The Meek Family: Fun at home and around town

Just a post of some random photos over the past few months... pictures and events I want to remember (and once again I'm falling behind on posts, so its a lot of 'stuff' shoved into one post!).

Here's what we've been up to lately...

Colton's first circus! He was pretty fascinated, but got very fidgety half way through. I let him choose one thing to eat and he wanted $10 cotton candy, which came with a really cool circus/wizard hat. This was a special mommy and Colton date and we went with our little friend Holden and his mommy Chessy. It was the first 'live event' he went too and we had a fun time.

Lots of splashing and swimming the past couple of months...some in our backyard, some at local pools and friend's houses. It's challenging keeping your eyes on both kids at a pool. Sadie HATES her swim floats and prefers to either be held or crawl around, and most pools aren't friendly for young babies that are mobile ! Colton loves a 1-2 foot baby pool, but gets pretty scared in a big pool. We've tried to help him out and just get him in the pool (as opposed to standing on the steps), and he is getting better. He's had a puddle jumper (a really cool float that attaches to his body) for about a month and is finally getting a little more used to swimming with it!

There is definitely no letting your guard down. Hopefully Colton will be a better swimmer next summer!

Sadie's first time in a pool this summer

Sadie loves to scrunch her nose up and make nose sniffing sounds. She makes this face at her daddy all the time!

Superhero Colton running around the house in Sadie's swim float. I'm always amazed at what he finds to keep him entertained. He doesn't have any particular toy obsessions...he just finds stuff and makes it work for him. Sadie gets roped into his creativeness most of the time.

Colton has been taking swim lessons at the YMCA. We've done two rounds of swim lessons and he's had the same sweet teacher, Miss Ashley, both times. He cried through most of the lessons. Sadie and I watched from the observation window. He HATED wearing goggles - they usually produced more tears, as did getting his hair wet. But, he seemed to like lessons at the same time?!

Colton in the boat on the last day of swim lessons.

Somebody LOVES to get in chairs and tries very hard to join her brother just about anywhere. David pulled her off of the top rung of Colton's bunk bed ladder a couple of days ago. Um, not ok baby girl....not ok. (the ladder is put away most of the time!)

Eating popsicles on the porch with our friend Jackson

Library storytime

Sadie loves the cottage Nana and Pops gave her for her birthday. I find her sitting in there all the time. She rings the doorbell, peeks out the windows, and plays at the sink.

...and a cute story I don't want to forget...in May, right after we got this I was reading Colton a library book, The Doorbell Rang, - in the story you repeat the title several times. Sadie was in the playroom with us and after i'd said "the doorbell rang" a few times she looked up at her cottage, crawled over to it, and rang the doorbell! I thought it was so cute that she was listening to the story and felt the need to go ring her doorbell! Sweet girl. :)

The kids wanted Nana to push them around in their cottage...quite exhausting! Some of Colton's favorite things end up being the MOST exhausting things for adults...he's always saying "get me mama, get me" and wants me to chase him around and around the house. He doesn't understand why mommy has to stop and rest!

Getting black eyes...

One of Colton's favorite things is for us to turn on dance music...he gets crazy silly and loves to show us his dance moves. One night we got a bit too crazy and I spun him around and around. He tried to walk afterwards and fell right into the corner of his toy chest. His eye hit hard - poor guy! Lots of wailing. He had a black eye for a couple of weeks.

This was one of Sadie's first times to sit and color with her brother.

Their friend Elmo stood guard to ensure Sadie didn't eat too many colored pencils.

Potty training! I'm so proud of Colton. One day at the beginning of June I decided to go for it. Up to this point he hadn't shown much interest in potty training. I think the two nights before we'd gotten him to potty before taking his bath and that was a BIG DEAL for him.

So....he woke up on a Tuesday morning and I put underwear on him...set the timer for every 15 mins, either took him to the potty or asked if he needed to go. He had 3 accidents that day. The next day same thing, underwear on when he woke up. No accidents this day! The third day even better....he continued to tell me when he needed to use the potty.

Treats really helped! We gave one treat for peeing and two treats for pooping. Its amazing how often he needed to potty knowing a treat was his reward! We've left treats and sticker charts behind and he continues to do a great job telling us when he needs to potty. He has an accident every once in a while, but I was really shocked with how well he did overall.

Glad to have only one in diapers now! He still wears a diaper or pullup at bedtime - still wakes up super wet.

Colton sharing his treat bag with Sadie. She didn't appreciate how often he received treats, so we'd share with her every once in a while!

Just a funny sleeping pic of Colton. This must be a few weeks old, because the past month and a half he's been sleeping on the floor in his room, right next to his baby gate in the doorway on his napmat. Hmmmmm....not sure why he's ditched his bed or really how that happened, but if we pick him up and move him to his bed he always gets up and returns to the floor. No big deal to us, so if the floor works for him, then that's where he can lay his head!