A nice spring day

We are loving the Spring weather and have been playing outside, a lot! It was a little windy today, but still nice. Here are a few pictures of the boys playing and then....videos of them starting to ride their tricycles!!

Brendan in light blue, Collin in orange.




And the tricycle riding!

Reward for Collin

Collin has been begging us to go to Chuck E Cheese, so we told him if he could use the potty all week we would go as a reward. Well, today was the day. Yes, it was a very long day - Arboretum and Chuck E Cheese! I'm tired!

He had a great time as did Brendan. Although, by looking at the pictures it doesn't look like Brendan was that thrilled about it. I think he was just tired like me! Even though he took a two-hour nap and Collin didn't even take one! I guess Collin was running on adrenaline-he's been looking forward to this day all week!





We told Brendan he can have a similar reward when he starts using the potty - we'll see when that happens!

A beautiful day at the Dallas Arboretum

We took a trip to the Dallas Arboretum today and had such a great time! The weather was perfect and so was the company! The boys had a great time. They did keep asking me where the "animals" were though! I guess they thought it was supposed to be like the zoo! :)

I didn't get as many pictures as I was hoping for, because the subjects were in constant motion. They really didn't care to sit down or stand still for pictures. Imagine that!
Here is a cute one of Collin when we first got there:

This is what happened when I tried to get a picture of them together. Collin in green and Brendan in blue.



I think this picture is so cute! Collin and his girlfriend Presley.

Then Brendan got in on the fun and they were running around chasing each other and having a great time.


Brenny by the tulips.

The pirate ship - they thought this was very cool.


If you can stand the shaky camera, this is a really cute video! If you get motion sickness, you may not want to try it! I really need to work on my video-taking skills.

Potty training

Yesterday marked Day #1 of serious potty-training here in the Atok house. I got the boys all excited about their new Disney-themed underwear and the prospect of a "candy" reward for using the potty. (I know, I know, I'm a dietitian and I shouldn't use candy. But they rarely get candy so it works well as a reward.:)). Monday started out great. Both boys were using the potty and we only had one accident. I put them in diapers for their nap. The afternoon was great for Collin - he continued to do very well with no accidents. Brendan was half-heartedly trying and I was having to make him sit on the potty. He didn't have any accidents put he was definitely holding it all in until bedtime!

Today Collin has done such a great job! I reminded him about every hour to potty and he will go in, take off his own underwear and do his business! Then he likes to help me flush the toilet. No accidents today! I decided to give Brendan the choice today. I told him if he wanted to wear underwear he had to use the potty. "No way!" he told me...he didn't want to use the potty. So diapers it was for him today and he was happy as a clam. I figure that sooner or later he will want to be just like his brother and wear underwear. Until then, I will just enjoy buying and changing half the amount of diapers!

Over the weekend Collin had seen a commercial for Chuck E Cheese and kept asking Mike and I if he could go there. I have taken them there only once, like 6 months ago!! We told him no,it was closed! ;) Well, he didn't forget about it,of course and asked me again on Monday if he could go to Chuck E Cheese. So I told him that if he can use the potty this whole week that we will go to Chuck E Cheese on Friday. That will be his big reward for becoming such a big boy. He is SO excited about it!! He was kind of not wanting to use the potty tonight, so I reminded him of his Chuck E Cheese reward and he went running into the bathroom and took care of business. :) I'll have to be sure to take my camera to document the party!

Some smilies before the sickies

The stomach flu attacked the boys this week, so it's not been a great one around here! I guess it's a good time to be stuck inside though since it turned cold and rainy.

I did manage to catch a few smiles early in the week, so enjoy!

Brendan is my budding artist. He loves to color. This picture depicts exactly how serious he is about it!! He is getting really good at coloring inside the lines!


Collin only colors for short bursts of time, because he is always on the move!


And here are a couple of them just being silly. Brendan is in a stage where he doesn't like to where clothes, especially pants.

Video Tuesday

I thought I would share a few videos today that I took of the boys last week.

The first video is them (and me, sorry!) singing ring around a rosey. I thought it was funny because each time they started the song, Brendan wanted to put his arms around Collin!



The second and third videos are us playing outside on their playset. The boys had collected a few rocks around the yard and then took them up to the top of the fort. Brendan was insisting that Collin and I play a "rock" game with him. Collin wasn't too interested, so I played along. It was a little windy that day, so sorry for the extra noise in the video.

Birthdays!

The boys have decided that they love birthdays! Because there is cake involved, of course! The morning of Mandy's birthday I worked with the boys on saying "Happy Birthday!" when they see Aunt Mandy. They picked it up so well and shouted it to her as she was walking up our sidewalk. :) They were also wearing their "My Aunt ROCKS!" shirts that she gave them at Christmas-because she does ROCK!

We had a great time eating lunch and catching up with the family. Then it was time for birthday cake!


Quickly followed by presents, which the boys had a hard time understanding were not for them! They even wanted to rip open Aunt Mandy's cards.

Grandma decided it had been way too long since they had taken a picture with the boys, so the paparazzi got out their cameras!





We hope you had a great birthday Aunt Mandy! We love you a ton!! Sorry for the bad cold we gave you a few days later. Here's a funny picture to make you laugh! :)