Warning: this post is rated PT (those of you who were blog readers back in early 2008 know this stands for "potty training," or in this case, potty related).
For being a little kid with virtually no shame (he would run around buck naked in the house if we'd let me), Tyler does like his privacy on the potty. I mean, who doesn't? Anyway, when Abby was Tyler age, and business needed to be "conducted," she used to politely say, "Privacy please." And we would leave her alone and close the door if she desired.
Tyler on the other hand, is adamant about having the bathroom door closed when he needs some time alone, and he yells, "Move the stool," "Close the door," "Privacy!," to anyone who is present. The funny part is that he doesn't care how many people are in the bathroom with him ... he just wants that door closed!
We've had times where it's been me giving Abby a bath in the tub, Dennis in there chatting with us, and Bailey serving his cat duty as ever-present spectator ... and Tyler runs in with an emergency. He demands we close the door ... so we're all in there just hanging out, together! What a family! Thought you'd all find this funny...
I planned a Play-Doh themed craft day last September for a moms club the kids and I were involved in ... so that's how I knew about it. This year, instead of making our own playdough (which was a catastrophe last year when I forgot a major ingredient!), I simply broke our goods out and let the kids play with them after dinner. Let me tell you ... they love playing with the stuff, but I hate the mess Play-Doh makes. If National Play-Doh Day fell later in the week (after the cleaning lady will be here) we would have had to celebrate differently. You should have seen the floor!
Since I have them handy from last year's activity, I thought you might find these facts fun: 
Since we had to go and name our daughter Abby, she's first in alphabetical order on pretty much any list. That means we got the notification about the "All About Me" program on Friday and Abby's week began this Monday! So I did what any mom would do ... repurposed old share week materials! Advent's share weeks went by birthday, so we had just made an All About Me poster for Abby in May. This went in with her today (just had to glue down some pictures that were trying to make a break for it), as well as an A-B-C photo album we made last year, and framed photos of those not pictured in the album. Easy schmeezy!
Usually Abby gets really into this for about 10 minutes, then loses interest. She started this picture of a dinosaur the other day, and today Tyler and I helped her finish it. Tyler loves finding all of one particular number/color (this is a great learning tool!) ... but he also likes tossing and scattering the little color cubes all over the floor! What can I say - he's a 2-year old boy! 
At first we didn't know what we were doing ... I was getting destroyed by Dennis. But I quickly broke out some moves from my kickboxing classes and ended up winning the match. See the screen below ... Dennis didn't know what was coming. He went down for the count! Woohoo!
Well, I guess I had forgotten that the XL pizza at Momo's really is EXTRA LARGE. Dennis (who doesn't travel the birthday party circuit, like myself) had never seen one of these monsters, and he was our pickup/delivery man. He came in from the garage with the pizza, singing something that sounded like the Olympic overture, or the 2001 theme. Then, we had to take a few funny pictures before we dug in! 
I believe we could have fed a small army with this pizza. Anyone for leftovers? Tyler doesn't even like pizza much. Needless to say, we have a whole freezer full!
A friend of mine, Jen Fennell, used to make these years ago for their tailgates (she probably still does) but I had never tried it. They went over great ... even with my mom! 
Martha ... thought you'd be curious ... those were NOT a recipe from the Jello cookbook you gave me this summer, but I did grab some tips from the Jello Jiggler page when I made these non-alcoholic football shaped jigglers for the kids. 
We had my parents's FSU tent/canopy up ... but even that couldn't cool us off. Halfway through the tailgate, we remembered what was said last year. Tailgates in September are WAY too hot! Tyler had his shirt off for part of the pre-game festivities (trying to cool off), but it's back on and he's all smiles here with Grandan.
But Tyler wasn't as sure about the loudness! He's so funny about things like that. He plugs his ears at Chick fil A in the kids area, and when I grind the coffee, etc.
Here's a picture we all took with Chief Osceola ... and a close-up shot of the "Go Team" pennant Abby stamped to prepare for the game. She got this idea from the stamp box that sits on her activity table. On Friday afternoon, I found her in there "creating" ... and was shocked to see that she put this together (tape and all) by herself.
Unfortunately, right after the team left the field following their warmup, they announced an hour-long rain delay. We tried to wait it out with the masses (see the picture of Tyler and Dennis) in the concourse, but after the second batch of showers came, Mom and I took the kids and headed (through pouring rain) to the car. 
Having gotten a bit lazy with my working out toward the end of the summer, I've put myself on a weight loss program. So, I too have a chain ... this one charts my progress. Notice I haven't included a photo of my chain. No way will you blog readers get to see how many links (which represent pounds) I need to cut off. I'll just let you know when I reach my goal!
