"Official" Potty Training

Since my mom is here and it's easier to try and potty train Daniel when I have an extra set of hands, we're working on potty training this week -- at least the days he's at home. We put him in big-boy undies with the hopes that he would be bothered by the wetness. He did tell me immediately after going each time today but didn't even bother trying to get to the potty. He does recognize when it has happened, though, which I guess is good. I'm also fortunate that Mom's a nurse and things like dirty undies don't bother her at all. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

Kyra slept 8.5 hours last night (6pm - 2:30am) which was great. The last three nights, I've let her cry for awhile and then fed her. She was wide awake, I put her in her crib and she 'talked' for awhile before drifting back to sleep on her own. This is good. My debate now is to maybe allow one late nap around 4pm and put her to bed later -- maybe I'd get 8-10 hours that ended when it was actually time to wake up... We'll see.

She's so scooching all over... she may as well be crawling. She uses her foot to push her butt up and move her whole body forward. Because her foot goes out to the side when she pushes, she does a lot of circling.... but she does compensate when she's trying to reach for something. It's great to watch!

In the grocery store today, a woman stopped us and said Kyra was the most beautiful baby she had ever seen. It was nice of her to say so -- of course, we agree!

A long time

Yes, it's been a long time since I posted... sorry, I've been meaning to do so but keep getting sidetracked. My mom's in town which is a great help especially since the sleeping hasn't continued as well as I hoped. We have progress but not consistency... especially since we've got both kids getting up in the middle of the night. Maybe because I'm letting Kyra cry more. Anyway, lots of tired still but optimism abounds.

This weekend Kyra had her first swimming lesson and did wonderfully. She is a splasher... Daniel loved swimming too but was never a splasher. She floated on her back and played all the games happily. Daniel had his first soccer class, too. As it is about the same time as Kyra's swimming, I took Kyra swimming and Matt took Daniel to soccer. Evidently it took him a bit of time to agree that he wanted to play but did well and had fun once he got into it. I had a similar experience with him at swimming last week... he loves swimming but at the beginning wanted to do what HE wanted to do, not what the teacher wanted the group to do. He's exerting his independence and desire to CHOOSE what he wants. As the teacher said, "In this class, we tell, we don't ask. If you ask a 2 year old if he wants to do something, you will inevitably get a 'No' answer. So we tell them what we want them to do." Probably a lesson for all aspects of living with a 2 year old.

I'll post some pictures soon.

Alleluia

Last night, our nanny put Kyra to bed because I was at a networking event. Kyra slept...wait for it.... 12 hours! I got up at 4am to check on her and she was rolling around making noises but kept sleeping until 7am. Something noteworthy that I mentioned when we were in Florida that we'll have to test out. The two nights that Matt and I went out and Matt's mom put Kyra to sleep, she slept longer than any other nights (5-6 hours). So I see a pattern that when someone else (not me) puts her to sleep she does better. Three things are apparent: 1) someone else (not me); 2) a bottle instead of me; and 3) Kyra crying for some time before going to bed... although last night she went to sleep peacefully after crying for some time earlier in the evening. Tonight we're going to a wine tasting and our nanny will be putting her to bed again... we'll see if we get the same result. The other kicker is the experiment I mentioned in an earlier post. On Sunday night after having Kyra wake every three hours for days, I decided to quit the pacifier cold turkey. We had two nights of two hours of crying but she figured out her fingers in her mouth. So the other possibility is that she's over the pacifier and fine to sleep all night. Or possibly this was a fluke with no rhyme or reason to it. As you can tell, I've analyzed this to death... but I'm very optimistic that we've determined the elements that may hold the key to sleep for everyone! Alleluia!

5 months old

Kyra is 5 months old today. I took a bunch of pictures yesterday that all turned out soooo cute so it was tough to pick which ones to post -- plus I think I'm already close to maxing out my Flickr amount for the month -- so you may all get an invite to view the pictures on Shutterfly or the like. She loves to make 'raspberries' with her mouth and makes all kinds of funny noises. Daniel never did master raspberries so it's funny. She also is loving her toes and bathtime. We won't discuss sleep until a little experiment I am conducting has finished.

A friend also pointed out that Daniel is on the short end of pictures on this site. I have intentionally tried to keep it even (in case either of them ever checked later in life) but right now, Daniel doesn't want to participate in pictures... ask anyone from our Florida trip... I could only get the back of his head most of the time! In this case, Kyra is spotlighted because it's her birthday... sort of.

Daniel is back to considering the potty. On Saturday, we started potty training one of his stuffed animals. Daniel seems to like this concept and on Sunday morning immediately wanted to start training Camille and did both #1 and #2 in the potty. Today we spent much of the day (or so it seemed) on the potty with our picnic of water, cheerios, raisins, and books. We got two pees in the potty and two poops immediately following time on the potty -- I'm not sure how that factors in... Anyway, seemed positive. I'm sure you're all soooo thrilled to read about Daniel's BMs. :)

My mom comes next Tuesday. It will be an incredible help to have her here, especially since our nanny will be out of town for part of that time.

Anyway, off to bed before one of them wakes up. Daniel was especially tough to put to bed tonight. Maybe because a friend of Matt's was visiting. Maybe because we had smores for dessert. Regardless, I finally negotiated with him to stay in bed until I finished cleaning up the kitchen and promised to come back and sing another song then. Needless to say, he was asleep when I returned.

Vacation Adventures

We returned from our Florida trip safe and sound. The kids, again, were very good on the plane. Kyra did have a blowout on the flight and after changing her, I wanted to be sure the airline blanket I used to hold her didn't end up back up in the overhead bin (something you've never really thought of when using airline blankets, huh?) so I asked her where to put it. She visibly cowered from the blanket and as she brought forth the trash bag for me to put it in, Kyra proceeded to spit up with a big SPLAT on the floor in the rear of the plane. She was, again, visibly appalled. I dropped the blanket and wiped up the spit and then deposited it into the trash bag she was holding. She then poured either water or club soda on the ground where the spit up had been -- probably thinking that now I'd used the poopy blanket to wipe up the spit... For some reason, I was really, really amused by all this... I think there's a point where so many 'gross' things happen that it just becomes funny -- especially when someone else is so obviously grossed out. Motherhood makes you immune to these things I guess.

Disney was fun. Sea World less so -- probably because it was sweltering hot. Daniel wasn't as into it as I thought he would be. I imagine years of taking the kids to great, educational places and having to drag them through... The kids loved the pool at Grandma and Grandpa's. Kyra went swimming for the first time. Here's a picture I call "Princess Kyra" as she appears to be on a throne surrounded by her subjects. She starts swimming lessons in a couple of weeks so she's now got a leg up on all her classmates! Also a picture of Daniel on Tonka, his pony at Fort Wilderness. I've uploaded a bunch more photos from the trip to Flickr. Again, if you have problems seeing them, let me know and I will add you as a "Friend & Family".