Well, here it is. My most hated part of motherhood to date. And I’m doing it again. (well, it’s not like I have a choice- I’m gonna have to do it with Timmy eventually). So, it’s time. I think he’s ready. Today is day two of full on underwear and we have only had one poopy accident and no pee accidents at all!Fortunately for me, I was out running some errands yesterday when the poop happened, so John caught that one. It’s not like I haven’t caught my fair share of that over the years though, so don’t feel too badly for John.  I am putting him on the toilet once every hour and he goes. We even got brave yesterday and ventured out to Target in underwear- of course, I brought a full change of clothers- but we didn’t need it. He is really doing awesome. Timmy is really so proud of himself in his underwear and loves wearing them. We sing the "pee-pees on the potty" song everytime he goes, and he gets a big smile and yells "I did it". Too cute. I can only hope that it is going to continue as well and that this is really it. We are doing pullups for naps (which for two days since we started have been totally dry when he wakes up) and diapers for bed still. I’m not worried about that yet. One step at a time.

I just love that little tushy in those cute character underwear. Good thing too, cause I just bought underwear in Shrek, Cars, Spiderman, Toy Story, Diego, and Disney stars. That’s a lot of underwear. Go Timmy!!

So sad around here on Saturday afternoon. Graeme left us and flew back home to England. We had such a great time while he was here with us. So great. Some of the highlights from the trip: I took Graeme into NYC on Wednesday and brought him to his first Broadway show- he chose Phantom of the Opera. Thankfully, he (said at least) really liked it. Well, he didn’t fall asleep, so that’s something. Went out to dinner after the show, did some walking around Times Square and headed home. Luckily for Graeme, his friends were in town with NOGA while he was here so he had some people to pal around with (read: go out drinking with) at night.

My favorite…we went to the mall during the week and of course stopped in at Abercrombie and Fitch, and not surprisingly, they asked Graeme if he wanted a job there…again. Even though he has a great job he is starting really soon at Microsoft in England, I still think he should just blow it off, move here, and work at the mall. Don’t think that’s happening though.

On the way to the beach on Saturday, we stopped in front of Trainland to get a picture of Graeme in front of the store and also in front of the Bobby Bacala sign they have in the window. For those of you unfamiliar, Trainland is the store in which Bobby Bacala from the Sopranos was whacked in the last few episodes. Graeme is a big Sopranos fan and was so excited about seeing the store. He also made me play the Journey song "Don’t Stop Believing" from the season finale a bunch of times in the car.

I also asked Graeme if he would record our outgoing answering machine message with his awesome accent, which he did. So if you call my house and get a voice you don’t recognize, now you know who it is! I also MADE Graeme let me take a few pictures of him. They came out super- but what can you expect from a subject like that. I couldn’t really do a bad job.

We will really miss him a lot. The big boys were hysterically crying at the beach when they had to say goodbye. Thankfully, John had tickets to the Brooklyn Cyclones (Mets minor league baseball team) on Saturday night, so they went straight from the beach to the game which helped them keep their minds off Graeme leaving (I know Graeme…sell outs!) and they didn’t have to do the traumatic airport run with me. Even I got a little teary at the airport. And then Timmy started in with "see coach graeme again?" and I had to drive away fast before I really lost it. I hate goodbyes. But the good news is that for work Graeme might be travelling to the USA for work a few times a year so there is a little hope that we might see him again.

Yeah, you’d be sad too. Admit it.

Another victim of the Wii. When the boys actually let Graeme get in a moment of gametime, he got sucked in just like them. With the shouts and whoops coming up the stairs from the basement, you wouldv’e thought there was a real game going on down there. Then before dinner tonight, we caught Graeme sneaking in a little Wii time on his own.

We took Graeme out to Nick’s for Italian tonight with my parents and the boys, which he really enjoyed. So even if we are on the boring side for him, at least we are feeding him well. Patrick started in with the tears tonight (only 4 more days until Graeme leaves) about being sad over Graeme’s departure. The hard part is that we don’t know when we will see him next this time as he starts his "big boy" job with Microsoft in London next month so he won’t be doing the crazy travelling like he did this year. I guess we will just have to travel to the UK to visit him next time. Yeah, right after we go to Australia to see Nate and Colleen!

Spent the day Monday at the beach with Sharon and Olivia which was great. Hot as hell, but great. Timmy’s newest thing is now jumping directly into the pool off the side (instead of jumping into my arms) and going all the way underwater. He loves it and did it a thousand times. He also went in the ocean a little bit which is a big deal cause he has been scared of the ocean for the last year or so. Then spent the day today at the pool with Graeme and the boys. Tommorrow night Graeme and I are going to see Phantom of the Opera on B’way. He said he wanted to catch a show while he was here and that’s what he picked. John is not going- his theory on Broadway is that he "can nap at home for free". So I’m back to being Mrs. Robinson apparently. Eh, it could be worse…

It is still amazing to me that we have kept our little playgroup going for almost 8 years now. That’s a long time. I don’t think any of us really thought it would work out as well as it did when we met at Gymboree all the way back in the end of 1999. All of our kids were in the same "class" and we just kinda clicked. They were all our first babies, we were all around the same age ourselves. We made fun of the kids/moms/teachers we didn’t like(horrible, I know, but they did deserve it and we didn’t do it to their faces.) Like Hunter who couldn’t close his mouth cause he was SO huge, the teacher who kept calling Beau "bew" and Ryan "brian"- Yeah, she’s a girl- that same teacher who looked like Salma Hyack from Studio 54. We started having playgroup every friday after gym rotating houses. At first they were all just lumps on the blanket when we got together, but they finally figured out that they could play together and became friends. We’ve watched our kids grow up together, have seen new babies born (lots!) since the original crew, lost one husband to cancer, held eachother up, vacationed together, given and received so much advice and support, celebrated together, cried together, painted, remodeled and decorated, experienced a bunch of relocations- some really far like Michigan and Georgia and some just further out on Long Island or to a new house in the same town (come to think of it, I am the only one in the playgroup who has NOT moved since we’ve started). Loved eachother. A lot. Laughed even more than that. I don’t know what I would do without these girls. They are the best. These are MY GIRLS.

Celeste was in town with her girls from Georgia so we were (almost all) able to meet up for dinner at our locale- PF Changs. Unfortunatley, these days it’s very rare for all of us to be together in the same place at the same time. Usually someone is missing. It kind of rotates. Then later in the week, we met at Maureen’s house for a kids playgroup. Again, Jeannie and her crew and Maureen and her’s were absent. Maureen will be in to visit at the end of the month (yea!!!!) with her kids. We have to work on Celeste and Maureen coordinating visits.

This coming March will be our 3rd year of the mom’s going to the Hotel Hershey for a spa weekend. It is the best, most relaxing vacation. Although it does somehow end up taking at least one of us over 7hrs to get there when it should be a 3-3.5hr ride. Again, the attendees rotate (Jennifer, Celeste, Maureen E and I year One- Jeannie just had a baby and Maureen Z couldn’t come in from Michigan. Jennifer, Maureen E, Maureen Z and I year Two- Jeannie’s sister was having a baby, Celeste couldn’t make it from Georgia) but we were really hoping that everyone could make it this year. Until Jeannie dropped the bombshell on us at dinner- she’s due with her 5th baby that weekend!!! So we will see what this year brings for our trip.

One of my favorite things about the kids getting together is that no matter how much time has passed since they have seen eachother last, they just pick right back up from where they left off last time. Now with the big ones in school, some of the middle ones in school too, and everyone with after school activities, it makes it really hard to visit as much as we used to when our big activities were gymboree or naps. But we will always make it work. We like eachother too much not to. And maybe there will even be some prom dates or weddings in the future. Well, one can hope, right??!!