Adventures in potty training: Chapter 1

This week I've been slowly working on potty training with Alyssa. More because I can't get the girl to keep a diaper and/or pants on than really feeling ready to tackle potty training. I think she's ready; just not quite so sure about mommy.

Tuesday: She pooped on the floor in the living room and a little bit in her potty. When I saw it she said "Oh poop, Mommy. Daddy pick up home work" Meaning that Daddy would pick it up when he got home from work. I guess she figured that Daddy cleans up Lexi and Joey's poop out in the yard, so poop detail must be his job.

Wednesday: Successful poop in the potty! We called Daddy and both Grandmas to announce the news. BUT . . . while sitting on Daddy's lap after he got home, Alyssa peed through her panties, shorts, and Daddy's shorts.

Thursday: Two successful pees in the potty, which resulted in 2 stickers on her potty chart!

Have I mentioned I'm not sure if I'm ready for this yet?

Sick? Or just plain smart?

Thursday afternoon Alyssa started running a fever between 102 and almost 104. A motrin/tylenol combo seemed to do the trick and she was acting normal, so I didn't think much of it. Yesterday afternoon when she got up from her nap she seemed warm again, so I took her temp and it was 102.2, so back on the motrin we went. She LOVES her motrin. Especially now that she gets to drink it out of a medicine cup like a big girl. After she took it, I started asking her if her ear hurt every once in a while because I'm supremely paranoid about ear infections (even though she's only had 2 in her life). Last night before bed she got all excited because she thought she was going to get medicine. I told her I had to take her temp first to see if she needed it. Her temp was around 99.2, so I told her that she didn't need it because she wasn't sick and the little stinker started crying and saying "Ear hurt, ear hurt". I looked at Adam in disbelief and asked him if she was smart enough to figure out that I would give her medicine if her ear hurt or if he thought he ear really did hurt her. Either way, I figured better safe than sorry, so she got her beloved motrin before bed.

She's growing up waaay too fast.

Myspace/Blog Scattergories

Since scattergories IS one of my fave games, I felt compelled to play along. But I don't blog on Myspace, so I'm sticking it here. In the words of Chris Dowd . . . "wanna fight?"

Rules: Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following...They MUST be real places, names, things...NOTHING made up! If you can't think of anything, skip it. Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial. You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question.

. Your Name: Christi

. Famous Artist/Band/Musician: Christina Aguilera (sp?)

. 4 letter word: Crud

. Color: Cobalt

. Gifts/present: Can opener (I gave my brother one once, along with a bunch of cans of ravioli)

. Vehicle: Century (as in Buick ~ my first car *sigh*)

. TV Show: Curious George (can you tell I'm a mom?)

. Country: Canada

. Name of a boy: Carter

. Name of a girl: Candice

. Alcoholic drink: Cosmopolitan

. Occupation: Cattle Rancher

. Flower: Columbine

. Celebrity: Cindy Crawford

. Food: Chicken

. Something found in a kitchen: Cans

. Reason for Being Late: Car crash

. Cartoon Character: Clifford (the big red dog . . . did I mention that I'm a mom?)

How cute is my husband?

Look what I got for my Mother's Day breakfast . . .

A first for Joel

Last weekend as part of Lenka's first birthday festivities Joel got to experience his first time in a pool. Granted it was REALLY crowded and only lasted about 5 minutes (because there were too many people, not because he didn't like it), but it was special! I'm looking forward to getting him in the pool/hot tub again when we go to Ohio for my cousin Jeanine's wedding.

Some pictures of the "memorable event" ~

In his "cool dude" shades on the way to the pool
With mommy
Proud big sister watching from a distance
Family picture

Special thanks to Julai for the sunglasses and swimming apparel!

Her new 'do

Alyssa, Joel, and I went to visit Grandma and Grandpa N yesterday and before we left we made a trip to Ms. Sharon for Alyssa's first PROFESSIONAL haircut. Sharon used to cut my hair when I was younger, so I was really glad that she was able to do Alyssa's, too ~ I'm such a sentimental fool! And of course, I cried. I could have just sobbed watching her get her haircut, but I didn't want to worry her, so I held it together as best I could. I was sitting there looking at her with one side of her hair cut short and looking all grown up and then other side long and unruly and looking like my baby and it just hit me like a ton of bricks. I kept thinking "that hair has been on her head for as long as she's been alive". Sharon gave us an adorable little soft plastic zippered bag to keep all her hair in for the baby book/scrapbook.

And now for pictures (I know there's a lot, but I took about 30, so be thankful I'm trimming it down!) . . .

Before:

Ready to roll:
First snip:
Counting her curls:

All done:
And thankfully she still has curls!

Do you know how weird I am?

Jeff tagged me for this latest "get to know you" game ~ 6 weird things about me and then I have to "tag" 6 people.

1. I am completely anal about how my bath towels are folded.
2. I can't stand to use wooden spoons ~ they give me the heebie jeebies.
3. Toilet paper has to go a certain way in my house (so that paper goes over the top). I used to even change it at other people's houses, but then I realized that some of them put it the "wrong" way to keep cats from unrolling it all, so I stopped. Sorry to anyone I "paper changed" in the past. ;)
4. When playing solitare on the computer my aces have to go black, red, black, red or red, black, red, black ~ the same colors can't touch each other.
5. I will make the bed right before bed if I haven't gotten around to making it throughout the day. There's just something special about a made bed.
6. My husband doesn't own a cell phone (just for you, Adam!)

I tag Angie 6 times so that maybe she'll FINALLY update her blog.

Deal or No Deal

If I were ever picked to go on this show, there is no way in HELL I would take Adam with. I would get offered $10 and he would start screaming "DEAL! DEAL! DEAL! We can hit Taco Bell on the way home!" And I would say no deal and no matter what amount of money I came home with our marriage would never be the same. So in this case ignorance would most definitely be bliss.

My first choice to take would be Angie. Especially if she had a couple drinks in her. ;) So, Angie, this is your official invite if I ever get picked on Deal or No Deal. We'll bring Eric along, too ~ he's a good team player. We could take Adam, too, he'll just have to stay at the hotel.

"JOEL" ~ A photo collection by Alyssa

Joel was hanging out on Alyssa's bed yesterday and she wanted to take his picture. Since I'm highly amazed, I mean amused, by her photography skills I let her go to town. The second picture *might* be Joel since he was wearing red; although so was Alyssa now that I think about it. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Adam!

Dear Adam,

Happy Birthday to my handsome hubby ~ 30 years young today! :) Hope you have a wonderful day and we're looking forward to celebrating with you through the day. Lots and lots of love!!!

Your silly ww and kids ~

The Girls Next Door

I hate to admit it, but I'm completely fascinated by this show. (For those of you who don't know, its a reality show following around Hugh Hefner's 3 live-in girlfriends). Its like a car wreck. I don't WANT to watch it because I can feel brain cells disappearing by the second, but I just can't stop. I'm dumbfounded by the relationships. I constantly am wondering how it "works", how the girlfriends get "picked", why someone would want to be in that situation . . .

Mommy time

A year ago, when it was just Alyssa and I, and I would trying to get out of the house by 9:10 in order to make a 9:30 jazzercise class I would get sooo stressed out and have such a hard time getting everything together. And this was only getting Alyssa dressed ~ I would just throw my hair up and toss on some comfty clothes and be ready to go. And more often than not Alyssa would eat breakfast in the car while we were driving.

Fast forward a year . . . earlier this week, Alyssa, Joel, and I were leaving the house by 9AM to run errands. We had each been fed, showered, dressed, etc.

I always worried that it would be midafternoon by the time I was ready to face the world with two kids, but its actually the opposite.

Of course it helps that Alyssa gets up about an hour earlier than she used to, hence mommy gets up a lot earlier.

You want WHAT?!

I found out this morning that Alyssa has a hard time pronouncing her "p"s . . . when she asked me for "mancakes" for breakfast!

Then and Now . . .

Alyssa and Joel when Joel was almost a week old . . .
Alyssa and Joel when Joel was almost 3 months old (ignore the spit up, please ~ it was the best picture I could get of the two of them! lol)

Home is where the heart is

We're approaching the one year anniversary of living in our "new" house and I'm kind of surprised that it still doesn't feel like home. I drove past our old house after church Saturday night and as soon as I turned the corner and saw the crab apple tree in the front yard and the green house that Adam and I painted ourselves (okay, I was 7 months pregnant, so I didn't paint, but I did have a say in the color!), my heart started bubbling with wonderful memories and love. I'm sure I'll feel that way about this house someday, but it reminded me again how much I miss our "home". In a way I still feel like I'm playing house or on a vacation; like this house is too big and grown up for me to own and at times I long for the small, coziness of the house on Bauman Ave. But, then I see things like this


the tulips that Adam and I planted together last fall and this place seems a little more like home.

Mommy's night out ~ we all survived!

Last night I went to a scrapping crop with my friend Angie. It was the first time I had left Adam with both kids for longer than running quickly to Target or the grocery store, so I think we were both a little nervous. Alone time with Alyssa when she was a baby was always really stressful for Adam, so I was afraid with two kids it would spell disaster . . . and I find him awfully brave because even I haven't had both kids alone at bedtime yet. But wouldn't you know that my little munchkins were complete angels for Daddy. *whew* I might actually get out of the house again before they are both in school.

Angie and I had a great time hanging out and getting back into scrapbooking. I always forget how much I love it when I have these "lapses" and it was so nice to be able to hang out with her without husbands or kids (or Chad ~ lol) around. ;) I'm really happy with the way my pages turned out and I'm within about 6 pages of having Alyssa's book caught up until her 2nd birthday, which feels really wonderful.

April ~ The month of fantastic Fridays!

Last Friday Adam had the day off for Good Friday. I always love having him around ~ not just because of the extra set of hands around the house, but because I actually like the guy, too. ;) I took Joel to his 2 month appointment and overall it went really well (minus the fact that we were there for an hour and a half).

Today my parents had Alyssa all day. My mom actually took her home with her yesterday and then I picked her up tonight. It was so blissful getting to sleep in until 8ish with Joel, then I spent most of the day cleaning. I had forgotten how wonderful it was to clean/pick up a room and then walk into it 15 minutes later and find that it was STILL clean and not completely destroyed. And its a lot less stressful to clean if you're not thinking "what was that crash?! Is that the sound of a chair being pushed across the kitchen floor? Its awfully quiet in Alyssa's room . . . ", etc.

Next Friday night I get to go to a scrapbooking crop with at least one of my closest friends. I haven't been to a crop in at least a year and a half, so I'm really looking forward to it. Should be a good time to catch up on gossip with Julia and hopefully catch up on Alyssa's book and start Joel's book.

The following Friday my handsome hubby turns the big 3-0! My mom is coming to spend the night and babysit the kids so that we can go out with friends to the comedy club and then out for drinks at a martini bar. I'm not sure which I'm looking forward to more. ;) It'll be Adam and my first big night out in a REALLY long time. Probably since November when we went to the BNL concert.

Roly Poly Joel

Our big guy rolled over from him tummy to his back last night ~ TWICE! But I must confess, we made him do it twice because we all missed it the first time. I put him down in the crib so that I could go downstairs and get Alyssa some peanut butter crackers and then by the time I came back he was on his back, happy as a clam. He was quite accommodating when I put him on his tummy again to see if I could get a repeat performance out of him. Alyssa used to just wail and cry and scream until either a) all her flailing rolled her over on accident or b) Mommy would take pity on her and help her flip over. Joel is quite the determined little guy; he already seems like more of a "deep thinker" who will like to figure things out by himself. Guess that means I better start working on my patience skills.

Easter Pictures

Joel dressed in his finest ~ even a neck tie!

Baby's 1st Easter bib ~ passed down from big sister, Alyssa.

Our pretty little Easter princess (who has curls that I would have killed for when I was younger!)

Guess I'm a diamond in the rough . . .

Stolen from Amber's blog:

Your Personality is the Rarest (INFJ)

Your personality type is introspective, principled, self critical, and sensitive. Only about 2% of all people have your personality - including 3% of all women and around 1% of all men. You are Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Judging.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

Makes sense, but still kind of surprised me.