Saturday, December 17, 2011
Merry Christmas!
We send our love to all of our family and friends during this holiday season. Merry Christmas, everyone!
Thursday, December 15, 2011
"I Pooped!"
After about a year of attempted potty training, Taelyn had her first success on the toilet. Last year, she showed signs that she was ready, but we only had a training seat that went on top of our regular toilet. Taelyn would sit on it for a couple of minutes after she told us that she needed to go "poo poo," but then she would hop off the toilet and go in her diaper a few minutes later. This went on for several months. Then we decided to get her a little potty to sit on; that motivated her to play pretend potty for a little while, but shortly she lost interest in the potty altogether and it seemed as if potty training was done for a while. She even started to scream any time we mentioned going to the potty.
This morning, however, was full of signs that we might be able to attempt the deed again. I was cleaning o
ut one of our closets and found the original training seat that goes on top of the toilet. It has the Disney princesses on it, and Taelyn has just recently started watching Beauty and Beast. So I showed her Belle on the seat. She immediately said she wanted to sit on it and go potty. We ran over to the toilet, set the seat up, and began the waiting process. We read books, drank glasses of water, snuggled up in her blankie, encouraged Kaelia to sit on the little potty, and tried just about anything to get Taelyn to sit on the toilet for a long as possible. Surprisingly, she made it 35 minutes - still no success but the longevity was promising.
About ten minutes after this attempt, I told Taelyn that I needed to go potty before my run, and she said that she wanted to do it too. She still wanted to use the toilet instead of the little potty, so we went in to different bathrooms and said we would race each other to see who could go potty first. To my surprise, Taelyn ran in to my bathroom one minute la
ter screaming, "I did it mommy. I went poo poo!" I wasn't convinced that this was true; I though that maybe she was just excited about the race we were having. But when I went in to her bathr0om, there it was! We hugged and screamed and jumped up and down for a while and then ran to the kitchen to give Taelyn some M&M's as her promised potty reward.
I am so proud of Taelyn! What is surprising is that kids usually go #1 on the potty for a while, and #2 can be a challenge, but Taelyn jumped right ahead to #2. I guess she has known what to do for quite some time, but it just took her a while to decide that she was ready. Now we'll see if it will continue.
This morning, however, was full of signs that we might be able to attempt the deed again. I was cleaning o
ut one of our closets and found the original training seat that goes on top of the toilet. It has the Disney princesses on it, and Taelyn has just recently started watching Beauty and Beast. So I showed her Belle on the seat. She immediately said she wanted to sit on it and go potty. We ran over to the toilet, set the seat up, and began the waiting process. We read books, drank glasses of water, snuggled up in her blankie, encouraged Kaelia to sit on the little potty, and tried just about anything to get Taelyn to sit on the toilet for a long as possible. Surprisingly, she made it 35 minutes - still no success but the longevity was promising.About ten minutes after this attempt, I told Taelyn that I needed to go potty before my run, and she said that she wanted to do it too. She still wanted to use the toilet instead of the little potty, so we went in to different bathrooms and said we would race each other to see who could go potty first. To my surprise, Taelyn ran in to my bathroom one minute la
ter screaming, "I did it mommy. I went poo poo!" I wasn't convinced that this was true; I though that maybe she was just excited about the race we were having. But when I went in to her bathr0om, there it was! We hugged and screamed and jumped up and down for a while and then ran to the kitchen to give Taelyn some M&M's as her promised potty reward.I am so proud of Taelyn! What is surprising is that kids usually go #1 on the potty for a while, and #2 can be a challenge, but Taelyn jumped right ahead to #2. I guess she has known what to do for quite some time, but it just took her a while to decide that she was ready. Now we'll see if it will continue.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Kaelia - 15-18 Months
Kaelia has made leaps and bounds over the last three months literally and figuratively. At 18 months, she is 22.5 lbs., 31 inches tall, and has head circumference of 18.5 inches. She also gained one extra tooth today - the only one she's had since she was 14 months old.
It is amazing how much language Kaelia has developed during the last few months. She has a very high vocabulary for her age (she says well over 40 words) and is now speaking four word sentences. Not only does she understand the names of objects around her, but she can hold an actual
conversation about them. She is also quite inquisitive. Some of her favorite questions to ask are: What is that? Oh no what happened? What are you doing? What's wrong Taelyn? Where did Taelyn go? etc. As you can see, Taelyn is the topic of many of her conversations; she absolutely loves her big sister.
Kaelia has quite a few interests as well. Her most favorite activity is playing with her tea set. She loves to place different toys around a doll-sized wooden table and pour everyone some tea. The best part, however, is that she pulls up her own chair to set at the tiny table too. Then once everyone has had some tea, she will let out a big burp to show that she drank too much. Sometimes she can't even get the burp out because she's laughing too hard in anticipation for the burp. Besides tea time and burping, Kaelia also loves playing with puzzles, she has a bit of a shoe fetish, and she is obsessed with baby dolls and teddy bears (or "tebby bay-ah" as she calls it). She goes crazy whenever she sees either of these types of toys - that makes a trip to Toys R Us quite loud with all of her enthusiastic screams.
Another fun activity that Kaelia enjoys is sitting inside her tent and waiting for Hopper (from A Bug's Life) to come a try to get us. She first tells me to "come in to the tent, mama" and then she usually says, "Shhh... Hopper's coming." Eventually, either Taelyn or Justin will attack the tent, pretending to be Hopper, and Kaelia jumps out to try to "get Hopper" back by sitting on him or tickling him. Sometimes when Kaelia gets to "Hopper" she forgets that he is the enemy and will give him a hug or kiss.
Kaelia also LOVES playing with Taelyn. This includes all of the activities mentioned so far in addition to wrestling, swimming in the pool, playing in the sand box, playing at the playground, and just about anything else that the two of them can do together. They are pretty good at sharing and getting along, although the occasional fight does happen.
We have witnessed Kaelia's personality take new shape over the last few months as she gets excited when she is happy and throws tantrums when she is mad. She often screams, jumps, and runs around when she is happy. And she now throws herself on the ground, face screaming in to the floor when she doesn't get her way. Each moment is precious in its own way because she is now more and more an individual than she ever was before.
It is amazing how much language Kaelia has developed during the last few months. She has a very high vocabulary for her age (she says well over 40 words) and is now speaking four word sentences. Not only does she understand the names of objects around her, but she can hold an actual
conversation about them. She is also quite inquisitive. Some of her favorite questions to ask are: What is that? Oh no what happened? What are you doing? What's wrong Taelyn? Where did Taelyn go? etc. As you can see, Taelyn is the topic of many of her conversations; she absolutely loves her big sister.Kaelia has quite a few interests as well. Her most favorite activity is playing with her tea set. She loves to place different toys around a doll-sized wooden table and pour everyone some tea. The best part, however, is that she pulls up her own chair to set at the tiny table too. Then once everyone has had some tea, she will let out a big burp to show that she drank too much. Sometimes she can't even get the burp out because she's laughing too hard in anticipation for the burp. Besides tea time and burping, Kaelia also loves playing with puzzles, she has a bit of a shoe fetish, and she is obsessed with baby dolls and teddy bears (or "tebby bay-ah" as she calls it). She goes crazy whenever she sees either of these types of toys - that makes a trip to Toys R Us quite loud with all of her enthusiastic screams.
Another fun activity that Kaelia enjoys is sitting inside her tent and waiting for Hopper (from A Bug's Life) to come a try to get us. She first tells me to "come in to the tent, mama" and then she usually says, "Shhh... Hopper's coming." Eventually, either Taelyn or Justin will attack the tent, pretending to be Hopper, and Kaelia jumps out to try to "get Hopper" back by sitting on him or tickling him. Sometimes when Kaelia gets to "Hopper" she forgets that he is the enemy and will give him a hug or kiss.
Kaelia also LOVES playing with Taelyn. This includes all of the activities mentioned so far in addition to wrestling, swimming in the pool, playing in the sand box, playing at the playground, and just about anything else that the two of them can do together. They are pretty good at sharing and getting along, although the occasional fight does happen.
We have witnessed Kaelia's personality take new shape over the last few months as she gets excited when she is happy and throws tantrums when she is mad. She often screams, jumps, and runs around when she is happy. And she now throws herself on the ground, face screaming in to the floor when she doesn't get her way. Each moment is precious in its own way because she is now more and more an individual than she ever was before.
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| Free digital scrapbook created with Smilebox |
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Happy Feet 2 in 3-D
Taelyn had a very special day today. Her good buddies Jill and Faze (two of our good friends here that are in their 30's) picked her up and took her to the movies to see Happy Feet 2 in 3-D. The best part, however, was that she wore her penguin costume from Halloween to the show! At the show, Jill and Faze got Taelyn her own popcorn, candy, and slushy to enjoy during the movie to help her feel even more like "queen for a day."
When Taelyn came home, she told us very extensive stories about her trip out and the things that she saw (including something about rain and a dragonfly that we think were a part of the 3-D portion of the movie). We have a feeling that she will be telling us about this day for quite some time.
When Taelyn came home, she told us very extensive stories about her trip out and the things that she saw (including something about rain and a dragonfly that we think were a part of the 3-D portion of the movie). We have a feeling that she will be telling us about this day for quite some time.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Christmas Has Begun
It is officially the Christmas season in our house now. We spent some time as a family this weekend putting up the Christmas tree and decorating it, watching Christmas movies, and baking cookies. And the girls have loved every second of it so far!We started our countdown to Christmas with a velcro hanging of a Christmas tree in which we take a little velcro toy out of a pocket each day to add to the tree. Taelyn enjoys finding the number of the date and adding th
at toy to the tree. Kaelia is obsessed with the teddy bear toy in pocket #16. She screams for the teddy bear each day, takes
it out of the pocket, gives it lots of kisses, and then puts it back in, anxiously waiting for December 16th.The morning after we put up the tree, Taelyn woke up and went straight to the living room instead of getting me or Justin out of bed. Eventually she came in to our room, brought an ornament to me and said, "momma, I put this on the Christmas tree!" I then followed her to the living room and found a group of ornaments all chunked together on one limb at the very bottom of the tree where Taelyn had been decorating.
Friday Night Fun
Our middle school got together this past Friday for a little holiday party at a restaurant with several outdoor venues on one property. We had a nice time socializing, but the highlight was after the party. We took the girls over to playground area with some friends and hung out while all the kids played. Then our girls crashed the party next door as we were headed back to our car. There was quite a bit of dancing at this party, and the girls couldn't get enough of it. They ran to the middle of the dance floor and both started busting some moves.
Here are some videos to recap the night. The first one is of the girls bouncing in the bouncy castle at the playground, the second is of the girls sliding down the slide, and the last is of the dancing extravaganza. Enjoy!
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Happy Halloween!
The girls had a great time trick-or-treating this year, and they had some friends join them for the occasion too: Rafi and Arianna.
The night before, we had the girls open Halloween presents to get them into the Halloween spirit. They got some great goodies from both sets of grandparents and a Fancy Nancy sticker book from us. The presents were the perfect start to the excitement that was to come.
On the night of trick-or-treating, Taelyn came dressed as a penguin and sported her infamous waddle throughout the night. Kaelia was a butterfly because "bu-bye" is one of her favorite things to point out these days. In terms to getting candy, Taelyn was a pro after discovering the magic of trick-or-treating last year while Kaelia was completely new to the whole fiasco. Taelyn did a great job at saying "trick-or-treat" and then "thank you" once she got some candy. Kaelia, however, froze up a bit whenever it was time to say something. Despite all of her practice saying "tica tee" in the car, she did not manage to say it at all during the actual event. She did enjoy all of the other kids and decorations, though. In fact, well in to the night we realized that she took a plastic spider from one house to play with. We don't really know where she got it from, so it became a new toy for the play room.
By the end of the night, both girls were thrilled to come home and empty out their new stashes of candy - which did not last long before they ate everything!
The night before, we had the girls open Halloween presents to get them into the Halloween spirit. They got some great goodies from both sets of grandparents and a Fancy Nancy sticker book from us. The presents were the perfect start to the excitement that was to come.
On the night of trick-or-treating, Taelyn came dressed as a penguin and sported her infamous waddle throughout the night. Kaelia was a butterfly because "bu-bye" is one of her favorite things to point out these days. In terms to getting candy, Taelyn was a pro after discovering the magic of trick-or-treating last year while Kaelia was completely new to the whole fiasco. Taelyn did a great job at saying "trick-or-treat" and then "thank you" once she got some candy. Kaelia, however, froze up a bit whenever it was time to say something. Despite all of her practice saying "tica tee" in the car, she did not manage to say it at all during the actual event. She did enjoy all of the other kids and decorations, though. In fact, well in to the night we realized that she took a plastic spider from one house to play with. We don't really know where she got it from, so it became a new toy for the play room.
By the end of the night, both girls were thrilled to come home and empty out their new stashes of candy - which did not last long before they ate everything!
Happy Halloween everyone!
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