A Parent’s Demise

For all of you out there who have have children who pretty much potty trained themselves be grateful, be very grateful!  I don’t know what it is going to take for Abby to be completely potty trained!?!  In reality with her parents being who they are, it will probably take her wanting to do it her way, on her time.  Yes, mom and dad you can have your laugh now.

She knows how to go pee pee just fine and does it all the time–at least when she wants to.  If she doesn’t, she won’t.  She won’t even attempt to go poo poo at all.  I don’t know what to do.  We’ve tried treats and even upped the ante, but she won’t.  We even bought her big girl underwear and let her wear them over her pull-up one day and she loved it.  We had the idea of just going for it and putting her only in her undies.  I thought she’d have an accident at some point and really hate it and it would do the trick.  Ya, big fat dream on my part.  This is what it looked like at the end of the day.

That’s right no pants and if there was a picture of me you’d see me at my wits end.  Admittedly, I hadn’t done the laundry for the week so it’s not like she had accidents in every single pair of her pants, but she’d had enough accidents that she didn’t have any clean pants to wear by dinner time.  If you ask me she did it on purpose.  The first accident truly surprised her, but when she realized she got to take a bath I think she was in heaven.  She loves taking baths which puts me in a bind.  Either I deal with a pee pee smell or I give in a let her enjoy a bath.  What is a mom to do?  I am open to any advise at this point–that is unless you have kids that trained themselves.

Playing Cupid

I realize Valentine’s day was a few weeks ago, but my schedule has been a little crazy lately and I haven’t had a chance to post this.  I figure it’s never too late to spread the love.  For Valentine’s day, Abby wanted to make cards for people.  She loves coloring, but I’ve learned that apparently it comes second to stickers.  Usually I feel like I have to pull her away from the crayons and markers, but she couldn’t color the cards fast enough once she learned she could put stickers on them too.  She also liked the idea of mailing the cards to her grandparents so much she wanted to mail them to everyone else instead of handing them out when she saw them on Valentine’s day.

Abby deeply focused on decorating the cards.

Grace’s first Valentine’s card…look at that excitement!

Grandma’s Barber Shop

Abby visited the barber shop again; this time it was planned.  Thanks Grandma!

Little Ry’s Barber Shop

Childhoods are made of things that horrify one mom and humor another.  We’ve all been the mother who is horrified and also the mother who is entertained.  Thankfully, this round I was the mother that was humored.  Unfortunately for my cousin Lacy, she was the mother who was horrified.

A little background for those who don’t know.  Lacy watches my girls on Tuesdays while I work.  She is a great mom and definitely of the most patient moms I know.  While she is watching my girls two of her own kids are also at home.  Her little boy is about a year older than Abby, and her little girl is in between Grace and Abby…so pretty much 4 kids under the age of 4.  She definitely has her hands full, but it doesn’t seem to phase her.  Thankfully all the kids play well together.  Abby and her little boy Ryan, get along great, maybe a little too well if that is possible.  A good way to describe it could be partners in crime!

So back to one mother’s horror and one mother’s humor.  It’s been a few weeks now that the first offense happened.  Abby and Ryan decided to play barber shop.  They had toy scissors at first, but for partners in crime how long do you think that lasted?  Eventually, they moved up to the real deal and Ryan cut Abby’s hair right in the front.  She had bangs on one half of her head.  So Abby has been wearing her barrettes and rubber bands right up front.  It was just starting to grow out when Ryan deemed it time to visit the barber shop again.  This time he cut her hair on both sides just below her ear.  It’s a good thing Abby has some curl to the bottom of her hair so it is easily hidden.

Lacy is horrified.  I think these are the funny things that we will look back at and laugh about.

Haircuts by Ryan, by appointment only!

Little Chomper

Not one, but two teeth have finally poked through Grace’s gums.  Thankfully she doesn’t bite anyone, but as soon as she sees food coming her mouth starts chomping.  This girl fits right in our family, she enjoys a good meal!  One day she will learn that a good meal consists of more than pureed fruits and vegies with a side of rice or oatmeal cereal!

A two-toother grin.

Hide and Seek

Grace is not quite crawling yet, but that doesn’t stop her from getting around.  She moves all around the room.  She rolls, turns, rocks, pushes off things, and scoots backwards.  I have to be careful where I put her down.  I can set her down in one location and turn my back for a mere 3 seconds only to turn around again to find her in a completely different location.  If she is this fast now I fear what it is going to be like when she starts to crawl and walk.  The other day I set her down in our front room to play with some toys while I finished getting ready only to hear her grunting a little while later.  Apparently she had her own idea of what constituted entertainment.

Peek-a-boo!

Exhausted after a good game of hide and seek.

Volleyball Genius

Last weekend we met some of Andy’s family in Lehi.  His niece, Olivia, was recruited to play on a volleyball team that happened to have a tournament there.  Needless to say it took us a while to actually get down there.  Why is it the only time your baby seems to have a blow out is when you are running a little late and trying to get out of the house?  Once we finally arrived it was fun to watch Liv play and talk with his mom and sister.  Of course Abby ate up all the attention she got from grandma and aunt Sarah, plus all the treats grandma bought her for going potty on the toilet.  Unfortunately, all of the pictures I took of Liv serving were a little blurry.  I guess that is what you get when you try to take a picture of someone that has a fierce overhand serve with a camera that has a battery that needs to be recharged.

Contamination Station

There’s nothing that makes a mother feel like she deserves the mother of the year award like having a house full of sick people.  Andy had something last week and both girls apparently have RSV and ear infections (plus Grace is teething)…and to think I debated whether or not to call their pediatrician.  Don’t worry I have cleared a space on our table for the award!

Needless to say after seeing the pediatrician last week we have been stuck home all day every day.  Thankfully, the girls seem to be on the course to recovery and for the most part they have still been kind to each other.  It was really sweet the other night, I was holding Grace on the couch and on her own Abby sat down beside us and held Grace’s hand.

Nothing like a pajama day to make you feel better!

Grandma and Grandpa

Andy had to stay home and work, but the girls and I visited my parents last week.  The girls always love visiting their grandma and grandpa (both sets) and I love watching them interact.   One of the first things Abby does when visiting my parents is play with all of my mom’s teddy bears–this trip was no exception.  We got there and after saying hi to grandma and grandpa she went straight to the bears.  Abby loves helping people.  She helped grandma feed the chicken (yes there is no “s”, there is only one chicken left).  Later she told me she wanted to live with the chicken in the chicken’s house.  I had to laugh at that one.  She was also in heaven when she got to ride the bus with grandma…well that is after I finally convinced her she didn’t have to go to school.

Walking the path to feed the chicken.

Worried that she has to go to school.

Exploring the bus with grandma.

Grace was a little different that her usual self during parts of the trip.  She had a hard time falling asleep, spit up a lot, and was cranky–at least for her.  It turns out she is teething, poor girl.  It’s a new experience for me because teething didn’t seem to bother Abby.  Grace loved playing with grandma and grandpa too.  I never have a problem keeping her attention while trying to feed her, but this trip I couldn’t seem to keep it.  She just kept wanting to play with grandpa instead of eat.  She would careen her head every which direction to look at him.  Of course, grandpa ate it all up!

Two kids at heart playing together.

Christmas Traditions

I love Christmas traditions.  There are some from my childhood that I looked forward to every year; Christmas breakfast being top on my list.  In my opinion, there isn’t a better Christmas breakfast then waffles, vanilla ice cream and strawberries (there was always other items like egg nog, bacon, eggs and that kind of stuff, but I didn’t care about that).  I remember it seemed like a lot of work to prepare for all of us growing up…the things moms will do out of love.  That tradition is one I have always wanted to continue with my own family.  Growing up I also had friends who always received pj’s on Christmas eve.  That is one tradition I was a little envious of so I decided to begin that one too.  I decided to combine the two; each Christmas eve we are going to open up our pj’s and have my childhood Christmas breakfast for dinner.  On Christmas morning we will have sticky buns; the breakfast Andy had on Christmas morning.

Grace and Abigail sporting their new pj’s.

On Christmas eve this year we went to temple square to see the lights.  I never tire of seeing the lights there, it is so pretty and peaceful.  It was really nice to end the hustle and bustle of the season on a peaceful note.

It was a Christmas miracle Christmas morning because Abby slept until 7:50!  Once we all woke up, we opened presents and had a very relaxing day.  The four of us simply hung out together.  It was really nice to have a calm, relaxing day without feeling like we have to race from one place to another.  We will visit my parents in a couple of weeks.

Even though you have to look past her hair, I love this picture of Abby because it shows her excitement.  She LOVES curious george and we thought she would go crazy when she opened it.  She did alright…just not for the reason we thought!  Curious george is holding a flashlight and that is what she was so excited about.  She loves playing with flashlights at her cousins house and was thrilled to open one up.  Andy and I found it hilarious that her excitement over the flashlight totally squashed any excitement she had for that curious little monkey.  Of course now she loves to play with him.