Divine Intervention on the Potty Front

Charlotte recently started what we referred to as, the Potty Protest. She screamed when we asked her to go to the bathroom and she began having accidents more and more frequently. She made clear she wanted to be a baby and would ask to be changed on Cailin's changing table. She began biting her nails; our poor little girl was stressed. So we were stressed.

Two weeks ago, our pastor challenged the church to be very specific with prayers. His point was that you can't know if God answered your prayer when you ask for something ambiguous. So then how can you give God the credit He deserves? We are living in limbo with Matt's upcoming job and another potential move (yea, I know), but Matt and I both felt the potty issue was of higher importance. We essentially asked the God who created the world, to re-potty train our toddler. The second we finished praying, we were paged to go get Charlotte from the nursery. I thought "Wow God, that was quick!" We were paged because she'd told her teacher "I peed." We were too late. It seemed to me, God was saying "Nope, do it yourself." That afternoon though, we put Charlotte back in underwear and hoped for the best. She did great- no accidents! And it's been 2 weeks of great success. She's had a few accidents in this time, but her response is "Oh no!" instead of "Ha Ha!"

I'd have thought God had more important things to do than worry about toileting, but if you ask, you shall receive.

Cailin- 2 months old!

Happy 2 months sweet baby Cailin! It's crazy to realize we now have 2 children at home! We always thought your sister was an easy baby...you've shown us wrong.

-You are a great eater. The doctor was impressed to see that you take a quick 4 minutes to finish a feeding. You'd think that meant Charlotte didn't have time to get into trouble while my hands were tied, but you'd be wrong. You seem to be allergic to dairy just like your sister was. Hopefully you also grow out of this.

-You are very proportional. You are in the 80th percentile for height, weight, and head circumference. Your cheeks and chins are evidence of this. You've grown out of most 0-3m clothes and are now wearing size 3-6m. You are in size 1 diapers and they are becoming too small. The plan is to switch to cloth diapers when this package of disposables runs out. I'm not nearly as excited about cloth as I was the first time around.

-You are an unbelievable sleeper. We started with a schedule from the day you were born and you have adopted it well. You nap a few times during the day and sleep very well at night. I can't include the specifics on a public post because that'll guarantee you don't sleep at all tonight. You put yourself to sleep which sometimes takes up to ten minutes (of unhappy sounds) but you refuse the pacifier and seem restless when we try to rock you. You love to be swaddled and are still sleeping in the Moses basket. We will transition to the crib in the next week or so since you're getting so big.

-You are becoming very conversational. You often respond with coos and goos when spoken to. Though you aren't saying words, it still makes me melt.

-You are a very smiley baby. Your sister often looks at you to see if you're "happy" or "smiling." She almost always finds the answer is "yes." When you become tired and start to fuss, your sister says "bed" or "night night." Your cues are so easy to read that even a toddler can understand them.

You are such a sweet baby and though the house is certainly crazier than 2 months ago, I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Love,
Mama

Smiles!

Kisses!

Cheeks!

Christmas morning!

We had a fantastic Christmas! It's the first year Charlotte really understood what was going on and she was so excited. We spent the entire month of December talking about Santa and Jesus. We decided to keep Santa as a fictional character who visited malls but would not be the gift giver in our home. I think Charlotte would've had nightmares if we told her he was coming into our house. At the beginning of the month, Charlotte got her own Little People Nativity Scene and learned lots of new words like angel, Jesus and manger. She seemed to get that Christmas was Jesus' birthday (as much as she gets the word "Jesus" and "birthday").

We spent the week before Christmas exploring trains in the DC area in hopes that Charlotte would enjoy her main gift. We went to Burke for church with some long time friends on Christmas eve. Charlotte had a great time in the nursery while Cailin (and Matt) paced in the back of the service. We spent some time catching up after the service and got home late. We raced the girls to bed, then pulled out a train table which may as well have come from Ikea. Matt was up very late but the excitement was enough to get him through the following day. We had monkey bread for breakfast which was a tradition when I was a kid.

Then it was time for presents! We spent all morning in our PJs unwrapping gifts. Charlotte actually took 3 days to open all of the presents. Her favorite gifts include sippy cups, the choo choo, and Mr. Potato Heads. Cailin needed some help with her gifts. Charlotte happily unwrapped stuffed animals, a baby doll, and some teethers for her sister. After nap, we cleaned up the house and had some new friends over for dinner. It was a simple way to spend the day and it was simply perfect.