Alright, who told her?

My daughter has the tendency to fall in love with things over night. First it was Elmo, and now I fear it's Dora the Explorer. I'm not exactly sure where she first heard about Dora, but I've been trying to avoid that one character all her short little life. I just thought she was creepy...but after watching hours and hours of her on Netflix, I've come to the conclusion that...my daughter loves her. And Boots. And Map, Backpack and Swiper. Swiper no swipee!!! I still think she is creepy.

So in love is Haylie that we bought her a stuffed Dora in hopes that she'll poop in the potty (on a regular basis.) And I'm pretty sure that right now that's the only thing to motivate Haylie.

Ask her about her. She'll love to tell you about "Doorah."

Just For Fun

Tasting the Air

Don't worry.  Haylie isn't the only one getting attention around here. This kid is loved too.

His new thing.

Training with Popsicles

Last post on potty training.  I promise.  Haylie will probably kill me later for talking so much about this.

Anyway, I just have to say...

We have success!!!

Last night, at dinner, I was discussing the day with Justin. I seriously was ready to throw in the towel with the training.  I was fed up and felt like I was forcing her and nothing was going right and all I was doing was cleaning up messes and washing wet panties.

So he took her potty. In the bathroom instead of the small pink potty I'd been trying.  And she peed like a champ.

I wanted to cry...out of frustration.  Here I was, trying all day long and he takes her once...and she does it no problem.

But I got over that quickly since my daughter used the potty.

So today was a much better day!  We had a few accidents but luckily they were outside.  I kept taking her about every 30 minutes and kept telling her the goal was to keep her panties dry.

So far it has worked!!!

And I might have given her two popsicles, mounds of marshmallows and a handful of M&M's to keep the momentum going.

But who cares!  Haylie is on her way!!

It's Progress, Right?

We are into day 2 for potty training.  Yesterday, we had a good but hectic day.  I was cleaning up pee or poop the whole morning and I was getting frustrated.  After her nap (in a diaper), I need to go to Wal-mart.  I didn't want to embarrass her (or maybe I just wanted it to be a stress free trip) so we went in a diaper...and she was in one until this morning.  So, I'm just letting myself feel like we are slowly easing our way into this thing.  It's probably not the right thing to do...but what is?

She did go pee in the potty yesterday...which is a BIG DEAL for her!!  She got a pizza lunch reward for being a big girl and going in the potty.

But today...lots of peeing in our panties and refusing to sit on the potty.  In my mind, I'm thinking maybe she just isn't ready.  I'm going to give it a few more days since what I'm reading says she is.  And Google is always right.

But today she has wanted to wipe herself and put it in the potty after peeing her panties.  She is excited to get new underwear after peeing instead of going back to a diaper.  Progress.

I also whipped up this sticker chart one night and even though we are using Christmas stickers, she is making progress and is excited to put one up!  After she has 10 successes, she will get a small prize.  Then 10 more, her prize will get a little bigger.  Her "successes" right now are actually sitting on the potty, wiping after her accident, etc.  Once she can do that, we'll reward for actually peeing or pooping.

I would love for this to be an easy process and right now it's not.  I just wonder if its not because 1) she has been using a diaper for almost 3 years now and that's all she knows 2) she doesn't seem to care much for change or 3) she really isn't ready yet.

Moving forward - whether she likes it or not.

This was the scene tonight at Wal-mart.  Soo many options of panties to pick from, she just couldn't decide.  She finally settled on Dora and Minnie Mouse - neither of which she really knows anything about.  She passed up on princesses (2 different kinds at that!), hearts and flowers.  Didn't see that one coming.

She is not ready for potty-training, or so Miss Haylie says.  But we thought maybe if we took her to pick out her new panties, her excitement might continue into actually wearing them and eventually going on the potty.  She is still pretty adamant about not even sitting on the potty (despite bribes of candy, marshmallows, Elmo potty seats and a pink frog potty), but will tell you when she goes pee and poop in her diaper.  Justin and I both feel that she is ready - we just need to convince her of that.

We'll see how this goes.  I'd rather keep her in diapers if it's going to give her a complex.  But only having to buy one package of diapers instead of 2 sounds really wonderful.  We'll just give it a shot...maybe it will be super easy.  Or maybe not.

Cold Turkey

To me, Sonic is only open from 2-4.  And possibly for lunch.  And maybe on the way home from the post office...or it just so happens to be open at 8 am when I'm thirsty.

Either way, I was frequenting Sonic a LOT.  One day I even had the girl in the drive-thru ask me if I had been there earlier that day.  Ummm....maybe. And it always was a Route 44 - do they even have other sizes?

But for awhile now, I've been thinking I need to quit drinking soda because let's face it.  Not good for your body or your waistline.  While pregnant, I craved Diet Coke like none other and thought I should indulge myself.  So I did.

Now I have a 6 month old and plenty of weight to lose.  I need to start somewhere.

Since I'm blogging about it, I'm making you my accountability partner.  I started on August 1 and haven't had a soda since (but I might have chugged a lot on July 31).  It's 16 days in and I promised myself a whole month...I'm doing much better than I thought I would be.  It's not to say that I won't ever drink one again - I just think it's time to find healthier options.

Once I master this, I'm thinking about tackling sweets.  You might not want to be around for that one.

Splash Night

Saturday nights are always more fun with friends around. Add some bathing suits, a kiddie pool and a cute boy making faces at you through the door - and life is good.

This is that cute boy - sliding his tongue up and down my glass door. 

Friends.  Adorable friends.

Feeding Time

Her new "hobby" is feeding her brother.

He loves it.

And she gets most of it in his mouth.

Half Birthday

On August 2, Jace turned 6 months!  We were at the beach, so we had to wait a few extra days to do the obligatory month pictures.

Mom, I just fell into a basket...

We went to the pediatrician today and J weighs 18 lbs, 26.5 inches. He isn't putting much weight on his legs and that worried me...but apparently he just has a "content" personality and doesn't feel the need to do much yet.  He is more like a 4 month old in this regard - happy, content, not doing much. Maybe later on he'll kick it into gear and roll over or something.  If the dr isn't worried, neither am I. It's hard not to compare my kids at 6 months - but it just shows how wonderfully different they are.

While eating or anytime he needs a paci and can't find one, he sucks his thumb.  Pretty cute now, going to be a pain to break later.

This kid will let me kiss on him 24/7.  I LOVE IT!! He is too squishy to not kiss.

Jace is eating anything and everything I feed him, still nurses a couple times a day but is definitely sleeping through the night.  He is getting better at his exersaucer and loves to kick his legs.

I've got high hopes for this next month.  Maybe at least sitting up on his own...well, if he feels like it. 

Fun in the Sun

We had the amazing privilege of spending a whole week at Topsail Island, NC with Justin's family.  7 days of sunshine, eating, sand, ocean, eating, seashells, crabbing, eating, cousins and eating.

To my Oklahoma friends - these are rain clouds.  They do exist...even though with this drought it might be up for discussion.

Haylie could spend all day in the water...and pretty much did.

Crouching baby, hidden paci.

Hard at work.

Water time with Daddy.

We like to coordinate our swim wear.

Wanting to be out in the ocean.

Making sand angels with his feet.

We had an amazing time.  I kept my expectations low with bringing a 6 month old...and they were exceeded! Jace did well.  He had an adjustment sleeping period, but then would take two long naps a day so we could have some beach time.  We didn't make Haylie nap and she did well with few melt downs. The guys got to have a full day of fishing and the girls got to go shopping.  We enjoyed quality time with aunts, uncles and cousins.  We watched the Olympics every night (up wayy too late - dang east coast time) and celebrated birthdays and cousin Victoria's baby.  We look forward to this trip every year and were so glad to be able to go.  This was a great year since Haylie LOVED being in the ocean and didn't mind the sand like last year.  Even Jace had fun in the sand.  

This was probably the best year yet.  Love this family tradition!

Flying with kids

We have been super busy these last few weeks.  Justin went on a work-cation to San Diego and I was home by myself with the two kids for the week.  He got home Friday evening and we turn around and leave for the beach for a week Saturday morning.  So finally, we are back, rested, tanned (well, Haylie is - the rest of us are still pasty and freckled) and ready to get back into the swing of things.

Because the trip was a first for my baby boy on a plane and Haylie was just flat out excited for her airplane rides, I must document the event by itself.  It was that good.

What is about to happen?!

We started out rocky by having a wet blow out with Jace and trying to feed him on the plane.  Don't recommend either.

 Not long after take off, this was my view. Love.

 The two flights going to NC were great.  Haylie was an angel and Jace slept both times.  Whew.

But the plane ride back....

Tears, poopy diapers, screaming fits, nursing on the plane, spankings, wrestling to sleep.

You name it, we dealt with it.

 
But we finally got it all together and had a pretty good time.

She's telling Bear a play by play of what she sees

A rare snuggle nap with my baby girl

Let's just say - we survived.  I don't plan on flying with a baby again if I can help it.  They are just too unpredictable.