The Joys of Potty Training...

Today while Gabe was supposed to be napping, I kept hearing him repeat "want mommy come look at it".  I finally decided I'd better go in and see what he had done.  Much to my surprise, there on the floor was a very poopy diaper - open face -  and Gabe in a different set of pants than he'd been wearing when I put him down.  I don't know how he did it, but he got his own diaper off, and then proceeded to try on 3 pairs of new pants, with poop still all over his bum.  As I looked around the room, there on his rug were little brown spots where he'd sat down to play with his toys afterward.  Needless to say, I put him straight in the bathtub, and was extremely grateful we splurged last fall and bought a carpet cleaner.  I couldn't help but laugh almost the whole time.  On the plus side, he's clearly not comfortable being in a poopy diaper anymore, so I have high hopes that he'll be potty trained VERY soon.  :)  

Grant laughing

One of my absolute favorite sounds in the world is a baby laughing.  Michael and I have been trying to get Grant to laugh now for a while, with no luck.  The day Grant turned 3 months old, I gave him a bath with Gabe, and Gabe got him to laugh!  It was so exciting.  Here they are playing together.  What a fun little brotherly bond to share.  :)  

Best Buds

I love having boys - and I really love having 2 of them.  I must say, there are definitely challenging times like when they're both screaming at the same time, and changing poopy diapers back to back isn't very fun either.  But then there are sweet moments when Gabe snuggles up to Grant, or tries to comfort him when he's crying.  These moments are what we moms live for.  Gabe is a great big brother, and really loves to be with Grant.  

My sweet boys

Taking care of Grant

All 3 of the boys!  (I could NOT get Gabe to smile!)

My sweet little baby boy

Gabe in boots

Gabe must be getting inspiration from both Hailey and Aubrey these days.  :)  The other day I heard Gabe playing quietly, and found him putting my boots on.  It was hilarious.  He actually was able to slowly walk across the apartment to show Michael while I snapped a few pictures.   

Potty in the BIG potty!

Being the mother of a 2 year old brings a heck of a lot of frustration, but also a heck of a lot of FUN.  :)  Gabe has recently become very interested in potty training.  He absolutely loves that he can do it all by himself.  He has "big boy diapers" he can take off himself, a stool to climb up on the potty with, and a fun cars/truck potty seat that Nana got for him.  He's very good at cleaning up afterwards and loves to wash his hands with the soap bubbles.  His favorite part is the reward sticker he gets every time he uses the bathroom.  At first the stickers were scattered throughout the house, and usually ended up on the bottom of my sock.  I suggested he put them on a piece of paper on the fridge so that we could all see his special stickers. He got quite a kick out of that.  So here is Gabe sitting happily on the potty, and his reward stickers - this is ONE days worth of stickers.  :)