Mickey's House

Friday was a holiday at Ryan's work so we decided to do a day trip to Disney.  Kevin had been begging to go for weeks.  He just knows you need the car and it's a long drive.  We left our house a little after 4am and got to Disney around 7:30am.  Which gave us enough time to change the kids out of their pajamas, get the stroller out and packed and get up to the gates before they opened at 8am.  We also stopped at a little grocery store right out side the security check (in the train station) and grabbed some baguettes to add to our snack stash (way cheaper than inside the park).

We ended up inside the park and were able to ride Dumbo once just by ourselves before anyone else joined for the second turn on dumbo.  Kherington really wanted to see a princess again so I stood in line for a reservation time while Ryan rode a ride with the kids.  It worked out well.  They got to meet Jasmine this time.  I was a little shocked when it came time to take the pictures and Kevin without prompting went and made himself comfortable on Jasmine's lap.  Apparently he is no longer a shy little boy. 

Around 1pm we headed over to the adjacent park to Disneyland and started off by watching the Lilo and Stitch Live performance.  Ryan had Kevin propped up in his arms to watch and he almost immediately fell asleep, then slept in the stroller while Ryan and Kherington rode a ride.  He woke up in time to go on Slinky Dog. Then when we were watching Animagic (Kevin's favorite performance...it has Mickey and Donald), Kherington, Ryan and me all fell asleep.  Kherington slept until the parade (we woke her up for that) then we headed home.  So 8 straight hours of Disney...a pretty solid day.

Shoes

Kevin loves playing with our shoes.  He will go find us the correct shoes for whatever activity he wants to be doing...walking, church, workout, dress-up, etc.  The pictures below are from work-out time since his tennis shoes are too small :).

Kid Time

Kherington was invited to a friends (Sethy's) party and I totally blew it.  I miss read the time and was 2 hours off...for a 2 hour long party.  Oops.  On the up side, I caught it early enough that she was only about an hour late.  I would have been in huge trouble if we had missed it.  Anyways, it was a ninja themed party.  They had headband for the kids but Kherington grew really attached to this make shift one Jenny made out of her skirt and didn't want to trade it in for a nice embroidered one so Jenny (she's pretty awesome) decorated Kheringtons.  It is now a prized possession worn nearly every day.

I built a fort with the kids one day and we've kept it up so they can continue to play with it.  Their new big thing at bedtime is to do Lego's under it.  Here's what Kevin created one evening.  He's getting to be quite the builder.

Sweet Little Man

We went back to potty training last Monday and it had been going pretty well.  Kevin had 3 pees the first day, 1 the second, then was good until he pooed his undies on Sat (after throwing up so I'll give him that one).  Then he pooed it again on Monday.  I thought we were home free with the pee and would work on the poo.  Ugh, then today he peed again.  I guess it's more that he can hold his pee longer, but I still need to remember to put him on the potty every couple hours. He is pretty funny when he uses the potty.  He uses the big one and can get up and down on his own, but the funny part is that if I come walking by he says, "No, mommy go out!"  He does not want our help.

After peeing, I stuck him in the tub to wash off.  And when I pulled him out he stood there and tells me, "Mom, rock-a-bye baby" over and over.  So I scooped him and and rocked him.  We got his clothes back on and he started saying it again.  He is just so sweet.  He went right to sleep.

Another super sweet thing about Kevin that melts my heart is that if I'm starting to get frustrated, he looks me right in and eyes and in the cutest voice says, "sorry mommy."  He also says thank-you without me prompting him to which actually catches me off guard most of the time.  Such a sweet little man.

Awesome email

Isn't this what you'd want to see pop-up in your work email:

Lucky Ryan got just this with, "Doesn't this picture make you wish you were a stay-at-home dad?"

Apparently Kevin's tummy wasn't feeling so hot.  I kept gagging while cleaning it up so I started repeating "it's just milk, it's just milk." So nasty…and this was after I picked out the chunks that wouldn't wash down the sink.  Just one of the thrills of being a stay-at-home mom of a toddler who hasn't learned to puke in a bowl or toilet.

Free Museum Day

The first Wednesday of each month is free museum day in Brussels.  Not all museums do it, but a quite a few.  So at 1pm on the dot (they're free after 1pm), we arrived at the African museum on Teurvern.  I took Kherington once before when we first moved here, but Kevin wasn't born yet.  We did a speed walk through the older stuff until we got to the animals.  They kept asking why the animals weren't moving.  I let them each pick their favorites out to take pictures with and here's what they choose.  We didn't happen on the elephant til later on.  Kherington said that was her real favorite but didn't want a picture with it.  It total we were there for a good 40 minutes (including walking to and from the car).  That is how to do museums with little kids.

We only have 3 free museum days left until we leave and hopefully we'll take advantage of each...I guess we'll see.

I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home

The kids get really excited as it gets close to the end of the day because that is when their daddy comes home and can bounce them 'super high' on the trampoline.  Pretty cute.

Their daddy is pretty awesome.  The other night he was in charge of dessert.  When I'm in charge of dessert I usually just grab the candy jar and they can have one piece for each year of their age.  Ryan is way more fun.  He got them each mugs and let them help make brownies in a mug.  They are pretty lucky kids.

Another cool thing he did (while I slept in til nearly 9...that hasn't happened in forever) was help them make movie boxes.  We had friends over the day before and Kherington had taped a box to the window so she could watch movies in it.  Ryan helped them take it a step further.  They colored on long pieces of paper then wrapped it around sticks/tubes and put them in the box so when they turn it the paper moves.