after preschool on April 1st, we may venture to the Safari Park to just make his day.  But then once it opens I think we go at least once a week there.  We go to the Safari Park and Zoo a lot in the summer, and we totally get our money's worth in our membership.

With all that being said, the weather has definitely helped with my winter blues and I am beginning to get a grip on a lot of things around the house.  The kids and I's cheeks are all sun kissed, and my house has sand from the playground scattered around and the smell of sunscreen is a fragrance in my car.  Yeah for Spring!

Late

Recently as the kids and I have been attempting to get from point A to point B, I am noticing we are always late.  There is no "on time" happening here.

I used to always be early for everything and never understood why people were late.  I mean how hard could it be to get little humans from here to there?  I wish I never thought this way because guess what....it came back and bit me in the rear.

Lets take yesterday for an example.  I made plans that we would go to the museum and meet friends at 12:30.  Seemed simple enough.  We were all dressed and ready to go, all I had to do is make sure we all ate.  Of course Ayden wanted a hard boiled egg for lunch, but seriously I had time to get that done, get the random cheese sandwich Audrey wanted, and I made a quick quiche for the next couple lunches for the week for myself.  Everyone ate, but then something happened.  It was like fifteen minutes before we needed to walk out the door and I asked the kids to use the bathroom and it was like I asked them to chop off a body part.   I finally got them both to use the bathroom, and then I had to ask them to put on their socks because for some reason they couldn't wear socks while eating lunch.  Then asking them to put on shoes was like asking them to go to bed early.  See this is where I question what is going on.  They want to go to the museum, but they just lose their minds when being asked to get ready to go somewhere.

Needless to say we were late to the museum, not by a lot, but we were late.  And as I was driving to the museum, Audrey did ask if we were running late.  I laughed and stated that of course we were late because lately when aren't we late?

I will continue to work on trying to be on time, but I wouldn't be holding my breath on that one.  Therefore, if you see me running early for something, be shocked and write it down because it is a rare situation.

Daylight Savings Time

Lets face it, daylight savings time sucks!  It is hard to transition to the time change as an adult, and I swear it is normally ten times harder with littles.

Now Sunday night I was amazingly surprised my kids went to bed so easily.  I was think dang, we totally dodged a bullet there, but then Monday morning happened.  At about 4:45 a.m., my little man climbed into our bed and was ready to conquer the world.  I laid real still and was attempting to pretend to still be asleep, but then my alarm went off at 5 and that blew the concept of pretending to sleep out of the water.  Aden was up and ready to go and knew I was going to the basement to work out, so he was not going to go back to sleep.  Maybe this was my sign that working out this early wasn't a good idea.  :)  Doubt that.

Audrey woke up at about 6:15, and by 6:30 we were having breakfast and starting our day.  The day was rough for Ayden because he was exhausted and refuses to nap.  He did catch a few zzz's while in the car coming home from the post office, but that was it.  They played outside like it was going out of style and seriously argued with me about it being morning time (day) when they laid down at 7.  Yes they were going to bed that early because they need sleep and refuse to not wake up at the butt crack of down.

Now we can only imagine what tomorrow morning will be like.  I am hoping to just get a half hour of work out done tomorrow morning without any helpers, but I am not holding my breath on this one because I know what will probably happen.  I am sure that in due time I will snicker about all this when the kids are older, but right now I am not laughing, but rather yawning with my very large cup of coffee.

Tantrums

We have officially hit the stage of the horrible tantrums.  I forgot how bad these things actually can get!  This weekend Ayden has officially had a tantrum a day and I think we are both exhausted by the end of the episode.  I can't even remember what Saturday's tantrum was about, but Sunday's was over cheese.  Yes a cheese stick sent my sweet baby boy into instant exorcist mode.  His face turned red, the screaming was at a decibal that even the folks in houses four doors down could hear.  He was screaming gibberish that neither Tyler or I could decipher and at that point what is one to do?

When Ayden gets to this point at home, I put him in his room.  The poor kids just needs to calm down, but in a place where the rest of us don't have to experience it.  Well, almost all of us.  I am normally the one carrying him to his room, putting him in his bed, and then holding the door closed for about fifteen minutes until he is completely calm.  This fifteen minutes feels like fifteen hours, but we get through it and he is beginning to understand that he won't get his way by carrying on that ludicrous behavior.  However he is almost three and well I know we will have so many more of these crazy tantrums.

I was a little concerned because Audrey was being all emotional and crazy last week, but then after this weekend of the reminder of what three was like, I have realized that I am in for a doozy.  The emotional is raw, and it is so draining.  I guess there may be some solidification to have Audrey in kindergarten next year, as I try and survive the tiresome threes with Ayden.

Here is a fun little article that resonates well with the age of three....The Threenager
This is my life people!

Kindergarten

Oh Audrey, my dear sweet Audrey!

Now after an absolute terrible, no good day with my little girl yesterday, today is a new day, and I am so sad!  Today is kindergarten roundup and I am just a hot mess over here.  I know she is ready for school, even though she made the cut off by four days, but after the emotional breakdown we had yesterday I sure do question her maturity.  C'mon though momma, I have to remember she is only four and a half, but still the emotion, and then at the same time I am thinking I am going to miss that craziness.  This is why I am a hot mess!

I seriously do love Audrey, but recently we have been having a major power struggle.  She is really trying to test her boundaries and really wants to be in charge, and well unfortunately for her I am in charge.  Yesterday she spent a lot of time learning that when you are a bucket dipper, you spend a lot of time sitting on your bed, missing out on the fun activities going on downstairs.  However, just like that she miraculously turned her behavior around and was a gem for me from 4 pm until she crashed hard at 7:15.  That was probably the main issue right there, she was exhausted, but geesh how is she going to manage school every day for six hours?  This will definitely be an adjustment for the entire family I do believe.

Back to this emotional kindergarten feeling I have going on.  I can still remember her being so tiny, and the thought of her moving into the next chapter of her life is just crazy to me.  People say time goes by quickly with your children, but you can't imagine it until it happens.  Even a couple years ago when I was in the midst of having a toddler and a newborn, I was thinking to myself how can people say I should relish this time when it is absolute chaos?  And now I have my answer.  Time goes so quickly and they are only little for so long.  So even though Audrey has been an emotional roller coaster, I should embrace this time because who knows what sixteen will look like!  Lord help me.

With that being said, I will recap on my kindergarten roundup experience hopefully next week.  I hope to not be reporting I cried the entire time or be the crazy mom asking all the questions or even signed up to volunteer already because that would definitely label me as the helicopter parent I once despises as a teacher.  Please don't let me be that mom!

Toddler Language

I was very fortunate with Audrey that she was a very good speaker when she started talking.  In fact she was so good at speaking that she decided not to walk until 20 months!  This is what I am going to keep telling myself with that one.  :)  Now with Ayden, trying to decipher some of his words has become quite the challenge for Tyler and I.  In fact, I think on multiple occasions I have had to ask Audrey what Ayden is actually saying.  Sad, I know.

However, lets get back to this toddler talking.  It is like they have their own language.  Some words are very articulate and you get what they are saying, and others you are completely scratching your head asking yourself what they could possibly be asking for.  There have been multiple times I have questioned if some of the words are cuss words because I swear sometimes it sure does sound like it.

Toddlers have their own language and in all reality their own crazy antics as well.  Like the tantrums...oh the tantrums.  As I keep thinking about this more, I really feel that my toddler is an alien.  I am living with a little human that my husband and I created, and he is so foreign I truly feel that at times he is not from this planet.  I know it sounds bad, but it is the absolute truth.  The way toddlers discover the world and deal with typical every day affairs are definitely  not how we adults think things should be done.

As for Ayden, last night he was sitting at the table with us as we were finishing dinner and he was talking about his bread.  Tyler and I swore he was asking for hair with his bread.  I glanced to make sure there was no hair on his bread, and began to scratch my head because what could he be asking for?  He kept saying this word over and over and then started to make a cutting motion.  I was then thinking maybe a little piece of bread, like a sliver or a hair?  Nope, that wasn't it.  It wasn't until a few moments later I realized he wanted this bread to be cut into squares!  Mystery solved and our life was happy.  But it seems like this is how my day goes continuously.  Not only do I have to try and guess on if I am raising these little humans correctly, but now I have to decipher a foreign language that is not available with Rosetta Stone.

More than likely if Ayden says something that you don't understand when you see him, you are better off asking Audrey because she either knows him better or things just make more sense to her because she is only 22 months older than him.

Just Can't Catch Up!

Recently I have just felt like I cannot catch up!  I mean if I feel ahead of the game in one area,  I am totally slacking in another area.  And of course when I get to the stressed out point with all this, what do I do?  I totally take on more obligations or add more to my plate.  Seriously, instead of deciding to be Wonder Woman, I should just settle for being Okay Woman!  I mean didn't I already post a blog on that already?  But there are days I am okay with being okay, and then I have days that I want to be okay at everything.  Once again I think I may need help with this problem, but I will seek help later.  :)

In the midst of feeling all crazy and high strung, I read last night.  In fact I was reading God Moments:  A Year in the Word by The writers of Encouragement.com.  This book is perfect for me to read daily because it gives me a quick snippet each day of a daily reflection through verses in the Bible.  I am not the type of person who can pick up the Bible and read through an entire chapter.  I need things in small doses to digest and be able to take away the message or understanding. I had to "catch up on my days to be up to speed on the current date.   My problem is I am having a hard time reading every night!  Doesn't this defeat the purpose?  However I feel that I need to do this to get a take on a daily verse to focus how this particular scripture is related to my life as this day, and you know what the crazy thing is, it touches bases almost on something that has occurred in the day or that week that has been bothering me.  Now it doesn't give me the end all be all answer to some of the chaos, but it sure does make me feel a connection to the outside world that I may not always get to connect with.  Bonus right?

Yesterday as I was catching up, I found a day I wasn't even suppose to read because it is not Leap Year to be the most moving!  Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act.  Do not say to your neighbor, "Come back later;  I'll give it tomorrow".  ~Proverbs 3:27-28  Now this was totally how I have been living lately to just get by.  I want to help so much, but I feel that I am limited on how I can help and I always so I can help later.  Or I pass up the opportunity and then after the moment has passed I recreate the scenario of all the ways I could have helped but didn't. Now in this short three page focus for February 29th, it goes on to talk about doing good in the now and to never neglect doing good because the opportunities to do these good things may not ever come our way again.  How true is that?  How great would our world be if we could just do good and help when the opportunity comes stumbling across our feet?  This is very empowering because this is the type of people I want my babies to become.  Folks that live int he moment of doing good, but how can I expect them to do any of this if I do not model it for them?

With that all being said, from this day forward I am going to try my hardest to try and do good as the opportunities present themselves, regardless of how far behind on things I am.  I cannot let that other stuff get in the way because I have to realize I will more than likely never be caught up on everything in life.  Then I am only to hope my children will lead by my example.  Here is to making the world a better place, one good deed at a time!

Little Surprises

Yesterday was a very chaotic day!

I was wide awake at 1:30 am and could not fall back to sleep.  I tossed and turned until 3 am, and I finally decided to take the hint that I wasn't going to sleep and I worked out.  I found some old recordings from a couple weeks ago and decided to catch up on my trash t.v. and walked away until I got sleepy.  Crazy thing is, I never got tired.  In fact after walking and running for an hour and fifteen minutes I gave up on getting tired.  I came back upstairs and finished one of my shows and I forced myself to sleep on the couch.  I finally found dreamland when I was awoken by my little tornado.  Of course I was hoping to get more sleep, as I had a ton of things going on on Sunday, but I guess I was grateful to get a good work out done:).

Now that just was how my day started, but it ended quite nicely.  We got home from church and it was quite surprising to hear that at childcare Ayden was requesting to go to the bathroom.  He came home and started telling us how he needed to use the potty, and he was actually successful.  This was HUGE!  Not even three weeks ago, Ayden explained to me that he would begin potty training in five weeks.  Now I am still perplexed as to why he chose that time frame, but guess what I don't get a lot of things Ayden does.  And to my surprise, Ayden's five week stance to potty training came up a little short on time.

Now I wasn't home for the afternoon, but I do know that we had quite a few successes.  He even chose to use the bathroom after he laid down in bed.  We are not quite there to say we are completely potty trained, however we are a lot closer than we were on Saturday.  So here is the little successes and surprises that are brought into our lives on a daily basis.  Things may start out rough, but more than likely they can turn around.

Happy Monday my friends!