What Passes for Excitement in our House These Days

We're pretty boring.

You have been warned.

*Leo is afraid of everything.

I kid you not, if he get's put on his bed he won't come out of his bedroom unless I go in and get him. Even if I'm in the room right next to his. I literally have to be in his line of sight or he's too scared to move. The other day I went up the stairs too fast. He stopped at the landing (half way up) and just cried until I leaned over the banister and made him come the rest of the way up.

Any how, he's decided that having stuff in his bed keeps him safe at night.

Notice how he's way over on the side of his bed?

That's because the rest of his bed is filled with random junk.

 Including, on this particular night:

a paper airplane,

a plastic pig,

a Zoobie with the blanket taken out,

and three little cars.

Also, the Zoobie blanket had to be on top of his pirate blanket.

 Even with all of these precautions he still ends up in my bed every single night.

He's so good at getting in there that it doesn't even wake me up any more.

*Jay Alvin can roll his tongue on demand.

Here he is, stubbornly refusing to do it for the camera.

 Then he did it, but I missed it.

 And, here it is. 

Adorable.

*We got a toilet seat with a built-in kid seat.

This was extra exciting to me for two reasons.

1. I was so done with the little potty that had to be dumped and cleaned ten times a day.

2. We bought a potty seat that just sits on the regular toilet seat and it was too small. 

We made it work, but the bathroom was getting really gross because of it.

And last,

*I found a used diaper in the washing machine yesterday.

And yes, it was full of clothes at the time.

And yes, I had just run it.

And, yes, the diaper had exploded and strewn used diaper filling all over everything.

Fun times.

Sorry I didn't get a picture.

The Potty Train

Yesterday was the big day.

We rode the Potty Train as Leo's reward for being potty trained.

(It's actually called Roaring Camp Railroad but I guess all those weeks of telling Leo he could ride the train once he was potty trained got him a little confused. To him, it will always be "The Potty Train." Any how, it's an hour-long ride through the redwood forest.)

Here's the boys in the car, getting ready to head out.

The train station is about 45 minutes north of where we live.

On the train at last.

We were a little worried that it would be too cold once we got into the trees, but it was a nice, sunny day.

The train itself is a 100+ year old steam engine that was used to haul logs from the top of the mountain to the bottom. That cloud is the built up steam that it released once our ride was through.

Leo was very worried about his ticket and wanted to hold it himself.

(He's carried it around most of today too.)

That look of joy on Jay's face happened when he realized we would actually be taking a ride and not just sitting on a motionless train.

We were a little worried that one of the boys was going to fall over the edge. We could not convince them to keep their bodies in the car.

Jay spent a good portion of the trip saying, "Choo, Choo!" as loudly as he could.

Proof that I was there.

We stopped at the top of the mountain for a few minutes. There were several large logs left lying around. I'm not sure if they were remnants of the logging operation or just trees that happened to fall onto the tracks.

This is part of the old track that was burned in a forest fire.

And finally, a blurry picture of the boys with the engine.

And on top of all of that, we discovered an awesome farmer's market near our house. We stopped on the way home and loaded up on cheap fruit.

Money

We've been playing "Dump the Piggy Bank" over and over at our house.

They boys would do it all day if I let them. 

I usually let them go until someone puts a coin in their mouth.

(That's just a little too gross for me to handle.)

 Jay can almost curl his tongue. I actually saw him do it today, but as soon as I pointed it out to him he couldn't do it again. He often goes around with his tongue hanging out like this.

*On a semi-related note:

Jay paid tithing for the first time today.

He was totally on board until he had to give the envelope away.

I guess it's one thing to put your money in an envelope for Jesus, and another thing entirely to hand that envelope to the bishop.

He survived it, even though he didn't think he would.