VT vs. Longwood

Daddy and I had a date this afternoon! While Mommy stayed home with EG and packed for our trip to Norfolk in the morning, Daddy and I got out of her hair and headed to the basketball game here in town. VT whooped up on some Longwoodians... we didn't even realize Longwood had a basketball team. :)

While we do have season tickets, these are definitely not them. This is the view from where the band sits. Our seats are slightly to the left of here. I tend to get nervous around a lot of people that I don't know, and sitting still is just not one of my specialties, so we moved here. The band is in Atlanta/on winter break, so there was no problem.

I was up and ready to leave slightly before the game ended, and Daddy wanted to get my picture with the Hokiebird. Sadly... he was in Atlanta as well, so we settled on this one.

I also got to partake in the greatest reason to go to a basketball game... the Dairy Club's yummy milkshakes.

Daddy and I had a blast and a half... Thank you Daddy for taking me with you!

Life just became a little easier

Rachel here. Now that Emma Grace can somewhat sit up on her own, my children will be cleaner, and my life will be a little easier. The girls get bathed not nearly as much as they probably should be. Mother of the year award right here. Most nights I'm on my own... that makes baths more than a chore. Now that I can put EG in the tub with Reese, we can do nightly baths! Yays all the way around!

Real

Rachel here. Perhaps next year we will be switching to an artificial tree. Upon taking the lights off the tree yesterday, I discovered these disgusting little vermin living on the trunk of said tree. Spiders in my home with my babies = uncool.

Christmas... Part 3

We had a really lovely time with Grandpa, Pearl, and Uncle Gunner while they were here. We sledded, we ate, and we opened presents. Good times were had by all. I once again helped hand out presents... and open them for that matter. :)

The boys got super stellar underoos.

And the girls got a zoo. ;)

Uncle Aaron pretended to be a young female in his 20's and opened Liz's gift for her.

Thank you so much Grandpa, Pearl, and Gunner for everything and for the great memories!

Boys

I don't know what it is about boys, but they are such daredevils. Grandpa, Pearl, and Uncle Gunner came in this past weekend to celebrate our 3rd Christmas with us. There was still tons of snow on the ground, which I think made Gunner super giddy. :) Anyway... Daddy and Gunner thought it would be super fun to build an extra big "slide" for me to go down on my sled.

Pearl pulled me around the backyard while I waited. :)

This is about as tall as Mommy would let them go. I think originally they wanted me to be able to go off of the deck rails... over Mommy's dead body.

So far this sled has gotten some serious action... and to think... it's still December!

Don't you wish...

... you're baby was cute like me?
Juuuust kidding, but I am pretty adorable. ;)

The Adventures in Peepoo... update

This is how I spend most of my days... pantless. I'm getting VERY GOOD at running to the potty when I need to pee... it's the poo part that is the problem. Brett's Mommy mentioned that Brett was not all about pooping on the potty, and Mommy thought that was so silly... but that exact scenario is where we find ourselves these days. There are very distinct signs that Mommy and Daddy have noticed when I need to poo. Once they recognize them, they scoop me up and take me right to the potty. This is about the time where I start the worse sets of temper tantrums alive. I do not like to poop on the potty. I will literally claw and punch anyone who tries to make me sit there. Most of the experience is me screaming and crying at the top of my lungs. Eventually I'll go... sometimes it takes 10 minutes, and sometimes it takes 2 hours (literally). But the second I go, I'm singing and dancing around that I've gone poo poo, and all is right with the world again. Mommy and Daddy don't know if it's hurting me to go, or if I'm scared, or just being uber dramatic. It really pains both of them to listen to me get so upset, but they definitely don't want to throw in the potty training towel because I am totally rocking it otherwise.

I continue to get extremely excited once I use the potty on my own. Mommy and Daddy will be doing something, and I'll just scamper off on my own. I'll return with a cheesy grin, dancing, "I peepoo'd on the potty!" There is a bit of a dance and sing celebration, I add a sticker to my "potty chart"... a small sticker for pee, and a big sticker for poo. I scarf down my Reese's pieces... one for pee and two for poo. I get to flush my business, and then we get on with the day. :)

We're not quite ready for underpants yet. Mommy doesn't think I can give her enough warning yet to be able to get to the potty and undressed, so I'm naked most of the day. The only time I wear diapers now is if we're outside or running errands, nap, and bedtime. When I am wearing my diaper and I go pee, I immediately tell Mommy or Daddy that I've gone and I need a diaper change. Hopefully I'll be able to wear my big girl underoos soon! :)

Soooooooooooooo big

Hey people! While Mommy, Daddy, and Reese ate their dinner the other night, I hung out in this bad boy. Mommy says it's only a matter of time before I'm eating everything under the sun in this thing. :) Speaking of food... since I've started "solids", I enjoy both oatmeal and rice cereal, peas, carrots, and YoBaby yogurt (blueberry). Today Mommy is making me some avacado. :) Everyone say "oooooh."

Until I'm more sturdy though this is all I'll be doing in the "big girl chair."

The Adventures in Peepoo... Take 3 and 4

Rachel here. Oy. Yesterday was marked with NO ACCIDENTS. This is super great but somewhat deceiving because we had her in a diaper for a while due to the fact that we went out for brunch, and she played outside with Bryan for about an hour. She did in fact make it to the potty on her own twice though. Yesterday also marked the first poo extravaganza that took place in the potty! She kept running in the bathroom saying "peepoo" and then running away. We made her stay in the bathroom and tried to get her to sit on the potty. Tons of screaming, crying, book reading, and 2 hours later... there was poop. :)

On another note... today was AWFUL. We started the morning with her undoing her diaper while she was still wearing her Christmas Eve pjs. This resulted in her peeing all over the jammies and floor. She must have peed in her diaper while she was still in her bed this morning before we went in and got her. When she came downstairs, she was fiddling with her diaper and looked like she was uncomfortable. I'll take this as a great sign though. It means she knows that chillin' in her pee is bothersome, so I hope she'll learn quickly once we put her in her underpants during the day. This was followed by another poo on the potty. This time I think Bryan only had to sit with her for about an hour. This was then followed by 3 pee accidents. One of which, she did manage to hold and then finish on her potty. She's done SOOOOO well up until today. Each time she had an accident she was super involved with one of her new toys from Santa, so I'm sure that had an awful lot to do with it. Tomorrow we keep on chuggin'!

We'll end with something super cool... Bryan noticed Reese was "reading" one of her books aloud on the potty! He thought he was going crazy when he realized she was getting 4-5 words right on each page... she's starting to memorize... YAY!!!!

Merry Christmas '09

Merry Christmas everyone! Guess who came to my house?

SANTA!

I didn't waste any time getting into things.

Luckily Emma Grace followed my lead.

I wanted to play with every single thing the second I opened it.

This is from Great Gma Nita. Thank you so much for passing it along to me! I HEART HIM... A LOT... Mommy may never be able to listen to "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" again, but I could listen to him all day. ;)

Daddy helped me check out Santa's leftovers. He was nice enough to write me a thank you note for all the hard work I put into decorating his cookies.

We hope you all are having as great of a day as we are spending time with your family and friends! Merry Christmas!