Update

Well, I have an update after posting about my potty-training problems...

Taylor POOPED in the potty for the 1st time today!!!! Yay, Taylor!

All day today she had been using her little potty (instead of the big potty which she usually uses), and she had been doing really well about going pee-pee on her own without me having to remind her. After we had lunch, I was in her room putting away some clothes, and I heard her go into the bathroom. Then, she came in her room and announced that she had gone pee-pee. I told her good job, and then, she let out a little-but stinky- fart (that's a sign of something to follow!) and then ran out of the room. I went after her and said, "Taylor, go poo-poo on the potty," as I have done many times and to which her normal response is to yell "no!" and run away and hide somewhere to poop. Instead, she said, "Okay," walked into the bathroom, and pulled down her pants. I went back into her room to finish what I was doing and to give her some privacy. I was totally expecting her to just pee, but nevertheless, I wanted to give her privacy in case she decided to go. She was quiet for a while, and after a few minutes, I went to check on her. She was standing up in front of the toilet, and the lid to her little potty was closed. I lifted it up, and sure enough, there was POOP there. I was cheering and yelling, "Yay, Taylor! Good job! You poo-pooed in the potty! You're such a big girl!" and she loved every minute of it. I didn't even care that I still had to clean up her poop and wipe her butt. I've never been so excited about poop before :-)

After I got through cleaning everything up, I gave her some marshmallows (which she loves and I have tried bribing her with before without success; I guess she was just ready this time; I never even mentioned any bribes), and then we called Daddy at work to make our big announcement. She was so proud that Daddy thought she was a big girl, too, and he promised to bring her home some candy which she was so very excited about.

Later on tonight after dinner, Taylor was eating an apple, which tends to make her poop, so I told her, "Taylor, if you need to go poo-poo, make sure you go in the potty." A little while later we were watching TV, and Taylor took off for the bathroom. Jared yelled at her to ask what she was doing because often when she takes off running she's up to something. She yelled back and said, "I want to go potty." He said, "Okay," and a couple of minutes later, we heard the little potty start playing music. Jared and I both looked at each other with the same thought- that sure took a while for her to have just peed. Jared got up to go check on her, and yep, she had pooped again! That's right- not only did she poop once today for the first time, but she pooped TWICE!!! Let's just hope this continues, and if I'm lucky, maybe she will be potty trained by the beginning of the year after all!

(making her fish face)

Now for an update on Bella: We had an appointment with the urologist on Wednesday to follow up from her UTI. I knew that the plan was for them to check her urine to see if it tested normal or not, so I was totally expecting that they would have to put a catheter in her. When we got there, the doctor gave me two options. He said they could attach a bag to her and just wait until she peed on her own- which could take who knows how long- or they could put a catheter in. Of course, no one wants to have a catheter (except for crazy people... and there are crazy people), but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do to get it done and over with, so I told him the catheter was fine. The nurses came in and were trying to prepare me for how she might react, that she might freak out because babies don't like to be held down, etc. (I usually don't tell people I'm a nurse because I really would rather them treat me just like any other patient). I told them that I knew Bella probably wouldn't like it, but she is a very sweet and forgiving baby. So we held her down and got her ready. The doctor came in to do the catheter himself, and she didn't struggle or cry at all.... not one bit. I was so proud of my baby! She's sweet and quiet and easy-going, but MAN, she is one tough little girl! The nurses were amazed. They thought she was cute before, but after that, they were in love. They kept telling me that I better make sure that I had everything before I left, and I better keep an eye on her or they might run off with her.. haha Once we got in the car, she must have peed for the first time after the catheter because she made a little sucking in noise like when something stings (she used to do it when she was a newborn and her bottom would get irritated or would have diaper rash), and then, she let out a little whimper. After that one time though, she never acted like it bothered her at all. So, they said they should have the results of the urine culture by Monday, and assuming everything is normal, then she won't have to go back to the urologist again.

In other news, Bella is crawling now! She's been close for a while, but she really just started crawling in the last week. She's not fast by any means, but she can definitely get around. It's so cute especially if Jared or I are gone and then come home, and she will smile and crawl right to us. I think it really made Jared's day the first time he came home from work and she did that. Before, Bella would go from being happy and calm to crying and letting us know when she was done when she was hungry and/or tired; there was no real in between stage. Now, when she decides she's hungry, she will crawl towards me- or after me if I walk out of the room- with this little pitiful cry. It is so adorable that you can't help but want to immediately pick that baby up! I'm so used to putting her in the floor to play and being able to walk around the house and do what I need to do that it still surprises me when I turn around and she's following me. She's even starting to pull herself up on things to where she is just on her knees and holding onto something. If it's something short that she's holding onto, she will even stand on her feet and lean over.

Both of my girls are getting so BIG! I just don't know where the time goes! Two weeks from today, Taylor will be 3 years old! They have brought so much joy to my life, and I feel so very blessed to be their mother!

In the dumps

I have a lot of posting that I need to catch up on, but right now, I just want to do some venting. I HATE potty training!! It's complete torture. We got Taylor to start peeing on the potty occasionally a few months after she turned two. At first, it was exciting for her, and she enjoyed going. We admit that we weren't consistent with it. I just didn't want to rush her into it. My ultimate goal was that she would be potty-trained by the time she turns 3 or at least by the beginning of the year when she transitions from nursery at church to Sunbeams (the 3-4 year old class).

Well, here we are, a little over two weeks away from Taylor's 3rd birthday, and she's still not potty-trained. About a month ago, she finally reached a point where she didn't care if she went to the potty or not. We were using Pull-Ups, and then I heard people say not to use those because they are nothing but a diaper that you can pull up and down, which is true. If Taylor wanted to pee in the potty, she would; if she didn't, she would just pee in her pull-up, and it wasn't a big deal. So, we put her back in regular diapers for a week or two to give her a break, and then we started back the potty-training- trying to be more consistent this time- having her wear panties instead.

As far as peeing in the potty goes, she has done pretty well except for the fact that we pretty much always have to remind her to go pee. She doesn't usually initiate it on her own. Our biggest problem is that she has yet to poop on the potty- not even once. She just refuses to do it. We've tried bribing her. We've tried yelling at her. We've tried telling her that big girls go on the potty. We've tried catching her right before we KNOW that she's going to poop and putting her on the potty. Let me just say that changing a poopy diaper is gross, but having to clean poop out of her panties is absolutely disgusting!

So, I think we're going back to pull-ups... at least when we're out in public in case she has an accident. I wasn't too excited when she pooped in her panties while I was out to eat with a friend at Dreamland last weekend. She crawled under the table-- I thought she was trying to get some french fries that she dropped- but when she wouldn't come back up, I knew what was wrong.

Taylor is just a very independent little girl, and I know that she will get it done when she is ready..... I just wish she would hurry up and decide she's ready! It's so frustrating for me, and I'm tired of being down in the dumps!!

6 months

Bella turned 6 months old on October 28th. This past Monday, she had her six month well-child check up. She was 16lbs 10.5 oz and 27 inches, which I think they said was in the 75th and 88th percentiles respectively.

She got her shots. She didn't cry when they stuck the needles in, just when they injected the medicine. Then, Taylor had to get a flu shot. I had warned her that she was going to have to get some medicine and it would hurt. She told me she didn't want to get hurt. We started to hold her down, but the nurse forgot to get a band aid, so we let Taylor up while she went to get one, and of course, then Taylor had more time to think about what was about to happen, so she was freaking out. She was bawling after they gave her the shot until I said, "Do you want to go get a sucker?" and then she immediately turned the tears off and was happy again... haha I've been lucky that both of my girls have done really well with their shots and have only had mild fussiness afterwards.

I love these pictures of Bella, and they actually remind me of Taylor when she was the same age.

(Jared and Taylor woke me up on my birthday with Taylor wearing this shirt. It was a sweet surprise and a great day! 6/24/07/)

Another picture that gives me flashbacks to when Taylor was a baby

Taylor was a skinny baby (and still is!) but look- she still had tons of cute little fat rolls! (Taylor was 7 months in this picture. Bella's foot hasn't quite made it into her mouth yet).

Once Bella started rolling over, it didn't take long before she really started getting around. She's not crawling yet although she will get up on all fours and rock back and forth, and I've even seen her push forward with one of her knees. Mostly, she scoots and rolls, but she can cover a lot of ground in a very short amount of time. She's very curious and loves to play with toys or anything she can get her hands on. We really have to be careful with what we leave on the floor. If she spots even the tiniest crumb of something, she will go straight for it and try to put it in her mouth.

I love watching Taylor and Bella interact. I get glimpses of what it will be like between them in the future. I hope that they will always be close. Bella is so happy and will smile for pretty much anyone, but Taylor can get her to laugh like no one else. Of course, she usually stops by the time I get my camera ;-)

Here she is squealing more than laughing. I've caught a few laughs on camera, but always seem to miss the moments when Taylor gets her laughing over and over again.

She's also babbling a lot.

I've got some catching up to do, so more pictures and videos to come!

Trip to Atlanta

*Prepare for a marathon post of lots and lots of pictures! I started this post weeks ago. It took me a whole day just to get all of the pictures uploaded, and I'm just now getting around to writing all of my comments and finishing it up*

Ever since Jared and I have been married, we have always gone on vacation to the beach each summer. This year, with having a new baby and then her going into the hospital two weeks later, we've accrued some medical bills and stuff that need to be paid off, so we decided to forego the beach trip this year :-( However, Jared has paid vacation days that he either has to use or he loses them, so we decided to go on a little mini-vacation to Atlanta!

We left on September 2nd after Jared got off work. My mom went with us because one of her brothers lives in Atlanta, and we thought she'd have a good time being with the grandkids and getting to see her brother. The girls did really well on the way there. We only had to make two stops- once at the beginning of our trip to get something to eat and then once to get gas. We arrived in Atlanta at about 10:30pm eastern time.

When we arrived, Taylor immediately jumped into the "Heavenly Bed" (term coined by the Westin hotel) and then tried to make a few phone calls ;-) Staying in a hotel is pretty hard when you have little kids because they don't sleep well because they're too distracted when they're in the same room as you. Taylor was back and forth between our bed and mom's bed, and then we eventually had to stick her in her pack-n-play, but it still took her forever to actually settle down and fall asleep. At least the hotel had free cribs that you could have put in the room, so there was a crib for Bella to sleep in.

The next morning- getting ready to go to the aquarium!

We had tons of fun at the aquarium. The Georgia Aquarium is the world's largest!

showing off for the people

lunch break

Taylor wanted to catch the fish.

There was a big whale slide. I didn't think Taylor would actually go down by herself, but she did it... and then wanted to do it again and again and again.

On the top left is a lion fish. People have dumped their exotic fish into the Georgia coast, and now these lion fish can be found there, and their dorsal fins are like hypodermic needles and are venomous! There was a giant turtle that I kept trying to get a picture of, but the fish on the bottom right kept getting in my way and flashing his teeth at me.

We met up with my aunt and uncle for dinner at this Mexican restaurant. It was really great to get to spend some time with them. Unfortunately, Bella was fussy the whole time. We tried to tell them that normally she is a really happy baby, but it was late, and she we'd had a really long day.

The next morning- catching a short nap before going to lunch.

Bella looks so big sitting up against daddy.

Brazilian steakhouse- if you haven't been to one of these places, they are amazing! Kind of like a buffet except there is a salad bar and then they walk around with tons and tons of meat. You have a little coin- the green side means "YES! bring me food!" and obviously red means "I'm done" or "I'm taking a break so I can try to make some room for more!" :-)

After lunch, we went to the zoo.

There was another little girl there that Taylor kept wanting to walk around and share her excitement with. Isn't it cute how kids can see other little kids and immediately think they have made a new friend?

At the red panda display, we had to look down to see the red panda, and there was a little clear wall, but Taylor wanted me to lift her up so she could look down over it. I lifted her up and then she proceeded (accidentally, I'm sure) to drop her juice cup down into the cage (not a cage but not sure what else to call it). We had to find some workers and let them know. It was quite embarrassing.. haha Jared told them we didn't care about the cup. We just thought they might like to know that it was in there. After we walked off, Jared said, "Actually, you probably would want the cup." Ha! He knows me well. I do my best to keep up with those sippy cups so we don't have to keep buying more... I just didn't feel like waiting around to get it back ;-)

That night, we met up with our friends Bobby and Kristy. They were in Atlanta to celebrate Bobby's birthday, and we all went to a Braves game. I used to go with my family a lot when I was younger. My dad was a big Braves fan, but it's been years since I've been to a game or even watched them on TV really.

It was perfect weather.

The view from our hotel room- we could see Centennial Olympic park and Phillips Arena. If you look to the right side of the top pictures at the orange thing, they were setting up ESPN GameDay for the Alabama vs Virginia Tech game. We didn't realize the game was going to be there when we first planned this trip.

It was kind of fun to be part of the game day environment even though we didn't go to the game. I haven't been to a Bama game in 3 years! :-(

I had been wanting to take Taylor to the park to let her play in the fountains, but we never had time. Right before we checked out of the hotel, we decided to go to the park and let her play for a little bit.

Go ahead. It's okay.

Not so sure about this.

Aaahh! I'm gonna get wet!

She got over it quickly!

A nice lady came up and offered to take a picture of all of us together.

Taylor wasn't happy when we had to leave.

Our hotel was the really tall round one. We were on the 27th floor (which apparently was one of the "lower" floors)! Apparently the hotel had been hit by a tornado that went through downtown Atlanta a couple of years ago.

I saw this ice cream store on the way to Atlanta, and on our way home, we stopped in Fort Payne to get gas. Lo and behold, the gas station was right next to the ice cream store. It was fate!

We had a great time, but Jared and I decided that we needed a vacation from our vacation.. haha Vacations aren't quite as relaxing when you have little kids; it's actually a lot of work, but it'll be some great memories!

Rolling Over

At Bella's 4 month check-up, she was 25" and 14 lbs 5.5oz which is about the 75th percentile for both height and weight. She's gotten so chunky! My doctor's office always gives me a sticker with the height and weight for that visit. I wish I could find Taylor's. They are probably packed up from when our house was on the market before. I would like to compare them. Everyone says Bella is bigger than Taylor, but Taylor got kind of chunky, too, until about 5-6 months, so we'll see if Bella starts to thin down a lot, too.

On September 6th, Bella rolled over for the first time. She's been close for a while, and big sister Taylor would often help her over the rest of the way. So, she's kind of in that stage where she rolls over but starts screaming after being on her stomach for a few minutes, so I roll her back on her back but then she immediately rolls back to her stomach and starts the cycle over again.. haha Jared has Taylor trained to roll Bella back over for us. The problem is she hardly lets her stay on her stomach at all, even when she's not screaming.

Bella will giggle a little, mostly if she's being tickled like when I give her kisses on her cheek and neck. Taylor can really get some good giggles out of her. She'll get up in her face and be talking to her, which to me seems like it would be annoying, so I tell her to get out of her face, but then Bella starts to laugh, so I let her keep doing it. Have I said this before- Bella is such a happy baby! She is so easy to get a smile out of, and it just brightens my day every time I see her smile.

She's starting to hold toys and play with them more, and she even tries to grab at her own feet. I just think it's so cute when babies start grabbing their feet! Her hair has thinned out a whole lot and is very patchy.

I don't look at Bella and think she looks like Taylor until I find pictures like these:

Bella

(Bella has rolls on the top of her thighs like the ones on her arms. I think it's so dang cute... but they can make it hard to change a dirty diaper!)

Taylor


Bella has lighter hair and a lot less of it. I think Taylor has bigger, more almond-shaped eyes, and Bella's are more round. Regardless, both girls have gorgeous eyes. That's what most people comment on about Bella. Her eyelashes are getting longer and even curl at the ends... just beautiful! Most people say her eyes are lighter than Taylor's. I remember that Taylor's had that baby blue/gray tint to them at first though and now are dark brown, so we'll see how Bella's end up. Jared thinks they're not going to be brown- maybe green.

We're starting to progress a little with the solid foods. So far, she's had rice cereal, bananas, applesauce, peaches, and green beans. She's made faces with all of them and gagged a few times with the green beans. Don't you wish you could remember what it was like to taste all of those new foods for the first time?

I love these little milestones!

New Trailer for New Moon

I saw this posted on a friend's blog and had to share:

http://team-twilight.com/20090817/moon-trailer-officially-released/

Less than 3 months away!

Preschool and Dance

Taylor has started going to preschool on Wednesday mornings. We get together with some friends from church, sing songs, read books, have a lesson, do a craft, eat a snack, and play. All Taylor is really interested in is playing. I have a hard time getting her to sit down and sing and pay attention.... really, I'm doing good if I can get her to just stay in the same room as us. I'm hoping that she will eventually learn the routine and will get better.

Her first day was August 12th, and we talked about going to school.


The second week, we talked about things that fly. For the craft, we made airplanes out of candy and gum. As soon as I saw the candy, I knew this wasn't going to go over well. Taylor was only interested in eating the candy. I fought her off long enough-- not without some tears-- to get the airplane made and take a picture of it, and then she destroyed it about half a second later. Then, after snacktime, she found a batman mask and escaped to the bat cave.


This week, we talked about teeth and how important it is to brush them. Taylor is pretty much obsessed with brushing her teeth- she gets her bottom right teeth really clean ;-) My friend Miranda was teaching the lesson, and as soon as she pulled out a toothbrush, she had Taylor's undivided attention. Taylor sat down right in front of her and kept trying to grab the toothbrush out of her hand.. haha Miranda had made little boxes for the kids to put their teeth in when they lose them, and then we added little googly eyes and cheeks to the tooth.

Taylor is also taking a "Creative Movement" dance class. I am so stinkin' excited! I LOVE to dance but never really took lessons growing up (I got my mom to sign me up once but I was the oldest girl in a beginner's class with a bunch of younger girls and was very embarrassed so I quit-- sorry, mom!) Taylor loves to dance, too, so I was hoping that she would really like going to a dance class. So far, she seems to be having fun.

August 20th-- getting ready for the first day!! I made the tutu with help (lots and lots and lots of help) from Miranda. I still may end up trimming some length off of the tutu to make it shorter.

Admiring herself in the mirror.. haha-- can you blame her?? ;-)

Megan is one of Miranda's daughters. She is about six months older than Taylor, and aside from her cousins, she is Taylor's BFF. They are pretty obsessed with each other and talk about each other all the time.


walking into class

We don't get to go in the rooms and watch them dance (which is understandable because it would be distracting) so I took one more picture before they got started-- and then had to quickly run away because Taylor started running towards me.

Not sure what they learned in class, but Taylor kept doing this afterwards.

We gotta start making some more money though because dance classes can be expensive, especially as they get older and start taking more... and then there's soccer and gymnastics and piano lessons and..... Am I going to be one of those mothers who lives vicariously through her child??