Public Restroom

As I mentioned yesterday, I am finally 100% committed to potty training Carter.  There is no going back now.

We had a huge success today with TWO successful trips to public restrooms!  This was the first time Carter has ever peed on a potty outside of our house.

We ran errands for a couple of hours this afternoon.  While in Target, Carter announced to me that he had to go potty.  We hustled over to the family restroom, opened up his portable potty seat to put on the toilet, and he peed.

So, I know we need to not have to have the portable potty seat.  But it gives Carter a little more security right now and it seems so much cleaner than him sitting on the seat.

While eating dinner at McDougals with Brian, Carter said he had to potty.  I took him to the restroom and he did great again.  About half way back to our table, he yelled out, "Daddy, I go pee!"  I'm sure everyone enjoyed hearing that!

Summer Reading

Almost every library (and some stores) have summer reading programs.  When kids finish reading (or being read to) a certain number of books, they usually get a free book or some other prize.

We've started a couple of programs already.  One is with Pottery Barn Kids.  I think the kids have to read 47 books (they have to color in a book on the sheet provided for each one read).  For the Nashville Public Library, they have to complete 5 activities (including reading 2 hours, attending a library program, making a craft or recipe from a book, etc).  To track the "Read 2 Hours", I made reading charts for the kids.  I figured 30 books would equal about 2 hours of reading.  Now the boys get to put a sticker on the chart for each book we read.

Carter is obsessed with his and would have finished his chart if I didn't make him take a nap instead.

Rylan is a little behind.  He's been listening to about a page and then wondering off to play.  He's managed to listen to a few books though.  He's usually better if I read to him alone without Carter around.

We'll also be doing the Williamson County Library and Brentwood Library programs once we pick up the packets at the libraries.  I feel like we do a pretty good job with reading to the kids, but anything that encourages more reading is helpful!

Irrigation System

Our irrigation system installation began yesterday.  Our contractor and two of his employees worked a half day yesterday planning out the zones and installing the sprinklers in one of the front beds.  They showed up this morning with a small bulldozer-looking vehicle (which will be used for our hardscape) and a trencher.

This is what the trencher can do ...

And this is what it looks like after the pipes and sprinkler heads have been installed ...

This evening, after the contractor and workers left, we let the boys get into the bulldozer.

I don't have to be around while all this is going on, but I decided that this would be a good time to officially potty train Carter.  He does well at home when we are here a lot, but I like to get the boys out and do so much that we kept falling back to using diapers all the time.  And Carter absolutely refused to use the mini-toilet at PDO when he wore pullups.

So we are only using diapers at nap and bedtime.  We went out this afternoon for the first time without a diaper to do some grocery shopping.  Carter did great (though he didn't try to use a public restroom - he just held it until we got home).  Carter had one accident first thing yesterday but hasn't had any since.  He's mainly using the potty chair but has used his potty seat on the toilet a few times.  My next step will be to take away the potty chair because I think that using this is what has held him back from using public toilets.  Hopefully things continue to go well!

Memorial Day

We had a great Memorial Day and got to do some very "Memorial Day-ish" things.

Brian needed to get some work done so I did a little shopping with the boys to get some Memorial Day sales.  Then the three of us went over to Lauren's neighborhood pool to go swimming with Sophie (Carter's preschool twin).

After a couple of hours of swimming, we had some lunch before heading home for naps.

While the boys napped, Brian and I got the grass cut and did our Insanity workout.

Then we needed over to Missy's house to grill out.  It was so hot that we played and ate inside.

Luke thoroughly enjoyed his after-dinner cookie!

Carter made this expression and asked me to take his picture - silly boy!

After dinner we braved the heat and went outside to let the boys play.  Will got this cool Jeep for his birthday and Carter loved driving it.  He had a little trouble controlling it and ran into the playset once and took out Brian once.  Other than that, no one got hurt.

Will has a lot more control but he is fast and doesn't slow down for corners!

Cheeks Bend Bluff View Trail

We got this book a few months ago ...

And finally got around to trying out one of the hikes this morning.  We went south on I-65 about 20 miles to the Duck River Complex State Natural Area to hike the Cheeks Bend Bluff View Trail.

 

Rylan was in our old Kelty carrier ...

And Carter started off in the new one we got from Brian's parents for Christmas.

The weight limit on the packs is 50 lbs and Carter is only 32-33 lbs so even though he looks a little big for the carrier, it's much easier than holding him when he gets tired of walking.

The trail started off rolling through the woods on a normal trail.  We found this little skeleton on the trail.  We have no idea what it was.

The trail got progressively more rocky.

And then opened up along a bluff looking down on the Duck River.

I asked Carter to take Rylan and my picture while Brian was checking out the trail map, and he took this great shot!

The main thing that drew us to this hike was the description of a cave along the trail.  Just off the trail, on the non-bluff side, there is a cave that goes under the bluff.

Brian went to the entrance to check it out.  Carter did NOT want to go in though. 

We took the kids out of the carriers and Brian went in a little ways to check it out.  We forgot a flashlight so I went in next by myself with my camera to use the flash to check out the footing between the entrances (you can see light from either side of the cave for all but several yards in the middle).  I was midway in when a loud noise at the other end of the cave sent me flying back up to Brian and the kids.  I think a large bird (which we saw flying a few seconds later) had knocked down a large rock at the exit of the cave (at least that's what we told ourselves).

We decided to venture down and luckily neither kid gave us much protest.

You can stand upright the whole time except at a point several yards in where you have only about 4 feet for a couple of yards.

Near the bottom there are a few smaller passages entering the main cave.

The cave weaves back and forth at the end.

I carried Rylan through the cave but Carter walked with Brian.  Here they are exiting the cave ...

And walking out a little ways to see the river.  (This is to the right of the cave exit.)

Carter posed for a good picture ...

And then I tried to put Rylan up next to him and didn't realize at all that Rylan was holding a stick.  It stabbed Carter in the face just a centimeter (luckily) from his eye.  He cried a bit but was happy to have Brian come sit with him.  And I was able to get a picture of all the boys.

Here is Carter to the left of the cave exit.

After exploring for several minutes, we headed back up through the cave.

Brian had the rear heading up and he heard something this time up one of the side passages so we hustled the kids up to the top (while trying not to scare them!).

After a water break and snack (it was early but already approaching 90F), we continued on the "lollipop" shaped trail.  The cave entrance was about a third of the way around the loop of the lollipop.

Carter wanted to walk now so he led the way for awhile.

We didn't make it very far though before the trail got a bit overgrown and we started seeing a lot of poison ivy growing over into the trail.  We decided at this point to backtrack instead of continuing the loop.  We also were picking up ticks walking through the plants (Brian found one on him and one on Carter).

Brian put Carter in the carrier at this point too to make sure he didn't walk through any poison ivy.  About half way back, Rylan passed out.

The trail was about 2 miles long and we only saw one other couple the whole time we were out there.  The hike was only about 30 minutes from our house and I highly recommend it to see the awesome cave.

Saturday Morning

Brian has been super busy at work lately and he needed to catch up on some stuff this morning.  So I got the boys out of the house once he got up so that he could actually get some work done.

First we went to the Franklin Farmer's Market at The Factory.  It's not a very big market but we looked around at all the fresh fruit and vegetables to see what we wanted to buy.

We ended up with strawberries (Carter's choice) and green beans (my choice).

Carter also saw the muffins and asked for one so sweetly that I couldn't say no.  We found an open spot at the picnic tables in the shade and ate the muffin while listening to a guy play a guitar.

The blueberries in this thing were monstrous.  

Our next stop was Lowe's for the Build and Grow Workshop.  This week's project was an ice cream truck.

Getting all set up ...

The boys did awesome for me.  I'd do one step with Carter and then do that step with Rylan.  They both sat so patiently while I was working with the other one.

Rylan did so good building today too.  He hammered in the first 10 nails completely on his own.

I'm still thinking Rylan may be left handed.  He goes back and forth, but he does use his left hand more.

The finished products (I have no idea while the boys put them on their heads) ...

As we were walking out, I caught Rylan licking the paper ice cream cone that goes on top of the truck!

For each project the boys build, they get a patch for their aprons.  Carter's is starting to fill up.

And Rylan is staring to collect a few patches of his own.

After the Build and Grow Workshop, I took the boys to Cheekwood to see the treehouse (which I posted about here).