Dress up and Potty training

So today after school the kids decided to play dress up, and when Gabe came down and asked for help putting on his Buzz lightyear costume I reminded him that if he needed to go potty he would have to be fast so I could help him out of the costume first. A few minutes later Carissa came down to show me how she had dressed up.
Which as a side note, we don't have central air conditioning; all we have is a small window unit in the living room window and the play room and bedrooms are all upstairs. So, after we get home from school the house is usually 85-90 throughout most of it and I start venting it out to cool it off. Anyway, between the heat and the fact that it is supposed to make your family healthier to change their clothes after school, the kids just run around in their underwear after school right now.
A few minutes later Gabe came downstairs and told me that I should come upstairs and ask him if he needs to go potty now. So I said, "Why do you need to go potty." He said, "Yes." So I helped him out of his costume and he was off to go potty.
Usually he will just tell me that he needs to go potty, so that was a little weird. Which right now Gabe is doing great he stays dry most of the time day and night. We are just having a harder time getting him to poop in the potty right now, which he has done it lots of times before but recently he won't do it.

Evolution of a Name

As Gabriel is getting really close to being 3 years old I was thinking about his name, and how big of an influence Carissa has had on his name. Carissa was 18 months old when Gabe was born and she couldn't say "Gabriel" very well, but she combined Gabriel and baby together and we all ended up calling Gabe "Babriel" quite a bit for the first couple of months. Then Carissa came up with "Gabey" combining Gabe and baby, so we all started calling Gabe "Gabey." We also called him, "Gabey baby" a lot of the time until last year when Gabe was getting close to being 2 years old. Then I decided to stop calling him baby and changed it to "Gabey man" and that one has stuck, he introduces himself as "Gabey man" when he meets people. And the thing that I found most amusing about Gabriel's name is that not too long after I started calling him "Gabey man" I got the idea to lift him in the air and say "to the rescue" which he responded by immediately lifting his arms in the air like he was flying. So, basically we created a new super hero and Gabriel is proud to let people know that he is, "Gabey man to the rescue." I don't know where his name will go from here, but I doubt that he will be introducing himself as, "Gabey man to the rescue," when he gets older. Gabe's name has changed more than I had ever imagined at this point, and look forward to where ever it goes from here.

Growing Up

First of all, it has been quite awhile seen I've posted on here, but we went to CA for vacation in June and then I went back to school for the summer semester. The summer semester will be over in a week and a half though.

A couple days ago Ben said that Carissa was telling him all about what her life was going to be like when she grew up, then today on our drive home she started telling me about it.

Carissa: I'm still going to have 3 kids when I grow up and I'm going to be a mommy doctor. I'm going to get up at 5:30 in the morning and eat breakfast and feed my babies breakfast and then kiss them good-bye and go to the doctor's office.

Me: Who is going to watch your babies while you are at the doctor's office?

Carissa: Oh, I will drop them off at school first.

I love listening to all of things that she says, and I really like the part that she is going to get up at 5:30. At least she is planning for it now. Usually, she talks about getting married to Jack when she grows up. Very much to my surprise, Carissa and Jack have been boyfriend/girlfriend at school for over a year now. They hug and the teachers have caught them kissing too, and they are only 4. I'm worried what will happen when she is older, a year long relationship at 3/4 years old is a long time.

Zoo

We finally went to the zoo on May 18 and it was Gabe's first time at the zoo and Carissa's third., Ben and I took Carissa the summer that I was pregnant with Gabe and then she went there on a school field trip last summer. This summer Gabe is going to go to the zoo on a field trip and I wanted to go with him his first time there, so we got it all together and spend a few hours at the zoo. We weren't able to see a lot of the zoo, but we bought a membership so we can go anytime we want to for a whole year now. The baby alligators, peacock, bears, and zebras were the favorites of Carissa and Gabe, which I'm sure they would have more/different favorites if we would have seen more. Actually, the big ball with water was a hit too. That night Carissa got a fever, and she spent most of last week at home, because the doctor said to keep her home until her cough went away. She is better now, and she never really got too sick, just too sick for school.

Brandon's new ktty

My brother, Brandon, got a new little kitty sometime in the last couple of weeks, so when we came over to visit with my family one day my mom told Carissa and Gabe that there was something new in Brandon's apartment down stairs. It is a munchkin, I think, so she has short front legs and she is good at hopping. Carissa and Gabe loved playing with the little kitty. They all seemed to wear each other out.

Mother's Day

I had a nice Mother's Day, we all slept in and then we went to see my mom. We spent most of the day at my parents' house doing nothing in particular. We went out to an early dinner, and at the end of dinner the waitress brought my mom and I each a chocolate covered strawberry. It was a nice surprise. And I actually got my Mother's Day presents from Carissa and Gabe during the week before Mother's Day, the ones that they made at school and couldn't wait to give me. Carissa made me a necklace, bracelet, and card.
I love Carissa's signature.
Gabe painted a little flower pot and colored some paper flowers for me.

Party

So about a week a half ago I had my second night ever of no children. I invited some friends over to celebrate the end of my first semester back in college. Which I ended up getting a 3.85 GPA for the semester and I was very happy to see that I can handle being a single mom, working part time, and going to school full time. So, I really enjoyed having a night with friends, but in the morning I was really excited to get the kids. Ben and I didn't get to my parents house until almost noon, and my mom told me that my little sister took Carissa and Gabe to the park. We got in the car to drive to the park and give them a ride back to the house when we saw them walking down my parents' street. When Carissa and Gabe saw us they told us that they didn't want to go home with us, and Gabe took off running all the way to my parents' house. Carissa followed him a minute later, and she even went in the house and took off her shoes in protest of going home with us before we caught up with her. We stayed there for a little bit, and then they came home with us willingly. It makes me happy to see Carissa and Gabe are so happy staying with my family, but it still makes me sad that they weren't as excited as I was to see them.