Potty Training Update

We started potty training last Monday.  As of Thursday night Ellington had successfully used the potty one time.  I was convinced she wasn't ready.  I had purposely waited longer than most to potty train so that she would be ready. She obviously wasn't ready.  I was going to give it a few more days and go back to diapers.  I didn't really see it as failing, I just wanted to do it when it was right for Ellington.  I didn't want to push her.

As of Friday she was basically potty trained.  Just.like.that.  People said it was true.  People said it would happen.  But ya'll, I honestly didn't think she was ready.  But she was.  

Even at the fair cabin she did AWESOME.  She obviously still sleeps in diapers and she isn't 100% accident free (although most days she is).  I honestly can't believe how she went from NOT AT ALL to almost completely potty trained.  She was ready.  Maybe I wasn't.  

I am so proud of her.  She is so proud of herself.  The process was harder and easier than I expected.  

Memorial Day Weekend 2012

For Memorial Day Weekend we headed to the fairgrounds!  It was fun to go for the weekend because it's the first Memorial Day Weekend in several years that we have been able to kick off the summer there.  Everyone was there...Pop, Grams, Reagan, Bryant, LeAnna, and Emerson.  Pappaw joined us as well when he could.  Other than a day in March when Bryant and LeAnna kept Ellington for us for a bit while we attended a wedding in Jackson...I don't think we have been around them since Christmas so it was good to see sweet Emerson (and his parents)!  The first thing Ellington said was "He can walk...AND talk!"  Ha.  I think she was still picturing him in her head as a baby.   

Ellington was so excited about playing in the rocks at the cabin.  In the days leading up to our weekend it's pretty much all she talked about doing!

 

However, while we we there she decided that she would much rather be on the swing under the fan.  Haha.  She seriously would sit (or lay) for the longest time while someone swang her.  (By the way, google is trying to tell me that "swang" isn't a word, but I am going to just go ahead and say that it is!) :)

Emerson and Ellington enjoyed a little pool time.

Sunday morning before church...gosh, she's precious :)

It was great to all be able to go to church together.  It's the first time that it has happened in a couple of years.  

Pappaw had been out of town and wasn't around on Saturday, but he showed up on Sunday!

Funny story about the outfit below...

Ellington is very into wearing dress and looking like a Princess.  She wants to be fancy at all times.  I don't mind dressing her nice most days, but the fairgrounds is NOT the place to dress nice.  In fact, the only reason I really buy "play clothes" for the summer is because of the fair.  The outfit below is one of those very outfits.  When I pulled it out this morning for her to wear she looked at it very disgusted and said, "But I don't want to wear that.  I need a dress like a princess".  She was not having the play clothes. :)  I made up this elaborate story about when Princesses go to the fair they don't want to get their fancy clothes dirty while they play in the rocks so they were "Princess Play Clothes".  Thankfully, she bought it.  

See what I mean with the swinging??!!  This girl is a mess.

We had a great time hanging out, watching the kids play, and eating.  What a great way to start the summer!!!

Potty training update coming tomorrow.  Stay tuned!

Our Morning in the Sun

Ellington and I had the BEST morning!  We played outside all morning and we both thoroughly enjoyed it!  I think this is the first time that we have actually spent the whole entire morning outside (other than when we go to the park of course).  That might seem weird, but I am not a huge outdoor person (ha) and Ellington usually gets reeeeally bored reeeeeally fast when we play in our yard.  It was so nice to just be outside with her all morning and she was perfectly content.  

So, who's ready for a potty update?  I know ya'll have just been checking this blog constantly to know how it's going. :)  Well....she's been in panties (other than sleeping) since Monday morning.  She has actually used the potty one time.  That was Monday afternoon.  It is currently Thursday evening.  So, does that tell you how it's going??!!  Ha.  Yeah, not so hot.  She would just prefer to wet her panties, change them, and move on with life.  I guess eventually something will click????  I don't know how long I should let this go on or if she's just really not ready and we just give it a rest for awhile.  We will stick with it awhile longer and hope it improves!  My washer and dryer sure are getting a workout!

I probably won't blog again before the weekend, so I hope ya'll all have a fun Memorial Day weekend!!!!

(I just realized that saying "ya'll all" is kind of redundant, but appropriate nonetheless)

Potty Training Day 1 By The Numbers

1- Nervous Mama

2- Morning accidents

57- Fits thrown by a 2 1/2 year old who did NOT want to sit on the potty

20- Minutes between potty visits
0- Actual outfits worn
2- Girls in pjs all day

475- Books read while in the bathroom

1- Very wet naptime diaper

0- Afternoon Accidents

2- M&Ms consumed after successful potty trips

1- Proud Mama

We did it!  We made it through one day yesterday.  It was MUCH better than I expected.  I guess I made it out to be so horrible in my mind that the reality wasn't bad at all. :)  Definitely the hardest part is just staying home alllll day.  We are going to keep staying home for a few more days.  Yeah, that's definitely the hardest part.

Friends, Flowers, and a Pool Party

This post is kind of a catch up post of the last few days. (Minus house craziness which seems to be a daily chore..which we are happy about, but overwhelmed by nonetheless) Friday afternoon we had a special little visitor, Thomas. His parents are in our small group and his Mama had something come up at the last minute so he got to hang out with us for a little bit! Ellington did great sharing her toys...and her Mama. :) 

Thomas didn't seem to mind all of the girly toys!

Cutie pie.  We are enjoying all of our time at home!

One of Ellington's VERY favorite activities is picking "flowers".

I know this is a stretch, but after I took the picture below I thought about her holding a bouquet of flowers at her wedding.  Instant lump in throat.

Sunday night for small group, the kiddos had a little pool party.  Ellington was BESIDE herself with excitement!!!  She had the absolute best time ever!

Haha!  At one point they all had their own pool. :)

Afterwards the kids do what kids do best. It was LOUD but so fun.

We are beyond thankful for our little group of new friends.  It's so fun to hang out with and talk to people who are in the same life stage...little kids, big decisions, etc.  It's great just being able to share our lives with each other.  And to those of you who are reading this...we love ya'll! :)

Today we are starting potty training.  I am not excited and neither is Ellington. :)  I don't want to do it but the world tells me I should. Ha!  I now it's time...really past time, but it doesn't make me want to do it any more.  So I'll be updating about this new adventure soon!

A Calm Day

Yesterday was one of the first "normal" days in what seems like a loooong time.  No one came to see our house (and therefor we didn't have to disappear for awhile), we didn't look at any houses, we didn't have a meeting with the bank or realtor, we didn't have to tie up loose ends at school, etc.  We pretty much just did what we wanted, which was nice. :)  

We met Ellington's friend Austin and her mom Ashia at the park.  We weren't able to go to our favorite park because there was a bus full of older school kids.  Ugh.  On my way to the park I was thinking how thankful I was that we still have just a little bit longer before school kids get out of school and therefor it would only be little kids there....wrong.  Oh well.  At least we had another option.  The girls still had fun!

Other than a trip to Wal-Mart we just hung out at home Monday afternoon and evening.  I pulled out a toy from my teacher stash.  There are definitely some perks to being a child of a preschool teacher. :)

Robert had to go to work early, so I was on the evening shift alone again. :)  This is usually a REALLY hard time of day for me when he goes in early.  By this point I have already had a long day with E and I am usually completely out of ideas (and energy!) by this point.  Last night we had a blast though!  As long as she isn't whiny (which happens a lot lately), this is such a fun age!!!

We were thankful for a calm day!

Mother's Day 2012

I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day!  Our weekend didn't go exactly as planned, but I'll have to back up a bit to explain.  Thursday night we got an offer on our house.  It was a GREAT offer and it was super exciting!!!  Friday morning we went to our realtor's signed the papers and made a plan for looking at a couple of more houses on Saturday.  We had already looked at quite a few houses, but we knew we had to make a decision on Saturday or in 30 days we would be homeless. :)  It was crazy, but exciting!!  Saturday morning we looked at two homes and came home for lunch with two more homes scheduled for after Ellington's nap.  While we were at home in between the two home hunting sessions our realtor called and said that the people buying our house had pulled the offer.  And ya'll, it was like the wind was gone from our sails!  We know it isn't the end of the world and it will be ok but we were so excited and we were planning to make an offer on a home...possibly that very day!  So yeah, it was disappointing.  Really really.  

Obviously, Sunday morning was Mother's Day.  It was kind of a bummer because we had to fill in in the nursery and had to miss the church service.  I really don't mind helping out it was just not exactly what I wanted to do on Mother's Day. :)  Plus, because of being out of town or being sick I feel like we have been to church maybe once in the last month and a half.  We had the one year olds (and kept Ellington with us as well) and ya'll there was this little boy in there that I wanted to take home with me!  ADORABLE.  I need a little boy ASAP. :)

Ellington and I before church! :)  I am so proud to be her Mama!!!

At church we had a couple of people tell us about a couple who is looking for a house and that they want something in the price range of our home.  While at lunch one of the people called us and said the couple wanted to see our house and they were given our number.  Normally we wouldn't show our house ourselves, but since they don't live in Starville and it kind of randomly happened quickly, we said they could come by.  Well, we waited and waited for them to call, but finally decided to go ahead and put E down for nap.  She was wound up and we kept having to go in and tell her to lay back down.  About 30 minutes later the couple called and said they were on their way.  Since E wasn't asleep yet we decided to go ahead and get her up because showing the house was worth no nap. :)  So, we got her up...finished tidying everything and waited.  They called about 10 or so minutes after we got Ellington up and said they couldn't come b/c their baby was kind of done for the morning.  Ya'll, I about lost it!!!  I totally understand a fussy baby so I wasn't mad at them but it was kind of like the final frustration that I couldn't deal with.  Not to mention it was only 1:45 and Ellington was up for the rest of the day!!!  Normally even if she doesn't sleep I make her stay in bed until at least 2:45.  

I KNEW we had to turn the day around so I decided we would take Ellington to the fountains on campus for the first time this year.  She was BEYOND excited. :)

 

It was SOOOO much fun seeing the complete joy on her face!!!  Definitely the best gift for a Mama!  After playing in the water we went for ice cream!  When we pulled in the parking lot Ellington kept saying "I can do it myself. Mama you get yours."  Ha!!  She was trying to tell me that she wanted to have her own and not share mine like we usually do.  So she got her own little cup for the first time. :)

While the weekend didn't turn out like we expected...we didn't pick out our future home or begin packing...it was still a special weekend with my two favorite people. :)

I Slept Until 9:00....3 Times!

School ended for us on Wednesday and on Thursday Robert and I headed to Gulf Shores.  Ya'll......it was HEAVEN.  I have no other word to describe it.  We had been planning for quite awhile (maybe since the fall?) for the two of us to go to the beach late spring/early summer.  So many things kept happening that we didn't think it was going to happen.  In fact, we only booked our room a few days before we left because we weren't sure we should go.  Since we are in the middle of trying to sell our house and buy another one we thought maybe we should just not go and save the money.  The weeks leading up to the trip had been CRAZYtown.  Ultimately, we decided to go and clearly no one ever regrets going to the beach.  :)  I didn't take my big camera...because I was there for ultimate relaxation and carrying a camera around isn't very relaxing.  I did take just a few pictures on my phone.  

After sleeping until 9:00 (all three mornings!!!) we woke up to this....Ahhhhh...

We spent both of our days there on the beach.  It was perfect.  We sat, talked, read, rested.  Repeat.  

On the last night we had our favorite meal at Cobolt and enjoyed dining under palm trees.

Robert and I did a ton of talking.  We've got A LOT of decisions to make.  This year is going to be BIG for us and we are excited!  It was so wonderful to have this time together before things get really crazy.

I don't know that either of us have ever enjoyed time away so much.  I could go on and on about how wonderful it was, but I would be doing a disservice to mention how much we missed this little girl...

I have never enjoyed a trip more but I have also never missed Ellington more!  I think now that she is older I knew how much she would have loved the trip too.  I know Robert and I needed time alone, but I guess I also felt bad that she wasn't with us.  I am so thankful that my family kept her for us.  She had a great time too!

It was crazy...the second we got back from our trip things got WILD.   Robert was up for 24 hours (because of meetings during the day yesterday and then having to work last night), someone wants to see our house today (cutting Robert's sleep VERY short), and we had to kind of rearrange our house touring plans for the afternoon.  We were dealing with all of this last night before bed and could only laugh about how different life is here than it is at the beach!

We are excited (and scared) about lots of changes going on in our lives.  Having the weekend together was just the thing we needed to re-energize us!