Advise Me

I just don't get this girl. Mayah will be 2 and a half tomorrow. She is growing in so many ways. She is talking and saying things that amaze me. She is figuring out her colors and even some of her letters. She loves to color and draw. She is quite an amazing little girl. She has been potty trained for me for about a month. By this I mean that she poops and pees on the potty when Will and I are home nearly every time. She has had very few accidents for us. However, she is not potty trained when someone else watches her. We were away this past weekend, and I got a text from my sister-in-law that Mayah had "fallen off the potty train." My mom and my mother-in-law both reported accidents when we got home, too. She even had an accident last time she was in the nursery at church.

I do remind her to go potty and sometimes sit her on the toilet even if she says she doesn't need to go. I just don't understand why she refuses to consistently use the potty for any one but Will and I. Has anyone out there had this experience? Does anyone have any advice? I'd really like to be able to leave Mayah with people without the fear that she will poop all over them. Help.

Graduation...

...kind of. Today was the last day of preschool for the year. Judah will go to preschool again next year, so he isn't really graduating, but let's not get technical.At our preschool, we each take a turn teaching, assisting, hanging with the nursery kids, and taking a day off. It was my turn to teach, so I had the kids review the different sections that we went over this year and then make an All About Me book. Thankfully, my assistant, Julie, is a rockstar because it was quite an undertaking. Oh how easily the preschooler becomes distracted. Above is a picture of Hollie, Julie, Judah and I.

This is the some of Judah's class. Throughout the year, we had anywhere from six to twelve kids. It was a great experience for him. I can see a huge improvement in his attention skills from when we started until now.

Judah's book turned out hilarious. Here are some sample questions:
My favorite thing to do is...be a T-Rex!! (After this question, EVERY page had to do with dinosaurs.)
My favorite toy is...ZOO!! (He proceeded to draw a map of the zoo and placed each animal, including dinos, in cages.)
My favorite thing to do with Mama and Papa is...dinosaur disco-bagging!! (This came with a little tune. Can anyone tell me what it means?)
My favorite tv show is...Dino Squad and Dinosaur Train.
When I grow up, I want to be a ...MAMA!!

Yep. That's my boy.

Tulip Time

The kids and I journeyed to Pella for the infamous Tulip Time. We actually went down last night with my sister-in-law, Jen, so Jen and I could run in the Klompen Classic. After a winter of running on the treadmill, I decided to see if I could run in real life. Sadly, my winter workout was running a mile as fast as I could...mostly because I wanted to get home and eat some ice cream. So I called up Jen and asked her to suffer through a 5K with me. I'm sure you are imagining the hours of training I put in prior to my big race. I mean, I hadn't run over a mile and a half in uhhh..ten years??? I had great intentions. However, in the two weeks up to the day we decided to sign up, I ran a mile twice. Yep...I was ready. I am proud to say that I did not walk at all.

The kids stayed with my mom during the race and got to go to Pella with us today for some Dutch food and tulip smelling. A good time was had by all.

Liam had a great time eating donuts and poffertjes. He was a messy, sleepy boy.Mayah cheesed it up with Aunt Caitlyn. This girl loves her novelty sunglasses.

Mayah kept running up to the tulips and posing. She's a m-model if you know what I mean.

This is my new favorite picture of Liam. I adore him.

Judah was not jazzed about getting his picture taken. He was struggling all day to enjoy Pella.

'I want to eat that one, Mama.'

Oh, Mayah, if you only knew how much money you hold in that aggressive little hand...

The kids were crabby way before we left, but we got some great food. I even got to see a ton of people from my past. Well done, Tulip Time 2010...well done.