When Mommy gets sick...

 We stay in our pajamas all day, and remove all the toys from the toy chest.

 We take out every game, dvd, and book from the entertainment center.

We dump an entire box of cereal onto the counter.

Minus the bowl I poured her, that ended up on the floor.

 

Then, after mommy just cleaned up the cereal, we dump an entire bag of chex mix on the counter (and get into mom's craft supplies).

I guess I could have titled this post, What Happens on a Typical Day but What I Didn't Have the Energy to Keep up With.

Does anybody want to come clean my house?

Motherhood

I'm going to make it a goal of mine to get in front of the camera more often this year. MOST of the pictures I take are of Dustin and Kate, and I'm nowhere to be found!  I think it's a really important thing to have pictures with your kids instead of just your kids.

I recently bought a remote trigger for my camera.  It's supposed to work with the studio lights my brother bought me, but it doesn't :(.  It does work great as a wireless shutter though.  I had my camera on a tripod, Kate and I sat down on the couch, and I set out to take pictures of whatever happened in those next five minutes.

She was really sweet at first, but quickly decided she didn't want to take pictures and wanted a drink of water instead. Lately Kate loves drinking out of regular cups, but I didn't want her to get soaked (which is usually the result) so I gave her a sippy cup. Well, she FREAKED out about that! She did not want a lid on her cup. She kept yelling "Open! Open!" I wish I included more of her tantrum pictures in this collage. They're pretty funny. But there is one of her crying, and I'm holding her, it's probably my favorite of them all! 

I LOVE this girl!

Valentines Day

Valentines kind of snuck up on us this year. It was more of a thrown-together-at-the-last-minute sort of thing.

Kate made Valentines for Daddy.

 She loved putting on the stickers.

 So much that she kept taking them off to reapply them.  So in the end, the valentines ended up with shredded pieces of sticker all over them.

 I made a heart shaped brownie.

Dustin bought me these.

The first season of The Big Bang Theory, which is one of my favorite shows, and Donkey Kong Country returns for Wii.  If you were a fan of the original Donkey Kong Country as a kid, you will love this game.  It's classic 2D animation with hard levels.  There are some levels that I know took us at least 50 lives to beat.  It's really fun.  Dustin and I have been playing it every night.  He's better at it than I am.

Also, he made me this Valentine.

If you know what this is, you're awesome. 

We got Kate a little zhu zhu puppy, and she thinks it's hilarious. 

We ordered Little Caesars that night and babysat our niece and nephew.  Don't worry, Dustin and I had already gone on our Valentines Date the Friday before.  Serranos....mmm.

So you can see, Dustin definitely won this Valentines Day :).  I'll make up for it and get him something good for our anniversary. 

Potty Training

Yesterday was my first attempt at potty training Kate. I had purchased "Potty Training in Less Than a Day" off amazon. I had read it, and I knew my stuff. I had all the supplies, a doll that wets, plenty of snacks and candy for positive reinforcement, and yummy drinks. Kate had passed all the readiness tests and we were good to go.

Or so I thought.

Successful pottys: 3 Accidents: 11

This day was FRUSTRATING!  She was being so stubborn.  She didn't want to obey at all, and she was so grumpy.  She's been sick for the past few days, and even though she's feeling better I should've postponed training.  But I still thought she could handle it!  She did learn HOW to go potty though.  So at least she did learn something.  She can pull up and down her panties, sit on the potty, go (if I've timed it right), wipe, empty her potty bowl into the toilet, flush, and return her bowl to her potty.  She's awesome at that.  What I think her problem is bladder control.  I don't think she recognizes the sensation of "having to pee" yet, because she would just go anywhere without even the slightest attempt to find the potty.  She does know accidents are bad (we had 11!) and she always says, "Uh oh" and changes her panties.   So she KNOWS accidents are bad, she KNOWS how to potty, but it's just not clicking. 

So to avoid another incredibly stressful day like yesterday (she's already in a grumpy mood anyway), I've decided to go with a more gradual potty training approach.  I just don't want her to have a bad experience with potty training and not want to do it at all.  So I've put her back in diapers for the time being, and I'll take her potty every hour or so or when I think she needs to.  Then in a couple weeks, I'll try a day of panties again.  Hopefully this works. 

My main goal is to have her completely trained by the time her little brother gets here.  So I have 5 months, and I'm confident that she'll be trained way before then.  She's a very independent little girl, so I know that as soon as it "clicks" she'll be good to go. 

So, yes, I do recommend that book.  And it will work, you just have to make sure your child is completely ready and in a good mood.  Kate was neither, and I just tried it too soon.

Its a ...

After a few months of dreaming of sisters in matching dresses, we found out this morning that Kate is going to have a little...

BROTHER!

Yep!  No doubt about it!

We are completely shocked and totally excited!  The doctor said everything looks good, and he's healthy!  I can't wait to meet my little guy!

Happy Valentines Day!

(in other words, what bribery with candy will make my daughter do!)

Mealtime

This is what my floor looks like after almost EVERY meal.  When Kate is done with her food, she just throws it on the ground, or dumps it on the table, or plays with it.  She chooses whichever way makes the biggest mess.  This morning I had finally had it.  Don't get me wrong, she gets in trouble every time, but it's just not sticking!  I KNOW she can follow directions, I know she can obey, but she just won't listen about throwing her food on the ground. So this morning, I made her clean it up herself.

She was NOT happy about it.

This little girl tried everything to get out of it.  She hugged me, and kissed me, and said "Please!" over and over again.  But I remained firm.  After about on hour of struggle (yeah, I think the terrible two's have hit), I firmly guided her hands in cleaning up the mess.  I think we may have made a break through.

Hopefully.

maybe....

....we'll see what happens at lunchtime.