Where have we been?

I just looked at my blog and realized that I havnt posted anything in over a month. Yikes. Well today is the day to fix that. Where have we been? Well the first Wednesday in April we went to the Norwegan Buffet in Norway IL. That landed me with food poisining and in the hospital. See I quickly got dehydrated and found myself having what I thought were contractions. It turned out to be stomach cramps but anyway I got to spend a night at the hospital getting rehydrated and on the mend. Right after that the kids came down with horrible colds. Both had runny noses, cough, fever, and no-one slept well. Then just as we all got well the weather finally broke. We had almost two weeks of days that were 60 or above. Praise GOD. Outside we went!!!! I moved some peonies from our back yard to the front yard. We started a garden in the back. We have onions growing. We are going to plant peppers, collard greens, a tomato plant, green beans and try again with peas. Our peas didnt come up, so we will try again.

Being outside has given us a chance to experince local wildlife. There was a toad in our yard just the other day. The kids were facinated by it. Ben tried to follow it and hop like a toad, we had to call it a frog because Ben is convinced it is a frog. Mike was worried about the toad being consumed by any number of the birds that like our back yard so he moved it across the street where there is a small creek that runs under the railroad tracks. Over by the railroad tracks there is a groundhog!!! He has a den under the tracks and we keep an eye out for him when we head outside.

Ben and Allison love to swing at the park!! They really like it when Papa goes and pushes them in the swing and Mama tries to catch thier feet.

Allison loves mud puddles and we usually have a good one at the end of our driveway! She goes out and stomps and spashes and is all smiles. When we come in she takes a bubble bath and gets all cleaned up. This week she has decided to be a Papa's girl. When papa is home she demands to be the center of his attention. She sits on his lap while he is at the computer. She makes him put the music on and dance with her, not the traditional Daddy daughter dance but they stomp around the table and shake their hands to the "We can dance" song. She also brings him bubbles and makes him entertain her. Mama is loving it since in a few weeks there will be a new little one and mama will not be able to give Allison her full attention as often.

The other Scheib project is potty training. Allison loves it. She sits on the potty on the kiddie seat and we read books and sing songs. She can be diaper free most of the time at home. She tells me pee pee but it doesnt seem to be when she has to go just when she thinks about it. Ben is another story. I have taken away the diapers when we are at home for everything but naps and bed time. Ben will stay dry most of the day. But Ben will not pee in a toilet. He will pee in a saucepan, in the insert from the training potty or on the tree in the back yard but the toilet is not acceptable. Oh well it it means that he is out of diapers we will deal with it and take it one step at a time. I tried the rewards for every time he stood at the toilet but that only lasted one day then he just wanted to play with the stickers. I had always hoped I would have easy potty trainers but I am glad I taught for long enough to learn that they do learn in time and we just have to keep practicing and not putting too much pressure on them.

I have created a train table for the kids to use with their train sets. My goal for today is to get some pictures of that and get them posted so since Ben just went in that direction I am off to follow and get some good pictures.