Regression and progression...

Well, it happened. I was warned, but I didn't think it would happen. Hawken decided to NOT be potty trained. :( 3 days in a row of accidents. Crap! (no pun intended, really) He did so well and was potty trained for over a month, the new baby came, no change, then a week ago he just stopped. He peed on everything, and after a very messy poop accident at Target (this picture was taken just before it happened - funny huh?)... I decided to start again.

We just acted as if we were training him from the beginning again (but without reverting to diapers). When he woke up, we would "try" to use the toilet, of course it would work and we would praise him like crazy! Dancing, clapping, singing, reward charts, stickers, you name it. We would "try" periodically throughout the day, and obviously before we would leave the house, and before we would come home, etc. Anyway, after 3 days of that, I am happy to say, he is back on track. Hooray! Those first 3 days were NOT my idea of fun, but these last 3 have been wonderful, and he is back to telling us when he needs to go, and we haven't had any accidents. Thank heavens.

my mom's visit

My mom came out to visit and help just after the baby was born. Her plans are always to come for the actual birth, but it never happens that way. But, it ended up being perfect timing. She got here 2 days after Paul's surgery and a week or so after Lullaby was born. Hooray!

The boys were so excited to get some grandma time. I was loving the extra naps I could get with her here and we were all loving the food. My mom is a great cook and she made yummy dinners for us every night. It was sad to see her go. Thanks again mom for coming out! We miss you and we love you. :) These were the good-byes.

adorable

Ummm... adorable. That's all I have to say. This is another favorite dress, however, believe it or not, I made it... Yes I was closely watched over by my mother, but mostly, I made it. Hooray! She embroidered the owl though (which I LoVe!!). But how cute is Lullaby? I know I am biased, but I think she is too stinkin' cute!

10 days in Dominica - day 10

Today is the last day of the 10 days in Dominica blog challenge from Katie. Thanks Katie for hosting, it was fun to reminisce. :)

Question #10: What have I missed since I left Dominica?

I miss passion fruit juice, avocados the size of my head, mangos from the tree in our back yard, hidden hot springs, river pools, black sand beaches, great neighbors, friends, playgroup, our lime green church building, tuna cakes, hermit crabs (the only wildlife I wasn't too afraid of), cows randomly roaming the roads, walking to church with my hubby on Sundays (even when it was pouring rain), hearing the locals blowing their conch shells, the Saturday market, the crickets and noisy frogs we fell asleep to every night, the simple, easy, relaxing island life...

When we first got to Dominica, I was pregnant with Hawken, and Matix was almost a year old, and by the time we left, Matix was 2 and Hawken had just turned 1, and (although we didn't know it yet) I was pregnant with Lullaby. We spent 17 months of our lives on this island, and despite all the things that were hard and new, it was our life, and we loved it. Until a few weeks ago, every birthday the boys have had has been on the island. Hawken learned to crawl, and walk and talk there. It won't be until November that Hawken will have spent equal amounts of his life in the States and in Dominica, he was only 6 weeks old when we brought him back to the island after having him. The island, and the time we spent there as a family will always be special to us.

We do miss you Dominica. :)

kids say...

Recently, Matix has been having some cute conversations about Heavenly Father.

The first happened at Target. We were shopping for bug killer. I found the right aisle and this was our conversation:

Matix: "Mommy, I don't want to buy bugs!!" (all the boxes have pictures of bugs on them)

Jessie: "We're not buying bugs, we're buying bug killer."

Matix: "No mommy! Don't kill bugs! Heavenly father made those bugs! It makes him sad to see you kill his bugs!"

Jessie: (after realizing they didn't even have the right kind of bug killer) "Okay Matix, we won't get any bug killer." :)

-Such a thoughtful little boy, right?

The second was after Matix woke up from a nap. He got up and went over to Paul, this was their conversation:

Paul: "Did you have a good nap?"

Matix: "Yes I did." (he has been answering in full sentences, even when a simple yes would have sufficed)

Paul: "Did you have any dreams?"

Matix: "Yes, I dreamed about Heavenly Father."

Paul: "Did He talk to you?"

Matix: "He told me that mommy is a good mommy."

-I love it! :)

10 days in Dominica - day 9

Question #9: Did anything make the journey easier for you?

I think knowing there was an end to it made it easier for me. I really enjoyed our time there and didn't really do the anticipatory countdown to the end of our island time... BUT, when our 4 semesters were over there, I was ready to get back home to the States. I was ready for grocery stores that would have every item I wanted to buy. I was ready for a movie in the theatre with a large tub of popcorn and all the candy I could want. I was ready to see our friends and family that we had been away from for so long. I was ready for a car again. I was ready for dressing my kids in more than just diapers. I was ready to move on to the next step of the medical school journey and have the first 2 years under our belt.

Lullaby is 4 weeks old!

Little miss Lullaby is already 4 weeks old!! Pretty soon I will have to stop counting the weeks, and switch to months! Ahhh!!! Here she is in her pretty yellow dress my mom made for her.

Actually, my mom made a ton of little dresses, and we played dress-up with her while my mom was still here, but sifting through the pictures, I realized I took WAY too many for one post, so I will just put them up one or two dresses at a time. :)

Anyway, our little 4 week old is doing quite well. She doesn't sleep nearly as much or as easily as she did in the beginning, but she is still a very easy baby. Lullaby stays awake for about an hour at a time in between the 3-ish naps she takes each day. She can nurse for longer periods of time now too, which makes it easier on me. At night she sleeps from about 6pm to 7am with 2 wake ups to eat, then right back to sleep. She smiles while she sleeps, and we have seen a couple glimpses of smiles while she is awake, but mostly she is just so busy looking around to be social yet. Lullaby, just like the boys, is crazy strong, and can hold her head up really well... Even while on her tummy she can arch up and turn her head from side to side. She doesn't like baths in her little tub yet, although she will tolerate them for the first couple minutes. She likes her hands and arms to be wrapped up tight when she is sleeping and she likes to sleep where it is either dark and quiet or bright and loud... nothing in between. Lullaby doesn't really do anything else yet, except look cute all day long, pee, poop, eat, repeat. The boys are still in love with her and ask to hold her or kiss her any chance they get. Happy 4 weeks little girl. We all love you very much.

10 days in Dominica - day 8

Question #8: Did your spouse like it in Dominica?

Yes. For what Paul got to see of Dominica, which wasn't very much, he liked it. I think being a student on a tropical island is kind of a cruel joke. Paul is scuba certified, but never got the chance to go out. Paul loves to surf and hike and fish and go adventuring, but only really could on the little breaks the students are given in between semesters. He lived in Hawaii for a while and is a beach bum at heart, so when he decided to go to Ross, he thought he would be able to enjoy a lot more of the island than the riggors of medical school allow you to. He liked the trips he did get to go on, and the mango tree in our back yard, and the wildlife (no thank you), and the locals, pretty much everything.

Paul is a very dedicated husband and father to ours kiddos, and I think he enjoyed a lot of the island experience through us and our adventures we had. The kids and I would go out a lot and got to see many more things than he did. Paul really isn't a complainer, and would make the best of any situation... So the answer is yes. He liked the island, and we all miss it.

10 days in Dominica - day 7

Question #7: What was the best meal you had on the island?

Hmmm... There was a lot of good food on the island. I really liked chicken wraps from Andrew, and lentil wraps from the shack just past the gap (forgot their names)... My boys loves the chicken pies and EVERYONE loves the passionfruit juice, especially from Rosalyn. Plus, when you make friends with her she gives you a much better deal and will sell it to you by the jug, rather than in the little styrofoam cups. :)

Outside of Picard, I loved the Caribbean pizza from Red Rock, and anything made by the owner/chef at Crescent Moon... That man had talent! Sadly, I can't find my pictures of it, but I remember thinking the food was so amazing that I should take a picture, and I did.

10 days in Dominica - day 6

Question #6: Tell about an "only in Dominica" moment...

Wow. There are SO many of those moments. Hmmm... These are a few favs... Only in Dominica is this a perfectly appropriate and acceptable mode of transportation for 8 people:

Only in Dominica was it only somewhat offensive to be asked by an adult man, "That's a big baby, when are you going to nurse me?"

Only in Dominica can your 1 year old go out and bring home a bunch of bananas from the small grove in your backyard:

Only in Dominica were signs like this readily available for my entertainment as I walked by:

Only in Dominica can the sidewalk fall into the ground after a hard rain, and stay like that for at least a week:

Only in Dominica can you catch the IGA builders using their building equipment to pick mangos from the tree next to their job site... We were okay with this one because they gave us a few of them. :)

10 days in Dominica - day 5

Question #5: What didn't you miss about home (the States)?

I didn't miss the busy lifestyle. I adapted quite well to lazy island life. Don't get me wrong, I still had the kids on a nap schedule and planned trips and things like that, but I loved that I could be late anywhere I went, because of "island time" and it was perfectly acceptable. I (sometimes) loved that stores would open and close when they wanted to. Life in the States is so rushed and people get angry about the silliest things. On the island, everyone is relaxed and generally happy. I miss that about Dominica.

another adventure

We went again to a playground in the morning. The boys were excited to get back to this old favorite, the War Memorial Park in Coral Gables near our house. Lullaby was doing some more of this:

And the boys were good to keep themselves quite busy:

It was a hot morning and there was NO breeze, so by the time they stopped for a snack, all the kids looked like this... all sweaty and red, yuck.

By the way, how weird is it to say "kids"... I don't think I will be used to that for a while. :) It's always been the "boys".

I timed the potty break with the nursing and then we walked down the street to the library. I managed to get in and out of the library with no meltdowns (which is impressive because they LOVE the library and we hadn't been there in a while, so everything was that much more exciting!) and back to the car with all 3 kids, and the 2 new books. Hooray for another fun adventure!

success

Last week, Paul lost his bike... well, he didn't lose it, it was stolen. Boo. Paul has a bad habit of getting his bikes stolen, but this time, it wasn't his fault. He had put it in a good location, he used his lock, etc. Just plain bad luck. Well, really only half way bad luck, because that meant we got to drive him to his rotation. As soon as we dropped him off we found a new and amazing park! It is another enclosed one (which I love), and pretty shady (it's still hot here). Lullaby did a lot of this:

The boys did a lot of this:

This was our first outing with just me and the 3 kids! Hooray, I survived! :) Actually, it was just as easy as with just the 2 boys, it just took a little longer to get in and out of the car. 3 car seats vs. only 2 equals about 10 extra minutes for me. Hopefully I will get better with practice. But all in all a very successful playground visit and fun morning!

10 days in Dominica - day 4

Question #4: What was your favorite trip?

I can't say that I had one trip that was my favorite... Each time we went out adventuring was different, and exciting, and memorable in it's own way. I loved Batibou Bay for being so picturesque and perfect. I loved #1 beach because of the waves, and that's where I saw my first whale. I loved finding all the old star fruit trees on the hike to the indian river. I loved purple turtle because of the rope swing and the millions of sand dollars. I loved PBH and coconut beach because they are so close. I loved the hikes through the back woods in Glanvilla to hidden hot springs. I loved sister's beach because of all the hermit crabs and treasures to hunt for. I loved red rock for it's amazing views and even more amazing food. I loved crescent moon for it's refreshing outlook on life and it's tucked in the jungle location.

Adventures with kids is a lot different than if you're traveling alone. I always had one kid strapped to me in one way or another, while holding hands with the other. Muddy trails, or rainy days made a thousand times more challenging to go anywhere, but Dominica was FAR too beautiful to miss. I am SO happy that I went on each and every trip.

10 days in Dominica - day 3

Question #3: How did the weather affect you?

Not too much. It rained a lot during rainy season, so we got an umbrella. When it was hot, we spent a lot of time at the CAC in the air conditioning. We had great fans at our house, which we used all the time. Also, in storms when other people's power would go out, ours was backed up by a generator. So, really, our weather experience there wasn't all that different than in the states. Plus, all that rain made for great mud puddles for my little boys. :)

Perfect

I loooooove this baby!

daddy's girl

It's official, she loves her daddy. :) Doesn't she look like she is hugging him?

Paul is always quick to offer his snuggling services at night while I put the boys down. Lullaby already has him wrapped around her little finger. I love it!

10 days in Dominica - day 2

Question #2: What was better than you expected?

The sense of family in the Ross community. I loved that there were so many people in my same boat. I could relate to everyone I met, and we were all instantly friends. There were so many spouses to adventure with around the island, I really enjoyed being a part of it. When I first got to Dominica, I was a little out of sorts. I had never lived in another country, I could barely understand the locals, and my husband was starting medical school which meant I was on my own with my almost 1 year old... Yikes! Thankfully, I met a million other people who were feeling and thinking and going through the same things as I was. It was (and still is) a wonderful support group.

10 days in Dominica - day 1

Katie, a friend from the island and fellow blogger invited me and a few others (click here, here, here, and here to read their blogs) to do this blog challenge all about life on the island. Obviously, I have been off the island for quite some time now, but I still thought it would be fun to do. I will just write about how I felt while I was there.

Hopefully it will give some perspective to those still on the island, those about to move there and anyone else who wants to know... :) Each day for the first 10 days of October I will answer a question from this list:

And... since today is October 1st, here is my first post.

Question #1: What did you miss most about home(the states)?

Well, I missed a lot of things. I missed my friends and family. I missed my house. I missed my dog. I missed my car. But, I mostly missed candy. Any kind really, but probably chocolate the most. There are tons of yummy foods and desserts on the island, but not like in the US. There is a new grocery store that opened in Picard, just after we left the island (of course), and they maybe have more of a selection than when I was there. But, while we lived there, and I was pregnant and craving chocolate on a daily basis, it just wasn't available. I missed being able to get into the car, drive to the grocery store and see this:

Particularly during this time of year when the Halloween candy came in... Aisles and aisles filled with this stuff. YUM! In Dominica, there really aren't that many choices, and those that are available either don't taste right, or are super expensive. It was really hard for me to maintain my weight there, partly because of the lack of candy and chocolate in my diet. So that's it. I missed food. :)

the bag boys

My mom, the ever crafty lady that she is, noticed that the boys enjoyed boxes and bags to hoard all their toys in and carry around the house, and decided that they needed some containers. So we went to the fabric store, and the next morning she was whipping up some bags for the boys.

We called my little sister "the bag lady" when she was this age since she loved having bags to put her treasures in. And it turns out, these boys have that same gene. The bag lady gene. :)

Matix especially has been loving these numbered bags, specifically the biggest bag, the #3 bag... since his new number is 3, not 2! :) So fun! Thanks mom for the hours of fun these bags have already provided.