Catching up: Potty Training, Veggies, Babies and Painting

It's been a while since our last post so here's an update.

Kaelyn's potty training has gone really well. I decided it's like starting a new diet. The first two weeks is always aweful and then it gets better.  The "tips" I learned from Kaelyn were that letting her do it on her own (cleanup of both the accidents and successes, minimal reminders rather than forcing her to sit on the potty every 2 hours on the dot, and rewards (banana chips and cranberries) were all helpful) was what she really wanted, and that it's important to push through and not give in - even for other people.  In the past when a visitor would come I'd put the diapers back on so they didn't have to deal with it.  This time, I made whoever was around just jump in on the process.  Kaelyn would slip up a lot more with others than with me, but at least she knew the panties were a forever change!  Now she has no accidents on most days and she's even going poop on the potty a few times a week as well.  Yippee!

We finally painted our "seasonal" sign - this time Mike and I (well, not so much Mike actually!) gave her free reign to create whatever she wanted rather than guiding her...here's what she came up with (Mike is responsible for the sun looking thing and some of the more "straight" lines).

The garden is growing by leaps and bounds. We have some tomatoes coming finally, and the shelling peas are a true success.  Kaelyn eats them like candy and we've discovered they must have as much sugar as a candy bar b/c she is CRAZY after eating a ton of them!  One of our artichoke plants is going crazy too - with 6 artichokes right now. We ate the first one (gigantic!) the other day and it was so tender and yummy.  Kaelyn loves artichokes!

Here's proud farmer Mike...

And lastly, Kaelyn is truly ready for her baby brother to arrive. She is so excited and really seems to understand that he'll be joining us soon.  We put out the baby swing and she's been swinging her babies in it non-stop (yes, we'll be getting her her very own baby swing for her dolls!).  Mike put the car seat in the car and she is all excited about sharing the backseat with him now.  We finished getting his bedroom ready including the mobile in the crib and she talks about him watching the horses (USC) going round and round.  She's very much a "baby" girl - loves playing with her baby dolls for hours on end (feeding, bathing, teaching to potty, putting to sleep, walking around in the stroller, hushing them and singing to them, etc.) and when we see a real baby she is just mesmerized.  I'm sure we'll have plenty of stories of coming into a room and finding her feeding her brother or putting him in her dolly's high chair!

As for me, I'm exhausted.  I'm about to explode. And I'm so ready for baby to arrive!

Last minute getaway!

Auntie Nancy (oh so wonderful Auntie Nancy) came for a visit and allowed mommy and daddy to get away for the weekend.  We are ashamed to admit this is our first getaway without Kaelyn since she arrived in our life.  Amazing how time passes and it never worked out to go away.   It was incredible that one day at the pool (5 hours in a row) can feel like a whole week in Hawaii. Sad, actually.  We have vowed to travel more this next year, with AND without the kids!!!

Nancy - a true thank you for all that you do for us (yeah - need I mention the vacuuming/cleaning,etc).  The extra bonus benefit is how much time Kaelyn got to spend with you and continue to get to know her very own "Fancy Nancy!"

Train Ride

As our "weekends before baby" are quickly disappearing (only 6 left!), we have been trying to squeeze in lots of things we have had on our to do list (in addition to our usual chores, gardening, and the task list of things that need to get done before baby arrives!).   As ready as I am for the baby to be here,  I'm now facing the reality of how much we will NOT be doing during the upcoming summer months!!

One thing we've wanted to do is take Kaelyn on a train ride.  She loves trains and our friends Lucie and Ryan (on our blog list on the right) get to take train rides with their parents each year.  This planted the seed that we could do a fun little trip with Kaelyn and give her some soon-to-be-gone "only child" time!

So we got up early, grabbed breakfast for the train and had a quite enjoyable day.  Kaelyn absolutely LOVED it! (Don't forget to scroll down on the right and pause Kaelyn's Playlist so you can hear the video)

Next time we'll stay longer and take a boat ride!

No accidents!! She successfully used the public potties!!!

Got to ride the carousel twice...

And even re-skinned her almost healed knee!

Bye bye choo choo. She was ready for naptime!!

Celebrating Mommy

In celebration of Mommy's birthday this week we did some celebrating, happy birthday singing, candle blowing, and... of course, sweets eating!!  Kaelyn loves birthdays so we took advantage!  Mommy got to go to the spa and daddy made a yummy dinner (mussels and shrimp in a saffron tomato cream sauce over fettucini).  It was laid back and happy... another year gone by....

Only 8-9 weeks to go...and feeling it!  Kaelyn's brother promises to tip the scales.  At 27 weeks he measured 30 weeks (head measured 33!!!) and we are now approaching 32 weeks.  Kaelyn loves to feel him kick her when she sits on my lap to read a book.  And we are starting to talk about when he "comes"....so she knows he will soon be coming!

And in other news, we are doing serious potty training this week.... to very minor success (much to my disappointment).  Kaelyn has shown nothing but signs of complete readiness, including pooping on her potty while we had brunch guests over ;-).  But this week she seems to want nothing to do with it. I'm trying not to strangle myself.  But here are two funny stories.

First story:  One day last week (when Kaelyn was still in diapers full time) I was trying to get out of the house to run a few errands and meet Mike for lunch.  A good friend called who I hadn't talked to in a while so I chatted for a bit.  Kaelyn was entertaining herself so I wasn't completely watching her during this period of time.  We then got in the car, ran a few errands, ate lunch with Mike, and got home about 2 hours later. Overall, about 3 hours had passed since the phone call.  When we walked into the house, Kaelyn says "ohhh my gosh!!!" (which I had never heard her say before) so I ran in to see what happened. There was a big puddle of pee pee in front of her.  I couldn't figure out how that much pee ended up on the floor through the diaper she had on. So I took off her pants.....and there was NO diaper. No nothing. Just a naked bum.  She had removed her diaper, held it for 3 hours, and then peed on the floor once we got home.  You can see why I figured she was ready for training!!

Second story: today I was quite frustrated with the potty training and trying to get out of the house. Finally I gave up, closed the garage door and told Kaelyn we were staying home and I was going to take some alone time in the back yard (in the sun).  After harassing me a bit, I told her to please go inside and do WHATEVER she wanted to do as long as I could have some alone time.  So she went inside and peed on the floor.  I said calmly "Kaelyn, I'm not going to help you. You will have to clean that up yourself. I'm having alone time."  She took off her panty, got a towel, cleaned herself off, cleaned the floor, then threw the dirty towel/undies in the sink (like I do).  She came out and asked if we could go go go.  I said - if you get a new panty and put it on by yourself, we'll go go go.  So she did.  And we went went went.  And now I think I'm going to just leave the potty training up to her.  ;-)

Flower Fields

Kaelyn and I met our friends Karen and Kayla at the Flower Fields a couple weeks ago.  We went to do a mini photo shoot - some for Kayla's 2nd birthday and some for Kaelyn for spring.  We had a lot of fun. The girls really enjoyed running around!

And Kaelyn converted a new Movie Star!  Recognize the glasses below?

Here she is showing her how to put on the glasses!

They liked holding hands and walking around together!

New Bedroom

Kaelyn LOVE LOVE LOVEs her new bedroom! She has been excited about it as we've put it together.  We moved her in on Tuesday night and she adjusted just perfectly. Fell asleep right away without calling us but  then did wake up about an hour early. We wondered if she'd come to our room or if she'd call us - no such luck. She arrived at our door, much to the dog's confusion! The first nap went well too - 2.5 hours! It's been smooth sailing thank goodness ;-) Don't forget - to watch the video below, first pause the music in Kaelyn's PlayList (down a little on the right side).

Happy Easter!

Kaelyn really enjoyed her first year of decorating Easter eggs!  Luckily she likes to eat them too cuz there are a lot of leftovers ;-)

And she wrote him a note and left a carrot - which was of course gone in the morning!

And she thoroughly enjoyed the hunt for Easter Eggs despite the chilly weather.

Even Kingston got into it - although the bunny seems resistant to leaving Kdog any goodies!

The final basket was under the sink...

And the bunny even left a chair for the new bedroom...

Which she was sure to try out right away!