Potty Training update

It is official. We are out of diapers. Madison is fully potty trained and wears panties all the time. This is a new adventure for us. For the last 2-3 weeks she has been wearing pull-ups and they have been dry. We put all the pull-ups away and wear our panties proudly. This will definately save us some money. I thought diapers were expensive until I started buying pull-ups. Now we have fun buying fun panties. We choose from elmo or curious george everyday. We need to buy some more for sure.

lay-dough

Madison decided to stay up all night last night so after waking at noon we decided we would have a fun artsy day with Mommy. We colored, put stickers on papers, and now are working on lay-dough. She loves to make "cakes" and "pies" I love my artsy girl. She sure is creative.

???? Torticollis ????

Carson had his 9 month check-up last week and the doctor was concerned about his neck. He always has his neck tilted to the right side. The doctor has always asked me about his neck and I just thought that this was something "normal" and it was just his preference. He commented about it at every visit but this time he wanted to refer us to Occupational Therapy to have his neck looked at. We went to our appointment yesterday his therapist confirmed that he has torticollis, where the muscles in one side of his neck are too tight and need to be stretched out. His therapist wants to see him every week until it is worked out. She taught me some exercises to do with every 2 hours to try to stretch it out. He HATES it with a passion because it is uncomfortable. So think of us every 2 hours as I have to torture Carson to get his head sitting upright. His therapist said he will have trouble crawling unless it gets worked out. Well Carson heres to you and I exercising and having lots of tummy time. I know you hate it but it is good for you and your cute little neck.

Bath time

Carson is finally old enough to take baths in the regular tub with his sissy. I was noticing how long it took me to bathe both kids. Tonight I threw them in the tub together and they loved it, not to mention went by quicker. Carson was perfectly content and Madison loved having someone there to play with. They are so adorable together. I am so amazed at how fast Carson is growing up. He's not a little "baby" anymore. He has personality and wants to be big, wants to eat big kid food and be around the big kids. He's a sweetie and I cherish every day with him and his sissy.

adventures in potty training

So last weekend our toilet in the kids bathroom started to malfunction. We could not get the toilet to work properly. I was sure that in our adventures going to the bathroom Madison had flushed a toy or object down the toilet. Tonight Alan came over to help take the toilet apart and get it working for us. After taking the toilet outside and trying to dislodge whatever was in the toilet (yes, it felt white trash as well) we found the culprit. A clip from Madison's potty chair had fallen off and got flushed. I kept looking all over for the clip so her seat would stay on the toilet. I finally bought a new seat, little did I know that it was lodged in the toilet. Here I was blaming Madison for flushing something down the toilet. Thanks Uncle Al for helping us fix our toilet. Hope we don't have to do that again.

Father's Day Fun

We had a wonderful Father's Day. We spent the day up at Dinkey Creek with Scott's parents and his sister's family. We had a picnic, took walks, bike rides, ate junk food, and just relaxed. We found a really neat place on our little adventure called Mckinley Grove, home to giant sequoia trees. Emma came along with us to see the monster trees. We had a wonderful time being together with our family. I am so lucky to have a husband that loves us so much and helps to take care of his two beautiful children. Madison had so much fun making "pies" with the dirt, bolwing bubbles and just playing in the dirt. She is her Momma's girl. When I see her I am reminded of how I used to love to just play in the dirt and get dirty. Carson was an angel, content to be playing in his pack-n-play.

Cheerios anyone?

Carson has been eating baby food for about 3-4 months now and is quite the eater. He loves anything you offer to him, of course fruit being his favorite. After realizing that he eats about 40 jars a week I decided I would try to give him more of a variety. Recently I started giving him "real" food and he loves it. He screams when you do not feed him fast enough. He LOVES crackers, cheerios, small pieces of bread, fresh fruit mashed up. This morning he could not get enough cheerios. He can't quite pick them up and feed himself so he just opens his mouth and screams. If I am too slow he will put his head down to his tray to try to pick them up. I am going to try to give him pasta this week and see how he does. Cheerios are always a favorite and I love them because they are easy to pick up.

Finger painting fun

This morning we made (or attempted to make) some handprints and footprints with paint of Madison and Carson for Father's day. Madison did very well. Carson was having so much fun touching everything and fingerpainting all over his high chair. We had paint in his hair, all over the highchair, all over his clothes (onesie) and his skin. He was mad when I had to take him down, he wanted to continue to play. A bath was much needed. Of course Madison was all cleaned up and decided she would help Carson as well and joined in on the fun.

Mommy wow, I'm a big kid now!!

Madison has had 2 totally dry days and has not had an accident in her pull-up. She has even woken up dry. She has been doing very well with potty training. She loves going and helping herself to using the bathroom. I keep telling her if she puts all the pee-pee and poo-poo in the potty she can wear her new Elmo undies. Well today getting out of the bath she ran to her room and asked for Elmo. She pulled the undies out of her dresser and tried to put them on. I am not sure if she is ready for undies yet but she wanted to put them on so I let her. I hope she does not have any accidents today. Pull-ups sure are expensive so if she wants to try using her undies I will allow her at home. Different story if we are out and about.

Fun at the zoo

F Lily and Madison having fun at the zoo
Daddy showing Madison the bears while Mommy took Lily to use the restroom. He sure loves his girl.
The Three amigos

Friday we went to the Chaffee zoo. We decided to bring Lily since it was her last day of school and all of her brothers and sisters had parties to go to. We had fun. Carson was very patient with us. Madison enjoyed looking at the monkeys, elephants, tigers, giraffes and sting rays. It was a nice treat to get to do something fun on my first day of summer vacation.

Cupid Kitty

Cupid is one of our cats and recently we tried to give her a haircut to cut some of the matts out of her hair, well I tried and tried and couldn't do a good job so we took her to the groomer for a haircut. We took in a cat, and got back what looks like a creature from somewhere else. I am afraid if we let her outside the other cats will tease her. She desperately needed her matts cut out so now we have a bald kitty, guess that will be good for hairballs, right?

DDR anyone?

Our family has taken to playing Dance Dance Revolution and the kids are too fun to watch. Madison usually gets up there and stomps around like the big kids. She loves copying her cousins, she thinks she is so big. I am so grateful that Madison gets to play with her cousins so often. I just wish we could visit with our Sacramento cousins more often.

Potty Training

We have been trying to potty train Madison for a couple months or so. She did very well at first then decided she didn't like her potty. Now she has been using her potty chair and seems to love it. Madison has been such a good potty trainer. It has been 1 week with consistency going poo-poo in the potty and has been doing very well with pee-pee. She tells us when she has to go and is such a champ. The key is telling us before she is going and not while. When she goes potty, she tells her Mommy... I go. I love that she is doing this on her own. She has gone into the bathroom on her own and sat on the potty chair, went potty, then dumped it in the toilet and flushed it on her own, then told me.. DONE! Potty training is not easy but something I am trying to do consisitently. I think it helps that she gets to do her sticker chart and once it is full she yells for i-meam (ice-cream). We love her and hope that she will get to wear her new undies soon. My goal --- before I go back to work panties all the time unless she is sleeping.