Adventures in Potty Training

It has officially begun!! John is all done wearing diapers and is now in Pull-ups. I've been trying to sit him on the potty each morning this week and today he finally peed. At first it was kind of an accident. I asked him if he had any more and he said yes. Then he made an effort to actually go. He did that two more times before he said he was all done and flushed the toilet. I was so proud of him!! Hopefully it won't be too long before he's consistently using the potty throughout the day.

John's favorite summer treat

John's new favorite treat is ice-cream. Below is a picture of him after he's finished. He insists on feeding himself so it gets everywhere. Thankfully we had vanilla from Sonic that night and it wasn't hard to clean up his car seat. I must make a mental note not to let him have chocolate ice-cream in the car.

Super Busy Weekend!!

This was a super busy weekend for the Hadleys. It was Brian's first weekend home so he spent lots of time with the boys. We went to see Kung Fu Panda as a family Thursday evening. Then Friday we celebrated the 4th of July with a BBQ at our house. We had lots of family in town and the boys had a blast playing with their cousins Julia, Jayna, and Gino. We stayed up to watch some neighbors doing fireworks in our neighborhood.

We had a pretty low key Saturday. The rest of the family hit the beach but neither Brian or I wanted to risk a sunburn (well mainly Brian) before our anniversary dinner at Perry's. We took the boys to the pool for a bit in the afternoon so James could show off his new swimming skills. After the pool, Brian and I got cleaned up and headed out to dinner. Perry's has a great atmosphere. It really reminded us of the steakhouse at the Bellagio where we celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary. Granted, there was no view of the fountains but the food was still fantastic. It's so nice to have a really nice meal once a year without the kids.

Sunday was super busy. After church, we made a quick stop at Katy Urgent Care to have someone look at John's eyes. We suspected he had pink eye and were right. Thankfully there was no wait and the pharmacy was really fast. After that, we headed up to my parent's house (our old house) for breakfast. We let the boys play with their cousins until lunch time. We picked up some food on the way home and then put the boys down for a nap (there's no way they would have napped with all the excitement at Mom and Dad's). Once they got up, we headed back up to Mom and Dad's for dinner and swimming. Our friend Will came down for dinner and showed us all the stuff for his new house. After we finished swimming, we drove up to see where Will's house was going to be built. We got there just before the sales guy left and got to walk through the model. We think it's going to be a perfect house for him. A lot bigger than his apartment but not too big.

Sorry, I don't have any pictures to share. I know I should have taken at least a few but I was just too busy to whip out the camera.

Swimming pictures and video

As promised, here are some photos and a from yesterday's class. James can jump into the water, swim to his teacher, swim back to the wall and them swim to the steps. I was so impressed and he seemed to be having a great time. His teacher has been doing an awesome job with him.

James jumping in


James swimming to his teacher


James climbing out of the pool


Video of James swimming

The patio cover is done!!!

Our patio over is all finished now!!! Last week they finished up the electrical work, hung the speakers, fans and flood lights, and put the brick on the columns. Our friends came over last night to hook up the stereo system for me. Afterwards, we ate dinner and enjoyed some good conversation on the patio. It all looks great and we will definitely be enjoying it for many, many years to come. Here are some pictures of the final product.

Swim lessons at the YMCA

We finally got off our duffs and enrolled James in swim lessons. He went to the YMCA pool four times last week and will go four times this week. The first two days were kind of a bust because he had a substitute teacher and she wasn't great at handling more than two kids. Thankfully his real teacher knows her stuff and keeps James in line. James has been doing really well with kicking and floating on his tummy but still can't relax enough to float on his back. Hopefully these next four classes will go well and we'll have a little fish soon. When we went to the pool on Friday, he only wanted to wear his arm floaties and not his life jacket. He was jumping in and swimming back to the wall to do it all over again. I'll post photos soon.

Patio cover - Week 2

A lot of progress was made on the patio cover this week. Monday the electician came and did all of the wiring and the framers finished the overhang. After that, the shingles were put on and all the hardiplank went up. The painters came and our new screen door was hung Saturday morning. Finally, the gutters were put on Sunday afternoon. Here are some pictures from this past week.

Overhang finished


Shingles on and hardiplank finished


All painted, gutters on and new door hung