It's Potty Time

I knew potty training wouldn't be easy. Emily has always done things at her own pace. I mean she didn't walk until she was 17 months. So I expected she'd be ready to potty train by the time she was around 5. But I decided to give it a shot around the 2 and a half mark. We started in mid March. She had seen her potty chair. It had been hanging around her bathroom for a couple of months. Just chillin. So, I tried taking her to the potty every 30 minutes or so. I tried bribing her with chocolate too. I showed her clips of girls her age using the potty on the internet. She seemed interested and would sit on her potty. But did she use it? That's a big fat "no." So, after about a week of trying with no results I threw in the towel for a while. In the meantime I continued to show her clips of girls using the potty and got a copy of Elmo's Potty Time. I waited about a month to give it another shot. Nada. I then took another reprieve and decided to punish myself again by trying for a third time at the end of May. This time I used a potty chart with stickers and decided to have her go "commando." At first she would have accidents and we'd just remind her that pee goes in the potty. As far as using the potty went, she would randomly have big pees in the potty but for the most part would just sprinkle. She would pretty much wait until nap time and bedtime to do her business since that's when she got to wear a diaper. The rest of the time she would either dribble down her leg or would pee in her cloth training pants (I would only put these on when she'd go outside). I was beginning to feel like I had another puppy in the house. Anyway, I was encouraged even with all the accidents and the resistance because she was actually showing some interest and would get upset if she had an accident. In March and April, this was totally not the case. She would also actually empty her bladder at times and pooped one time. I was and am prepared for this to be a long process. This week has been the most encouraging. She has rarely had peeing accidents because she is starting to recognize when she needs to pee and will go to her potty and sit until she pees. I think the stickers and her rewards have helped. She either gets a piece of chocolate or a couple of sprays of mommmy's Sweet Pea body splash. The girl loves her some perfume and lotion. I think she'd rather have that than chocolate. Such a foreign concept to me. Now we're just struggling through getting her to poopy on the potty. She is resisting that pretty hard. But we're taking baby steps and hopefully she'll be pooping on the potty before her fifth birthday. :)

This Little Light of Mine

She's Not a Baby Anymore

Yes, Emily is still in diapers and still scared of the big scary vacuum but most everything else about her is child. She's following instructions better,she wants to do more and more on her own, and she's got a sassy side. She's also doing and saying things that are showing off her budding personality. Some examples....When I call for her now, she often says "what?" It's not a rude "what," it's just what I say when my name is called and so now she does it. Another thing is when she ran out onto the back porch and yelled "Sarah, knock it off" when she was barking. Mommy's also responsible for that since I often reprimand the big outdoor dogs to knock off their barking. Today she called her daddy "Jooshy." Jooshy is a nickname I gave Josh many years ago. Daddy told her that "as cute as that is, my name is daddy." There are more but for the life of me I can't recall them right now. She can now sing along to songs on the radio instead of just mumbling. She can also recall things like crazy and sometimes I can't believe she remembered whatever it is she just recalled. Some sweet things she does is randomly telling me she loves me while in the middle of playing and when she's done something wrong she'll say "I'm sorry,mommy" and say "hold you." She also shows great concern for people's and even animals' well-being. If I act like I'm crying or upset, she asks if I'm okay. The other day Jack was yelping (he has an injured leg) and she started to cry out of sympathy for him. Too sweet. Some not so fun or sweet child things she does is the temper tantrums,fighting sleep, and displaying a little bit of sneaky behavior. One sneaky thing she did happened the other day. You see, as I've just said she is fighting sleep a lot of nights. To entertain herself at bedtime she was getting up, turning on her overhead light, turning off both her fans, turning on her lamp, and turning off her dvd player that plays her sleepy music so she can have the tv on (I use her dvd player as a cd player). After this became the norm, her daddy and I came up with ways to prevent these things from happening. One of these things was to just leave her dvd player and tv off instead of playing music. She had accepted this and somehow doesn't know how to turn her tv on. But one day she said "music on" while I was laying her down for a nap. I thought this is probably a trick but I'll oblige. So I turned it on, left the room, and waited outside her door. About 10-20 seconds later I heard the tv switch on. I immediately flung the door open and she gave me a deer in headlights look. What a little trickster. This "terrible two" behavior is thankfully getting less frequent in recent days. Josh and I are seeming to successfully wrangle in this frustrating behavior. We just might come out on the other side with our sanity in tact.

Baby Update

We got to see our little guy again on Thursday to look at his heart since the ultrasound tech couldn't get a good look at it last time. Even though he was still in the same position as last time (not a good one to see the heart), she could see it since he's bigger. All looks good. He is now around 1 pound 3 ounces. We listened to his heartbeat again as well. When we were done listening to it, Emily wanted to know where her brother's heartbeat went. Thought that was cute. Emily knows about her brother and can tell you his name is Joshua but I know she has absolutely no idea where he is or why the only time she can see him is on a computer screen at the doctor's office. It's funny to watch her look up at the screen in complete confusion because,let's be honest, if the tech didn't tell me what I was looking at on the screen I wouldn't know what it was either. So I'm sure she just sees a bunch of black and gray blobs up there. Anyway, I'm currently busy getting Emily's current room ready for Joshua and her new room ready (she will be in what was the guest room) for her to move in. We're aiming for this transition to take place sometime in June. Lots of organizing, painting, and decorating to do. The closer we get to August the more anxious I'm getting to get everything ready.

Easter 2010

We enjoyed a good Easter. The weather was nice and Emily was much more interested in finding Easter eggs this year. She of course wanted to open them right away but was patient and waited until she found all of her eggs first. She also attacked a bunny cake my mom made and ate way too much candy. Here's some pictures. As you can see by the sweat in her hair, it was a warm day. Which she spent most of outside (her absolute favorite place to be).











Eggs Emily dyed (with maybe a little help from mommy)

Get out the blue, a boy is on his way

Emily is getting a baby brother! We're going to name him after his daddy because Josh says he has always wanted a junior. Since his name isn't an ugly one, I'm going along with it.:)Unfortunately, we weren't able to get good profile shots or 4-D shots because he was facing downward. This also means we have to have another ultrasound at our next appointment because his position didn't allow for the tech to get a good look at his heart. She just wants to make sure the anatomy of it looks right. Not because she thinks there's a problem but because they want to look at this on all babies and he just wouldn't reposition himself so she could. I'm not complaining about getting to see him again.:) Anyway, we're really excited to have one of each.

Baby Number 2

Baby number 2's e.t.a. is August 17. We find out the sex of the baby on March 25. We're looking forward to finding out. Mainly because I like planning the baby's room. If it's a boy his name will be Joshua David Jr. and if it's a girl we're leaning toward Claire Grace (still mulling over girl names though).

Video and a whole lot of pics Jan/Feb 2010

Bye Bye Paci

Emily's pacifier is no more. We had to let her know on Monday that her paci had gone bye bye. She looked up at me and said "paci is for night night." It was night night time so she was confused. Josh and I both explained that the paci is for babies and then told her again that it went bye bye. She looked at us like we had told her that one of her bffs was leaving and never coming back. It was truly heartbreaking but we committed to it and there was no take backsies. We battled through the first night of screaming protests and since that first night it has been considerably easier than we thought it would be. She rarely mentions it and though she struggles a little harder without it at nap time, it has been pretty easy overall. I dreaded it for so long and realized as long as you stick to your guns, it's no biggie.

2010 Emily Update

Emily is doing great. She's mostly sweet but definitely has a sassy side. If you spend the day with her, you'll most likely hear her say throughout the day "what's this?," "where did ___ go?," and "can I have it?" She has recently graduated to a "big girl bed". Really we just took the gate off her crib and converted it to a daybed. But it's still closer to a big girl bed than she had before. We anticipated her opening her door and exploring the house while we slept but she has yet to do that (it's been 2 weeks now). Next will be ditching the pacifier. I have hesitated long enough and I've committed to February as the month it's gonna happen. Right now she's only allowed to have it during night night time. Dreading it, dreading it, dreading it. After the kiss off of the pacifier, we will tackle the potty training. Right now she just thinks the potty is a toy since the one she has sings to her. And the girl can't resist her some music. She LOVES music. It tames the wild beast in her. Usually if I rock her while singing my version of Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" (which is replaced with "sweet Emmy Jane") she'll calm herself. Most of the time if I randomly start singing it, she will run to me, reach her arms out, and say "hold you." She must be held while I sing it. She also likes to sing. Whether it be a real song or a made up song. I love her made up songs the best though. She still knows her basic colors and then some and can now count to 15. I'm going to start teaching her how to recognize her letters (she can say most of the alphabet). She also understands what counting means a little better. She will see two of something and then say "two ___. " She is just getting the concept of adding one more to get 3. Though she can point and count objects, she often points at an object more than once and so counts it 2 or more times. She is such a tender hearted little girl. If she sees I'm upset (whether she's the reason I'm upset or not) she will say "I'm sorry." If she sees anyone or anything (inadament objects, such as her baby dolls to even the remote control, included) she will ask them if they're okay and then tell them it's okay. She also gets concerned for people who are upset on t.v. For example, if she sees a lady crying on t.v., she'll say "it's okay lady." Being in the presence of people is something she loves. Sometimes she needs a little while to warm up to strangers or people she doesn't know very well but once she does she becomes the center of attention. She's changed so much in the last few months. It's been so much fun seeing her grow from a baby to a little girl. Speaking of becoming a little girl, she can't leave the house without "Emmy's purse." Well,there's a lot more I could write about but I'll spare you.