Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Walking Girls

Mia deemed today a "No Nap Day," which doesn't often happen.

I thought for sure that if I popped her in the stroller and took a walk, she would fall asleep...I was wrong.

At any rate, we had a lovely walk with Brooklyn while Luke was at school and I quite enjoyed pushing only one child (Luke has become rather ginormous to ride in the stroller, making it difficult to steer).



Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Memorial Day Weekend 2012 ... and potty training

It was a "big" weekend ... yet, we didn't go anywhere. It was the weekend I have had set aside on our calendars for months now as the 3-day window to potty train Mia.  A friend had recently sent me a copy of The 3-Day Potty Training Method.  I knew I needed to try something different this time around (after the potty training that went on and on and on with Luke), and after reading her potty training "manual," I decided to give it a try.
So, we got started right after breakfast on Saturday.  I explained that the diapers were going away so that the other babies can use them, and that she needed to wear panties going forward.  Mia, not surprisingly, had several accidents on Saturday, but we just continued to follow the instructions (which, by the way, include wearing panties with a shirt and no pants - hence you can see that she had no pants on in any of the photographs from this weekend).

By evening on Saturday, we were happy to accept my parents' offer to have dinner at their house.  Although the plan suggests not going ANYwhere, I figured that going so close and still having easy access to the potty would be fine.  Interestingly, Mia seemed to really "get it" while we were there and had NO accidents that evening!  She even initiated going to the potty and was successful several times (and there were several ... okay, probably 10-12 ... times when we went to the potty but nothing came out!).

Coloring at Day & Paw's with her panties on
Sunday was not quite as lucky.  I don't think she went in the potty even once :(  ... and I have no photos from that day because, frankly, all you would see would be me in my dirty pajamas cleaning up accidents and running loads of laundry.

Monday we executed on a project in the yard that we've been talking about for quite a long time now:  planting a garden.  It's a small plot, but a great amount of space for us to start with.  Michael worked the previous days to clear the plot and frame the bed.  I figured it was a good idea to have Mia outside.












We planted tomatoes, peppers, summer squash, strawberries, various herbs, and still have a space designated for some arugula.  So excited to start growing some of our own fruits and vegetables.

On the potty-training front, Mia did very well on Monday.  We had a couple of accidents, but also many successes.  She is very proud of herself and seems to want very much to make it in time to the potty - so much so that she has many false alarms where we are all running to the bathroom only to have her tell us after sitting down for 2 seconds, "all done."  Oh well, better to be safe than sorry!



In other exciting news:  Trader Joe's peonies are in!  Which makes Mommy ridiculously happy!

Monday, May 28, 2012

Princess Luke

He'll kill me for these photos one day. 

In case you can't tell, those are Mia's dress up clothes.  She really has no interest in them (yet), as she is too busy pretending she's Buzz Lightyear, playing with Thomas the Train, or zooming Lightening McQueen and Mater around the floor (and occasionally taking her babies for walks in their stroller).  Luke, however, thinks that they are hilarious.


Monday, May 14, 2012

Where have we been?

This blog is so neglected lately.
As is my camera.

Which goes hand in hand.

UGH!

I feel like I've almost completely missed out on documenting the past month or two, but thankfully I do have photos from my iphone, which tell the story of where we've been and what we've been up to.

We've been in the yard enjoying the spring weather

 We've been to see Seasame Street Live:  Elmo Makes Music with our neighbor friends, David and Dylan

We've been celebrating Daddy's, Uncle Todd's, and Aunt Michelle's birthdays

 We've been creating masterpieces


We've been at the ballfield (Luke's up to bat - and has graduated from using the T to coach-pitch)

Luke's littlest fan


We've been waking up with SEVERE bed head

We've been on spontaneous mid-week bagel dates with Mommy (who is realizing that her almost-Kindergartener soon won't be so available on those weekday mornings)


We wish we've been sleeping this much!

We've been celebrating Day's birthday

 We've been practicing batting (and our game face)

 Did I mention that we've been at the ballfield ... a lot!?
Above:  Ready to advance bases.  Below:  getting instructions from the 3rd base coach

We've been hanging with Buzz and Wish Bear (oh...and we got new carpet - a 6 week project, but it's done and we're ALL relieved!)