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Busy Busy Busy and Sick

I haven't written in a long time. Here is the update...

Both girls and I are sick. Grace started with what I think was Croup. Yuck. Coughing and fevers followed up with runny noses. I have a sore throat and sound like crap. But anyways on to more fun things.

Charlotte is about 11 1/2 months old and she has NO TEETH! That's right... NO TEETh! Hahahaha. I love it. She is crawling like a mad woman and standing up on EVERYTHING but she refuses to walk. She immediately buckles her legs and sits down so she can get to her destination faster. She eats EVERYTHING! That's right... she is not a picky eater at all and she eats all regular food. She throws her bottle on the ground when she is done and gets mad when we don't feed her enough. I can't wait to see her devour her first birthday cake. She is my little angel. She loves cuddling and slept with me on the couch when she was sick. I felt so bad for her but loved that she cuddled.

She loves moving to music and loves when we sing to her. She is growing so fast but seems so young still because Grace had already been walking for a month and a half at this point.

Grace loves Charlotte but does not love sharing her toys. She puts everything up out of Charlotte's reach so she can't get whatever it is. HILARIOUS! Grace loves going to Grandma's house still and is still doing fun activities every day. She has done some pretty hilarious things lately too. A couple of weeks ago, she locked the bedroom door at the Augles and grandma said, "Uh oh, the door is locked. What are we gonna do?" Grace replied, "I know. I'll get a musketool," and took off running. Awesome. She uses binoculars to see the moon and sun and when she isn't at Grandma's using her hands up to her eyes to see us instead. Cute.

The first week of October Paul went fishing in Minnesota. It was a rough week. Grace was a pain in the wazoo and kept saying, " I want my daddy." She was not listening to me and went to bed at the earliest 8:45 each night. One of the days, she locked my bathroom door and then closed it and it took me about 20 minutes to figure out how to open it with a bobby pin. Then about four days later, Grace called me from upstairs and said, "MOM...come here a second. I show you something." I went upstairs and she said, "Fowow me." She led me to the bathroom door which was again locked and handed me a bobby pin while saying, "I locked it. Open it." I tell you I couldn't stop laughing long enough to be mad at her. She's too smart for her own good.

Her favorite toys are definitely her doll and her pretend food. She serves us dinner every night and wraps her doll up in blankets, puts her in Charlotte's car seat, etc.

Papa Dave is living with us now and it is going on a month. He has been very helpful with the girls and Grace is OBSESSED with the dog Brandy. Every time we come in the door she says, "Where's Papa Dave and Brandy? I go upstairs and check. Stay here a minute. I be right back."

He is hilarious too. When the kids are getting too close to the dog, instead of grabbing the kids and playing with them, he picks up the dog and holds her. Hahaha. Today between deciding whether to save Charlotte from the sharp coffee table edge or Brandy from Charlotte, I had to tell him to pick up Charlotte because he was going to save Brandy instead. Oh boy!

Well I'm tired. Peace out!

Back to work (cont.)

The last whole post was about Grace so this one I will dedicate to Charlotte. She is not doing too much new. She is cruising around the floor but technically she is scooting and moving up and down and not fully crawling but I think it counts. She is trying to get to furniture and loves standing but not on her own yet either. I feel like Charlotte knows how fast Grace did things and in her head she thinks, "When I get there, I get there. I'm not in a hurry!" She is constantly stopping to wave at us and seems to be teething although there are no teeth that I can see. She has been sticking out her tongue which is adorable along with everything else she does. She gets so excited when she sees food or a bottle and starts yelling and making noises. She cries if she sees a bottle and then doesn't see it again for a minute.

Hm... what else? She has started to put her feet in her mouth and likes to hold the bottle with her feet too. She actually will put anything in her mouth and today crawled over to Grace and started sucking on her toe. Grace thought it was hilarious. I looked over and was disgusted! Hopefully she will be immune from germs because she is obviously getting many in her mouth. Ugh.

She is continuing to add more new foods to her diet. She is eating regular grapes, peaches, and cantelope amongst the other real food she has had. She can pick up food with two fingers sometimes. Other times, she shoves her whole hand in her mouth to get what she is trying to eat. She has learned sign language for more and is using the motion during meals which is awesome. It looks a little like her clapping but she makes the mmm sound at the same time. Next, I guess we should teach her all done but she never seems to be. She loves eating!

The last thing I think that is new is that she is learning parts of the face. she likes pointing to my nose so far. I'll have to start working on the other parts, although I would rather not get my eye poked out.

That's all. Back to work tomorrow. Ugh!

Back to Work

Well I'm back to work and let me tell you, the first few days made me really want to throw in the towel and stay home. Knowing that isn't an option helps a lot because I would have a hard time not doing it. I'm confident that as soon as we get further in the year, it is going to get better. I'm just sad that I will be missing a lot of what goes on. This week, Grace is learning about the letter A from Paul's mom as well as Top and Bottom and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Seriously who needs preschool? She now recognizes A, B, D, I, M, O, P, R, T, X, and Z consistently. When I show her a U she says Umbrella and W she says Whale, which is still really cool! SHe has an ABC puzzle that she is learning with currently.

A recent new thing Grace is doing is babbling when she doesn't know the answer to something which I find really interesting. She started doing it last week when Charlotte started talking and babbling more but then it carried into when she doesn't want to tell me something or if she doesn't know an answer. For example, tonight I was going over the letters and when I showed her A, she said, "A." When I said a letter she didn't know, she babbled. Another time she has done this is when she had a potty accident. I will say, "Grace, why did you have an accident?" to which she obviously wouldn't know why so she would make something up in babble talk or her own language. It boggles my mind that she is doing this.

One of my favorite phrases of hers right now is, "Come on, fowow me," when she wants to show someone something.

Another is when I asked her if she wanted to go to Mia's party last weekend she said, "Papa Dave too?" to which I answered, "Do you want Papa Dave to come to the party?" and she replied, "Papa Dave, bring the puppy." She would remember him because of the dog that everyone else is annoyed by. Hahaha

She also finds it necessary to tell me that her poop is either big poop or little poop. Not sure why. Paul?

Charlotte is Crawling!

Charlotte is officially crawling and it is hilarious. Grace is chasing her around yelling, "No, Charlotte" and snatching up all of her toys right before Charlotte gets them. Charlotte then turns around and goes for something else! Awesome.

She is also eating regular foods some of the time. She has had chunks of avocado, sweet potatoes, bananas, and bagels with cream cheese. Where is the time going? I'm going to work tonight officially and meeting parents. Hmmm... not sure how I feel about this school year. Wish me luck.. and wish Pauls' mom luck because with Grace in the terrible twos and Charlotte crawling it could... no it will be hectic!!!

Charlotte Waves Now

Charlotte is waving now which is adorable! She is seriously the sweetest baby ever. She doesn't even get upset when Grace yells at her. Anytime Charlotte is doing something Grace thinks she shouldn't she says, "NO Charlotte!" I should probably practice my patience. I'm sure she gets it from me. At the same time, Grace is really fighting bedtime at night and she gets so sad when I leave her room. I'm sad I have to go back to work in less than two weeks. She is going to make me cry, I know it. That's all!

Grace spit on me

That's right. Tonight during bedtime Grace spit on me. I have no idea why. She also bit me yesterday. She really wasn't mad so I have no idea why she did either of those things. Last night I got so upset that she bit me that she started crying. She did say she was sorry. Hmmmm... something to ponder.

Charlotte is 9 months

Charlotte is nine months old today and we had a doctor's appointment. It was frustrating to say the least. The appointment was at 5:30 and we of course got there early and didn't see the doctor until 6:15. Ugh. My only question for the doctor was the spot on Charlotte's arm to which she said we should see a dermatologist. Ugh. Then she asked if Charlotte was pulling herself up and walking along furniture to which we answered no and that she was still trying to crawl. The doctor seemed utterly disappointed in that answer. Then she said something about talking and I said that she had already said "Mama" and "Dada" to which she asked if she was specifically saying it to us. I was so confused to what she meant but clearly she means does she look at Paul and say, "dada" and me and says, "Mama." Whatever... I am counting them as words she says. Anyways... I guess we need to work on the walking. I'm pretty sure Charlotte is happy and healthy so again, Whatever. So I guess I will be looking for a dermatologist in the area.

On another note, Charlotte is 27 1/4 inches and 17 pounds 13 oz. I think she is between the 25-50th percentile but I could be wrong.

Charlotte said "Dada" and Grace watches movies

Well two things happened today with the girls... NUmber 1. Charlotte started saying "Dada" which is hysterical because she just said "Mama" a few days ago. At the same time, Grace put in a DVD (which she has been able to do for a while) and managed to get it to play. Unbelievable. She also now has memorized the words to several books including, Minnie's Summer Vacation, and Good Night Moon. She reads them to me. I LOVE IT! The songs she memorizes now includes "You are my Sunshine." It is AWESOME!

Grace and Charlotte meet Jonah!

Charlotte and Grace got to meet Jonah yesterday when Kara and Kristy stopped by on their way to Brynn's Birthday party. He is adorable and Charlotte loved him. Here are the pictures. Grace joined us after her nap right at the end so she didn't quite warm up but she was running around later yelling, "Jonah, Jonah," so hopefully she will be sweeter in two weeks when the kids get together again! I love these little pumpkins!

Charlotte's First Word

Charlotte said "Mama" today for the first time and has been saying it all day! Yeah! I love her. Grace said, "Dada" for her first word so I'm so excited that Charlotte said, "Mama." Also, Rita got engaged yesterday on her birthday and Grace learned today that she was going to "THROW flowers DOWN!" during the wedding. LOVE IT! Can't wait for these girls to be flower girls next year!

Trying to Crawl

Charlotte is officially trying to crawl. She pulls herself forward, pulls her legs up and puts her head sideways on the ground for leverage. I can't wait. I lowered her crib all the way today because she is getting stronger and making me nervous.

Grace is currently in her big girl bed but fighting bedtime so I put the pack n play in her room and asked her if she would rather sleep in the baby crib or her bed. So far it works to get her laying down and closing her eyes in her bed. Let's hope it keeps working.

I'm already thinking of themes for Charlotte's first birthday party. I'm thinking a "Chunky monkey" party because that's what we call her. Some people think it's mean... I think it's adorable!

Play Doh

Thanks to the Bolts, Grace has some Play Doh to spark her creativity. Here's a video!

Charlotte- 8 months and 7 days

Charlotte got up on her knees all the way yesterday. SHe is on her way to crawling. She can go in circles and backwards a little but she is really working on going forward. Only problem, she is always eating so when she is on her belly she spits up a lot. Ugh!

Pennies, Nickels, Quarters, and Diamonds!

Grace learned about money when we were on vacation in Minnesota this year. She got a bear change purse and everything. So I thought it would be a good idea to teach her each of the coins. She definitely can decipher them however exactly like the title says, she calls them "Pennies, Nickels, quarters, and DIamonds" Hilarious!!!

Grace is Going to School, Well Not Quite

Grace loves walking around with her backpack on which she refers to as "Pack, Pack." She has been telling me that she is going to school and putting her shoes on and waving good bye. She just told me this again today and I said, "I don't want you to go to school today, I want you to stay home with me." She rolled her eyes and said, "I do it myself, Bye!" THen she went and put her shoes on, came back and said, "I go to school, kiss first." She gave me a kiss, waved goodbye and walked towards the door. Loving it!!!!

I am pathetic! Here's the last few months summed up!

Ok well I am pathetic. I said I would blog more but I haven't. I don't know why. I just can't seem to get in a groove. Well here we go. Today is July...something of 2011 and I don't know the date because I haven't had to think about it. I love not being in school. We have Kara's wedding this Saturday which I am super pumped about and I get to see all the K's so that's the next date I am paying attention to for now. :)

Grace, Charlotte, and I have been enjoying our summer so far. We haven't been doing very much except hanging out and spending the days laughing our butts off. All three of us. Grace is 2 years and 2 months old and she is AWESOME! At this point she is fully potty trained and has been since 21 months. She sleeps in a big girl bed yet runs out so much to pretend to go potty that bedtime lasts freaking FOREVER. We sing songs every night before bed, including, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," the "ABCs," "Itsy, Bitsy, Spider," "I'm a Little Teapot," and "Rock-A-Bye Baby." She has memorized the words to all of these songs and so she sings along with me. Just today when I was singing a song to Charlotte, Grace ran in the room and joined in. It is awesome. She never ceases to amaze me. She also put her shoes and backpack on this morning, gave me a kiss and said, "Bye Mommy, I'm going to school now." Hilarious. She has been watching Mickey's Christmas Carol lately and so when she gives me her crayons, she tells me, "Merry Christmas." Yes, it is appropriate. Christmas in July, right? Whenever Paul or I leave to go somewhere Grace yells, "Good Luck, See you later." Where does she get this stuff?

We have spent a lot of time playing with her cousins, Michael, Mia and Baby, "Yuke" (Luke) this summer. Grace usually wants to see them every day however we did see them every day last week because Stephanie was in town so at one point, I asked Grace if she wanted to see Michael and Mia the next day and she said, "No Michael and Mia, no share my toys."

Grace is doing really well learning her manners. She says, "Please, Thank You, and You're Welcome," and it makes me feel like I am doing something right as a mom. When we were at Oakbrook the other day, Michael picked up Grace's water bottle cap and she said, "Thank You Michael," inspiring Amy to work on manners in her household so the next few days, all anyone did was say "Please and Thank You."

Grace's other favorite movies and shows are "Robin Hood" which she pronounces, "Robin Hooood," "Little Einsteins" and "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse." I really need to limit the amount of t.v. she watches but she is learning from it. Just a few days ago she watched the episode on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse where it was Toodles's Birthday. So yesterday she started singing, "Happy Birthday" over and over again, switching the name of whose birthday it was. She didn't want to fall asleep in bed last night so we heard her sing to all of us one at a time. So cute.

I love giving Grace kisses which she gets annoyed with and so she also says, "No kissin me, momma." It is the cutest.

She takes showers mostly now, although it seems like there is more playing than cleaning going on. She also loves the pool. We bought her a "puddle jumper" which totally allows her to swim on her own. I LOVE that. It makes me not as worried about her. Although watching Paul with her in the pool freaks me out because he is crazy and takes her on the diving board. Good thing we don't have a pool.

Her first major accident was the week before we went to Minnesota. I was giving Charlotte a bath and the Augle's house and Grace came flying around the corner, tripped and hit her head on the bathroom floor. She had a pretty bad gash above her eye and I'm pretty sure she is going to end up with a scar. UGH. I did not like that at all. She did not get stitches but she probably could have. It made me even more anxious about vacation. She is so fast and never slows down. Makes me wonder what the next accident will be. She is always running around, hopping down stairs, and falling all over the place. No wonder why I have anxiety. I'm sure there is much more than I am writing but this is plenty long already. Plus, it's getting late and someone is bound to wake up just as I am going to sleep. Which reminds me...

Charlotte... Charlotte is my little peanut. She is 8 months and she is amazing. She makes me smile so much. I cannot stop giving her kisses. She is the sweetest little 8 month old ever. I felt like Grace was already crawling and such a big girl at 8 months and Charlotte is still my little angel. We can swaddle her up and give her a pacifier and she falls asleep on her own. She takes a 3 hour nap in the afternoon already at the same time as Grace giving me a break, and she ALWAYS wakes up happy and smiling which is more than I can say for me. I am still nursing her about once a day and giving her formula the rest of the time. I decided not to stress out about pumping and it is really working out.. No teeth yet but she seems to be teething so hopefully she will not be a pistol through that.

Charlotte grunts when she eats and yells in between each bite of food. I cannot feed her fast enough. She can crawl in a circle on her belly and really wants to crawl forward but can't quite get it. She flails her arms and legs about and gets mad. It is so cute. I'm thinking it's going to be any time now that she crawls... and then watch out. Time to baby proof the house. Did I mention Grace loves money now and can name the "Quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies?" Yeah so I'm gonna have to make sure she doesn't leave any laying around for Charlotte to get. Charlotte eats baby food still, any kind you can think of but no real food yet. I tried to give her a puff a few weeks ago and it didn't go well. I probably should try again soon.

Charlotte loves Grace... well she loves pretty much everyone but she especially likes it when Grace pretends to sneeze or tickle her. Charlotte laughs hysterically. My favorite times are when I'm in the car, the radio is off, and all I can hear are the two of them laughing at each other. Grace is very good with Charlotte for the most part. She does not always want to share a toy but we have taught her that if she takes a toy away from Charlotte she much say "Please" and then give her something else. I'm a little worried for the day when Charlotte fights back and wants to keep what she has. Both of the girls love going on walks in the double stroller an are very good next to each other. Hmmmm... what am I missing about Charlotte. Not much I don't think. I'm trying to keep her a baby as long as I can. Well until next time! Peace out!

POtty Training Day 2

Potty Training-- Day 1- 10 Accidents including the two during the night.

Day 2: I am exhausted as I write this but know it will be more accurate if I do this now!

The day begins: Grace woke up at 7:30 and we went to the bathroom. She did not go. We took a shower, where again she did not go and were downstairs with fresh clothes by 8:00. We ate breakfast... I made pancakes... all the while telling Grace, "Tell Mommy if you have to go potty." Grace helped me mix the batter because of course, I could NOT take my eye off of her, right? Charlotte was with us too and I was quite nervous about being on my own with both of them for day 2. However, breakfast went smoothly, Grace began her liquids, milk and water, and it was only a matter of time.

Between 9 and 9:30 Grace told me three times she had to go poop. Each time, we ran into the bathroom, took off underwear and sat on the toilet only to have Grace pop up, say "All done" and put the underwear back on. Finally the third time I said, "Really? Do you really want to try?" She shook her head yes so we headed back in. This time I said, "Ok you sit down and poop and I will go get the treats." She shook her head yes so I went to the kitchen to get the M&Ms and when I came back she was pooping. AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!! We screamed and laughed and high fived and acted crazy for about two minutes, cleaned up and ate M&Ms. Life was good and Grace was not constipated. THANK GOD!

Accident # 1-10:20. Grace was playing in the playroom with her fake food, grabbed her crotch, looked at me with a panicked look and started peeing. I scooped her up and brought her to the bathroom. Potty only in her underwear; none in potty or on floor. Not great but not terrible.

Accident # 2-10:48 I was sitting on the couch with Charlotte for one minute when Grace ran into the playroom. I got up after her but by the time I got there, thirty seconds later Grace had peed on the floor. Uh oh...my bad. Charlotte was screaming at this point because I had to put her down to run after Grace. Poor babies!

No more potty until lunchtime. At 11:35 Grace was eating her lunch in the high chair. She said, "Poop" so I ran her to the bathroom and she held it until we got there and went potty. Not poop but potty. Now I'm thinking she is having a hard time determining which one. Or maybe we got so excited about her pooping the first time that she wanted a repeat performance, who knows. All I know is she was SOOOOOO excited about her M&Ms and kept repeating, "TREAT, TREAT<>

Accident # 3- 12:20. Charlotte pooped so I went to change her diaper... heaven forbid and sure enough Grace came right up to me and started peeing on the floor. Hey, at least she was trying to tell me she had to go.

At 1:00 Grace said, "potty" and we went to the bathroom and she proceeded to potty. Holy crap... Is this actually working???

At 3:50 she said, "poop" and went potty in the toilet. Success!

At 6:15 p.m. she said "Poop" and went POOP!!!!! Wow... twice in one day. We went WILD again!

Accident # 4- 6:18 WHile having her "treat" in her highchair, she said "Poop" so I said, "Again? Let's go" and took her to the bathroom only to realize she had already gone POTTY in her high chair. Yes, THREE Minutes later. Whoops. Maybe we got too excited.

Now, Paul got home from lifting around 6:35 and I had just finished feeding Charlotte, so I was going to run to Babies R Us. I forgot to mention the cord to our monitor broke today so I was going to get a new one so we could hear her tonight. I was gone until 8:15. I walked in the door to Paul and Grace in the bathroom and Uncle Mike and Michael in the kitchen. Chalk this up to Accident # 5. Grace started peeing in the family room, came told Daddy, "potty" and continued to go on the kitchen floor. HMMM.... I have many thoughts. I'll keep them to myself.

No more potty after that... and Grace was put to bed after we set up the new monitor and watched an episode of Mickey Mouse. Here's to Day 3 tomorrow...To Be Continued

Feb 2, 2011- Potty Training Begins

Seriously where has the time gone? Grace is already going to be 21 months on Thursday and Charlotte is going to be 3 months on the 8th. Last night was Grace's second night in her big girl bed. The night before she cried at 3 a.m. but did not get out of bed. Paul found her "stuff" which consists of two binkies, a small blanket, a large blanket and her stuffed dog, "Skywalker." She slept the rest of the night. Yesterday she took her nap in the bed, no problems, and slept through the night without waking up, even though it was storming the whole time. Today began potty training. We started this morning with Lora Jensen's "3 day Potty training" method. After leaving Target with new underwear, mattress protectors, m&ms for rewards, and a new potty seat, I was ready. I go back to work in three weeks and felt I needed to do this myself.

Ok so that is what I got written during nap time. No accident during Grace's nap! Wahoo. Here is how the day went so far. I'm taking a ten minute time out while Paul plays with Grace.

8:15 Officially started potty training- Day 1

1st Accident- 8:45. Grace was looking out the kitchen door at the snow and pee started trickling down her leg. I scooped her up and ran to the bathroom. Underwear soaked and I'm pretty sure I had pee on me.

2nd Accident-9:15. Grace was sitting on the couch watching Mickey Mouse. Luckily we had put a pad down first. I scooped her up again and brought her to the bathroom. A little and I mean a little pee went in the toilet. YEAH!!!! M&Ms for everyone... of course Paul told me to only give her one at a time because she was drooling chocolate from her mouth. Yeah, try telling a 21 month old, only one. Please. A little moral support here...

3rd Accident-9:30. Yep only 15 minutes later. I was feeding Charlotte thinking I had at least 20-30 minutes before the next accident and Paul had to scoop her up from the corner of the playroom and bring her to the potty.

4th Accident-10:15. All over the kitchen floor. I'm pretty sure there way a trail all the way from the dishwasher to the bathroom. Lovely. Such fun we were having!

5th Accident-10:40- Grace was in her tent in the playroom and she started peeing. I grabbed her, half taking her head off as I snatched her out of the tent and when she was in the bathroom she appeared to be done. We changed her underwear and then she started going again. We managed to get quite a bit in the toilet that time and you would have thought we won a Gold Medal in the Winter Games. We screamed for joy! Grace got another treat and I went to clean up the tent and about 150 plastic balls that now needed to be cleaned. They are still sitting in the tub by the way,

6th- 11:38- Lunchtime. I thankfully removed the pad from the high chair because Grace proceeded to pee in it during lunch. Oh yippeeee.

Now from 11:38 until 1:30 Grace told me about 6 times that she had to go poop by pointing to her underwear and saying, "Poop." Each time, we ran to the bathroom only to have her crying for Daddy and not going poop. She did not have anymore accidents nor go in the toilet from 11:38-1:30 at which time, she went down for a nap. We started the nap process at 1 only to go from reading books to the bathroom about 10 times. When Grace went down for her nap, I was sure we were going to have an accident... but I went in to check on her at 2:30. She woke up, went to the bathroom cried and went potty. YEAH! Dry underwear. She went back to sleep until 3:30 and again had dry underwear.

7th Accident-3:50. Grace and I were having a pretend tea party in the playroom when whoops, her Cinderella chair got quite the shower.

8th Accident-5:00. Grace went potty in her underwear and a little more in the toilet. Yahoooo. None on the floor. We caught it in time and rushed to the bathroom.

Now from 5:00 to 8:40 there was no action what so ever unless you include me following around a one year old for three and a half hours saying, "Tell Mommy when you have to go potty," about a thousand times. At this point we still did not have any poop and it seemed like a really long time with out any potty. I called Aunt Amy and she suggested I have a pep talk in the bathroom with Grace. Soooo, I took Grace into the bathroom and talked to her about poop. Who knows what I was saying but it wasn't working so I started singing a poop song. Yep, that's right. "P-O-O-P spells poop, poop," something something, "YEAH, POOP." Grace started laughing and went potty on the toilet. Not bad!

We went through our usual bedtime routine, way too late at this point and Grace fell asleep at 9:30. We were all asleep by 10:30, Charlotte included and since I was awake with Charlotte at 3:30, Paul was on Grace duty. He reported to me the following morning through text that she had a large "accident" at Midnight and a small one at 2:30. She woke up for Mommy at 7:30 and the bed was dry! Whew Day 1 and Night 1... COMPLETE!