Big Girl Type Accomplishments

I haven't written about it much, other than to say that it might be the death of me, but we've been working hard on getting Gabbie potty trained. I really wanted a few months without diapers, and I don't want to jinx it, but it looks like we might have reached that goal! I have about three months left before our Littlest Miss gets here and Gabbie has been accident free for over a week now.

Potty training may be the hardest thing I ever did. Throw in a busy work schedule, a strong pregnancy gag reflex that caused my husband to have to be the only one who had to deal with the number two type accidents, and all kinds of evening and weekend plans, and you get one stressed out family. Gabbie was ready, though. I don't think we would be where we are without daycare, and their strong efforts in the potty training arena as well. The peer pressure from the other kids in her class, big girl underpants with "Melmo" (Elmo), "Ancy Ancy" (Fancy Nancy), and "Minnamuss" (Minnie Mouse) didn't hurt either.

I am not above bribery to get my way in certain situations, and so we bribed with treats, "big treats" (fancier candy when she did a number two), and small presents for entire days (or entire multiple days as she progressed) without accidents. Now that she has gone more than a week, I'm thinking we'll get her one more surprise and then call it quits with all the treats. We've been phasing them out anyway.

As our work stress levels have lessened a bit, we've been able to see more humor in the whole process. Aaron has taken a page out of Gabbie's book and run out of the bathroom announcing to the room, "I PEED!" (Then I about peed - he should know better than to make a pregnant lady laugh so hard.) She's so proud of herself, though, that she can't help but announce her success, and sometimes clap too, every time she goes to the potty.

The best humor came a few weeks ago when Gabbie came with me for a potty break in a fairly crowded department store restroom. As I was taking care of business, Gabbie busted out with the clapping and a "Yay Mommy" for my potty success. There was snickering from the rest of our audience in the room, and one mom reminisced with me about when she was going through the same thing. It was pretty awesome.

I'm so proud of my big girl. She is growing up so much every day, and I feel like every time I blink she's doing something new. Two may sometimes be terrible, but I have to admit I'm enjoying it quite a lot. Even more now that I don't have to change diapers!

Kids!

This one's a little photo-heavy. Sorry if it takes forever to load!

On Sunday when my parents were here, Gabbie was playing alone by herself in the family room for a short time. All of the sudden she started running back and forth between the toy box and the couch, yelling, "Yes! Yes! Yes!" I let her continue for a couple of minutes before I checked up on what she was doing (with camera in hand, of course). 

You can't really tell from the top picture as well as from this second one, so:

She was dressing up her baby with Mr. Potato Head parts. See the arms shoved in the baby's sleeves? And the nose in the baby's mouth? And my favorite, because she always tries to be just like me - the glasses shoved up on top of her head ("Glasses Hat!", or rather, "Gwasses Hat!")

I'm crying laughing right now because the whole thing was so hilarious. You may have had to be there for the full effect, but I just love how creative my girl is. She's full of imagination lately, and personality too. It's awesome.

Also awesome was getting to watch her interact with her second cousin once removed (? - Aaron's cousin's baby) a few weekends ago. I mean, I already knew she loved babies, but she was pretty darn adorable with this one.

She wanted to hold her the whole time we were there. She got to hold the baby a couple of times and was pleased as punch (until the baby pulled on her braid right after this picture was taken; then she was done).

And, just for fun, here's a picture of my other kid (!):

We have other, much better pictures of her from our most recent ultrasound experience, but our scanner isn't hooked up right now, and these were on a disc. You'll have to take my word on it, but she looks just like her sister. If this second kid is as cute, smart, and funny as Gabbie, we're in big trouble!

Feathering My Nest

I am in little doubt that the nesting phase of this pregnancy is in full swing. I didn't really go through this at all with Gabbie, so it's a new feeling to me, this wanting to have my house in perfect order, everything set up where it needs to be and ready to go for when the baby gets here. I think it might have been apartment living that squelched the nesting last time. I couldn't really do anything other than wash and fold her clothes and get them put away, and make sure we had the gear we needed. So nesting last time was more like shopping, and I wanted to do that all the time.

This time, I don't really have the urge to shop, but if I could take off work and paint the baby's room today, I would. I'd also sew or knit her up a blanket, have all of Gabbie's baby clothes sorted, washed, and put into dresser drawers, have a freezer full of meals ready to go, and have my house sparkling clean from top to bottom, end to end. This is so weird!

Another example of the weirdness? I have an overwhelming urge to clean out my refrigerator, freezer, and pantry, get them well stocked, and ready to go. I also told Aaron this morning that we're going to make a Google calendar filled up with when we need to do certain chores, when bills are due, and other goals and milestones ready to go, so we don't get too disorganized when Baby J arrives. I also put up a dry erase board on the back door so that I can make sure to look at a list and have everything I need for the day when leaving in the morning. This is not normal for me at all!

As of today, I have slightly less than 2 weeks left until I'm in the third trimester, and if I could accomplish my huge to do list before then I would.

Speaking of the huge to do list, here are the things I'd like to do before Baby J gets here in December:

1. Paint nursery
2. Get furniture assembled and in place
3. Get baby gear cleaned up and in place
4. Get clothing organized/purchased, washed, and in place
5. Buy new life insurance
6. Get those wills in order
7. Decorate my entire house
8. Freeze a bunch of meals (try to talk Aaron into buying a small deep freeze so I can freeze even more. It's a sickness.)
9. Get all Christmas Shopping done by November
10. Can a bunch of jams and other foods
11. Get Gabbie's baby book completed, order a bound book full of Gabbie's baby photos, and organize all that related stuff
12. Clean the carpets throughout the house
13. Buy some containers to properly organize pantry
14. Finish unpacking or at least put unpacked boxes on shelves so the basement is organized
15. Take a nap

I think that's everything. Probably not. I also have to fit in work and family togetherness, plus all of the baking and other holiday prep that I love to do every year. Oh, and I'm hosting Thanksgiving, less than a month before my due date. I'm clearly crazy.

A Few Moments of Gabbie-Awesomeness

This weekend was full of Gabbie-Awesomeness (as well as a few large puddles on the floor, but we'll ignore those for now. Potty training! I think it is what is going to break me!) She was mostly a happy, fun toddler, and acted adorably, even while being dragged around Ikea for nearly five hours on Sunday.

The best thing about Gabbie lately, I have to say, is all the talking and the kinds of things she tells us. At said Ikea we bought her a play tent because of how well she behaved. We set it up first thing when we got home and then let her play while we started dinner. Well, she wanted us to come play too, so she stood in the doorway to the kitchen and yelled. "Hey Guys! C'mon!" She calls us "guys" all the time lately and it's adorable.

Later that night I decided to tackle the large box of medications, dental floss, bandages, and other accoutrement that have existed under the sink since we moved. More than a year ago. So I sat on the bathroom floor and sorted. When the box was empty I had quite the mess on the floor to put away somewhere. This is when Gabbie came running around the corner, then froze in her tracks, eyes wide, paused for a second and then said, "Mama! Clean that up!" I had to go to the bathroom (like always these days) so I told her I would in a minute after I went potty. During the minute I was in there, she told me to, "Clean that up!" two more times. She's a little bossy sometimes. We say she knows what she wants and isn't afraid to let us know.

Gabbie accompanied me to the grocery store the other night and wanted to be mama's big helper, so I let her walk next to the cart, pick up the items I needed off the shelf, and put them in the cart. As she did, she's ask what each item was. "What's that, Mommy?" I'd let her know, and with each item, especially the bacon, she'd excitedly exlaim, "Ooo! I lika bacon too!" It was nice seeing all the smiles and giggles coming from the other shoppers. I was giggling along with them. She's just so cute and fun these days!

But my absolute favorite is how excited she gets when she does something for herself, which is what she tries to do all the time lately. She dresses herself, buckles herself into her car seat and booster at the table, climbs onto the couch, and on, and on. When she manages to accomplish what she's trying to do, she will typically excitingly exclaim, "I dood it!" I know it's far from proper English, but it's so cute I can't bring myself to correct her.