Newest Brew Crew Member

Cole is officially a Brewer's fan. Actually, I don't know what makes you an official fan, but he went to his first game on Sunday. It was a pretty exciting game, but sadly the Brewers lost, 5 to 4, to the Pirates. Certainly not their first loss, even to the Pirates, so I guess we can't blame Cole.

	Final		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		R		H		E
	Pittsburgh	0	1	3	0	0	1	0	0	0	5	10	1
	Milwaukee	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	1	0	4	10	1

WP: W. Rodriguez (6-2) S: J. Grilli (20) LP: Y. Gallardo (3-5)

I didn't get to see a ton of the game. Potty training Cole the weekend before was not the best timing. I was very scared he would piss and shit all over Miller Park and I would have to run out of there in a panic. Luckily that did not happen. Cole did like going to the potty though...not sure why. We probably made over 10 trips throughout the game and Cole only actually went potty twice. After returning to our seats from the bathroom it typically took Cole about 4 minutes to say once again, "I have to go potty." The people around us found this very amusing. I knew he was probably lying, but I didn't want to take any chances. This obviously got very tiring and I finally had to tell Cole that we would leave if he kept faking potty time. He started to do much better later in the game.

Other than the multiple trips to the bathroom, Cole was great at the game and we had a lot of fun. Cole had lots to eat (I had some/most of everything) including a hot dog, soft pretzel, cheese fries in a helmet, a bag of cookies from Mary, the nice lady behind us, an apple sauce squeeze, a 2nd bag of cookies and a peanut butter cracker thing. He got hungry for dinner around the 8th inning, but we made it through and stayed for the entire 3 hour 27 minute ball game.

After spending all our money on food, I gave myself props for picking Ryan Braun bobblehead day, which saved me from having to spend money on some stupid souvenir. He also saved his cheese fries helmet and got a "first game" certificate (see pic below).

Getting ready to go in his new Brewer shirt. He initially wanted to wear his green Packers shirt, but  thankfully he forgot about that by the time we got ready for the game.

Muffins with Mom

Around Mother's Day Cole had a Muffins with Mom event at school. Grandpa Gregg came over to watch Hen so Cole and I could go have some fun together at his school. I had my fingers crossed that this would go better than his Christmas field trip/program...he loves muffins so I at least had that working for me. We played with friends, did an art project, and of course ate muffins and fruit. The kids did some singing and story telling and then gave the Moms their big secret presents they had been working on all week.  It was a very sweet morning.

Luckily I didn't have a mouth full of muffin for this pic, it would not have been as cute

The not sweet part of the morning happened when 2 teachers and a few Moms did double takes when they saw me. One Mom said she didn't even recognize me...I can only imagine that is because on this particular morning I had on nice clothes, makeup and my hair was not in a messy knot. Not to worry, since then I have made strides to improve my preschool drop-off appearance. Hint taken!

Success!

As we all know, Kristin attempted potty training with Cole and failed. It was not very surprising and is just another failure on her laundry list of failures. I'm sure you are wondering what was different this time and how was she able to do it after failing so miserably previously. Well, she didn't. I, of course, had to take over this weekend and get Cole to become a big boy and use the potty. I am proud to say it was a success. And if there was any debate about our parenting skills, I believe it is settled and I am clearly the better parent.

Actually I did get some help. Kristin was gone most of the weekend, but she was home in the mornings and late afternoons/evenings. I also had my mom and Aunt Jess come over on Saturday and my parents and Grandma Dorothy came over on Sunday.

At first I attempted to potty train both Cole and Henry at the same time. This was a little ambitious. It became way too much work and too much pee to cleanup. One of them would have an accident and it was too difficult to cleanup the mess, while keeping two kids and a dog from hopping around in it. Henry also started to really fight the undies, so he was back in diapers before lunch.


Poor Bella has an anal gland infection, which looked even worse than it sounds.

Pushing the fluids

I thought Cole's standard outfit over the weekend of just a shirt and undies was very odd, but he certainly took it up a notch by throwing on his boots.

Cole pushed Henry on the concrete and he scraped his knuckles pretty good.

We bought Cole a scooter for his potty training success.

Kristin thought it would be good practice for wearing a helmet. Not only did he skip the helmet, he also skipped pants.

This was Cole's trick. 

It took him a good 3 minutes to complete. 

After a successful landing he declared "big boys are brave!"

Happy Henry - 3 snack cups!

Now that's how you teach a kid to take a shit. He'll be out in 20 minutes.

Cole has been doing great and with the exception of an accident at school on Monday (pee and poop, sorry Mrs. Piller!) he has been making it to the bathroom independently and without reminders. So I'm calling it done. Next, I will attempt to eliminate all crying and whining.

Firehouse Engine 3

Cole's latest field trip venture with his school was at the Firehouse in the 5th Ward - Engine 3. This firehouse is also home to the Milwaukee Dive and Rescue team, so the kids got a nice tour of the different types of trucks, boats and equipment, and all the mothers got to watch a nice young firefighter change in and out of his gear and slide down a pole. Fun for all, I guess.

Cole and Henry were somewhat crabby, but with a little effort we were able to get Cole to participate. He first refused to walk around in the fire truck, but once he did he of course wanted to do it again. Kristin also participated and asked some dumb questions, including "What does the dive team do when they find a b-o-d-y?" I'm not sure if that is an appropriate question in front of all the kids, but at least she spelled body.

The only thing I learned (i.e. only thing I can remember) is all the firefighters chip in $13 per day for lunch and dinner and they have one guy that does all the cooking. Fridays are usually fish fry, Saturday is pizza night and Sunday is a big brunch. Sounds like some good eating.

 

 

 

Farm Fun

We took Cole and Henry to a farm over the weekend. The sister of Grandma Debbie's friend owns a lambing farm near Madison and they just had 18 baby lambs. We got a full blown tour and she even fed us, so it was pretty awesome. Cole and Henry got to pet and hold a baby lamb, climb a haystack, sit on a tractor, go through a secret passage (really a culvert under the driveway), roam the pasture, hold and feed Guinea pigs and jump in huge muddy puddles. Farmer Ann and her family were so sweet to the boys and really showed us all a great time. The boys had a blast and all that fresh air tuckered us all out. Farming (or farm touring) is hard work!



Two of the triplets birthed by the mama sheep named  "Kim Kardashian"

This poor lamb was the runt and had hypothermia

It was a learning experience for all - these lambs were a week old and as big as Henry. Also, we expected them to be white.

Cole wasn't sure about feeding the sheep but after about a minute he started calling, "Come here Mama! Let's eat."

The haystack was a favorite activity

Carrying a big snack to the mama sheep

Cole thought puddle jumping was the best thing ever, it rained most of our visit so there were LOTS of puddles to explore