The Bratager 7

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

The long days with little ones!

A few weeks ago Eric and the big boys went off for their guys weekend. The twins and I had our own special weekend. Lets just say on the last day I answered the front door and the UPS guys was laughing. I was so tired, I completely forgot that Abby had decided to decorate me with princess stickers. By day 5 of the guys being gone I was all about survival mode with the twins! If you want to put stickers on Mom instead of paper, sounds like fun as long as I get to just lay here in the floor.

I am sure many moms remember those days. The three year old stage! Well it is definitely the three year old stage here times 2! These two precious little ones are keeping me busy. They were great this weekend. We went to Target and Krispy Kreme on the first day. Can you tell how excited Matthew is about being seen at Target with the girls. He is pretending he is off with the guys. He was smiling when he left with his new matchbox car!

The next morning I asked the twins what they would like for breakfast. Abby said muffins, Matthew always repeats Abby but that day he said he wanted Chick-fil-a! Huge step for him with his communication. Of course it was off to the chick-fil-a drive thru to grab some yummy chicken biscuits!

While Eric was away I decided to tackle potty training with Matthew. Abby was already potty trained and now that Matthews communication is improving I thought this would be a great time. And it was, he did awesome. An occasional accident but he actually was easier then Abby. Day 1 we went right to his sports underwear and he has not gone back (except nighttime, we will tackle that one later). Little steps over here!

As Eric is sending pictures of the boys off at the beach or amusement park I wanted to send him pictures of the potty. Only seems fair. I think we spent half our weekend with the twins taking turns. At one point they both wanted to go so I put one in the guest bathroom and one in mine. I just ran back and forth making sure no one was filling the toilet with tissue paper. I know, fun times!! I will say on Saturday I hit my highest record on my fitbit. Not bad for just hanging with the twins all day. Every step was either running between the bathrooms or having dance parties with my little musicians.

The rest of the weekend was filled with trying to keep these two busy. Once I would get one playing by themselves the other was right there asking what I was doing. Then they would go off and play and I would have my next little partner. Sometimes I think they plan this with each other, you go have your one-on-one time with mom, I will wait. The only time I could get them both to sit together at the same time was to eat or watch something.

It was sweet to have the entire weekend to devote to these two, no carpool, no homework just little one time. As sweet as it was it was also exhausting!

*There were a lot of questions and why not

*there were a lot of no you can not wrap your arms around your sisters neck.

*Abby,I don't think Matthew wants to go to your tea party with the princess friends.

*Please do not sit on each other

*Matthew please do not use your soccer ball to kick over Abby's blocks

*PLEASE tell mom when you need to go to the potty!!!

There also was a lot of I love you

*Can I have one more kiss and hug

*I can't wait for daddy to get home so I can hug him

On day 4 Matthew had an accident in the middle of the foyer. While I am on my hands and knees cleaning it up Abby is over here rubbing my back telling me it will be ok mom, Matthew is doing a good job potty training. Then she tells me "You are beautiful mom". This girl was born to encourage. She made sure to tell Matthew accidents happen, it is ok. An hour later I hear uh-oh. This time she is in tears and says just remember mom it was an accident. This pretty much sums up our weekend. A lot of success, some accidents. Some days I was counting the minutes to bedtime, some little ones may have even gone to bed 15 minutes early! It was exhausting but rewarding. I am loving every sweet minute with these two, I know how fast it is going to go.

The princess and soccer player heading out to eat with mom.

We did hair and painted our toe nails sparkly pink!

We took selfies to send the boys!

Back To School

How did this happened...these two are now the big men on campus. It is hard to believe this will be the last year for middle school for Joshua and elementary for Luke.

Good luck on this school year boys, you are going to do great!! We are so proud of both of you!

Joshua-8th grade

Luke- 5th grade

Monday, August 3, 2015

Twins Doctor and Dentist Visit

The twins had their three year old check-up and first dentist visit this month.

The check-up went great! We had been talking to them about visiting Dr. Ryan. They both were very excited and did much better then we thought. They sat on the table and did everything they were asked. After the nurse left and while we waited for the doctor those two just jumped all around the room. I had my bag packed ready to go with distractions and incentives (M&Ms and a new toy) just in case. Thankfully we did not have to pull out anything. It also helped that we were the first appointment after lunch, no waiting!!

The dentist visit, well that is a completely different story! I had the boys in the week before and told them how shy Matthew was. I told him all about the difficulties we are having getting him to go to other adults. The dentist said he would take Matthew and Abby went with the hygienist. Of course Matthew was perfect! Eric sat with him and just smiled at me. I am on the other side of the room with Miss Hysterical. She cried the entire time! Eric made a comment that I needed to get my child under control. Real funny! This girl was not happy at all. She only stopped crying when it was time to pick out her sticker. On the way out she thanked everyone and told them this was fun. I was glad she used her manners but REALLY, not sure what fun she was having!

Sunday, August 2, 2015

Summer Fun- friends

Every break the boys try to get together with some of the their friends. I told the boys we would pick one day to have all the boys over. Luke's track out buddies were gone to over night camp and the beach that day but we still had Joshua's friends over. It was a day full of ping pong, eating out at Moe's, movies, kickball, and water balloon fights. Perfect summer fun!

July Update

I have to say I am sad to see July go, I loved having all the boys off at the same time. We had a nice break from soccer. We had lazy days. The guys had their weekend away. It was great to enjoy the long days of summer.

We started off July celebrating the 4th in the mountains.