Disneyland May 2010

My parents caravaned with us over to California last week for a quick vacation.

Bad Idea #1: Take a potty training two year old on a road trip.
Solution: We brought a kiddie potty in the car and just had her use that along the way.

We stayed in Temecula the first two nights near my brother's house. We got to swim in their awesome pool and see their oldest daughter in a play. It was fun, but we didn't see nearly enough of them.



We spent one morning at the beach.

Bad Idea #2: Erica has issues with constipation, so we gave her a children's laxative before going to the beach.
Solution: She has a traumatic poop experience at the beach, but I will spare you the gross details. Let's just say her new Ariel swimsuit cleaned up great.


The next day we drove up to Disneyland. I had great plans to have her meet the princesses and make this the best day of her life.

Bad Idea #3: Take a potty training kid to Disneyland.
Solution: We waste the majority of the day to sit on various public toilets throughout the park (including the special little ones at the baby center) with no success. We return to our hotel for nap time and have two more accidents.

Bad Idea #4: Taking a newborn on Small World = Overstimulation
Solution: Cover her eyes for the entire ride.


After naps, the rest of the day went a little better, she loved the rides and got to meet her princesses. Sadie was a dream baby and caused no problems. However, we decided to forego Disneyland a second day as originally planned. We still had one more night in our hotel, so we googled to find out things to do in Anaheim

Good Idea #1: Adventure City - an amusement park specifically for little kids. Hardly any height requirements, close proximity of rides, clean and a 6th the cost of Disneyland.

Good Idea #2: Buy Erica a sucker to eat for the 8 hour drive home.

May 2010

Erica and Sadie are getting along great. Way better than we expected. I know that can change at any minute, but we are grateful for this time. Sadie is turning out to be that perfect baby you hear about, but don't really think exists. She seriously only cries if she has a need - food, diaper or sleep. She smiles all the time and is wonderful. It's great we had her second because we really appreciate her.


Last week, my dad, mom and sister came to visit. It was the first time my sister has ever been to our house. It was so great to have them and we hope they come back soon. The girls loved having Aunt Natalee here (as you can see by Sadie's smile), and so did we. She just graduated from Idaho State - Congrats!!!!


Erica likes to put make-up on. Surprise, surprise. We usually do a light lip gloss and maybe some blush. The rest is pretend. One day we were pretending to put mama's make-up on. Yes, I do actually own some, I just don't use it. I heard Sadie wake up and went to get her. Upon my return to Erica, this is what I found:


Erica's latest thing is to have us tell her "Erica stories". We tell her stories about things that she has done, things she's going to be doing and make up the rest. Some of her favorites involve her wearing princess dress or touching rocks that turn into diamonds. I should write a children's book at this point - We tell at least 5,000 a day.

High Maintenance?

Public Potty Training

I'm sure Nancee will post a killer blog entry of our trip to California last week, but until then, you get an amusing Erica story from me. If you were in a certain public men's restroom in Temecula, CA a few days ago you may have heard this conversation occurring in the stall next to you:

Me: "Ok Erica, time to do some pee."

Erica: "Nope."

Me: "You don't have to go pee?"

Erica: "Nope."

Me: "Well, dada does." (I commence relieving myself)

Erica: "Is the pee coming out?"
I hold your hand and help it come out.
Do you like going pee, dad? It's your job - going pee is your job.
You're a good pee-er. I so proud of you.
(flush)
bye-bye, dada pee."

Yes, there were lots of other guys in the bathroom. And yes, I was laughing the whole time. You can probably tell from this conversation some of the methods we have employed in Erica's potty training.

Pet Peeve...

...Sugar Cereals pretending to be healthy. I'm not eating Apple Jacks to get my fiber.

More Erica Funnies

-Today I was trying to explain to Erica that we all have jobs. Her's is cleaning up, mine is doing the dishes and laundry, dad's is going to work and fixing cars. She is struggling with cleaning up her messes. After I explained all this, I wanted her to repeat it so it would sink in more:

Me: Erica, what is dada's job?
Erica: Going to work.
Me: What is mama's job?
Erica: Sleeping.

I gave up after that. We were laughing too hard.

-Erica is learning to put her pants on by herself. Today she ended up with both of her legs in one pant leg. Instead of getting frustrated, she started chanting, "I'm a mermaid, I'm a mermaid."

Happy Mother's Day

I have been sick all weekend with a sore throat/possibly strep throat. I think there is nothing worse than being sick and having to take care of kids. (Except maybe being sick and having to take care of sick kids). Thank goodness no one else has caught it...yet.

Anyway, Troy has taken care of the girls all weekend, including getting up at night with Sadie. On top of all that, he let me take a nap today too. It has been a good Mother's Day.

Sorry for a million posts in one night. I find I am constantly drafting up posts in my head, but I never get around to blogging them. Hopefully, I can keep up a little better, but I doubt it. Time to sleep!!

Sadie: 2 1/2 Months

I can't believe we've already had Sadie for 2 1/2 months. This time is passing so much quicker the second time around. I don't know if it is because we've already done it or if we are so much busier with two.

The newborn stage is not one that Troy and I really love. Erica was a tough baby. She didn't sleep well and wasn't very happy for the first 3 months of her life. Later we found out it was probably because she was starving. Anyway, we were expecting Sadie to be just as tough. However, she has turned out to be quite a blessing.

I've heard of people saying they had a baby that only cried if they were hungry. I didn't believe them. Well, Sadie is turning out to almost be that good. She really only cries if she needs something - food, new diaper, to be held, etc. She can usually be pacified if we put a bottle in her mouth or hold her. It's amazing. She has already given us some four hour stretches of sleep too. She is seriously such a great baby. I joke that the Lord gave us an easy baby because he wants us to have another one. (:

It is definitely tough having two babies, but we have been blessed with so much help from friends and family to make the transition easier. The hardest part is getting up in the night with Sadie and then not getting a chance to take a nap because Erica doesn't take one. Often I will put a movie on for Erica and try to sleep. She watches way too much TV right now and I feel guilty about it, but many mothers reassure me that I shouldn't. Thanks for the support. Any other ideas would be welcome.

We are enjoying the baby stage so much more than we ever thought we would. Sadie has a special bond with her daddy. It is so cute. You can already tell how much she loves him. Erica could have cared less about Troy until she was about a year old.

The latest with Sadie is that she started smiling. I love it!!! It just gets better from here on out.

Erica: 2 1/2 Years

I'm often told by parents with older children to cherish and enjoy this time when my kids are young. They say it passes quickly and that I will miss it. I really doubt I will miss the newborn stage, but I would definitely like to freeze Erica at this point in time. She is such a joy in our lives and is so fun. So much has happened over the last 2 months, but I have not had time to blog about it. I will touch on a few highlights.

The biggest news is that she is potty training. (When does it switch to potty trained)? She hasn't had an accident in over a week, thanks to lots of candy and prizes. By the end of this process she is going to be obese and we are going to be bankrupt. She has not used a public toilet yet, so I'm scared to go very far with her.

She says the funniest things:
-She put her socks on by herself the other day and I said she was a big girl. She said, "I big, I wear Molly's earrings." (She really wants to wear earrings).

-I often tell Erica that if she eats her healthy food, she will get a treat. She has caught on and sometimes sets up her own limitations. For example, tonight she said, "I eat beans, I get chocolate milk. I drink chocolate milk, I get candy." Wish I got rewards for drinking chocolate milk.

-"I barefeet". Makes sense.

-After peeing on the big toilet, Erica said, "I pee on big toilet, like Mama, like Sonja, like Elmo."

-I was trying to get Erica to take a nap. This is a rare event now, maybe once every two weeks. I told her to try and close her eyes. She said in all sincerity, "I can't do it."

Erica is OBSESSED with Dora. She can even count to ten in Spanish (sort of) thanks to her. She is also constantly on the look out for Swiper coming to take her stuff. Anyway, there is a Dora book where she goes to the carnival. Ever since we read it, Erica was asking to go. Thank goodness the Pima County Fair came to town not long after that. Erica loved it!!! She wanted to go on all the rides. Her favorite were the ferris wheel, merry-go-round and big slide.


Erica used to just sleep with a pacifier at night and then she wouldn't ever need it the rest of the day. Well, around the time Sadie showed up, Erica has become addicted to her pacifier ("pacifoo"), blankie and stuffed animals (bobbit cat, purple panda, Barney and Carrots). A kitty has since been added to the collection. She carries these around with her all day and it is hard to convince her to get out of her pjs. I can't blame her. If she isn't in her pjs, she is either in a dress, swimsuit or the latest - naked!


Erica loves playing outdoors in the water, on the swings or jumping on the trampoline. Inside she loves to color, play with stamps and cut with scissors. She also loves to read books to herself, play with her princess collection, watch movies, bring me pretend food from her kitchen or help me make real food in the kitchen. The latest thing is to take off all her clothes and play with water in the kitchen sink. She has really learned how to entertain herself a lot better, which has been a great blessing for me since I don't have as much time to play with her.

Erica is brilliant about remembering things. I read her a new book a few weeks ago. She pulled it out the other day and remembered the name of the dog in the book. I didn't even remember there was a dog in the book. She is always doing things like this. I'm a little worried. I need to be very careful about what I say to her.

There are so many more things to write about, I think about potential posts all day long, but this is all I can remember at 11pm tonight.

Sisters

No one told me about this, but one of the greatest joys as a parent is seeing your children interact. Erica has been surprisingly wonderful about the addition of Sadie to our family. Erica used to get very jealous whenever I held another baby, but she has done very little of that lately. She is always concerned about Sadie whenever she cries and she will ask where Sadie is if she can't see her. Erica is not too much of a help, but she has tried feeding Sadie a bottle and reading her books. She is good about putting the pacifier in Sadie's mouth if I can't get to it right away.

Sadie also loves her big sister. She is always looking at Erica and has given Erica the biggest smiles so far. She puts up with Erica touching (mauling) her and doesn't seem to mind Erica being in her face.

I hope things stay this way. I hear it goes downhill once the baby starts crawling. We'll see.

Troy's Family

After my parents left, we were blessed to have some of Troy's family come visit. Both his parents came (Oma and Opa), his sister (Molly) and her husband (Brad). We had a great time with them and miss them lots. They helped so much with the kids, getting us some reception for our TV and putting new tires on our car. We are so grateful for all their help and hope they come again soon.