Zoo Day!

For those of you who don't live in Memphis, we have been having themost amazingly mild weather for late July! Of course, we had the most shockingly hot and humid June this year, so I suppose this is helping us average back out. But regardless, we made a trip to the zoo yesterday...I cannot remember ever using one of my many zoo memberships in July or August in this sweat-inducing town, so this was a pretty big event!

The kids are not huge fans of the zoo (nor was I as a child), but the beauty of a membership is that you can go for as short or as long a time as you want to without having to feel like you "didn't see everything" or "didn't get your money's worth". For example, we completely missed one entire side of the zoo this time (missed all the "big money" animals...pandas, giraffes, elephants, polar bears), but a good time was had by all and there were no meltdowns, so I'd say it was a successful trip! And the "Birds and Bees" exhibit really is awesome...last time we went, it was the first weekend the exhibit was open, so it was literally wall-to-wall people...kids were EVERYWHERE with the feeding sticks and the birds were all kind of freaked out by the crowd, so we really didn't get to experience it. As you can see from the pictures, the kids really enjoyed getting up close and personal with the birds and Ashley really wanted to take one home with her!

Poop Prizes

Yes, friends, I am one of those people who is going to share with you intimate things you may not really want to know...so just skip to the end if you're a little squeamish about bodily functions. As you may recall, I didn't think Tyler was ever going to be potty trained...Ashley was so easy in this area (as many girls are) and at the age of 28 months, we just decided one day to wear big girl panties, and that was basically the end of it. With Tyler, even at 2 1/2, he was nowhere near being ready to even attempt it. But though we struggled for a while, the peeing part of it just suddenly clicked one day when he was about 3 months shy of his third birthday, and he's done great with it...we even gave up nighttime pullups at the same time, because he REALLY gets it and has had very few accidents in the pee department.

Poop, however, is a different story altogether. Everything I've read says that you should not stress over it...kids sense the stress and sense that it's a control issue, and then they get even more set in their ways about pooping when and where THEY want to poop, if only to exert control over one of the few things that you as the parent cannot. But he basically poops in his underwear every single day and doesn't even try to use the potty, and is in danger of being "left behind" in the two-year old class next year for at least a little while until he is fully potty-trained. So we decided to implement a reward system, with Hershey kisses and Hot Wheels cars for successful potty usage. It seems to be working...as a result of having a case of salmonella poisoning for the last week, he's earned WAY more cars than we ever expected, but at $1 a piece, it's a small price to pay for getting this big milestone behind us! We're still working, but we've had a lot of successes in the past week, so let's hope it continues once his digestive tract is back to normal!

Cute story: Tyler got face to face with me earlier and started rubbing his nose on mine. He said "Mommy, I'm giving you escalator kisses!" (instead of eskimo kisses)...how cute is that? :-)

Our life is so dull sometimes...

OK, now I see why I've been such a blog slacker...there's so little to write about in our everyday life! Most of you probably know that Mallory is looking for a new job at the moment, so when he's not posting resumes and having interviews, he's been cutting down tree limbs, cleaning out the garage, keeping the house clean, doing the grocery shopping, etc. We are going to be painting our bedroom this weekend, so hopefully I'll have some before and after pics to share Sunday. Once that's done, if he hasn't found a job yet, I fully expect to come home and find him rebuilding the house brick by brick, just to keep himself occupied! He is not one who enjoys down time, unlike his lazy wife! :-)

Ashley is in the midst of having orthodontic work done...she has an appliance across the roof of her mouth and a retainer wire along the inside of her bottom teeth. We've had to tighten the appliance at home every night for three weeks (I had one of these as well, but she's handled it a lot better than I did!), and Dr. Parris said yesterday that we're almost there...just 5 more tightenings and we'll be done with that part. She'll keep that in for six months, though, and she'll be getting braces across her upper front teeth next time we go, so soon she'll look very different! Third grade starts in less than a month...where does the time go?

Tyler is...well, Tyler. It's so hard to put into words what a funny little person he is. He says the funniest things sometimes, and he's become even more loving lately than he already was, lavishing hugs and real kisses (not just putting his mouth on us) and telling us "I love you" all the time. He is obsessed with popular music and is constantly asking me who sings various songs and what the name of the songs are. He can identify songs after hearing just a note or two...his favorites right now are "Boom Boom Pow" by the Black Eyed Peas and pretty much anything by Nickelback.

See people, I'm serious about this...

Isn't our blog so cute now? Perhaps I will be more motivated to keep it up to date! I just know how much I enjoy reading other people's blogs, even people I hardly know...hopefully my blog will be one you look forward to checking out once in a while. :-)

Independence Day in Hot Springs

We had been planning for some time to spend July 4th in Birmingham, to meet up with Mallory's family there, but they were unfotunately unable to make it. But since I had a three day weekend (and the kids were with their dad), we decided to go ahead and go SOMEWHERE, preferably within about a three-hour drive. I had not been to Hot Springs since right after my high school graduation, and Mallory had never been, so we decided to make the utterly boring drive over to Arkansas (the two hours between Memphis and Little Rock is some of the worst road and most boring farmland you can imagine).

They had some fabulous art galleries filled with works by very talented local artists...had we had more time and money, I'm sure we would have come home with a painting or two. But beyond that, I have to say I wasn't too impressed. Lots of junky, tourist-y shops. The Arlington, which is THE hotel in Hot Springs, was terribly dated looking inside, and I'm so glad we didn't decide to stay there (it was between that or a Hampton Inn, and I have to admit, the free breakfast at the Hampton won us over. That, and the fact that the room at the Arlington would have been a smoking room, which would have made us both ill). The bathhouses, which is what Hot Springs is known for, didn't hold much cachet, as the water temperature was advertised at 104 degrees...since we were walking around in 98 degree weather with high humidity most of the day, I don't think we really missed much by not partaking in the public bathing.

We really did have a nice time, though...we went to Oaklawn (the horse track), which has a small casino inside. Mallory had to drag me away from the video poker machines. And we ate lots of yummy food and just enjoyed each other's company and being away from home. Sunday, we decided we'd had enough of Hot Springs, so we went to Little Rock and toured the Clinton Presidential Museum (which I recommend to all Americans, regardless of political affiliation!) before stopping by to visit my college roommate Amy and her family. Fun weekend!

Ashley gets a haircut!

Ashley has been growing her hair out long for at least a year now, much to my dismay. I mean, sometimes it does look really pretty, as she is blessed with gorgeous, thick, wavy hair, but being 8 years old, the majority of the time it looks unbrushed and is hanging in her face (it's not too often that I can even convince her to wear it up in ponytails or braids or something).

When the school year ended, we had a deal that she would get her hair cut shorter for the summer, as she swims every day at YMCA summer camp, but at the last minute she changed her mind. However, I think she finally realized that Mom was right about it being easier to deal with in the summer, so she agreed a couple of weeks ago to get it cut to her shoulders, which we were finally able to accomplish this morning. Doesn't she look beautiful! And older, I think (ugh!). Our bedtime conversation last night was all about going to college...will she have to go to class every day, what if her roommate doesn't like her, etc. I told her "Ashley, we have 10 years before you have to worry about this." And then I sadly realized that with 8 already behind us, 10 years is going to fly by in the blink of an eye, isn't it?

Moss Family Reunion!

I am so happy to be part of such a large extended family now! Every year, for almost the past century(!), the Moss family vacations at Perdido Key, FL. This started when Mallory's great-grandfather Moss was just a baby, and now it consists of 70+ people (seems to be growing exponentially due to all the new babies being born on various branches of the family!). We had a wonderful week meeting all of Mallory's cousins, and are glad to be reconnecting with the group of them who live in Brownsville, TN, which is only about an hour from here. Ashley had a blast making new friends with so many of the cousins. The top pic is on a ferris wheel...I thought Tyler would be scared, but he wasn't scared at all...I love this pic!

Sorry!

If there is still anyone who bothers to check my blog, I'm sorry for being such a slacker! My biggest problem is that I'm just not much of a photographer, and I feel like blog posts are always more interesting with pictures. So if you'll indulge me and let me do some "word only" posts, I promise I'll try to be a more regular blogger!

With that said, here's a funny Tyler anecdote for you: he came down with some sort of illness yesterday, as he was quite hoarse when I picked him up from school and then fever set in during the night. He must have heard me tell someone on the phone that he had a "croupy" cough, because when we arrived at Grandma Schulz's this morning, he said to her in a very dejected, pitiful voice "I'm sick Grandma. I feel creepy."