So…

Did you miss me at all? Wonder where I was? Yeah, me too.

We got home safely from Colorado, but I’m having the hardest time getting my groove back. I’m not back in my normal routines, I’m not doing my normal activities, and I hate it! I’m not even working out, prompting me to think that maybe a weight loss diet pill isn’t such a bad idea after all…it would certainly take less time! Just kidding. Maybe. I think I left the normal “me” back in Colorado, and I’m left with a weird, disorganized, confused version of me.

We got back nearly a week ago and I still have not finished unpacking. In my own defense (I don’t know why I’m defending myself since I voluntarily admitted that), I only have Ava’s clothes left to put away and it’s taken me so long because I had to pack away everyone’s summer clothes so I could put their winter clothes from the suitcases into their drawers. Which takes a lot of time when I have little helpers undoing everything just as fast as I can do it.

As long as I’m making excuses, I should also tell you about the weather. It stinks. We’ve had clouds and rain every single day since we got home. I don’t mind a rainy day here and there. In fact, I like them. But a week of rain? Come on! It’s really starting to get me down.

I guess I can also blame Ava’s potty-training for my lack of routine, but I’m not complaining. I started getting serious about potty-training her a few days ago and she’s doing awesome!! She has 2-3 accidents a day, but it’s usually when she’s tired. And she has 12 pairs of underwear, which she takes full advantage of. She changes her panties at least every 5 minutes whether they need to be changed or not. At least she’s getting lots of practice at putting them on by herself!

And then there’s the teething. Always the teething. Here I thought Kelvin was just getting two teeth on the bottom, but when I took him for his 1-year checkup, his doctor noticed that he’s also getting two molars on the top and they’re almost through! If they come through before the bottom teeth, he will have 6 teeth on top and only 2 on the bottom!

But guess what!! The sun just poked its head through the clouds! It’s amazing what a little sunshine can do to brighten your mood, isn’t it? I guess it’s time to go get started on the laundry.

Posted: October 16th, 2009 under Ava's Potty-Training Journey.
Comments: 2

I can’t believe I’ve let this blog sit without an original post for as long as I have. I guess I’ve been using all my blogging inspiration at my parenting blog and my money-saving blog. There are several stories about the kids at my parenting blog that I didn’t post here because I don’t want to bore people who read both blogs…but you might want to check that out.

The last few weeks have been slow for us…which is a welcome relief! I keep feeling like there’s a big trip coming up that I need to be preparing for and there isn’t! Not even to orlando villas (though I wouldn’t complain if there was!). We don’t have any trips planned until the Feast (there’s a possibility we might go up to WI before that, but there isn’t a date planned).

I’m getting ready to start Ava on some preschool curriculum this year. I found a program for 2-year-olds that looks like it will be perfect. I know she’s pretty young, but she really enjoys doing worksheets and we’ll be working at her pace. At this age, I really don’t want to push her. If she only wants to work on it for 15 minutes, that’s fine with me. We probably won’t start getting more ambitious about it for another few years. I’m really excited about it, though.

I think she might be getting close to being ready for potty training…and I mean it this time! She’s been telling me sometimes when she needs to pee and she never did that on a regular basis before. She still pees in her diaper sometimes and she never poops in the potty, but it’s progress!

Kelvin is growing like crazy….both physically and mentally! He’s 23 pounds now and he crawls on his hands and knees (he still does his army crawl sometimes, though) and pulls up to standing all the time! He’s talking like crazy, too….he says Mama, uh-oh, yuck, go go go, and there’s a few others that I can’t remember. I really need to write them down in his baby book…tonight! I also think he might have said Ava this morning, but I’m not sure.

I’ve been thinking about getting a dehydrator for awhile now. I’ve been freezing as much produce as I can, but we don’t have a chest freezer and both of my above-the-refrigerator freezers are full. So I thought a dehydrator would be a great way to preserve more produce without taking up freezer space. They’re about $40 at Walmart, though, so I hadn’t bought one yet. But yesterday my mom found me one at Goodwill for only $5 and bought it for me!! I’m so excited!! She said it looked like new and had the instruction manual and everything. She was going to try it out today to make sure it works and if it does, she’s going to mail to me. I can’t wait!!!

OK, blogging time is over, I guess. Kelvin just woke up after 10 minutes and I need to go put him back to sleep…*sigh*

Posted: August 11th, 2009 under Ava, Ava's Potty-Training Journey, Kelvin.
Comments: 1

Ava’s just growing up so fast! She’s getting so independent lately. This morning, I had been upstairs changing Kelvin’s diaper and I came back down and found the iced tea on the table and no Ava in sight. I went into the kitchen and found her on a chair getting a cup down from the cupboard. I’m glad I found her before she tried to pour it on her own…that would have been a disaster!

She’s very into art right now. We shopped the back-to-school sales to replenish her art supplies and she’s very much enjoying it. This was the first time I had bought her markers…she’d always used Color Wonder markers that only color on special paper. And it’s going to take some practice for her to learn to be careful with them. She couldn’t figure out why she had blue all over her legs!!

Potty training is pretty much at a stand-still. We were getting nowhere and both my mom and a friend with 5 kids told me that I wasn’t potty training her, I was just training myself to take her to the bathroom every 20 minutes. And they were right, so we’re going to wait until she seems more ready and willing. She’s only 2, after all…

I love it now that she’s talking in sentences. I’m not sure if I posted about her first sentence yet, so if I did you’re hearing about it twice. LOL About a month ago, she was eating a hamburger and the bun was sliding off of one side. She looked at me and said, “My gur-gur broke!” I thought that was a very cute first full sentence.

She’s becoming quite the little diva. She has to have her toenails perfectly painted at all times. And she’s obsessed with changing her clothes several times a day, whenever the urge happens to strike her. If she starts getting into Naot sandals, we’re in trouble!

Posted: July 20th, 2009 under Ava, Ava's Potty-Training Journey.
Comments: 3

I decided tonight that I’m going to start potty training Ava tomorrow. She’s been showing readiness signs for awhile and I’ve made a few efforts, but I keep waiting for a perfect, uninterrupted stretch of time to potty train and I finally realized that’s never going to happen. So tomorrow we’re getting serious!

As it stands, my plan is to just put her on the potty every 30 minutes or so and have her try to go. The last time I tried potty-training her, I waited for her to tell me she had to go and she never did, so we’re going to try it this way instead. I think we’re going to reward her with gummy bears when she goes, so hopefully that will be a good motivation for her. We may do a sticker chart, too.

I have 4 pairs of cloth training pants and I’m not sure if that will be enough. I’ve never potty-trained before, so I have no idea. I can always buy more if I need to, though.

Anyway, wish us luck! As long as there isn’t any Colonix in the equation, we should be good (OK, that was stretching it a bit far LOL). As long as I survive, I’ll be posting an update on our first day of potty-training tomorrow!

Posted: June 29th, 2009 under Ava's Potty-Training Journey.
Comments: 4