Using the Potty

We've had Abby's "big girl" potty out for a few months now. She's shown slight interest, but has never been too big into it. We think she's fully capable of being potty trained in the next couple of months, so we just decided to go for it and test the waters. We want to have a couple of weeks with plenty of time to focus on it. That leaves either now or Christmas break.

So, three days ago, we bought her some training pants. So long diapers! (except for naps). The first day (Wednesday) she was only in the training pants for a few hours since we bought them in the afternoon. We rolled up the carpet in the living room (sometimes having hard wood floors is just awesome). She had a few accidents, but we were learning (how often she goes, how much, etc.).

On Thursday, she went once or twice on the potty, but had plenty of accidents. But, the most important thing was that she was recognizing that it was not a good thing when she had an accident. In her diapers, she would pee, and we wouldn't even know about it (although in the past few weeks, she has been telling us right after she pees or poops). So, it was hard to convince her to pee on the potty.

When she does have an accident, we just do the "awww, man! Bummer. Next time tell us when you have to go, ok?" routine. It seems to work well. And she really seemed to understand that day that she should be peeing on the potty. She also figured out on Thursday that she REALLY likes M&M's (she gets one when she goes pee and two when she poops on the potty).

Then came today. I had class this morning, so she went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Apparently she was very interested in the potty (she wanted those M&M's darnit!). She did manage a few drops of pee.

But, when she got home, it's like something clicked. She had an accident (poop). After we cleaned that up, she said she had to poop again. Sure enough, pee AND poop! Hooray!!!! Three M&M's!! A new record! There were high fives, hugs, and kisses all around.

After that excitement, apparently she was ready for more. 15 minutes later, more poop! (although it was only a little bit). Then a couple hours later, more pee on the potty! Hooray!

She did have a couple of accidents still today, but we're feeling pretty good about the potty training. We still have two full weeks before she goes back to school. We're really hoping she's pretty well trained by the time she goes back. But, even if she's not, we've already learned and she's already advanced A TON in just the last couple of days.

Keep it up Abby!

Minnesota Summer Vacation '10

This post is very late. We've been so busy working on the house/house hunting since we got back but here's a look at our trip in a few pictures.

Bobo took Abby to one of her favorite places Underwater World. We went back in January and Abbers loved it this time she was a frighten by the sharks but loved these guys... the jellyfish.

Auntie Sally took Abby to Build-A-Bear, Abby found a Kitty and loved the experience except when they filled the kitty with stuffing. Kitty has even moved into bed with teddy at night time.

Grams took us to the Eagles Nest, a huge indoor playground. Abby is finally able to do some of the stuff on her own. But she still needed some help on the slides. She insisted having someone with her to crawl in all of the tubes (definitely not an easy job for an adult). Dave crawled around with her for a good hour. We also caught up with Aunt Heather and her girls, Alanis and Shelby for dinner. They were headed on big road trip to Montana the next morning.

Saturday morning we were up early to hit the Stillwater Farmer's Market and Teddy Bear park.

Later in the day after the guys played some golf, we took Abby to Lake Elmo Park Reserve. Her first time in a lake, (okay so it's man made, in the land of 10,000 lakes) at least its clean. She loved the water

The guys had a great time making sandcastle, Abby just wanted back in the water.

Saturday night we goofed off at the house, Abby rode her pal, Crotchy.

Playing outside at Camp Abby.

Sunday Bobo took us to watch model airplanes, Abby loved it. But it was too sunny for pictures. The planes land right next to a corn field so we showed Abby where corn comes from.

We spent Sunday afternoon on Bald Eagle Lake. Grams rented a pontoon for everyone. We had great weather and cruddy fishing. Abby really seemed to like the boat. She doesn't get that from me!

This is all we caught.

Abby liked the water, plus there were empty shells floating on the surface she could catch.

Right after Dave jumped in we told him about the leeches in Minnesota waters, and how he'll have to check for them when we get out. He was very unimpressed and didn't stay in the water too long (Dave's edit: I was in the water longer than everyone except Anna!!!!). I got in too but I hate seaweed on my feet so gross. It was a quick swim for everyone (Another Dave edit: except for Anna and I).

Sunday night we just hung out at Bobo's and relaxed.

It was a great trip, can't wait to do it again next year.

New Pictures

So much going on lately.... here's a look at what's going on.

We painted the bathroom terra cotta.... and then the realtor told us to paint it neutral. Dave wasn't happy about it.

It's hot here. Very hot. Everyday Abby wants to play in the water. Taking a break from her pool she loves the hose. And no that isn't a bottle of bubbles, just the empty container from the bubbles.

I love this picture!

Look we have a new floor in the bathroom!

And a new surround in the shower!!

Abby was trying to help me do the laundry. She did this all by herself.

We leave on Wednesday morning for vacation. We'll be in MN for a long weekend. We can't wait to see everyone. I'm sure we'll have lots of pictures when we get back.

Playing "baseball"

We introduced Abby to wiffleball a few weeks ago. Turns out she's quite the fan....

The Fart Song

The fart song, so cute....wait, wha?.....what did she just say?!? (listen for the "ck" sound at the end)

Just too smart....

Abby and I were sitting on the couch reading a book about animals found at the zoo. We read through it for about 15 minutes, looking at all the pictures, naming the animals, making the sounds, etc. She knows her animals pretty well.

Then she was done with that book. I asked her put that book in her room and to go get another book with animals in it. She got down, grabbed the book, said "hold on" and ran in her room. It was amazingly cute. I've never heard her say "hold on" before, especially in the proper context. She searched for a minute or two and came out with a book about African animals. I was amazed. She's got at least 150 books in there, and she picked out one specifically about animals. Maybe this is normal for a 1-1/2 year old?!?

We read that book for about 10 minutes, and she got down to get another book. I asked her to get an elmo book this time. And sure enough, about two minutes later, she came back with an elmo book. I was very proud again, although not as amazed because she didn't say "hold on" this time (that was the best part!).

After that she brought me a Berenstain Bears book. We read about half of the book, where it talked about cookies. Then Abby decided she really wanted a cookie. When I told her no (since we were going to be eating lunch in 30 minutes) she was not very happy. Needless to say, storytime was over....

So Cute....

Mesmerized....

What could be so captivating?
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Elmo of course!
We've been hitting up the library a lot lately, and they have a bunch of elmo dvd's. Abby usually convinces us to check one out for her.

A Bathroom Update

I have been working in a frenzy to try to get the house ready to sell. My goal is to at least have the bathroom done before we leave for Minnesota (in about two weeks). I would like to also have most of my huge list of other things done as well so we can put the house on the market (hopefully) in early to mid august....we'll see. We still haven't met with the realtor yet.

Just a couple weeks ago, it looked like this as we finished up the electric....
And the new tub!....
Then I spent the next two weeks putting up drywall in the bathroom, hallway, and bedroom.

So, over the weekend, I was very very busy. The girls mostly stayed in the basement or outside so I could get some work done. Saturday I painted for about 10 hours straight! You see....this project wasn't just about the bathroom. Since I replaced a wall, I also had to fix up and paint the master bedroom. Well, I didn't have enough of the old brown paint, so I had to get it color matched at home depot. Without going in to the details, it took AN HOUR to get it done! Argh....
And since I moved two doors, I also had to fix up and paint the hallway. The problem with the hallway was that there was that sandpaper finish on it. So, I had to sand that down as much as possible, put two coats of drywall mud on it, and sand it down a couple more times. Then paint it on top of all of that. I also had to paint the ceiling in the hall.

That's been the problem with this entire remodel (and remodels in general)....seemingly little projects turn in to big projects.

I also replaced the light in the above picture, as well as the lights in Abby's room and the spare bedroom. I finished painting the kitchen too! There was some touch up stuff left that I just never got around to.

And finally....the bathroom! You like the color? The non-painted area is where the tile will go. Since the bathroom closet was moved back, I had to fix the texture on the ceiling. That meant sanding it down, putting on two coats of drywall mud (and sanding in between) and then repainting it. It was a lot of extra work, but worth it to make the new drywall match the old.
So that's it for now! I'm planning on tiling the floor in the next couple of days (although I have two STUCO meetings, so we'll see). Then I have to tile the shower wall. Then all that's left is the little stuff....putting in the light, mirror, sink, toilet, trim, doors, closet shelves, etc. Ok, so maybe it's not the "little stuff" but each of those things shouldn't take too long.

JB Blast

We were debating on Friday whether we wanted to go downtown for the 4th of July festivities. We really wanted to see the air show (it's a great show that they just brought back after not doing it for several years) and the fireworks. Well, the air show is at about 5PM and the fireworks don't start until 9:15. That leaves several hours of just sitting around, something Abby is usually not very good at.

So, this year, we decided to try something different. JB Blast is a fireworks show that is just a couple of miles away in JB Park. So on Friday night, we headed to JB. We had to park a little under a mile away. We found a spot for our blanket and listened to the Air Force band for about an hour and a half. Abby was soooo good. She stayed on our blanket and played with mommy, Kai and I the whole time (with the exception of two short walks with mommy).

There was dancing....

Then it was time for the fireworks. We were worried that Abby would be terrified (after all, Peggy really doesn't like fireworks).

So then the fireworks started with Abby sitting on my lap. Initially, she was quite scared. She just stared at them and whispered "no, no." It was actually pretty funny. But then mommy had a great idea. She gave Abby her sunglasses, and then all of the sudden fireworks were cool....
I thought it was the sound that was scaring her, but apparently it was the light. Once her sunglasses were on, she "oooohhh'd" and "aahhh'd" It was cute.

The show was much better than we expected. It was about 20 minutes long and had a lot of fireworks. It's nothing compared to the downtown show, but it was still really good for a local show!

She was so tired (it was 9:15 when they started) that she almost fell asleep during the show. How that's possible, I'm not sure. Overall, she had a great time. And the best part was that she slept in until 7:15 the next morning!