5 weeks is a long time

wow it has been 5 weeks already since i wrote about the hell that is potty training my son

well for some reason unlike most kids he would not let me completely give up for a time
he would suddenly start telling me when he had to pee
he would wake up dry
he would refuse to wear a diaper or pull up
sooo frustrating cause he didn't always tell me when he had to pee
and never, NEVER told me when he had to poop
thought i was going to loose my mind

then about a week and a half ago i went to toys r us to pick up some baby stuff that was on sale that i needed i went and picked up a pack of diapers also
his response was 'those mine??'
i said 'no those are for the baby. only babies wear diapers, big boys wear underwear and poop on the potty'
'oh' he says
i asked him if he was a big boy and he said yes so i told him he had to poop on the potty
so he did
only on the small potty for the first couple days
oh i should mention that i was still bribing him with hot wheels cars at this point
then this last saturday he decided that only the big potty would due
he has been dry for over a week now
dry about half of those nights
and i still here wondering why i didn't by baby stuff sooner.....like before his 3rd birthday
oh well i think this was just the right time

potty training

how i hate thee
zandria didn't catch on until a month before she turned 3
not by me not trying
i tried every couple of months since i thought she was ready shortly after she was 2
she just wouldn't tell me when she had to go, she would go when taken but would not tell us
soooo frustrating
then we decided that it was time to get her to poop on the potty, even if it took all day sitting on the potty.....well that is what it took
she pooped and then she was done, other than the very very rare accident
i thought she was difficult
NO.
elias is difficult
we have been trying off and on since he was 2....same as zandria
he refused.....most kids say no i can't or no i don't want to.....nope he says nnoooo i won't ....NO I WON'T.
what
kid seriously do you have to be sooo stubborn....honest but stubborn
again i tried every couple of months or so
nope no luck
then we decided no more diapers...pull ups or underwear.
after like 3 days of mess all over my house...mostly the bathroom we insisted he just wear the pull ups and we go on his cue.
side note about the bathroom thing.....for 3 days he wore underwear cause he wanted to most of the time but he wouldn't tell us soo i would send him to wash his hand for any reason and he would pee all over the stool and the floor....a little frustrating....it took me 2 days to realize that the running water was making him pee. so i had to convince him to go pee before he washed his hands at any point. hilarious.
anyway nothing clued in with him.
so we tried bribing him.....nope
so i tried what my aunt suggested.........i let him pick out underwear and buy it put it on him and if he poops in it he has to throw it out.
well he picked a pack of plain ones and a pack of mc queen and a pack of elmo ones.
the first time i threw away a mc queen one and he didn't clue in.
the second and third time was just plain ones soo it was whatever to him
then yesterday was the fourth time
he was wearing elmo
we spent the weekend with one of his friends that is a bit younger than him and this little boy peed on the potty all the time,
so elias decided he would do that too.
yesterday there were no pee messes, but he decided he needed to poop and didn't tell me.
yup cleaned him up with a shower(he hates showers)
got him to put elmo in the garbage
he came back inside and said he was very sad.
i proceeded to let him know that i was frustrated and that if he would poop on the potty instead of his underwear then he wouldn't be sad , i wouldn't be frustrated, i wouldn't have to give him a shower and he would get chocolate....the kids loves chocolate.
we put a pull up on for bed.
today he insisted on underwear
we went to a friends house, to the mall and home
no messes
bath time at 7 and still no messes and he told me when he had to go....but he didn't poop
bed time and he didn't want his pull up on....ummm it is bed time
ok
i pull out the water proof sheet and let him wear what he wants....just a little nervous to wake up to poop
he didn't do that today you know
he turns 3 on Thursday....i just wanted to get him trained before he turned 3
oh the humour
yeah
i still hate potty training
hope this third one isn't harder than the other 2

over half way

yup... half way there.

i had my just over 18 week ultra sound the other week

it was interesting seeing as the other 2 kids came and Jeremy

also this is the first ultra sound that i have had in a different clinic.....it was different

i didn't have to hold my bladder or worry about that at all...it was great

so i lay down and try not to lay flat cause that makes me want to puke

the technician complained about that but hey do you want me to puke all over your equipment

then she got me to half undress assuming that she would need the skin to move around on

well that wasn't needed

it made it worse that she spread the goop all over my abdomen too

she put the wand on my belly and didn't move it more than an inch in any other direction

she got a view of everything that she needed

heart, arms, legs, kidneys, lungs, brain, head....everything

she said to me at least 4 times...."can you not feel it move"

she couldn't believe i couldn't feel it, but i couldn't really feel it at all

oh well

she took a lot of pictures and a lot of them turned out better then the one she gave us

but her aim was to give us one that was the whole baby

not a great picture since in never stopped moving

i made a comment "reminds me of my first pregnancy"

she then asked "so i have always wondered are they that active when they come out?"

i just said "has she sat still for a minute while we have been here"

she said "ok that answers my question"

oh joy another one

So now it is just over two weeks later

i am just over 20 weeks

i am about a week over the half way mark seeing as i am having a planned c section at around 39 weeks(earlier if i can convince her)

that movement that i didn't feel at the ultra sound is getting to be a lot more...um......there

oh yeah and the ultra sound showed that it is also breech

so far i don't think it has turned

still feel most movement just above my pelvic bone

my bladder is feeling like a trampoline

i have to pee suddenly and often

at first Zandria said it was a girl and Elias said it was a boy

in the last week Zandria has changed her mind

it is now a boy

we will see

It's True....

so

if you are a friend of mine on facebook you know this already...

but i didn't fully believe it myself

almost a full six or more weeks ago i announced on facebook that i was expecting again

i was only 9 weeks

ONLY 9 WEEKS

if you know me i don't tell people until after 12 weeks or later

we had a family wedding

had a really really cute dress to wear that still looked good and fit pretty good(especially in the chest....lol...)

Jer had me try it on

he laughed

claimed it wasn't because i looked like a fat clown

but because he said there was no way anyone would not notice the belly

what I am only 9 weeks

so we had to tell people figured family should know before they just see me

a week after the wedding i had an ultra sound to see dates and if there was only one

there is only one and my dates are dead on

I was a little disappointed....i really wanted twins, but God has granted me with my 3rd miracle

I still didn't fully believe that some one really lived in my belly right then....she didn't let me hear the heart beat, just see it. that ultra sound was when i was 10 weeks.

this past friday i had my 15 week check up

i heard it!!!

it is true!!!

a heart beat of 155

i am pregnant and am having a baby

due jan. 5th but will have a c-section before the new year

zandria is very excited, but will only love it if it is a girl.....we are working on that

elias is excited and tells me my belly is chubby, and that there is a baby in there....oh and that it is a boy....

we will see.

but yes it is true next year we will be a family of 5. :)

Untiitled.........help.

so i have a lot of ideas in my head for what to title this post with

sooo hard to choose one soooo i am leaving it up to you

help me title this

so jer came home on thursday and says to me.....hey you want to go camping

i say hey sure...we have everything we need but the right food

so on friday while he is cutting down some of the branches off the trees in the front yard i am packing the van with all the supplies

while he brings the branches to compost i got grocery shopping

we have some great lunch of eggs and toast

after lunch we take off for a camp ground at a lake about an hour and half away

of course not leaving until my motion sickness child gets his meds

we get to the town just out side of the lake and notice some really dark(as in black) clouds

jer tells me to check weather on my phone

turns out calls for 70% chance of thunderstorms and a tornado warning

OK not camping there

now where to go

well away from the clouds

so we keep going in a different direction

we come along to this town and i am hey there is a camp site really close by here

so that is where we decided to go

but we turn down a wrong road for a while sooo that was more driving

finally we got on the right track

got to the campground

it was lightly raining but no black clouds and just a forecast of light rain

we got a really good site, close to the beach and bathrooms.....it was great to finally be there

we start set up....not a lot of stuff considering we were only staying for one night

we pull out chairs, BBQ, and tent

pick a spot for the tent

took a time out for bug spray

spread out the tent and got ready to put the poles in

one pole broken

POLE BROKEN

what do we do...even tape may not have worked

it took jer another 10 mins staring at it to come to the point of it was really broken

what we do?

look at each other

decide to go to the beach a bit(we promised the kids after all)

pack up

go to PA and try to go have supper and a movie in PA

the kids played at the beach and in the water for about an hour or more

they loved it

we packed up everything but the tent(it is in a garbage bin) and changed the kids and were off

oh but we took a shot at getting our camping fees back.....yup sure did but not park fees which makes sense

we snacked on the way(i went grocery shopping after all)

stopped to see if cars 2 was sold out and it was

stopped at mc donalds for a small snack/ supper

and to home we went.

friday we spent more time in the van then not almost.

it was a gong show, but at least we now know that our tent is shot and we need a new one

and at least we weren't with other people that we would have to ditch

i do have pictures but i misplaced my camera recently :(

they will come as soon as i find it

Travel in Africa

Ok Sorry it has taken so long to get this all done. I do have two small kids and a lot going on. I also miss Africa and sometimes that makes me not want to write about it....don't know if that makes sense.

This is a travel post. We did a lot of travelling in our van within 3 countries. Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana.

In our travels we came to a lot of different things. Like there are some VERY nice roads and then there are some VERY bad roads. We also found out that Zambia now has radar....who knew.

We saw a lot of things we expected to see but we also saw a lot that we didn't expect.

We saw a lot of people on bikes and walking. We saw a lot of road side stands.

This was one that we saw going from Lusaka to Ndola....we actually stopped here to pick up a watermelon. We gave it to a family that we visited...which we found out later that the lady of the house didn't like watermelon....lol. Opps.

This is a furniture store in Ndola. Yup outside. Some of them had tarps laying close by for the sudden rain.

In this pic you can see the sign to our guest house that we stayed at in Ndola....we drove by this lady and her roasted corn stand at least 2 or 3 times a day. I wanted to try it but found out that it is not sweet corn like we have here....sooo yeah no thanks.

As we were driving somewhere, can't even remember where, but we saw this truck. My dad moves houses and both Jeremy and I have driven a pilot truck with a wide load sign on it. I had to get this picture.

Can anyone guess what this is????

Yup you guessed right. A tire shop. Some have a sign, others just has a pile of tires. So look like they move location daily, others have half buried tires as a boundary around them.

I saw this truck full of people and by this time it had not been the first one, but this time they were all singing and making noise. Jer's parents said that it must be a funeral procession. Singing and wailing in morning.....wow they were loud....my feelings were very mixed.

Haha we saw a lot of women carrying stuff on their heads....sooo cool....but this is a picture of two guys that both have something on their heads....never thought I would see it but I did.

A full truck

Lots of fruit stand on the side.

Veggies too.

Jer got his drivers for emergency just in case...but he took up the offer to drive for a little bit anyway. It was a ridiculously bumpy pot holey road. I think I may have almost hit my head and Jers mom was sitting in the back just about getting car sick. Glad he did it tho.

Can you guess this one???

Sure you can, its a car wash. This was actually a pretty nice one. They can range from just a couple of buckets of water and soaps and some guys to a tin covered area to park with a nice wooden sign. This one is in the middle sign written on the cement and there is more than one guy.

This at a border crossing. Baboons are everywhere.

I used the bathroom once at a border crossing. The THEE most disgusting bathroom I have ever used.

Another furniture store....this time no tarps.

Ok so these goats had no one looking after them.....but they stayed in a pack and stayed off the road....it was soo crazy to see them.

A close up of a women with a HUGE basket on her head.

The main goal in this picture was to show you how they carry their kids until they are like 2. But it is really a pretty good picture of some of the huts that they live in in rural villages. Oh and do you see what the mom and baby are wearing ....it is like 20 C ....that is what it is right now and my kids are wearing tank tops and shorts.

These are charcoal bundles. They had them sitting here to sell. We saw people walking and riding bikes with them....we even saw a guy on his bike with like 4 or 5 bundles some how attached to his bike....it was crazy.

Cattle truck.

car wash

plowing the field.

Tallest building in Zambia.

Some other info that is interesting

-when stopped by the police you get out of the car to talk to them other wise you get in trouble.

-there are no emission standards.

-we would NEVER buy a used vehicle there.

- I thought it was rude to take a picture of the guys that sell things on the street....literally at a stop light walking between cars....we closed our windows then.

This is an experience I will never forget. I know that I have probably missed adding a bunch of stuff I wanted to add, but oh well.

Victoria Falls Part 2

***I accidentally put all these pictures in the opposite order than I wanted to....opps. ***

So this is a flat spot on the Zambia side of the falls where you can see where the water flows over the falls. Really cool to see. Love the mist coming up.

From where we were standing we had a good view of both bridges. The smaller on is called the knife edge bridge. The further on is the bigger one that Jer did bungi off of. The mist on the knife edge bridge was pretty moist. Jer said the last time he was here you walked off that bridge soaked all the way through. Sooo cool.

Soo many more rainbows on the Zambia side....Zandria loves the pictures of the rainbows. (We took lots.)

So big and beautiful

This is from the knife edge bridge...from the edge of it and my camera still got a little wet.

Love the guard rail hey....haha.

Knife edge bridge. I don't have picture to show it, but the rock under it kind of comes to a point kind of like a knife edge....hence the name.

These guys were on the path that was around the falls. They would not move. They were grooming each other, would look up and get a bit cranky that we were there, but would not move still. They were soo cute tho.