Just at the Park

Happy Birthday Daddy!

We celebrated Brandon's 33rd birthday this weekend. We picked up some yummy cupcakes from Nana's Treat House in Pflugerville, and we had our little celebration at home Saturday afternoon. The kids loved it, more than Brandon I think.










Happy Birthday, B! We love you!

Fun at the Sprinkler Park

Lillian kept asking me what we were going to do this afternoon and I had planned nothing. I have just been so wiped out from the heat. She wanted to go swimming, so I told her we could go to the sprinkler park and I blinked and she was upstairs getting her swimming suit and Andrew's.

We have been to the sprinkler park only once, but it was last year and the kids were in their clothes and refused to go in the water. Today they too right to it. The 104 degrees outside made it a perfect time to go. It wasn't crowded and the kids just ran all over. We'll definitely do this again before the heat is gone. It was nice for me not having to worry about them falling in a pool and they could just run around and tire themselves out nicely! They are even in better humors this afternoon as well. This mom is happy.

The Kids at Brushy Creek Sprinkler Park

To Beaumont and Back

My sister, Katy, got her master's in administrative education through Lamar University. So we planned the weekend around going to her graduation in Beaumont.

We left Saturday morning and headed to San Marcos. It was the Bobcat breakfast to pick up our football season tickets at Tx State. We got those as well we got to check out the new astroturf field that they just put in. It was very nice looking. We can't wait for football season to start.

After that, we hurried back to the car to head to Beaumont. The ride wasn't too terrible. After about 2 hours, we stopped for a bathroom/lunch break and then continued on and after battling the rain, we made it in to see Katy cross the front and receive her diploma. The kids didn't do too bad either considering they had been in a car all day. Andrew sat long enough for Katy to get her diploma and then I walked around with him for the rest of the time while Lillian visited with Grandma Teddy and Aunt Kathy.

After graduation, we ate at Tokyo. It was our first hibatchi experience. The kids really enjoyed the fire and the fun watching the cook make us dinner. Too bad they didn't like the food or we would have found our new favorite cuisine.

Finally, we left and drove back to Houston to spend the night with my friend, Kristi and her husband, Jesse. We had gotten to visit a little during our Galveston trip, but I haven't seen Jesse in a few years, so it was nice to all get together. The kids wanted to order Kristi around and loved playing with her. They also explored her house thouroughly. After finally getting them to bed, we got to have some adult conversation for a bit and then Sunday morning we all went to breakfast before driving back to Round Rock.

It was a very quick weekend, but very tiring. It was all worth it though. We had fun!

Potty Training Update

I haven't given much of an update on here since I announced our beginning of potty training Andrew a couple of weeks back. So I thought I'd fill in how he is doing up until now.

We went backwards the weekend after we started. We spent so much time stopping to try and get him to go potty on the way to my grandparent's house in Louisiana, it took us way too long to get there, plus most of the time, he would just sit on the potty and nothing would happen. He only went once. I decided to just use diapers the rest of the weekend so we could visit with the family better. I still asked him about going, but didn't push it too much and on the way home, we didn't even bother with it.

I started fresh this past Monday on the training. Diapers are no longer a part of the Koenning household wardrobe! Hooray! Andrew did super! He acted like we had been doing it all weekend. He peed like a pro in the potty, but still pooped on the floor! Yuck! This didn't disgust me as much though since I went through this same thing with Lillian. I think it took her a month to finally go #2 in the potty. She refused.

Tuesday, I decided to try him with wearing underpants since he was doing so well just going naked-bottomed. He did pretty good. His major problem was that he would always pee a splash on his undies and then realize it and then tell me he needed to go potty and then would go. I need to get better about taking him in a certain time frame of drinking liquids.

Wednesday, I braved taking him to the gym. I was so proud that he didn't pee in his pants there as well as Friday or Saturday there. He came home and went pee-pee then. I'm still wondering about longer trips how he'll do, but we are making some great baby steps to being there. I know kids still have accidents sometimes.

Tonight was the biggest feat of all. I was cleaning up dinner when he came and said "I poop." This made me nervous since he had also pooped on the floor yesterday. I said, "on the potty?" And he said "Yeah!" I was shocked since it hadn't happened before and I figured I would have to catch him going and get him to sit to make it happen, but no! It happened all on his own. We celebrated and went and had frozen yogurt.

Then when we got back, I was putting the kids in the tub and the water was going and he said, "I pee pee." I scooped him out and put him on my toilet in the bathroom and he went there! His first time on the big toilet! 2 big steps in one night! After bath he also went #2 two more times on his little potty!

Yay for Andrew! That is our update for now. I'm very proud of his success. My main goal now is to get him to wear his undies more and tell me when he needs to go. I'm also pleased he'll be ready to potty at preschool next month! Now to pack up my last pack of diapers and put them away until our next baby's a size 5! :)

Visiting Mamaw and Papaw

My grandparents, a.k.a. Mamaw and Papaw,(my mom's parents) live in DeRidder, LA. That is about a 3 hour drive from where I grew up, but then I moved 3 more hours away from there, so it is quite a journey to go visit there now. We try to make it there at least once and usually twice a year to visit. They are excited to have us visit and the kids really do wear themselves out playing on the farm. Thankfully, my sister, Katy took the drive with us this time and with potty training Andrew, it was an extra long drive there, but she was a trooper and a big help!

The kids and I were excited to get to the Funk farm and visit with everyone. We also got to see my Aunt Kathy, Uncle Randy and my cousin Josie. The kids ran around outside most of the day Saturday. You should have seen the dirty bathtub water that night! Our big incident Saturday morning happened to me and Katy though. We were swinging in the backyard when the whole swing flipped over sideways. It was quite tramatic. The pole hit me pretty hard on my head and Andrew was staring at us like what in the world just happened. Mamaw had taken down the big wooden swing in the middle of the pole to paint it, so we were on the outside swing and with all the weight on one side, it couldn't handle the pressure....needless to say we were definitely taunted the rest of the day about not needing dessert. We noticed later too that the top landed in the nearby bush, so we are very thankful for that or I may have suffered a lot worse of a head injury!

We also had a great time visiting with everyone and our Skip-Bo game or two in the evening. That lead to some interesting family girl talk while the men watched sports.

The kids also loved riding around on the Big Boy and on Papaw's scooter with him. It is a shame it is so far or I know we'd visit more often. Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Oh, and to end the weekend, we stopped in Conroe on our way back through to see my sister Tory at her job at Bath and Body Works. It was great to see her and the kids loved the "lotion store."