2009 Lakewood Montessori Fall Festival

I forgot that Brent took a couple of pictures at the Fall Festival last Friday night. I think this is the first one we've gotten of me with both kids, but Hunter isn't looking at the camera (typical). And Jenna wasn't really dressed up for this event - just in her very warm pumpkin hooded and footed sleeper. So cuddly!!!

Hunter was ALL over the place at this festival. I guess it's pretty normal for a 2-year-old to not participate in any events but want to look at every single thing. He did get to pet some very cool animals including a donkey (below) and a deer (beautiful). Hopefully at some point, he will have the courage to participate in some of the events and not shy away. His teacher said that he definitely is not shy in the comfort of the classroom. I personally think it was all a bit overwhelming for him, and it didn't help that the activities started before 4:00 and he had to stay in his classroom until we got there around 4:30. Poor kid kept watching his friends go out the back door with their parents and he had to stay with his remaining friends in "circle time."

I was looking back at Hunter's first Halloween pictures. He was Superman - adorable! I might have to put Jenna in that outfit just to see how much alike they look. I can't tell if they look alike since she's always in pink and he was NEVER in pink. :) What do you think? Is that silly to put her in his first costume? It's not like I'll take her out of the house in it or anything...

Jenna - 12 weeks

I can't believe it's been 12 weeks already. Where has the time gone?? And next week, Hunter will start going to school just from 8:30 to 3:00, so we started practicing that timeline this week. It will be nice to have breakfast with him every morning. And the plan in the afternoon is to take a walk right after picking him up, either around the neighborhood if it's nice (like today - gorgeous) or I'll take the stroller in the car with me and we'll head to the mall to walk inside. I'm thinking that's the only way I'll ever manage to get these last pounds off.

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We went to the park this afternoon after school. Hunter just loves the neighborhood park - it was still a little wet from all the rain, but he managed to find a clean and dry slide and a little water certainly didn't hurt his pants. And I just walked Jenna around in the stroller since the sidewalk does a nice circle around the jungle gym. Of course, I'm still not completely used to having him go potty before we leave the house, so he needed to go as soon as we got there. Thankfully someone was going in to workout and let us into the clubhouse so that he could go. Hunter is a pro at the potty, in case I haven't mentioned that lately. I can't believe he was in diapers just 4 weeks ago. He even woke up with a dry pull-up yesterday morning for the first time, so maybe we'll get to go back to big boy pants at night again before long. He also ended up going number 2 twice yesterday morning on the potty before we headed to school. Such a big boy! (He's sitting on the couch beside me right now watching Mickey Mouse.)

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As for baby Jenna at 12 weeks, she sleeps through the night most of the time, although she has woken up at 3am the last two nights for a "midnight snack." We still aren't on a roll with bottles. I have got to get disciplined and start doing at least one bottle every day and I need to do it when she's really hungry. Think I'll do one when she wakes up next...should be any minute, so here are some pictures before I get pulled away.

Still trying to figure out what color those eyes are going to be...they're looking a little more green to me, but I'm sure it's just wishful thinking...

Jenna - 11 weeks

You have to wonder sometimes - what is she thinking??? That smirk...those eyes...will they be green like Hunter's or doo doo brown like Mommy's...we'll see!

October 2009 Video

Catching up

I know, I know – I missed 9 weeks, but I did take the pictures.  I just did not get around to posting them.  We had Grandmommy visiting last week and then the big Potty Weekend, so it’s been quite hectic.  So here are some pictures from the last few weeks.

Swift Company Picnic

We made the trip to the Houston Zoo for my company’s annual family picnic.  It was so great to see everyone and Miss Jenna got tons of attention, of course.  Everyone was a lot happier to see her, I think, than to see me!  Thanks to Shannon for bringing us the tickets the night before – I snapped a good picture of her holding Jenna while she was here.  Just a little fuzzy, but great nonetheless.

And although we didn’t get to stay long, we did get to see the lion. 

 

I snapped this great picture of Brent and Hunter while we were at the picnic.  This has to be one of the best pictures I’ve ever taken – seriously!!

That is a football on Hunter’s face.  I have video of that but Movie Maker is stalling out, so I’ll have to post it another time.

Visit from Grandmommy

We had a very nice visit with my mom, Grandmommy, last week.  Here are some pics from that visit.

      

Jenna – 9 weeks

Jenna – 10 weeks

         

You may not be able to see it but in that last shot, she was sticking her little tongue out at me.  She’s just so darn cute!!

Potty Training Weekend

We took Hunter out of school on Friday so that we could start our potty training weekend early. Let's just say Friday morning was pretty discouraging - I think we had about 4 accidents in 3 hours. I realized later that he was sitting on the cold tile and going almost immediately. Then he woke up dry from his nap (shocking) and had back to back successes after that, so it was a little more encouraging. And yes, I took a picture of his first TT in the potty because he LOVES the camera and I knew he would know it was a big deal if I took a picture of it, but I decided not to put it on the blog. I also decided the first poo poo in the potty probably wouldn't be great on the blog either....

I also forgot to take a picture of his "Potty Day" cake before we cut into it. The cake and probably the salted almonds (we usually do unsalted, but I was trying to make him thirsty so that we had more incidents to practice with) and the anxiety of the big day all culminated into an upset tummy during the evening and completely tossing his cookies right before bed. Poor kid - he never throws up and this was just a horrible way to end the day, but is also probably why he slept so soundly that night.

The rest of the weekend was kind of a mixed bag. We had quite a few times Saturday where he would start to go in his big boy pants and then would finish on the potty. Then Sunday, he actually told me 2 or 3 times that he had to go and when I sat him down, he went! This was a huge success in my eyes.

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This was all cold turkey, by the way. We didn't do pull ups - well, I guess we did Friday night, but he went in the pull up just like he would a diaper, so I decided that wasn't the best approach for Hunter. We're strictly big boy pants now. And Saturday night worked out really well because I woke him up around 5am and he was dry and went TT on the potty when I sat him down on it, and then went back to sleep. Unfortunately, he then proceeded to do both number 1 and 2 between that time and 6:30 when I thought he had just woken up. I think his persistent cough is waking him up - especially last night. I went up there 4-5 times last night and he was soaked every time. Poor kid. So I'll be trying to wake him up before I go to bed tonight to see if he's wet or dry and sit him on the potty to try to empty him out. Might wake him at 5 too, just to be sure.

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So our method was a mixed bag. We started with "Potty Training in One Day" with Potty Scotty. Hunter liked the doll and celebrated with him when he TTd on the potty, but the whole "practice runs" thing was NOT for us. So we continued with asking "Are you wet or dry?" and that took quickly. A few times, he would answer wet and was just barely wet, so he would finish on the potty, and I think Sunday, he answered wet one time before he had actually gone, so we sat him down on the potty and he went. The wet/dry thing was definitely a good thing for us. And repeating to him constantly that he has to tell us when he needs to go so that we can get him to the potty before he actually makes the mess. Now if we could just get him to do that during the night!!

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Hunter went back to school today. I was SO nervous about how it was going to go, even though I had heard his teachers were really good with potty training. And his head teacher was out today, so I was even more nervous. But Miss Dali and Miss Rupa exceeded my expectations - he only had 2 accidents all day!!!!! They said normally they have 4-6 accidents the first day, so we were pretty happy with this. The only thing I didn't ask was whether any of his successes were self-initiated, because based on the report, they were taking him every hour. Hopefully I will get some more info tomorrow when his head teacher is back. Here is his daily report - note all the smiley faces are all of his successes. Yay for Hunter!!!

I have to thank my friend Pam yet again - I wouldn't have made it through the weekend without her. I also want to thank Brent for doing everything I couldn't do this weekend. Breast feeding a 10-week-old while also potty training a 2-year-old isn't ideal, and he totally took up all the slack. Thanks also to my neighbors Marie and Kristi for their advice, tricks and tips. And to all of the family that we called when we had successes, for making it a big deal for Hunter and thus, encouraging him to continue.