Yikes! It's the middle of July already!

It's possible that I'll have to refrain from making fun of how much time there was between Jason's posts on the old blog (www.15westbellamy.com/family) as I haven't done a new post since May. It's possible that I should refrain, but let's be honest, it's me, I'm not going to refrain from making fun of Jason about that or anything else.


My only excuse is that between heading to the beach every chance available and work, there hasn't been a lot of time to sit in front of the computer to write a blog entry. Well, if I wanted to stop doing silly things like feeding the kids and getting them dressed, then yes, I'd have time to write blog entries. If someone had told me five years ago that getting two small children dressed on a daily basis would be one of the most challenging, time-consuming tasks I'd ever face I would have laughed and then quietly mocked them to someone else. Honestly, I'll wrestle the clothing onto one child (yes, wrestle) and then turn to tackle and clothe the next child. By the time the second one has clothing on, the first child is now stark-naked and I get to redress that child. Typically the stark-naked child is Bree. We're averaging about three nights a week with dinner preparation interupted by Bree streaking through the kitchen naked giggling like a maniac. Anyway, here's a rare shot of her with clothing on. She's also wearing some foam sticky things. The girl does love to accessorize.

And in other news...

NICK IS POTTY TRAINED!!!

We're still having "accidents" but they're get fewer and farther in between. Now that I've written this, he will have nothing but accideents for the next three weeks. Sigh.

Hope your summer is going well!

xoxo

Deb

How Poppop spends his beach weekends

With Bree on one side and Daisy on the other.

xoxo

Deb

Wow.

I really have no words of explanation or description. Just going to let the picture speak for itself.

xoxo

Deb

Parks & Wreck

It's been a busy couple of months for Chaos & Mayhem. We've had holidays (Happy Easter!), birthday parties (Happy Birthday to cousin Alex, Nana, Finley, Justin, Nick and Taryn) and several trips to local parks, specifically Bellvue State Park and Paper Mill Park.

Our two trips to Bellvue State Park included the Autism Walk (Go Team T-Dog!) in April and most recently for our friend Taryn's second birthday. The kids recognized the park from the Autism walk as soon as we pulled into the parking lot. They can't remember to tell me about needing to go to the bathroom, but they can remember a parking lot from almost a month ago. Yup, that's the legendary Tokarski memory skills at work there.

Taryn's party was very low-key and relaxing, just what this portion of the Tokarski clan needed. Jason taught Bree the finer points of horseshoes and prepped her for the summer season by spending a fair amount of time shoeless in the sand on the volleyball court, much to the chagrin of the people actually trying to play volleyball. Nick, meanwhile, spent the afternoon following after Justin, his godfather Mike's son. They climbed trees, kicked balls and spent a fair amount of time trying to convince Mike to let them go fishing, despite not having fishing rods, line or bait. Kim, if you're reading this, Mike said "No" and at no point did it seem like they were going to dangle Nick in the water in place of a fishing rod.


Our next trip to the park was to one of my personal favorites, Paper Mill Park
in Newark. Nick's pre-school hosted a family field-trip which meant that the teachers, for once, got to serenely walk around chatting with the parents as the parents scrambled after the kids, trying to stop them from killing themselves and each other. After having watched the teachers with the kids in the playground at school, I can say that Nick's teachers earned their morning of serenity. The school also tricked Jungle John into bringing several of his critters to amaze and entertain our own little critters. The snakes, the turtle, the ginormous icky frog and the alligator were big hits. I swear the alligator kept looking at the adults in his/her audience and was thinking "please, God, help me" as he (or she) was overenthusiastically patted by dozens of sweaty, sticky, dirty hands. And in case Daisy ever becomes lonely and decides that she needs company (and I lose what's left of my tiny mind) and we add another pet to Tokarski household, Chaos & Mayhem discovered an animal that's big enough for them to share. The catch here is that it's a python.

xoxo
Deb

Potty training. Still.

As many of you know, potty training at the Tokarski home isn't progressing well. To be honest, it's not progressing at all. I mean, Jason and I pretty much have it figured out, but Chaos and Mayhem are simply not interested. They both generally politely but firmly refuse to use the toilet and prefer diapers. And fighting over who gets to wear the potty seat as a hat. As Mayhem is approaching his fourth birthday, I'm beyond tired of diapers. I hate diapers. Hate! Hate! Hate! Them. My dear friend (and boss) Donna has recommended waiting for warmer weather, stripping them both naked and letting them loose in the backyard, arming myself with a bowl of treats, a potty and let them figure it out themselves. I'm not ruling that idea out. We've tried everything else. In the meantime, Jason and I took some pictures of the potty training attempts and would appreciate any suggestions as to what we're doing wrong.

xoxo
Deb

Playhouse Tokarski

After three years of relentless nagging from me, Jason finally gave in and we purchased a playhouse for Chaos and Mayhem. Here's Jason putting it together:

And this is how the kids spent the afternoon once the house was assembled:

xoxo

Deb

Worn out with Winter

Between the snow and the cold, cold temps, Chaos and Mayhem are completely over this season. Until this past few days of 50 degree+ weather, I couldn't get them out of the house. To the right is the reaction when I suggested going outside and playing in the snow. If I recall correctly, I think Nick actually stuck his tongue out and blew me a raspberry when I suggested venturing outdoors. In their defense, the snow actually was over Bree's head for a good portion of February.

In my attempts to find new (and inexpensive) ways to occupy them indoors, we purchased some dreadful little creatures called "Zhu Zhu" pets. Basically, they're mechanical hampsters. I don't care how ridiculous these things are, I don't have to feed them or clean up after them. Bree's :"Zhu Zhu" is pink (of course) and white named Jilly. Nick's "Zhu Zhu"goes by Skoodles and is brown and white. According to Nick, both Jilly and Skoodles are lonely and need more friends. Personally, I think the damn things can keep each other company, but what do I know? I did break down and help build houses for them. I tried to explain that they were battery-operated and really didn't need a built-to-size house each, but I got out-voted. Again. That's becoming a theme these days...

xoxo

Deb