The case of the cursed jammies

Since Kaitlyn was born 2 years and 10 months ago, and since Brianna was born 1 year and 3 months ago, we have only had one stomach flu incident. It was Kaitlyn, before Brianna had arrived. It happened in the middle of the night, and it was quite messy. She was wearing yellow jammies with an elephant on them. Out of all the bazillion pairs of jammies Kaitlyn has been through, those are the ones she was wearing. The very same ones Brianna was wearing last night. And officially made it 2 for 2 as far as the stomach flu/yellow jammies correlation. Are they cursed?

Speaking of puke (yah this blog is all about gross bodily functions...sorry, that's your reality when you have a 1 year old and a 2 year old)...Kaitlyn informed us yesterday that her puker (AKA Computer) is "dangerous". Don't ask me why.

And finally, it's Christmas Eve Day! (I just wrapped the presents last night BTW). I am quite excited to see the girls faces in the morning. Our plans have been messed with this year due to a blizzard as well as my mom being sick and now Brianna having the stomach flu. But we will make the best out of our little family Christmas spent holed up in our warm comfy house. Merry Christmas all!!!

The continuing poop saga

Kaitlyn has been doing a great job - at daycare. But not so much at home. Until last night!

It was a busy night, because we had the day care Christmas party. Santa comes to visit with all the kids, presents are handed out, dinner is eaten. Finally we headed home (as both girls were quickly becoming cranky) and started bath time right away. After her bath before we even got out of the bathroom, Kaitlyn said "I gotta go poooooty". I thought "sure you do" but of course put her on the toilet anyhow. Before I knew it, she was going #2. BE STILL MY HEART!!! I was so dang excited that my eyes started watering and Kaitlyn said "mommy are you crying?" I was like "No honey I'm SO HAPPY!!!". And she gave me her big proud Kaitlyn smile.

Three cheers for poop!

Enlightening conversaton with a 2 (almost 3) year old

Kaitlyn: Mommy I gotta poooop
Mommy: Ok, then go
Kaitlyn: Not like daycare I pooped in my diaper
Mommy: No, we don't wanna poop in our pants, only on the toilet like a big girl
Kaitlyn: At day care I went in my paaaants. It was on my shirt, it was icky.
Mommy: I remember that, it was a couple of months ago. You had a big mess didn't you?
Kaitlyn: Yeaaa....it was on my pants. It was on my tummy, it was on my elbows....
Mommy: *Rubs eyes because they are watering trying so hard not to laugh*
Kaitlyn: Mommy are your eyes scratchy?!
Mommy: Yes they are itchy.
Kaitlyn: *Reaching to her behind* My butt is scratchy. We're scratchy together!
Mommy: You're itchy, too?
Kaitlyn: Yah, I need a doctow (doctor) because my butt is scratchy.
Mommy: I dont think the doctor can do anything about your itching honey.
Kaitlyn: Awwww why not?
Mommy: Honey it really is time to go to bed...

and on for a couple more minutes.

This was a very intense, serious conversation that took place while Kaitlyn was, of course, sitting on the toilet.

Flattering mommy & couch monster

Last night, I was in the bathroom with Kaitlyn (trying to get her to go #2 on the potty, which is something we spend a lot of time on these days). All of a sudden, completely out of nowhere, she says to me "mom, I love your teeth". Awww, my girl sure does know how to make a mom feel special.

Brianna isn't complimenting my teeth quite yet. Instead, her newest thing is getting up on the couch by herself. I think that it gives her a feeling of accomplishment to finally be making it up on her own. Once she makes it, she smiles big and laughs at us from her new, higher viewpoint of the world. And surprisingly, she gets down all by herself really well.

Speaking of Brianna, she just got up from her nap. Later!

Does anybody know what time it is?

It's POTTY TIME!

Lately it is almost like my whole life revolves around that contraption we call a toilet. We are trying everything in us, being as encouraging as we can possibly be, to get Kaitlyn potty trained. The biggest obstacle is of course, #2. However I am proud to report that in the last 7 days, Kaitlyn has successfully went #2 on the toilet 3 times. It may not seem like a lot, but it is a record for her. I am feeling confident that we are finally on the final path to diaper freedom. (Well, diaper freedom with Kaitlyn anyways. Unfortunately I don't think it would work for Brianna quite yet! )

So keep your fingers, toes, hair, arms, legs, and anything else you can, crossed that this will finally be it!!!

Waiting for the alligator

Brianna had her 15 month check up last night, and it went good, other than the fit she threw so that Andy couldn't hear half of what the doctor said, and the fact that more and more, it looks like she *might* end up having asthma. (Still no way to know for sure until she is a bit older). Ok so maybe it wasn't the best appointment. But she is great developmentally, height and weight, etc. I am very happy for that!

When we were there, at one point waiting for the elevator, Kaitlyn's said something to the effect of "We're going on the alligator!". Eh...alligator, elevator. Same thing.

Bentleyville: We got to you! We got to you!

I had a couple hours of PTO at the end of the day today, so I had to live up to a promise I made. I told Kaitlyn if she went #2 on the potty, we could have a date night with mom or dad and go to Bentleyville and see Santa. Well, she did her number 2 yesterday at daycare, and well I had to go. But did it have to be so cold and windy! Enjoy this video. A few pics are below, click to view larger. A must do if you live in or visit the Duluth area.




Bentleyville Tour of Lights Duluth, MN

Looking to give away: Laugh and Learn Kitchen

Word around the street is that Santa just might be bringing our girls a big, very nice, big girl play kitchen for Christmas, as long as they can stay on the nice list from now until Christmas Eve. We have a perfect place to put the kitchen, but we will no longer have space or use for our Fisher Price Laugh and Learn 2-in-1 Learning Kitchen.

So comes a special offer! We're looking for somebody who wants it, needs it, who's child will put it to good use. No price, we just want it off of our hands. If nobody we know "IRL" wants it, we will probably put it up on Freecycle.

If you want to give our Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Kitchen a new home, let us know.

A potty post

So the "Potty Training" chapter of Kaitlyn's life has been a long one. It has been a roller coaster, with several peaks and several valleys. All of last week was another peak, as she kept dry pretty much the whole time. Even through the weekend she did a great job. However we have been trying to get her to go poop on the potty for a long time. She has done it, a handful of times, but nothing consistent. We have tried everything! We talk about how exciting it is. We talk about, show her and let her try her big girl underwear. We tell her she can go pick out even more brand new big girl underwear, whatever kind she likes. We bribe with things like candy, stickers, popsicles, special trips (for example, a "date" to Bentleyville with the parent of her choice). One day she pooped in her big girl underwear right after having been on the toilet and saying she didn't need to poop, so daddy put a few choice toys away and we told her she would get them back when she pooped on the potty. NONE of this worked for a long time. She is just a stubborn little girl. She knows, and she knows we know she knows, what it feels like to "have to go".

So today when I walked in to daycare just a minute after she FINALLY pooped in the toilet for the first time in a long time, I made a huge deal of it. I was like proud mommy + 10 cups of coffee and a few Red Bulls. I exclaimed over and over how proud I was and what a great job she did, etc. She seemed very happy and made sure to tell everyone who would listen "I went poop on the potty!!! HEY EVERYONE, I went poopie on the potty!!" We arrived home and the first thing she told dad was "I went poop on the potty!". We walked into the house and the first thing she had to do was get her toys back (the ones we had put away earlier). The second thing she did was ask for a popsicle. Then we put in one of her favorite DVD's, which is "Curious George goes to the Zoo and other adventures" (which was one of the things that had been put away). We had a good supper, and then the lucky girl even got a bubble bath all to herself without sister. If all of that isn't positive reinforcement enough for her to continue on a path to diaper freedom, I don't know what is?!?

Anyhow, I hope Kaitlyn starts doing this consistently now. I would be so proud, and save money on diapers too. Maybe I could finally afford to visit the Melon House with that extra money.

Anybody want a melon for Christmas?

The plan was to go shopping today (though it never ended up happening. But that's okay, we went shopping yesterday and got everything we *needed*. Today would have been kind of extra. So while we were eating lunch, I explained to Kaitlyn that she needed to take a good nap so we could go shopping after. I asked her what store would she like to go shopping at? First, she said "I dont know" (a favorite answer for everything lately). I asked again, and she said "The Melon House!" I thought I must have misunderstood, so I asked her to say it again. She clearly said "Melon House".

"Melon House?!" I asked, trying not to laugh too hard. "Yeeeaah" she said with a silly smile.

Unfortunately we never did make it out shopping, let alone to the Melon House. Whatever that is. But if I ever find out, and if anybody needs a Melon, let me know.

An exciting lunch

Today, I made the girls turkey sandwiches and chicken noodle soup for lunch. Both of them ate really good. Even Kaitlyn (who normally gets the plate with less food on it, and Brianna gets the plate with more).

When they were finished, I gave them a graham cracker. Brianna was munching away on hers. Andy and I were talking. Suddenly, during a pause in our conversation, we hear a light snore. Look at Brianna, and she is totally passed out in her high chair. Just a minute before she had been gnawing on her cracker. Andy tried to get a pic but she woke up when he moved to get the camera. So he then took her upstairs for a nap. Somewhere a little more comfortable than a high chair! Kaitlyn did that once before too, only she was much younger. Young enough that she was eating baby food from a jar and not "real" food.

So yah, anyways, that was our mega-exciting lunchtime. So exciting, that Brianna obviously couldn't contain herself!

Santa Claus is comin to town

A beautiful moment between Kaitlyn and Santa...



And now the REAL scene. Note Brianna's face...


Kudos to Bentleyville's Santa though. He is one great jolly ol' fellow.

My silly daughters

Kaitlyn's story for the day:
Andy walked into her room (with me not far behind) after Kaitlyn's nap, to find her standing at the corner of her toddler bed, with her pants on her head. She just smiled at us, and looked as though she was slightly worried she was in trouble. She wasn't in trouble of course. Just gave her mommy and daddy a good laugh.

Brianna's story for the day:
Kaitlyn was trying to watch a movie, and Brianna is in her "must touch every button in sight" phase...and this primarily includes the buttons on the TV and DVD player. So even though we have it blocked off as best we can, she still tries all the time, and occasionally succeeds. So back to Kaitlyn's movie...I guess she noticed Brianna going for the buttons and, in her 2 year old anger, put her hands on Brianna and pushed her back. Hard. Brianna fell (didn't get hurt) and cried. Kaitlyn got a time out in the corner. After I was done consoling Brianna, she toddled over to Kaitlyn's corner, pointed at her for a few seconds (arm out, one finger firmly towards Kaitlyn), then toddled away. It was as if she was saying "THAT GIRL YOU CALL MY SISTER... PUSHED ME!!!"

Sisterly love...so much fun! Even though they fight and push each other and pull each other's hair, they do love each other. This evening, they were giving each other hugs and kisses galore. Which is the.cutest.thing.ever!

A Tale of Laundry Detergent Woe

So I just recently bought a nice new bottle of laundry detergent. Exciting, right? Well, I usually keep the laundry detergent on top of the freezer right next to the washer. And of course, I must not have had the cap on good, and the washer must have really been rocking (as it often does, because it sucks). And at some point, the stupid detergent got rocked right off of the freezer.

I walked down to switch loads and though "oh wow, it smells good down here. Must be the new laundry detergent!" (because it was a different brand than I usually buy). Until I realized that it smelled like Spring breeze because the floor in front of the freezer was covered in slippery, spring-breezy loveliness.

Bravo.

Wow. Here's a little trivia for ya...

After posting my post below, (READ IT!) I checked out the number of posts per month we have had lately. Every month is 1 post. Except a couple of months (August and October I believe) that had none. NONE. What kind of blog are we running here?! Geez.

Anyhow, my trivia is that March there were 14 posts, and starting in April things went downhill. April also happens to be the month I started a new job and left my old one, which I had held for 5 years and gave me a little extra time due to the 4 on, 4 off schedule. Hence how I was able to blog much more often. So there it is. Working M-F, and during the day, definitely takes away from blogging opportunities that one has when they are working a 4 on 4 off night shift schedule.

That's okay. I will gladly take the trade. Because even though my blogging now sucks, I get every weekend off! (I used to work 6 out of 8 pretty much). I get paid holidays! I get to sleep like a normal person!!! It.is.awesome. I bet my brain is functioning 150% better these days, simply because I am actually sleeping now.

Weird how my brain is functioning 150% better, but yet I still sometimes feel like there is room for improvement...things that make you say "hmmmm"....

Yeah. I'm no good at this lately.

So it seems that, slowly, since Brianna AKA "B" was born and even more so since I have gotten a new job, I have gotten into a habit of not habitually updating our blog. Does that make sense? Anyhow, I'm sorry! I need to do better. Maybe now that the summer has come and gone, we will be home more on weekends and I will manage to manage things better!

Kaitlyn is a typical 2-almost-3-year-old. She is the cutest, funniest, most dramatic and moody creature on earth. She isn't a huge chocolate or sweets fan (leave it to me to birth a child with the strangest food preferences ever. I mean, not a chocolate fan? WHAT?). She sleep talks (thanks for passing that down, Andy). She loves being read to. Thank god for the Target dollar section. Just the other day, I bought 11 books. For $11. SCORE! Kaitlyn loves her friends at daycare, she loves shopping (to her daddy's dismay) and she is like a sponge when it comes to learning stuff.

That's a toddler for you. Like a sponge on legs. Soaking up knowledge like crazy, and so squishy and cuddly you just wanna hug it. Not that I hug sponges, but you know what I mean. Maybe if there was a sponge teddy bear, that would work better in this comparison. Because everyone wants to hug a teddy bear...right?

Oh and I can't forget to mention potty progress. Yeah...there is none. She is taking her dear sweet time. She does really awesome for awhile, and then we take a step back. There was a period of several days where she used the potty (for #1) 99% of the time, but lately not so much. And #2 has been a struggle all along. We are just keeping at it, and I trust that when it is time, she will know and will just start doing it.

Brianna....oh Brianna. My little stubborn, mega-fit having (seriously, she is the Queen of fits and she is STRONG to boot), kitty loving, sweet little Brianna. She isn't too talkative, but what she does say is flagged with HIGH importance! Phrases such as "ooh ooh ah ah" (like a monkey) and "Uh oooooooh" (after purposely throwing her sippy on the floor for the 4th time in a row) top the list of most frequently heard. She has a quickly growing vocabulary though. In addition to ooh ooh ah ah, and uh ooooooh, she says mama, dada, kitty, go, and Andy swears he heard her say "love you". I know I am missing some, but I can always add them in another day. Since, you know, I'm going to be a Blogging Rock Star from now on in. Instead of the Blogging Loser I have been the past several months.

Oh and back to the mega-fits I mentioned. Most people haven't really witnessed a true, Brianna style mega-fit. But I promise, they happen. She is such a sweet, happy baby most of the time. She is perfectly content playing with others or by herself. I have heard on more than one once about how happy she is. And it is true. I am very lucky that way. But when she does have a fit, WATCH OUT. The girl has lungs. She has power. She has strength. She has endurance. She has the scream of a champion! Even our day care provider said that Brianna has one of the most piercing loud screams of any kids she has encountered in over 15 years of day care.

That's my girl. I'm so proud!

(PS...pics WILL come soon. I promise!)

(PS2...I retain the right to define "soon" to mean whatever best suits my needs in the future. So if pics don't come until a month from now...soon means "in a month". But I really do hope to get them up much sooner than that!)

Updates

I apologize that it has been so long! I want to do a quick update for now, but hopefully in the next few weeks we will get some new pics up as well.

Brianna is now over a year old and on the verge of walking. I think it will be in the next couple of weeks. She is cruising all over and can stand on her own with no support for periods of time. Andy even saw her get up to standing, without holding on to anything. She has 8 teeth and loves to clap, click her tongue, and make kissy noises. Especially when somebody will do it back and forth with her. She is saying a lot of mama and dada of course. She eats like a champion. I seriously don't know how she fits all that food into that little stomach!!! And she still sleeps pretty well although we've had a few rough patches lately. Her most recent little stinker phase is that she hates being put into her carseat. She throws a fit like no other - throws her head back, arches her back, stiffens her whole body, and screeches like you wouldn't believe. Our daycare provider has been at it for 15+ years and said Brianna's is one of the higher screeches she has ever heard. Yup, that's MY little screamer :-)

Kaitlyn has had a big month this month. She is finally getting her two year molars, we changed her crib into a toddler bed, and she is currently on day 5 of keeping her diaper dry all day long from start to finish! We still have a ways to go with the pooping, but as far as pee she is doing awesome! She even tells us (or daycare) when she needs to go. In 5 days she has only had one accident. Not bad! She is doing great in her big girl bed and seems to love it. And as always, over time, they get more and more talkative and can say more and more complicated sentences. And she is so funny! The things they come up with...oh my gosh. Crazy. Anyways, she is a very verbal little girl and always has been. (Whereas Brianna isn't nearly as talkative as Kaitlyn was even at that age).

That is all for now, but like I said I hope to update soon with pictures!

Be prepared for a really long blogapalooza

I apologize for the huge gaps between blog posts these days. I will try to do better now...time just gets away so easily!

Kaitlyn is your typical 2 year old who picks up everything others say and do. This is good in many ways of course, but there are times when it is bad. Like when she learns not so good things from kids at daycare. We've been struggling with this for a couple of weeks and it does seem to be improving somewhat so hopefully it keeps getting better and we can teach her that just because one kid acts that way, does not mean she should also. We are also at the age where potty training becomes a central issue, and so we've been working with her on that a little, although not pushing it too hard. She definitely knows when she needs to go. She has days where she goes on the potty several times, and other days where its like she just forgets. She still won't really tell us before she goes #2. She tells us after! Though after several months of not going #2 in the potty, she just did again the other day. This coming weekend we are going on vacation with family including her cousin Taylor who is jut 1 month younger. We are going to have a potty training marathon while we are on vacation together. We are hoping since the girls are so "monkey see monkey do" and if we can get them on a consistent schedule using the potty, it will work. Taylor and Kaitlyn really love each other. I cant wait until Brianna and cousin Piper (3 months apart) are old enough to start engaging as well. Taylor and Kaitlyn even have their own little conversations when they get together!

Brianna now has two teeth, is crawling, and just a few minutes before I started writing this blog she tried pulling herself up for the first time! Talk about exciting - and time going at warp speed. Yikes! We are working on introducing some table foods but it is slow going. We will continue trying because some days it is obvious that her bottles and baby food is just not enough. She eats 2 containers of baby food for supper each night! Usually 1 fruit, and one veggie. The fruit always goes down a little faster, of course! She loves, loves loves her big sister Kaitlyn and it gets more obvious every day. When Kaitlyn comes around, she is all smiles. Oh and when Kaitlyn kisses her or tickles her? It thrills her! As far as her growth - well she is a big girl! Not huge, but way bigger than Kaitlyn was at the same age. At Brianna's 9 month appointment (June 11th so she was a little over 9 months) she weighed 20lbs even, which is the 68%. She was 27.5 inches tall, which is the 44%. We just moved her out of her infant seat and into a convertible. She still has to sit rear facing for awhile, but I think she likes her new seat anyways. Mommy sure likes not having to lug that infant carrier around anymore!

Now here is how we've been keeping busy in our free time:

Trips to the zoo:





Trips to Crane Lake:







Enjoying the city we live in:




Being silly and having fun:








Mom and dad have even had a couple of "dates"