Special Surprise

So - Tessa completed her 10-day trial period and we are successfully sleeping without a pappy and had VERY little drama with the transition.  On Sunday morning she got to put her 10th sticker on her chart that I made (pics to follow) so we took her shopping for her special gift.  I told her we would get her a bike (which we owed her form her Birthday anyways).  She was so-so about the bike but then saw the Barbie isle (BARF).  Needless to say she got some Barbie Rockstar, thanks to Daddy, and a bike thanks to Mommy.  She was excited that there was a little seat on the back of her bike that she could put her Barbie in.  I need to get some pictures and post.

Ellis continues to pee on the potty at school.  Friday he peed twice, yesterday he peed twice, so proud of him.  He continues to REFUSE to pee on the potty at home.  I can barely get him to sit on it.  We'll have to work on that.  He is supposed to transition to his next class next week and that is where potty training starts in earnest.  We'll see how it goes.

Either way, I love both of my babies so much and am so proud of both of them.

Frozen Hell?

So - this might be a little embarrassing, but that's what parent's are for.  Tessa is over 4 years old and she still sleeps with a pacifier at night (we call it a pappy).  Well - she did until about a week ago.  I hate the damn things.  She's always losing them, I'm always searching for them, I think she's too old, Mike said she'll quit when she's ready, etc.  We tried quitting about four months ago and it was a disaster, crying all night, I finally gave in.  I didn't want to have to do this by myself, I decided to wait until Mike was in town and he could "help" with that process.  She will frequently say "Guess what Mommy, I'm going to sleep without my pappy tonight"  Mostly because she REALLY likes praises and want us to be proud of her all the time.  Then when night comes, she says "I have a great idea, how about I sleep without my pappy tomorrow night?"  Which, of course, never happens.

She had a little bit of a rough week last week on Monday and Tuesday.  She got into trouble several times, we had multiple conversations about it, lots of tears and I'm sorries, etc.  Then she did really great for two days, no issues, making good choices, no name on board, etc.  She was so excited and said " Mommy, I made good choices, didn't put stuff in my mouth and used my listening ears!  Are you so proud of me?  And tonight, I'm going to sleep without my pappy!"  I blew it off since I had heard her say this before, but when she went to bed that night, she didn't ask for it.  We laid down, read a couple of books, and sang some songs and then she finally went to sleep.  The next morning she woke up and said she had slept with out her pappy.  I told her how proud I was, but was worried about the next night.  Well, she did it again!  So I told her I would make a chart and we would put a sticker down for every night she slept without a pappy and when she got 10 stickers she could get a special present.

Well - we have EIGHT stickers now!  She has not slept with one since.  Hallelujah!

The, to top all of this great development off!  Ellis is in the very infancy of potty training.  Generally, he screams NO if asked if he wants to go potty.  I have gotten him to sit on it a couple of times, but not much after that.  At school, one of the teachers is working with him, but aside from a one-time fluke, we haven't gotten much "action".  When I picked him up yesterday, he had peed on the potty TWICE!    Seriously, Hell must have frozen over if my daughter is sleeping without a pappy and Ellis is on his way to potty-training.

I probably am jinxing myself by writing this post, though.  We'll see.

My little Patriot (and Mandarin Speaker)

Motivation

So - I've started running again.  I really loved running when I was younger (I didn't start until I was a Senior in High School).  Mostly, I run on the treadmill at the gym during my lunch break.  With Mike still working in Nashville, I can't really run in the morning or evenings since I have the kids.  The problem is that when I do run in real life (aka outside) I feel like an elephant trying to run like a cheetah.  I've been kicking ass on the treadmill and was VERY discouraged when I tried to run while we were at the beach (on pavement).  Since then, I've been putting the treadmill on a slight incline to get a little more resistance. 

When I was doing WeightWatchers, we discussed motivations and how some times you don't feel motivated to go work out.  She said that you never you regret going.  You may not have the best work-out, but usually once you're there you get into it and you never regret going.  This has helped push me through a lot of tired days.  Even today, I almost bailed and finally decided to just go and if I wasn't feeling it 10 minutes into my run, I would quit.  But I didn't quit and I ran pretty hard and definitely don't regret going.

I'm running in my first 5K in two weeks, I may regret doing that, but we'll see.

First in Flight

I know, I know, I totally stole the title from the Wright Brothers, sue me!   When Tessa and I went to Chicago for Aly's wedding celebration (will be discussed in a future post) it was T's first time on an airplane.  We flew out to see Kirsten once when she was 10-weeks old, but she didn't remember that.  She was so excited and we talked about it for months.  Omi and Opa were on the same flight as well, so that made it even more fun.  She was great!  She played on my iPad some, but mostly she colored.  She really liked the tray table and of course the snacks they brought.  It was also only a 1.5hr flight, so that helped.  On the flight back from Chicago she slept in my lap the whole time.  It was right in the middle of her usual nap time AND we didn't go to bed until about midnight the night before.  We just had such a great time and I was very relieved with how well the flight went.

We saw the pilots waiting at our gate, so Opa took her up and introduced her.  Not only did she get her first set of wings, the invited her into the cockpit once we boarded!!!  She thought that was really cool.

Guess who got the window seat?  Omi and Opa were right behind us.

She, of course, had to let Helmuth the Hase look out the window at the clouds and the country side.  He also was buckled in with her most of the trip.  It was his first flight as well (he didn't remember the San Antonio trip either)

She also got to ride on the L (Chicago Subway) and it was her first time on a train.  We met Aunt Kirsten at the Air Port and she got to ride with us, although next time if we fly into O'Hare we will be taking a cab.  We had to change trains with all of our suitcases (and Tessa).

I love this picture.  This is when we got back to Atlanta, and she was just the perfect little traveler.  I'm so proud of her.

Video Clips

Ellis showing his 'emotions' he learned in school.  'Funny' is my favorite.

Watch out Ludakris, Justin Bieber may have just found your replacement.

Beach Pictures

The whole family got to go to the Outerbanks this year. All four Hartley's, Kirsten, Mom and Dad, and Aunt Chris and Uncle Tom. It's been a really long time since we (or I) got to spend some quality time with Aunt Chris and Uncle Tom and it was just so awesome to have them there. I felt like a kid again when we used to spend summers together or every Thanksgiving our families were together. It's a lot harder now with the kids and their many grandkids, etc. Weather was perfect, not too hot, evening thunderstorms (check out cool pics below). Mike and I even got away on a date night!!!! Tessa loved the surf, but didn't want to actually go in the Ocean. Ellis was scared of the surf at first, but then loved it and even loved going into the ocean (with his swimmies on of course). He even wanted to swim by himself in the ocean. YEAH RIGHT, like I would let my sweet little boy go in the water.

We had two units which also helped. Last year was a tough week since there were six of us crammed in one unit and Ellis didn't sleep the whole week. Everyone was cranky except Tessa. I think Omi is still recovering from that week. It turned out that Ellis had Hand Foot Mouth and I didn't know it (bad Mommy) until the last day when I finally took him to the Doctor. But this year worked out perfect, so well in fact that we have even gone ahead and reserved the unit for next year already. The other fun aspect of the OBX is that with a timeshare you always see the same people and it's so nice to have that to look forward to as well. You know you're going to have good company.

Every evening we had Nachos (courtesy of Opa) and wide selection of adult beverages. With Uncle T present, Bloody Mary's were my drink of choice, but Dad was blending up his Margarita's as usual (yes, his girlfriend Rita joined us) and we had a whole case of Kim Crawford to enjoy as well.

Thank you so much to my parents, Kirsten, the Sowers and Mike for making it such a wonderful vacation. I just love that family vacation and the Outerbanks so much!!!


Tessa discovered Sand Critters this year. I'm pretty sure that is NOT their scientific name, but it's what we always called them. Ellis liked to look at them, but not touch. He's not big into bugs, especially when they start moving.



Lots of chairs for lots of people. We had such an awesome time.