Visitors from the West Coast

We were very lucky to have my friend Brooke and her beautiful and charming daughter Kate visit us this week while they were in MA from San Diego. Wish we could see them more than a couple of times a year!

It's really hard to get a picture of 3 kids under 3!!!

Unless you put them all in a laundry basket! We introduced Kate to Swedish Fish...she LOVED them! (Sorry Brooke!) Chelsea loved the box.

"Dancing" Machine

Nick put on a couple of "dancing" displays recently that I was able to get on video. The first one was the sitting down one and it kind of worried me to be honest. But after the standing up one I think there might be hope for this child yet...

Where for art thou Laz?

I came back from a girl's weekend away to Miami on Monday and I am missing Laz, the cabana boy. I would really like someone to lay out my towel every morning, pick up my trash and ask me every hour, "Is there anything you need?" Maybe someday. For now I will just relish the memories of our trip...we made a few more and laughed about a lot of the old ones! Can't wait for "Mom's Get-the-Hell-Out-of-the-House Weekend 2010"!!! (PS - I have to give a shout out to my wonderful hubby for taking fabulous care of our children while I was away. Love you Ry!)

Our hotel (The Fontainbleau)

View from our room

Laz, the cabana boy

Chris posing for the paparazzi in the hotel lobby

Our cabana

That's me putting on a little dancing show for the girls in the cabana (I wish)

VERY LARGE DRINKS (they roped us into eating here by telling us that they had 2 for 1 drinks...little did we know that they were $25 each and we would only be able to drink 1!!!!)

Chris and Sandy chillin in the pool (it was HOT!)

Chris and Sue on our last night :( The bartender was originally from Weymouth, such a small world. I am pretty sure we laughed for two hours straight while we were at the bar!!!

Late night party foul (I won't say who!)

The power of "Potty Power"

We have been very lax about potty training. Some days we care (when the poops are especially stinky and squishy) other days we couldn't care less. I read tips when they come across my radar but had yet to utilize any of them...until today. In something I read, one Mom chimed in with, "Get the movie "Potty Power", it was the only thing that worked". I figured that since we hadn't tried anything we might as well get off on the right foot and start with the "only thing that worked". I ordered it up from Netflix and after it's arrival it sat on the desk for 4 days. Then this morning Nick was saying the usual, "I want to watch Mickey" and I thought let's change it up a bit. On went "Potty Power" and he did not move a muscle for the entire 20 minutes it was on. I let him watch it twice and then we took the potty chair out of the corner of the living room where it was collecting dust and put it in the bathroom. We put some of his books on the floor next to it. I wrote "Nick's Potty Cookies" on a zip loc bag and threw in a bunch of Oreos (Nick calls them "black cookies") and put that on the bathroom counter. I explained that every time he actually does something on the potty he gets a cookie, no questions asked. He says, "I want to go on the potty. Leave my pants on." Sure! No problem. Good practice. He sits down and says, "OK, can I have my black cookie?" No chance. I explained again that the pee pee has to come out and go into the potty to get a cookie. "OK, I want to take my pants off." GREAT! He sits down and saddles up with a book. I don't want to be too meddlesome so I leave and start doing dishes. I peek in a minute later and ask how things are going. He's still sitting there reading. He says, "I want to shut the door" and leans over and shuts it. Back to the dishes. Another minute goes by and he comes out with his pants around his ankles and a huge grin on his face, "Mommy, come see the pee pee in the potty that come down my dinky!" OK!!! I was skeptical but hopeful. Sure enough, there it was! You would have thought the kid got his acceptance letter to Harvard. I was hugging him, kissing him and telling him how proud I was (all with a little tear in my eye). We are a long way from total potty going (seeing as how he pooped in his pull-up 20 minutes later) but he went one more time on the potty before the end of the day and I would say that 2 times on your first day is pretty good! Thank you "Potty Power" (and bribery doesn't hurt either)!!!!!

I didn't take any pictures of him on the potty so this one will have to do