Potty Time

Now that Holton is staying with his Gandma for a while, we are starting an exciting new chapter next week. That's right! Potty training.


Last weekend I got him two different potty chairs. One for our house and one for Gandma's. When he saw them he immediately took off his pants and diaper and sat down on both potties. He tried really hard, but eventually gave up to do this.


Hopefully this potty training thing will work out soon. We would love to be over the whole diaper scene. Wish us luck!

Change of plans

We’ve recently had a big change with Holton’s day care. As of last Tuesday, we removed him from his daycare. He’s been there since he was 6 weeks old (wow) and we feel he was no longer happy with his school. It was a wonderful place for him when he was younger.

The problems really started when he moved to the 2 year old room back in November. Each day was harder and harder on Adam to drop off Holton. And we noticed that he was acting out more at home. He just seemed really unhappy. At Christmas we kept him home for two straight weeks and I loved every second of it!! When he had to take him back to school we noticed that he was extremely unhappy. You see we chose that daycare because they had video cameras and we could watch Holton through a secure connection.

His first day back at school, Holton was still crying at 4 PM. That was unsettling. Then the next day we saw on camera that he was just circling the room, crying, holding his blanket and trying to get one of his two teachers to hold him for about 30 minutes. It killed me to see that while at work. I immediately felt like the world’s worst mother. I called the school and told them to go console and pick him up! Long story short, they called back with a story and some feedback that didn’t make me feel any better.

Adam and I had a long talk about Holton’s care and what was best for him. We decided to remove him from that daycare and look for other options. My mom graciously offered to watch Holton until we can get him into another day care. It’s a nationally known daycare that is quite hoity-toity. Starting at 2 years of age, the kids move class room to class room every 30 minutes. We visited the school and Holton loved it! They have a fish pond and he had the best time with that and he even made a friend. Seeing how happy he was there reassured me that we made the right decision. He’s now on the waiting list for the 2 year old room and staying with my mom five days a week.

We are so very lucky to have her watch Holton while we wait. Holton adores his “Gandma” and it’s wonderful to see how happy he is each day. He loves being with her. But, he’s still learning. They’ve been working on his alphabet, colors and she even took him to the local library for story time – mom said that was a failed bit, but they’ll try again.

So thank you to mom and dad and to Adam’s parents for being so supportive during this transition. Everyone has offered to pitch in and it just shows how much Holton is loved.

Rocking out

The other night we went to our friends house for their son's 2nd birthday. Luckily they had entertainment for the adults too. They had the game Rock Band all set up for us to enjoy.

Rock Band allows a group of people to play along with a song and you each get rated on how well you perform. Someone can play the drums, the guitar, and of course sing. I chose to sit back and just be a cheerleader, but Adam eventually got hooked by playing guitar. Seriously, we couldn't get him to leave.

Then, Holton saw his daddy and was inspired. So he grabbed a little Leap Frog guitar, went over to the couch, sat right by Adam and pretended he was playing too. I just love the picture. Holton wanted to be just like his rock star da-da.

Signs your toddler is growing up

Now that Holton is two, he seems to surprise everyday with something new. He'll repeat whatever you say, he likes to laugh and then say, "that's funny", and he loves to say "go away" and "mine". I have no idea where he gets that attitude from....

He's really become a big boy over the past couple days. We've been trying to get Holton to brush his teeth and not just play with the toothbrush. My friends have told me horror stories about dental bills when their kids were only 2 and 3. So Monday my friend told me I needed to buy an electric toothbrush. I didn't think much of it, but boy was she right. Holton really likes the electric toothbrush. He used it for about 10 minutes that night. Keep on brushing Holton!! Mama needs a cheap dental bill.


And, in other development news, Holton is no longer sleeping in his crib! Holton never really tried to escape out of the crib, but we just thought he might sleep better if he had more room to stretch out. So Sunday night Adam and my dad converted Holton's crib to his new full size bed.

A new bed means new sheets, new comforter etc. Thank goodness for the Target after Christmas clearance. Holton's new comforter arrived last night and he was very proud. Notice I couldn't get one clear picture of him since he was too excited jumping on his bed.



It's so nice for him to have his own "big boy bed", but the down side is that Holton can just get right up and walk into our room whenever he wants to. He's got that down to a science now.

Happy New Year!

Adam and I were very happy to say adios to 2008. After Adam's health scare, hospital stay and several months of recovery, we anxiously awaited midnight on New Year's Eve. Bring on 2009!! We look forward to the coming year and wish everyone of our friends and family health and happiness throughout the year!

We celebrated the new year with Patrick, Amanda and our good friends Julie and John. We headed to Cowtown (Ft. Worth) and had a yummy dinner at the Reata and went to the Scat Jazz Lounge to see a Frank Sinatra type singer. We were really hip as it was an underground club. It was so great to be out with our friends and family - thanks to Grandpa and Grandma for babysitting us. That's the beauty of your parents living 5 minutes away ;)

Getting ready to go par-tay and welcome the new year.

New Year's Day we all loaded up and went to see the Ice Exhibit at the Gaylord in Grapevine. Amanda got us all tickets for the show which was the best idea as our neice and nephew were in town. They absolutely loved going. It was soooo cold in there - shocker, right? They have to keep the temparauture hovering around 9 degrees. Holton was not so much a fan of the cold. Guess it's a good thing we live in Texas.

We were lucky enough to get our family picture at the top of the Santa sculpture. After seeing this picture I realized that I truly do have a huge purse and I may need to retire this in 2009. It might be bigger than my parka. Speaking of parka, Holton flat out refused to wear the Gaylord provided parka. He felt blue was not his color.

Clayton paying tribute to "A Christmas Story"

One of the reason's that Kiersten (our niece) said that Amanda is the coolest Aunt ever. Check her out on the ice slide! Love that girl.

A whole new room

Holton recently changed rooms at his daycare, which we call school. He had to move to the two year old class where he now has weekly themes, they have a set schedule of daily activities, they brush their teeth and they start potty training!

The new room also means new teachers and this didn't set well with him. It was really tough on him for a while. He cried a lot as he missed his previous teachers. But I'm happy to report he's doing much better with the daily drop off (so says Adam). Now we just have to work on brushing his teeth. They wrote on his daily report that he "doesn't want to brush his teeth", that 'he just wants to play with the tooth brush". And to that I say - ya, who wouldn't? Tooth brushes make the perfect toy. Holton is easily amused ;)

This was the first time I've ever seen him play with Playdough. Surprising because he doesn't like "mushy" things.


He's happy in his new room. Especially with a good old wooden boat.

Oh what a night!

My company had our annual Holiday Party last week and we had a great time! They always put on the best shin dig for us employees. We had a casino, DJ, food, dancing and this year they had the game Rock Band - now that was interesting. Adam and I partied like rock stars and we even walked away with a free TV!

We received raffle tickets for X amount of gambling chips. At the end of the night Adam only had two tickets so I thought our chances were slim. The first prize they gave away was the lovely 40 inch flat screen tv and I won! I was so excited that I jumped up and down, screamed Adam's name like Rocky yelled Adrian, and I even gave an acceptance speech. The TV fits perfectly in Holton's playroom.

We celebrated the rest of the night at the hotel while my mom watched Holton - thanks Bev.

Worst lighting ever in this picture? Adam looked really cute. His tie matched my jewelry....awwww!

I attempeted to play Rock Band. Mainly I just stood there and the DJ had to pitch in and sing for us.

Here I am in complete shock, eyes closed, getting ready to give my speech.

Look who was Mr. Popular that night? Everyone was glad to see a healthy Adam after his scare this year.

Adam and one of my staff (I like to make them work 24/7) carrying out our new TV.