Soccer

Mallory started school and is on the soccer team. Brian doesn't really think it counts because they only play against the other team at their school and they don't even keep score. One night he was telling her that when she's playing and the other team has the ball sometimes you have to push your way in there and get it back. She informed him that it's not nice to push and you don't put your hands on people at school! Too bad that never applies to her brother.

Poor Michael whines everyday when we drop her off that he misses her and doesn't want her to go, but then he never wants to go pick her up!

Happy Birthday Mallory! (And more)

Sunday we celebrated Mallory's 4th birthday! It's hard to believe that she's that old since I myself haven't aged a bit! She wanted an Ariel themed birthday and I made the mistake of letting her look at decorations online with me. She discovered the Ariel cake, which I decided to take on. It ended up being the most expensive birthday cake we've had in this house, considering that at 9pm on Saturday night I broke my mixer while making the buttercream frosting! But I made it through and it didn't turn out that bad. I was a little proud of myself!
She got a new "big kid" bike and lots of games which she was really excited about! She had a great time!

Fishing

Last night we took the kids up to the lake for their first fishing experience. I've never been more stressed in my life! Something about a 2 and 3 year old with fishing poles and falling into the water is very unsettling! Granted, if they had fallen in it was just off of the sea wall and into 6 inches of water, but cold and dirty water none the less! I will admit that the shear excitement of Mallory being the first to catch a fish was great! She was absolutely clueless as to what to do but I helped her real it in and she was over the moon! Not long after we caught another one and Michael was claiming it as his own!

Mallory took the trophy for the biggest "spiky" fish. If I knew anything about fish I would tell you what kind it was, but I'm fairly clueless! However, I personally caught the biggest fish of the night and I can tell you, only because Brian told me, that it was a large mouth Bass! Who would have thought. Of course since I wasn't willing to touch the fish I didn't get my photo taken with it. Just know that it was mine!

Sometimes You Have to Lie

So, potty training is really the biggest milestone that I have been dreading in a major way! I have no clue what I'm doing! The fact that I've gotten so much mixed information from books, magazines, and other parents doesn't help! Mallory has hit most milestones early so I thought that potty training would be the same. However, we have been fighting this battle for a long time now! It would usually end with a puddle on the floor and a crying meltdown begging for a diaper! (Begging by Mallory, not me!) I tried little gifts every time she would go, candy for going, blah blah blah. Then I thought maybe she just wasn't ready and began listening to everyone who was making it sound like one day she will just come to me and tell me she was done with diapers. Yeah right!
So, Monday I told a little white lie, that there weren't anymore diapers that would fit her. It's close to the truth since she was wearing size 6 and rapidly growing out of them. After a bit of a struggle, once we got the underwear on her it's been great! Two accidents the first day, one accident the second day and dry overnight, no accidents the third day and dry overnight! The kid even goes in and poops alone which she wouldn't even do in her diaper! I'm wondering why I didn't lie sooner!? I'm also wondering how to explain this later in her life should it ever come up!

Halloween!

We had quite an ardeal trying to get Mallory to decide on a costume this year. I think that in the beginning she thought that she had to be the same thing she was last year, a bumble bee. Then she changed to a butterfly princess, then a dinosaur, then a bee again! Exhausting! So we finally ended on a purple dinosaur and no, not Barney! Then there's good old Michael, who is pretty clueless and got to be whatever I chose. I got him a very cute puppy outfit with big floppy ears! About an hour before we were going to leave I tried the costume on Mallory and it fit. Great, try on Michael's, not so good! Someone had put a 6-12 month costume in an 18-24 month package! And boy was he mad that I couldn't get that thing on him! So we run to Walmart where I proceed to buy him the wrong sized costume again! I'm losing my mind! With 8 people in front of me, 1 person working customer service, and Brian and the kids in the car I gave up! I retreated to the car irate and nearly in tears! Brian took us all home and went back to get him a right sized costume and this is what we ended up with!

We got both of them dressed and ready to go and headed to the neighbor's house. They were a hit! Until Michael went running down the driveway as I tried to get them into the car and wiped out in the street scraping up his chin and bloodying his finger! He spent the rest of the night in a stroller! Better luck next year I guess!

We have a Walker!!

Taaa Daa! Finally after nearly 16 months on the planet Michael has decided to join the rest of us on two legs! He has yet to learn to watch where he's going so as not to trip over anything and everything on the floor, but maybe that's the boy in him. Well, actually Mallory was the same way, over and through it, not around it. Either way I couldn't be more proud and excited! Now I just have to get the boy to wear shoes!

Go Tincaps!!

This is the inaugural season for the new Parkview Stadium downtown and we went to a game last week with Brian's office. I have to tell you that it is awesome! I really didn't feel like I was in downtown Fort Wayne. We were part of the first sold out crowd with over 8,500 people there and Mallory had a great time! Not only did she get to indulge in a soft pretzel, popcorn, root beer, and ice cream for dinner, she played in the kids zone before the game. Of course she had to climb the rock wall, it was only 20 feet tall or so. She also tried her hand at hitting the ball which didn't go very well but she did love dancing between innings and Jake the Diamond Dog who picked up the Tincap's bats and caught frisbees. Somehow by the end of the game though she wasn't even sitting with us anymore. I kept asking her to come back to her seat but I got the hand and was told, "I'm talking to this lady!"

There was an awesome fireworks display after the game. Somehow she managed to stay awake even for the car ride home, maybe it was all the sugar! So if you're ever in town and have a chance to see a game it really was great! I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical after attending a Fort Wayne Wizards game, but they did a really nice job with the stadium and our team is going to the playoffs!