A WOO HOO!

Well! We've made it! We've made it to no longer preparing and washing bottles for Emma AND no more pull-ups for Ava!!!!!!!!!!

A WOO HOO!

One of the happiest days of my life was today at lunch when I realized that these two things no longer exist in my world!

Ava has been doing great peeing on the potty (poop in another thing for some reason, she stopped doing it on the potty when we put the 'big girl' underwear on her). Three things I learned: 1) Thick underwear only makes them think they are wearing diapers, you have to put the big girl underwear on only (daddy figured this one out!); 2) you have to have a variety of candy for them to choose one, including ALL of their faves; 3) peer pressure is very important when potty training. If one does it, they all do it. This was proven to me when we were visiting one of my friends' house with a little girl the same age who was introduced to the potty, but not yet in the pull-ups. Well she peed three times on that potty while we were there! Same with my niece-- everytime she went on the potty, Ava HAD to too!

I'm hoping Emma will be quick to learn! As you know, she joins the party everytime we hit the bathroom and gets very mad if we leave her with daddy in her high chair at a restaurant. :)

Emma was a piece of cake to take off the bottle, which we did about 2 months ago. The nighttime bottle I kept, because, well because, I thought she was soothed by it and loved it. That ended this past weekend and there was no fuss. What a good girl! :)

What is weird, is that I miss hitting the baby section of Target. I miss shopping for baby foods and I miss shopping and thumbing through my coupons for the best deal on wipes and diapers!!! I am so bizarre, I know it! :) And no, no pictures of my girl on the potty to show on the page. They are still on the digital camera waiting to be downloaded. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!! I hope everyone has a great day with beautiful weather and delicious food!

Beautiful California weather mid-November.

Gotta have a variety!

Ava has now been sans Pull-Ups as of Wednesday and is doing great!!!!! Upon pick-up Tuesday night, Paola, our lovely day care provider, informed me that Ava had been wearing 'big girl underwear' all day without any accidents. So Wednesday was the day! The first two days weren't the funniest, and I *almost* put her back in the diapers/Pull-Ups, but I didn't.

Wednesday was the worst of it. Seriously. We were running around shopping for Christmas presents and our last stop was Costco. She peed right on the toy isle. Nice. I was embarassed and husband was d-o-n-e. It was only her first day, poor little girl. So we continue running the girl to the store potty, changing her clothes in the parking lot, and sitting in dirty restrooms waiting for her to go 'pee-pee in tha pottay!'

One word of advice for those that are training.... given up on training for a while... or are going to start soon. GET A VARIETY OF CANDY!!!! M&M's will work for a while, lollipops will work but will make a messy baby! Reese's are the fave right now, but weren't doing it on Saturday. So my advice to all you mommies and daddies-- get a variety of candy! Skittles, M&M's, Whoopers, Reese's, Tootsie rolls, etc. because your child will get bored with the same old sticker/M&M dance. Trust me. :)

Ava did and I accommodated her resisting and now she's having less accidents by day. WOO HOO! Let's keep this going little girl and hopefully Miss Emma will be a piece of cake.

Holiday cards already?!

Who else is thinking about holiday cards?? I am! I love receiving holiday cards and I love sending them out! I get all excited about the response that I will receive from my family and friends about the girls' cute picture I've enclosed. It's also an extra special feeling when you go to a person's home and see your holiday card on their fridge or mantel. Does anyone else feel this way?

My favorite holiday cards are the ones with pictures on them. In the past I have only ordered regular 3x5 pictures and put them inside a regular Christmas card. But this year I'm going to try and do something new. Life before kids, I can remember I ordered a bunch of photos and my husband and I with a cute little holiday border from Shutterfly. It worked and even my in-laws have that photo framed somewhere in their house!

There are many places to order your holiday cards, and in the past I've used Shutterfly, as I said before. With the options that Shutterfly offers, you can put a couple of different pictures on one card rather just one photo. And this is what I plan to do this year! Since from one of my previous posts about 'the picture perfect photo,' my children will not sit together and look in the same direction and smile.

If you are now thinking about your holiday photos (since Thanksgiving is JUST a week away!), I have given you the best gift yet-- a couple of links to Shutterfly's Web site for Christmas cards (for my fave, click here); holiday photos cards (for my fave, click here); a link for calendars (I like desk calendars); Hanukkah cards (my fave); and wall art (my fave). (Note: click on each highlighted group of text/wording to go to their Web site.)

And if you have never uploaded photos to Shutterfly, click here to get started! When you open a free account, you get 50 free photos just for signing up and other fabulous free services. I love that I can order photos at home before work and then pick them up on the same day at Target, Walgreens or CVS.

Well I better get started, as I hope to get my cards out before Dec. 2. What do you think about this example, 'Naughty or Nice?'

Slippers, tutus and princess shoes

So I think we're about to embark on the "I only want to wear my princess dress-up gear and slippers to day care" round with Ava.

Is this when it's suppose to start? I mean, I love that she wants to wear her tutu around the house when she dances. Or that she LOVES her Princess Belle shoes and wears them constantly.

But really? Really at 7:58 a.m. when we should of left at 7:55 a.m., you want to throw a tantrum on the floor because I won't let you wear your kitty slippers to day care??!!!"

Is this happening to anyone else? Or when did this start to happen? Help!!!! All advice will be taken and used. :) And how do you keep your composer without yelling at the poor little princess, because I sure did fail at that one!

And little sweet Emma, just sits and drinks her milk and holds her duckie (lovie) and waits by the door while all of this is going on. Gotta love 16 month old girls with older sisters. Because I know she'll be acting up like that in no time!

pink saur-saur and tink

Happy *WAY belated* trick-or-treating!

I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween! I'm sure everyone, like me, LOVES to look at everyone's Halloween costumes every year. In fact, I LOVE to watch all of the TV daytime shows to see everyone's costumes. Since I did have to a doctor's appointment for Emma (plastic surgeon for her flat head-- I know, plastic surgeon?! Yes! And I wasted a lotta gas and $20 for the co-pay to be told she will be fine with her semi-flat head), as I was saying.... I missed all of the daytime TV shows because of the doctor's appointment. I did catch half of Kelly Ripa's show which was pretty cute.

Anyways! Ava was a pink saur-saur (dinosaur) and Emma was Tinkerbell. We trick-or-treated a day earlier at Blackhawk Plaza which is located in Danville and is very fru-fru. The girls and I were lucky enough to meet up with some of my friends from high school and their adorable kids!

 

Halloween evening, a whole slew of people showed up at our house for some pizza and we all headed out together. At one point, I think we had 11 kids with us! It was a blast! If you ever have a chance to go treat-or-treating with a group of kids- DO IT. They love it!

Here's the most of the crew we trick-or-treated with! Leah the kitty, Gavin the dinosaur, Ava the pink dinosaur, Emma as Tink, Corsten as Batman and Ayla as #2 of the three ladybugs! (Missing: our wonderful neighbors Nia, Layla and Gabriel and baby Mia as #3 ladybug.)

Enjoy! Now off to try and plan Thanksgiving dinner!