2 1/2 Years Old!

The beginning of September was time for our last non-year doctor visit!  She is getting so big that they only need to see her once a year!

Her measurements were 31 pounds, 37 3/4 inches, 19 inches for her head circumference.  She jumped up to the 90th percentile in height and stayed right around the 60th-70th percentile in weight and head circumference.  She has grown like a weed!!

Dr. Kooy checked her out and asked all of the normal questions.  One of those questions was what her favorite color was.  C told her it was orange and pink.  Dr. Kooy said in all of her years she had never had a little girl say anything but pink and purple.  I told her that C had her own little drummer!  Then she got Caroline on the ground and said that she normally asked 3 year-olds to do a few things, but she wanted to see if C could do it because she seemed to be ahead of the curve with her speech and conversation.  First, she asked her if she could stand on one foot - C picked up her right foot and held it straight out in front of her.  Then she did the same with the left.  Then Dr. Kooy asked her if she could walk on her tip toes.  C popped right up on those bad boys and pranced around the room.  The rest of the time we were talking, C was proudly walking around and asking Dr. Kooy if she could see her.  Dr. Kooy said she wouldn't be surprised with Caroline was quite the athlete - her Daddy was pretty excited about that.

All in all, couldn't have asked for a better visit!  Caroline did GREAT and is growing up fantastically!

Potty Training – Round 2

This is more for my records than it is for anyone else, because I am sure I am much more concerned with my child’s bathroom habits than you are!

At the beginning of the summer we tried potty training.  She was showing all the signs and seemed to be ready.  No go.  Once she figured out that she had to think about it all the time, she wasn’t all about it any more.  I asked her if she wanted a diaper, she said yes – game over.

So, she spent the next few weeks in diapers.  Fine by me.  As strong willed as she is, there is no point in pushing anything on her that she doesn’t want to do unless you are ready for a huge fight.  A week or so after we got back from Grands’ Camp, she woke up one morning and asked for big girl underwear.  I wasn’t too excited about it, just figured we’d have another nice run and then it would be over again until the next time.  This time, though, she was really into it.  So I read a few articles on potty training and I came up with a game plan.  I was really going to put some work into it this time and see if it would stick.  So I set aside a few days and we didn’t go anywhere.  She did not leave my sight.  I set a timer for 30 minutes, let her run around in just underwear and a shirt, and when the time would go off we’d head to the potty.  We did this for two days straight.  No breaks, no playing by herself, no nothing.  We read a lot of books while she was in there, sang some good songs, played some games, unrolled and rolled the toiler paper over and over again.  It wasn’t a super fun couple of days, but by the end of the second day we didn’t need the timer anymore and she was really getting the hang of it.  I used M&Ms (the tiny ones in the tube) as her reward, which totally worked for her.  She got 1 M&M for peeing and 2 for the other.  She was so proud of herself every time.  Over those two days, we had a few accidents, but not many.  Then over the next week, we would have an accident here or there, but she did a great job peeing.  The pooping, however, was not going so well.  My regular 9am every morning pooper was just not pooping.  She pooped in her underwear (see what I was talking about – no one really cares about this but me!) a few times and didn’t like it, but wasn’t thrilled about the idea of going on the potty.  She gagged when she saw it, so I think she didn’t like that it looked nasty and smelled bad.  Can you blame her?  So I had to make a judgment call.  Everything I read said that if they want to leave the bathroom, let them.  If they don’t want to do it, don’t make them.  I know Caroline and I knew if she would just go one time and we could make a big deal out of it and let her see how proud she was, that would be all it would take.  So I made her sit in there longer than she wanted to, even physically holding her down sometimes when she wouldn’t sit down.  Every time she would sit down we would color, read, etc. and I just pray over and over again that she would finally just go.  By this point it had been about 3 – 4 days and I was worried about her making herself sick.  She was complaining that her tummy was hurting. (Sidenote: please don’t think that I believe that God really has a lot of time to worry about C pooping.  Before every prayer I would say to Him that I knew he had A LOT of other things on his plate, but that this was really important to me, so I was asking for His help!)  It even got to the point that I kind of hoped she would crap her pants, just so she could poop.  Then one day (about 2 weeks after all of this began), Mom and I took the kids to the pool.  We were eating lunch and C said she needed to go potty and she said her stomach hurt.  So I took her into the bathroom and she told me leave her alone.  After a few minutes, she yelled out, ‘Mommy, I shoo-shooed!’  Sure enough, there it was.  I made a big deal out of it and told her how proud I was and she couldn’t wait to go tell everyone.  Then about 10 minutes later, she said she needed to go again.  I thought she just liked the attention, but after a few minutes, there it was again!

After that day, there has been no turning back.  She has had a handful of accidents, but that is going to happen.  She tells us when she needs to go potty and asks us to leave her alone when she needs to do a #2.  She still wears diapers for nap and at night, but her nap time diapers are pretty dry.  I‘ll wait until she can do that for a solid couple of weeks and then she’ll only wear diapers at night. 

So, what have you done this summer?  I have taught my daughter how to pee and take a dump in the toilet – a skill she will practice the rest of her life (hopefully).  Boom.

Grands’ Camp 2013

Let the tradition continue!!  Grands' Camp was SO MUCH FUN!!  The guest blogger for this post will be - MIMI!!  After we left, we had her sit down and recount the week.  Thanks for everything, Mimi and Papa!!  (Sidenote:  Mimi was totally on the ball and had this write up to me the next week.  Thanks to Blogger being a tool and not being able to download Live Writer, this has taken much longer than it should have!  At least it's here now - enjoy!)

Grands’ Camp 2013

Everyone arrived at Mimi and Papa’s Sunday afternoon!!!  We were SO excited!!!  With three two year olds, Mommies, Leslie and Sarah came to camp this year. Yay for that God Wink!!!!  Nia is with her dad and we really missed her being here.

The tree swing was an immediate hit!!  Papa did a great job of making a fun swing that would go SO high and everyone had a turn.  After a good nap and dinner, we all went out in the backyard for swinging and bubble fun.  Jeffro had some fireworks, so we sat in the back of his truck while he shot them off.  Then he took all the kids and Leslie and Sarah on a ride around the block.  That was really fun!!

 

Part of the fun at Grands’ Camp is that everyone gets to sleep in a different place!  We tried to put the ‘sleepers’ together in one room, putting them down in shifts with the two years going down first.  It worked most of the time.  Caroline and Anna, the sleepers, slept together in a room towards the back of the house.  Jack, Mr. Ready to Go at 6:05, and Nellie, Miss I Wake Up at 6:30 every day, slept at the front of the house.  Don’t mind saying that when all were asleep, it was good!!!  The adults checked their emails, watched some TV and fell asleep on the sofa!!

Monday was the first beach day!  We were on the beach at 8:30 and it was gorgeous!!  Les and Sa loved it as much as the kids did – they were home!  After 3 hours playing in the sand, swimming and playing in the waves, we stripped everyone down at the showers and rinsed.  Pools of warm water were waiting for us in the backyard, so naked swimming was the best to get rid of all of the sand!  Lunch and naptime!  When everyone woke up we painted our t-shirts.  We made crabs this year out of our hands.  It was really neat to see that they are old enough to follow directions- they are precious!  Outside play and naked swimming was a hit after dinner and served as the bath for the day.  Bedtime!!

 

Tuesday was a little iffy on the weather, so we took lots of bread to Hugh McCrea Park to feed the pond animals.  We saw ducks, fish and lots of turtles.  We headed to the FBC Activity Center because geese live on the pond there.  We got out of the car with bread and there were 50 or so hungry geese that met us.  We were pleasantly surprised that they were so nice and willing to wait for bread – except for one that took the bread right out of Caroline’s hand – bread that she was planning to eat herself!  Man, did that goose ever get a piece of her mind!!!!!  We went to the mall, got a rainbow cookie and rode the train that carries you all over the mall.  Mimi rode with all the grands and it was fun!!!   We then had lunch and naps.  Les and Sa took Mimi to a spa for a massage for her birthday. AWESOME!!  Papa and Anna listened out for the babies napping.  Luckily, it was quiet when we got home and we were able to enjoy our relaxation, but not for long!

Wednesday the weather was better, so we had SlipNSlide and pool day.  Everyone with their suits on had their turn on the SlipNSlide, even Mimi and Papa!  SO much fun!  Mimi, Les and Sa found a great way to lay out and get some sun sitting on the slide with the fountain keeping us wet.  CHILLLAXING!  There was pink ‘nemalade’ (as Nellie calls it) for the kids to serve themselves and they thought that was a big deal.  Papa got out his tractor, hooked the wagon to the back and with him and Jack driving, gave the girls a ride up and down the street.  Anna drove the tractor with Papa and turned the wheel all by herself.  Big Stuff!!!  The kids ate a picnic lunch outside, played a little more and then naptime!!  Our cousin, Oren, came and joined us for the rest of the week.  He slept in the room with Anna and Caroline-a sleeper. Our one night out for dinner – Krazy’s – and it was delicious!!!  We stopped by Halyburton Park and played until bath time!!  That was fun!

                 

Thursday was back to the beach!  It was great for a while and everyone was playing in the waves, sand and just enjoying.  Dark clouds started forming and some passed us by, but one didn’t!  The rain dumped on us quickly!  We covered our bags with our chairs and just kept on playing.  We looked around and Papa was body surfing in the rain!  We cut beach time short and went back to the pools in the backyard where the sun was just a shinning!  More naked swimming!!  Lunch, naps and dinner then we all walked, Anna rode her bike, down to Holly Tree School to play on the playground.  The sprinklers were on and Caroline and Nellie headed straight to them – precious!!  Bath and bedtime!  Yay!!!

 

Friday was aquarium day!  We had to drive through monsoons (5 inches of rain) to get there, but we were there when it opened.  The kids had a great time seeing and touching all of the sea creatures.  We got a front row seat at the dive show and the diver gave us a high five on the glass and an okay sign for our Grands’ Camp t-shirts.  It was great!  When we got to Mimi and Papa’s, Will and Jason had arrived for the weekend!  Anna, Jack and Caroline were glad to see their daddies.  Greg and Tucker arrived, too!  You talking about everybody sleeping everywhere!!!!

Saturday started at 5:00 am with Caroline waking up the ‘sleepers’!  Some of us took a ‘Pajama Walk’ down the street to get those awake out of the house!  Holy Moly!!  We hung out and played and ran and played!  It was Mimi’s 60^th birthday, so after naps we went to the Activity Center where there were more aunts, uncles and cousins.  We played, ate pizza and just visited with family.  A fabulous Apple Annie’s cake just made the day complete!

Everyone was gone by 10:30 on Sunday morning.  The house was oh, so quiet – bitter sweetly so.  Mimi’s heart was full and she felt like she could still hear them if she was quiet. Grands’ Camp was over for another year.  With three two year olds, the theme was ‘sharing’ and ‘go with the flow’!  Mimi and Papa are already talking about what next year will be like!