big boy fun

Ahh, life with a two-year-old.... it hasn't been as terrible as rumored, although we have had some moments. Miles is fully, totally and completely entranced by all things transportation. He got a bunch of Thomas the Train stuff for his birthday and ~loves~ it... I hear "play choo-choos, mommy" all day long. But he's also a fan of the big diggers and dump trucks. We took one to the playground on Friday and got dirty in the gravel. It was a relatively cooler day finally, so the first playground excursion in a while. We also play trucks in the sandbox on the patio - good practice for our beach trip not too long from now.

Miles tried his hardest to cheer the Vols to victory, but no luck. We went back to the place where we filmed his last cheer session, and as soon as he walked in he started yelling "GO BIG ORANGE!" Too cute. We even cheered as he went to sleep, but oh well. Maybe we'll have better luck this week.

We're also all trying very hard at some exciting big boy things - the big boy bed and potty training! Both are going very well. Miles naps in the big boy bed and does fine most days. He has a bed buddy - the big white bear his G-G Mama gave him. It's bigger than Miles, but they share well. We're waiting a few more weeks until we try an overnight in the bed. We've also all been working on potty training. Miles has a few "indicators" that let us know he needs to go, but he hasn't yet told us he has to go. Every time he goes he gets to put a star on the calendar and gets a sticker for his shirt. That's been a good enough incentive so far, so we'll avoid the candy treats for now. I guess the next step is figuring out the Pull-Ups process and working over to that. Oh, and a poop on the potty would be nice too, but we can be patient.

I've got a new venture too... a supper swap! I'm in a weekly moms & tots group through our church. We started out meeting weekly, but all decided we needed more interaction, so now we play Monday and Wednesday mornings. One mom suggested that we try a supper swap among our group, so we get going next week. Basically there are 5 moms and we'll each cook a double recipe of something every week. That should give us 4 8x8 pans of whatever the item is. Then we'll keep 1 and bring the other 3 servings to swap on Mondays. Right now our aim is 2 weeks of the month, we'll see how it goes. We're posting our recipes on a blog, Mom's Supper Swap. One good outcome so far is I've come up with lots of things to try making in between. Tonight I'm making Tuscan Chicken Stew from Notably Nashville, the Jr. League cookbook. It's funny though, most of the recipes I've marked to try are desserts.... hmmmm.....