Shower Time

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Valette refused to fall asleep at nap time, instead she conked out in the middle of dinner.  Silly girl.

 Sunday, September 8, 2013

Valette's first shower that she ENJOYED.  This is a big deal, folks.

 Valette is pretty entertaining.

Valette and Abbi

Have you missed me?

I have certainly missed updating my blog.  I have been so busy with different projects and children and photography and earning money that I felt like the extra things had to wait.  Hence, ignored blog. Sad.

After Abbi was born, Valette moved down the hall to her "big girl room" which I have yet to finish decorating.  I had big plans, but you know….sigh.

On wall is going to get large portraits of Valette.  I bought the frames before we even took the pictures. So we went out for a family photo shoot to get portraits of my beautiful girls.  They were all troopers (including Eric) taking photos outside in August.

Saturday, August 3, 2013

 See? So cute.

 This is the face we got when Valette was told she had to stay here for pictures and could not go to the park area she could see from where we were. ha.

(Don't worry, we went out to eat after this. She was plenty rewarded.)

 Abbi, 5 months old.

 Abbi could roll really well after 4 months. Both directions.  That was new for me.  Valette barely rolled at all.  Abbi could go wherever she wanted.

 Precious smiling girl.

 Daddy's girls.

Sunday, August 4, 2013

We have 12:30 church, which means we miss nap time.  This day Valette zonked on the couch between church and dinner.

Don't Want to Forget

Last night as I was finishing feeding Abbi the last time before bed I was browsing facebook and pinterest on my phone.  Typical nursing behavior.

When Abbi decided to be done she looked at me so intently and started talking and smiling so big.  She was telling me, "hey, put that stupid phone down and pay attention to me!"

I was smart this time and I really did put my phone down.  I looked at her and we smiled and giggled and Abbi just kept cooing and gurgling.  She was loving the attention.

It was really time to wrap her up and lay her in bed.  (Eric wakes up really early, so bedtime is a big deal around here, especially since we were already running late at this point.)  But I just wasn't ready to let go of her.

I had the overwhelming thoughts of how she won't be my baby for long.  She is already FOUR months old.  She holds toys and follows you with her eyes and giggles and looks for her daddy in a room and scoots around on her back.  I  don't want to miss out on her.  I love her smiles and giggles.  I love that she loves her Daddy, Eric didn't get that last time.

So I didn't wrap her up for bed.  I brought her in my room and smiled at her some more and took her picture and enjoyed her a little longer.

I love my girls.  I just don't want to forget the sweet smiles or the giggles or the excitement.  I don't want to forget what it was like to have little ones.

Binky Time

It has been entertaining to identify differences in my girls, and I don't just mean hair color.

June 12, 2013

 Abbi is so very easy.  Just like Valette, she goes to sleep very quickly once you wrap her up and give her the binky.  Very unlike Valette, that is the only time she really wants it.  I can give it to her when she fusses at other times, but she will only suck on it for about 2.5 seconds.  She prefers her fingers.  (Notice she has the first two fingers of her right hand in her mouth in this photo?  That is a favorite activity.  Another difference from Valette, who never sucked her fingers.)  But when it is time to sleep, she loves her binky.  That might only be because she can't get to her fingers at that point, who knows?

Valette, has always LOVED her binky.  She took it easily and used it all the time.  We switched to the binky only being allowed in her crib around her first birthday.  This was pretty easy to manage, when I would get her out, I could take the binky and usually I put it out of her reach.  When she moved up to her big girl room and big girl bed she started getting out of bed with the binky.  I would let her keep it until I changed her diaper the first time in the morning and then put it away.  She started throwing fits about it being where she can't reach it, I was lazy and let her put it on this shelf above her head.  (She saw me put the binky on the high closet shelf the first day she moved in there, and then copied me.  Sometimes she would go in her room to get a "binky fix," knowing that she was not supposed to have it she always stayed in the closet for these.  On this day she fell asleep while hiding with her binky.  I had to get a picture.

On July 12 (a week ago) we finally took the no-binky plunge. I have been wanting/needing to do this since about January, but I didn't because I was dreading losing the ease of naptime and bedtime.  Valette was always excited for her naps because she knew she could have the binky.  I took Abbi to the pediatrician on July 11, while there I asked when to get rid of the binky because I was worried about it affecting teeth.  He said by 18 months, that was the final straw.  Eighteen months was a year ago.   The next morning I went and cut the binky down the middle while Valette was not in the room.  She noticed a while before nap time (probably when she went in there for a fix) but didn't cry about it.  She just came and told me the binky wasn't working.  When naptime came I let her go get it and then talked to her about how a broken binky means she is a big girl and doesn't need it anymore.  She cried, but only for about five minutes and then slept easy.  At bedtime she rehearsed back to me the things I had told her about being too big for a binky and went to sleep just like that.

The next two nights involved crying and weren't as easy, but since then it has been great.  She mentions it sometimes but doesn't ask for it.  I guess I didn't need to be so afraid.  I am so pleased.

(Next we will tackle potty training.  I'm hoping to find I didn't need to worry so much about that one either.)

My First Potty Training Horror Story

Warning:  If you've never dealt with kids or messy diapers...you might feel this post has too much information.

Background Info:  We do not own a changing table. This has never really bothered me.  When Valette was an infant I just changed her in the crib, when we had to move the crib down low we just started sitting on the floor to change her every time.  This was not an issue until I got a baby belly.  About 3 weeks ago I decided I just couldn't do the floor anymore and I started changing diapers on my bed.  Don't worry, I do have a changing pad.

Also, we are not exactly "actively" potty training. I figure we are mostly practicing.  Especially because until this week Valette would ask frequently to go potty, but as soon as her bum touched the seat she would say "all done."  This made me really frustrated, I had just done all the work to get her undressed (when you are big pregnant that makes this seem 3 times as hard, just sayin) and she was going to sit there at least ten seconds, dangit.  Oh, and she almost always refused to let Eric help her with the potty. So not fair.  She also never did anything but sit on it. Grandma Julie discovered that if you give her a book (or 7) she will sit there a while.  This helped.

In the last 3 days she has asked to go potty almost every time I changed her diaper and then she actually peed a little.  It's been very nice to have some progress.  We get really excited and after getting dressed again she gets a skittle.  She definitely understands the reward candy concept.

Yesterday Valette peed in the potty 5 times.  Happy. A successful day for the potty.

The last time was when I changed her for bed.  She got her jammies on and we went to get her reward candy.  Then I came to the bathroom for my turn.  Valette eventually joined me.  I have lost almost all bathroom privacy.  Even before she was interested in it for herself she started throwing fits if I didn't let her in. Oh the things you give up as a parent.  (You know, dignity...pride, that kind of thing.)  She started talking about pooping and I realized that she was referring to herself, not me.  I asked if she could wait and do it on the potty.  I jumped up and started undressing her, I pulled the diaper straight down incase I had been too slow but there was nothing in it. Great, she can use the toilet for real.

So here I am trying to hurry and get her up on the potty, unfortunately we are in my bathroom which does not have her insert chair thing to keep her from falling in.  Which means I have to hold her with both hands because she doesn't understand balance.  Also, because this was a rush job I didn't get to redress myself. (See? No dignity.)  I wait a little bit and nothing happens.  I looked down to see that I was wrong before.  She had already pooped but it had stuck to her when I took her diaper off.  Lucky for me, it had also landed on top of said diaper.  Phew.  She tells me she has no more and I help her down, and finally get to dress myself.

I lay her on the bed and clean her up with wipes, but realize I now have no diaper.  So I send her in her room and say "ask Daddy to put your diaper on."  Eric was in there doing something on his phone.  She asked him but he tells her "I'm busy, ask Mommy to put it on."  Eric is completely oblivious to the crazy we just had and he didn't know that I was currently cleaning up the mess in our bathroom, which is why I wanted him to suit her up for me.

She grabbed a diaper and left her room but she has this idea that the best game is getting chased right now.  So she did not come to me.  When I finished I went to look for her.  All over the house.  I finally found her in the bedroom next to hers with no light on and she had shut the door.  In my head I'm thinking "Great. Isn't there some thing kids have with hiding in a corner while they poop?"  She grins when I find her shows me the diaper in her hand and she seemed to be trying to put it on herself.  I check around where she is standing (there is not much open floor in this room) to see if she pooped while in there, but I didn't see anything.  Her lack of response when I ask if she pooped more makes me suspicious.  She thinks it's funny to run away from me (again) so I pick her up to eliminate the choice.

I brought her to my bed again.  Only to realize there IS poop on her.  And now me.  Perfect.  So I wipe her up and take her to the potty again in hopes to get it all out for real this time.  Then I go back to the other bedroom to look again.  Aaaand I find poop in a corner I hadn't previously checked.

Eric volunteers to clean the carpet while I finish with Valette.  (He knows darn well this happened because he was lazy before with the diaper.)  When she is done for real I help her down and she turns around and accidentally drops her binky in the toilet. Great.  Just what we needed.  Thankfully she hadn't had to go anymore.  She immediately fished it out and I yell "No! That's yucky."  I snag it from her and put it in the sink with the hot water running on it.  This makes Valette dissolve instantly to tears.  She was repeating that it was yucky over and over so maybe she understood but still cried about it.

Eric comes in to see what the fuss is about.  I tell him we could decide that's the last straw and have her learn to sleep without one now.  But that would mean a few hours of her crying to get to sleep, not to mention losing easy nap times. I'm just not really ready to give that up.  Eric has to get up at 5 AM for work and he already hasn't been getting enough sleep lately. It was not the night to learn to sleep without the binky.  Don't judge us.

So I told Eric we need to go boil this binky and he says, "No, let's go straight to the source," and points at the rubbing alcohol.  So while it's still in the sink I poured some alcohol right on it and then rinsed it. Eric comes back in with a cup from the kitchen, fills it half full with alcohol and drops the binky in to soak.  He meant business.

Through all of this Valette is still crying sadly.  I picked her up and took her to the rocking chair to cuddle while we wait for the binky.  She talks about Daddy cleaning it the whole time.  Eric comes back with the binky and tells me he soaked it in the alcohol twice and then washed it with dish soap three times and rinsed it really well.

We had family prayers and Eric prayed that we cleaned it well enough and Valette won't get any germs from it.  We ought to be covered.

I felt like it was ironic that all of this started one minute after I had texted Grandma Julie about all the success we had had yesterday.  And I wanted to write down the story because I'm hoping you moms out there will think it's funny.  And I really hope that I can think it's funny after a few days, too.

So, any crazy stories you can share to make me feel better?