January Photos

Here are just a few photos.

Standing Tall

I have been a little slow on the posts lately. So, I decided to put aside some of the things I really should be doing right now to add a few notes about the past couple weeks.


Our bedtime ritual around here puts Vinny and Addie to bed, then we go downstairs and get Elise ready for bed and she gets a bottle before heading to bed- either in our room or in the shared room with Addie. She keeps getting put back in our room when one or the other of them gets a cold and they start waking each other up from coughing. That is a situation we will need to take care of soon enough. Anyway, after we read books, brush teeth and say prayers Vinny gets in bed and we go tuck Addie in and I go back and tuck Vinny in while Dave heads down to get Elise in her pj's.
Tuesday night Dave came out with Elise in just her diaper to do their walk around as she loves to be in just a diaper! They were practicing some standing and Elise stood on her own for about 15 seconds:) It was so cute. Then she did it again and was gaining some confidence so she was trying to pull her diaper off with one hand while steadying herself at the same time. I am pretty sure she will have tooth number 2 by the end of the day today. It is just trying to poke out. She has had her one toof (as Vinny and Addie call it) for 2 months now:)

Adelaide sat with me the other night and let me brush her hair. This does not happen often and it is good that her hair really doesn't need brushing very often because aside from right after her bath it is usually a battle to try to get her to let me touch it! The other night she seemed to be enjoying it and I was able to try out my french braid skills. I am pretty rusty and I was always a lot better at doing my own than doing for other people. I got one in it was pretty loose, but it was there.

Yesterday after we picked Vinny up at school we had to run some errands. When we got home I unloaded the van, including Vinny and Addie, and went to put the van away. I came in about 90 seconds later. I found Vinny and Addie in the bathroom. Vinny had helped Addie get her coat off, get her potty chair set up, get her pants down and was getting her lined up to go potty. I got in to help with the final part. Vinny just told me that she needed to go potty, so I had to help her since I was the biggest one in here. What a great big brother!! He really likes to look after his little sisters!!

Vinny had a pajama party at school today. They all looked so excited this morning. They got to wear PJ's and slippers and bring a stuffed animal. His was his santa teddy that he sleeps with every night! At near the end of their day they got to snuggle up on sleeping bags, eat popcorn, and watch a Sesame Street video. Vinny let me know that they put butter on the popcorn and wondering if we could have that on ours next time.

I think that sums up my post for today. I will try to add in some photos very soon. I am pretty behind on those.

Toilet drumming... 4 yr old pop singin'....

I don't know what it is about the toilet and babies, but my kids can't get enough of the germ filled bathroom toilet areas (all three have gone through this in our house). Elise is getting into EVERYTHING these days. One of her current favorite ways to entertain herself is to sneak into the bathroom and pull up on the toilet and start drumming. Another is to make her way to the carbon monoxide detector, yank it out of the wall, and proceed to beat it on the tile floor. If she can find a night light, she has figured out how to remove the diffuser thingy and start sucking on it. She gets into everything now, but she is so fun to watch. She crawls (so fast) and pulls herself up on everything.
Vinny and Addie have really started to have fun playing with Elise. When you hear the three of them all laughing, you know they are up to something!! It usually involves Elise being pulled around the room by one or both of her siblings and they are all just rolling in laughter. Vinny has taken to 'watching out for Elise' frequently. This will often result in carrying her around (only dropping her occasionally). They really are pretty careful with her and just like to make her laugh. We try to find safe way for this, but they like to be creative! When we go places they always like to tell people 'this is my baby sister Elise'.
Adelaide is doing wonderfully with the undies. We are working on getting her to use the big potty with a potty ring. We are still bringing her potty chair along when we go places so she can go in the van. This works pretty well, but she thinks it is fun, so she goes potty a lot! :) She has also taken to picking out her own clothes much more than before. It used to just be shoes that were an issue, but now we have a lot of days that we just have to wear a pretty dress!! sometimes the dresses are decked out with boots or whatever shoes she just HAS to have that day!! Not worth a fight, so she can look pretty comical. I don't know that What Not to Wear would approve, but she is only 2!!
Tonight Vinny was walking around singing mims 'This is Why I'm Hot' tonight. So, I was a wee bit disturbed by this, but it sure was funny. He has been doing very well lately. We had preregistration for kindergarten this week. Yikes! my little boy will be going to kindergarten next year. Holy cow!! Time flies! Of course this is not till September, but it is still hard to believe.
So, I don't leave out the furry baby. Beasely had her yearly check-up today. She was her normal scared to death self. She gets just terrified when we go for check-ups. She trembles as soon as we get into the office. I have to hold her for everything they do, she won't take treats from the evil-doers and she had so much dander covering her fur while we are there it looks like she just came in from a blizard. She is a healthy pooch:) She got the whole ball of wax today, all the shots, blood draw and nose kennel cough thing. She is all set for the year.
That ends my update for now. Hope everyone is staying warm! It is stinking cold out!!!

Time to confirm my reservation at the nuthouse!

Adelaide is doing a wonderful job at going potty. I am really not calling it potty training for her, since she pretty much did this solo! She is still wearing a diaper for naps and bedtime, but has been staying dry for most of those too. It is very impressive. One little glitch is that so far she only goes on her potty chair soooo, we have to take the little red potty with us in the van and she goes in the van when we are out and about. I think she thoroughly enjoys this! She goes before and after most places that we visit and thinks it is pretty funny when I open the van door and dump her pee out (after I have checked that the coast is clear - hey, dogs and men go wherever they want, right?).
Since this little revelation of hers she has also discontinued her siesta. She is still in her cage, oh I mean crib, for a couple hours, but is not seeing much in terms of sleep. Ugh! I am hopeful this is just a little phase and she will slip back into her reliable napping pattern. Or, as my title suggests, I may end up pulling my hair out and wind up in an institution!! Just kidding there, but really, I so so enjoy my afternoon nap time. Vinny is up, but he really enjoys his sister free time as well and knows there are little things he can do when his sisters are sleeping. I am counting on a few more years of worry free napping from littlest one around here!

Can a 2 year old have a New Years Resolution??

Apparently Addie decided that the new year meant a new you!! She had been periodically asking to go potty, usually before bedtime, and would go. Then the next morning wanted nothing to do with it again. I was not feeling the need to push her on it yet. She is not 2 1/2 yet, and I just didn't want to force it on her. So, when on New Years Eve she wanted to go potty before bed and did it, I didn't think anything of it. The next morning we asked if she wanted to go potty and wear Dora undies and she said yes. She is now ending her third day of being daytime diaper free. We have still been doing the night diapers- and naptime (I am short of crib mattress pads now that we have 2 cribs). She has only had two accidents both in her booster seat. I guess she thinks eating trumps going potty. Today went very well and it has really been quite amazing to see her just do it on her own. Vinny was not an easy subject to work with:) They all figure it out on their own time and I guess maybe this is Addie's time (I am not holding my breath that we don't lapse a bit here and there!). We have not been on a regular schedule this week, so we were able to stay home all day. We will see how it goes when we have to start leaving the house this coming week, especially since she has only gone in her potty chair and never on a big potty... the idea of having just one in diapers is pretty nice!