Piggies

these actually stayed in for most of the day.. it was so nice to be able to see her little face.


And Jason wanted ponies too, but I recently cut his hair so this is all we could muster..


That's it.. that's all I got. Today was better than yesterday, but I am ready for Tom to come home. He probably won't be home until after the kiddos go to bed tomorrow night, but Tom has already been informed that HE will be putting them to bed on Sunday night... I'm heading out for WHATEVER for the afternoon on Sunday.. part of the evening will be a new strength training class for female triathletes. :) Oh, and happy hour afterward.. that's my kind of off season!

I'm doing a 10 mile 'test' run tomorrow. If I can hang I'm going to do a half marathon trail run at the end of October. I think I can do it, but we'll see.

Been a while..

Oops. It's been a while. I figured you were tired of hearing the details of the poops happening in the Mount household.

Anyway... things are still progressing. Lily seems to have it figured out unless she has had a lot of water or is really distracted. I can't remember the last time she pooped in her pants. Jason seems to be regressing the last couple days... I'm not sure what's up. He's either really tired from so many nights of interrupted sleep and a missed nap or he's just well not quite there yet. We'll get there.

Tom's gone again .. left on Friday night. I was lucky enough to get out for a nice ride w/ some friends yesterday while Lori Fons and her daughter watched the kids. It was wonderful! Today was a good day...

After my two weeks "off" to potty train the kids and to just be off and try yoga season I'm back in the saddle. I'm doing a test 10 mile run next Sat (provided I can find a sitter) to decide whether or not to run a half marathon on Oct 25th. Turns out when I'm not exercising I'm kinda cranky and just off.... so back in the saddle and working on my plan for the winter months... AGAIN, hoping for improvement on my swim, in my core and much strength training. I'm starting a women only strength training for the triathlete program on Sunday... it's every Sunday for 9weeks. I'm excited for some sport specific exercises and to meet other women in my area in the sport!

Here's a quick shot of the kiddos.. they HAD to eat outside tonight. It was so nice today. I'm proud of myself for making two things (so far) from scratch w/ whole foods from the book Feeding the Whole Family (I"m trying out this meal planning thing). So far both the chili and the pancakes were a hit! :)

Green Juice

My latest thing - though I'm still a big fan of the green smoothie - is green juice. Send all those vitamins and minerals right into your system w/o all the fiber to bog you down. And if you can't tolerate the taste of the green juice you can use it as the base for your green smoothie... then you don't have to put spinach etc in .. just your fruit and call it good!

My favorite green juice is 4 stalks celery/5 leaves to one head of greens (above are dandelion greens)/one cucumber/4 apples (the more tart the better)

I put some water in the bottom of the blender (preferably the vitamix) and add the celery. Blend those up real well. Add the greens and blend - sometimes you have to use the plunger thing to push the greens down. then add everything else - pre chopped of course.

Then I dump the mush in a nut milk bag and strain it. This makes enough for me to have an entire quart and the kids to each have a pint. They LOVE it. They were asking for it this a.m.



And some photos of the kids picking the last of my tomatoes that didn't get a chance to ripen... which unfortunately was most of them.

Is it 7:30pm yet?

I'm SO ready for Tom to come home. I"m not sure what's up here, but all was going well and suddenly the kids are just losing it every 10 minutes. Do they miss their daddy? I DO! Think Tom will be offended if I go to the coffee shop for like FOUR hours his first day back?

Breathe!!!!!

About lost it today...

both kids crapped their pants today... at the same time. Imagine.. one getting cleaned up and while you are up to your arm pits in crap the other kid is playing in the toilet the "washing" their hands all while you plead w/ them to just GET OUT of the bathroom. It's all you can do to not scream at the top of your lungs and grab the clean kid and toss it out of the bathroom...

Only sharing to 'keep it real' so you don't think my kids are all great at potty training and to not only share the good stuff as to paint a not so real picture.

I had a long day today... so that's all I got.

Oh wait, I'll share this. Jason woke up from his nap and I went up and grabbed him and took him in my room. We snoozed together for another 30 mins all snuggled together. Those are the good times... they make the poop tolerable. :)

No poops in the pants today!

I was getting really frustrated w/ poops yesterday, but am happy to say that all the Mounts pooped in the potty today! :) YIPPEE!!!!! Lily wasn't happy about it, but she eventually did it. Jason pooped FIVE FREAKIN' times today! I'm not exaggerating. He woke up saying his back hurt... didn't hurt by the end of the day! :)

No more updates really... it's gotten colder here.. in the high 50s. Tom comes home the day after tomorrow and the kids start their first art class tomorrow. :)

These kids are smart!

So Lily did her poop on the potty last night.. and I am still OH SO proud of her, but today she pooped on her chair.. :( A few minutes later Jason ran into the bathroom and pooped on the potty so I gave him a date and a sticker - more to incentivize (is that a word?) Lily than to reward Jason - and as I was giving him his sticker Lily asked for one and I told her she would get a sticker when she pooped on the potty .... her response: "I pooped on the potty last night."

Indeed she did... and she got no reward - besides my VERY EXCITED praise. So she got a sticker too...

So smart of her!!!

Wasn't going to blog tonight...

but I am so proud of Lily I have to document it.

We had a good day today.. lots of fun w/ friends and a pretty decent potty day. Lily had a couple of accidents and Jason only had one and well, a half I guess. :)

I had to wake them up to go to my hair appt today so I put them down for bed a bit early.. I heard Lily opening and closing her bedroom door and thought, "Crap she totaly isn't going to fall for this early bed stuff." So I went up there to check on her and she held her butt and had a pained look on her face. I assumed that she had pooped in her diaper and I started heading to the bathroom to get a diaper and she ran in ahead of me and went straight for the potty.. I usually make them sit on the potty after an accident.. when I took her diaper off NOTHING! She hopped right up on that potty like a pro and went poop. She wouldn't poop all day today. (after waking up w/ poops.) I am so proud of her for 'telling' me she needed to go instead of telling me she already went - as she had been doing. I just can't believe how quickly things can turn.. (well, both ways really).

Jason was great today. His one pee accident was right after I had him on the potty and he wouldn't do anything, but in his defense all the other kids were headed outside and he really wanted to go w/ them. He peed not moments after we got out there. Oh well. And I caught him mid poop and got him on the potty to finish.. his 1/2 accident.

All in all it's going well and we are getting out of the house... w/ many visits to the potty... all fine by me. I gave away the last of our diapers today so we wouldn't be tempted to go back when the going gets tough. :)

Watch out world.. we're big kids now...

I'm sure I will stop talking about this at some point!

Tom comes home on Wed and I'm sure he will be amazed!

We (well I) are excited to watch Ironman Wisconsin this weekend... our Sunday will revolve around naps and IM! The athletes run by only blocks from out house and I'm going to try to see the bike out portion w/ the kids. :) My TNT coach Chris and his girlfriend Jackie are both doing it this year so it will be fun to try to see them on their voyage!

Not so super fantastic...

but not awful.

I hit the gym for some yoga this a.m. and the kids didn't have any accidents in the day care... until I talked to L a bit too long about going to the potty so she just went. We almost got out of there in the same outfits we came in. :) J had no accidents today! YIPPEEE!!! but he didn't poop today so tomorrow could be ugly... a good learning experience for all! Lily had a few accidents. We are making forward progress! :)

Why is it that the days (okay there have only been 2 so far) that I do yoga I turn into an Ogre (ala Shrek) ... I thought I would be all zen and chill post yoga. I wonder if I get even more irritated b/c my zen is immediately snatched from me post yoga? ha

The kids were to bed late last night, up early, short naps... we were having such a good run, but it had to be broken eventually. I was up late listening to Palin and chatting w/ a friend on IM so we were all a bit cranky...

On to tomorrow.

Super Fantastic Day...

Lily wearing her baby on her back just like mommy.

We had a super fantastic day today. I still am dumbfounded by how much fun we are having. Tom's travel times are usually very hard form me, and I do miss him greatly this trip, but we are hanging in there pretty tough. Is it my lack of personal agenda??

Our friends Sam and Abbey came over today for a "potty party". Lily had just done a big poop on the potty (I know I said I wouldn't bore you w/ these details anymore, but I was just so darn proud of her!!!) when they got here and Jason proceeded to drop a big load on the floor ... twice.. which is not the example we were hoping to set for the other kids. Oh well. Sam and Abbey didn't seem to scarred.

After the potty party we had some lunch and the kids were down for their naps by 1:30pm... and here comes the piece of the puzzle that probably contributes the most eo our super fantastic day... Jason napped for 3 hours and Lily napped for 3.5 hours. I had to go wake her up at 5pm.. who knows how long she would have slept. Apparently potty training makes them sleepy!

And the best part of our day was going to a TNT send off party. It was a great party and all, but the best part was that this was our first outing as newly potty training kiddos. We went to Red Robin and they did GREAT!!!! Not one accident! :) Lily asked at one point to go to the potty, Jason flushed and was startled at how loud it was, but said, "I'm not scared anymore mommy.", and the last time we went to the potty before we left Jason even pooped in the potty. (I have to add that that boy is a pooping MACHINE! He pooped in the potty again before bed... EE GADS! Where does he keep all that stuff?) I am so proud of them I can hardly sit still. I also realized on the way home that this is the first time that I've taken them out in a situation like this all by myself. I felt pretty good.. okay not pretty good... I feel GREAT about 1. just doing it 2. being calm about it... so calm I didn't even really realize what I was doing and 3. that it was such a success. I've found w/ kids that sometimes you just have to take yourself out of your comfort zone. I have learned so much about my kids and myself through this whole process.

Tomorrow is another day and I know that it might not go as well as today, but we are making great progress... in more than just the potty training.

I am a lucky woman. Great husband, great kids and a sweet gig! :)

D4

It's 8:15 and I'm seriously getting ready for bed. FYI.. in the midst of potty training is not the time to skip your mid-day coffee!!!

I'm tired of talking about/thinking about/worrying about poop/pee. It really was a good day, but I"m tired of detailing it and rehashing it. Both kids pooped on the potty.. amidst accidents. I will spare you the oh so boring details.

It was 90 degrees again today... supposedly it's going to be in the 70s the rest of the week thus introducing us to an abrupt fall. I'm jonesing to turn over the kids' wardrobes.. don't ask me why.. it's part of the seasonal change I guess... brings on the next step.. I don't know.. it's just something I like to do.

Tom is in Germany now - he was in London. I love hearing from him and talking to him, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't jealous of his trip this time around. He called from a lake side eatery in Friedrichshaufen (no clue how to spell that and too lazy to look it up). He told me where he was and what he was doing and - as I always do - I responded, "I'm in Madison, Wi, it's 90 degrees and I was just about to mop the floors." I have a really sweet gig here don't get me wrong, but I am insanely jealous right now... I want to be in Europe! ha ha

Anyway... we had a lot of fun today.. here are some photos.

We made crowns and the kids put stickers on them. The activity only took about 2 mins, but they loved it and wore the crowns off and on all day. I'm looking for things to do around the house that I can do w/ them and not want to slap myself silly bc it's so boring! ha

Jason saying CHEESE for the camera




Sharing the monkey bars


Playing in mommy and daddy's room before naps. (Why do I look so disgustingly tan... I haven't been in the sun that much since training ended.)

Note that Jason got in on the nail painting today. :)

Potty Training day 3.

Happy Labor day folks...

things have been oh so exciting around here that I got out our winter stuff - despite the high of 90 - to see if we have stuff that fits the kids. I might be a bit stir crazy?????

Good news.. there stuff from last year fits. They had to try it on.



Does it get cuter than this?


This is my hat, but we tried his on too and it fit.


Today went pretty well. J and L are certainly not interested in being on the potty every 20 minutes. Today I just kind of rolled with it and I tried to at least get them on the potty every hour or so. Jason only had a couple of accidents (3) and Lily only had 2... well, she pooped in her pants, but I don't really count that. :)

Lily tried so hard today! She was running around w/o her undies for a while and she ran to the potty herself and peed. She tried REALLY hard to get to the potty to poop. She would get there then I think she was scared. She did this about 3 times before she pooped mid run. She was very disturbed by this. It really freaked her out. She wasn't successful at pooping in the potty. Oh well. She tried really hard. Bless her heart. She also woke up from a 2.5 hour nap dry.

Jason had a small poop accident, but that was it. He must have been holding it today. I got to see some more imagination development today. Jason and I were hangin' in the bathroom (our new favorite place to hang.. ha) and he started throwing an imaginary ball up in the air. We played w/ imaginary balls for a good 20 mins. It was so cute to see him show that level of imagination.. that is the first time he has done that.

We had another good day today.. though the kids did watch much more tv than I like them to, but hey we've been here in the house/yard for 3 days now. All things considered we are hanging in there. I don't have any outings planned until Friday... we'll probably start taking some longer walks before then. We took a short jaunt to Trader Joe's yesterday and a walk up the street today. They seem to be able to hold it for over an hour at least... before I put them on the potty. Maybe we'll have naked day tomorrow. Seems that's what might work for Lily.

It's funny to think that I originally had planned to just potty train Lily b/c she seemed more ready than Jason and I didn't want to have to be sequestered again later. Jason is doing such a good job. I'm so proud of them both!

I will say I'm EXHAUSTED. We're having really fun / good days, but I have to pay close attention to what they are doing and it's taxing to be picking them up and carrying them (often screaming and kicking on Jason's part) to the potty. Gosh that makes it sound dramatic.. it really isn't... he's just busy and doesn't want to take the time. I'm constantly negotiating w/ them.. if you sit on the potty we'll do xyz.. it's tiring. ha Welcome to parenthood huh? :) I'm actually kind of enjoying it.. just watching them grow up so much in a matter of days is great.

It was funny.. I looked at lily this evening w/ "that" look on my face and said, "What are you doing Lily?" and she said, "not pooping" made me laugh out loud.. guess I've been asking her that a lot over the last couple of days.

Potty Training day 2.

If you have kids to potty train ... I hope you like your bathroom!

Okay... so the first thing we do now is sit on the potty. This a.m. when I said, "Let's go potty" (all sing songy like it was the most exciting thing to do in the whole wide world) I was greeted w/ two kids saying, "I don't want to sit on the potty." Jason cried. Poor guy. He wakes up fairly slowly and generally just wants to snuggle... not be forced to remove his pants and sit on the potty. Neither of them peed and Lily was dry... ???

All-in-all it was another good day. I didn't even mind being sequestered here. I actually got some stuff done that I normally don't get to b/c we're out running around. The kids don't seem any worse for the wear either. I thought they (well, we) would be going bonkers. They do start to get a bit punchy/antsy mid-morning then we just go out in the yard and roll around and we're all good!

Jason had a couple of pee accidents in the a.m. - two of which were when I said "Time to go to the potty" after the timer went off. He was dry when the timer went off, but by the time I got over there to drag him into the potty (he doesn't exactly come running) he had peed his pants. Learned my lesson. Go get kid then mention that it's potty time. :) He did poop in his pants... no biggie. Caught it once and he did some in the potty - oh, and one in the bath tonight. I think both kids are bit nervous about the pooping in the potty thing... which apparently is normal. He had NO accidents this afternoon. He was even drinking quite a bit and I was trying to push the visits to the potty a bit further apart bc he was freaking about going every 20 mins and he started holding it and wouldn't go on the potty every time. I know he needed to go b/c he was drinking juice and water, but still no accidents. So he's clearly figured out how to hold it. Yeah Jason!

Lily had no accidents this a.m. (same as yesterday), but she doesn't seem to like to drink too much in the a.m.?? She id pee almost every time she got on the potty though. She had two poop accidents today, but both times she ran to the potty. I'm pretty sure she realized she needed to poop and started running and didn't make it, but who knows.. she may have pooped and run into the bathroom afterward to be changed. All she said was, "poop goes in the potty." Bless her heart she tried. She had a couple of pee accidents in the afternoon. She too was drinking a lot of water and juice. She doesn't seem to mind being wet either. I had to drag her in the house to change her pants.

I know you are have been waiting all day w/ baited breath to hear all about my kid's bathroom habits! :) So far it's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be, but I am having a hard time getting my mind around how we will ever be able to leave the house again. The guidance I've been following has me putting the kids on the pot every 20 mins. Hmmm... how does that transition to "you go to the potty when YOU have to go not when Mommy puts you there."??? Anyone have any advice to share on that aspect of this!?/ I want to leave my house again some day!

The potty training run down.

So this a.m. went great! As well as I could have expected! Lily was dry all morning ... Jason wet himself a couple of times, but every time he did he knew he was supposed to go in the potty. The kids didn't really love going to the potty every 20 mins, but they peed most times they went. Jason caught himself mid-pee poop and did the majority of his morning poop on the potty. I was amazed and very excited/encouraged. I did notice that the kids wouldn't take any fluids. Do you think they get the drink/pee connection at this age????? Lily did poop in her pants, but I pretty much expect them to do that for a couple of days or more before they figure it out.

They then took nice long naps and Jason was dry when he woke up. (after about 2.5 hours) He then peed on the potty... they had juice after they woke up and proceeded to wet themselves the rest of the day. Guess I need to move it to every 15 mins after they drink like that. I had near misses w/ both kids for their afternoon poops. Or rather near hits... we just missed it and they both pooped in their pants.

All in all I feel pretty good about how today went. No one got mad... though there was some kicking and screaming on the way to the potty when they had to come inside to do it... but they came, hey calmed down and they peed. :)

I'm beyond happy to be diaper free and plan to power through and not go back. They are in cloth diapers tonight so we'll see if they hold all the pee. It could be a while before they get the nighttime thing done.. they are both hooked on water at bedtime and Jason guzzles it... he's just too busy to drink during the day! :)

Today when Lily woke up from her nap I had painted my toenails and she wanted red toenails too so I painted her nails..then she wanted her finger nails painted. I have NEVER seen her sit so still. :) She talked about it all day and was VERY excited to show them to Jason when he woke up. He didn't share her enthusiasm. I was sure he would want them too!

So Lily is a big girl times 2 today... big girl undies and big girl nails. :) Surely she'll be requesting her own credit card soon. She did steal Tom's at dinner last night and wouldn't return it.

We're big kids now!

Day one no diapers. It's only 9am and Jason has peed on the potty twice and once in his pants... nothing from Lily...

We are happy to be diaper free and I'm excited to go through this. (Talk to me again at the end of the day and I might be singing a different tune!)

An amazing day!

We had an amazing day today. This a.m. we went for a run... got out of the house by 8:45am. The kids were great during our 30 min run to the park. We played at the park until we heard the lion roar and J and L both HAD to go see him. I told them we could go, but they had to stay in the stroller (we had quite the debacle the last time I took them myself). We walked around for while (w/ no screaming I might add) and I noticed that the new park inside the zoo was virtually empty - it's huge and scary when it's FuLL of big kids (scary for me) so we usually don't go - so I decided that we should check it out. The kids had a blast and did tons of climbing. Jason did squeeze/climb his way up to the tippy top and was hesitant to come down the big slide - it's nearly impossible for me to get up there and almost as hard for a little kid to come back down the climbing apparatus that you use to get up. Thankfully a dad standing next to me heard me trying to coax Jason down and asked his daughter (about 8 years old) to ride down w/ him... and thankfully he happily excepted the offer. Jason wasn't freaking out, but he was struggling a bit. All the while Lily was doing her usually slide loop like she does almost every time we go to the park.

When they were done there they noticed the carousel (well, Jason saw it from the eagle's nest of a slide he was on) and ran in there to check it out. It costs a dollar per kid and I didn't have any cash so I promised them that we would come back next week. At one point after I said, "mommy doesn't have any money right now." Lily responded, "Mommy get some money." It was cute. They whined a bit and kept asking to go on it, but NO meltdowns. I was shocked. I fully attribute this to the fact that they went to bed a bit earlier last night and slept till their normal wake up time instead of getting up at 6am like they have been the last week. Then Jason saw the new train and we went back and forth on that for a bit before I told them it was time to go have snacks in the stroller and go home. They chatted the whole way home.

We got home, they played in the yard while I made some smoothies. While I was cleaning up they got into the mud (see previous post). They took a bath, watched some shrek while I made lunch, ate lunch, more shrek while I cleaned up, stories and naps. They took nice long naps and when they got up Tom was home early from work so he could hang w/ us before he goes out of town.

They peed on the potty and off we went to Target for them to pick out big kid underwear and a new potty seat for the downstairs potty. We then hit our favorite restaurant and ran around at the near by mall. It was a great day.

This is a PERFECT day in the day in the life of Jason and Lily... and Mommy had a good day too!

Moral of the story... when you do what's fun for the kids they are happy, you are happy, when you let them watch tv while you clean up and/or cook food they are happy, you are happy. :)

Wish us luck on the potty training front... it might be a LOOONNNNNGGGG long weekend! :)

The painter and the paintee

Our newest thing is hanging in the yard... ALL THE TIME! So I usually let them play out there by themselves while I'm fixing things like snacks and lunch. Today I was making smoothies after a long morning of parks and the zoo (Mom, no one got out of the stroller until we got to the play structure!) when Lily came in SO PROUD and said, "Look Mommy!" I turned to find this....

(sorry it's blurry... photographing a moving target is tough!)

Shortly after Jason (the painter) ran in w/ his muddy hands. :) Good times.


So to add to their 'best day ever' they got to have a bath in the middle of the day... we topped that off w some Shrek while I made lunch! ha We had a, uh, bad day yesterday so today is all about them! :) haha

Which discipline

Which discipline do you think I like the most? ha Not the best photos, but it's what I've got.

Prerace w/ Mama Marie (kate and coco's mom)








A picture is worth a thousand words that's for sure! :) I think it's a toss up between prerace/friends and biking. :)

Quick drive by...

trying to order some prints to send to my Gma before I hit yoga this a.m.... but wanted to share a few photos...

Jason and Lily trying on daddy's bike shoes (good thing he has two pair)


Jason's new shirt from our friends the Bryants (there is s theme going here) this one is my favorite! It is very appropriate for this age.


And our new deck and french doors.


I LOVE both the deck and the doors. As I sit at the dining table typing the sun is filtering in through the window and it's so nice. Even though it's rainy and overcast outside.

Accenture Race recap

I'm back and it was GREAT! My swim could still use a lot of improvement and Accenture is truly like swimming in a washing machine. This year I started in a mixed wave w/ men and women and I just got clobbered. Kicked, hit, climbed over... it wasn't awful, but it did piss me off here and there. I got kicked in the goggles twice and a big clydesdale guy almost drowned me by swimming right over top of me. I was LESS THAN amused. I still managed to get out of the water 7 mins ahead of last years time so I guess I'm happy about that. If I had swam freestyle straight through like I managed to do at Lk Stevens I'm sure it would have been faster. I would like it to be at least 5 mins faster, but that will take time and dedication on my part. Maybe next year. Clearly I improved and that's what matters. I loved the bike again this year... I wasn't sure if I was going to go out and try to kill this race, but I always say that once I get out there I always have to give it my all. :) I ended the bike a minute slower this year, but that's fine. I felt really good - so I'm happy. I did a hamstring issue that persisted on the run, but as long as I kept going it seemed okay. It was walking through the water stops that was tough. It wasn't as hot this year, but there was a bit of wind. Thankfully you got one part w/ the wind to your back and one w/ it to your face so it was even. :) My run was faster by 3 minutes (though it never feels fast after the bike) and I had the same problem I had last year.. I had to pee so bad I thought I was going to vomit. Last year it was early in the run and I stopped at a port-a-potty. This year it came later and by the time I resigned myself to stopping it was too late.. no more port-a-potties. If I could have relaxed enough to pee on myself I totally would have, but I couldn't do it.

MOUNT, LAURA Bib #4944 F F30-34 MADISON , WI 53726
Swim Trans1 Bike MPH Trans2 Run Pace Final
37:12 02:29 01:13:10 20.3 01:58 51:11 08:15 02:46:02

While I don't plan to do Accenture again b/c of the sheer spectacle of it I do plan to do more tris... duh! Accenture is huge and crowded and just a bit much in my opinion.

My friend Marie rocked the race too! She loved it and I'm SO glad she joined me in the journey. We had a lot of fun in Chicago ... it was nice to have a mini-girls weekend. We missed the fam damilies though.

Here's a cute shot of Lily ... she fell and hurt her lip the other day and wanted to put her own band aid on. Works for me. ha