Thank You Cape Cod, It's Been Fun!

So, we got home on Tuesday evening, and I'm just now getting around to blogging about it on Friday. That's not too bad, right? And I've been back at work for two days as well, so I don't feel too badly.
So, our trip. It was so much fun. We can't thank Sandy and her family enough. They really welcomed us into their house with open arms and hearts.

We left the house REALLY early Wednesday morning. I think we hit the road at about 5 am, to make it to the airport for our 7:15 flight. We got to the airport, dropped off the car, made it through security, etc without too much trouble. But man, traveling with a little kid can be tough! You have so much crap to bring with you! Between the three of us we had: three separate suitcases (blame me for overpacking!) a car seat, an umbrella stroller (priceless when it came to getting through airports quickly, or walking with a resistant toddler to the beach) three carry-ons. That's a lot for two people to carry!

We got on the plane, strapped Sutton's car seat into the seat, strapped Sutton into the car seat and settled down for a 3 1/2 hour plane ride to Chicago. Sutton did really well on the plane. He slept through most of the first leg of our journey. He only had problems when he got restless and wanted to get down, or when his ears hurt due to the pressurization.

After a plane change in Midway, we got to Boston around 5 pm. We met up with Dave's mom Linda and got our rental car. Then we drove about 2 1/2 hours to Chatham. Of course, due to traffic, it was longer.

Ahh, Chatham. Such a fun little town. We walked around town, we went to the penny candy store.
We went to the beach...
We ate homemade ice cream from the ice cream shop. The scoops were the size of your head!
We ate lobster. Mmm, lobster.
We admired the view from the back porch.We made great new friends, like Ali and Robby.

We mocked Matt for his birthday present. Seersucker shorts with skull and crossbones embroidered on them! Hysterical!
There's so much more to talk about. I'm starting my scrapbook now, and as I finish pages, I'll post them online. But I want to include a video that we took. We were out on Sandy's dad's boat-which was the first time that Sutton had ever been on a boat. He liked it, until he realized that we didn't bring any snacks with us. Then all hell broke loose. Lesson learned-must take snacks. Or he'll make us walk the plank.

Cause we're leaving...on a jet plane!!

Well, we leave for Cape Cod tomorrow morning. EARLY tomorrow morning, which means that I have to be up even earlier, to make sure that my sleepy-head boys get up in time. I've set my alarm clock for 4 am, which is just wrong on so many levels.
I've emptied my digital camera of old photos, stocked up on double-A batteries, and I will be taking lots of photos. Which probably won't be posted until like two weeks after we get back. You know how it is.
See you in a week!

All my bags are packed; I'm ready to go...

OK, so later this month, the MacDonald family will be descending on Cape Cod, MA. And by MacDonald family, I mean ALL of us. Dave, Sutton, Cory, Matt(my BIL), Sandy(my SIL), Finley, Alex, and Linda(my MIL). YAY!! We are all staying at Sandy's parents' summer house on Cape Cod for a week. I cannot tell you how excited I am. OK, yes I can. I AM SO EXCITED!!! I CAN'T WAIT!!
Just to have a real vacation is great, yes. But I finally get to meet my twin nieces. And Matt and Sandy get to see Sutton. The last time Sandy saw Sutton, he was five days old. A lot sure has changed!
So, being the obsessive compulsive person that I am, I have been making lists, organizing, shopping, etc like crazy for the past few weeks. So, last night, I started bringing out the suitcases. And Sutton decided that he wanted to help.He kept saying "I pack. I pack."
So he packed his duckie, his blankie, his binkie, various plastic food toys. And then he decided to pack himself.
Looks pretty innocent, doesn't it? And don't you just love the urine stains on my carpet, courtesy of my dog?
Look closer.
Here's a better angle.



A look inside the bag.You think he's excited too?

Potty Time

For the last few weeks, we've been experiencing somewhat of a regression in the world of potty training. Sutton has absolutely no interest in becoming potty trained, and no amount of books or stickers will convince him otherwise. So we had to break out the big guns.

Candy.

Yes, I know. It's not the world's best solution, but it's one that works for us. For a while, we were using M&Ms, but I gave him one, and he drooled blue dye. Yuck. So we've been using jelly beans.

So, if he sits on the potty, he gets a jelly bean. But here's the problem. He will only sit on the potty with a diaper on.
But he REFUSES to sit on the potty without a diaper on. Tonight, he wanted a jelly bean. So we told him that he could have two jelly beans, if he sat without a diaper on. Cue the screaming and crying. I mean, he FUH-REAKED out!! I've never seen him so hysterical. He was pointing at his diaper, begging us to put it back on.

Why is he so scared? Is it the feel of the plastic on his tush? I honestly don't know-and it's not like he can easily tell me. We put Buzz on the potty, to show him that it wasn't scary. He kept telling Buzz "No! It my potty!"

We're going to try giving him some diaper-free time, to let him get used to the feel. Or even putting big boy underpants on him, with no diaper.
What worked for your kids?

Shut-In

While at swimming class today (more on that in another post) I overheard two moms talking. The one mother was talking about how her daughter gets up during the night. "I even have to put a velcro-lock on my fridge," she was saying. "Otherwise she opens the door, and leaves it open during the night."

And that got me thinking.

Back in a previous post, I talked about Sutton's bedroom door. Well, it's not technically a real door. It's two folding doors. You know the ones I mean, where they come together in the middle and close. Here, I'll give you a picture.We originally wanted to remove these doors and install a normal door, with a doorknob. But this is a rental house, and we needed to get permission from the owner to make the changes. The owner was OK with it, provided that we used a licensed contractor, and had the rental company inspect the work when it was completed. Then we found out that it would cost us $400 to do it; and that's not even including the paint. Umm, forget it. Thanks.

So, what have we been doing? Well, we switch off between two things. First, we shut the doors, and use a baby gate to keep them closed. For example.

And that works. Until he wants to get up. Then he bangs the doors against the gate, screaming and yelling for us until we get up and take down the gate.

Or we try leaving the gate off. And he gets up during the night. We've caught him sneaking around the dark house at night. And trying to get him back to sleep takes FOREVER. Not to mention that he gets up at the crack of dawn, since his room gets a lot of sunlight. And yes, we have blackout curtains. And it's STILL bright in his room. Go fig.

I feel terrible about having to lock my child in his room at night, but I don't know what we should do. Either option is not the ideal situation. Does anyone have suggestions?

What We've Been Doing

While I might have been going stir crazy thanks to being cooped up inside (115 degrees on Friday!) Here's what Sutton has been up to. Our little boy has discovered Toy Story. Now, it's all about Buzz, flying, etc. He likes to wear his blanket around his neck like a cape, run around and call himself "Super Sutton."



Please forgive the state of my house. It's a small space and we have a local hurricane by the name of Sutton.

I'm Still Here...

It's been a while since I posted last, but I've been in a little bit of a rut. Summertime is difficult in Arizona. It's SOOOOO hot, and it's hard to keep little kids entertained. We can't go outside and play, because it's SOOOO hot. So we stay inside most of the day, which means watching TV and movies. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But after the first viewing of Toy Story (1 of many) I get a little stir crazy.

So I've been cooking, and trying to find new things to keep myself busy while Sutton and Dave zone out in front of the TV. (Don't worry; I let them do it for an hour or so, then I insist that we get out of the house, just to change up the pace.)

I'll go more into detail later, but I need to get ready for Sutton's swimming lesson. I'll let you know how it goes.