Blueberries, Blueberries, and More Blueberries

Wow! Where has the summer gone already? I can't believe it is the end of August. I knew I wouldn't get much chance to post this month because we were vacationing and gone often, but I can't believe how fast the month flew!

To kick off the month, the kids and I went blueberry picking. Troy was supposed to go with us, then got called in to work, then was told he didn't have to come in, then got called in again, but that's another story for another day. Blueberry picking is an annual tradition for us, but it was Greyson's first time going along, and Kaden's first time to actually fill his own bucket. I was a tad nervous because I thought Kaden would be tempted to eat every berry in sight. On the way to the farm (we always pick at Reender's Blueberry Farm), Lauryn and I reviewed with Kaden the two DeWys Family Blueberry Picking Rules:

1.) Wait to eat the berries until we get home and wash them.
2.) Leave the green berries on the bush so they can keep growing.

Kaden repeated the rules and looked very serious about doing a good job, and guess what...he did FANTASTIC! In fact, he didn't eat a single berry while we were picking, and when we were paying for our berries, the clerk offered Kaden a berry to eat, but he politely said, "No thanks. We wait to eat the berries until we take them home and wash them." What a little man!

Lauryn was her usual delightful self. She filled her bucket quickly and carefully, meanwhile calling out what each of the boys were doing lest I forget to check on them. "Mom, Kaden has moved over to a new bush so don't let him get too far away." "Mom, Greyson has a little bit of sweat on his forehead. You might need to wipe it off for him." (Did I mention we picked 5 p.m. on a 90 degree day to go blueberry picking?)

Greyson was also true to form. He rode in the hiking backpack, content to lean over one shoulder and then the other watching me carefully. He also sucked his thumb and wiped his own little sweaty brow.

We came home with just shy of 10 lbs. of blueberries after 30 minutes of picking. Not too shabby, and we froze some so we can make lots of Blueberry Buckle, a yummy recipe I just acquired. (Thanks, Megan!)

Hope you all enjoyed the blueberry crops as well!

To Infinity and Beyond!

If you look back a few posts, you may remember that at the beginning of the summer, we started potty training Kaden. At the time, we thought this task would never be accomplished as he was very set on staying in diapers. It seemed like he would be spend an infinite amount of time in diapers. In reality, once he caught on, he was trained VERY quickly. As a reward, we had told him that when he was completely potty trained, we would take him to see Toy Story 3 in the theater. He was PUMPED! He had never seen a movie in the theater before, and he asked right away if he could bring Lauryn with us. ("Cuz she's my best friend, Mom.") For the days leading up to the movie, Lauryn pumped him full of details about what you do in a movie theater. Since she has seen a movie in the theater (yes that's right, just one), she considered herself to be an expert. When Kaden reached the point where we felt he was trained, we made plans to see the movie. At this point, Kaden was completely dry and clean throughout the day, and although he was wearing a diaper at night, it was always dry in the morning. We had a handful of diapers left, and our theory was that we would just use them up and be done.

So...we headed off to the movies. Lauryn had told Kaden that he would get a BIG container of popcorn and a special drink, so we couldn't disappoint him. He was so cute! The popcorn container was as big as he was, and at one point, when we looked down the row at him, he had his head completely inside the bucket. It was a scream. Both kids loved the movie, and Kaden and I left the theater no less than three times to use the bathroom, and it was well worth it. Our boy is a big boy now!

Two days later, we were getting into pjs a little bit earlier than normal. I had told the kids that we could have a family movie night that night, and we always wear pjs for these. As I was putting Kaden in his pjs, I told him that we would leave his underwear on for the movie and I would put him in his diaper just before bed. He looked me in the eyes and said, "No." I said, "No?" And he stated, "I don't wear diapers anymore. Diapers are for babies like Greyson. I sleep in underwear because I am a big boy. No more diapers for me ever again." And to this day, dry at night and no more diapers ever again! Like Buzz, we have been to infinity and beyond!