Riverdogs

My new firm had a night at the ball park. It was a great chance to meet everyone and for David to meet the people I work with. It makes it easier for him when I talk about my day when he knows who people are.

It was pretty hot outside, but our seats had a great breeze going.

Celia really enjoyed the game. She had yummy chocolate milk.

And she made a new friend. Hannah is 3 and she and Celia got along great. Hannah shared her cotton candy with Celia and they both danced to the between inning music. The chocolate milk and candy made it a little hard to get Celia to sleep, but I suppose that is what a night at the ballpark is about.

Emme did a great job at the game. Despite being hot and staying up way past her bed time, she stayed sweet. Special thanks to David who held Emme most of the night-I think his left bicep is an inch bigger after that.

My Girls

Celia likes to entertain Emme during tummy time.

She showed Emme how to call someone..I think they called G.G. and Tutu.

I guess, with two girls, I should get use to them being on the phone. Well, actually, I wonder if they make toy cell phones with texting.
(Please pardon the picture quality, there were finger prints on the lens.)

Tutu's Visit

Tutu visited us a few weekends ago. On Saturday morning, Celia took her to see the playground across the street.
They had a great time and also went to a neighborhood garage sale. David got a nap in and I appreciated the chance to take a long shower.
Emme got lots of Tutu time as well. They had lots of talks.
We ate a lot of good food while Tutu was here. Emme is now old enough that she wants to be a part of everything, so even though she can't eat, she likes to sit at the table during meals.
The place we ate on Sunday for lunch was on Shem Creek which is where the shrimp boats come in. I guess that attracts lots of pelicans, so after lunch Celia went to see them up close.

Mademoiselle Celia

We told Celia that as soon as she was potty trained, she could take ballet lessons. She is coming along, she still has accidents every few days (does that count as potty trained?), but she is getting better. So, I went ahead and signed her up since they don't even start until the end of August. While Tutu was here, we went to get her attire. Pink leotard, pink tights, pink shoes. The lady who assisted us was so sweet to Celia as she measured her foot and found the right shoes.
Celia got to pick out which leotard and skirt she wanted.
Good thing there weren't any green ones or we might have had a problem.
When we got home, she tried the whole outfit on.
And practiced a few dance moves. I am excited to see how she likes dance class.

Photographer in Training

Celia got a hold of Tutu's camera and was off taking pictures. Tutu and David helped out a little in making sure Celia got everyone in the picture. The picture of Emme and David is right side up.

Swimming

Saturday after nap, we went to the neighborhood pool. Celia showed off her swimming skills including floating and swimming under the water (holding her breath and pushing off to someone).
I think she was a little over excited about Tutu visiting because she swallowed a lot of water. Emme went swimming too, but got tired after a while and took a nap in my arms.


We went home and Celia got some good Tutu time while I cooked dinner--yes, I actually cook these days.

Baptism

On Sunday, David performed his first baptism. He baptized Emme. It was wonderful. He did a great job and Emme looked around the whole time. One member told me afterwards that he was sure Emme made eye contact with every member.After church, Tutu, Emme, Celia and I returned home while David did another baptism at the 11 o'clock service.
Emme got a wonderful soft lamb toy from a church friend in celebration of her baptism. Celia suggested that she and Emme share. I keep saying that I need to video Celia saying that she and Emme should share for when Emme is old enough to play with Celia's toys. Celia has shown signs that she will still be a good big sister as they get older. When Emme cries, Celia doesn't get upset, she just says "its okay Emme, don't cry" and she has shared her Texas bear (a gift from her late grandpa) with Emme, so maybe that video won't be necessary.

Carriage Tour

On Sunday, we went on a carriage ride in downtown Charleston. It was HOT.

The tour was 1 hour long.
Emme and Celia were both great for the first 45 minutes, but then got a little hot and tired. We still had a great time and heard lots of stories, although we were later warned that half of them might just be made up-who cares, I don't know the difference and neither will any of you when you visit and we take you on a tour of downtown.

Money for God

Today, I was helping in the workroom at church before Sunday School. It came time to take Celia to class and I left my stuff (including my purse) and off we went. Half way there, Celia asked for a dollar to put in the offering envelope. I told Celia that I didn't have my purse, so it would be okay if we just skipped this week. She looked up at me and said, "No money for God?" Needless to say, after I dropped her in her class, I went back and got my purse and took her a dollar. She was waiting at the door of the classroom when I got back waving the offering envelope. I handed her a dollar and she excitedly put it in the offering envelope.

Cake

For her 2nd birthday, Celia received a box with 50 mini containers of Play-doh in every color. She received so many toys for her birthday that we put away half of them for another day.

David and I hosted our first official church function at the house. Celia (and Emme) stayed upstairs with a babysitter. David got the Play-doh out to be a special treat. When I checked on Celia mid-evening, she and Drew were making animals of every color out of Play-doh. Later, Celia apparently wanted to make a cake. She even put ice cream on top. Want a piece?

Rolling Over

Emme is getting so strong . She can prop herself up for long periods of time and roll over really well. Now we are working on sitting up. Emme loves to talk. In the mornings when she wakes up, I get her all set up to eat and then she just turns her head, smiles at me and starts talking. It takes a while to convince her to eat even though it has been 10 hours since her last meal.

It is so neat to watch her growing although it is definitely happening way too fast.

Sun Baby

Celia is sun-kissed. We spray her with sun screen every morning before school, but she still glows from her time on the playground and at the pool with David. Her normally brown hair is a beautiful golden honey color that curls into ringlets when she has been outside playing. Her skin is a sweet caramel color. David was a lifeguard growing up and based on the pictures I have seen of him during that time, she definitely takes after him.

Super Baby

Both Emme and Celia love the Super Baby (Super Big Girl) game. I think it is one of the reasons they both have such strong tummy muscles. I am pretty impressed with myself for getting the action shot of Emme drooling although I should admit (related to the last post) that these are two of the eight pictures I took--the other 6 weren't in focus.

With two kids, David is a pro at dodging drool and spit up. It is good exercise for his reflexes.

Emme used those strong stomach muscles to rollover just before this picture was taken. I had put her on her tummy and she turned her head to look up and her body just kind of followed. I was very excited, but she didn't seem to notice her new skill.

Paparazzi

There are some days when being around Celia is similar to being chased by the paparazzi. I have taught her that it is not appropriate to take pictures of me when Emme is nursing, but any other time seems fair game. I do have to admit, she does a better job of taking pictures in focus than I do.

Our Crappy Holiday

Warning, this post is about potty training and therefore discusses bodily functions.
For our Fourth of July, we decided to take on the fun task of potty training (what better way to spend a long weekend, right?). Celia has been using the potty in the mornings when she wakes and at bath time for awhile. She just hasn't anticipated the need to go. So, I read the "Potty Training in One Day" book. The process is that you spend all day in the kitchen talking about the potty while giving your kid lots of drinks so you have many opportunities to practice actually using the potty. We figured, "why not try it?"

I prepared for today like I would any project, I made notes, prepared reminder sheets, bought the Potty Patty doll, the treats (candy, grapes, Cheetos, cheese), the special drinks (juice, Gatorade, milk) and the training pants. David read the book, too, so we could take turns. I talked to Celia all week about how she wasn't going to go to school on Friday because we were going to work on using the potty. We had previously told her that she can take dance lessons when she is potty trained, so she was VERY excited.

This morning, we ate breakfast and then I gave Celia the doll. She loved the doll. Then I gave her the new cotton panties (training pants). She loved them. Celia and the doll both changed from their diapers to big girl panties. Celia happily "taught" the doll how to use the potty. When the doll had an accident, she helped the doll practice going pee on the potty. Then Celia said she needed to pee and used the potty. "WOW," I thought, "this isn't going to take all day...maybe just an hour. I am so glad I have such a brilliant child."

Celia and I stayed in the kitchen following the process from the book. Suddenly, Celia said she needed to poop and ran to the bathroom. I was so glad she was catching on so well and followed her to the bathroom. TOO LATE. She had apparently not realized she needed to go until the deed was done.

Now I was faced with a problem, if the child has an accident, they are suppose to practice (before changing panties) by running to the potty, lowering their pants, sitting down for a second, raising their pants and repeating--10 times. The book even has a Q&A section where someone asks about poop accidents and it says to treat them the same. Well, with panties full of poo, that just isn't realistic. It also says that it is likely since the child will be potty trained so quickly, that they won't even poop during the training process, lucky us to be the exception to the norm.

Okay, so we skipped the practicing step. Next, the kid is suppose to clean themselves up with no help. I should mention that the consistency of Celia's accident was similar to the thick mud you might find in a face mask. You know the kind that you put on, let sit for 5 minutes and them almost have to scrub off because it is so thick? So Celia took off her panties which caused the poo to smear all the way down her legs. She then began using wipe after wipe trying to get the stuff off. I must admit, I ended up helping her a bit. Celia put on clean panties, we put the dirty ones in the wash and resumed training. At least we got the poop out of the way. Now, I gave her lots of liquids so that we could continue to practice.

An hour later, she still hadn't peed. We were sitting there and she said she needed to use the potty. When we got to the bathroom (which I will add is 2 feet from our kitchen table) and she pulled down her pants, it was too late. Crap, no really, she had pooped again. Since she pulled down her pants and sat down before we realized it was too late, poop was again smeared down her leg. This was not how the book said things should go. I called to the other room for David for help.

David instructed Celia on how to wipe the big stuff off and put the toilet paper in the potty. Celia finished cleaning up the big stuff, then got down from the potty and flushed it. Immediately, it started backing up. I guess all that paper and Kando wipes were just too much for it. David used the plunger and then took Celia upstairs for a shower. He made her clean herself up in the shower only helping by telling her where else she needed to wash. Celia put on new panties and a clean shirt and came back down stairs.

Celia was still in a positive mood about the potty training, thankfully. It was now lunch time, so we all ate lunch. All during this, we continued to do pants checks where you ask if the kid's panties are dry. Celia still had not peed since that first time when we started despite all that extra fluid she was drinking. She stayed dry during lunch and we encouraged her to drink more.

After lunch, David and I were discussing the training and laughing at how it was going-really, what are the odds that our kid on the day we decide to train would need to poo twice. Then Celia made a noise and we asked if she needed to go potty. She said no, but we checked her pants anyway...what? again? you have got to be kidding. She pooped again. This was definitely not in the book. David took her upstairs, put her in the shower and told her to clean up. As they walked up the stairs, David and I decided to abort mission. Three poos in three hours just isn't what we had signed up for.

I cleaned up all of our supplies (drinks and snacks) and put the training pants away for some other day. Then David came back down and asked for a pair of training pants. I stared at him blankly and he said Celia still wanted training pants. I reluctantly gave him a pair. Celia came back down stairs with her new panties and shirt on.

It was now nap time. We put Celia's mat on the floor on top of a towel. I asked before she lay down if she wanted to pee and she did, in the potty. Celia stayed dry through nap.

After nap, she and David went outside for him to mow the lawn. While he was mowing, she stood up and said she had to pee. They rushed in and to the potty. She peed as she was pulling down her panties. We practiced 10 times and she changed her panties.

An hour later, Celia was back outside with David barbecuing. She said she had to pee, stood up and said “uh-oh”. Too late. We practiced 10 times and changed panties.

We ate dinner. At the end of dinner Celia need to wash some food off her hands. She went to the bathroom to wash her hands and said, “I got pee-pee running down my leg”. We practiced 10 times and changed panties. Apparently, all the liquid I gave her this morning was finally making through her system. Oh, goody.

After dinner, I took Emme upstairs to eat and get ready for bed. As I was feeding her, I heard David say the following, “Well then, run, run………oh, Celia you pooped.” Yes, that’s right folks, she pooped again. My theory is that the very candy I was using (per the stupid book) to reward my child was giving her the poops. David’s theory though is that it is because her last molar is coming in (make a note new parents-teething sometimes causes extra saliva which results in extra poops). David took her to the potty to clean up and then took her upstairs for bath. All I could do from my chair nursing Emme was laugh.

While reading books for story time, Celia said she had to pee and she ran to the potty pulled down her diapers (we are not trying panties for overnight quite yet) and peed on the potty, hurrah...maybe there is hope. Or maybe she is just teasing us so she can poop in her panties again tomorrow.

So, that is it for today, folks. Celia is wearing a diaper to bed and I am planning on having a beer as soon as she goes to sleep, maybe a few. The current plan is to put her back into training pants tomorrow….we shall see. Stay tuned for another episode of adventures in parenting.