Happy 31st Birthday Weyam/Daddy!

Bill turned the big 31 today. Me and the kids prepared notes for him the day before.

here is ellie working on her note. she only wanted “pink!”

claire was very serious about her coloring.

surprisingly, charlie wanted me to write the note and he just wanted to draw pictures.

the girls means business.

ellie likes to test the boundaries. she tries to color on the counters.

claire really focused on this one corner and did not like any suggestions about going to different areas.

On his actual birthday, Bill was working in clinic and I was able to drop off Chipotle for him for lunch, which might have been the best part of his day. Then he was able to get home by 6:50, which is good because then the kids could sing him Happy Birthday and enjoy a bit of cake.

best shot with the birthday boy.

Charlie got to help his daddy blow out the candles while Ellie & Claire wishfully looked on.

I took this picture after Bill got finished putting the girls down – it had started snowing HARD and it was accumulating fast. UGH! so ready for Spring to be here.

Happy Birthday Bill (Daddy)! We love you and are so thankful for all your hard work!

Ellie day 3

April 13th and we woke up to snow again!

ellie had another GREAT day. I would say she is totally fine – it is me that is still adjusting to remembering that when we leave I need to have her use the bathroom first or at least ask her. the other thing is she won’t really empty her bladder unless she actually has to REALLY go, which is hard to predict, but she really doesn’t have accidents. I went to a parenting conference this morning and the kids were in childcare and she was great in childcare for 3 hours and even went for them at the end. so proud! so I think that will be the end of my updates for ellie. now on to some adorable sister fun from tonight before bed.

ellie wanted a banana and then started sharing with claire.

ellie likes to peel the peel off the entire banana.

love these new pjs nana sent the girls.

want a bite seestor?

these two have such a sweet love for each other.

claire.

sometimes they only have eyes for each other.

just presh.

then on to tea after a banana.

Ellie day 2

Ellie did AWESOME today! first I need to say that it is April 12th and we woke up to 1-2 inches of SNOW on the ground today! it has been snowing on and off all day – soooo weird!

we got up and she went on the toilet a few times. she even started going on the regular adult toilet, which I think she does better with than the little toilet. she is so tiny when she sits on the big toilet it is adorable. then we headed to SBS at 8:50 and I had to run to the bank so it was a little longer of a drive. When we arrived at SBS she had tinkled just a bit in her underwear so I stripped her right there and put new undies on and off we headed inside where I brought her to the bathroom and she finished off. Then I checked her into childcare and showed her the new toilet and also gave them 2 extra pair of undies and pants and a diaper incase she had a few accidents. I fully expected to pick her up and find her in a diaper. I was SHOCKED when I when to pick up ellie and claire and she was in the same outfit and they said she didn’t need to go! so I took her to the toilet and she went a ton! I was UBER proud of her. honestly amazed that she held it for 2 hours while playing with other kids and in a new environment!

then we came home and it was craziness and she had another little accident which was totally because I was busy on the phone. she was then fine through lunch and went a ton of times before nap. at nap I did diapers again and to be honest it is almost a welcomed break for both me and her. she does just fine having diapers on for nap.

I am also happy to report that she didn’t have any accidents tonight! and we had nicole & her 3 kids and becca and nolan over for dinner and a movie (because our husbands were gone and busy and we love each other) and she still didn’t have an accident!

So proud of this girl. I am a little sad for Claire – she seems more sad than normal and I am trying to make sure I give her extra attention, but I do have to focus a ton on ellie. I am hoping when Bill returns tomorrow evening things will improve.

Ellie day 1

I’m not sure if you can even count today as day 1 for Ellie, but I would say we had over a half a day of potty training and I am already exhausted! now I am just going to say I am not 100% ready for this, but I am giving it a go the best that I can. this means I will not be staying completely home for 3 days, following her around with an apron full of various snacks, putting her to bed in underwear, etc. but I will put her in underwear when she wakes up, encourage her to stay dry, ask her frequently to go potty, reward her, go a few places as we need to, see what happens.

this all started about a week ago when throughout the day ellie and claire would start taking off all their clothes, pulling up their onesies, taking their diapers off, running around naked. ellie had actually approached me a few times before going to the bathroom trying to communicate that she had to go. all signs would say SHE is ready, but I WAS NOT! so I put it off for a few days, but after realizing that she might pass this stage by and then really start making me pay for it when she is 3 or so – I decided to try for a bit.

when we got back from the rac this morning I put ellie in underwear and decided to stick it out for the rest of the day and evening. at first there was a ton of novelty with her and claire running around the kitchen naked. I was trying to get them to put underwear on, but they loved being naked instead (they aren’t allowed to leave the kitchen without underwear or diapers on). ellie is REALLY good about being able to go pee when she wants to. she even goes to the potty and pulls her underwear down and goes.  she struggles with being able to let it ALL go. so she will do little dribbles over and over. like honestly going and then getting up and then coming back 10 times. I think she is just trying to figure it out. I am hoping when the novelty wears off it will become more normal to empty her entire bladder. any suggestions for how to get this to happen? email me!

today she did pretty well considering. probably only 1-2 accidents. one time where she started to go then realized she was going – stopped and ran and finished on the potty. when in the bath tub she got out 5 times to take the tinest tinkles on the potty – but she knew she had to go, held it and went. that shows me she can do it – just getting her to put it together. at nap she wanted her underwear to stay on so I just put a diaper on over them. at night I put a diaper on her right before she went to bed. she asked to get out of her crib when I was leaving the room to go tinkle and I took her and she went the most at one time that she has all day – hopefully this does not become a stalling technique.

here are some photos from the last few days where little girl undies have entered our home.

when laura was here we went to target to get some underwear and the girls tried them out for a bit. ellie liked to gather all her things before sitting on the toilet.   claire preferred to run.

ellie insisted on putting every pair of underwear we had on.

here are some pictures from today.

this is before nap. ellie was jacked up from fruit snacks. she was doing down dogs under the table to avoid her sleep sacks.

love those little thighs!

come on ellie!

claire is such a good sister. she hangs out around the two potties. she sort of wants to go on the potty and sort of doesn’t. she has the hardest time actually going on the toilet so I am waiting with her, but trying to be sensitive to the fact that ellie is getting a lot of attention.

you see a lot of naked little butts around here these days.

always busy – even on the potty.

putting their babies down for naps.

having her baby go potty too.

wish us luck. I think she is physically ready, but we’ll see how it goes!

longest winter ever

it is April 11th and Charlie’s school was canceled (Bethany Nursery School) along with almost every other school and community event in Rochester due to an ice/snow storm. ugh! we are SO ready for spring (really almost summer) to be here. the kids and I are ready to run outside and play at parks and our closest park is literally under 3 feet of water. I usually don’t let the weather get to me, but this “spring” is really challenging me on that. Charlie’s preschool only meets 2 days a week and I think he has had 4-6 snow days this year!

Spring come quickly!!!

*I think I am even more nervous because if we don’t get some warmer weather we will move to winter in NZ. Auckland’s winter will hopefully be much more mild, but I don’t want to get my hopes up!

Chatchu turns 4

Happy Birthday to our Charlie! 4 – how in the world has it been 4 years since you entered our lives! Charlie you have been such a blessing to us and how delightful it has been to watch you grow up into a little boy over these last 4 years. We are so thankful that God saw us fit to be your parents!

The sweet Charlie’s smile that we know.

He was so proud one afternoon when he busted this out. He said – “mom! I wrote my name!”. This is a something Charlie can do, but often times gets VERY frustrated over how his A or R looks so then starts over.  He has very high expectations of himself and does not like to mess up, which means we usually have a lot of “chA”s written on papers, but not the whole thing. I was so proud of him when he showed me this because he stuck with it. 

Charlie is a great big brother! he is uber sweet with other little babies too. Here he is sweetly holding Evelyn Dufendach.

Charlie loves his friends! Him and Addison have such a special bond. I also love Cayden’s smile looking on here. Charlie is very thoughtful with Cayden too.

today – Addison called to wish Charlie a happy birthday and when talking I heard charlie say “we’re best friends…right?” to which addison replied “yes!”. then their conversation continued on.

Some classic one liners:

Laura was home with just Charlie and Claire one morning and Charlie looked at Claire and said “Claire – are you claire?”. ha! he can mostly tell which sister is which, but it cracks me up that sometimes he just needs to check.

Charlie loves honey bunches of oats cereal which we call G.Pops cereal because my dad likes the cereal and charlie associates it with him. I asked charlie what he wanted for his birthday dinner and he said “g. pops cereal!”. sadly – I can only let him eat it once (maybe twice if he has a bedtime snack) a day.

Charlie is wanting to communicate more about his days with us. He will share a few more pieces of information with us and when Bill is home in time he puts Charlie to sleep. Charlie loves this and wants to drag on their time together so he will often say “dad, you want to talk about somping?”

The other day I had conferences with his Preschool teacher Mrs. Sohkitab and she raved about a little end of the year exercise she did with Charlie that went through sequencing, recognizing letters, numbers, shapes, order, etc. She said after she completed the exercise with him – he and his friend hank were having so much fun playing with the mind games she kept going and they did games for the rest of the class time and had a blast!  One weekend Bill & Charlie started playing a game where he would pick up a picture of an item and sound out what it starts with (ie: Apple – A, A) then he would pick out the letter it was. Charlie was loving the challenge of it and that he was good at it. He doesn’t do well with failure – something that I am sure he will have to work on as he gets older.

 

I decided to do a low key birthday celebration this year. Charlie decided on homemade mac & cheese for dinner and I made him a ski cake! It was so nice having such a relaxing celebration. He was actually able to play with his new toys after getting them.

last night I started in on the cake before charlie went to bed. he was thrilled to watch the crafting.

the ski cake at least before I went to bed.

I used these little lego skiers which I knew charlie would love.

I woke up Charlie up by singing him Happy Birthday and I should have recorded his face when I said today is your birthday and he responded with “am I 4 today?”. he was ecstatic when I confirmed it! he then ran upstairs to see his cake.   he was thrilled.

after getting the sisters up we had breakfast and charlie got to have candles in his cereal.

charlie then wanted to make the skier on the top be faster – so we moved him to the slope. love how his mind is always being imaginative.

then charlie had preschool and his first swim lesson with mrs. larson this spring. when we were walking into the RAC he would stop people and say “hi. it’s my birthday – I’m 4!!”. I was laughing so hard! when we arrived back at home nana had sent a little package. he was pumped!

 

thanks nana & g.pops. he loved it!

after naps we geared up for dinner. Bill was running late so the kids just ate.

burning time until Bill got home we had charlie open a gift he was wishing and wishing for “dragon eat” is what he was calling it.

love this sweet boy – messy hair and all.

happy.

charlie and bubba. check out that dragon eat car thing.

ellie was just sweetly “singing” happy birthday chatchu (she doesn’t really sing the entire verses – more just a few words here and there)

check out the action shot of the dragon eating the car and shooting the fire out!

another action shot of the car in the dragon’s mouth.

ellie and claire were so good just playing with charlie’s other toys.

charlie opening his razor scooter. he hasn’t ever said that he wanted a razor scooter so he was a bit confused when he opened this.

which explains this face.

but once I busted it out and showed him how it worked he was much more interested.

opening another fun gifty from bubba & pappy. water car toys.

bubba wanted charlie to have a teenage mutant ninja turtle like his dad used to have. charlie said “what is this?”

singing happy birthday to our sweet charlie!

love this kid!

love this captured high five.

instantly licked off the skis for the lego guys.

what a great dad bill is.

bubba had margit paint charlie St Judy’s comet because we have been singing Paul Simon’s St. Judy’s Comet song many times a day (nap and night time) since he was born. What a sweet gift. I love it!

charlie was more interested in his car toys.

oh and with the house clean out I found this white elephant gift we took home one Christmas and wrapped it up for charlie. we might as well embrace the gun thing because it is going to happen.

Charlie had a wonderful birthday celebration and it was fun to watch him take his time opening and playing with gifts. We love you Charlie!

Charlie had a 4 year check up a few weeks after his birthday. He weighed 40.48 lbs (83rd %) and 3.42 ft tall (68th %).