...And She's Off!

this past week..

I have been trying to potty train Claire this past week. Things are going well, i guess. I am trying not to leave the house as much as possible and so we go a little stir crazy.

Saturday we went apple picking, Claire really enjoyed doing that. I will post some pictures soon!

The Teeth Are Coming!

Emmy is getting her first tooth! I just noticed a couple white dots on her bottom gum, on the left side, front tooth. I can feel a little bump. It's very early and not too noticeable and hasn't even cut through yet. I just noticed because I have been looking for it lately since this is about when Claire got her first tooth. It makes me sad to think she soon won't have a gummy grin anymore! She's getting so old- the time is flying by. I can't believe in 2 weeks she will be 6 months already!!! Half way to a year old. My gosh.

Zoo

We went to the DC Zoo the other week. Claire was pretty cranky so I didn't really take any pictures of her. We didn't get a chance to see all the animals and I didn't take many pictures of them since we all know how animals look like, but here are just a few pictures that I have of the day. Hopefully we will get a chance to go there again, only earlier in the day and not so close to Claire's nap time!

A slid show of pictures from Matt's company trip to Knobeles

Claire Dancing

A few things this week..

Today, the girls and I went to Longs Park for lunch and a chance to look at the ducks and play. It was a lot of fun and I need to remember to do that more often. Claire is much better at playing on certain play grounds now and I love to watch her! It's fun (yet sad!) to imagine both the girls running around together by next year! I wish I brought my camera along today; I left it at home!


Claire is going back and forth from a toddler bed and her crib still. She does very well in her bed when she is really tired but if she is not utterly exhausted then she will keep herself awake longer by playing in her room.

In this picture, Claire is sleeping under her bed instead of in it!

Emily is starting to find her thumb and I think she is starting to favor a toy now! She cuddles it while she sleeps (I will have to take a picture of that because it is so cute to see!)

Emily sucking her thumb

..but she still prefers her nuk!

Claire still likes to eat her crayons. We have Crayola washable crayons. They are much softer and dissolve a little bit when they get wet so when she puts them in her mouth, it makes a big mess. One morning Matt let me sleep in. I woke up to this frightening sight:

Matt did that to her because she wasn't listening to him when he told her not to chew on the crayons. Don't worry, The crayon easily wiped right off. I thought it was sharpie at first, so you can imagine how I felt and the words I was about to have with Matt!



Claire went pee pee in her potty yesterday! I had her in training pants today to see if that would help her to realize to use the potty. It didn't! But she did look so adorable in her big girl training pants!

Claire in her training pants


~.~.*.~ ~.*.~ ~.*.~ .*. ~.*.~ ~.*.~ ~.*.~.~

here Claire is being a girly- girl with her bows, jewelry box and bracelet

Matt sanpped this pic of me sleeping next to Emily..it looks like I was just waking up! haha

catching up

I still don't have my car! On Friday, the girls spent the night at their grandparents house. Claire at my parents and Emily at Matt's parent's house. Matt and I had a mini-vacation at my friend's cabin. We had a great time and are very thankful that our parents watched the girls for us!

This is a picture of Matt and I at the cabin. Matt's eyes are half closed- why can't we seem to get a picture where we both look decent at the same time!?

Today we visited Matt's parents and Claire got to swim in her little pool and cool off a bit. they had a great time and were exhausted by the time we got home!


here are a few random pictures from this past week:

More pictures to share...

I was trying to get a shot of Emily but Claire butted her way into the picture
- what a ham!

Always a lady....
(future black mail)


Claire sharing her 'night night' (this is a rare occasion)

The girls right before they went down for a nap

Emily chewing on her hands

(like usual)

Chalk on her nose

Big Girl Bed

Matt and I just put Claire in a toddler bed and it surprisingly went well!

I always joked about not doing that until she's 21! She is so active and really loves her crib so we figured it would be really hard to make the switch but it wasn't near as bad as I imagined! Maybe she was ready after all... or maybe this is just a fluke and tomorrow she will be horrible!

I think that it helps that it's still her crib just without one side so it's not unfamiliar to her. Usually when I put her to bed she has never once laid down. She is always jumping in her crib as I leave her room, so I was nervous about the whole situation but we just did the same bedtime routine and kept telling her it was her bed and she was to sleep in it. We then put her in the bed and left.

She followed us to the door but we just said goodnight, go to your bed and we shut the door. she tried to open the door 3 times (door knob cover on it) and then she turned off the fan and then grabbed her book end and brought it into bed with her. Later, I saw her spinning around while holding her blankie but then she crawled back to bed.. (we have a little window at the top of the door, so I was standing on a step stool, watching her!). She did roll out of bed, fell and started crying (we may need to pick up rails, I guess) but other then that, it was great. My only worry is since she shares a room with Emily, I don't want her to wake Emily up or climb in the crib to be Emily, (which she can do but she knows we don't like it) We'll see how tomorrow goes but I am very surprised with how it went today.

I don't even know why we did it. Matt just wanted to see how she'd react to it. I wasn't planning on doing the switch until she was closer to 3.

Next step .. potty training. But I don't see that happening anytime soon. We are just working on her not being scared of the potty right now!

Here's some pics of her first night in her big girl bed! I'm so proud of her!

Matt reading to her

Me stealing her "night night" (blankie)

She's kicking me off the bed..

GO!

I just had to mention this..

Claire said to me, "go!"
I said, "where do you want me to go, Claire?"
she replies, "Go in kitchen"
"why do you want me to go in the kitchen?"
she says, " making..."
"making what??"
she answers, "making supper."

I think Matt is teaching her something..

No Car!

It's been pretty slow and boring around here. I don't have my car and I won't until next Thursday, so there is only so much the girls and I can do during the day.

Every day Claire says or does something to make me realize she is getting bigger! Just today I was looking through her basket of toys and she got upset that I was in there and she looks at me and says "go away mommy!" Not that I like hearing that, but it amazes me that she is talking so much now, and stringing 3 words together so well.

Emily is trying to roll over now. She only gets as far as her side but I'm sure it'll happen soon enough.

We are still waiting to get our birthday gift for Claire we are pretty sure it'll come in this week... we ordered a play kitchen and I think I am most excited for it out of everyone! I will definitely post pictures once we get it.

Here's a few pictures and a video:( if I can figure out how to post it)

My First Post..

I realized just how fast life can pass us by and how easy it is to forget everything.. I'm so happy with my family. I love being a mom and some days are hard and some days I don't want to get out of bed but to see my girls laughing and smiling at me just brings me to tears! I am truly just so blessed...

Claire's second birthday

Claire turned 2 today and it was such a bittersweet feeling. She is such a big girl now! We started our day at 7:00am and by 9:00 everyone took a nap. My parents, Matt's parents and Eric stopped by in the afternoon today to have cake and ice cream and watch Claire open gifts. Claire had a great time. After her nap; Matt, the girls and I all went to a park to cook hamburgers on the grill and play at the play ground. It was such a simple but sweet day today. I feel satisfied with life, and just plain happy!