Chandler's first tooth

Look Close, look very close.  Do you see it???

Chandler's first tooth came in on February 20th at 6 months and 4 days old.  It was her bottom left one and eight days later, her right one popped through as well!  My little infant (or giant baby) has 2 teeth!!

6 Months Old!

OK...seriously?!?

I think I mentioned on the last post that Chandler is the perfect photo shoot baby.

These are the 4 shots I took of her in her crib and I cannot choose just one!

So yummy-licious!!

And her cheeks are still fabulous and chunky as ever!

At 6 months of age,

Chandler can roll over both ways

She's found her feet

And she has started really babbling:  da-da-da, bye-bye-bye, and grrrrrrrr

Such precious little baby sounds!

She has definite preferences in baby food (not a fan of green).

She is not a good sleeper (day or night).  She was sleeping through the night until she got RSV and I think she got used to my company at night.  =)

All in all, though, she is a really happy baby and it is so fun having her in our little family!



Valentine's 2011

No words neccessary...can't you just feel the love? 

(They were actually dressed alike, but one of them wouldn't cooperate with a sibling pic=))

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Snow Angel

Brooklyn + Snow =

A perfect little angel!!

Last year, Brooklyn would cry whenever we made her wear a hat or gloves and HATED the snow.

Needless to say, I was a slightly dreading trying it again this year, but she proved me wrong and was so much fun!!

Brooklyn also has major issues with being "sticky."  In her world, sticky means wet.  For example, when we brush her teeth at night, occasionally a drop of water will get on her pj's and make her "sticky."  We have to completely change her pajamas to get her to be able to calm down enough to go to sleep.  So...I wasn't sure if the snow might make her "sticky."  Apparently not, though!  She LOVED it!

We made snow angels and snowballs, ate snow, did front rolls, but her favorite part of all was saying,

"On your march....eee-set....go!" and running through the snow and getting tackled!  Daddy wasn't home to play rough, so somebody had to do it!

I dressed her the best I could, thinking she would only make it about 15 minutes, but we ended up playing about 45 minutes before I made her come inside to eat lunch.  Turns out, B makes for a great snow date!  The only thing that would have made it any better was if we could have made a snow man, but the snow was just too powdery...hopefully next time!

Hard to believe that just a week ago we were doing this!



Superbowl XLV

Eddie and I hosted a Superbowl Party at our house and had SO MUCH FUN thanks to our guests!! 

They were so fun, laid-back and RIDICULOUSLY helpful!!  They brought food and drinks; watched, entertained and fed our children; AND cleaned up the toys and food before they left.  I mean, seriously????  Here are a couple of pictures of our fabulous guests:

(Still need to master the settings on my camera to adjust for lighting!)

and the little "party people"

Banished to the swing!

(Chandler has had RSV so we had to keep her isolated from the other children)

And, quite possibly my favorite part of the day...

THE HALF-TIME SHOW!

I don't think anyone loved it as much as Ava, Macy and Brooklyn, though!

Notice, at the end of the show, everyone started clapping for the show, but Brooklyn (who LOVES to be the center of attention) thinks the applause are for her!

Oh...I'm so disappointed...the video on here turned out so blurry and I don't know how to fix it...oh well, you get the point.

Such a fun day!  A CRAZY HUGE thanks to all of our guests and for all of your help, introducing us to "scotcharoos" (yummy dessert) and for just being so stinkin' fun!

And, of course, bonus pics...I was experimenting with Chandlers hair and attempted pigtails.

Potty Training: Round 1

Warning:  This blog is not entertaining or even a little bit funny.  This is mostly just for me to refer to when gearing up for Round 2 with Brooklyn and when starting with Chandler.  And maybe for anyone else that is about to start potty training or who is an expert potty trainer and wants to offer advice.  I need all the help I can get!!

Since we were going to be stuck inside all last week (sick kids and freezing temps outside), I decided it might be a good time to start potty training. I felt like Brooklyn might be ready because:

A.  She is aware of nearly everytime she tinkles or poops her diaper

B.  Very interested in the potty

C.  She is able to pull up and down her own pants

D.  She is able to follow simple directions and tell us what she wants (like she could let us know if she needed to go)

I was super-motivated on Monday and planned to spend the entire day in her playroom.

As you can see, I was very prepared for accidents!  =)  That is a painters tarp that we used when we painted Chandler's nursery and it fit the room perfectly!

My plan:

1.  Put B on the potty every 30 minutes and have her sit there as long as she would...that is a tub of books next to the potty that I thought might keep her entertained while she sat

3.  Only wear panties all day

2.  Reward tinkle with 1 M&M and poop with 2 

(she NEVER gets chocolate, but LOVES it, so I thought this would be a FABULOUS reward)

3.  Watch this Potty Power video that has songs and postivite messages about "going potty."

The day started off great!  B ate her breakfast and watched her video AND went tinkle on the potty!!

The music on her potty was turned on, which means it plays a triumphant sound when liquid hits the potty and this kind-of startled her...so I turned it off, but we didn't have any more successes on Day 1 or 2...don't know if that had anything to do with it or not.

She was perfectly content to hang out in her playroom all day, EXCEPT when Daddy came home...she only wants to be where he is.  He was pretty cooperative, but can only spend so much time in the playroom...and I don't blame him!  BUT then it made me nervous if she hadn't "gone" in a while and she was who knows where in the house AND I couldn't get her on the potty when it was time...she only wanted Eddie to do it.  He would, but he was more like..."Let's pee or get off the pot"...not really into sitting there for 10 minutes at a time without success...and doing it all again every 30 minutes.

It also got kind-of tricky with Chandler...naps, feedings, etc.

AND I didn't totally think through the cooking dinner situation...hard to keep her on the potty when I'm not in the room and hard to cook when not in the kitchen

On Day 3, there were a number of reasons we did not continue the potty training...among them, Brooklyn had diarrhea!!

So, I don't feel like it was a total waste.  We learned a lot and will do things a little differently when we try again during Spring Break in March.

Changes for  Round 2:

1.  Make sure music on potty is OFF!!

2.  Maybe see if someone can at least keep Chandler during the mornings until B's nap?

3.  Send Daddy to play golf after work so we can more easily stick to our routine and I can keep a better eye on her if it has been a while since she has "gone."

(Eddie has very cooperatively already agreed to #3 =))

4.  Have Eddie just bring home dinner so I don't have to worry about preparing a meal.

Since we started this, Brooklyn now crawls up onto her own changing pad and calls for us to come change her whenever her diaper is the least bit soiled.  AND yesterday morning, I was feeding Chandler so I told her I couldn't come change her right that second...SO, to my surprise, she brought a diaper and her box of wipes to me and then and laid down to be changed all on her own.   Yeah, I think that's a sign that she is old enough to be potty trained.  =)