Evan's World

Arabella's World

At night our general routine has been to brush teeth, read books and then put the kids to bed. Since I do it by myself most nights, Arabella has to be preoccupied while I nurse Evan. Before she absolutely refused to stay in her room by herself. She would throw crying fits which pretty much cancelled out my efforts to put Evan to sleep.

These past two weeks, and especially since we started potty training, she has been phenomenal at keeping herself occupied. One of the drawers of her organizer contains a bucket of crayons and coloring books, as well as odds & ends toys.

Tonight after I came out of Evan's room I peeked in her room to find this:

My sweet baby had pulled out her crayons (and bubble wrap) and was peacefully, quietly coloring. And she apparently made time to put on her "squeak, squeaks," on the wrong feet.

Speaking of potty training, things are going well. No regression as of yet (knock on wood). We had a first today; she went potty in a public bathroom. That reminds me I need to run to the store and get a portable fold up potty ring because holy crap was that difficult to manage. I sat her on the seat sideways to make it easier, but she's accustomed to putting her hands down to support herself and quite frankly, ew gross. So I had to keep her from falling in, keep her from touching the toilet, hand rails and everything else, grab toilet paper, and wipe her. Not an easy task. So, potty ring here we come.

We also had a not-so-fun first. She demanded underwear this evening and after dinner while playing with Bubba (read: running around and pushing him down on purpose for a laugh) she accidentally pooped in her underwear. I know it's not the last time it's going to happen but it too was disgusting, just like the public bathroom. But, she is getting better at making us aware that she needs to go before it happens. It's just the kid thing mixed with playing that makes her have the tendency to ignore her potty signs.

So, aside from the current potty training there isn't a whole lot new going on with B. I did want to share these pictures below, because they are a few of Arabella's favorite things. First we have her piggy banks. The big one is from her cousins, the middle one is one I got her, and the little one is from Grandmama.

When she was first learning her opposites, she named her piggy's. I'm sure you can guess who is who. We have Mommy piggy, Arabella piggy, and Baby piggy. She still sits on her changing table and recites their names.

The other picture is of a wind chime my mother gave me. Is has a green glass ball in its belly and we just get some terrible storms here and I don't want it broken. So in lieu of a mobile, when she was little, we hung the wind chime in her room. She loves to make it chime and I suppose it's a relaxer. Whenever her box fan is on you can hear it faintly chime. She really enjoys it.

And lastly we have the many, many, many faces of Arabella. Starting clockwise we have: Silly face, Clapping, You got it dude, Sad face, Putting on the bracelets, Curling of the tongue, Rockin dude, and trying to avoid looking at Mommy's camera.

I'm sure you know the caption for this one. ;)

She really is a great kid, when she wants to be. I love how she's developed this love of music and "finds her voice" frequently & out of the blue I might add. The kid would probably sing the newspaper if she could read. It's a joy to watch her grow and develop. I must be the luckiest Mommy on Earth.

You Capture - Pink

While technically not pink, this is my Mom's Dogwood tree. She planted it six years ago, and this is the first year it bloomed. Funny enough, my Dad said "she squealed with so much excitement you would have thought she was having an orgasm." Seriously NOT something I wanted to hear from my father, but hilarious none the less.

Easter 2011

I debated if I wanted to break this up into multiple threads, or just one long thread and for times sake...one long thread it will be. Hang in there.

Two years old & the first time in the church choir.

Arabella immediately was on the look out for Papa at church. She followed him up and down the sanctuary until it was time for church to start.

Dad was planning on sitting in the pew with us but Arabella begged him to "sing" with her. So up to the choir they went and she sang her heart out with Papa. It was the cutest thing ever.

Following church there was an Easter egg hunt for the kids. It was neat to see Arabella interested in hunting eggs. Evan just wanted one in each hand and to put one in his mouth. I guess that's par for the course when it's your first egg hunt.

There ended up being no older kids to hunt eggs, so the little ones got to score extra eggs. It was really cute watching them find and pick up eggs...with help of course.

Arabella was thrilled at the thought of finding eggs. She didn't even care if we opened them to see what was inside. Of course once the hunt was over disappointment set in, because you can never have too many eggs to hunt for right?

It's amazing that something as trivial as searching for hidden plastic eggs can bring so much joy to a little childs face.

Clockwise: Evan found two eggs near the creek; Arabella loved Gaiges old trike; Evan working a second egg hunt; Easter Eggs; Arabella and the second egg hunt; Evan is a huge fan of Papa's dump truck; Arabella found the very last egg at church.

Evan had his first opportunity to try out a trike and loved every minute of it. Daddy pushed him around for a half hour at least and his back hurt to prove it.

After the egg hunts at my parents house we sat the kids down for pictures. You can see how well that turned out.

Grandma bought her girls tiara's and "magic wands." You wanna talk about for little girls in heaven. They do make for some pretty cute princesses.

All tuckered out after a very long day. Silence is music to Mommy & Daddy's ears on the ride home.

It was pretty un-eventful day, with the exception of Evan trying to eat a dandelion, grass, and two rocks...goat boy.

Dust Bunnies

So, apparently my son is following in the footsteps of several of my December Mama's sons...

He's decided to be a goat-boy. It.is.gross.

When we were outside taking the bubble pictures, I turned to concentrate on Arabella, turned back to Evan just to see in trying to ingest nasty leaves he had shoved in his mouth.

Generally he cleans up what ever Arabella drops under the table. Usually there are large pieces of crackers or chips left over. Gross I know.

Today we were in the kitchen and had been playing at the play kitchen when I noticed him eating something. Now, Adam had just swept the floor so I wasn't sure what he'd gotten a hold of. OH MY GAWD.

The nasty little bugger had picked dust bunnies off the feet of the dining room chairs. I so hate hardwood floors right now. I mean, it's great because spills are easier clean up, but it collects dust so stinking easily. Add to that we put those felt pads on the bottom on the chair legs to protect the floor and they are instant magnets for dust bunnies.

I nearly lost my lunch trying to clean his mouth and hand out. Boys!

Potty Training Update & More

Someone doesn't see Mama with a camera.

We started another round of potty training two days ago. It is going phenomenal! We purchased a "ladder" for the potty and when it arrived we let Arabella open. She thought it was the coolest gift, next to her guitar, and immediately wanted to put it on the potty.

I assembled it, put it on the toilet, she stripped and did her business. It was awesome. After that we put her in her cloth underwear and she had two accidents, just pee thankfully. It was actually pretty funny as I had brought a pair of pull-ups to the bathroom and she 100% refused to wear them. She wanted her underwear instead.

Day one was pretty good, two pee accidents, no poop in either the toilet or her underwear, and she got five new stickers on her potty chart. This morning I had asked Adam to put her in either a pull-up or her underwear. Obviously she chose underwear again. She had an accident and Daddy put her in a diaper. His reason was, "she's going to be going to bed."

I explained to him that we are no longer using diapers for her. She will wear a pull-up for nap time and her overnights for bed time. And, well she didn't pee in the diaper so we saved it and switched her back to a pull-up for nap time. Just before nap time I asked her if she needed to potty (and this is her normal poop time), she said "yup."  We went to the potty and what do you know? She pooped IN THE TOILET. I was so happy for her that she got to stay up and eat a popsicle.

After nap time we had two more "accidents" of pee in her pull-ups. But hey, for only being her second day of true potty training, I'll take it. She is enjoying the process and so am I.

We've taken a relaxed, don't get mad at accidents approach and it really seems to be working. We just encourage her and ask her often if she needs to go. The funniest part of all is that no one can be in there with her. We hand her a book, and she asks us to close the door. Obviously I'm not going to leave her unattended so I crack the door so I can see her but she can't see me. Then I wait for the tinkle noise and "I did it!" (Thanks Grandmama for the potty book.)

We wipe, she flushes the potty and then wash our hands. After that she gets a sticker for her potty chart and sometimes I'll reward her with candy. I just hope we progress and don't regress. Time will tell.

Busted, Mommy!

"I did it!"



Big Girl Panties Rock!



In other Arabella news we have a fabulous nursing story. Evan is still nursing, Arabella sees it, imitates us, and so on. Yesterday she hopped up in my lap while I was on the couch and laid in the cradle position. She kept saying "Fee-do" "Fee-do" "Fee-do." I had NO idea what she was saying.

I stopped her after the millionth time and said I didn't understand. She paused, said "Fee-do" and then started to pull my shirt up. Once I realized she was saying "Feed You" I stopped her.

Now, am I embarrassed, heck no. It's awesome that my daughter is going to grow up and feel that breastfeeding is normal and nothing to hide. What I don't get is, was she merely imitating what is normal for me & Evan or was she truly trying to nurse? Is it normal for a child who hasn't nursed since 8 months old to revert and want to try again? Or was she "playing" like she wanted to nurse?

Either way I think its awesome that she understands. I just wish she could tell me if that's what she wanted or if she just wanted to "play."

**And if you're wondering about the dress code...Daddy had just washed her winter hat so we could put it away and she snagged it out of the dryer while he was emptying it. She just had to wear it, in the middle of April.**

Bubble Fun

I have a ton of pictures to share...but I'll try to limit myself.

You Capture - Spring

50 mm | f/1.4 | 1/1000 | ISO 100

First Words

I'm not really sure that I've documented Evan's official first word. I mean, he's been saying Mamamamamama and Dadadadadadada for a long time. He can sign "milk" when asked to and he's signed "drink" once.

But really, he's just started with official verbal words the last couple of days. So I'm going to say his official first, and favorite, word is Dada. Yes, Dada is the first and not Mama. Just yesterday he started saying Mama, and we're talking about specifically asking for one or the other of us.

It's cute and sad all at once. This is just the beggining of his verbal learning. He's starting to jabber a lot more and coming up will all sorts of new sounds.

I'm slightly saddened that my baby is no longer a baby. He's growing up so stinking fast and it makes me sad.  It seems as though he was just born yesterday. Now he's walking, talking and interacting more and more. He's just a happy and playful little man. 

In other firsts I *think* I can officially say he's now sleeping through the night. It only took us 14 months to get there. We've had a couple of nights where he woke up around 3am, but otherwise he's going down at 8pm and sleeps until 7:30 or 8:00am. It would be glorious if only I could get myself back into the habit of going to bed when the kids do.

It's just so difficult because I can actually get things done while they are asleep. Someday soon I'll know what it means to sleep through the night again. 

For now I need to sit back and enjoy some Mommy quiet time.