Potty Training Part 2

Monday we started to potty train Lily again. We had attempted potty training back at the beginning of the summer when Josh first got out of school and it did not go very well. We took a 2 month break almost and started trying again. We are using the 3daypottytraining.com method. I read through the whole method and it seemed like a realistic plan for Lily so we started on Monday.

Monday was a long day with a good number of accidents a few successes but lots of praise and excitement thankfully. The previous method we tried ended about 4 hours in because of the complete meltdowns Lily was having in response to being asked to sit on the potty. This method gets the parent to wait for the child to prompt the trip to the potty either by saying, "potty or pee pee" or by starting to have an accident and rushing her to the potty to finish it out if there is any left. Monday her accidents were full blown with a little success once she was on the potty.

Tuesday felt longer but went better. Lily had fewer full blown accidents and more success of telling us she was about to go, leaking a little, holding the rest until we got to the potty and then finishing. She did a great job on Tuesday and woke up from her nap dry.

Wednesday which according to the method is supposed to be the "final" day of training went as good as I hoped. Lily didn't have any pee pee accidents at all. She told us when she needed to go and went potty successfully each time. She never managed to have a successful poopy experience at this point. We caught her in the act the first day and she finished it out on the potty but the last couple of days she has tried to hide and does it in her panties. We are still waiting.

Today, Thursday we went out of the house for the first time since we started potty training. We were all starting to feel a little cooped up. Lily did great and didn't have any accidents while we were out. She even went potty in a public restroom without her potty chair. Lily also went all night last night without wetting the bed. I was unsure this was possible since she pees quite a bit at night time and wakes up pretty wet every morning but we tried the method suggested by the author of the 3daypottytraining.com ebook and it worked. Basically, we stop giving Lily a lot of liquids after about 4:30 (since her bedtime is 7:30) and we only give her a little bit of milk before bed instead of a full cup. The last technique we used was a result of her wetting the bed the 2 previous nights. Right before we go to bed Josh went in Lily's room and got her out of bed and put her on the potty. She pee peed right away and he put her back in bed for the night where she went right back to sleep. This process resulted in Lily waking up DRY!!!

Lily's diapers do not exist in our house anymore so she will be potty trained one way or another!! Just wanted to share our potty training experience. I definitely recommend this method since there have not been any meltdowns or power struggles in relation to the potty as there were with the "one day potty training" method.

Davis giggled!

I would like to mark this event for Davis. On Monday, July 27th, 2009 he giggled. I know you may be wondering what Davis giggled at, well....his dear old daddy. Josh has a pretty good ability of making crazy faces and one of Josh's animated faces got Davis to giggle. I do believe that a silly face from Josh is also what got Lily to giggle for the first time too. I am beginning to think that I am just not that funny.

I don't have video yet of the giggle, I am going to work on that soon.

Panama City Beach July 11th-17th 2009

We just got back from the beach where we spent the week with 2 families that we are good friends with. The trip was a lot of fun and we are glad that we took our first real family vacation with Lily and Davis. They both did great while we were gone and Lily had a great time at the beach in the sand with McKenzie and Haley. Here is a brief rundown of some of the fun things we did while at the beach:

Saturday: Left at 9am and drove for 8 hours (1-1.5 hours longer than hoped) arrived at 5pm and got all unloaded and unpacked at our condo. 1501 Ocean Reef and went to dinner at Hana Japan in Pier Park.

Sunday: Beach in the morning, nap and then dinner at Pineapple Willy's with the families.

Monday: Beach in the morning, nap and Josh, Lily, Davis and I went to Pier Park to walk around. Lily rode the Carrosel and the train there. Dinner courtesy of Josh and his fantastic chef abilities.

Tuesday: Beach in the morning with some pool time, naptime and then a trip to shell island with the Anderson's. (Do not go to shell island for shells since there are no shells there it seems and with a child who doesn't walk and a child who walks in the water with her clothes on). Dinner compliments of the Andersons (Taco Salad Bar).

Wednesday: Beach in the morning with pool time, naptime and then a trip to Gulf World with sea lions, sharks, alligators, divers, parrots, penguins and lots more. We saw a great dive show and a great sea lion show. This is a great place to take the kiddos. We went to dinner at Guy Harvey's Island Grill that night.

Thursday: We went to St. Andrew's State Park to the lagoon beach area in the morning. This is a great place to take little kids because the water is very shallow, few waves, crystal clear with fish and shells to see. Naptime in the afternoon. Trip to Walmart where we had a fight with a woman over our place in line. Dinner compliments of the Lamberts (Lasangna).

Friday: Pack up all our stuff (too much stuff really). Took a 2 hour boat ride on The Sea Screamer. Got some lunch and drove the 7 hours home (shaved an hour off the trip).

Whew....what a week.

Here are some pictures to document our first Family Vacation:

Have I got a Deal for you....

Davis wakes up sometime between 5am and 7am to eat and I am typically the only one up at that time so things in the house are quiet and dark. I have a hard time staying awake during this time due to the fact that I am sitting in a super comfy glider with a sound machine going. To keep myself awake I get on my laptop and look at my favorite sites.

I am a glutton for a good deal and I have a number of websites that I LOVE to look at in my daily routine, so I thought I would share some of them with you in case you love a good deal too. So here they are (in the order that I actually check them):

www.woot.com
sellout.woot.com
www.dailydeals.com
www.lootpig.com
www.1saleaday.com
www.mamabargains.com
www.tottlers.com
www.greenbabybargains.com
www.slickdeals.net
www.babycheapskate.blogspot.com
www.shnoop.com
www.babysteals.com
www.babyearth.com/baby-sale

Hope you enjoy some of these sites. If you have any favorite sites that you would like to share with me that you think I might like definitely let me know! Happy Deal Hunting.

Lily is Paci-free!

So on Tuesday the 23rd a lady from Babies Can't Wait came to the house to observe Lily. I had called the program because I have been a little concerned about Lily's speech development and wanted to get her evaluated early. They had sent me a couple of surveys to fill out before she got here to go along with her actual observation. She was here for about an hour and basically watched Lily and her interaction with us and her toys, etc. We tried to get her to talk with us during this time so that the lady would be able to see my concerns. Well, she said that she thinks Lily would benefit from a full evaluation which would be done by 2 people that would come to the house for a longer period. This evaluation will happen sometime toward the end of July when we get back from our vacation. In the meantime I was instructed to get Lily's hearing evaluated just to make sure that the speech problem wasn't due to ear problems. On Friday (yesterday) we went to Lily's pediatrician to get her hearing checked. She passed the hearing screen. I asked the Dr. if she could check to see if there was fluid behind the eardrum causing a problem. She did that test and it did come back positive but the Dr. didn't feel that it was significant enough to be causing a speech delay.

On to the paci part of this story.......the lady that did Lily's evaluation had asked us if she uses a paci. Well, Lily does get a paci at night, naps and in the car. I told the evaluator that and she said that we really needed to get rid of the paci if we want Lily to be successful with her speech from here on out. I mentioned that Lily only got the paci only at night, naps and the car and she said that it still causes Lily to put her tongue in the wrong place in her mouth hindering her from learning the proper way to form words. Well, I guess that was all I needed to hear to convince us to get rid of the paci altogether that day. Josh and I had been talking about when would be the best time to get rid of it.....well this evaluation made that decision for us I guess. That was the last time she saw her pacifiers.

Day 1- Lily did awesome without the paci for nap and night. She only cried for about 15 minutes at nap time and didn't make a peep at bedtime.

Day 2- A harder no paci day than day 1. Lily didn't want to take a nap in the pack n play at her Grammy's house and with no paci I thought she might just not nap but she did nap once I put her in the "big girl" bed that Grammy had in the room. That night was not so good either....Lily basically screamed for 30 minutes straight before she finally went to sleep.

Day 3- Nap time was awesome! Bedtime was awesome!

We'll see what today has in store. She still asks for it when I am putting her down for her nap and bed. She will look up at me and smile and say "Pass" (which is her way of saying paci). It's so sad and cute all at the same time, but no giving in here!!

One transition down.....a thousand more to go!!

A Smile that melts my heart!

This past week Davis smiled for the first of time. It honestly came as a surprise to me because Lily didn't smile for months it seems like so I wasn't expecting it to come so early. Most of the baby books say that social smiles can show up as early as 6 weeks but are more typical after 8 weeks or so. Well Davis was on the early end of smiling I guess, he was 7 weeks when he smiled at me and getting him to smile is not nearly as difficult as it was with Lily. With Lily you really had to work for the smile. With Davis all you have to do is say "smile" in a really sweet voice and he does it! I knew trying to capture the smile might be hard though but I feel like we got pretty close, here are some of the pictures...

5 YEARS

Last Friday, June 5th was Josh and I's 5 year anniversary. It is fun to think back on the 5 years we have been married and the 8 years we have been together. Here is some of what we have accomplished in that time: 2 Bachelor's degrees, 1 chopped off ring finger (2 weeks before the wedding), Honeymoon to Niagara Falls, camping trips, rafting trip, mission trip to Ecuador, 2 dog adoptions, young couples small group at church, 1 home purchase, 2 Master's degrees, 1 Specialist degree (Josh finishes in a month), 7 years worth of teaching combined, 3 years coaching wrestling with 1 state championship, 2nd in state and 3rd in state finishes, 2 pregnancies, 2 babies, Lots of tears and Lots more laughter!

We didn't do anything fancy to celebrate the anniversary this past week but we are taking 2 vacations this year that definitely count. We are going to the beach with some friends next month and we are planning a ski trip over Christmas break to Big Sky, Montana. We did take Lily and Davis with us to downtown Gainesville where Josh proposed to me almost 6 years ago. We went and ate at my FAVORITE deli which is also where we ate before Josh popped the question and then we went to the Square downtown and sat on the parkbench where he proposed. As an extra treat we also went to the jewelry store and got our rings cleaned (boy they needed it).

Here are a few pictures of Lily in the square of Gainesville. There is also a video of her dancing to a couple local musicians who were playing in the square.

Sorry the video is sideways....you get the idea though. She really liked the harmonica!

Lily's Swimming Lessons

Lily started some swimming lessons on Monday, June 1st. She is taking the lessons at Swim Atlanta in Dacula. They are 30 minutes a day M-Th for 2 weeks.

Here are some pictures and video from some lessons.

Davis participating in swimming lessons.....Lily's cheering section.

A Big Thank You

Josh and I want to thank all our friends who took the time to bring us dinner during the weeks following Davis' arrival. It was such a blessing to not have to think about preparing dinner during that time especially with a toddler and a newborn. Thank you so much for serving us so willingly and generously. We feel blessed with your friendship and generosity and of course we hope we can return the favor in the future!

Love,

Josh, Carrie Anne, Lily and Davis

Lily's Stitches

Well, I finally am getting around to posting Lily's stitches from the Yellow River Game Ranch incident.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good:

A few months ago I bought Lily a potty for when the time came to potty train. I was fully prepared to have it packed away for awhile because I was not about to start trying to potty train her while having a newborn to deal with. Since I have bought the potty however, Lily has been incredibly intrigued by its presence. Fairly often she will point to her diaper and say, "eeewww, pee pee, pee pee" I will ask her if she wants to pee pee on the potty and she will nod vigorously. I will then pull the potty out and put her on it to witness what is to be a long sit with no success in the pee pee department. So, on Thursday when Lily came to Josh and I begging to get the potty we pulled it out, took her diaper off and let her sit on it EXCEPT this time she actually pee peed on the potty!!!! We were so shocked that I pretty much forgot the part about teaching her how to wipe. We just started doing the pee pee dance and congratulating her on her success. We also gave her a piece of chocolate which of course is a rarity in her life as a reward. YAY Lily. All arrows point to her wanting to potty train herself because I certainly have not been helping her effort.

The Bad:

Josh is finishing up grad school and today he had class in TN for the day which left Lily, Davis and I to fend for ourselves. My mom had agreed to meet up with me at the Yellow River Game Ranch which is an elaborate "petting zoo" kind of place. It has all sorts of animals: buffalo, deer, ducks, roosters, peacocks, cougars, coyotes, bobcats, donkeys, cows, goats, etc..... The deer, squirrels, chipmunks, ducks, peacocks, goats will walk up to you and pester you to feed them (some a little forcefully). Lily was not super fond of the deer and preferred to spend much of the time in the stroller where she felt safe, either that or she was being held by my mom or myself. Well, we had pretty much been through the whole place and Lily was finally starting to warm up to the animals. She was even walking holding our hands. One of the last areas on the trail is the bunny area. This area is enclosed but the bunnies are loose and you can go in and pet them and feed them. This whole "ranch" is in the woods and the bunny part is on hill with scattered large rocks. My mom and Lily went into the bunny area together to feed them and while they were in there Lily basically lost her balance and fell on her butt where she rolled down the hill slightly and was abruptly stopped by a large rock and her head meeting forcefully. I was watching and it did look like she hit pretty hard. She, of course started crying and my mom picked her up comforted her and brought her to me where I held her and tried to calm her down. A guy who had seen it happen yelled to us, "her head is bleeding." This shocked me because I was no expecting her to have a cut. Sure enough when I looked at the back of her head her hair was all matted with blood. After stopping at an urgent care center that turned us away because she was too little and the finally ending up at an Egleston Urgent Care center about 30 minutes away Lily was fixed up with 3 stitches, 2 stickers and a popsicle. The gash in her head thankfully did not bleed for long on the way to urgent care and she stopped crying about 5-10 minutes after she fell. She was not really happy about being pinned down on her belly wrapped in a bedsheet to keep her from flailing her arms but she did very well getting the stitches. I hope that this isn't the beginning of a myriad of ER visits and injuries in her future. But for now I must say that I have one tough little girl with a nice scar to show for it!

The Ugly: I will be posting a picture of the battle wound with the Yellow River Game Ranch here......(hopefully tomorrow)

Davis 1 month Stats

9lbs weight- (23rd %tile) up from the (14th %tile)
21.7'' length - (48th %tile) down from (54th %tile)
14.2'' head circ. - (9th %tile)

The new pediatrician that we are going to see is awesome. She spent an hour with Davis and I in the room. She was very thorough and asked lots of questions about Davis. She thinks he is doing great so far. I look forward to going to see her and the other doctor at this practice in the future.

Life with 2 under 2! (20 months and 1 month)

I think the saying goes, "time flies when you are having fun" but I would like to ammend that to my specific situation right now....."time flies when you are taking care of babies." I can't believe that this past Sunday Davis passed the 1 month mark. Here are some updates about each of them:

Davis: He is doing really well, getting bigger. Of course he is doing all the normal newborn things....eating, sleeping, pooping, crying, etc. I must change his diaper 10 times a day and he is only awake for a total of 4 hours out of 24. That's a lot of diaper changes in a short amount of time. We have his one month appointment tomorrow at a new pediatrician that we are going to try. I have not had any real trouble with the current pediatrician we go to but I wanted to find something a little more personal. I will let you know how it goes after tomorrow's appointment.

Lily is doing great. She is adjusting as well as I would expect a 20 month old to adjust with a new baby brother in the house. She is the perfect "little mommy." It is incredible to me all the little things she picks up on me doing when taking care of Davis. She likes to take care of her dolls the way that I take care of Davis, down to applying the diaper cream and vaseline. It is funny to watch her being a mommy to all her dolls. She is very good with Davis. She loves to give him kisses, she begs to hold him all the time and she is a great assistant when it comes to diaper changes. She helps me get all the necessary items. Although she seems to be doing great with Davis I feel like there is much to be accomplished in the realm of discipline and attitude. Lily has been in an interesting spell recently. She has been having some pretty impressive meltdowns with seemingly no real cause. She is certainly testing all the boundaries and testing Josh and I's consistency. I certainly think that a lot of her frustration can be contributed to the language barrier. She wants to communicate badly but does not have language for it yet. She is doing much better with her words but she is definitely not ahead in this department. Josh and I are waiting for a breakthrough in her verbal skills.

That's a little update with how things are going around here. I only have a few more days of taking care of both of them by myself before Josh is home for the summer. We are looking forward to doing some fun things together as a family while Josh is home. We are in the midst of planning a beach trip with some friends. Here are a few recent pictures of Lily and Davis that you might enjoy:

Lily hugging on Davis.

My cutie pie!

Lily dressed herself for the first time. She put the shorts and the hat on all by herself. Too funny!

Her HUGE Dora doll swinging in Davis' swing. This is Lily playing mommy.

Davis with his monkey at 1 month old.

Tiny toes

I think I must be pumping around Lily too much because she found the adapters and tried to pump for herself. I had just enough time to grab the camera to get this shot. I can't believe she tried to copy me pumping. hehehe!

20 months and Davis' Mother's day dedication

Lily is 20 months old and she is a firecracker. A lot of people have been asking me how Lily has been handling being a big sister and honestly I can't complain. She tries to be very helpful by bringing me wipes, diapers, shhshing him, patting him, kissing him, etc. The only real "jealousy" I have seen from her is in response to Josh holding Davis. My daddy's girl doesn't want Daddy to hold her brother. Lily still doesn't seem to care that I am holding him for the most part. If she does want me to deal with her she will "tell" me where to put Davis, for instance she will pat the bouncy seat and pat Davis telling me that I need to put him down. It is actually pretty cute. She is patient though too when I tell her that I take care of Davis for a minute and then I will put him down and play with her.
Lily has gotten a lot more words here recently and she loves doing her animal sounds. Her favorite animal sound is the elephant. Honestly I can't really even do the elephant sound but Josh taught her how to blow through her lips to make the noise. It surprises me how many elephant pictures and toys there are around. Just when you think you are in the clear and there couldn't possibly be any elephants Lily manages to find one. One time Lily was reading a book about puppies and bedtime and she starts making the elephant noise. I tried to assure her there were no elephants in that book. I mean it is a book about puppies. She insists that there is one, so I take a look and sure enough the little puppy is reading a book and on the page in the book that it is on there is a very small picture of an elephant. WOW. How does she find those things?!?
Davis is doing well. We are having a few bumps this past week and weekend. For some reason Davis is super gassy and has started to spit up what I feed him almost immediately after I feed him. I have tried to think about what I could be eating that might make him that way and I am not sure. I am not consistent with what I eat so it is really hard to tell what might be the problem. I even resorted to not drinking coke to see if that was the problem and he is still having the problem, so...... if you have any ideas about what the problem might be I am all ears.
So because of his tummy woes he is a little fussier than he was before but I am optomistic that once I figure out what is going on he will be a happier little man. We celebrated my 2nd Mother's Day the same way we celebrated my 1st Mother's Day......Baby Dedication at our church. We dedicated Davis at church yesterday and big sister Lily participated. Last year we dedicated Lily on Mother's Day. We didn't get a whole family picture but we got one of Davis and I after the service.
Here are a few recent pictures to enjoy.....