Potty Potty Potty!

When Vic was about a year and a half I decided to start trying to potty train her. I was not successful for a while after that. She just was not ready. Izzy just turned a year and a half and I am tempted to start training her. The difference is Izzy is acting like she is ready right now. She is obsessed with the potty. She sees all of us go and wants to go too. The part that gets me thinking is when out of the blue she will say she has to go potty and heads for the bathroom. I had such a hard time with Vic and I just do not want to make that mistake again. I tried to rush her and she was not ready. This time though I feel the little one is the one insisting. I am not sure if I should wait a bit longer or give it a try and see.

Wordless Wednesday - Beans!

Baby Signing Update

It is so awesome to have your hard work finally pay off. I have been working so hard at teaching my itty bitty to sign. Several weeks ago when she woke up from a nap she was signing "eat" for me. I was so excited that we were finally there. I took her downstairs for lunch and she signed "eat" the whole time. I was so impressed and very proud of her. Well then she decided it was a one day thing only. I tried and tried to get her to do it again and she was so very stubborn. I was happy we were on the right track and I knew she was understanding me so I figured I would take what I could get. A couple of days ago I was feeding her and I asked her if she wanted more. Out of the blue she started signing "more" for me. Still thrilled I just figured she would do it for that meal and then stop again. It has been a couple of days now and every time you ask her to say "more" she will sign it. I am so excited and ready to move on to much more stuff. One thing I remember with my oldest is that once she started it was followed by a flood of communication. I think we are so close to that so I am ready to take it to the next level. It is truly such an amazing feeling to know that you and your infant can actually communicate. I cannot wait for more.

Stumble It!

Olivia Baby Signing Update

I have been working really hard with Olivia on communicating using Baby Sign Language. She is 7 months and is not yet able to do the signs herself but I know we are making progress. When I sign "eat" or "milk" the expression on her face completely changes. She gets a huge smile on her face and starts bouncing around with excitement. It just tells me that we are on the right track and that she understands 100% what I am saying to her. Right now I am also teaching her "more" and "all done". From there we will branch out well beyond the basics and see how it all goes. Progress is awesome!

A Sweet First Kiss

Most of us remember our first kiss from a boy or even the first kiss we shared with our husband before we were married. Well, that is not the first kiss I am talking about. I have been waiting for it for 7 months now. Waiting patiently?? No way! I want my kisses and I want them now! That said, this is something every mom has to wait for and it is well worth the wait. I am a mommy and I love getting kisses from my girls.

Well today my patience, or lack thereof, was rewarded and it was awesome. I was holding my little Izzy when she reached up and grabbed one side of my face and leaned in towards my cheek with her mouth wide open. She is teething so it was the sloppiest slobber kiss ever but I loved every minute of it. I was so happy and so very excited. These are the moments that every mom looks forward to. It only gets better from here and I cannot wait!

My Sweet Angels

I have been looking forward to this for a very long time. Vic is finally old enough to understand what Halloween is all about. She was a purple Barbie Fairy and she definitely looked and played the part. She would twirl around just like a fairy princess. It was the cutest thing ever. I was so proud of her. She was polite the whole way. She said "trick or treat" and then said "thank you" every single time. I had so much fun with her. She was so funny. After every single house she said to me, "Mama maybe there is another house". Then she would run to daddy and say "Look Daddy . . . more candy!"

Izzy was awesome too. I stuffed her super chunky butt into that kitty costume without one complaint from her. She did look at me a few times like "what the heck have you done to me". She just rolled with it though and smiled her sweet smile. It will be so much more fun when both of them are old enough to understand what is going on.

The weather here was fantastic. I was worried that Vic would need a jacket or something but I could not have asked for a better night temperature wise. I guess typically for this area it is bitterly cold and all the little goblins and ghouls need to bundle up.

All in all it was a great night. One I have been looking forward to for a very long time. Everyone had a good time and now we are looking forward to Christmas.

Izzy's First Lesson - Baby Sign Language

I am a huge fan of baby sign language. I taught this to Victoria and it was a huge success. It made communicating with her so much easier before she could actually talk. I started with Victoria when she was about 7 months old and she picked it up at about 9-10 months. It is time for Izzy to learn too. I start with the basics and once she picks it up I will move on from there. Basicially what I am doing is constantly showing her the signs for eat, milk, drink, and more when we are doing each of those activities. I am eager to see at what age she will pick it up. I remember the first time Victoria did it. When she woke up in the morning I always took her into the bed to play with me and daddy for a bit. One morning I set her on the bed and she started tapping her fingers against her mouth just like the sign for eat. I was so excited. I scooped her up and took her for breakfast. From that point on it was so easy. She did stop using them once she started talking. I told her the other day we needed to start teaching Izzy. The cool thing is she was right there with me at the highchair the other day showing her sister how it is done. If you have a little one and are not sure if it is worth it let me tell you it definitely is. There is a lot of frustrations that comes with not being able to fully communicate what your child needs. This is such a great tool to alleviate a lot of that frustration. I will post my updates along the way and even any tips I can find.

I actually purchased a DVD that we used to watch. It was okay but I know there are better ones out there than the one I have. I have heard really good things about "Signing Time" but I have not used it myself. My mother gave me an awesome little stand up guide titled "Baby Signing". When I lived out west there was even a program that came on PBS every Saturday that was dedicated to kid sign language. It was awesome but not available where I am now. If you are looking for a place to get started and do not want to buy a DVD or book you can go to http://www.lifeprint.com/. It is basically a dictionary of American Sign Language (ASL). You click on the word and it will show you the sign. I used it a lot with Victoria and will use it with Izzy too.

More to come on this.

Halloween is upon us!

With Halloween just around the corner it has been a lot of fun around here trying to figure out what Victoria wants to dress us as. This is really the first year where she actually understands what it is all about and has had a voice. I am a huge Tinkerbell fan and I was thrilled when I asked her what she wanted to be and she said "Tinkerbell!" A few weeks later though she threw me a curve ball and said she wanted to be a Purple Barbie Fiary. I thought to myself, "how the heck and I am going to pull this off?" I searched so many places and I finally found this cute little purple fiary costume.

We all know the power of television marketing for kids. Well I saw it first hand this morning. Over breakfast she looks up at me with those big beautiful eyes and tells me that she wants to be a Snow Princess for Halloween. I know I did not just hear what I thought I heard. I guess all the Dora saves the Snow Princess commercials had finally gotten her! Needless to say, we are still on track for the Purple Barbie Fairy. That is unless the Tinkerbell movie commercials convince her to be Tink! ;)

Olivia will be easy. I have a couple of Victoria's old costumes to choose from if they fit. If not, I have a cute little onesie that a friend gave Victoria that says "Little Terror".

Kids! You gotta love them!

Izzy's 6 month Checkup

So, Olivia went late last week for her 6 month checkup. Both girls got the flu shot which was a fun time for mom for sure. Olivia actually got 5 shots which really was not cool. She was so upset. Apparently though my little chubby girl is as big as most 12 month olds. haha I asked the doctor if that was okay and he was fine with it. He said she is proportioned just fine and growing nicely. She has her two bottom teeth and working on some top ones now. She can roll over both ways now. Just today she started pushing herself up so I think she will be crawling soon. We go back to the doctor in a month to get her ears pierced. I am nervous about it because they are doing it with a needle instead of the gun. We shall see how it goes!