What a week!!

Austin is teething, Caleb had a UTI, Robbie got in a wreck, one of my good friends had a stroke (at 28) and I am emotionally SPENT!!

Monday: I get a call from a girlfriend telling me the news that one of our great friends has had two strokes. She was unconscious for 48hrs and unable to move the left side of her body.

Tuesday- Wednesday: Caleb Complained for a day that it hurt when he went potty, on day 2 there was blood in his urine! We rushed to the DR and with the preliminary test saying it was not a UTI we postponed antibiotics for 24hrs and did baking soda baths. After SCREAMING each time he went potty, having a fever and needing to be cuddled every two seconds I demanded the antibiotic and we had relief in 6hours.

During the UTI, fever, snuggles and cranky Caleb time we had Austin teething....also screaming, having a fever and needing to be cuddled every two seconds.

Poor B was house bound with crazy siblings and a mom who didn't have much extra time :( So he decides to play in the front yard/dirt/cement. He was barefoot (after mom warned him not too) and within 15minutes could not walk and had a half dollar sized blister on the balls of both feet (gotta love phoenix heat).

Thursday: I get 8 calls (missed them all cause me and the boys were outside) from Rob and finally a text message saying "I have been in a wreck, car totaled, I am ok."

WHAT?!?!?!?! The boys and I are loaded in the car in 2minutes flying down to find our dad on the side of the road with a car that looks like it has just been "had" in a monster truck rally.

Thank God he is OK!!! Turns out he and 4 other cars were at a dead stop on the freeway (due to a hit and run in front of them) when a Buick comes barreling down the road not noticing the "stopped traffic" ..... Rob was the last in line of "stopped cars" so he took the full impact....and subsequently passed it along to the RAV4 who passed HIM on to a Ford F150. It was a shit show on HWY 202! Did I mention how unbelievably lucky we are to have him home and safe?!!

Now lets all keep our fingers crossed we get a new car out of this :)

WHEWWWWWWW....the week is over! As a follow up....Austin is still teething, Caleb is feeling better, B is getting attention, his blisters are healing, Rob is healthy, we are down to one car and EVERYONE is exhausted!!!

Miss you guys.

Big Changes in the Doane House

Well the boots are still on everyday but the great news about the boots is that he has decided to wear socks with them so we are no longer dealing with the smell! Over all the big news with Caleb is that he is POTTY TRAINING and i venture to say trained (but we all know how that turned out last time). So after my last blog when I admitted to not using cloth diapers anymore I had to ask myself why I had stopped since now I am at home and they really do save $. I had no valid answer so I pulled them out and have been using them for the past 1-2 weeks. Well Caleb hates the feeling of being wet it turns out and would ask me every two seconds for a new diaper. I would refuse (you all may see this as cruel or gross but it works!) and only change him every two hours, not every time a tsp of tee tee went in it. But each time he would cry to me "new diaper mommy, this wet" I would tell him "No diaper, you need to stop your tee tee and tell mom BEFORE it goes in your diaper if you want a dry diaper" and bingo. Three days ago he announced that his tee tee was coming and we rushed to the potty, put it in the potty, got a reward and we are three days and a few hundred M&M into this with only one accident to speak of. Way to go Zonie!!

B is the cheerleader ever! With Caleb potty training B is the first to sing him a good job song or remind him to go get his treat! It is sooooo cool. He even told Mame and Capn' on skype the other night that Caleb was doing "so excellent" at potty training. I love it. He has also been using the word "enjoy" quite a bit which i find adorable. ex: "B do you want some more steak?" "no, I didn't enjoy it as much as the mashed potatoes, I will have some more potatoes". I don't know why but i get a kick out of it each time, it just sounds so grown up. Along with "enjoying" or "not enjoying" things, he is very interested in"teamwork" and takes every opportunity to get his brothers help with something by declaring it "teamwork". Ex: I say "B pick up all of these cars you took out". "ok, mom". then Braydon says "Hey Caleb, lets use teamwork and you pick up all the cars and I will hold the bag". Most of all INDEPENDENT is the word that stands out about B. if he can not reach something, he pulls a chair over and figures out how to get it or he will work at something (like turning his shirt right side out) for 10min until he gets it so he doesn't have to ask for help!!! Go B Go!!!

I have been exhausted with all of Austin's late night partying so Rob has taken matters into his own hands. He is letting AJ have an afternoon nap but is then keeping him up until 9pm every night and AJ has started sleeping through the night, with an occasional wake up/ limb getting stuck out of the crib. But there are no more night time feedings or 2/3 wake ups!! WHAT SUCCESS! I knew I married a great man :)

So lets review the way Rob and my's life has changed in the last week....DRAMATICALLY!!!! Two of three children are potty trained, we are down on our diaper budget, we are actually sleeping, and we have two major parenting hurdles out of the way!!!! We are living right!!!

Miss you guys!

Great weekend

Hey guys! What a great weekend. Austin got Baptized and we had wonderful family and friends to help celebrate. The Doanes and Elwells were in town for the big day and Austin LOVED the attention. It was almost as if he could not imagine something as great as a day about him. Tons of kisses, snuggles and love from all the family to all the boys but Austin knew Sunday was his day. Austin looked Handsome!!! His baptism was wonderful, he slept for most of it but considering some of the other options we were all very proud of him. Rob held him over the holy water for what seemed like a long time and when he pulled him back up there was a collective sigh of relief from our side of the church, everyone had been holding their breath hoping that he didn't puke in the holy water, but he didn't and he is now one of the newest members of the church! After church we had some friends back at our house for a pool party and cupcakes.

The rest of the weekend was pool time fun with Grandparents, wonderful dinners for the adults and great company! No complaints!!

The boys had a trip to the Children's museum that was a blast, they played and ran for hours. There was a little boy there (prob about 6) that was a COWBOY! He had on a hat, button down shirt, leather vest with a sheriffs badge, belt buckle, jeans, boots and SPURS! This was the real deal and Caleb....found his idol. Caleb tracked him the first time he walked by and then when we saw him again I said "Caleb, did you see that Cowboy?" The boy heard me and smiled from ear to ear, he looked back at us over his shoulder. Caleb (mouth agape) stared....."Caleb" I say, "doesn't he look wonderful, he is a real cowboy" The older kid is thrilled with this and smiling at Caleb's effort/boots. Caleb still unable to speak because he is standing so close to a REAL cowboy, just nods. "Show him your boots Caleb" Caleb, does not break stare.....throws one foot in front of him resting his foot on the heal of his boot. "Nice boots says the boy" and just like that....the cowboy was gone.
The whole 30seconds was hilarious!!! Caleb definitely had a wonderful time at the museum.

Braydon was a monkey all day at the museum. He was climbing, jumping, running, he couldn't believe that there were buildings that big built just for playing! He had a blast and was exhausted!! He loved the time with his extended family this week and we are still asking about when we will be seeing everyone again and if they will be at his "number four" birthday. :) We did a little voice recording for a picture frame of Mary and Steve's today, we had a few things that Caleb and Braydon were going to say so we practiced and practiced and then tried, and tried, and tried, and tried and .... well you get the picture. 30 horrible recordings later we had just entered our voices in the frame one last time, we listen to it again to see how it came out and as if B had not been doing this with us for the last 20 minutes, he cocks his head to the side and says "hey mom, there are people in that box talking"......I didn't know what to say.