Now that Eden is a little older, we’ve been able to play some games with her. Her favorite game of all times is Dora Candy Land. Oh, how I love Candy Land, let me tell you. We’ve played it so many times and listened to Honor go back and forth over wether he wants to be Backpack or Boots that we thought it was time to find some other games to play. Eden can play Uno pretty well and last night we bought Sorry (Jim’s most favorite game of all time).

The problem with playing games with Jim is that he cheats! Always! And the problem with Eden knowing that Jim cheats is that once in awhile during a conversation, totally not related to playing games, with my mother or a complete stranger Eden will randomly blurt out, “Daddy Cheated.” And THAT is a hard one to recover from.

Last Saturday we headed up to the mountains for a picnic. It was so perfect up there, the mosquitos have already died off, but the weather is still beautiful. There were a few spots on the aspen trees where the leaves were starting to turn gold. I have to say, this is my absolute most favorite time of year.

We took the dog with us which is always… interesting. He has gotten to be a BIG beagle – at least 40 pounds at 9 months old and he’s not quite done growing. This big beagle likes to sit in my lap while we are in the car which doesn’t really work for me because, 1. I like to feel my legs and 2. I must knit while in the car. Sorry puppy. We got him a new leash attachment that goes over his nose and turns him into a good dog, it’s amazing! And it really makes for a much more relaxed family outing.

While were were up in the mountains, we took the opportunity to take some amazing photos of the kids. I love my camera! I’ll probably be pestering you with photos of the kids over the next several days, they were all so good! But here’s a few to start.

Jim took this one.

Jim took this one.

Eden took this one.

We had a busy long weekend, among all the activities was the puppet show. Jim and the kids spent quite awhile constructing the puppets and then took turns putting on shows for us.
(click any photo to see bigger.)

Well, I am happy to report that we are on day two of no accidents (not counting nights). Honor has successfully pottied in the potty without even being told. The key seems to be wearing big boy underwear, but today we were out for several hours while he wore a pullup and he didn’t have an accident either. Could this be it? I’m probably jinxing myself just writing this… Keep your fingers crossed for me, it would be nice if he could be trained by his 3rd birthday one month from now.

When Eden went to visit my Grandma with my mom and sister a couple of weeks ago, my sister tried to play some country music in the car (this is why, out of all the channels we have on cable, only the country music channel is blocked.)

Eden announced, “Country music is bad for little kids, kids can’t listen to country music.”

That’s my girl.

Last week, after I got off work, I loaded up the kids and headed out to the mall to look for some new shoes and jeans. Usually this would be a fun experience, but we have NO good shoe shopping in this town. It’s pretty sad, really. After several stores and dinner, we headed to Old Navy. The thing about Old Navy is that even though I love their jeans, I have to try on every single pair in my size to find the perfect pair. No pair of jeans is the same.

Needless to say, we were out for several hours. As we were leaving Old Navy, I picked Honor up and noticed that his pants were wet. “I spilled water.” he told me. Um, yeah, no water in sight. Thats when I realized that he had had real underwear on the whole time. Over 3 hours he went without an accident.

I called my sister to ask her to let me know next time he’s not wearing a pullup and that’s when I found out: He always wears real underwear for her and he never has an accident. He always sits on the potty. He even goes without being told.

So, yeah, when it comes to potty training, it’s just me he hates.

Honor plus scissors equals:

yes, that is a handknit sock.

“I’m going to be good at the yarn store.”

“You are?”

“Yeah, I’m just going to be naughty at home.”

The kids are here with me today at the store. Wish me luck.

Eden has been back since Wednesday and she and Honor have quickly fallen back into their usual routine of thoroughly enjoying misbehaving in each others company. Yesterday we were at Kmart picking up some chairs to go with my new table for the shop. (I had to buy chairs at Kmart because Target failed me!!! I’m so devastated that I can’t talk about it… oh, Target!) We were up front checking out when Eden climbed up on the side of the cart and pulled the whole thing, with a chair in it, down on top of her. Honor was in the cart and was not buckled because, of course, there was no buckle, so he took a tumble too.

The clerk came flying over the counter as I quickly grabbed the cart and the chair and threw them out of the way. The kids were very scared but escaped with some minor bumps and bruises. It took me several minutes to stop shaking! That was scary and could have been much worse. When we got back in the car, Eden and I had a good talk about why it’s important to obey your mom when she tells you not to do things like climb on the side of the cart.

The other day I was chatting with Elaine over google chat and she remarked to me, “Lily can do all the cool things that Eden could do when I was there [in October], like pee on the side of the road.”

Yep, that seems about right, the list of my children’s talents will most definitely include some sort of bodily fluid.