Hear Ye, Hear Ye, I Have to Pee Pee

We got a little book about a princess potty training, and I laughed when we got to this line. But we continue to move forward in potty training. The first few days to a week I was getting ready to pull my hair out. She didn't leave the house for 5 days and didn't wear pants for 4. We had people coming over so we figured we should probably put something over her underpants :). Then we traveled back to my parents home for a few days while Aaron went to a conference. We ended up using pull-ups most of the time there. But I think cause she was in underpants for so many days, she didn't begin to depend on the pull-ups. So she's continued to make progress. Probably 70% of the time she now tells us when she has to go, and the other 30% I try to either ask her or put her on the potty. She went to church nursery this morning (with pull-ups on) and told the nursery worker she had to go, but I think wanted me to take her and so she held it until I got there. Then the next hour she told a different worker who took her and she went in the potty! So enough about the potty, all this to say we're making progress but will potentially need a "poopy intervention" as that's NOT happening on the potty at all.

Last night we hung out with some dear friends in town. The weather was awesome and perfect for a little time outside. They have a great little hill in their backyard so we came to do a little sledding. My mom got this little snowsuit at a garage sale, and this is the first time we've put in on Liv. I laughed so hard at how fluffy it is around the middle. Poor thing. You'll notice on Liv an overall lack of enthusiasm. Not super thrilled with hanging out in the snow or sledding (this was her first time sledding). She's not being raised by a very "outdoorsy" mom...

Here's the girls all bundled up.

Again, this is about as excited as she got. Hopefully next year she'll enjoy it more.

AND I got a new camera for Christmas. This was my first chance to try it out - and by that I mean turn it on to the automatic setting and let it do the work while I just tried to get a few shots of moving targets :). I love how it can do the work for you though, and I'm looking forward to experimenting more.

A Few Christmas Pics

Now I know others may not think your kids are as funny as you do, but I just got a kick out of this when I saw the tree. Liv would pick up an ornament and move it to another part of the tree. This is the side of the tree that you can't see when you walk in the room, and I discovered a branch (bottom right) that had 6 ornaments on it surrounded by a huge bare spot. Always interesting to see what they'll do.


Here's Aaron and I with Liv on the Sunday before Christmas.

I love this picture of Grandma with Cai and Liv. It was so fun to watch them play together. Cai kept chasing Livie around and even gave her a few big hugs. Liv began to preempt his next move and run to take the toy he was after before he could get to it - ah, it's going to be fun as they get older... :)

Not the best picture of the 2 of them - keep in mind we're trying to photograph a 1 year old and 2 year old...

Our First Adventure of the New Year:

Operation No More Diapers! We got home from our conference with the students at about 5 on the first. Feeling tired from Christmas and the conference I was tempted to wait another day or 2, but Aaron and I knew we only had a few uniterrupted days available before life would gear up again. So on Saturday morning (the 2nd) we said no more diapers, rolled up all the rugs (we have laminate in the whole middle of our house), put big girl panties on Liv, and decided not to look back. We went through about 5 pairs of panties that morning. But she did great! She'd go on the potty and then next have an accident. But we're getting there. Yesterday morning was another shaky start, but at the end of the day she even initiated going to the potty a few times which is a good sign (she's also cried going to the potty a few times...). So overall I feel like we're making progress. I'm so proud of her. However, she will not go #2 in the potty. Any advice in this area would be appreciated. I currently have a pretty, wrapped present sitting on the counter as incentive for that first event on the potty.

In other news we had a great Christmas. It was fun to see the fam and watch Liv really get into the action this year. What a blessing to have her and to be able to be with our wonderful families. We always head out the 27th to go to Minneapolis for our Christmas conference with the students. We had an all-time high attendance this year with 1600+ students there. It was awesome to see their passion to honor and serve the Lord. And I always enjoy the chance to spend time with them. Hope you had a great Christmas as well and Happy New Year!