Roberts Family Blog

Hello everyone!  Well we are home from our much anticipated Oklahoma trip and it was fabulous!  I've debated blogging the details, but I've decided just to summarize the trip in Hayden's words instead

We drove for about 2 1/2 hours before we passed over the Red River indicating we were in Oklahoma.  For the whole first 2 1/2 hours Hayden kept asking us "are we in Oklahoma??".  Once we passed into Oklahoma it became "YAY mommy we are in Oklahoma!".  Can you tell we have been prepping him LOL.  I wonder what he thought Oklahoma was?

The first night, as I was getting him ready for bed, after a great evening of food and fun and friends, I asked him if he was having fun.  His answer, "mommy this is the best place in the whole wide world!".  Aww....cue heart melting!

We woke up early on Saturday morning, and instead of crawling into my arms as he usually does, he insted padded right over to the door and very matter of factly told me, "mommy I go see all my friends" and proceeded to head out into the living room!  He's no dummy - he knew that Ryan, Keegan, and Jack were better company than me in the morning! 

The green porch swing on our cabin's deck was like a beacon for little toddler boys, and all of them kept pushing it until it would rebound and knock them over, at which point tears would ensue.  Finally, after a particularly bad fall by Jack which resulted in him sobbing and having to head inside with his mommy for some hugging, I had to intervene and tell the boys that the green swing is not a toy, and they can sit on it, but not push it.  Well...my son quickly became the swing patrol.  Every time one of his friends would go near the swing, he would quickly tell them, "that swing is NOT a toy!".  It was super funny - he wasn't taking any chances because he was pretty shaken up seeing Jack's fall and tears.  He even thanked God, "for that green swing that is not a toy" during his evening prayers.  It clearly made an impression!

Hiking was Hayden's number one priority on this trip, despite the fact that it rained cats and dogs practically the whole time!  He would come up to me regularly saying, "mommy let's go hiking!".  So really, I just gave up on him being warm, clean, or dry, and we tramped around in the woods near our cabin, played hide and seek behind the trees, and had a fabulous time overall.  Hide and seek is a concept he is slowly learning to grasp, but all weekend I would count to 10 and he would hide (he was good at that part) and as soon as I yelled "here I come" he would pop out of his hiding spot and yell "mommy here I am" with glee!  I have to teach him to stay quiet and hidden LOL.  But it was really cute.

The whole weekend was a roaring success - with kids that slept well (Pierce slept through the night both nights), happy and well behaved toddlers, and parents who were super enthused to be able to spend some time relaxing together in the evenings after the kids went to bed.  My secret fear before going was that we were all going to wake up that first morning and look at each after getting no sleep and think "what the heck were we thinking??" and then have to soldier through the remaining day and night.  I couldn't have been more off base and the weekend was just wonderful all around.  I will hold tight to these memories and I'm hopeful that Hayden will as well!

I do have a few newsy items to blog about quickly before I end this entry for the day.  First of all, I have to share the news (well shout the rooftops actually) that Pierce is officially sleeping through the night!  Suddenly sometime in the past 10 days some sort of flip switched in his brain or something, because he went from waking 2 or 3 times a night, to sleeping 10-12 hours straight.  Now don't get me wrong, we occasionally have to let him fuss himself back to sleep in the middle of the night, but the crying is short-lived, and he's peacefully sleeping in no time.  I'm just thrilled to have reached this new milestone with him, and I feel like my whole outlook on life is improved by simply getting better sleep at night.  He is also a much happier little guy in general, and it seems like he learns some new skill each day with his newfound energy.  He is clapping now like a pro (see the video below) and it is by far his favorite thing to do (that and giving high-fives....and he's also experimenting with a little wave).  He is still "this close" to crawling (which I guess means he wasn't that close before LOL) and I keep expecting him every day to just motor across the room!  But alas he continues to just scoot and roll, but we'll get there.  Love that little fuzzy peach so much!!

Potty training continues to be the bane of my existence currently.  Ok yes I'm being dramatic, but potty training is one of the hardest things I've undertaken as a mother and I sometimes wonder whether I am up to the task!  Like all things with parenting, in general any failure on the child's part is truly a parenting failure, and nothing could be truer than with potty training.  If I had blogged 3 days ago, that would have been my low point.  He had started having more wet accidents, and was still refusing to do "brown" on the toilet, and Nate and I were both starting to wonder if we should just throw in the towel for now.  Then I realized it was really my fault, because he would have a good day, and then the next day I would relax my regiment and instead of insisting on him going potty before and after every outing or meal or sippy cup, I would wait for him to tell me he needed to go.  Well...he's just a little guy and I think sometimes the urge comes before he realizes he needs to get to the bathroom.  I NEED to just keep up the routine and consistency.  Every since I took on this new mentality, the past few days have been much better, and he has also miraculously overcome his fear of going brown.  In fact, his fear has turned to fascination.  Yesterday I think we spent a grand total of about 50 minutes on the toilet while he did his thing - typical man right?!   My patience level for this drawn-out time on the toilet is low, but I am going to just suck it up because it's such a great break-through.  I am determined to stick with it and facilitate this success for Hayden.

Ok, speaking of Hayden, my little prince just woke up and is in my lap, which makes typing hard!  More later   Good bye!