Potty Training 101

So my whole idea of posting every day hasn't been perfect, but I have posted a LOT more than I was, so that's good! :) When I wrote HERE, I was more than frustrated with attempting to potty train Mollie. We gave up the 3-Day Potty Training method later that day (which, as I said, was day FIVE). We went directly 100% back to diapers and decided to try again maybe after her birthday. End of story.

Fast-forward 8 days, and who is showing MAJOR interest in the potty? Mollie. All of a sudden, out of the blue, after 8 days of ZERO interest. Yesterday she spent the entire day in panties and had no accidents. She even woke up dry from her nap and overnight. She's not initiating it every single time, but we're only suggesting going at the "usual" times, like before and after naps and bed, before we leave the house, the same times that we would tell Natalie to go, with maybe an extra "before mealtime" thrown in. We are just in shock that it could possibly be this easy (although those five days were H.A.R.D., still not as bad as months or even weeks of accidents).

Tomorrow, she'll wear panties at daycare! We're really hoping that she does well there! Fingers crossed! I can't believe my baby may have just basically potty-trained herself! :)

Oh, and in case you're wondering what's been taking up a lot of my time, get a load of these sweeties:



More to come SOON!

Memorial Day Week

Here's how we've been spending our Memorial Day week. It's like a weeklong event in our household since daycare is closed this week for teacher training. :)

Oh, and before we get to the pics, I wanted to say: we are DONE with the three-day potty training thing with Mollie. She.is.not.ready. Although, we've created a lot of potty interest because now her babies go potty all the time, she is starting to tell me when she pees in her diaper, she's a bit happier to sit on the potty (before bed, naps, leaving the house, etc), and she wants to wear "moush pannies" AKA Minne Mouse panties. :) So it's a work in progress, and that's a good thing.

Now the photos...

OK I know they don't look thrilled, but I think it's because I was attempting to make them stand still for a photo before they could get in the pool. :)




This little blow-up pool? May very well be the best $10 we've ever spent. :)






Who says you can't wear a nightgown and fairy wings in the front yard after breakfast? Not us!






I'm kind of dying with the cuteness of this last one. I could not for the life of me get Mollie to stand right next to Natalie, but it's pretty endearing like this I think. :)

New Month, New Idea - June 1, 2011

In attempt to get back on track with blogging more regularly, I'm planning to post something every.day. in June about what's going on with us. We'll see how it goes! Not promising photos every day necessarily, but hopefully a little tidbit.

We'll start with a fun, good thing. Last night a friend said that she'd started reading chapter books to her 3.5-ish year old and it was going swimmingly! I've been giving this a lot of thought and have been dying to start with Natalie but wasn't sure how she'd like it. She's still incredibly involved in the pictures in her books. Not to say that she doesn't listen to the stories, but she's VERY interested in the people's (or pigeon's or dog's or whatever-you-have-it's may be) expressions and actions. We have to dissect the pictures many times over. So I wasn't sure if she'd enjoy the experience as much without that. I happened to have Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (free!) on my kindle (LOVE!), so I decided to start there, since she loves the movie (Disney, NOT Tim Burton, we haven't gone THERE!). Well it was wonderful! She listened attentively, didn't complain about the lack of pictures, and even giggled at appropriate places! Win win win! :) Can't wait to really get further into the book with her! :)

And the not-so-great . . .

So today (and ever since this past Saturday - meaning this is day FIVE) my mind is preoccupied with potty training Mollie. We've been trying the famed "3 Day Potty Training Method" (now remember, today is DAY FIVE), and it's going - well, um, what's the word I'm looking for? Oh! How about we relate it to a book of Natalie's? Horrible, Terrible, No-Good, Very Bad. Yup. She's supposed to be completely and totally trained in 3 days with no accidents, even at naptime and bedtime. HA. HA HA. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. YEAHRIGHT. She had two huge successes on the morning of Day 3, and over the course of 4+ days, she's had roughly 30 accidents. Yes, 30. I'm not kidding. You read that right. 30 puddles on the tile or wood floor - or sometimes even on the carpet! Oh, and 3 pairs of panties full of poo. I'm not even going to lie, I threw away yesterday's poopy pair. It was too horrible to explain. So yeah, Woo hoo! Potty training! Thankfully, I'm actually not knee deep in it today, I'm at work and Brad's at home. The girls' daycare is closed this week for teacher training, and we're taking turns staying home with them, so we thought it was the PERFECT time to potty train Mollie! We had 9 days with no daycare (including weekends before and after) and she's 22.5 months. The book says 22 months exactly is ideal. Ideal, she says! Baloney, I say!

So I'm ready to throw in the towel. Try again in a couple months. Brad hasn't given up hope. We'll see what tomorrow brings. Today, I'm just thankful that no one in my office is likely to stand in the middle of the breakroom floor, begin to pee, spread their legs into a wiiiiide "V" and then flip their head down to WATCH -and then expect me to mop it up and find them dry panties. Yes. THAT HAPPENED. Last night. Good times!

Just to clarify - I am NOT alone in this. Brad has been an equal partner in crime when he's home, and does more running a peeing child to the potty than I do when he's there. I couldn't have made it this far without him!

OK OK OK I have to end on a high note about Mollie since she's totally awesome and wonderful and this potty thing has nothing to do with her being ornery - it's just a lack of understanding. I'll keep it quick - my new favorite thing that she's been doing is calling everyone "Honey." As in, gently telling Natalie, "No no, Honey." when she's doing something MG doesn't think she should. As in, handing Brad her sippy cup and saying, "Here go, Honey." Cracks me up!! She's just too cute! :)

Mollie's First Haircut

This week, Mollie had her first haircut! You can't tell all that much, but I definitely think it looks healthier and fuller. We're not doing bangs with her because they are such a pain to keep trimmed and we ended up growing Natalie's out anyway. So whatever "bangs" Mollie appears to have - well, it's just how her hair is growing in.

My sweet friend Candace at Shear Perfection who does my hair (and like everyone's I know, apparently) trimmed the tresses of both of our cuties this past Thursday.

Natalie's glamorous after photo:


Mollie in progress - not EXACTLY sure what to think of the whole ordeal, but definitely compliant. :)










Natalie getting into a tiny bit of mischief




Voila! Look at the sweet curls!

Happy One-and-a-Half to Mollie!

I'm about 10 days late in posting this, but better late than never, right?! Mollie had her 18 month well-child appointment today, and she's doing great! We are all THRILLED with Mollie's language development over the past month or so. Getting tubes in her ears has been the best decision we've made with her! She is adding new words to her vocabulary all the time, and it's SO much fun to be able to really communicate with her. Natalie asks her things all the time, and for some reason, Mollie ALWAYS either nods yes to Natalie or gives the typical Mollie "Yah." Which prompts Natalie to run in telling me things like, "Mommy! Mollie says she LIKES piders!" or "Mollie says she wants to watch Elmo!" and I'm sure Mollie doesn't have a clue what she's agreeing to half of the time. :)

The girls were apart all day today, and it warms my heart to see how excited they are to see each other at the end of days like that. They were kissing and hugging, which then turned into kissing Mommy forty bazillion times, which I certainly cannot complain about! :) They really seem to be the best of friends already.

Mollie is still a huge fan of baby dolls, and with Natalie's help, she's becoming a big fan of tea parties as well. It's so funny to walk into their playroom and see things like this:





Mollie's also become fairly adept at making funny faces. I wish I could catch the REALLY good ones on camera. Here's one from today when she was being silly:


And I just thought this one was cute:


And finally, here's the obligatory pic in the chair with the pink bear :)


Oh, and I don't want to forget (because I have no clue which box her baby book is in! EEK!) that she weighs 22.8 lbs and is 32 in. tall! That's kinda on the small side for weight, and she just took a pretty good leap length-wise putting right at average. :)

MOLLIE!

OK so I have approximately one million photos from Christmas to go through, 10 loads of clean laundry to fold, 3 loads of dirty laundry to wash and dry (THEN FOLD), 1 very messy kitchen to clean, 4 suitcases to fully unpack, and a massive pile of stuff in one corner of the kitchen floor to put away. Let's just ignore the fact that the playroom is a crazy mess and there are still (MANY) Christmas decorations up. We'll worry about those last two things later.

But before I tackle my huge to-do list, I NEED to say a few things about Mollie. She had tubes put in her ears before Christmas, and I don't know if it's just that or that coupled with her age, but she's all of a sudden got a much larger vocabulary, and her comprehension is sooo great - and so much fun! :) She's even putting 2 words together here and there! I'm not bragging by any stretch of the imagination - I'm just excited to be able to communicate with our littlest one. And, seriously, it's just plain adorable.

Here are her words:
Mommy
Daddy
Na-ee (Natalie)
Bup (Cup)
Dis/Ish (This)
Baby
Casey
Puppy
Shusss (Shoes)
Sosss (Socks)
Kitty
Fish
Peeeese (Please)
EEEEEEE (Cheese)
Day OOO (Thank You)
E go (Here you go)
No
My!!! (Mine)
OOOO (Moo)
AAAAA (Baa)
Woof Woof (the highest pitch, sweetest version you can imagine)
OWWW (Meow)

She's still a huge fan of her babies, so her Christmas presents (stroller, pack'n'play, bouncy seat) were right on target! I'm so glad because I thought long and hard and tried to get something she would for sure play with! She also got a few new babies and stuffed animals that she's having fun with. :)

She's big on giving hugs and kisses too! A few days ago, when I got her up out of bed, she laid her head on my shoulder, then leaned back quickly, put her hands on my face, and gave me a huge kiss right on the lips! hahah! I love it!! She's a great hugger and has started making a "kiss" noise when she kisses you or has her baby kiss you or vice versa. Adorable!

While we were in Ohio, she started using the word "no." Good times. But actually, it was just so cute, especially the first time. Everyone had gone to a movie except Brad, Mollie, and me. We walked in the door, and I said, "Well, Mollie Grace, are you ready for your nap?" She stopped walking, her face fell, and she said, "Noooooo." lol I let her stay up a bit just because she was so sweet about it. :) When Brad tickles her, she says, "Nooooo, Daddy!" Another really *FUN* word she's using is My!!!! Ugh. If I could delete even just one word from a toddler vocabulary, this would be it. I am not looking forward to the big "MINE!" arguments!

Possibly Mollie's favorite word right now is "Bup," which Brad figured out means "Cup." This is a great word for us to know! I'm calling this the Holiday Season of the "Bup" because she's kind of obsessed with it. When we sit down to eat, she'll often go around the table, starting with herself, "dis BUP!" and point to her cup. Then "Na-ee BUP!" and "Mommy BUP!" and "Daddy BUP!" It's too cute. I love the way she says it too. It's like "BBBBBB-UP!"

I don't know if she's truly getting interested in potty-training, but lately, she seems to be aware of when she is going. She grabs herself, and if we say, "Mollie, do you need to go potty?" she takes off toward the bathroom! hahahah! It's like she's on a mission. Then she'll sit on the potty, but nothing happens. I'm actually not really ready to start potty training her, but if she's showing lots of interest, we're certainly not going to ignore it!

Mollie LOVES music! She loves to sing, and she loves to dance. When she hears music, her little body just starts moving. We love the inhibition that she has. It's so cute to watch her dance, and it's so neat that she's not embarrassed about it in the least. She loves to sing and bounce her babies before she lays them in their beds. She loves to sing the "ABC's" and she has the tune down pretty well, but not really the letters. :)

She's pretty ornery - just this morning, I was saying for the millionth time how tired I am of CHASING her. She loves to run from us when we're trying to get her to do something (this morning, it was putting her coat on). It's not even that she doesn't want to do the thing, she just likes to make it difficult. UGH!

Well, I think I've covered most everything I wanted to say about Miss Mollie, here at just about 17.5 months. I guess I better go tackle some laundry. Pictures to come soon - hopefully later today! :)

Walking

OK I lied - I found a super cute picture of Mollie walking that Katie took at Summer's birthday party this past weekend. :)

Here ya go! :)

We have a Walker!

So I don't have any cute pictures, and I'm pretty sure that I already mentioned that Mollie's been taking steps, but this past Tuesday, it's like a switch flipped and she walks a LOT more than she crawls. She still loses her balance and falls from time to time, but she gets back up instead of crawling instead - most of the time. It's so cute! She's still really proud of herself every time. It's funny because we're getting used to it, so it's not that big of a surprise to see her walking to us, but you can take one look at her little face and see that SHE still thinks it's a pretty huge deal. So much fun - and so much fun to come!!

Twelve Months!!!!

OK, I'm a little late on the post, but I've been mulling it over in my mind for a while and just enjoying life with TWO toddlers. How did that happen?

The past month has been a HUGE one for Miss Mollie. It seems like just yesterday (and really, it wasn't that much farther back than that) Katie and I were trying to remember exactly HOW and WHEN our big girls dropped their evening feedings. It just seemed like there wasn't an easy way to do it or to know when the babies were ready for that. Well, fast-forward just a few short weeks, and get a load of this:

- Mollie is 100% on table food, and couldn't be happier about it!
- She hasn't had a bottle in about a week, and hasn't looked back!
- She doesn't have to have any milk before bed.
- The girl is no longer taking a morning nap.
- She sleeps without a sleep sack and uses a light blanket in bed.
- She's got a great nighttime sleep schedule and isn't waking at the crack of dawn anymore!
- She's taking lots of steps!
- She's babbling all the time, and we're starting to recognize more and more words.
- She says "Dada" but it seems to be directed to me or to Brad.
- Last week, she heard Natalie talking in another room, looked at me, and said, "Nan-yee?" I was so excited to hear her using a word for Natalie! Now I think she's been saying "Nana" for Natalie!

Mollie is still just as sweet and joyful as always. We're also seeing more of her stubborn side, though. It can be frustrating, but it's also fun to see her assert herself. I tell Brad that she knows what she wants all the time, we're just lucky that most of the time, it happens to coincide with what we want her to do. :)

Watching Mollie and Natalie together is so much fun. They really enjoy having playmates and spend lots of time playing together! Natalie's excited that Mollie has started calling her "Nana." Mollie is thrilled to go into Natalie's room when she wakes up in the morning. I hope their friendship stays strong! :) Of course, as Mollie gets older, we're starting to see more disagreements too. Natalie's used to Mollie doing whatever Natalie wants her to do, and she's complained to us a few times lately that "Mollie not LISTEN a me!" to which we gently reply that she doesn't have to. ;)

We had Mollie's 12-month doctor visit this morning, and it was great! She weighs alllllmost 20 lbs (19 lbz 13 oz) and is 28.75 inches tall! It's crazy that she seems bigger to me than Natalie was at this age, but Natalie was shorter and weighed just a bit more!

So without further ado, here are a few photos of Mollie (they were actually taken last week, right at 12 months). :)

On her actual birthday, the first time I've had to wake HER up in as long as I can remember! Sleeeeeepy girl!







And here with the pink bear. Check out the sweet pigtails! :)






And one sneak peek of some photos yet to come . . . ;)

11 Months!!!

OK I am definitely posting this late, but I only took it a couple days late. WHERE is our baby? Not in this photo!!!

Mollie is still amazing us every day with her new accomplishments! She's a superfast crawler and will get into anything quicker than you could imagine! She is one BUSY baby, it seems like overnight. She's just as strong-willed as her sister, perhaps even a bit moreso! She's started really being pretty ornery from time to time, and is doing that "thing" where she does something she knows she isn't supposed to, and is watching you the whole time to see if you're going to stop her. It's pretty crazy how quickly she's moved from baby baby to almost-toddler!!!!

She's started using the sign for "more," which is really fun. It's helpful when we're feeding her, and occasionally she uses it for something else too. I know I saw her signing "more" to Natalie when they were playing patty cake a few days ago. Last week, I was letting her play with a kleenex, and she was tearing little pieces off and handing them to me. When she got to the last piece, she stuck it in her mouth. I scooped it out quickly, and she immediately looked at me, and signed "more." Kim and I were cracking up!

So here's her pink bear photo, and then one of the girlies together. I know I've been a bad blogger lately, but another thing Mollie's been doing is NOT sleeping through the night along with waking up way.too.stinking.early. Brad and I are both suffering from some sleep deprivation. So anyway, that's what you can partially blame for the lack of updates. But - PRAISE JESUS!! - Mollie has been sleeping through the night the past few nights (three to be exact), and I feel like I have a new lease on life! Let's keep that up, Mollie Grace! :)

Mollie has something to show you!

Earlier this evening, I was inside making a grocery list, and Brad took the girls out to look at the garden and play in the backyard. All of a sudden, I hear this loud bang on one of the kitchen windows, and I see Brad motioning for me to come out. I can see a tiny little pink figure out in the middle of the yard . . . standing up! So I run out, then run back in to grab the camera. She just started doing standing out of the blue, with no prompting! Too cute! Note how at the verrrrry start of the video, she's attempting to clap - which then kind of causes her to lose her balance. She kept doing it over and over and over for quite a while. She even almost perfected clapping for herself at the same time! ;) :)

Mollie's First Stand! from Sarah Billheimer on Vimeo.

TEN Months

I don't know if you're aware, but Mollie is officially TEN months old. Yes, ten. Seriously. I am really planning a birthday party for our BABY! *sigh* She just gets sweeter all the time, and we're thrilled with each new milestone. She crawls like crazy and is completely and totally obsessed with pulling up on things. Not just "things" as in "some things" but "things" as in EV.RY.THING. It's so neat to see her becoming more independent, but we have to watch her like a hawk, especially in the bathtub! Just today, she stood unsupported for about 10 seconds which is seriously a long time for a newbie like Mollie! I kept trying to get her to stand on her own later, and she did, but as soon as she realized it, she dropped herself right back to the ground. She'll get there! I really feel like she'll be walking by her birthday, but you certainly never know! I am not especially in a hurry, but once they start down that road, it's fun to watch their progress. I know Natalie will be more than thrilled when Mollie is walking around!

Mollie started clapping over the past few weeks, and it's just too cute! Forgive me if I've already posted this, but she was clapping at the table on Mother's Day, and she had everyone else clapping too. It was so adorable how proud she was that she had the power to make us all clap! I think she was more excited about that than the clapping itself! I also realized a day or so ago that she will clap on command. I was totally surprised that I asked her to clap - and she DID! Pretty cute! She's also started waving, which is another fun milestone (but aren't they all?). Today when I got home from work, she was sitting on the kitchen floor by Brad, and she started whining, crawling toward me, and waving, but she was kind of waving at the floor. It was like she knew I'd like her to wave, but she didn't quite get the concept.

She's babbling LOTS more these days, and we hear lots of "dadada" so I'm always trying to get her to say "mama," naturally. :) Gotta have equal time, right? Sunday morning she and I were the only ones up, and she was in a sweet mood. I stood her up on my lap and said, "Mollie, can you say 'Mama'?" and she looked at me, then paused and kind of looked away. I figured that was the end, but a few seconds later, she looked right back at me, and in the teeeeeeny tinnnniest sweetest voice, she softly said "ma-ma-ma-ma" while clapping her hands. Melt my heart!

Mollie also LOVES to eat finger foods. She often gets finger foods for breakfast, and pretty much always at dinner. She literally gets upset with us if we are eating and she's not getting what we have, even if she just had her own jar of food before we started! Tonight she chowed down on some pasta and veggies. I'm pretty sure she at more than Natalie. ;) I'm not sure how we were blessed with TWO great eaters, but we're thankful for it!

So here's Mollie's 10-month photo. She's fresh from the tub, smelling yummy and being sweet in her jammies right before bed! :)

Just an Ordinary Day

Doesn't it look like Natalie's sketching Mollie in this first photo? :)

Then, Mollie's excited to tell you that she now has a SECOND tooth!

And yes, Natalie IS talking baby-talk to Casey.

All in a day's work around here. :)

A TOOTH!

Ladies and Gentleman, we have a tooth!! For no particular reason at all, I decided to feel Mollie's gums for any burgeoning buds, and lo and behold, the girl has cut her bottom right middle tooth! And it's like, all the way through! I'd estimate that she's probably had it for close to a week. "It's amazing!" as Natalie loves to say these days. I'm just totally shocked that a child of ours could be capable of cutting a tooth sans constant crying and intermittent medication. Wow. I'm fairly speechless . . . and INCREDIBLY thankful!! Go Mollie! :)

Smiles Captured!

These are all kind of grainy and weird coloring, BUT I finally got some of Mollie's smiles on camera! She really does smile quite a lot, but she stops when I bring out the camera - so I had kind of given up trying for a while! Isn't she getting to be such a big girl?!