what's been making me laugh

The other day I was looking back through blog posts and I realized how much I enjoyed the videos most. Pictures are cute and fun, but they don't tell the whole story. They don't do nearly as good of a job at capturing personality, expressions, or even the way my kids sound when they giggle- the things I really want to remember. I also realized that while documenting the major milestones, celebrations, and holidays is important, I think my favorite posts are ones that highlight every day life.

So here's a post about some every day life stuff that makes me laugh. Because half the fun of having kids is laughing at some of the funny things they do and say.

This first video was taken back in December. I have a very skinny, smaller decorative Christmas tree. Robby found the box and entertained us all as the walking, giggling box all evening.

The second video is from a recent family night. For our game we played charades. The kids would choose an animal and act it out and we had to guess what they were. Without a word, Tyler dropped to the floor and started slithering (or inching) like a snake. We quickly grabbed the camera and tried to stifle our laughter. It was really quite funny. Robby's pig impersonation was quite comical as well.

And the third video might incriminate me as a mean mom because instead of helping my son or expressing sympathy when he's crying, I grab the camera. There's just something about the helmet, the sad tears, the "I've got to go potty dance" all coupled with the fact that he calls a kite a scarf- it was all just too funny for me. I couldn't help myself.

So there you have it. That's just a small portion of what's making me laugh these days, and I'm sure I will thank myself in a few years for being sure to document the smaller, everyday moments in life.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day wasn't anything spectacular, but we celebrated it with all of our favorite traditions. Tyler made a Valentine box for school. It was very much all him. This side had a heart filled with dinosaur stickers- so cute. But what was even cuter is that as I looked closely, there hidden among all the dinosaur stickers was one random sticker of a lawn mower. Yeah, lawn mowers are cool- toss it on there!

The other side was decorated with pom poms of various colors and sizes with a note above the slot saying, "Valentine cards for Tyler Carson" and a little arrow.

The boys also made valentine cards to send to some loved ones.

Cookies. with frosting and sprinkles.

I think that's all I need to say about that.
We also made our traditional valentine hearts, but I don't have a picture from this year (here is a link to how they turn out though). I love looking back on each of the valentines we've made over the years. It's fun to see what we wrote on each other's valentines in years past.

Robby Report

It's been a long time- I know. February came and went without a single post on this blog, but that doesn't mean we didn't do anything! We've been plenty busy. Here's what Gus has been up to in the last month or so.

In January, Robby graduated from nursery and joined primary at church. He is most definitely our brightest little sunbeam! We're still having a hard time convincing him that primary is fun and that he doesn't need toys, treats, and sweet Sister Thomas in order to survive at church!

...and is that sweater not the cutest little 'I just got off the slopes in the alps' thing!?!

The other big news in Robby's world is that he is now officially a BIG BOY! Whoop whoop!

My first and foremost rule when it comes to potty training is to just wait, wait, wait until that kiddo is not just ready, but BEYOND ready. I pretty much wait until they can basically potty train themselves in a day...and that is exactly what happened.

Robby was definitely ready back in December, but with birthdays, holidays, and out of town visitors, December is just way to busy to be potty training. So I told him to wait until after Christmas and we would have ourselves the best ever potty party! And so we did!

My main concern with potty training Robby was the Diabetes aspect. When I potty trained Tyler, we stayed home for two days and I pumped him full of as much juice as he wanted just so that we could have as much practice as possible during those two days. I also gave him a couple m&m's each time he had a success, so I didn't know how that plan would work with Robby, but we made it work. I found some Crystal Light (with very few carbs) that he actually liked and I turned up his basal insulin for the entire two days so that I could reward him with as many m&m's as it took. And it worked out perfectly. He did great and never had a single accident. Done!

He still struggles to get his britches down and up by himself without the pod getting in the way, but we're working on it. I just feel bad if he accidentally rips one off in the process, and I live in fear of the CGM somehow accidentally falling in the toilet.

Robby is solidly potty trained even at night, which is good, but it sometimes means a little more work for us. If his blood sugar is high at night, this makes him have to pee more frequently and on the flip side, if he's low and we feed him juice- you got it, he has to pee more frequently. And since he's not very often perfectly in the middle, this means a few more sleep interruptions for us. Sigh. We try to use yogurt as often as possible for overnight lows, but I hate going all the way to the kitchen to get one out of the fridge. Darn that broken Pancreas!

Nonetheless, Robby is a pretty happy kid. He loves to wrestle and punch his big brother. Heaven help us. It seems to be what they do most of the time they are together. I'm not even sure why we buy toys. He also loves his friends and has enjoyed a little weekly play date we do with two of his best buddies. Robby is a smarty. He knows almost all his letters and their sounds. I love when we are out and about and he'll see letters on store signs or billboards and he'll tell me- that's the letter B, Mom! It says b-b-b!

That little Gus. He sure does make us happy.