We're Doing Just Fine!

We got a lot of snow, topped off by a layer of ice, and it is COLD!!  Aside from it taking Eric two hours to get home from work in Nashville yesterday (normally a 25 minute journey), we have thoroughly enjoyed being snowed in for the weekend. 

We got calls from family and friends yesterday checking in to see how well we were faring in the snow. 

We will let you see for yourselves:

Yep, we are doing just fine!!

Especially after warming up with hot chocolate and a bowl of marshmallows!!

And Just How Do You Get that Last Bit of Brownie Batter Out of the Bottom of the Bowl?

This is how we do it in our house.

"All By Myself"

"I do it all by myself!"  We hear that A LOT in this house during this season.

When you are nearly three, doing anything "all by myself" is a pretty big deal.  Therefore, you want to do EVERYTHING "all by myself."  Seth is definitely in that phase.  Putting on shoes, brushing teeth, pumping the soap onto hands, latching the top buckle of the carseat, getting dressed take just a little bit longer these days because he wants to do it without help.  It is an exciting stage for all of us, but a really challenging one for me at times, since I am a pretty quick mover.  I have always struggled with finding that balance between letting my boys take their time to hone a new skill and not doing it for them to speed up the pace.  Especially in those moments when time is of the essence.  Let's face it, I just have a hard time being STILL...period.

I like to think of this stage as a friendly reminder from our gracious God that life was just not meant to be lived at break-neck speed.  It takes time to learn to put your shoes on when you are nearly three, and it takes time to just be still, rest, and be with the Lord when you are any age.   Sometimes, it is really hard for me to get that message, but when I see my ambitious nearly three-year-old doing his best to learn his way through this big ole world, it makes me realize that being five minutes or so behind schedule is really NOT a big deal and that taking a few minutes to just be still usually makes the day go much smoother.  The things that really matter in life can not be learned by letting someone else do it for you. They just take TIME which might alter plans a bit, but that is okay.  That is how we not only learn the basics, but how we learn the heart of God.

Dear Jesus, may I learn in this season to not put my schedule ahead of what you are trying to grow in my boys and in me.  May I stop to rest, stop to listen, and stop trying to assert my will over yours and what you have for me and my family. In your name, Amen.

Seth has been working on completing the pirate puzzle for a while now.  Half way through, he usually calls on me or big brother to help finish the task with him.  On Tuesday, he was finally able to do it "all by myself" and boy, was he eager to show me his work!

Reading Reward

Since Caleb has been doing so well with reading lately, I decided to treat him to a little trip to Barnes and Noble after school today.  He has become quite the avid reader lately, which is exciting for all of us.  He eagerly reads his books, street signs, food packaging, television ads, etc.  Seth is a captive audience, so that helps provide a little extra reading motivation for big brother.

Today, Caleb got to choose any level one book that he wanted in the store to reward his efforts...after making a stop at the train table first, of course. 

It was no surprise that he chose another Star Wars book.  I happily obliged, since the Star Wars book we got him for Christmas is what sparked this reading frenzy.  Proving that at any age, you will learn better when you have a passionate interest in the material from which you are learning.

Caleb's Newest Little Ditty

"I love my Mommy

I love my Daddy

Just like cheese

Mmmm....cheese"

(Yes, it is an original.)

A Friendly Little Card Game

Papaw Larry is a pretty mild mannered man.  Not a lot of words (unlike his daughter, that is for sure); He doesn't wear his emotions on his sleeve.  No, not Papaw Larry.

But, when you bring out the cards....look out!  You may just see a different side of Papaw Larry!

Aunt B, Uncle Bill (who somehow dodged the camera), Cousin Zaine, Papaw Larry, and Caleb all had a blast playing the game, Uno Attack. Who knew having cards shoot out at you could be so much fun?!

And Oh, the excitement of finally getting to shout out, "Uno!"

Fun New Chair

When you are two and a half...

a simple chair can bring a whole lot of joy!

Thanks Papaw Larry and Grandma Sheila!

Day Off

How does a hard-working man spend his day off?

Well, for Eric, this was a large chunk of it!

Praise Jesus for hands-on daddies.

We are very grateful.

Look out, Rupp Arena...

Here comes Biz!!

Who was soooo excited about attending his first University of Kentucky Wildcats basketball game last Saturday????

This guy!  That's who!

Eric and I decided at the end of last basketball season that Biz would be old enough this season to make his first trip to Rupp Arena to watch the Big Blue play.  His attention span has grown along with his enjoyment of watching the Cats play.  Biz is blessed to have a Memaw and Pepaw who have season tickets and were generous enough to allow him to choose any home game that he wanted to attend.  As soon as Eric gave him the option, waaaay back in the summer, Biz immediately said he wanted to go to the Kentucky/Georgia game.  And that decision never waivered.  He knew which game he wanted to see (not sure why he chose the Bulldogs), we looked at the calendar, and determined that it was doable with our schedule.

So, off my boys went to Kentucky for a Guys' weekend.  The first of its kind, and boy did they have a blast!!  Their first stop was dinner at McDonalds which is a rare treat for the boys.  I know, it sounds crazy that we have two children five and under and we are not frequenters of the golden arches.  But it was really special for the boys to get to go.  Biz had to call to tell me about his Happy meal.

Meem and Peep took excellent care of the Workman boys!  The whole week prior to the game, Seth was totally convinced that he was going to Rupp, too.  Even though he had been gently told that he had to wait until he was five-years-old to go, he still did not give up hope.  Luckily, when game time rolled around, he didn't put up too much of a fight.  I mean, afterall, it is hard to pass up a fun time hanging out with Memaw and Pepaw...even for Rupp Arena.

However, when game time rolled around for Daddy and Biz, I don't think there was anywhere else Biz would have rather been.  Eric had a difficult time getting a good shot of Biz's reaction when the Cats took the floor, but you get the idea.

The Wildcats did not disappoint and beat the Georgia Bulldogs 76-68.  A much closer game than we were anticipating, but a win is a win, making them 16-0!! (18-0 as of today) Go Cats!!

And my boys made sure that I got to be a part of the big day at Rupp, too!

Biz's thoughts of his first UK game:

"It was cool!!!"

"Go Cats!!!"

There's Nothing Like a Good Night's Sleep

The Potty Post

NO MORE DIAPERS!!!

Woo Hoo!!

For the first time in over five years, our home is officially diaper FREE!!  What a grand feeling!

I wish I could say that potty training Seth was as easy as training Caleb. But it was a bit more of a challenge transitioning little Workman #2 into big boy underwear.  Caleb never really showed a great deal of interest in using the potty until he was really ready to train.  We marked the date on the calendar...No More Diapers day...May 5, 2007...at exactly 2 years and 8 months. We hyped it up, read the potty books (not the weird ones, but we found a really cute one about a boy named Michael), bought the big boy underpants, juice, M & Ms, stickers, and party blowers, and prepared for the big day!  In one weekend, Caleb had it down and within a week, we were out of diapers.

The training style we used with Caleb truly complemented his personality style. He is an "All or Nothing" kind of kid, so that hard core/cold turkey approach worked for him.  So, shouldn't it work that way with his brother?  I mean, they are growing up in the same house and they do have pretty similar genes.

As any one with more than one child knows...it rarely, if ever, works out that way.  And after our previous experience with feeding our second born compared to our first, Eric and I should have known better.  But I optimistically (or maybe I was just naive) went into potty training Seth, thinking we could use the same approach we had with Caleb.

Guess what?  It didn't work.

Seth actually surprised us in June at the age of two years and three months, by totally initiating potty training ON HIS OWN.   It actually went very smoothly.  He just started telling us when he needed to go and we had quite a bit of success, without Eric and I really doing anything.  I thought, "Wow! Training number two is easy!"  Oh, but like many good things, it came to an end.  Just when we were getting used to our sweetie pie using the potty regularly, he completely did an about face and regressed 100%.  To the point that he absolutely refused to sit on the potty. 

So, we backed off.  I had really thought he was too young to be ready, but was going with it, since he had initiated the process.  He didn't show interest again until around August when we went on vacation.  It never failed, any time we were out to eat at a restaurant, he would tell us he needed to potty.  So, up we would go and he would go potty.  We took that as our cue that he was ready to train.  So, right after vacation, we took a trip to buy him some big boy underwear.  He was so excited!  We were so excited! And we thought we were home free.  We tried the hard core/cold turkey approach that we had used with Caleb, but got slightly different results.

To our pleasure, he continued to tell us when he had to potty...but only when we were at a restaurant eating.  He refused to potty at home.  Any time of the day.  He would just have none of it.  Don't people usually have the opposite aversion?  Not our Sethie.  He loved being a public restroom frequenter.  We thought that this would soon transition into desiring to potty at home, too, but instead, he soon stopped announcing at dinner out that he had to go pee.

In October, Eric got the idea to do the "All or Nothing" style training again, since Sethie was showing renewed interest in using the potty.  Seth was getting closer to the same age Caleb was when he trained, so we thought it was worth a try.   We actually had a successful couple of days.  He would even use the potty at home, with the help of some motivational stickers and the promise of a new Hotwheels car after seven successful trips to the potty. Seth got excited about getting stickers when he would go potty...for about a day or two.  Then the stickers lost their flair and the capability to motivate our little guy.  It really lasted until he got to select his very first congratulatory Hot wheels car.  That was enough for our little guy. I think he thought that was the final goal and he was fine with his one and only new truck and had no desire to earn more. Eventually, he would only go for Daddy, but would refuse to go for me.  It was quite frustrating.  Okay, it was very frustrating!  Especially, since I am the one who is with the majority of the time. I was stressed; Seth was stressed.  It was time to put in all on hold for a third time in order to restore peace in our family. Remember this potty thing only took a week with Caleb.  The process with Seth had stretched out for nearly six months.

So, how did we get from there to diaper free in a few weeks?  Looking back, I am not quite sure.  I just remember Eric saying we were going to get Seth trained over Thanksgiving.  I had lost hope at this point, but since Eric had taken the week off after Thanksgiving this year, I thought, "Well, knock yourself out, honey."   My enthusiasm was quite dampened, but since Eric was going to be home for a full ten days, I supported giving it another try...again. 

We started on Thanksgiving Day and, low and behold, by the next week, he had it down.  I am not sure what happened.  We didn't really do anything phenomenal or super creative. No extraordinary rewards, no party blowers, no M & Ms, and no motivational potty books.  (Besides Seth had no real interest in the potty book, beyond laughing with his big brother at the potty words.) 

We just began the day by putting him on the potty and just continued to ask him throughout the day if he had to go.  We were all a bit more relaxed this time around, and our timing just so happened to coincide with Seth finally just being plain ole ready.   Seth was proud; we were proud.  And the whole thing finally took!  Yay for Sethie!

So, our experience could not have been more different with our second born than our first born.  But we still ended up with the same result... a big boy wearing big boy underwear!  The only thing that was the same about the two experiences is that the day that Seth finally started going to the potty consistently was on Thanksgiving, November 26, 2009...at exactly 2 years and 8 months.  A detail that I didn't even catch until a few weeks after he was trained.

Maybe those Workman boys aren't so different after all!

Caleb's "Red Ryder BB Gun"

All he wanted for Christmas was an "Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle."

Wait, wrong kid.

All our kid wanted this year was a Darth Vader costume.  It was really the only thing he asked for this Christmas.  Actually, Granny was the first person that he told that he REALLY wanted a Darth Vader costume, so Granny was the one from whom it was to come.  So, the hunt was on!

I went to a couple of stores in Cool Springs that had the costumes, just not the right size.  Ugh! Granny had no luck, either.  Trying to prepare our little guy, I told Caleb that it might be hard to find such a costume this time of year.  He said he understood, but continued to hold out hope. 

Finally, I went on-line and...Viola!  I found the right size! The perfect Christmas present for our Biz was on its way!!

Since it was from Granny, he had to wait until we went to Kentucky to open it.  After opening gifts under our tree in Tennessee, he seemed to handle it pretty well that his request had not been filled.  He simply told us in the car ride to Kentucky that, "those Darth Vader costumes sure are hard to find."  And he left it at that.  Ooooh...the suspense was killing Eric and I.  We couldn't wait for him to open his costume.  But we played it cool.

Our first Kentucky stop was Granny's house for lunch and then we were headed to Memaw and Pepaw's house.  The boys weren't suppose to open their Granny gifts until New Years' Eve when we were to celebrate Christmas at her house.  However, once we got to Granny's house, we were not able to contain his Red Ryder any longer.  Each boy got to open one gift before we left for Flemingsburg.

Here was Biz's reaction to his favorite gift of Christmas ever:

And Seth was pretty happy with his magna doodle, too.