Happy Easter

We arrived home from Florida just in time to celebrate Easter with our families. We found easter eggs and what the Easter bunny left at home then headed to church and to Grammy and Papa's. Jeff's parents even joined us at Grammy and Papa's this year. THe Easter bunny made a stop at my parents also, leaving the kids more goodies and an outdoor egg hunt.

Florida 2012

Over Spring Break my sister in law and I decided to drive with the kids to Florida. She has a good friend there that was letting us stay with them, and we want warm weather and the beach, so we went. We left a 9:00 pm and drove straight thru!!! The kids were amazing, never complaining and entertaining themselves the whole way. They slept through the night and when they woke we were in Chattanooga Tennessee. We stopped at Lookout Mountain and rode the incline railway to the top. This got us out of the car for awhile and got some energy out of Luca. At 9:00pm; exactly 24 hours later, we arrived at Kate and Steve's house. We stayed for the week, hitting up Honeymoon Island beaches twice, Clearwater Beach, and Busch Gardens. The weather was perfect and Carmen's friends were great host and so kind to let us stay with them. Luca had a blast he loved the beach and went on his first roller coaster that he can't stop talking about!

2 1/2

Luca was two and a half on January 30th. I took some pics of him around this time that I feel really capture his personality!

At 2 1/2....
Luca is as WILD as can be, he can't sit still for the life of him!
Loves school, playing with friends, Lightening Mcqueen, trucks, dogs,coloring,and Team Umizoomie
Can count to 10 correctly and names number up to 20, can name every letter and sound, knows his colors and shapes!
Is fighting me everyday to take a nap.
Is increasing is vocabulary everyday, and makes me laugh at the things he comes up with.
Has been fully potty trained for a while know.
I can see his Dads OCD coming out in him BIG TIME! (for example: dirty fingers make him crazy, things must be in there exact spot, I gave him a cookie with a tiny piece broke off of it, and he needed a different one, I broke him off a piece of chocolate from a candy bar and it wasn't perfectly straight, it was the end of the world!)
Favorite foods include Broccoli, beans,cheeseburgers and fries,and popcorn, but the kid will eat ANYTHING!

Happy Birthday Jeff!

Yes, It's been over a month since Jeff's Birthday....

We spent Jeff's 34th Birthday with donuts with candles in them in the morning, a shopping trip to fox valley, cake and Ice cream with our parents, and dinner at Uptown with great friends. I tried to take pictures but Jeff really isn't a fan! I was told "I'm not a child, I don't need a camera in my face opening presents or blowing out candles!" But I did catch a few!


Happy Birthday Jeff! Hope it's a great year. We love you!

Potty Trained!!

I don't want to speak too soon but I believe Luca is potty trained!!! We started Tuesday Morning. I was waiting for all the Holiday craziness to be over, he showed interest so we did it!

Day 1- First thing in the morning we put on big boy undies. We talked about what to do A LOT. We printed a cool train sticker chart and had skittles for treats in the bathroom. Luca just kept saying to me, 'No pee pee on the floor, in the potty." Every once in awhile I would make him sit on the potty and nothing. He did not have any accidents either. He was holding it. I knew he had to go since he was drinking tons. But nothing. At nap time I put a diaper on him and he let it all go. After nap it was back in big boy pants and he held it all the way until bedtime when he had a diaper on again. I was a little unsure, yeah he had No accidents, but holding wasn't good either.

Day 2- First thing he picked out his underwear. We went to get the mail and the cold air must have hit him and he said, "I go pee pee." We ran to the potty and once he realized he got all kinds of cheers, a sticker ,and a skittle it clicked! He was so proud of himself. He went several times in the potty and was accident free all morning! Nap time came and we put on a pull up, he stayed dry throughout nap time too. All afternoon and evening he went on the potty and no accidents he even pooped in the potty. Bedtime, a pull-up and when he woke up the next boring he was completely dry.

Day 3 I was a little shocked at how well this was going. But this day was the test. He had school. School is only for one hour but we hadn't left the house yet. And the drive to Peru is about 25 minutes also. I put a pull up on just because I didn't think he had been doing the training long enough. He stayed dry for the whole car ride and at school. Went in the potty at the Y, stayed dry while we went out to lunch and to the grocery store, came home peed and pooped on the potty the rest of the day. No accidents yet!!!1 Can it be this easy???

We are on day 4, he woke up dry again. He loves picking out his own big boy pants to wear. I don't even have to ask him if he has to go, he tells us. Today we went outside for a walk and to the park with no problems. I can't believe how well it is going and that he has not had ONE accident. I know I am problem cursing myself, and I know there will eventually be one. But I am SO PROUD of my baby! He is so excited because once his sticker chart is full he gets to go pick out a present! Way to go Luca!!!

I am not my any means trying to brag and say how great Luca or I am. I truly believe he was just ready!