It's been a big week...

So I told myself about two weeks ago that I would potty train Matthew when I was out of diapers. Well, that happened about a week ago, so I moved on to a stash of Pull-ups that I had on hand. Monday I finally decided to do the loathsome task. I use a book called Toilet Training in Less than a day (T.Jay was trained in one day). Well, at least what I can remember from it. I had Matthew in the bathroom for most of the morning, so we brought a few toys in to keep him happy. All I can say is Matthew has quite the bladder. I gave him a ton to drink, and it took him over an hour to go the first time. He's not complete, but most of his pees go in the toilet and about half of his poopies. He says, "oh, I gotta go potty." and he runs off! It's funny, I told him that the pocket on his underwear goes in the front, so he runs around going, "where's my pocket, oh there it is!" I am also trying to convince him that he is not a rack to hang things from!
The Lab

My supplies. Lots of drinks, check. Towels, Check. Bucket for wet undies, check.

Summer "babysat" Lexi for me while I was working with Matthew. She was so pleased with herself!

Matthew posing in his new digs.

This is how he does it. Notice the toilet paper has already been removed. I re-rolled yards of paper already. If you come to my house, you'll have to take the toilet paper in with you!

And so it goes, wish us clean and dry days to come.

Here's What Lexi has been up to...

I took Alexis to her two month well baby appt. on the 12th of June. She was 12 and a half weeks at her appointment (she will be 14 weeks on Sunday). Here are her stats: She weighed 12 lbs 10 ozs (90th%), she was 23 1/2 inches long (50th%) and her head circumference was 15 and 1/2 inches (75th%).
Other tidbits about her at this phase:
* She is full blown smiling and laughing, and has huge dimples to display when she does.
* She loves to watch the other kids play.
* She is consistently sleeping between 10 and 11 hours at night.
* They call her mellow yellow.
* She doesn't seem to mind baths, showers or the pool.
* She will not indulge in the wonderful milk that I have pumped for her. Who knew bottles would be so offensive!
* Loud noises scare her-we're talking large trucks, a slamming gate or anything louder.
* She has discovered her voice and her hands, so cute!
Check out her latest feats...

Alexis 13 weeks from Kelli Melin on Vimeo.
And this little bit...

lexi laugh 13 weeks from Kelli Melin on Vimeo.

Sisters, Sisters...

There were never such devoted sisters...

Summer: age 5 Alexis: 12 weeks

The Last Day of School

It's finally here! No more shuttling kids to and from two different schools! No more rolling out of bed before the crack of dawn-well actually- (& quite unfortunately) that one will probably stick, but at least we can lounge in our jammies until the sun joins us for the day!
T Jay's class had their awards day last Wednesday. I messed up the times when I copied it in my calendar, so I missed seeing him get the Kindergarten reading award, but was able to see him getting his Math Superstars certificate and his Spotted Leopard (you know, 'cause he was spotted being a good citizen) award. He was so proud. I also go to see their "play" which was The Little Red Hen with puppets and hear all of their favorite songs from the year. All this while juggling a monkey and a cutie pie!

T Jay asked me to come and have lunch with him on his last day of school. He loves us to come and visit him, I hope this lasts forever. I'm sure that he wouldn't mind his Mama coming to have lunch with him when he's in high school! I'll keep dreaming!

Matthew loves to go for lunch, too. Do you like his sanity backpack? The sanity part is for me, not him. He likes to wear it, and I no longer have to be outrun by him in the halls. He hates to hold hands, but doesn't care if he's tied to a rope! Go figure. One point-Mom!

I don't have any pictures of Summer from her last day of school, but the whole last week she randomly broke out in tears because she was going to miss her school and teachers. The only thing that cheers her up is telling her that I have plenty of homework sheets for her to do over the summer! Boy do I hope that lasts. I know that once I discovered boys, sports and socializing, school work was definitely on the back burner! Any ideas on how to keep her from discovering these things, send them now!!

A Thousand+ Miles last Weekend

Last weekend, Jess took Thursday and Friday off of work and we drove to Atlanta. My cousin was having some of her photography work displayed in a gallery show and several family members were making the trip, so we thought we'd join them. The trip was about 580 miles and it took us 12 and a half hours to get there! I forgot how time consuming it is to nurse a baby on the road. The kids were really good in the car, praise everything for the invention of DVD players in cars! We had a great time visiting with family! Totally worth the trip!

On Friday we went to a place called Monkey Joe's. It is full of inflatable bounce houses, slides and obstacle courses. After a day in the car, it was just what the Dr. (Dr. Mom) ordered. The kids played there for over three hours. Exhaustion followed. Friday night we went to see the gallery show in Buckhead. It was fun to be out with Jess.

Saturday, we got up at the crack of 7:30 and after a slightly lazy morning headed over to my high school BF, Maggie's house. The kids played and we had lunch and went to a park. Later that night, we all met at Stone Mountain for the nightly Laser light show. It was a blast for everyone accept Summer. She said it was not her favorite thing and she did not want to go back. She didn't like the noise from the fire works. In fact she said it was the worst day ever!

Maggie, Me and Lexie at Stone mountain.

Jess and the kids watching the show. I went to Walmart before hand and bought a bunch of glow sticks and toys that spun and lit up colorfully. T Jay asked me if he could have one of the light up swords that the vendors were selling. I told him that they were too expensive (x4 mind you) and that's why I got them the ones that spin. His response, "oh, they cost money?" Me: "yep." T Jay: "And they're just not worth it." Ahh, sweet T.Jay, nope they just aren't worth it!The whole crew! We had to walk probably a mile from the parking lot. Luckily I had both of my baby carriers in the car. (FYI the Ergo baby wins by a mile) Why didn't we use the stroller you ask?

Priorities! Jess thought it was hilarious that passers by would look at us, see me carrying two children and then see him with his "beer" or in our case, water cooler nestled safely in the baby's car seat! We were in the heart of the south, so maybe no one even thought it was odd!

Speaking of odd, or better yet scary, while Jess and I were driving around in Atlanta, I saw the craziest thing! We were waiting at a light behind an old Buick or something and all of the sudden I saw the barrel of a shot gun poke out the window! I kid you not. A teenage boy was sitting in the passenger side and decided to take a peek through the view finder while they were waiting at the light! And I'll just say that they didn't look like they were going or had been gone hunting! Weird. Yes, we hung back a little!

I've been informed...

(according to T.Jay) that if I were still wearing diapers (for some odd reason) the size I would wear would be 150 thousand! Alexis is in size 2, Matthew in Size 5 (until they run out- wish me luck on that one!) and me, 150 thousand. Do think that will fit on the diaper? How would we tell mine apart from the others? Something to think about.

Matthew Idol

Untitled from Kelli Melin on Vimeo.

I made this for his nursery teachers Birthday, Too cute not to share!