Cool kids :)

We've been sick lately (Isaac last week, Mason and I this week), so I've now spent 11 days home with sick kiddos. I'm just praying no one else gets it just as the rest of us are getting well!!

Just a couple reasons for the post, one...Maggie's prayer tonight at bedtime went something like this "Thank you, Jesus...for breakfast, cupcake, Mommy and Daddy." She had a cupcake after lunch, and it must have been good as I was surprised she remembered it! :)

Secondly, Mason has been reading this book called "Yo, Millard Fillmore!" and it has some apparently clever way to remember the order of all the presidents...and, you guessed it, here's the video. He's going to recite the presidents for a class project on famous people...an extension project they were supposed to use their special talents for. Memory is definitely a special talent of his :) Catch his thought process and use of phrases like "Ok...hold on...I need to access the other file."

Mason recites presidents from Sonia Cushing on Vimeo.

Last minute addendum to this post:
As I was tucking Mason in tonight, I gave him a kiss on the cheek...he grabbed a kleenex and I thought he was going to blow his nose. Instead, he wiped his cheek I had just kissed. I said playfully "Are you wiping off my kiss?!?!", to which he replied..."No, Mom, just the spit!" :)

Mason's brain...

Mason this morning was trying to figure out 37 times 2. He knows 45 +45 =90 off the top of his head. So his calculation to get to 37 x 2 was this:

45 x 2 - 20 + 4 = 74 (he did -20 to get to 35 x 2 and then added back in 4 since he needed 37 x 2)

He said it outloud and did the calculation in a flash, but I had him repeat it so I could figure out what he did. That boy amazes me :)

Maggie talk

Maggie talks a LOT, but there are a few words that are just too cute...I had to write them down.

Mac & cheese in Maggie talk sounds like 'monkey cheese'

Excuse me (which she uses appropriately when she is trying to get past someone, or when she burps) sounds like 'mo-keys'. And it's so cute because she just keeps repeating it and getting louder and louder if you don't hear her and move out of her way.

She is now fully potty trained except for nap and bedtime, and I never even have to ask her or remind her to go. She has been by FAR the easiest to potty train...I never thought I'd get so lucky!! All the kids have potty trained really easily!

And after a night out with some of my mommy friends, I realized too how nice it is to be able to sleep through the night. It has been quite a while I've been able to do this, but the transition was so gradual I didn't even realize when it happened and how nice it is to be able to go to bed at 11pm and still get a solid 8 hours of sleep!! I am so blessed with AMAZING kids and an AMAZING husband. Life.is.good. :)

No more diapers!!

I can't believe it, Maggie has potty trained (except for nap and bedtime...but that will come!). I started three days ago when she said "Potty Mommy!" and THEN she looked down at her pullup and peed in it. She then proceeded to take it off and get herself a new one. I thought to myself...'she's ready!'.

She has gone all three days now without an accident at all...I think this is the FIRST potty training kiddo I've had that has NEVER had an accident while in the training process (knock on wood). She even survived a trip to Sam's Club with me yesterday, and all morning at church sans diaper and had no accidents. I'm declaring victory!

This also happens to coincide with me running out of pullups, but hey, we all need a little push once in a while :)

She still insists on a treat every time she goes, but she's even doing much of the initiating. I make her go before bed and before we leave the house, but other than that I'm leaving it up to her, and she's doing fantastic!

I also realized that I tend to live in the "Won't it be nice..." mindset. You know..."Won't it be nice when I'm not getting up in the middle of the night with kids anymore...", "Won't it be nice when we're done with diapers...", "Won't it be nice when the kids are able to do more for themselves...", etc.

The fact of the matter is, I'm suddenly looking back and realizing...WOW...I'm not up in the middle of the night anymore (and I don't even remember really how it happened!), the kids ARE doing more for themselves, and guess what...I AM done with diapers! It's nostalgic looking back, not that I miss getting woken up in the middle of the night by a screaming baby...but those moments were sweet too.

I'm realizing it is all going by so fast...SO FAST. I'm doing the best I can to cherish the moments, but that won't stop them from passing just like they all do. Here's a blog post by a woman that is an AMAZING read...it says EXACTLY what I've been trying to say for years but couldn't find the words. She says it so perfectly, http://momastery.com/blog/2012/01/04/2011-lesson-2-dont-carpe-diem/. I love the sweet moments of motherhood...but that doesn't mean I have to love every moment in the trenches. I think it makes the sweet moments that much sweeter....

2011 Year In Review

Here's our 2011 Cushing Year In Review slideshow. Thanks to cell phones on top of our usual cameras we were able to capture TONS of amazing moments, but the quality of some of the photos suffers a bit...but it's a trade off I'll take any day! :)

Enjoy!