Back from Lanesboro

I'm back from my trip to Lanesboro with Marta. We left at about 3:15 Friday afternoon and got to Lanesboro about 5 pm. We checked into the hotel (pictured -- the red building) and then checked out a 50's style hamburger joint for supper. We caught a 7:30 professional production of "The Rainmaker" at the Commonweal Theater in town. It was excellent! Then back to the hotel for the night.

Saturday morning we started with coffee at a little shop as we waited for things to open. We took a 10 am trolley tour of town seeing all the sites including the fish hatchery and various parts of the river (dam, bridges) and remnants of Lanesboro's past industries as well as ones still in existence. Later that day we checked out the farmer's market, the historical museum, the arts center, the winery as well as many cute shops. We also put on our tennis shoes and walked about 2+ miles along the Root River Trail (trying to dodge all the cyclists as we did!) We went to Mass at St. Patrick's Catholic Church located high on the hill (wow - we were sure winded by the time we got up there!) Then we had a nice dinner with wine at the Riverside on the Root Restaurant (walleye for both of us). An ice cream cone for dessert and we headed back to the hotel for the night.

Sunday morn after some coffee, we headed south of Harmony to tour the Niagara Cave. We would have enjoyed it more if we hadn't been paired up with a family of four including 2 young boys each within a month of my boys' ages! They were very poorly behaved (were touching things they weren't supposed to and running way out in front) and so both Marta and I were annoyed with the lax parents. That was exactly the reason that I chose to go to Lanesboro/Harmony with Marta instead of with my boys!

We left Harmony about 11 am and stopped in Rochester for lunch at Panera before arriving back in Apple Valley during the early afternoon.

Potty Training

We have had some strides in the potty training department. Up until now, I would not say that we were even working on it because the extent of it was "Liam, did you want to try and go potty on the potty?" and the answer was always a firm, "NO!" That was it. I never pushed him to sit on the toilet or baby potty and I was trying not to get too uptight about it. I was actually trying not to mention it much in the last few weeks to see if that would make him want to mention it to me instead and try it. I did buy 5 Thomas the Train cars (3 packs -- some have an engine and a freight car all together and so I count them as 5 different cars) and I put them up on top of the entertainment center about 3 weeks ago for everyone to see. I told Liam that when he started putting his potty in the toilet, he could pick one of the cars to add to his train set. They started collecting dust.

Ok, so fast forward to yesterday. The boys and I were doing some painting at the table and since the poster paints say "comes out of most fabrics" - I decided not to take a chance and so I made the boys strip down to their perspective undies and pull-up diaper. Liam's pull-up was so full of liquid that he decided to take it off and given that it has been 90 degrees here the last few days, I figured that would be fine and didn't push putting a new one on him. A while later he started jumping around saying "I have to go potty, I have to go potty!" and so we scurried into the bathroom and sure enough he went in the toilet. He picked Percy from the entertainment center display. A few minutes later he went in again and went some more and thought that he would immediately get a new train car --- I told him there was a limit of "one train car per day". He went a few more times (obviously he didn't let it all out that first time and so he kept going back to let more out!) This morning after taking off his diaper from the night, he also went in the potty to impress daddy and to get the Edward train car. He's done for the day as far as train cars are concerned.

The positive part of all of this is that he knows what to do now and now we all know that he knows! It took him until 3 yrs 2 1/2 weeks of age to get to that point (and of course Connell was totally in underwear with no accidents by 2 yrs 10 months and yet I try not to compare the boys) So now it will simply be a case of how motivated he is to go to preschool the first week of September. From Connell's first potty success to wearing undies out was a 4 month process, so I am hoping that Liam waited until he was older and then will pick up the pace in the whole process. We'll see I guess.

A Busy Weekend

Saturday morning we left for Little Falls to visit Ray's dad and his wife. The boys had fun riding in the golf cart with grandpa and playing a bubblegum game with grandma.

After a few hours, we were off to Foley/Rice to attend Ray's cousin Weston's graduation party. We chatted with lots of Ray's relatives on his mom's side of the family and the boys got to see a real live combine on the farm.

Although the drive each direction was about 2 hrs 10 minutes, the boys did not nap at all. They did catch a few winks between Little Falls and Foley/Rice which amounted to about 10-15 minutes of sleep for each --- to give them an extra boost of energy for the grad party. We were amazed at all the "pretend play" that took place in the back seat. Although I hear it quite a bit during all our adventures "out and about" during the work week, Ray misses out. The boys pretend to play restaurant and order things and serve food and they also role play other cute situations as well. Connell played a round of the "alphabet game" (in alphabetical order, he needs to find the actual letter on a sign, license plate, etc.) That took him from our home until about Minnetonka (so 45 minutes) because "J" and "Q" are hard to spot! So all in all we were very pleased with the boys' behavior and their patience during the more than 5 hours in the car on Saturday.

Sunday we gave Ray his Father's Day present -- a Black and Decker hedge trimmer (which was on his list) and I had to lector at late mass (by late I mean 10 am). We needed new tires for the Prizm, did a little shopping and went to Major's for supper. They have an awesome deal for Father's Day -- a free beer (worth $5.50) and a free burger meal (up to about $10. in value) for the dads! They do a similar deal for Mother's Day and so wouldn't you know that we have spent both Mother's Day and Father's Day at Major's the last 2 years! The kids do pretty well there due to the casual atmosphere.

Now it's back to the work week and it's going to be a scorcher here! The humidity is high and there are storms forecasted. Of course there are severe storms forecasted for the weekend (June 26-28) that Marta and I are spending in Lanesboro (which we are both looking forward to although I would have requested better weather if I could have!)

Let the Summer Begin...

The kids have been busy playing with all the neighbors. They've already been running through the sprinklers, chalking up the driveways and just having fun. In these pictures you can see Kaelyne (left on driveway) and Aishu (right on the driveway) as well as Joey (in the sprinkler photos). Kaelyne and Aishu are also in the one sprinkler photo.

Summary of Week

This week in addition to celebrating Liam's birthday (and I use the word "celebrating" loosely!), we also played with lots of friends, went to the MN zoo and had well child visits with the doctor. Both boys are in great health and Connell is all caught up with his pre-K immunizations after 4 shots on Wed. After the dr. appt. I took the kids to the Mall of America where we hadn't been for about 6 months and let them each spend 10 tokens at the arcade. It was a treat and since Connell was very worried about his shots, I used thoughts of the arcade to keep his mind off of the shots for the few days prior. He ended up being very brave though and said, "That wasn't so bad and I actually kind of like going to the doctor. You wanna know what my favorite part is? The scale. And I also like..." The monologue goes on and on, but I'll stop there.

The Cake and the Presents

Here are some more birthday photos...

Liam's Birthday

As most of you know, we do not have "parties" for the boys' birthdays. We started the tradition of letting them choose to do something as a family. Connell has been talking for a year about how the family is going to go bowling (his first time) for his 5th birthday this summer and yet he still has two months to decide if we will go to Apple Place or AMF or even the new Lakeville place to bowl. Big decision.

Liam's 3rd birthday is today and so for weeks he has requested that Marta, Brian, Natalie and Maria (actually for a few days he wasn't including Maria, so we are happy that he finally gave in and decided to let her come with her mom/dad and sister! - ha, ha) come over to eat cake and ice cream with our family. I know that it borders on sounding like a party, but even Connell would prod Liam by saying, "Are you sure you don't want to play mini-golf at the mall?" or "Don't you want to go to Chuck E Cheese's?" and Liam always came back with a crisp, "No! I eat cake and ice cream with Marta and Brian...!"

I made a cake and since it was one of the few inexpensive themes available, I picked up some pirate things (I think Liam's first real conversation sounded something like this... Mom or dad..."What does a pirate say?" Liam..."Arrrrrrrrrrr!) The little sign I made for the cake says, "Arrrrrrrrr you really 3 years old, Liam?" Get it? I don't think Liam will enjoy the humor....

We'll have some pizza first since it would feel a little quick to simply have a 10 minute cake/ice cream event! Can't beat the cost of a homemade cake and a few Dollar Store pirate finds --- although the important part is that we are celebrating as a family. I'm afraid that next year his desires might become a little grandiose though!

His speech has progressed a little, but not as fast as Connell's did. So Liam now is excited that he is "free" today as he holds up FOUR fingers!

All Tuckered Out

We spent about 5 1/2 hours at Ray's mom's house on Sunday. We had a nice lunch and the boys played games with cousins Trent and Nichole as well as (aunt/uncle) Christine and Chris and the sandbox grandma and Tom. Connell described the day as SUPER fun and we have never heard him use that word for emphasis until yesterday. As you can see, they both fell asleep in the car on the ride home (in fact, I transferred Liam into his pjs and put him to bed even though it was only about 6 pm or so). Connell is wearing the train conductor hat that the sandbox grandma made him about a year ago although as he fell asleep it slipped farther and farther down his face!

Connell's Preschool Graduation

Today Connell officially "graduated" from preschool (ha, ha). Here are some photos from the ceremony...



Samuel, Bryce, Sebastian & Connell.

Here is Connell with his teacher, Ms. Wendy.

My family and Ray's mom who attended.