Christmas 3

Christmas 3 took place New Year's weekend. Sean had Friday off so once we got Kaelyn up and ready, we headed over to his parent's house, stopping for lunch at Wendy's along the way. No one else was going to get there till later in the afternoon and evening so Kaelyn had plenty of time to play on the horse saddle, rocking horse, with the pool table, pinball machine, and other assorted goodies.

Since there was another baby coming to the gathering, Sean's parents rigged a bed for Kaelyn on the floor of a closet. She napped there pretty well on Friday. This trend did not last, as you will later read. We were able to play some cards while she slept and just enjoy the quiet time.

When she got up, others were starting to arrive. Sean's brother and his wife and two kids were there. This made Kaelyn shy so she and I played in a back bedroom for quite some time. Once she emerged, she had a tea party upstairs and continued to explore the rest of the house. Sean's other brother got there by supper time and we ate and then began the present opening.

Sean's parents had recently been to Disney World and I'm still not sure how they did it, but they brought a ton of stuff back. One thing they brought was a Minnie Mouse doll for the granddaughters. Kaelyn opened her bag and said "Oo, Minnie! Do it again?!" So we put Minnie back into the bag and she reopened it and had the same reaction. Approximately a dozen times. She had a blast with that one!

She also got a Thomas the train shake n go train, which has had a lot of train races with her other trains once we got home. A swimming duck for her baths, which she loves. An Elmo book which she won't let me open, but LOVES to push the buttons on the front. And a bean bag, which she runs clear across the kitchen into the family room to throw herself into. :) She made off pretty well.

Everything went really well and was really fun till bed time. It was a little chaotic at the end because presents didn't start until 715 and went really quickly, ending right about at 8. I took Kaelyn off to bed but everyone was still chattering in the room right next to where she was supposed to sleep. That and the excitement and the different house and different bed added up, I guess. She didn't want me to turn the light off in the room so I didn't. She then proceeded to sing, chatter, and cry for TWO hours. I went in once. Sean went in once. She just kept saying she wanted to get up and play. She eventually went to sleep, but that only lasted about 4 hours. I had to go in once and cover her up and that worked for another 30 minutes. The next time she started in, I knew we had problems. She just wanted to get up and was asking for her milk. It was like 3am.
I ended up climbing into bed with her, hoping I could calm her down and get her to relax. That also didn't work. There was a baby next door who had been having trouble sleeping too and the last thing I wanted to do was wake her up. I also didn't want Kaelyn to get up for the day or her playing would wake EVERYONE up. Plus, it was SO early! By 430 I knew I had to do something so I grabbed the keys, packed her into the car and drove. We ended up driving until 7. She fell asleep at 530 and slept till I got back to Sean's parents house. I was so tired I was shaking. She was startled from waking up in the car and obviously still tired too.

The morning went back and forth from somewhat okay/pleasant to downright ugly. Kaelyn wanted to eat lunch starting at 10. I finally let her at 1045. She got so upset around noon she even wet herself. Luckily, Sean's family was heading to the full family party by then so I cleaned her up and got her napping in the real crib, which had been vacated. She slept for an hour and a half and then lost a duck (the horror!). She felt better, though.

The next post will continue with the Christmas 4, which is the whole big family party! Christmas 3 was mostly fun except the sleeping issue! Though I do have to say, it really went by too quickly. Except the sleeping issue, again. :)

Christmas 2

On December 23rd, my friend from college, who now lives in TN came for a visit. She's back in SD for a few weeks and she and her husband drove down for the day to hang out with us. We met at Fazoli's (Kaelyn's favorite) and she showed them what kind of damage she can do on breadsticks...she ate four. They came back here and I put Kaelyn down for nap, during which she sang and counted and carried on. She never did fall asleep. When she got up, she warmed up to Stana, my friend, and had herself a new buddy! It was nice, I just sat and watched most of the time. :) Kaelyn is still really shy so the fact that she warmed up to Stana and played with her long and hard was really good. She even asked about her the next day.

My husband's dad had knee replacement surgery the weekend we had our first Christmas of the year with my family. That meant he wasn't up for much traveling and he wasn't up for much company actually ON Christmas. But we went down to their house on Christmas Eve, just for the day, to visit and spend a little time there. Kaelyn was REALLY good and we had fun. She napped really well and played with all of their stuff and the few things we brought with us. She even ate well so it was a nice day. We got home in time to plop her in bed for the night.

As we drove home that night, I told my husband I thought this Christmas was going to be the first Christmas EVER that I had been in my own home actually ON the day of Christmas. The more I thought about it, the more I think that's really true! Growing up, we always went to my grandparents house and were there Christmas Eve and Day. By the time that stopped and I would go to my parents house, I wasn't living at home anymore. So this year, I was actually in the house that I live in ON Christmas.

I always said before that I didn't care if we were home on Christmas. I just wanted to work out whatever was best for all of the families involved so both sides can get together whenever works. After being at home on Christmas, though, I may change my mind. It was SO nice and peaceful and relaxing and just all around enjoyable.

We weren't really planning on opening presents right away when Kaelyn got up, but I had brought them down from the closet I had been hiding them in. She saw them. Presents again! Presents again! She said until Sean went to get a shirt over his undershirt since we'd be taking pictures. By the time he got back, she had half of one open that wasn't even for her.

Again, she enjoyed the things she got, but mostly, she just wanted to open things. She was just as impressed with the shirts and posters we got him and the calendar and shirt he got me as she was all her cool things. She got a train, which she likes to have run into her face, an Elmo house toy, some Elmo books (with her name in them!) and DVDs. We saved her last present for after her nap.

Christmas was on Sunday we got ready and went to church after the present session. We managed to get Kaelyn to wear her Christmas dress again and we were ready early enough we could take pictures as a family. Kaelyn LOVES taking pictures. "Cheese again," she'd say. We were almost late to church. :)

When we got home, we had a quick lunch and Kaelyn has some Christmas custard. Her face was a mess. After that...she wanted to take more pictures. So we have a lot of REALLY cute pictures of her and of us, but her face is just a mess! Oh well, tis the season!

While she napped that afternoon, Sean and I watched The Christmas Story. We watched Elf the next day. It was just an all around relaxing, nice weekend. When she got up, we gave her her final present. A trampoline! Which she calls her bounce house. She spent quite a bit of time bouncing on it and throwing herself off and to the ground. Hopefully it will keep her entertained if we get snowed in this winter sometime.

I have to admit, I always thought holidays would be MORE fun with a child. The last two years, that has not been the case. When Kaelyn was a baby, she didn't sleep well and I never felt like I was "with it" because of that. Plus, with her nursing, etc I missed a lot. Last year, she was pretty sick around Christmas and it wasn't really much fun either. This year, though, it has actually been a lot more fun having a kid around. The wonder and joy of opening presents...the way she randomly says "baby Jesus!"...and seeing all the "pretty lights" around our house and out in the other neighborhoods. It's much more fun this year and I can't wait for the next two Christmases with Sean's side of the family...coming New Year's weekend!

Christmas 1

Kaelyn is one lucky little girl! She gets to have four Christmases this year! Actually, she has caught on to the phrase "I'm so lucky" and she'll often say that to me at random or when I put her to bed. She used to tell me she had a good day when she went to bed, but now she tells me she's lucky. Pretty sweet if you ask me!

Our first Christmas this year took place at my parents house the weekend before Christmas. It was the 17th weekend. Sean, Kaelyn and I drove over after he got off of work on Thursday night. Kaelyn ate her supper in the car and watched her Care Bears and Elmo videos. It was a strange time of the day for us to travel, but she did really well. We got to my parents house in time for her to play and have some ice cream before bed. Though, my sister and her family were there too for awhile and that got Kaelyn rather riled up.

Let me explain. She and her uncle Paul came up with a new game,
which she calls peakaboo. She would stand on a chair on one side of the pool table and throw a ball towards the hole on the other side. He put his face down low, level with the hole. When she got a ball in, he'd fall back like she had hit him. She thought it was HILARIOUS! However, they left and when it was time for her to go to bed, she cried for an hour and a half. It was a little too fun. :)

The next day, Friday, we didn't have much planned, really. We ran a few errands in the morning and had lunch at CFA, yum! Kaelyn napped and my sister and her family came back later in the evening. I managed to get Kaelyn upstairs to do her bedtime routine just before they arrived. I didn't want to rile her up again like we had the night before! She went to bed nice and quietly that night.

Saturday, once everyone was up and had breakfast, it was stocking and present time. I think everyone was even able to get dressed except the kids. They were in pjs all day long. As they should be! We opened stockings upstairs then moved downstairs for presents. Kaelyn got lots of neat stuff. You should have seen her face
when she opened the first hot wheels car from my
sister's family! They gave her 7 along with a hot wheels track, which she loves. Once we got it
home she also experimented by throwing other things down the track besides the cars. :)
She also got a musical Elmo that plays drums, tamborine, and sings. An elmo guitar that lights up and plays music. A stick horse. Some clothes. An aqua pet (which she calls her octupus and takes with her in the car so it can sing and dance to her) and several other things. Kaelyn liked everything she got, but while she was getting the items, she didn't much care. She would open one thing and then say "presents again! More presents!" and just want to rip through more packages. She opened most of Sean's and my gifts too. We needed the help. :)

After the present opening it was almost lunchtime and after lunch, Kaelyn napped again. The rest of the evening was play time and she enjoyed her cousin Tyler's new wall car track that he got. She also played a lot more peakaboo with whomever was around the pool table.

Sunday, we all got ready for church and went to my sister's church since her kids were going to be singing. I had gotten this cute Christmas dress for Kaelyn, but she's pretty picky about clothes (as in if it doesn't feature Elmo, she's not wearing it!) so I was unsure as to whether or not she was going to wear it. On Saturday, since the kids wanted to open presents right away, Kaelyn didn't take a bath till after suppertime. Since she had had such a late bath Saturday, we skipped it Sunday morning. That meant that I was able to sneak the dress on her while she was playing without her really noticing. And once she had it on she was pretty proud of it and wanted daddy to take picture after picture after picture. So we have dozens of pictures like this one above...all of which are cute.

After church we went back to my parent's house for lunch and headed out at Kaelyn's naptime. I was worried she wouldn't sleep because she was very keyed up and kind of going wild. But this is what she looked like 20 minutes into the drive. Unfortunately, she only looked like this for about 30 minutes. That was it for her nap that day! But she was fine when we got home and we played outside and managed to get her pretty dress all dirty so that was good. :)

It was a fun Christmas. On to Christmas #2!

2 1/2!!

Kaelyn officially turned 2 1/2 on October 24th. I have to say, there are parts of the "twos" that are terrible, as people say, but for the most part, I like this age better than any other I've experienced so far. Kaelyn is SO much fun. She repeats things that I say, comes up with her own songs, and runs and plays like crazy!

Luckily, she's mostly potty trained now. I still put a diaper on her during her nap and sometimes she uses it a little. I also put one on her overnight which she THOROUGHLY uses. I should probably try her without a diaper at naptime pretty soon,
but at this point, I just don't want to ruin a good nap! For a while I would take her out in public with a pull up on but I've recently stopped doing that. She's pretty good about telling me when she needs to go. And sometimes, we go OFTEN...especially in church. It's a new, novel thing for her to do, I guess. She has the most fun, though, when I go as well. She cheers and jumps up and down, it's quite a celebration...as if I haven't been doing this for 30 years now. :)

Kaelyn was a giraffe for Halloween this year. Our friends from church had the costume for their little girl last year and it was SO cute I asked to borrow it for Kaelyn this year. Plus, she genuinely likes
the giraffes at the zoo. Having her actually SAY giraffe is another story. The gir sound comes out like your and the ffs are definitely more like ss's. So I don't ask her to say it in public, but it's sure funny at home! :)

Her music class wore costumes to class on Halloween so that was really fun. Kaelyn wore hers for like 5 minutes and then she wanted it off. The head feels kind of like a stuffed animal and she just wanted to carry it around and cuddle it. So be it! It's HER costume! :)

That night, our friends from church came over and went trick or treating around the neighborhood with us. It was decent weather and Kaelyn really enjoyed it this year. Our two next door neighbors had little bags of trinkets and candy for her, so that was really nice. The rest had normal candy. Most of which Sean and I eat. :) Poor Kaelyn. She gets all dressed up and does all the work and she hardly
gets any of the spoils. :) She got good at trick or treating. So much so that the next day at the zoo, she tried to trick or treat in the bathroom. That sounds bad, let me explain. There was a little boy in the bathroom with a basket of candy and she thought she should just go over and take a few pieces! Once I told her that wasn't a good idea, she was okay with it and we moved on. She was just used to taking candy from strangers' baskets at that point!

Playing in leaves this fall has also been a very fun thing to do. We usually make a small pile on either side of the driveway and run from one to the other, jumping in to make a crunch. I have to play too, of course. She gives me a little push to make me go then comes barreling after me. At my parents house, they made several BIG piles of leaves when we were over and she could be totally buried. My little piles here at home sure looked puny after that, but she didn't complain, luckily.

The twos come into play, I think, when Kaelyn gets frustrated. She's getting pretty good at communicating, but there are still some things that I just don't understand when she's trying to say them to me. And, she is very particular in her ways. I had BETTER not turn on a light or open a door on my own or beware her wrath! She has things she likes to do and they have to be done in a certain way or she gets worked up into a little tizzy. For the most part, I don't mind. But sometimes it's just annoying. Turning on a light when you walk into a room is a habit! And sometimes I would like to open the toilet seat myself when I really have to go! :) I'm trying to teach her that these are things she sometimes GETS to do, not things she HAS to do. She gets her way a good majority of the time. I think it would be good for her to know that she's not boss. :) Wish me luck on that one.

We sure have fun, though. She's been a pretty good sleeper...
finally! She'll go to bed around 8 and get up between 7 and 8. She naps from 130-3 or so most days. I still try to get up early in the morning to give myself some time to run, shower, and write and I use every second of her naptime to write and catch up on things. There never seems to be enough time, that's for sure. But I always try to remind myself that she's only going to be little once. Someday, once she's in school and we don't have so much time together, I'll probably look back on these days and wish we could have them back. So I do my best to cherish every moment. Except for the ones when she's yelling at me for opening a door. :)

Sean worked hard over the last two months and finished off the basement. It looks really nice. All that work, other than for our use, was also due to the fact that we offered to host Thanksgiving here. So on Thursday my family will be here and Friday his whole gang with all the aunts and uncles and cousins will come as well. That day is the big Iowa vs. Nebraska game so that
should be interesting for my dad. He's a big Iowa fan. Pretty much everyone else that will be here is all about Nebraska. Poor him. :) I could care less, of course. And Kaelyn has a shirt that signifies she's a fan of both. :) She's a people pleaser. Actually, since my mom made that IA/NE shirt, she wears it often. She finds it in her closet and says Go Hawks and pulls it off the hanger.

We're looking forward to Christmas too and the shopping and preparations are moving along.

I think KAelyn is ready for some of that playtime
now. I think naptime is over at this point! :)

Visit to Vala's

We spent our first day at Vala's for the fall and boy am I glad that we got a season pass. It was so much fun and we only saw one small part of the farm today.

We arrived about 9:30 and headed straight in to Bunnyville. We petted a few goats on the way past and then enjoyed watching the bunnies hop in and out of their various homes. From there, Kaelyn spotted the ponies and she just HAD to go for a ride. She looks traumatized in the picture because the ride was over and I backed up to take her picture and the lady that operated the ride touched her. :) The horror! Otherwise, she really DID enjoy the pony ride, promise!

From there we crossed over the bridge over to the train area and we took the train for a ride as well. Kaelyn had fun making train noises, though she almost jumped from the train when she saw the pumpkin jumping area. I promised her we would go there next and she was satisfied with that. We rode on and she pointed out every plastic horse along the way.

Once we were done on the train, we headed straight over to the pumpkin jumping area. It's like a big bouncy house with no walls. These big plastic pillow come straight up from the ground. They're surrounded by sand and you take your shoes and socks off, climb on, and start jumping! I didn't think we'd EVER leave that area because Kaelyn was having SO much fun. I made her stop after about 45 minutes to eat a few bites and then back on she went! I finally talked her into leaving to explore a little more, but we were there so long we didn't have much time left! Her favorite thing to do, other than jumping, was sliding down the green side of the jump area and then climbing back up. Of course, she would not do this alone, Mama had to go every time too! Lucky me. I got to have JUST as much fun as she did. We had to wipe our hands and feet with baby wipes when we were done. We were both SO dirty. ACtually, Kaelyn even had dirt on her FOREHEAD, that's how much fun she had!

The same area also has a big vat of corn that kids can crawl around in. This was one of KAelyn's favorite things last year so I wanted to make sure she saw it again this year. She liked it again and jumped right in and ran the corn through her
fingers and dove around for awhile. When she got out I tried to shake some of the corn from her clothes, but we still found about 10 kernels when we got home. :)

After the corn, she was desperate to ride this peddle wheel tractor thing. Well she can't exactly reach the peddles so they gave me a FAMILY sized peddle tractor. So she got to sit pretty up front and I had to do all the peddling alone of this rather large tractor thing. It was REALLY hard to get it started but once we got rolling we did pretty well. We went around the track twice and that was about all I could take. She was worn out from jumping, I was worn out from the peddle tractor! By that time, it was noon and I figured we better head home so she could nap. When we got home, we both completely changed clothes. I washed her face and hands and mine as well. Found lots of corn kernels and even more dust and dirt. That's what the farm is for! We plan to go again next week (or sooner) and I will walk in a different direction so we can explore different things. At least I know one area she LOVES, if nothing else, we can always go back there!

On another note, have you ever heard of planking? Apparently it's some weird phenomenon where people lay flat like a board in strange places and then take pictures. Well, Kaelyn was doing that yesterday. She was going all around the driveway laying down like it was the most
comfortable place in the world. Then she laid down on her picnic table on the porch. I was pretty sure she must have heard about the phenomenon and wanted to participate. :)

As for potty training, Kaelyn's first outing went semi-well. We went to music class and she peed in the car. Once I changed her when we were there and showed her the bathroom, she did okay. Though she went EIGHT times while we were there. And then she peed again in the car on the way home. So apparently she pees a lot in the car, which I didn't know. :) My mom and I took her out the next week to lunch and Target with no diaper and she had no accidents. She also went to the church potluck diaperless and did fine. So she just needs to learn there are bathrooms EVERYWHERE. Sometimes I take her out in a Pull up and at times she will tell me when she needs to go and I can take her. Other times, she probably doesn't and just uses the Pull up. It feels too much like a diaper. She had a pull up on at vala's today and never once told me she had to go. She was having WAY too much fun.

Yesterday during her nap, when she woke up, she was singing away. Jesus Loves Me, her current favorite. When she got done with a couple of renditions of that she said "Mama, where are you?!" How could I resist! :) She's babbling again now. Though none of the words are real at the moment, they're still cute.

Potty Testing and pre-Thanksgiving

Kaelyn is doing really well on the potty! I'm thrilled. Potty training wasn't nearly as hard as I was making it out to be. At least with Kaelyn. She just seemed to decide that that's what she wanted to do and one day, she did it! After I forced her to try it a few times, at least. Now it's a fun thing that she really seems to enjoy. She even cheers for me when I go, aren't I lucky?! :)

My biggest concern was, how do I get her to go in public? I had not yet taken her out in public without a diaper. Partly because I didn't trust her, partly because it was inconvenient, and partly because she had never gone potty on a BIG potty. She only uses her little potty chair. I figured my nest step had to be getting her to go on the BIG potty at home, then I could test things outside the house. So, a couple of nights ago, when she said she had to go (by patting her potty area) I said, okay, let's go on the BIG potty. Before when I've suggested it, she has shaken her head in vehement dismissal of the idea. That day, she said okay! Then trotted in to the BIG potty and went, with help of course. Ever since that night, she only goes on the big potty.

So now, I think I should test her outside the house. Before, I've always taken her diaper off first thing in the morning. We play for an hour or so, take a bath, and get ready. At that point, I put a diaper on her and we go off for the day on our errands, to the zoo, park, wherever. Then, after her nap in the afternoon, I take it off again for the rest of the day. She rarely has an accident.

My plan is to try it out tomorrow. We have music class in the morning and will be somewhere familiar and I know RIGHT where the potty is and it's nearby. Wish us luck!! She still won't poop on the potty, though, big or small. I'm not sure why, but we'll figure it out!

We decided it might be fun to have a Thanksgiving gathering at our house this year on the Friday after Thanksgiving. It will be the big NE/IA game day as well. Anyways, since extending that invitation to BOTH of our families, Sean decided that he should finish the basement! That's great news, though it has taken a lot of his time. He's done a lot of the framing and it has kept him busy. He was working on that this weekend so Kaelyn and I went to Nebraska City with some friends from church for the annual Apple Festival. It rained ALL day, but we had a great time.

We first went to the pumpkin farm where we had lunch and visited the petting zoo. Then Kaelyn was desperate to ride a pony! You know, those little pony rides with a couple of horses that walk in a circle at a VERY slow pace. When I tried to put her on the horse, she clung to me. I had to kind of force her on, but once she was on and realized I wasn't leaving her, she liked it. I walked next to her the whole time and held on to her. She neighed at the horse and seemed to like the ride. Enough that she wanted to go again! But we just watched after that. :)

Then we went to the apple orchard, which was VERY busy. Yes, it was still raining and we were all wet. But it was a fun day. It was also another test because I didn't make Kaelyn nap. We headed out to the festival after church (during which she sat in the sanctuary with me for the WHOLE service, which was surprising enough!) so there was no time for a nap. I kind of hoped she'd fall asleep on the way there, but she didn't. She was too excited. We got tired of the rain by about 3 and headed on home. Kaelyn, of COURSE, fell asleep ONE mile from home, can you believe it? So I drove a little farther so she could sleep for 20 minutes or so. She had QUITE a fit when we arrived home, but after we ate supper, she perked back up again. She slept well overnight so the no napping didn't seem TOO bad. I still don't want to do it on a regular basis. More for me than her. But I've also heard kids that don't nap for several DAYS in a row are worse than one that doesn't nap just one day. Now I know it CAN be done when we REALLY want to, but I will make those times far and few between, trust me!

Her talking is still moving right along. She has started counting a lot of things. She sleeps with two rubber ducks and just before her nap today, she said "One ducky, two ducky" pointing to one then the other. In the basement, she likes to go around counting the framed boards on the wall. She'll get all the way up to 12 before she has to stop and say "Yeah!" and celebrate. She still LOVES the work okay and says "here you go" quite a bit. She also recently started saying "Mama, where are you?" when we plan games inside and I'm on one side of the room and she's on the other. Makes your heart melt, I tell you! She's even more precious when she talks!

More later when I have an update about our diaperless outing! :)

Talking potty training etc update

Kaelyn is becoming more and more fun. Of course, as with all kids, she had her moments, but for the most part, she's pretty fun.

Lately, after her nap, she wants me to pile ALL of her stuffed animals into the bed with her. Then, when she gets out, we play with her piggy bank and then she gets out all of her play jewelry, puts them on, then has to go look in the mirror. Very pretty girl.

She's becoming quite the little talker. She'll repeat almost anything you say, or at least try. More than talking, really, she sings and sings and sings! She'll sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Do you know the Muffin man, Daisy Daisy, Happy Birthday, I'm a Little Teapot and many others. Sometimes she surprises me and sings something I didn't know where she learned. She also LOVES the turtle and beehive songs from music class that have actions to go along with them. As for actual talking, her favorite word right now is Okay. No matter what you ask, she'll say okay, whether she means it or not! :) I'm glad she's not one of those kids that says NO all of the time. In fact, she never does! It's always okay! :) She also likes to say daddy stinky. She has even segued into Mama stinky and Kaelyn stinky. Nice, I know. When she has gas she'll say, I had a little toot. That's pretty cute. And sitting at supper the other night, she made a real mess and she held up her hands and said I'm a mess!! She was right. :) So she's definitely learning her words and she understands EVERYTHING.

We still try to hit the zoo every week and it seems like we see something different everytime we go. We only got to see the polar bear swim once this year, so far though. And the sloth still hasn't moved. Kaelyn's new favorite thing is the jungle trail in the basement of the jungle. We went there once with a friend and now we have to go everytime. We never bothered before because it's impossible to push a stroller through there. Now, we abandon the stroller and she just walks.

As for potty training, it's going surprisingly well. I thought it was going to be really hard because she seemed traumatized over it. In the evening, I let her wander around nude hoping to catch her. She stopped wanting to just go anywhere, but without a diaper on, she didn't know WHERE to go. She would have to go SO badly and just walk circles crying and crying. You could tell she was in pain. This kid is amazing, she can hold it for HOURS. I'm not kidding, she's gone 5-6 hours before naked without going! I can't even go that long! :) So after awhile I just had to force her to sit on the potty and she would go. The first few times it was a HUGE deal and she was not happy about it in the least. But we'd party and give her a treat and make a big deal about it. This last week we were at my parents house and we got out a potty chair there. She was traumatized a few times, but then started to like it. She started to sit down on her own, even! She still wanted me to be RIGHT there and hold her hand, but she was doing really well. Once we got home, it was almost like a game. She wanted to go ALL the time. I'm not kidding, she went 17 times in one 20 minute span. But she always went a few drops so we'd have a party and go through the big rigomorale. Last night, though, she sat on it a few times and went big so that was good. And yesterday morning, she sat on it twice just to toot. Then wanted me to flush it. :) So I think she's doing really well. I keep a diaper on her when we go out and during her nap and overnight, but I think she's headed in the right direction.

We're glad for fall and cooler weather but we sure don't look forward to winter. I don't want to be stuck inside! KAelyn LOVES parks and the zoo and all things outdoors. Even just playing outside at home is a nice option to have. What do you do!