potty training a girl

i am thinking about when will be the "right" time to potty train A. any ideas? i'd like to have her trained by the time numero tres makes the debut june 5th. She would nearly be 2.5. B was waaaay trained by then. I guess I expect the same with her. He was really easy to train. A however, is so hard headed and strong willed. So, anyone out there that is reading this if you have some awesome tips for training a girl, send those tips my way! Hopefully it won't be too painful on us all.

and the winner is...

this page doesn't have to be all about my kids, right? so tonight i went to my water aerobics class. it's twice a week for an hour. my goal is to attend each week regularly up until i deliver. i need to keep my back as healthy as possible. it is a fantastic workout for people with back problems and of course being pregnant. one of my favorite things we do is push ups. there are 3 levels. level 1 is just standing near the side, hands on the edge of the pool and you simply do a standing push up. level 2, you put your palms on the side/edge of the pool and using your feet and arms, you push yourself out of the water, arms extended and repeat (that's what I do!!) level 3 is you push yourself out of the water and stay out, just lifting up and down (impossible!) what do we do you ask? Push ups for 30 seconds (as many as you can do) and then hold onto the side of the pool and kick as hard as you can for 2 mins. then we do it again (repeat drill 3 times). tonight our teacher had some V day presents she wanted to give away in some mini-contests. the first one was the push up contest. she didn't tell us until after the 2nd set. when we started the 3rd set, i was thinking we'll I'll try and see how far i get. i can usually do 18-20 level 2 push ups in 30 seconds. but it was a contest and I'm thinking the prize is chocolate hence the holiday. So, off we go and our 30 seconds started. I heard her say 10 more seconds and I kept pushing myself...I did 21!! and I won the prize!! LOL. this 24 week pregnant chick won the push up contest! and the reward was no chocolate at all. it's a cute little beaded heart with the breast cancer ribbon as the design. If I were Christy I would post a pic of it, but I don't think of things like that. I'm not really sure what to do with my prize. it's on a long pink satin ribbon, kind of like a Christmas ornament. I think I may take it to school and tell my class. I'm sure they'll get a kick outta my story.

one more thing...

as i went to do the dishes just now, i thought of something else i could blog about. so i haven't been really known to have cravings with either pregnancy nor this one. my only true rememberance of cravings that I had with B & A were in the first trimester. i would have hurt someone for a whataburger with cheese, bacon and it must have had jalepenos (i can't spell Spanish, Maria!) on it. I ate several of those only to find come second trimester and beyond in life I didn't want it. With this pregnancy I had been getting back into the gym and focusing on shedding a few lbs before I was planning on getting pregnant. Then, the whole thing happened where the doc said guess what, you're pregnant! to prove it to myself, I drove straight to a Taco Bueno and ordered nachos, queso with jalepenos. i ate those little suckers like they were chocolates! i knew then, that indeed i was pregnant. other than that, I don't recall many other "i-will-hurt-someone" cravings.

today about 9 am, i had a strong craving hit. i wanted/needed a blue bell ice cream sandwich! it was all i could think about all day long. as soon as i got home, i didn't stop to get an ice cream sandwich so i had a BIG bowl of Blue Bell Chocolate Extreme! it is my second favorite flavor. Blue Bell Fudge Brownie Nut is hands-down the best ice cream flavor on the planet. Chocolate Extreme is really inching in on it's territory. The bowl of ice cream settled the craving, but i'm afraid it will come back tomorrow. What's odd to me, is how I feel like i could hurt someone for chocolate about 4:00. By 7:00, don't even want to look at chocolate--which is very rare for me.

Happy Eating!

days of our lives

well not much is going on with us. i thought i would record some crazy and cute things going on with B&A.
*B is suddenly interested in what is going on with my belly. usually every evening he wants to feel the baby kick. he wants me to fully expose the belly (and ever expanding belly button) and put his hand on it. although he keeps his hand on for about 5 seconds, he doesn't really feel a kick. but he says he does. he also likes to say he wants to "hear" the baby. he puts his ear to my belly and says he can hear it. occasionally he speaks to the belly, but the belly hasn't spoken back to him. A is still clueless about what is going on with the belly.

*Last Friday C and I had to have a conference with the daycare folks. A is a biter, scratcher, fighter, etc. She has probably bitten about half of the month in January alone. Those poor kids in her class. My heart goes out to their parents. So, I wanted to meet with the teachers and director to come up with a plan. Last week she only bit once, good news. Today is Wednesday...3 days in and no bite, but today she kept telling all the teachers "no!" and hitting her friends. Needless to say, she became one with the time-out chair today. hope she grows out of this soon.

*this week B has been showing us how to say the colors in sign language. it is now a regular thing for him. tonight we briefly watched a thing on the history channel about bears. so any time there was one, he would show me how to say the color in sign language and want me to do it.

*this morning when i went to wake A up, she had no diaper on! yep, that's right. at some point in the night, she got up, went to the bathroom, took off her diaper and got back in bed. i found her in the nice puddle of wet this morning. when i asked her what happened, her response "i poo-poot" over and over again. luckily, there was no trace of "poo-poot" around. i thought the nightgown was cute, but not if she will take her diaper off--not so cute. we'll see what she does tonight. i made sure she was wearing a pant set tonight.

*B has begun to "read" his first book. we were beaming with pride just a few nights ago. At Christmas this year, I got The Going to Bed Book by Sandra Boynton. We have Barnyard Dance and it's a classic in this house. So, I thought I'd get another one. C and I only read it a few times to the kids. About a week ago, B said "no mommy I will read Going to Bed Book." I'm thinking OK, yeah right, it's not a repetitive text book, so he can't do this." he fooled me!! This book is really a story without repetition. he didn't read it word for word, but he got the gist of it down. Here lately he wants to read it to us every night. We'll just keep working on it.

*And of course A has to try to read something as well. Her fave is Brown Bear. So she usually picks up Brown Bear and will "read" it is a big scary voice. It's hilarious. She reads it really loud too. All 3 of us sit and laugh at her, so she loves it. The really funny thing is that she picks up any other book...for example The Story of Jesus was just the other night. She opens the book and says "Jesus, Jesus what do you see" turns the page and goes with whatever is on the page. It was so funny. Now she does it with any book she picks up. They all follow the pattern of Brown Bear. She is a mess.

that's about all for now. i am gearing down for the big 3rd grade TAKS test on March 3. i can't wait for it to be over!! then it will be time to hunker down for the Math TAKS at the end of April. teaching is supposed to be fun, right?

Yesterday I had another doctor's appointment. Yesterday I turned 22 weeks. These things just keep coming on so quickly. The sono tech was able to see the spine just fine this time. Little baby cooperated just fine. And there were no mishaps in telling me the sex! I measured normal and heart rate was good. Don't ask what it was, I don't know. I don't worry about it unless my doctor says something. And I'm not one to obsess over the heart rate going up or down or whatever it's doing. I don't think there is much truth in heart rate and telling the sex. This baby is a mover. The baby usually moves all the time espeically when I am talking to people in person. Last night B, A and Chris were "wrasslin" in the living room. My back was hurting and had a sleepy left foot. So I stayed on the couch to laugh at my view. It was hilarious! Of course they get loud when they are trying to "wrassle" daddy to the ground. This baby was kickin all kinds of ways. I think the baby wanted to have its say in the action.

I will go back to the doctor at a normal 4 weeks from now which puts it on the last Monday in February. Can you believe February is already here? Who is January and where did it go?

Happy Birthday!

Today is Anna's 2nd birthday! WOW. i can't believe she is 2!! the little infant that kept me up all night, made my left hip pop out of socket and gave me a herniated disc in my back....she's 2! We had her party out at the family farm. Anna was surrounded by her close family and friends that love her dearly. As usual, I made the cake again. I say every year I am going to just order one, but can never do that. I did a strawberry cake with white chocolate almond icing! yum-o! If you know me well at all, I am NOT into the whole "princess" things for Anna. Everyone is entitled to their opinions and it is just something that is not my cup of tea. If you want to know more, just ask. I'd be happy to share. Anyway, it was a fairy tale theme...frogs with crowns, castle and a little princess. I did purple, pink, green and yellow for her colors. There isn't really much to do when it's a two year olds birthday and they can't really tell you what they want. All in all, it turned out great. Anna had lots of fun playing with all of her cousins. She really loved giving Antone kisses. Anna also received lots of presents. So far her favorite is a colorful chair for the beach. Tonight she was sitting in her beach chair reading a new book to her baby...or at least pretending to read to her baby. I asked her what she was doing and she said "baby cry." Yesterday Chris and I couldn't give her the present from us. I ordered it online and it was scheduled to be delivered today. About 7:15 the door bell rang! The kids just got out of the bathtub and brady runs (in his birthday suit) to get the door...i had to stop him and wrap a towel around him. LOL. Anna's present had made it. I had dreams of getting it earlier today and actually being able to wrap it up cute, but she was getting ready for bed. So we just tore open the cardboard box. She loved it! We got her a pink tote 'n go vtech laptop. They were so excited since it is similar to Brady's Thomas laptop. Both of them were sitting in their rooms playing on their little laptops. Currently, Anna is sleeping with her laptop. She did have her 2 year check up today. Chris had to take her so I don't get many details. All that matters is that she was normal and healthy!

Happy Birthday Anna!

this picture is for you Christy!

Let the remodeling begin...

This past Monday, we decided to go ahead with our remodel now instead of later. Chris isn't that busy at work and now seemed like a good time to do it. He lined the whole thing out last week so now we are just watching it all unfold. It all started with our first trip ever to Ikea in McKinney. It wasn't a bad drive at all. Ikea is a whirlwind! I could get very side tracked and spend too much money in there, but Chris was there to keep me in line. I couldn't believe the selection and prices. The whole reason we went there...knowing we needed to bunk Brady and Anna, I was on a mission to find cute uni-sex bedding. I searched high and low on the internet and couldn't find anything that wasn't too boyish or girlish or too dumb looking or just something basic to coordinate! A friend suggested Ikea and it worked! I really liked one set and wanted to check it out before I bought it. We ended up getting almost everything in the set. We went with the Barnslig group of bedding items for them. I am considering doing the nursery in this as well. It would be a nice flow of the same thing and all the colors would match.

Then, we headed to Rooms To Go Kids. We found a really neat bunk bed that is safe...it has stairs instead of a ladder and the bottom bunk is perpendicular to the top. And it has a built in closet/drawer/dresser type thing at the other end. Score! It saved us from having to buy a dresser. Instead, we bought them the matching bookcase for all of their books! We decided to go to the regular furniture side and find a chair for us to sit and read to them in their new room. We found the perfect accent chair. It's a color called paprika! I can't wait till it gets here! All of this will be delivered on seperate trucks on Friday!! Our goal is to have everything ready so we can just slap it all up and have them in their new room Friday night.

Monday this week, the remodel began! They tore out the arch and cut out the spot for the door.

Tuesday...they sheet-rocked in the arch and began prepping to put in the door.

Wednesday...Before we got home, I asked Brady if he was excited to see what they did to their new room today. When we got home he ran down the hall to see what it looked like. He went in the room, looked around and said "oh, mom! who do you think did this?" before i could answer he said "did Santa do it?" I couldn't help myself, but to say yes maybe Santa did this today. Then he asked "why didn't he paint it?" LOL. Chris had them respray the texture in the whole room just so we won't have any patch work looking stuff. Tonight it just looks white and boring. Tomorrow there are more milestones to be had.

This is such a learning experience. It's like moving, but we're not moving things out. We are moving them from room to room! Our house is a MESS! Tonight we had to take everything down in Brady's room and put in the front room. The only thing in Brady's room right now are his bed, Anna's bed and the changing table! Everything else is piled up on the guest bed in the front room. When we started the remodel Monday, Chris went ahead and moved Anna into Brady's room so we would have a place to put all the stuff. It's been interesting to say the least.