Dec 29, 2012

It's Potty Time

Leah is finally (mostly) potty trained!!!  We have had her little potty for about a year now.  We have sort of tried to get her interested, and she peed in it a few random times when we really prompted her. But then for several months she had no interest, and even told us that she did not want to go in her potty.  Then in the last few months, she has seen some of her friends start to use the potty and we have talked about it more. And during the last few weeks, we would put on big girl underwear for a few hours sometimes when we were home.  And so we decided that this week, while my mom was on break from work and she could help me, we would full on start the potty training process!  Meaning, NO more diapers (just pull ups during nap and nighttime)!! 
Leah LOVES this video. I think it really helped her. We have watched it several times the last few days :)
The first day she literally threw a fit when I put on her underwear. But then we put on her Elmo's Potty video and she relaxed a little.  Then that whole day she would be super dramatic and sometimes even cry and not want to sit on her potty. She would say "Hold my haaaaaaands!!!!"  We bribed her with treats and cartoons and new toys with a little success. When she finally went pee, she looked sooooo happy and said "I'm doing it!"  I put together a potty chart with 10 boxes and told her that each time she went potty she got a sticker, and once she got to 10 stickers, we would take her to the mall to ride on the carousel (her favorite thing EVER). She got super excited about that and she loved putting each sticker she earned on her chart.
So the first day she spent a LOT of time just sitting on it. :-)

The second day started out the same, she got nervous when I took off her pull ups in the morning.  After the first successful pee that day we got her dressed to go play outside. Well I think since that was the first time she had pants, socks, shoes on over underwear, she forgot and had an accident in them.  But she didn't get too upset so that was good.  And that has been her only accident thus far!

By the second day after nap, she was on a roll!  No more drama at all! She would play like normal and then go right to her potty when she had to go!  Every time of course saying "I'm doing it!" :-)
So proud of herself! :)
She got her 10 stickers in just 2 days!  So of course we had to take her to the carousel this morning first thing!  I was nervous about going out of the house somewhere since this whole thing was so new and she has only used her little potty.  Our friends were visiting from CA so they wanted to meet us at the mall.  We put Leah in pull ups just in case but told her to still tell us if she needed to go.  With all the excitement to ride the carousel and see her friend Cohen, we kind of assumed she was probably peeing in her pull ups during our mall trip. Especially since we were there a few hours, walking around and going to lunch.
With her token to ride the carousel!
We let her ride it 3 times since it was her special reward :)
Then we got a huge surprise when during lunch at Red Robin, Leah says, "Mommy, I have to go potty!". So I got up and we rushed into the bathroom. I got a seat cover on as fast as I could (ewwww public bathrooms!) and put her up and she peed!!!!!  And her pull ups were dry!!!!!!  I was in shock and SO PROUD of her!!  Not even 3 days and she got it!!!!!  Well still no poop yet, but one step at a time! :-)

Anyway, sorry if this a TMI post for you non parents out there but we want to document these events (for Leah to look back and get embarrassed by one day, haha!) And a BIG thanks to my mom who was here for two full days and helped me with Carter and brought us lunch and helped encourage Leah!!!! 

 *I finished this post during Leah's nap today and a little after she woke up, she pooped in the potty! All by herself with no fuss whatsoever!!  Like it was no big deal!  So proud of her!!!*

Dec 27, 2012

Christmas - Part 2

I posted before about how Leah asked Santa for a train set. Well, a few weeks ago she totally changed her mind and started saying that she wanted a rocking horse from Santa!!  We don't even really know where that idea came from but kind of panicked since Santa had already gotten the trains, but we didn't want her to be disappointed! So we lucked out and Dustin found a rocking horse at a random store on clearance at the last minute!!  Woohoo!
Our tree Christmas morning.
Carter trying out the rocking horse :)
Leah LOVES it! A big hit!
Leah showed brother everything that was in his stocking :)
Leah's other favorite present is a dress up box with dresses, crowns, tiara, jewelry.
Showing Carter one of his new toys!

Later that morning we headed to my mom's house.

I tried to get a good pic of these two, but this was the best I could get.
Carter's first Christmas!!
Uncle Neil and Carter

Helping Grammy prepare lunch
Even MORE presents to open at Grammy's house!
Playing in bubbles! :)
We had a lot of fun with our TWO kids this Christmas! We have so many new fun toys and books and our house is still a disaster! :) I am trying to clean up and get organized again! 

AND we are starting to get serious about potty training this week.....!  Yikes, Leah is fighting it.....we'll see how it goes and I will report on that soon. :)

Christmas - Part 1

This year we hosted Christmas Eve at our house with part of our family.

Leah LOVES playing with her Uncle and Auntie :)
Happy Boy :)
I wish we could have gotten Leah to come be in this picture with us!

Leah loves all the attention :)
She got lots of neat presents
With Nana and Grandpa
Modeling her cute new boots
 And later that evening, Santa got to work putting together Leah's train set...
And I read Carter some of his new books...

 Fun night but we had even more fun Christmas day...:-)

Dec 22, 2012

Lights

We had a fun time looking at lights tonight! We went to get some hot chocolate and headed down to the lake to the Clam Lights display.  It was really neat!



Carter didn't know what to think! :)
They had lights all along a long dock on the lake, with most of the lights in the park in the background.
Poor Leah still has a little red face :(

After the lights display, we drove around a few neighborhoods before heading home. 

And here is a pic of our house. You can kind of see our tree lights in the window :) Dustin did a great job!
Happy Weekend! :)

More Holiday Fun

Yesterday we had a fun time going to Auntie Esther's work where they were doing a winter wonderland event.
Family photo!
They had all sorts of activities for kids - decorating cookies, a train ride, characters, etc.
Leah was super excited about the train -

Waiting in line for the train with some hot chocolate!

We also had lunch and Leah had fun playing in the fake snow :-)

So silly!
She said she was making snow angels :)
That night after dinner we watched the Nutcracker! Leah really liked the dancing!!
She was so cute imitating the dancers!
Snuggles :)
Leah still has a cold so we are missing out on a few Christmas parties this weekend which sucks but we want everyone to be healthy for Christmas!  Tonight we are heading out to look at Christmas lights! Now we just need it to snow and everything will be perfect :)

Dec 20, 2012

'Twas the Week Before Christmas

This has been a slow week. We have all been a little under the weather. Carter and I had it over the weekend, then Dustin had it at the beginning of the week, and now poor Leah is sick. Luckily it is just a mild cold, but still no fun! 

Leah asked me to take her and Carters' picture last night! Haha, ok! Look at her poor little red face from her cold :(

Monday Leah had her last dance class until Jan 7. I dressed her in a Christmasy ballet outfit, and Grammy came to watch!
LOVE this picture of Leah and my mom!

Pretty pointed toes!

Leah and Ashlyn after dance class

Tuesday was Carter's 4 month checkup. He was such a good boy, smiling at the nurse and doctor. And THEN came the shots.......ugh, I have never seen him cry so hard, it broke my heart!!!!  :(
Waiting for the dr to come in
The rest of this week we have just stayed home since Leah isn't feeling well. We have watched lots of cartoons and I have tried to get some chores and Christmas projects done.

I saw this idea on the Ellen show yesterday and decided to try. I think it turned out cute. Even Dustin noticed and commented on it :-) Just upside down wine & cocktail glasses filled with ornaments and candles on top!

And I had fun playing with Leah's hair this morning. I bribed her with some blueberries (her favorite!) while I practiced my braiding skills.


And I am pretty much obsessed with this, especially on these dark and dreary days when I need some caffeine!

Today is Dustin's last day of work and then he is home with us until after Christmas, yay!