Here are some lessons I have learned (or relearned) this month:
1. Two and a half year olds NEED naps!!
At least Alan does. This week he has only napped twice, and boy, let me tell you what a fun week it has been. When Alan misses his nap he becomes a emotional, hyper active, ball of energy that has 10 times as many behavior problems as when he is well rested (in other words, he hits Conner at lot and spends a lot more time in time out). Thursday was particularly bad...Reed was working late and I had reached the end of my patience by about 2 o'clock. Reed came home to this scene: While I tried to calm Conner down (he was fussy), Alan climbed on the counter and accidently dumped the pancake batter (pancakes was all I could muster for dinner that day) all over the counter and carpeted kitchen floor. I told him to help me clean up and the next time I turn my back I hear Conner cry out. Alan had hit him, so he went into time out. By the time he was done with time out he was in tears, I was in tears and Conner was wailing again. Nice scene for Reed to come home to. To show the benefit of naps here is a nice picture of Conner taking a siesta on our bed.
2. Two year olds aren't interested in magic shows!
We tried to take Alan to a magic show this week (a final party for the reading program with the library). Reed and I thought it was interesting and even Conner sat through it really well but after about 5 minutes Alan started bouncing around in his seat, trying to scare the people behind us, and bugging the kids next to him. In the picture below Conner is making an amazed face at all the cool tricks (just kidding, he is laying on our bed pulling faces)
3.
Swimming pools close when you are planning to go there. The outdoor swimming pool that they have here closed for a while because the water main broke and flooded the building and some of the water pumps. They were going to have a party there for all the kids who read 20 books for the summer reading program at the library. The party got moved to another pool that didn't have a shallow place for Alan to play. Here is a picture of Reed and Alan enjoying the pool before it closed.
4. The parades here in Scottsbluff give out enough candy to rival Halloween night.
A couple of weeks ago was Oregon Trail days here in Scottsbluff. Part of the celebrations were the kiddie parade on Friday and the regular parade on Saturday. Alan had never seen a parade that he could remember and he didn't really know what to think of this one until he realized that they were throwing candy. Then he decided he really likes parades! He got so much candy! There was a middle age couple sitting next to us that gave Alan all of the candy that they recieved too.
5. Whoever decided to put carpet in the bathrooms of our house never had to potty train a little boy.
I think the carpets are going to need cleaned when we are done with potty training!! Or maybe after we have perfected the aiming part. Honestly, who puts carpets in bathrooms?!?! Alan is about 80% potty trained. He hasn't had any wetting accidents for a couple of weeks and he has his bowel movements in the toilet about 75% of the time. I can't wait until he is completely consistent.
And to make the camping trip feel more genuine we even had an injury. Alan was helping me set up the smore stuff and he fell off the bucket he was standing on and hit his head. The picture doesn't do it justice. He had a huge bump on his forehead with a small cut on the bump. Poor guy.
All in all it was a great camping trip.
This was a funny picture. Reed told Alan to make the same face he is making. Alan's impersonation was pretty funny.
people left to right: Jackie, Kristie, Lynn, Shelly, Me, Brenda, Mindy
After that we split into two teams. Each team went to find the silliest outfits we could find and then we took pictures of each other. Here is a picture of me and the rest of my team.
After that we all went to the lake and went swimming. It was a hot day so the water felt really nice.
