Myann is on her way...

to being potty trained and we have one happy household as a result. Myann is stubborn, to say the least, so we were doubtful about what techniques would work. So far, the methods with Shane had been ineffective. But then all Brian's family came to town and she became interested. She has been using the potty regularly for a week. Yesterday she even went four times in one day, most initiated herself. Only once I had to tell her to go. And she is not as interested in her reward. Shane used to pee in small increments, just so he could get more m&m's. About half the time Myann asks for her treat. So we are pretty excited. Ahh, the longing to only have one in diapers. I think the best part is the look of pride on her face when she goes. She just glows and loves being a big girl. Here's to hoping she keeps this up so she can go to the big girl class at school.

Japanese Garden in Manito

After raspberry picking, we went to the Japanese Garden in Manito Park. With so many hands, I was able to play with my camera and get some cute picks of the kids.




Shane helping Myann off the rocks after she fell down, of course Myann fell down

Picking Raspberries

At the end of the CDA week, Uncle Shane and his girlfriend stayed for an extra day and we went to Green Bluff to pick raspberries. They were so good, but we had to dodge bees and convince the kids to pinch at the stem to make them last longer.

Myann is committed, she really went low to find some good ones.

Trying to duplicate a photo of Shane

Shane had his 8 month photos taken in this shirt. I wanted to duplicate the photo before Anders outgrew the shirt. I took the picture 6/27/09. The onesie was big on Shane at the time and at 9 months, the onesie barely fit Anders, so it is a good thing I took this picture when I did. Myann wanted in on the action, so that is why she is in the picture. I also included the picture of Anders crying because it shows his swollen upper gums. One of his top teeth popped through shortly after this picture and the other one came through 8/2/09.

Week in Coeur d' alene

This week, Brian's mom and her boyfriend Richard rented a large house on the river in Coeur d'alene. It was a week of merging families, Richard's niece, Richard's son and family, all Brian's siblings and family. The weather did not exactly cooperate, it was pretty cold a few days, but we had enough dry spells and sun to enjoy boating and jet skiing. Plus we were able to show off how beautiful the area is we live in.

Richard and Myann

Anders

Tubing - Shane, Uncle Shane and Braxton

Mommy and Myann

Casey and Shane


Aunt Sunny and Anders

Brian and Shane

Myann and My Andy (Myann called Andy My Andy the whole week)

Myann pretending to be sleeping on Daddy, so cute though.

Anders ongoings

This is more for me than anyone else. I just want to write this down before too much time passes. Anders is crawling everywhere, it is like he discovered there is a whole house to explore. And explore he has been. Of course his favorite place, as is every child's favorite place, the place where the dogs are and where the dog food bowls reside. Yes, our laundry room. Thankfully, there is a door we can shut, but if it gets left open, Anders is there, harassing the puppies, playing in the water bowl and eating the dog food. Yes, Anders is barely on solid food and he has already eaten who knows how much dog food, at least it is organic :).

And the boy has teeth, I say this reluctantly, because he is still nursing - Ouch! He has had the three on the bottom, but one top tooth poked through over a week ago and then the other top tooth poked through over the weekend. He is going to have the same smile Shane did for his first birthday - two teeth on top and three on the bottom.

Anders is trying to pull up now too. Today he suffered a blow to the head as he tried to pull himself up on a table and let go, only to slam his head into the table. Poor little guy has a bruise right in the middle of his forehead. Tough guy though only cried for a minute and then went right back to pull up on the same table.

No new words out of him, only mamamama and dadadada. However, he loves signing "more", though I don't think he always means he wants more as much as he loves the praise he gets for signing. I think he understands the sign for "eat" because he gets super excited when I do the sign, but then again, have you seen the kid, of course "eat" excites him. However, my boy is thinning out, his calves no longer have creases, so the crawling is burning some fat.

Hopefully a sign of Shane's future

Here is Shane at the Gonzaga University campus, yep my boy is in college, we told you he was smart.




Ok, just kidding. He really is at Gonzaga, and he was super excited and kept saying he was at the school with big statues and buildings. But, he is just there for a preschool/kindergarten reading readiness class. We signed him up for 5 Saturday morning classes. Shane and I go together and he gets help learning to read and I get help on how to teach him to read. Shane loves books and gets frustrated that he can't read himself, so when I found out about this class I knew it was perfect. So far we really enjoy the class and are learning. Shane is getting a bonus lesson in waiting your turn and not being a "know-it-all". Every time the teacher asks a question, he blurts out the answer rather than raising his hand. When he does raise his hand, he gets angry if the teacher does not call on him every single time and loudly expresses his anger. So we are working on that.