Keeping Up with the Harrises: A few quick stories

It has been a busy month, and I keep meaning to put up a post. So here is one, imperfect and probably incomplete, but at least it's something!

Ashlyn is potty trained! Once we figured out that she equated underpants with a diaper, it went very smoothly. She was bare-butted for a few days, but then she was trained very quickly. She wakes up dry from naps and even overnight most times. Going number 2 on the potty can be dramatic...and we must allow at least 15 minutes for her to realize that she is not getting off the potty until she produces something and she does with the rare exception.

Matthew is crawling very well (and very quickly) and is steadily ruining his sister's world. She has been into puzzles lately and now only does them at the kitchen table to avoid her brother meddling with it. He is into everything, much more so than she was at this age. After Ashlyn used the potty yesterday, we were washing her hands when Matthew decided to chuck a toy in the potty. I thought it was a fluke, and began to wash said toy when he chucked ANOTHER toy in the potty. So now when we head to the bathroom, Matthew crawls excitedly down the hallway--squealing with delight--and we know what he wants to do. I spend the duration of the potty time trying to guard Ashlyn from her brother's attempts to access the potty and then when she is done, I immediately close the lid of the potty. "Rats, foiled again!" says Matthew.

We have seen a lot of our family over the past month. Mark's grandmother was in town for a few days, so we stayed with his parents for a visit. My mom visited for a long weekend and then about a week later, my dad stayed with us for a few days as well. The kiddos got pretty spoiled with grandparents and it was a lot of fun. Here are some pictures.

Here is Grandma Wendy with the boy...visited late May.

Here is Grandpa Dave with Ashlyn on the metro after a visit downtown. Below is Matthew snoozing in the stroller on the metro ride home also...tired kids!