Happy Halloween!

This was Alex's first year to go trick or treating! The last 2 years, she just seemed too young to really realize what was going on. She LOVED it! She was not afraid to go to the doors and knock.

We started off by going to a neighborhood party with our friends, the Mikitaroffs. Josh has been sick since Friday evening so he had to sit out on the activities, but my parents came in town so they went with us.
After the party, Alex and Kate went trick or treating together. They were sooo cute!

Alex LOVED having her Popi and Nomi there. Popi even held the little ballerina when she got too tired to keep walking!

Something about Alex

There is something about this little girl I absolutely adore. Well actually, there are about a million somethings I love and adore!

I love how sweet and silly she is!

I love how she told me yesterday, Daddy was her best friend!
I love how she will stop whatever she is doing to give me a hug or a kiss!

I love her little sing songy voice!

I love that she loves talking to Nomi, Grandma, Popi and Grandpa on the phone!

Most of all, I love that she is a mommy's girl.

Ballet and Tap

Alex is kinda hit or miss with her dance class. Once she gets there, she has fun, but she never wants to get ready or leave the house. She refused to go into the class unless I went in with her so I spent most of the time sitting in the corner watching. I'm so glad I took my camera this week because they were sooo cute!

Alex is going to be a ballerina for Halloween.

This is her costume (and new leotard or dance)!

She has done so well with her potty training. We had one accident this week at home. It was my fault, I told her I was going to pick out her clothes, then she'd potty before she got dressed. I got sidetracked on the phone and before I knew it, she ran to me telling me she had pottied. :( We've been out and about this week and she has done GREAT! I can now say I've seen more public bathrooms this week than I ever have. When we go somewhere, I try to make a mental note of where the bathroom is in case we have to run there. We had 3 false alarms at Barnes and Noble the other day, but I would much rather make multiple trips to the bathroom than have an accident! She doesn't seem to have any fear of using different toilets and does pretty good sitting on an adult size toilet!

Spooky!!

We went for our yearly family pumpkin patch trip today. It's a little local pumpkin patch that donates the proceeds to Habitat for Humanity. We've gone to the same place since Alex's first October! Unfortunately, since we waited so long the pumpkins were a little soft so we took a few pictures then headed to the grocery store for a pumpkin!

Alex watched Josh work on our pumpkin while I made dinner.

Alex was even sweet enough to let Cooper lick the pumpkin scoop!

Josh and the pumpkin!

The pumpkin (and one of my mums I got for $5 at Lowes!!!)

Meet Spooky! Alex loves the word Spooky so she named our pumpkin Spooky Pumpkin!

Adorable

Saturday we went to Josh's company cook off. Josh volunteered to be in the pie throwing booth. He had pies thrown at him for 20 minutes. We missed most of it because Alex decided she had to go to the bathroom. When he was done, I snapped my favorite picture of Josh and Alex. I love that in the middle of all the chaos, all she wanted to go was kiss her Daddy!

I love seeing their sweet little lips puckered up to kiss!

Potty Training Recap

Well, I think it's safe to say Alex is potty trained...at least at home. Our first challenges will be this week when we go to gymnastic, dance and just continue our week like normal.

We had ZERO accidents yesterday. So far today, I've let her tell me when she had to go and stopped asking her. We are still accident free!!

I didn't really try a particular method. I've read some about the 3 day method and some other potty training tips/ideas. I kinda went my own route to see what worked best for us. We've had a potty for a while. We started out with the Fisher Price frog potty like a year ago. Alex HATED it! She would cry every time she sat on it. I ended up picking out a different one. We picked this one that can be used as a potty on the floor and it fits on our toilet with the bottom turning into a little step.

After cleaning a poo out of the potty I decided to put it on the toilet so I wouldn't have to clean it out anymore. The little step from the potty isn't quite tall enough so I ordered her a stool from Restoration Hardware Baby and Child. It will be here this week and it should make her reaching the toilet and washing her hands MUCH easier!

We stocked up on undies. For the first 2 days, I tried to keep her in the Gerber training pants. Not the plastic ones, but all cotton ones that are a little thicker than regular thin undies. I really liked these because when she would have an accident, she knew, but since they were thicker, it didn't leave as big of a mess where ever she was. I pretty much put her in undies as soon as she woke up every morning and we went about our day at home. I had to totally cut out TV the first day and a half because she would get so engrossed in the TV she would usually have an accident. After that, I went back to letting her watch a show or 2 through out the day, but it was always after she had used the bathroom. The first 2 days, I asked her every 30 minutes or so if she had to use the bathroom. She would tell me she had to go about 50% of time, the other times she would go when I suggested it. Today she told me every single time. We watched Toy Story earlier today and I was so proud she actually told me twice she had to go to the bathroom so we could pause the movie for her.

Our only issue we have now, is Alex is all about the M&M's. She will use the bathroom, get her M&M then 5 minutes later tell me she has to go again. She will push the smallest bit out for another M&M. She did this at least 3 times today. She also thinks if she sit on the toilet and toots, she'll get an M&M!

We will continue with the stickers and M&M's for a while longer and the "Potty Prizes" until they are all gone! Once we are done with the "potty prize" box I made we are passing it to our friend Kate who will start potty training over the holidays! I am sooo unbelievably proud of my little girl! This week we are going to Gymboree so she can pick out cute undies!!!

Potty Training: Day 3

Alex woke up completely dry this morning! She slept in a diaper, and will continue to do so until we feel she is consistantly waking up dry.

We finally had a poop! I know gross, but it had been over 2 days! This means she also got a "potty prize" or a poo poo prize as Alex calls it. I've decided cleaning poo out of the little "potty catcher" in her potty is so disgusting. I finally ordered her stool from Restoration Baby & Child so she can use the big toilet with her potty seat on it.

We ventured out for the first time today. We went to Josh's company cook off. Alex used the bathroom right before we left. We had 3 or 4 false alarms while we were there, but she finally waited until we got home to use the bathroom again!

Josh and I are just so amazed with how great she is doing with potty training. It took the first day from the time she woke up until 3pm to really get it. Had it not been for her wanting to go alone (and me letting her) twice yesterday, she would not have had any accidents and we didn't have any accidents today!!!

Potty Training: Day 2

As soon as Alex woke up, the diaper came off and undies went on!

She held out for a while and finally at 8:30, she told me to stay on the couch so she could go potty. She came back a minute later to let me know she was done! Woo hoo!

The day pretty much went the same way. She was all about going potty all by herself. We had 2 accidents. They both happened right in front of the potty. She wanted to go alone and couldn't get her undies down on her own. After the 2 accidents, I decided I'd take her into the bathroom and make sure she got her undies down. Then I'd sit in her room or the doorway until she finished! After we started doing this, she didn't have any more accidents all day long!

I'm almost scared to say it, but I think she has it down. Tomorrow will be our first challenge. We are leaving the house!

Alex still has not pooped! I thought she would do it at some point when she was supposed to be napping since she had a diaper on, but she didn't. I wonder how long this kid can hold out!?!?

Potty Training: Day 1

I made sure I got up with time to shower before Alex got up. I knew I would be sticking to her side like glue and with her naps being hit or miss lately, it was best not to chance it.

As soon as she got up, we went straight to the potty, took her diaper off and let her sit for a bit. Nothing. Then she got to pick out a pair of panties.

We had our fair share of accidents, but we also made it to the bathroom with time to spare several times!

Our morning started off with a few accidents and a few little dribbles in the potty, but nothing big. Alex got stickers and M&M's for the little drips so she would understand she was doing a good job!

Josh came home for lunch and we all sat down to eat. Alex wanted to sit at the coffee table so we let her. She told me at least 5 times she had to go potty so we'd run to the potty, sit and nothing. Every time we'd run to the bathroom she would yell at Cooper to stay away from her food. I really think she was too worried about her food to use the bathroom. The last time, she handed Josh her plate on the way to the bathroom. We sat there for a few minutes, I started reading her a book and she peed! A full pee!!! We were so excited we all started jumping around! Alex got her sticker and Josh let her pick out 2 M&M's!

During her nap time, she wore a diaper. She didn't actually sleep, but she stayed in her room long enough for me to wash and dry all of her undies from the morning.

After her "rest" time we had a few more tiny dribbles. At one point, she looked at me and told me to stay on the couch. She started running towards the bathroom. I told her to make sure she pulled down her panties before she sat down and she told me again to stay on the couch. I gave her a minute then peeked to see what she was doing. She was actually sitting on her potty, undies down! I ran back to the couch and reminded her to tell me when she was all done. She came back into the living room and grabbed my hand, she took me to the bathroom and showed me the potty! Another potty success!!!

We had one more accident after that, but 2 more successful (accident/drip free) experiences before her bath time!

We noticed, she likes going in by herself and pulling her undies down by herself. She gets so excited when she uses the bathroom! We didn't have a poo all day. I have a feeling she needs to because she keeps sitting and trying to push. I'm sure it's just the fear of the unknown right now. She is down for the night in a diaper. As we were telling her good night, she asked to wear panties when she wakes up.

I am crossing my fingers we keep going on this roll tomorrow!

Potty Training Here We Come

We are starting potty training tomorrow. We do not have any activities planned Thursday or Friday and the next 3-4 weekends we'll be home. I've been putting it off because I knew we had several 3-plus hour road trips and frankly, I didn't want to deal with potty training on the road.

We've had a potty for a while, but in addition to that, I am stocked up on juice, stickers, a little sticker chart I made, Potty Prizes, M&M incentives, and 13 pairs of undies. I picked up some small little things for Alex. I haven't exactly decided when she'll get a prize (after a poo poo in the potty, at the end of each day as an incentive, or after x amount of times actually using the potty), I'm planning on kind of seeing how it goes and then I'll determine what will be the best use for them.

My plan is for her to still use diapers at night time, mostly because I just got a box of 124 diapers last week, but also because she wakes up wet most mornings. We'll work on night time potty training a little down the road.

Pumpkin Patch

Alex and I didn't have anything planned today so we went to a little pumpkin patch in Bryan. Alex has been obsessed with pumpkins lately. We watched an Oso where they make jack-o-lanterns. The episode it called Pumpkin Eyes so every time Alex sees a pumpkin, she calls it pumpkin eyes. She even asked us to sing a song about pumpkin eyes so Josh changed up the words to "Hungry Eyes" (from Dirty Dancing) to "Pumpkin Eyes" and Alex loves it! lol

I wasn't sure where it was and if it would be open so our first mission was just to find it. It was open. It's actually part of a little farmers market type area. They have tons of fruit and veggies, plants and local products. They have a building next door that is full of pumpkins as well as a hay maze! We spent an hour just looking around and playing. Alex loved it! Before we left, I let Alex pick out a few things. She picked out 2 mini pumpkins, a pint of tomatoes and a container of fresh ground peanut butter. She's kinda random but I love her! :)

Baby Do Dit

Baby Do Dit is Alex's favorite new phrase. She wants to do everything herself. She loves getting in the car and climbing in her car seat all by herself. I have to make sure we leave a few minutes early because it takes her for ever and if I try to help, she tells me, "no Mommy help, baby do dit!!!" If I am making her breakfast and moving a little too slow, she will take her plate off the counter and take it to the coffee table and start eating. At the mall the other day she got out of her stroller and decided she wanted to push it. I tried to help steer and she moved my hands away, "baby do dit." Every morning we climb into our bed and she brings all of her babies and we snuggle while she drinks milk. She used to make 3-5 trips back and forth to bring everything she wanted to our bed. She got smart and realized I can do it in one trip, so she will say, "mommy help" so I will carry everything for her. For as independant as she is becoming, she still has her snuggle, wants to be held moments. While we were shopping yesterday, she insisted I pick her up and carry her. I guess that's what I get for not bringing her stroller! She is becoming anti-highchair and likes to sit in booster seats or just in a chair.

She will carry on a full conversation with me and I LOVE it! I absolutely adore this age! She loves talking on the phone and we call Nomi at least one a day and usually more!

She refers to herself in 3rd person all the time. She usually calls herself baby. On our way to dance the other day, we talked about her being a big girl while she was there. (The last few weeks, she'd flipped out and I would have to sit in the corner of the room for her to participate.) She informed me, "Alex no cry, big girl!" She stayed true to her word, she didn't cry and I didn't have to sit in the room!

Her second 2 year molar broke through. We are now waiting on the bottoms and all of her baby teeth will be in!

Busy Busy Weekend

We have been go go go since Friday! Cooper had his yearly checkup, then we took him to Aunt Linda's for the weekend. This is the first time Alex went with me to drop him off and she was not happy that her Cooper boy was not coming home with us. She kept repeating, "Cooper lay down, Cooper home please!"

Once Josh got home from work, we loaded up the car and headed out. We made a stop for dinner, then drove to Dallas. We stayed with my Aunt Martha and Uncle Greg Friday night. Alex slept about an hour on the way there. As soon as we got there, we put her down. She stayed awake until we went to bed close to 11. I woke up at 5:15 Saturday morning and got ready. I woke Alex up at 5:45 so I could get her dressed. We drove to NorthPark for the Susan B. Komen Race for the Cure. My Aunt Martha is a 4 year breast cancer survivor and this was her 4th year doing the walk. This was my first year to do it. It was absolutely amazing seeing over 20,000 people gather to walk for such a great cause. It was CRAZY crowded. Alex did pretty good considering she was going on about half the sleep she normally gets.

There were just as many people behind us as there were in front of us!

Our Team!

Alex supporting the cause!

After the race we went back to Aunt Martha's and loaded up our stuff to head to my parents. Alex was out within five minutes. It didn't take me too much longer. We made one stop to grab a bite to eat because I was starving! When we got to my parents, we relaxed! Alex got to run around outside, swing and pretty much just drag Nomi all over the place. That afternoon we were sitting inside and I looked out and saw what I thought was my Uncle Bill's dog. It was! He and Lynda were in the area so they stopped by and stayed for dinner. After dinner we started a bonfire outside. Alex had fun helping Nomi put sticks in the fire pit before we lit the fire. We thought she would be more interested in the fire, but she ended up getting sidetracked by a bottle of water with a straw and a lounge chair she figured out how to side down!

Alex crashed that night and not much later, the rest of us did too! We got to spend Sunday relaxing, watching football and playing outside. We ended up getting home close to 10. We had a great weekend that I wish would have lasted longer.

Busted!

Alex spent the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa. We had a great (for the most part) weekend! Friday we went to a Makers Mark bourbon tasting & dinner with the Tracy and Katie. The food was delish, the bourbon, not so much...but I also can not stand the taste of bourbon! After dinner we went bowling. We had an early night and Josh and I were in bed by 10:30!

Saturday we relaxed most of the day then headed to Houston for a friends birthday. We went to dinner then back to the hotel. A big group met us at the bar/club there and we closed it down! It was soo much fun!!! That is until the Sunday morning when the valet brought our car around and the windshield was busted! At first glance, I thought the windshield was wet then I realized it was broken. Needless to say we were not too happy! The hotel is filing a claim, but so far we haven't heard anything. It looks like someone took a hammer or something to the window. The glass is cracked all the way to the edges on 3 of the 4 sides. I am worried about driving it so Josh and I are trading cars until it is fixed. After the drama from the morning, we headed home to get ready, drove to Waco to meet Ter and Ray at 11:30, had lunch, drove back to CS, picked up a gift for a birthday party, then headed to the party at 3. It was a LONG day and we were beat by the time we got home. We were sooo happy to see Alex. We both missed her so much! She has been so sweet and snugglie since she got home!

Bad Blogger!

It's been like a week since I've updated. Josh's parents and cousin, Dawn, spent Friday night with us and my mom spent Monday night with us. We have a busy month ahead with lots of family time! Alex is spending the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa. She is super excited about it and we are looking forward to a weekend filled with dinner with friends and another friends birthday party!

Tuesday when we got home from running errands, I noticed our cable wasn't working. I reset our box and it still didn't work. I called our provider and while I was on hold I noticed our internet didn't work either. They told me there was an outage and it should be back up soon. By 5 it still wasn't working so I called again and spent an hour on the phone. When Josh got home he looked around and noticed our line had been cut when the builders we doing something on the house next door. Long story short, after many phone calls and getting the run around, we finally have cable and internet again after 3 days.

On a better note, Alex's sleeping is getting sooo much better! She is sleeping in her bed and only crying for a few minutes (and a few nights not at all) before she falls asleep.

Nomi got Alex some styrofoam sword like things from Target. We had so much fun playing with them with the lights off. Best $2.50 gift ever!