officially a walker.

as much as i hate to admit my little girl is growing up, it looks like we finally have a walker on our hands and i couldn’t be happier!! avery had gotten to the stage where she always wanted to get down and get around on her own when we were out but i wasn’t about to let her crawl all over stores, restaurants, etc so i ended up fighting her to get her to stay in my arms – ugh!

today, nanny & vanpa came down and while we were playing in the living room, nanny mentioned that she hadn’t seen avery crawl at all the entire time they had been here. i realized i hadn’t really seen her crawl much either and that’s when it clicked that  she had finally decided walking was her preferred method of transportation :) so glad she decided not to wait until 16 months like her older brother!!!

so proud of her but wish this wasn’t all flying by quite so quickly!!

saturday in pictures.

 

i didn’t get pics of the birthday party or nanny & vanpa in there but you get the basic idea…going, going, must not stop!!!!

potty training update.

{probably tmi for most}

the first couple of days at day care were a little rough for mister e. day one mister man had 3 accidents. day two he had 2 accidents but yesterday, it was only 1!!! go little man!!

we were so proud of mister e this morning! e woke up saying “mommy, i need to go teetee on potty” so we took him in the restroom and not only did he go to the bathroom, he also had a completely dry diaper which is HUGE!! this is the kid who couldn’t even wear a pull-up to bed because he would over-wet it and now it’s dry!! so exciting!! i’m not going to put too much weight on it but i was so proud of him this morning!

we’re still having issues with #2 but if we can at least get #1 taken care of , we can focus more on the other.

i can’t believe my baby boy is getting so big!! we’re so proud of him!

hopefully in the clear.

sweet avery has been a wheezy mess since sunday night :( it started as a small cough but by the time we went to put her down, you could hear it more clearly than i could ever hear evan’s wheezing. thing was, she was perfectly happy, never ran a fever, etc. she refused to sleep by herself sunday night so we had a slumber party in her room and she spent the entire night fidgeting around – not a great night’s sleep for this mama!

the next day we took her to the dr to make sure it wasn’t anything serious and sure enough, it wasn’t. just a cold with some wheezing. a little liquid albuterol later and we were set. the baby was still happy and acting like nothing was wrong. she just sounded like a chain smoker but whatever:) that night, she did better sleeping but i still slept in her room with her for the short time she would actually stay in her crib. the rest of the night was spent on mummy.

she went to school on tuesday and did fine {except for the wheezing} and then refused to sleep in her crib again. one more restless night down.

when i picked her up from school on wednesday, i noticed that she wasn’t wheezing anymore – hallelujah! we got through playing, dinner, bath, and her night time sippy with still no wheezing. we put her down and besides one time of waking up and needing her daddy to settle her, she did great. she even woke up once a little later, whimpered a bit {probably couldn’t find a paci:)}, and then put herself back to sleep!! go girl! she slept ALL night long in her bed!!

i am so thankful for a few things…
first is that the wheezing is gone! while she didn’t act like anything was wrong, that couldn’t have been fun to deal with on her end and it scares her mummy and daddy to no end!
second is that i got to sleep in my bed for the first time in 3 nights last night without a leach :) and it was amazing!! i feel refreshed!
last is that she did so well sleeping all night. a lot of times sickness completely screws up the great sleeping habits we work so hard to develop so we have to let her cry it out, etc which breaks our heart. besides about 10 minutes last night, she did great!! here’s hoping it sticks!!

avery’s first haircut.

we randomly decided to get avery’s hair cut for the first time yesterday. it was getting a little shaggy in the back and i just wanted the baby hairs trimmed off so that it was more even. evan & brian both needed a haircut as well so it was a family event :) we met up right after work so please excuse the phone pics…like i said, random decision meaning i didn’t bring the camera when we left the house. she did great and sat on my lap the whole time. she was a little curious but didn’t cry once. what a big girl!! she still looks mostly the same because the shaggy hair typically fell inside her shirt but i’m glad it’s cleaned up!

fuzzy pre-haircut pic…
 
“mummy, what is going on?”

first cut…


finished product…not much different really :)

they were nice enough to save some of the hair and put it in a special “1st haircut” keepsake! aj did a great job – such a big girl! now brother, that’s a whole different story… :)

painting.

yesterday, in the midst of potty training, we decided to let the kiddos paint. both had been given “homework” at school which was to decorate a heart that their teachers would use for a bulletin board in their classrooms. evan had also picked out a big e awhile back to paint so we let him go to town on that. here’s the result…

 

FUN!!

potty training.

we decided this weekend was time – yikes! e had been talking about big boy underwear for forever so we decided to jump on board and run with it! friday night, we made sure that we had plenty of pairs of big boy underwear ready to go, got the potty pressies unpacked and put in a bag to reward e for going on the potty, and even blew up balloons and put them in their bathroom so that he was excited to go saturday morning. quite the production really!! i hope he doesn’t expect a party every time he goes to the bathroom on the potty:)

this post will probably contain tmi for most so feel free to skip the details :)  e woke up saturday morning and we immediately took him to the bathroom where we really talked up going on the potty! he was excited about the balloons and really got excited when he found out there were presents involved! like a good boy, he went teetee on the potty and received his first potty pressie. he also put on his first pair of big boy underwear picked out himself!

he will hate me one day for this… 


our big boy underwear selection…

the results {i know, i know…tmi:)}

& the proud big boy with his thomas big boy undies…

& his first potty pressie…he picked a book out of all of the toys & candy…what a good boy!!!

our plan was to take him to the potty every 15 minutes during the morning and for the most part, we stuck to it. he did a great job getting used to it with only 3 or 4 accidents. while that sounds like a lot, we were very proud of him for doing so well right out of the gate!

during nap time and bed time, we are going to stick to pull-ups for awhile but we did notice that his pull-ups were considerably drier than they have been so maybe he’s learning a little control…maybe.

after nap, we watched the winnie the pooh movie while the kiddos woke up. we had to pause the movie a couple of times for potty breaks but he did amazingly well and only had 2 accidents that afternoon!!

the cheeseballs watching winnie the pooh…    

that night, we were talking about how it went and brian asked what i thought. i told him that i honestly thought he had done a great job but that if i never saw the inside of their bathroom again, it would be too soon :) i’ve never spent so much time in a bathroom in my life!!

sunday morning we decided to skip church to continue the potty training adventure. we spent the day at home and we continued to ask evan if he needed to go potty but we didn’t ask as often and many times, he would tell us he needed to go. evan ended up only having one accident in the morning and one accident in the afternoon and did great!! the potty pressies might have helped motivate him a little!

the only issue we had was with #2. evan wouldn’t go on saturday and then on sunday, went to his certain place where he would sometimes go and take care of business in his diaper. i noticed he was there so i grabbed him and ran for the bathroom. he was able to finish up in the potty which was really good! he even got 2 potty pressies for going #2 – haha!! here’s hoping he catches on to both aspects of pottying quickly!!

i am so proud of our little guy and hope that he continues to be as excited about pottying as he has been! here’s hoping we are a “1 kid in diapers” household soon!!!