No more diapers: still perfecting...

We are far from being perfect at this. In fact, Presley had two accidents before bedtime and I'm afraid she's making herself sick cause she hasn't pooped for a long long time. And Avery didn't quite make it to the toilet when she pooped. I also continue to change one or two sets of sheets every morning.

On a positive note, I THINK Presley has caught on to the fact that you either pee in the toilet, or you hold it (in tonight's case, until you explode - twice). Avery continues to tell me when she has to go all the time! And most importantly, they look so darn cute in their undies, especially when they're practicing somersaults.

No more diapers: day 2

Please send your good thoughts Presley's way - day 2 wasn't much different from yesterday, except that she did poop in the toilet. However, after 2 1/2 days of not, I was very much anticipating it, so I don't know if I can give her credit for it.

But, I do think Avery's on her way...we only had to change her undies once today!

No more diapers: day 1

Avery and Presley threw away the remaining diapers this morning and had fun looking at their new undies. Presley wanted to put them on and show them off right away. Avery was very hesitant and anxious and kept telling me "no" when I told her she was a "big girl now and that means she gets to wear big girl undies". I just kept it up though, and she finally put them on.

Then the fun began, ha ha. The show-off proved to be just that, a show-off. Presley struggled all day with making it to the toilet BEFORE she went. "Mommy, pee pee" is what she said multiple times as she was going on the floor, the chair, right next to the toilet, etc. She did sit on the toilet about 50 times (all false alarms of course) and then insisted on putting her undies on herself 50 times. She did tinkle a little bit one time towards the end of the day. Avery on the other hand, after a few accidents, told me several times she needed to go and then did! The memorable occurrence of the day: Avery told me she wanted to go, so we went in to the bathroom with Presley following behind. As Avery was taking off her undies, Presley started going on the floor, so I quickly put her on the toilet, only to have Avery make a puddle in the process. Yes, I would definitely say it's trickier training two :)

Avery went to the bathroom before I put her down for her nap. I woke her up about a little over an hour later and she was dry. However, as I type this she's upstairs dead asleep for the night in wet undies and pajamas and sheets. I checked on her after I put her down and she was already wet and already asleep. I even tried pretty well to wake her up, but she wouldn't budge. What do I do? AHHHHHHH!

Presley did exactly what I thought she would do today with her nap....she didn't take one. After trying to get her to go down for an hour, I finally gave up. So she was asleep the minute she closed her eyes tonight and I don't think there is any way she's waking up to go sit on the toilet. Crap.

I think the lady that came up with the night-time-training-at-the-same-time-idea is a crazy woman! Wait a second, no I'm the crazy woman for thinking it could work!

I need to remember it's only day 1.

How to make kids happy

Have a movie night with friends...

and give them candy.

My trick-or-treaters

Caleb (Buzz Lightyear) and his neighborhood buddies.

Avery and Presley (Sunshine Bear and Rainbow Bear) and the rest of the 2 years olds, and Jack.

Definitely the warmest Halloween night I've ever known- it was 78 degrees!

Presley, my little dress-up queen, loved her costume.

I thought Avery would have her costume off after 5 minutes - she surprised us!

What a hit! This costume was worth ALL the ebay hassle!



"View from above" and the "examination of goods."


We couldn't keep up with Buzz Lightyear as he zoomed from house to house with his friends. It was quite comical more than once, when his friend Nathan in the fire truck costume fell down and couldn't get up without help! We decided we better put the girls in the stroller so we wouldn't be to far behind Caleb. It was a pleasant surprise to see them both get into the whole idea of walking up to strangers for candy. Avery would climb back in the stroller and after looking in her bag, she'd exclaim, "candy!" I let them hold their own little bags of M&M's and eat them ALL when we got home. They were so excited, they forgot about the rest of their candy. Only something a two-year-old would do.

Birthday girls!

Two years old! "Bunny ears" and "rock on" - they each preferred showing their two fingers differently. In fact, being "different" has been a running theme lately for them. They have become very distinct, unique little personalities. And believe me, they each have their own two-year-old behaviors that we love and behaviors that we DO NOT LOVE. But, maybe more about that on a future blog.

Presley loved her birthday crown and earrings and has really not taken it off since her birthday. Avery wore her crown for a minute or two and then promptly wanted it "off" and hasn't asked about it since. I also got them some dress-up shoes. Presley wanted to walk around in them and Avery tried to run in them.

Another thing that has been so entertaining the last couple months is to watch them interact with each other. They can carry on a conversation with one another for quite a long time. I can usually catch one or two things they are saying, but most of it is two-year-old jargon that only they can understand. Today Avery ate an afternoon snack without Presley because she woke up earlier from her nap. I got Avery down from her chair after eating and told her to go play. She took off into the other room but then after a few steps she turned around and said "Presley awake?" At two years old they are definitely each other's world. I hope that lasts a while.

We finally made it to the beach!

Every Saturday for the last month I have been checking the forecast for the coast, and every Saturday looked like rain - a good chance of it. Well, I finally made up my mind (for all of us) that even if it looked like rain, we would brave our chances. I really wanted my kids to experience the beach, and we'd been telling Caleb for so long that we would go, I think he stopped believing us a while ago.
So, it did prove to be far from a "perfect weather" day at the beach. It was windy and in the 70's and there was definitely some chattering of teeth. However, it didn't start pouring rain until AFTER we were under a little gazebo thing changing our wet clothes.

Two out of three enjoyed the water. Avery was unsure of it coming at her and covering her toes. Sand activities proved to be okay, but not for long. She spent most her time in the chair or on the towel.

Presley loved the water and hung out with dad and Caleb most of the time.

And Caleb just loved it all - birds, seashells, sand, waves...everything.

Some memorable moments I didn't get to document: dad squirting the sand off of a very naked Caleb (one of the advantages of going to the beach at the end of September on a rainy day - not very many people around!) and eating the picnic lunch I packed at a table in a McDonalds on the way home, because it was pouring rain outside.