Happy 10th Birthday to Spumoni!!

Spumoni turned 10 on August 29th!  Yay!  Back in May we wondered if he would make it to his 10th birthday.  It became sort of a goal for me, to get him to his birthday.  I'm very very very pleased to say he is still doing great!  The only thing that would only give away his ordeal in the Spring is his salivary gland being gone on one side of his mouth - so the drool is super thick and sticky on that side without the saliva to thin it out.  He is full of energy and fun, and I would say has gotten to be a touch more snuggly and affectionate.  Love!  We are so lucky to have loved this guy for a decade!

Birthday visit to the dog beach

Just lovely

This week and weekend was....just lovely!

snuggles

One of the last concerts in the square of the summer

He sprayed himself directly in the face by accident and thought it was so funny

Out to dinner:)

Outside one of the houses Matt is renovating

Second cousin Benton's 2nd birthday party at the splash pad, so fun!  My hot blooded girl....

and my not so hot blooded boy...

Ah, that's better...warm concrete

Benton and Drew

Awesome sandbox right next to the splash pad

Hanging with the Ruzila's again:)

Jack & Luke started pulling Claire in the sled behind the zoom buggy

Jack and Claire like to cruise around

Luke & Mikey like to jet around too

Spumoni loves it when we're all outside together.  He looks so content.

We walked/rode bikes to the nearby golf course to eat breakfast at their clubhouse.  The best part was Matt and my decision to get a Bloody Mary to share for the road.  

The Claire bike idea was a great one for like 20 seconds and then it was super annoying.  We ended up carrying her and her bike soon after this picture was taken (note that our driveway is still in the picture).

Naps poolside on the warm ground for Luke & Mom

Sunday night we had a really fun evening with the Conklin's

Drew and Luke fishing

You have to check out this adorable video.  Claire kept running back and forth from the playground to give me hugs.   It was adorable.

Impromptu pizza dinner without leaving the beach

 

Sunset was really pretty

Potty Training

Claire is starting school in September and since they don't change diapers at her school we were on a deadline to get this little girl potty trained!  After seeing such success with the 3 day potty training boot camp with Luke, it was definitely our plan to do that with her too - pretty much cold turkey.  One day diapers, the next day...not!  So we scheduled the weekend, cleared all plans and had one activity on the calendar - potty training!  Claire is about 6 months younger than Luke was when we trained him (also right before preschool in the summer), plus she has shown zero interest in the potty (unlike Luke), so I don't know why we were surprised when it took her a little longer than it took Luke to catch on to the idea once we started.  With Luke it "clicked" for him about 3 hours into our 3 day boot camp.  Easy peasy.  With Claire I think it was hour 43, but still - within the 3 days!  The first couple days of not catching on was kind of brutal though, I can't lie.  She preferred to sit on my lap and then start peeing without warning most times, so that I changed my clothes probably 10 times that first day.  After 2 days of being trapped in the house with a girl who kept peeing all over everything (it was super hot outside) we were ready to get some social time & time outside so we broke the 3 day rules and had our friends over.  That was fun and since it has clicked by that time, Claire told us when she had to go.  Perfect!  Great job Clairebee for learning how to go on the potty!  Thanks to D&E who took Luke for a sleepover and day o' fun so Matt and I could concentrate on the baby girl's mission.  

That's actually a good spot for her in case of dripping.

Like before, you have to stay right by the kid's side and pump them full of fluids so they have to pee a lot and then scoop them up to take them to the potty every time they start having an accident and then give TONS of positive reinforcement once they get even one drop in the potty.

Now that she's a big girl, she could drive Mikey around in the Gator.

I had meetings and dinners in the city Tues/Wed that made staying overnight more convenient, which meant I got to have a  lovely run in Millennium Park on Wed.

Fort:)

Katie suggested we try to deal with Luke's bad behavior by switching the focus from taking things away/punishing for bad behavior to rewarding his good behavior.  Great idea!  So we're doing this chart.  Luke gets a sticker every day he has no time outs, and when he gets 5 stickers he gets a reward.  One of Claire's prizes for potty training was a plastic grappling hook, and Luke wanted it SOOOO badly.  So he was really motivated to get 5 stickers and earn his own grappling hook, good job Luke!  Now we're working on his second prize.