29 On The 29th!

My hubby turns 29 today! So HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABE!!!! I love you.

We had a lovely evening with homemade spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, angel food cake for dessert and a game of Disney Candy Land with Jerry, Ellen, and of course, Laura Anne! Pictures to follow soon.

5 Months Old

Our little man is 5 months old already! These are a few new things about him:

• He can put his pacifier in his mouth, let go of it, and it will stay in his mouth!


• He can roll both ways, although he'd much rather just lay on his back for a while.
  
• He takes a bath in a big boy bath seat now.


• He likes to have something in his mouth at all times, whether it's a pacifier, his fingers or thumb, or a toy.
  
• He's not sleeping great at night anymore. We think it has something to do with him itching because of the eczema.


• He can scoot forward on his belly when he's on the bed (not on the floor). He almost took a nosedive last week!


• He does not like cool water such as the sprinkler or the pool at Carowinds. He was not happy that I stuck his toes in that water!

He started this trick in the infant bath tub so we decided it was time to switch to the big boy seat! Here's the cutie in his new bath seat!
He's getting to love his exersaucer. He can spin around and play with the toys (with the help of big sister, of course.)

Updates On The Children

Caleb and Laura Anne both had check-ups last week. Laura Anne had a visit to the dentist where they took an xray of her teeth. The dentist told me that there's still a good possibility that at least one, and maybe two of Laura Anne's teeth may abscess. We need to keep an eye on them and watch for discoloration and also pay attention to see if Laura Anne shows signs of discomfort or pain. Also, in the xray, her left front tooth looks considerably larger than the other one. The dentist can't tell if that's because it got shifted when Laura Anne fell and we're just seeing the tooth from a different angle, or if it really is larger. So that's another thing we need to keep an eye on. The dentist asked us to come back in 3 months to have another look. The good news is her gums healed nicely and seemed to tighten most of the teeth.

Caleb went to see the allergist on Wednesday. They did an allergy test on him and found that he is allergic to milk and eggs. He didn't have a huge reaction, but it was enough that we need to keep milk and eggs out of my diet. The allergist said we could really benefit from a visit to the dermatologist to get the eczema under control. Thankfully, we were able to fit in an appointment last Thursday with the dermatologist. That appointment went well also. We were given three more prescriptions and we received a lot of helpful information as far as what creams to put on him and when, and how to keep his skin moisturized. It was recommended that we switch laundry detergent to All Free and Clear, because even Dreft has fragrance in it that can irritate eczema. So, we now have Caleb's rash mostly under control, but we definitely have to keep up on it.

Now, in potty training news, Laura Anne is doing really, really well. Last Wednesday when we had her dentist appointment and Caleb's appointment, she insisted on not wearing a diaper. So being the brave, if crazy, woman that I am I went with it. She stayed dry all day! She used the potty wherever we went and didn't have any accidents! I'm so proud of her. We are not done, yet though. We had some days since then that we weren't so lucky, but she is learning and I think we are well on our way to having only one child in diapers!

And that, my friends, concludes this post!

Laura Anne Wanted To Say....

Graham is a friend of ours from church who now lives in Tennessee. He just celebrated his first birthday yesterday and Laura Anne wanted to wish him a happy birthday!

Getting Down To Business (Pun Intended)

I had an epiphany this morning. Up until now, we've been taking this potty training thing slow with Laura Anne. Mainly because she is only two and also, I didn't want her to get frustrated and decide not to use the potty at all. So we've been allowing Laura Anne to tell us when she needed to go and trying to keep things fun. But I realized this morning that we're not getting anywhere. She was doing really well until a recent phase where she didn't want to use the potty for a while. She's just starting to show interest again, but even now, she only has a successful trip to the potty an average of once a day.

My epiphany was this: I need to take charge. I know Laura Anne is smart enough to know what to do. She's known for awhile. So starting today, Monday, she will not be wearing diapers. At least, not during the day. When we first started potty training, I bought Laura Anne some princess undies. So for now, she will be wearing those around the house. Yes, I know I will have a few messes to clean up, but the concept is that she will learn that it's not comfortable to wet yourself, and also she'll learn better to distinguish when she has to go. Also, I spent 5 minutes on the internet this morning searching for potty training charts. I found one that's completely free and it comes with stickers. All I had to do was right click and print! It was as easy as that. Now we have a Hello Kitty potty chart on the bathroom wall. When Laura Anne goes in the potty, she gets to put a sticker on the chart. She loves it and it seems to encourage her enough! Today, she has already added 3 stickers to her chart. She did have one accident, too, but I'm confident that she'll learn fast.

So we're in this for good! At least, now I'm obligated to stick with it since I've written it for all the world to see!!

Powder Puff Pink

Carowi

Something about Laura Anne being big enough to ride rides by herself caused a happy-sad (as we used to call it) feeling in my stomach. She's getting so big and independent!

Getting ready to float down the lazy river!

Mini-Vacation

Jerry, Ellen, Chris, myself and our two beautiful children took a short trip to Charlotte this past weekend. We stayed in a really nice Hyatt hotel Sunday night. Monday morning we drove to Carowinds! We spent the day there and had a really lovely time.

As you know, the Olympics started last weekend. When we were at the hotel Sunday night we turned on the Olympics and ladies gymnastics was on. I said, "look, Laura Anne. Gymnastics is on." She got so excited and started doing this while saying, "I'm doing mastics!"

Chilling out on the bed
Doesn't she look so cute in that big bed?

Craigslist Find

We paid $35 for this almost new exersaucer. If we had bought a new one from the store we would've paid anywhere from $60-$75. I think we got a good deal!

By The Way...

Soy milk is nasty and I think I'm allergic to it. Caleb's rash, at this point is not getting any better so we are taking him to see an allergist. That will be happening in about 2 weeks. Until then, I'm going back to my precious dairy!

By The Sea, By The Sea, By The Beautiful Sea

...you and me, you and me, oh how happy we'll be!