Valentine's decorations and 18 month well check

Well as much as I loved having my Christmas decorations up, I was so ready to take them down and put up Valentine's decorations. Now that I have kids I like to decorate for EVERYTHING. I don't go all out and actually try to make most of my decorations. So here are a few pics of what we have out for V-Day. I couldn't put out our candy bowl yet because all of us would eat it up so the candy will not be bought until the week of (more like the day before).

I took Caroline to the doctor on Monday (the day she turned 19 months old) for her 18 month check up. She is doing wonderfully and growing up right before our eyes!

Weight: 26 lbs 14 oz - 75-90%

Length: 34 3/4" - Above 97% (did anyone expect anything less?!?)

Head: 18 3/4" - 75%

She is like a little parrot now and can say SO MANY words and truly loves to copy whatever Luke is doing. They are playing together better and better although Luke still tries to get attention good or bad if they are together. We rejoined our playgroup we used to be in so that we can make Caroline her own little friends and Luke can reconnect with some old friends and make new one's as well.

Luke is doing great and really LOVES school now. We have decided to put him in preschool 3 days a week next year and Caroline 2 days a week in MDO. I have been taking the kids to a nature outing on Wednesday mornings where the topics vary - todays was nature sounds and they get a little tutorial on the topic, story time, we sing a couple of songs, make a craft and then go on a nature walk. The place is incredible!!! It takes place at a log cabin that was built in 1932 and once you are there you do not feel like you are even in Houston anymore.

Sorry I haven't blogged in awhile... we are all doing great, but staying really busy.

35 and 16 months

Where has the time gone?!? My little babies turned 35 and 16 months on Sunday and I can hardly believe it. Luke will be 3 next month and he has loved "planning" his party for soooooo long now and everytime it is someone else's birthday he will say "no it is my birthday now." We are letting his hair grow out a little on top and his vocabulary and imagination continue to amaze us daily. Caroline is all over the place all day long now that she is walking/running. She continues to be my little monkey as we find her on top of the kitchen table, the coffee table and really anything that she can climb. She is very loving but if she decides there is something she wants - she wants it yesterday and will let everyone know about it. Although she doesn't say her words everyday she continues to add more words. Right now she can say - mama, dada, apple, all done, robot, shoes, socks, pants, eye, mouth, nose, bye bye, hi, Pop Pop and she will try to repeat most anything.

Both kids LOVE being outside and with the cooler weather we have been going to the parks a lot and playing in the backyard or just riding big wheels (C in the wagon) to get the mail. Luke got to fly his first kite at the park last week and thought it was the best thing!! However, we did not take a camera with us in order to capture the moment.

Luke is really getting into school now, it took him awhile to warm up to his teachers but he loves his new friends and really enjoys bible study on Wednesdays. Caroline however is NOT so fond of being left with anyone other than family and cries a LOT when I leave her but she is getting better each week..... time will tell. It just breaks my heart though when I see her so upset. When I pick her up she hugs me and pats my back like, FINALLY.

I hope you all have a very blessed Tuesday!

Tough evening.......

Our day started off fine, we went to a friends house for a playdate and when I was getting Luke dressed he insisted on wearing his new superman t-shirt (which was one of his prizes for going potty like a big boy) and he insisted on wearing underwear!! Now I'm sure you all are wondering why this was alarming to me, well I have never let him leave the house in underwear - just pullups and although I bring extra everything with us I was nervous. However Luke did awesome all day - no accidents and he went potty actually 3 times at his friends house.

Both kids took about a 3 hour nap and I took about 1.5 hours and it was much needed - I have been feeling extremely drained lately and I'm not sure why (and before anyone asks I am positive that I am not pregnant). I decided to fix a family dinner (Luke usually just eats one of his handful of meals he likes) and that is where it all started to go downhill. I made chicken potpie which Luke used to eat like crazy and he would not even taste it. I told him if he would take just one bite that I would make him something else. Well, I finally got a bite in his mouth when he was crying and told him if he spit it out he was going to time out and no books at bedtime... I am so tired of making dinner and he not wanting to eat it. Well, out came the food and time out here we went... while he was in his chair he cried that he just wanted to go to bed his wish was granted. Now I feel like a terrible mom because this is two nights out of the last 5 that he has gone to bed without really eating... but I am at my wits end and do not know what else to do.

If anyone has any suggestions I would so love to hear them... we have tried it all.

I am so tired after the dinner saga that I am about to head to bed early.

WE HAVE POO POO IN THE POTTY!!!!

Just as I decided to not worry so much about WHEN Luke would finally decide to poop in the potty, today rolls around and while he was eating lunch he said "oh no mom I need to poo poo in my pull up." (which he was already wearing) So I grabbed him and said let's go sit on the potty and you can get your big prize!!!! Well after I sat in there with him, then he asked for daddy to sit in there and read him a book - and let me tell you they were in there awhile!!! James finally said why don't I give you some privacy so you can concentrate on going potty. Not 3 minutes after he was alone he was so excited yelling for us to come and there and look at what he had done!!!! Now I realize it might not happen again for awhile but I will take it - baby steps I tell ya.

Now the prize he got was a kids horseshoe game for outside which he didn't seem all that excited about until he realized that he could "pretend" the stakes are drumsticks and he found something to drum on and then kept saying "mommy you want to watch my rock-it band?" Where does he come up with this stuff? He danced and sang and put on a show and got a popsicle as a second prize which seemed to be the best idea to him!!!

Potty training update - day 5

So, although this has been the DREADED week it has gone by pretty fast (even though cabin fever is setting in). Overall Luke has done better than expected - he goes "tt" in the potty just about everytime we take him but still is not at all interested in going poop in the potty - this is the main area that needs some major work but we have tried every "trick and bribe" that we can think of. He has had 3 accidents in his underwear so today I made him go to time out and told him we would continue to do that with each poop accident.

Although I am a bit discouraged he has come a long way and he wants to wear his underwear and is slowly starting to tell us when he needs to go.... so we will forge on and hope we get there all the way before preschool starts at the end of August.

1 year stats - Caroline

We finally had Caroline's 1 year well check appointment and the doctor is very pleased with her. My little peanut is growing up and we can no longer call her that!!!

She weighed 24.4 lbs which is 90%
She is 31.5 inches long which is 97% - would you have guessed anything different in our family??
Her head is 18 1/4" which is 75%

She had to endure 3 shots and got her blood drawn from her arm - and although she cried as expected she recovered really fast - especially since we let her keep a tongue depresser in her mouth the whole time - she loves to "hold" things in her mouth (we threw it out on the way out of the office).

We don't have to go back until the end of September - thank goodness!!

Pics from C's actual birthday

I realized when I was looking at pictures today that I did not post any from June 25th which is Caroline's actual birthday. That day we let her open her presents from us at home and then we went to Memorial City Mall to let the kids play at the Castle and ride the Carrousel and that night she got to dig in and eat a cupcake.