Fourth of July Happiness

our flag shirts

familybrothers

Hanging with grandma

my boy driving already

playing with toys at Al and Karens

all tuckered out

fun with dad

loving the water

learning to walk in the sand

destroying sand castles

throwing sand

In the lake

What a difference a year makes. Carter LOVED the fourth of July this year. We spent the third of July at Randy and Judy's cabin on Middle Island. Even though it was overcast and a little cool (weird weather for July) we went swimming in the lake which was a huge hit for our little man. He loved the sand and he spent a lot of time reaching down and picking up wet sand and then throwing it back into the water. We also took a boat ride of which Carter stood at the front of the boat and just took it all in. It was so cute. We played some games and ate good food and then watched a good firework show. We were afraid it might get canceled from the rain, but we got to see it. Then on the fourth of July we went over to Al and Karen's block party and got to eat good food and play outside. Carter loved playing with all the kids and toys. He even stayed in close proximity to us that we were able to sit back and relax. (plus some help from grandma and grandpa) We watched some fireworks and then it was time to go home because two late nights equals one cranky toddler. It was such a nice time this year. We all had a ton of fun!

Where does the time go...?

Carter checking out the really large bath tub that men share?

Chad taking a shower in the husker locker room

touching the lucky horseshoe

running on the practice field (apparently this is really expensive grass)

waterfalllocker room

The tunnel walk

Camden's view

picture in the end zone

laying at the 10 yard line

The *s* of Huskers

the kids reading to Camden

he loves his hands

kiss from Xander

kiss from Grace

kisses from willreading time

helping feed his brother

His life is just ducky!

He stood here for hours watching the construction trucks across the street.

In the potty. At least that is what the answer usually is. We always ask Carter "where does the pee pee go? or poop? His answer. In the potty or as he says it "pawdy" I guess that is a nice segway into my update on potty training. It is going well. I have to say it has gone way better than I ever anticipated after that first day. He seems to be doing better and better but every now and then he has a set back. He is pooping in the potty at least 75% of the time now and I would say he is about 90% on pee. He has done really well when we have gone places which was my biggest fear. He does have a problem when confined to a space such as the pack n play or wagon or something he can't get out of. I think he feels trapped and therefore just pees. He has also started to tell as (at times) that he has to go but usually does a potty dance or starts walking to the bathroom. We are praying that this gets better soon and he starts tell us all the time. He is waking up dry from naps a lot of the time but not in the morning. We are going to keep pressing on and hope it just keeps getting better.
On to other updates. Carter's vocabulary has really taken off. He is repeating a ton of what we say and is saying most words we ask. He is also saying some sentences. Some examples are "I want down", "I want it", and "hold it." He can say names of almost everyone I ask him about but when I say "can you say Camden" he says "baby". Funny. His favorite thing to say right now is Abby. My friend Abby came up a few weeks ago and ever since she was here he says her name all the time. He also says "Ahnu" for Aunalie every time he sees a baby. He also perfected the art of screaming and he can throw himself a pretty good tantrum these days. You gotta love it. You can see him start to assert his independence. I can't believe he is going to be 2 in a month.
Camden. My sweet little Camden. Wow have things changed with him. He is a happy baby now. He is spitting a ton less and eating better and more. This has resulted in him sleeping till 3:30am. I am hoping he keeps pushing that feeding back. He loves being in his jumper and exersaucer and just being able to interact with us more. He is super smiley and is fairly happy but still gets crabby if he is tired. He is an expert roller and is working on sitting up. He has out grown his 3-6 PJ's (sniff sniff) and is now in his 9 month ones. He looks so long. I am curious as to how tall he is now.
We got to go to my work picnic this past weekend. It was pretty blah for a company picnic but whatever, you can never expect a hospital to *wow* you. Anyway we got to go to Memorial stadium and take a little tour and then eat pizza. we did get some good pictures. Otherwise we had a great 4th of July and will post some pictures of that later. Enjoy!

5 months

Another milestone of the week was that Camden turned 5 months. I need to take him to be weighed but he seems like he is getting huge. He is turning into such a little man.

Things I have learned about my 5 month old...
He loves to laugh with his brother. He adores his brother. His eyes are turning colors, probably to brown. He loves taking a bath in the big tub, with his brother. He ate rice cereal for the first time. He likes to play in the jumper and exersaucer. He is rolling over. He loves sleeping with his blanket. He has been a pretty happy baby during the day. He is still not sleeping thru the night. He usually takes a good afternoon nap. When he is crying at night and we go in to give him his pacifier he cries even harder when he sees us as if to say "where have you been." He purposefully takes out his binky to cry. He has a favorite toy. It is a butterfly that makes different weird noised when you pull on it. It's eyes also light up which always catches his attention. He is starting to smile when the camera comes out. He still spits up, but he has his good and bad days. And yes, once again, he has not peed on me when changing his diaper.

*I updated with 2 other posts below. be sure to check them out.

Potty Training 101

The 5 things to remember when potty training...

Make sure you look good in your Hulk underoos

Don't forget to pull up your underwear after peeing

Always make sure to have something to keep your mind occupied, in case it takes a while

Always clean up after your messes
Then throw the evidence away

Well as you can see we took the plunge and started the dreaded potty training. The funny thing is all these pictures were taken the first day, the day from hell! We started last Wednesday, and stupidly I had a good attitude going into it thinking it couldn't be worse then I thought. I was very wrong. My first mistake was to give him a ton to drink. It just meant he peed that much more on the carpet. I am pretty sure there isn't a spot he didn't dribble on. The funny thing was even if he made it to the potty he usually wasn't pointed down enough and pee went everywhere. At the end of the day I was so exhausted and he had very little success. I thought to myself "this is never going to work." But we all woke up with a new attitude and a new day and Thursday was better. Less juice = less pee. So we got rid of the juice and just stuck to water. He drank less and peed less plus he started having success on the potty. He hated being wet so he would start to fuss when he would start peeing so we were able to get him to the potty and he would pee. He did still have quite a few accidents the second day but was making progress. We also found out that he hated going on the little potty so we starting putting him on the big potty with a little seat and that was a huge hit. We then had trouble getting him to stay on the potty long enough to pee. He would say "all done" the second he got on. So we tried lots of books and toys and that worked sometimes but the key was when he didn't want to sit we would count to 10 and stopped fussing and just sat and at times would pee. By Friday we were doing really well with only one accident I think. Saturday he had a 1 and Sunday and Monday I think were accident free. (pooping is still an issue but he has been pooping in his diaper in the morning before he gets up) It is a lot less stressful now. We take him about once an hour during the day and before meals. He has woken up dry from his nap the past 2 days and pees right after nap and before bed. We can see that he is learning to hold it now. Tonight after dinner we played in the neighbors pool and we were out there for over an hour ( in water) and he held it until we got home and he peed quite a bit. He isn't telling us quite yet when he has to go, but he started to walk towards the bathroom or point at times. Otherwise we watch his cues. He has a little potty dance that we can see and now that he can hold it a little we don't' have to run like maniacs to make it. We hope in the next few weeks things will only get better and he will start to tell us when he has to go. Chad and I both said we feel so proud right now. It feels so good to start something that was complete hell to be where we are today ( in less than a week). He is such a big boy. He seems proud of himself but most of all I think he realizes that this is just a thing we all do. We hope it will just become a natural thing. We will keep you posted as things progress. Please pray that things continue to go well.

Lots of new firsts

The swingset with stain on it. (sorry, it was raining so the pic is blurry)Nase after his surgery

Playing on the floor

Carter showing camden his feetHe likes to make Camden *jump*

loving his bumbo tray (thanks grandma and grandpa S)

learning to jump

Carter spends several times a day putting my shoes on

here he is getting on the kitchen table all by himself

Camden LOVES being in the big tub. Plus we can now wash them together in the same tub and it is much easier.

squeaky clean

playing nicely together

first bite of rice cereal

yum

not his favorite

The kids wrestling

ready to eat dessert

It has been such an eventful week here at the Scribners. I am going to save the potty training for it's own update so I will tell all the other things we have been up to in this post. First off we spent a fun Sunday night with Brian and Erin and kids last weekend. We ordered pizza and let the kids play. It is so fun now that Carter can *play* with the triplets, although I am sure they beg to differ. He is learning to share and play nice, but it takes a lot of work. He really loves to wrestle around the boys, and even Grace if she lets him. Camden took his bite of rice cereal this past week. We are not doing it on a regular basis yet but we wanted to see if it would help him sleep better. He wasn't too fond of it, but I am sure he will get there. Camden has also really started to enjoy the jumper, walker and exersaucer. He can maneuver a little so he enjoys it more. Carter has learned to climb up on the chairs and then onto the table. The first time he did it I took a picture, and then told him to get down. The next time he did it I told him that we don't do that and to get down and he said "cheese". I guess I need to stop taking pictures of the *bad* things he does. Carter is still being a huge help around the house. He always puts the wet clothes into the dryer for me and will take all the laundry hampers back to their place. He likes to swiffer and throw away trash. He doesn't love picking up his toys which we wish he did. He is however getting better at it and can actually be a bit of a help, at times. Also I think we finally hit a break through when it comes to Carter loving Camden. This week Carter has seemed to find a love for his baby brother. I often catch him doing nice things for him and playing with him. He still likes to be a little rough but Camden always interacts with Carter so I think he is realizing that Camden is a real person. I really wish I could get on tape how the boys will make each other laugh. It happens at least once a day but they never do it for the camera. It is so sweet. Even though Carter is loving on his brother now and not killing him, he now thinks he needs every toy that Camden has. We now have to teach him that he can't take his toys but if he wants to play with something that Camden has he needs to bring him another toy. This is tough concept for Carter but I have faith he will get it soon. The weather has been kind of gloomy lately so we haven't been outside much, but we did get to swim in the neighbors baby pool tonight which Carter loved. I also have to tell you that Nase had to have surgery this week. He has luxating patella. He has been limping for awhile now and we tried asprin for a little while but finally asked the vet. After she looked at it she said it was pretty bad and if we didn't fix it he would be able to walk on the leg and be in a lot of pain. So Nase had surgery and is doing well. They shaved him so much that he looks like Mr. Bigelsworth from Austin Powers. Alright I better end this post so I can write more about Carter and potty training. Enjoy the pictures!

Identical pictures

Maybe not identical but pretty close. They are both right about the same age in these photos. Tatze is just missing in the one with Camden. She didn't want to stay for the photo.