This week in review

We managed to keep ourselves quite busy this week. On Monday, actually, we didn't do too much because late Sunday evening I came down with an awful stomach bug and still didn't feel like myself on Monday. Luckily, Jason was home to help out so I could recuperate a bit.

On Tuesday, we went to Amaya Papaya and- here is the exciting part- when I asked Nathan if he wanted to wear a diaper or underwear to AP, he said "underwear!!!" I explained to him what this meant- no diaper and that he'd have to use a big potty at AP, and he said fine! I was fine with it, since he's had dry diapers almost all the time and AP is small with an easily accessible potty. Before we left, he wanted to take a picture with his big boy underwear- sorry for the quality but it was one of those snap-it-quick-before-he-changes-his-mind pics:

The trip was wildly successful, he used the potty at AP a few times and had no accidents at all. Yesterday I let him wear underwear to Publix, same outcome. We're making progress! Once I convince him to poop on the potty, I think we'll pretty much be able to go straight into underwear! He can still list off every reward we've ever offered him, but then refuses to actually do it.

We're also working on naps. He so desperately needs one, but lately it's been rough. He will fall asleep in the car, but I don't like that because I don't want him conditioned to only fall asleep in the car. At home, mostly he lays in bed for an hour but talks, says he has to pee, says he's sad, etc. And his new thing is refusing to put his head on the pillow, smirking at me, and then crying when I take away stuff as punishment. There's really no point in taking things away, because then he cries and a) he's too worked up to go to sleep, and b) I have to listen to it. Now I am trying two things: a set naptime at 1:30 p.m., before which is lunch, booktime, a few minutes of quiet play, and then potty- hoping the routine will help, and secondly a "timer" that goes off at 3:00. Basically I glance in around 2:55 and if he is still awake I set the timer for 5 minutes. These things seem to be helping, with my nap success rate going up significantly since we have instituted these new rules.

One more picture, then onto grown up stuff. Jason made pancakes (which Nathan refused to eat) so I told him to throw some chocolate chips in and then tell Nathan it was a giant chocolate cookie. I thought he was going to fall for it, but then he figured out how to pop the chocolate chips out and just eat those. Stinker.

OK, wait, one more picture because it's not fair to have two of Nathan and none of Noah. This is the boys showing off their Halloween socks one last time:

Yesterday was Jason's and my 5th wedding anniversary! To celebrate, we went to a restaurant out at the Cocoa docks- I had wanted to go there forever and scored a groupon for half off earlier this year, but it's quite a trek and we've been pretty busy. My in-laws watched the boys for us, and we enjoyed a nice evening of seafood and shocktops before heading back to get the boys at the late late hour of 9:00. LOL. Hey, at least we made it. Sadly, the food did not live up to my (admittedly high) expectations, but at least we had some quality time together. We did exchange cards, and Jason got me five lottery tickets, one for each year of marriage. Here is the funny part. Check out the first card. When I started scratching it, I was sure that he was playing one of his tricks on me (he's famous for his trickery). Pretty soon, we were both cracking up, as I kept scratching away. What are the chances? Is this lucky or unlucky for our marriage? And how is it possible that this ticket only wins us $10????