Gobble Gobble Gobble

This year we had Thanksgiving 2 weeks early since that's when the Bergs were able to come down from Utah (maybe I will get around to getting those pictures up this weekend...) so today is just a lazy day at our house, which is kind of nice! I took the girls on a jog while Quinn played football this morning, and after Cailyn (and Quinn) wake up from napping we are going to go see Tangled.

When I picked Rylee up from preschool on the last day before the break, she had made this lovely Turkey: I told her that I loved the three eyes and three legs and she exclaimed "I know! I love three, three is my favorite!"

Amongst many other things, I am thankful for my smart, creative, funny girls and the joy they bring to our family. We've put them through a lot this year with all of our moving and they've been real troopers. I am also very thankful for the opportunity we've been given to work and live close to family again - it is a true blessing!

Stubborn Streak

I started potty training Cailyn on Sunday, using the same 3-day-potty-training method that I used with Rylee. Cailyn was SUPER excited about wearing panties and sitting on her Dora potty ring - in fact every time I changed her diaper after we bought her panties until I started training her 2 days later, she whined "No diaper! Dora panties!"

The first two days went pretty well - especially Day 2! Even though she only went to the bathroom 3 times that day (I have discovered that she has AMAZING bladder control!), she always made it to the toilet and was very excited about getting stickers and treats as rewards for going potty.

Today, however, proved to be a challenge. Cailyn decided initiate a power struggle. With this method, you never force your child to sit and "try" going potty; instead, the goal is to get her to recognize her body's signals that she needs to go potty and only put her on the toilet when she actually needs to go (this means that I have to catch her in the act), so we've been joined at the hip and I've asked about a million times in the last 3 days if her panties are still dry, cheered wildly every time she said yes, then reminded her to tell me when she needs to go potty. The first two days, Cailyn was totally excited about telling me her panties were dry, and would cheer with me - "Yee Haw!", "Wow, Amazing!", and "Woo Hoo!" are her favorite cheering phrases. But today, she started telling me "no" when I asked if her panties were dry - even though they were! She did go pee in the toilet once in the morning, but then had an accident. When I put her down for her nap, she kept whining "Dora Potty!" because she knew that if she told me she needed to go potty I would get her out of her crib. She did this a few times and sat on the toilet for about 20 seconds each time without doing anything. About a minute after the last time she sat on the toilet, she yelled from her room "Wet bed!" The little stinker knew that I would have to get her out of bed to change the sheets. So I quickly changed them, took away everything wet - including her beloved purple blankie - and left her to fall asleep. That was at 1:30.

She woke up dry around 4. I pumped her full of liquid, but she refused to go potty all afternoon. I even started cheering, getting stickers and candy for myself every time I went to the bathroom. When she asked for her own treats I told her she could have them when she went potty. She said no.
Around 7:30 I started giving her as many popsicles as she could eat, figuring at some point she would hit breaking and go potty before it was bed time. I was wrong. Even taking her purple blankie away (I couldn't see her panties to know if she was starting to pee with it wrapped around her body) and telling her she could have it back after she went potty didn't work!
Finally, a little after 8, I came up with a solution. I bought a Dora backpack - not with pictures of Dora, but Dora's actual purple backpack complete with map in the pocket - a while back with the intention of using it as Cailyn's "Big Girl Bag" (with extra panties, etc.) for going places after she was potty trained. I pulled it out of the closet and showed it to Cailyn, and her face immediately lit up! I told her she could have it if she would go potty. And that did it!

Just to remind you, she held her bladder from 1:30 until 8:30 tonight!
(How I wish I had that kind of control!)

In Rylee's words: "This is awesome!"

And she got a Halloween Treat, too.

Dear Cailyn,

You may be stubborn, but just remember: the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree and two can play at this game!

Love, Mommy

Testimony

Rylee bore her testimony in sacrament meeting for the first time this past Sunday. She saw everyone getting up and told me that she wanted to go up there too - which kind of surprised me because there weren't any kids getting up.
My initial internal reaction was something like There is no way I am going up there by myself with these two crazies right now. (Quinn was home with a bad cold, and the two crazies were particularly, well, crazy.) But I decided that I should never discourage Rylee from bearing her testimony, so I asked her what she wanted to say. She told me

"I'm thankful for Jesus. I'm thankful for nursery. I'm thankful for church."

I told her those were great things to say, reminded her to finish "in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen", and as soon as the elderly man finished his testimony I grabbed my girls by the hand and walked from the very back to the very front of the chapel; of course, since we came from the back, a few other people beat us there, which meant that by the time Rylee actually got her turn at the microphone, Hymn books had played musical chairs, a singular piano note had escaped in the middle of a testimony (a split second before I managed to close the piano), a nice lady (the choirster?) sitting on the stand handed me a "Friend", and Brother Griffiths from the bishopric came to help me and sat next to us. So much for not causing a scene.

Once we were at the microphone, Rylee started to say "I'm thankful for Jesus," but giggled about 6 times in the process everyt time she heard her voice come out of the microphone. Then she turned to me and asked "What was the next one mom?" Stifled giggled emerged from the congregation as I whispered and she repeated "I'm thankful for nursery. I'm thankful for church. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

Then she didn't want to leave the stand, and so she threw a small tantrum as I carried her and Cailyn back down and straight out into the foyer.

I am thankful for Jesus; for the gift of his atonement, his example of unconditional love, forgiveness, and patience, and for reminding me to let the little children come forward - reverent or not, his light shines through them.
I am thankful for nursery; for the songs and stories my girls learn there, the pictures and puppets they color and then tell me about, and...let's be honest...for the chance it gives me to get away from the crazies for a few hours!
I am thankful for church; for the perspective that the gospel gives me on life, the support that I feel from the members, and for the spiritual rejeuvenation that I experience each Sunday when I go.

Thanks, Rylee, for your sweet testimony and spirit. I'm lucky to be your mommy.

Trii-Tree!

Halloween Weekend

Here comes my monster of a blog post with a bajillion pictures...

Saturday afternoon we went to a little pumpkin patch near our home and picked out a couple of pumpkins.

Rylee was stoked to ride in the wheel barrow, just like I did in the stories I tell her about when I was a little girl and my daddy would takes us on walks around the block in a wheel barrow (:

That night we got dressed and went to a trunk-or-treat party at church.

Introducing...Pinkalicious!

And don't forget her Pink Cupcake (:

(Oh and, of course, Mo - the bumblebee!)

Pinkalicious chasing down her Cupcake to...what else?

Take a bite!

As soon as we made the rounds, Cailyn took a seat in the parking lot and dug in

Storybooks collide when Pinkalicious meets Fancy Nancy!

Unfortunately these are the only pictures we got of Little Red and the Granny Wolf...you can't tell because it's dark, but there are wolf ears coming out the top of the hat!

Fortunately, unlike in the book, a bath managed to wash away the pink. (Well most of it...Rylee's hair still has a slight pink tinge to it...)On Sunday, the actual Halloween, we had our own little family party with

mummy and jack-o-lantern pizzas

rolling pins and up-side-down cookie cutters

pumpkin carving

sugar cookie decorating

Grandma Mac's creations

Rylee's creations (I was very impressed with the eyes and noses!)

Grandma Joanne spent the whole night cleaning up everyone else's messes. Thanks Grandma!

And, last but not least, a haunted gingerbread house!

We had a spooktacular time!