3 months and almost 3 year old

Wow time has flown by. We have been so busy. I just went back to the hospital a week or so ago for 2 days a week. It was not nearly as hard going back like it was with Allison. But there is a sense of sadness that the "maternity" time is over as you look forward to the moment you have the baby and the entire time off. but working part time with both girls has allowed me to still be with them a lot and I am cherishing every moment on those days that im not at hospital although I am also working for my dad on my "off days" but so far the schedule is awesome! the girls are doing great. WE are planning Allison's 3rd birthday party, how is she already three. amazing! she is doing well, still having an issue with going #2 on purpose around us. Its so annoying and now we have started putting her in time out bc she knows what she is doing but I think she either likes the attention or its not bad enough for her to stop whatever the reason it is IT HAS TO STOP. She is potty trained with #1 as she doesnt like to be wet therefore she doesnt have accidents in that category. We are doing better at bedtime but still a work in progress as sometimes she falls asleep on days that she hasnt napped in our room with a movie so we just move her upstairs but then on the days she has napped she isnt really tired until way later. SO its a toss up as its nice when she is tired at 7 and goes to bed so it gives us more time at night but then when she does nap she doesnt melt down near as bad but she doesnt want to go to bed until later although we make her go upstairs by 8 or start the process but she is upstairs moving around until 10. so probably we will drop the afternoon nap soon. She is in swim lessons now on tues and thur, we are doing a parent and me class which is a little more babyish than I would prefer but its either do that now and start the real swim class in july or wait in july to do a class then move to the real swim class so we chose the first choice so we could go ahead and get started. we have actually learned quite a bit such as 123 bubbles, getting in and out of the pool, monkey walking the side, and grabbing the side of the pool. We have also started allie full time at school, im still on the fence about it as her class has kindof gone downhill as there has been some turnover and now there are some random people in there, so well see. Right now we are still having meltdowns, but then you can also rationalize with her and have real conversations. very cool age, still hard as we are working on not being bratty and talking back etc. slippery slope as you hate to say no no no but then on the other hand if you dont then they try to get away with everything and act bratty. haha oh well maybe all parents feel this way. she talks so much its really cute, she loves her baby swister (as she calls her), tries to hold her but then gets over it quite quickly. She loves swimming right now, doc mcstuffins, sofia, animals, cinderella, lady and tramp, toy story, and now as of today monsters inc. she wants the calico critters for her birthday-doll house thing. she loves art still, plays with makeup quite a bit (takes mine and puts eyeshadow all over herself). our routine is that she will wake up between 7-730 come downstairs, sit in bed with us for a little while, get up have some ceral while she watches tv usually doc mcstufffins, we get dressed if school day and then if sat its up in the air as we have been traveling so much. At night if after school day we watch a little tv usually b/c i have to pump, eat dinner -- she likes chicken with ketchup, mac cheese, fruit. or we have cheese quesadillas and fruit. she still likes spaghetti although I feel like it hurts her stomach the next day b/c of all the acid. she likes pizza a lot, chick fil a (although mainly to play) chocolate ice crea or choc cake, oreos, she likes granola bars now the hard ones, and animal crackers. she loves marshmellows too. As far as little miss mary peyton, she is doing great. we are much better with the acid reflux although its been a roller coaster this go round with it working and what works etc. she was on prevacid which was working, she was eating etc but then it stopped working I felt like. so then i asked dr to switch her to nexium which OMG what a pain in the ass, it was 10mg of granules that i had to mix with water in syrine and give it to her. but she was so sensitive that if i didnt do it an hour before she needed to eat in the morning it wouldnt work all day b/c it was extended release, even if I mixed it with breastmilk I felt it didnt work very well. so after three weeks with that I called doc back and asked her to switch us back as I didnt see a huge amt of difference and it was much easier to give to her. She was sleeping very well usually 9-330/4 but recently we have gone backwards and only making it to 1 but that was since we got back last week, I left her woombie in Wimberley and I am thinking its bc she is waking herself up or something.... who knows, but she is eating much better. she is eating around 4 oz every 3 hours.were still not on a set schedule as her naps are so erratic.. she will usually no fail only sleep for 45 minutes. she does wake up around 7 which is usually when i give her the prevacid and then have her first bottle around 730-8 while I pump (which is when I make about 7-8oz on each side) due to not having fed her throughout the night. I try to feed her while I pump. MULTITASK! she then will play for about 30 min and go down about 830-845. I usually can get her to sleep until about 930 or so then she cries and I will go get her. Play with her for a little while and then she gets tired again so I put her in the swing if she will have it, these days she has started protesting much more about that swing. then by 1030 she is hungry again. I may get one good nap from her which is 1.5 hours maybe :) im hoping she will get in a nap routine soon. as far as night time I was trying to put her down between 830-9 in her woombie and then let her sleep until she woke us up which was usually around 330 or so. but now since she is all out whack for whatever reason I have started putting her down around 745-8 and im going to try the dream feed tonight. We werent doing the dream feed b/c we felt like it was getting her out of whatever deep sleep she had. but right now I dont know if she is even getting in one. the good news about her is that for the most part you can get her back to sleep quite easily, so I often bring her downstairs when she gets up in the middle of the night. depends on the time, if she gets up around 330-4 then I will leave her upstairs but if she gets up at 1 then I bring her down as that usually means she will be up multiple times and I am too tired going up and down the stairs. Mary peyton is such a good baby though, so sweet and smiles and coos at you. she has the cutest cheeks just want to sqeeze them all the time, she is laughing now too although not all the time, but its the sweetest little laugh ever. I really do enjoy the baby stage, they are so sweet and just want you to love on them and have their milk ready when they are hungry :) she still loves to be by you when she is sleeping, or if I hold her hand in the car when she starts to cry. She loves loves loves to jump on your legs which she has loved doing since she was really small. she loves when I sing to her, the itsy bitsy spider, also sing to her hush little baby. she doesnt like to be swaddled but I think she does better sleeping wise if she is so she doesnt have much choice. She sits really well in her bumbo now which is great as she doesnst like the swing as much nor the vibrating chair. she has started grabbing onto toys and Jessica our babysitter (she is also keeping MP ) this summer has noticed she loves to watch the TV. She talks and talks which is precioius. She still squeaks when she is mad and will protest if she isnt happy. I use the baby bjourn all the time when we are out with both the girls as Allie still loves the stroller, im still debating on if I want to get a double stroller. I probably will. We went to San Antonio with both girls after Memorial Day bc will had an audit there. we had so much fun. we stayed on the river walk. we had allie in one bed, the pack in play in the bathroom... and all of our crap in that room. We had the stoller baby bjourn and then would take water taxi on the river walk. go eat have margaritas and then eat and go get ice cream. come back to hotel get girls down and watch tv. we really had a lot of fun, we also took the girls to the zoo. allie had fun but everytime we got to an animal she would say I want to see another animal, so we got out of the zoo in about an hour which was perfect as we then ate at this awesome pizza place and had sangria. the girls did great, we traveled with two girls for more than a week and the baby was not 2.5 months old. we have been to wimberley twice in less than 3 months, houston, crockett twice, busy busy but its been fun.oh i also got to get away and go to a girls weekend at a winery. will kept both girls by himself all weekend. he did great. I had fun and it was great to get away. things are going well, just trying to keep up with everything. now that natalies shower is over I feel like things are slowing down, but now im planning allies third birthday which we are doing at storybook ranch, they have 2 ponies, a petting zoo, and bounce house. she is really excited,she wakes up almost everyday and says is it my birthday today? then we are going to wimberley for the Fourth of July and then the next week we are going to hawaii notes i made about the previous weeks: switched her to size 1 diapers after her 2 week apt fussy times started around 5 weeks from about 5pm-9 6wks started woombie and had her in her crib car seat on dryer ALL THE TIME really around 8 weeks 9 weeks slept from 9pm-4 without dreamfeed size 2 diapers around 8 weeks started nexium at 10 weeks swichted her back at 13' 10 weeks started loving the fan oh around 2months started drooling and her HANDS are constantly in her mouth, wonder if she is teething.

The first six weeks

WOW what a whirlwind. How has it been 6 weeks since we had Mary Peyton. It has been so far so good although def has its ups and downs :) Surprisingly enough not getting enough sleep hasnt been as bad as I thought it would be considering you cant sleep when the baby does when you have a toddler as well as how hard it is to sleep just winding yourself down or at least for me. I would pump and then know I could have three hours to sleep if I needed with people taking care of both kids yet I still couldnt sleep, some weird anxiety I guess but I def didnt feel anxious like I did with Allie. This go round has been much smoother for the most part. We put the pack in play in our room with the intentions of having her sleep in there but the first night home after two hours of trying to make that work,miss MP was a new member of our bed or shall I say there and in our arms and our chests. She is a snuggler and love loves loves to be held. SHe isnt much for sleeping alone although I will say we have gotten MP in her crib right before she turned six weeks. Just decided to try it out for the first half of the night and she did quite well. I think I got her around 3am. The next night she slept from 9 am, dream feed at 12 then until 415 and then 630 and then the next night she did about the same although we did dream feed at 11 and she woke up at 330 and 630. Then I thought wow how nice I will just put her down at 8 dream feed at 11 and she will sleep until 330 again but NO that either backfired or was weird night,b/c she was up at 1 230 5 and then we just brought her down and she slept on us until 630. I am trying to do the babywise method but then I feel 6 weeks is a little young but I have already let her cry 15-20 min before I went and soothed her. She is actually much better about 830 vs during the day naps. DAY NAPS in crib are non-existent, I may get 30 min in her crib. But if we are out and about and in the car driving we can get 3-4 hours. So I am trying to remember these first weeks so here it goes. The first week nat and mom stayed with us and really helped out, cooking taking care of us and the girls, they stayed until Wed. Then Mrs. D came and stayed from Wed-Sun and she was a tremendous help as well. That weekend Christine,Mae Mae and Josh came in and stayed with us Friday night. It was a good weekend, I was pretty tired but that was also when Allison started throwing up some more, so it def increased the stress level as I was worried about Allie as well as the baby getting the possible virus we thought she had. That first week the baby slept most of the time and nursed a lot. I didnt give too many bottles and soon that week I started to feel that I had lost my milk b/c I wasnt pumping after she ate like I knew I should have been. I only would pump like once a day. So nonetheless by the Friday I was in a panic that I had lost my milk. I went to sprouts and bought Mother Love this stuff the pedi told us to buy to help increase lactation. So I took that four times a day, fed the baby and/or pumped every 2 hours. So if I fed MP then I would pump after, it was pretty exhausting. By that next week though my milk came back up to my preference even more so that I could have imagined and was pumping easily 12-14 oz per session. WE HAVE A TON of milk in freezer. The second week everyone had left which was good but also anxiety provoking at the same time with two all alone although I asked Will to stay with me when Allie wasnt in school. But with Allie being sick that week he stayed home with me to take care of the baby so that I could take her to doc that Thursday. It was pretty stressful but we managed and started getting used to our new normal. We were still taking a while to get Allie down at night usually by staying in her room until she fell asleep. So Will was on Allie duty most of the time which he is still as well. The first week Mrs D took care of MP while we picked up Allie and took her to the mall to ride the horsies and ate ice cream together. Then she got to to pick out a toy from the disney store. She seemed to like it but def had some tantrums many of time that week. MP only sleeping at this point 2-2.5 hours but I will say she has been good at night besides having to sleep on us, she would always go back to sleep after her feedings so I would get about 2 hours every time. The problem was that it took 1 hour to do the whole routine- feedings as she would fall asleep so fast and then the diaper change. and HOW Many of times I would do the diaper change swaddle her and then she would poop again. OH how frustrating. During those nursing sessions I started recording supper nanny episodes and would watch those during the night. IT actually was great because I feel it gave me some tools to help Allison and the terrible twos. We are still doing the techniques and they are working. IF anything it got me over trying to appease her and just deal with her behavior straight on vs being scared of the tantrum. I am very thankful as I feel we have turned some major corners with her. The third week I was super tired as everything was just continuing to catch up. I usually could only try and take naps on the days Allie wasnt with me which was MWF and I usually could only sleep for like 45-1 hour. Usually would try to do it about 1pm. MP would sleep a lot though which was good and would eat about every 2.5 hours. We did our first trip that week and went to Crockett for Easter. It went pretty well, I was pretty tired and still was trying to figure out the bf and pumping etc. but it went well. We started her on zantac this week which didnt help at all but I didnt call until her fourth week. We also would swaddle her in the miracle blanket these nights. The fourth week was about the same schedule MP in our bed being held in our arms or on our chests up about every 2.5 hours. She is and was eating about 3 oz, sometimes 2.5 but her usual from beginning has been about 3 oz. We started her on prevacid this week and it did seem to help. She has a witching time period at night from about 5pm-830 which seems like she is either over tired or hungry. so that def started about the end of the third week-fourth week. Her first smile though was at the end of her fourth week, such a sweet smile. I LOVE when they start to smile although she wasnt doing it very often. The fifth week I took Allie to doctor and weighed MP, she was 11 pounds. Poor ALlie had pink eye and an ear infection. Luckily we got the ear infection before it got her real sick with fever. We moved her to her room in the sixth week, she goes down great about 9 and will sleep until 230am maybe :) very unpredictable but much better than in our arms. in our sixth week our baby girl has truly woken up in that she does not want to nap. Once I can get her down which I try and do in the crib but honestly it has gotten really hard during the day to get her to sleep in there, sometimes I Can get her to sleep in the swing and we have resorted to putting her in her car seat on the dryer which works for maybe 30 minutes. As im reading baby wise he states baby should sleep at each nap 1.5-2 hours. YEA RIGHT. Im confused if I am supposed to let her cry it out for naps this young. It is nice that she does very well at night. We are just trying to think of the best time to put her down for night. Last night we put her down at 9 and she slept until 230 , will tried to do dreamfeed but she wouldnt wake up. So tonight we are not going to do dream feed and try to get down at 10 which hopefully will get us to 330 then 630. it seems she will do a 5 hour stretch then she is up every 3 hours and then at 7 which is when I start the feeding she wont take anymore naps unless we are out and about. WHO KNOWS its a guessing game. Once we go to our 8 week appt then Im going to ask them about CIO with naps. Allie is precious these days, def still have our moments but they are so much better. I dont know if its b/c she feels well bc she isnt getting peanuts, or that she is getting more sleep as we are putting her down earlier, or if its her age or that we are discipling more whatever it is its better. She talks so much and you can have conversations with her which is hilarious. She is a pistol. She will look at you and be like you want this mama, or thank you mama, i love that she has named me mama now. pretty cute, Her and will are closer now which is great. He usually bathes and puts her to bed. I am missing some of my Allie at night time but we hang out during the days she isnt at school. She is into Doc Mcstuffins, Sofia the first, kindof Mickey and Barney. She watches netflix on our phones usually before bed. She has to take a doll with her to shower so she can bathe her baby, when I bathe MP a Allison always gets her baby bathtub and will get next to us on her stool and bathe her baby. She has to use real soap with a washcloth. Allie still loves her stroller and does not like it when MP uses it. So I usually have the baby bjourn on with MP and she is in stroller, Still trying to decide if I need/want a double stroller. I have decided to wait for now. Allies fav foods these days are def mac cheese, cheese pizza not pep pizza, queso and chips, oreos, chick fil a (mainly b/c she likes to go play), rotissierre chicken, SHE LIKES GREEN BEANS YAY!, loves most all fruit although wont eat bannans much anymore, granola bars, honey nut cherrios, shreeded cheese not any other kind, ham, spaghetti, cheese quesadillas.. SO MUCH MORE THAN WHAT WE WERE DEALING WITH PRIOR. She is doing alright with potty training. She never usually pees on herself but she will still have accidents with the other. UGH. I feel like its on purpose sometimes, not really sure but Will and I get quite frustrated b/c she knows better. Some weeks better than others in regards to accidents but she is in big girl panties every day, she has a pull up on during naps and night night time. She still listens to her music at night. Our schedule usally goes like this: dinner (grilled chicken with ketchup, mac cheese, green beans or fruit. Then if she does well she gets oreos. Then Will will bathe or shower with her and then she will watch some tv on our phones or ipad in her room or in our bed until 8. Then we take the shows from her and we read about 3-4 books. Then we lay with her for about 10-15 min although she would love much longer :( but she is getting so much better and not getitng out of her room. SHe seems to be doing great at school and likes it although she still in the mornings does not always want to go but when we pick her up she is in a great mood. She loves to go the park and swing and slide. She loves to go to chick fil a to play on playground and the mall to ride the horsies. She loves to get out and about also loves to go the grocery store they have a small buggy and she helps me get groceries and she loves going to the baby store (BUY BUY BABY) they have a play shopping cart and she can push it around. Its a cute age and challenging but I will say 2.5 and on is fun b/c she is starting to be able to do more stuff without all the drama :).. eating out is not bad, we went to a wedding and she did really well. She sits with us in church but lets not say its for the entire time as we usually are told she needs to potty twice and only goes once. Allie loves to do art, PAINT but not really not on paper well at first on paper but then she always starts to paint herself. She loves dolls and playing store. She loves the movies Cinderella Lady and the Tramp, Honey I shrunk the Kids, just now into Toy Story. She gets up around 7-730 and comes downstairs and gets in bed with us. MP is always in there before she is as she gets up between 530-630 but then we all go back to sleep. Then she watches a little tv then we get up and eat cereal while I feed MP and then pump. Its fun times, stressful times, happy times, annoyed times, but truly love being a mother. Its hard with two but I am so excited for the times ahead. Now is good but its great to see how MP personality will come about and see how ALlison grows every day. SO sweet...

We are almost there

Well we are a little less than three weeks due with our second baby girl, Mary Petyon Driskell. ALlison is getting so excited and keeps telling everyone that she is about to have a baby sister. ITs really cute she calls her baby siwsta. All has been about the same with this pregnancy as it was with Allie especially b/c she doesnt move much either in utero, I pray its the same thing as it was with Allie in that I just have chill babies in the womb. We have been doing extra monitoring with weekly sono and NST tests just to confirm that everything is looking good. Which so far so good, they are thinking Petyon is about 6lbs 8oz as of last week so we will see if she is bigger than Allie as I know sonos are off. We have the nursery ready, Allie's big girl room which she is in although its been a harder struggle with her big girl bed vs the toddler and the playroom is still a work in progress. Allison is so cute these days, what a ham. She loves music and still loves the songs if your happy and you know it, you are my sunshine, row row your boat, if all the raindrops were lemon drops and gum drops and then of course any of the songs on her toddler cd from Primrose. She seems to like her class a lot and doesnt cry when we drop off as much sometimes she still does with me but overall she seems very content. We are still working on potty training, she was doing great then we would go out of town and get her off schedule which would throw us through a loop and were still doing that week to week. She is in big girl panties but we have accidents. WE give "treats" to her when she uses the potty, like hershey kisses although Allie would prefer the blue cookies "oreos" Those are by far her favorite. She is still a picky eater and loves her waffles samwiches with only peanut butter no jelly, she loves cheese pizza, mac and cheese, strawberrie,grapes, sometimes bannans, apples, organges, mostly all fruit, spaghetti, lasagna, sometime quesadillas, chips of course. For breakfast she either wants waffle with pb, or cereal and fruit. For lunch we can sometimes do ham/cheese, spaghetti, chicken nuggets etc for dinner its a struggle if she is even hungry as she really wont eat what we are eating unless its like pizza,spaghetti, so she will do either pizza, pbj, fruit, mac cheese, chicken and fruit eating is not a strong suite of hers. :) We had another ear infection recently, next one she has to get tubes, I hope we can make it through without another one. I worry I should have done it alot sooner. RIght now our other struggle is bedtime and getting her to actually get to sleep at a decent hour, I truly think its b/c I let her nap long and later like I put her down at 230 so she doesnt get up until 5 so by 830-9 she isnt sleepy. SO we maybe trying to drop her nap so that she can go to sleep around 730 or maybe i should put her down no later than 1 work in progress. She is just talking so much too, its so cute. I know our lives are about to change so much again, I worry about how she will do but excited at the same time. Cant wait for her to be here. ALlison loves loves loves to paint, mainly with her fingers vs a brush she loves playing with her baby dolls but does not like them to have clothes on she loves watching dora, Mickey Mouse, sophia the princess, she has recently started watching lady and the tramp and cinderella. She still likes Barney and lots of the time she has our IPAD or IPHONE and will watch different things on it like the backyardigans, barney, wheels on the bus. She has also started to love taking showers with us esp her daddy, its pretty cute. she loves going to the mall and riding the horsies, she also goes to chick fil a quite a bit :) and loves to play on the playground. She loves stoty time and is really into animals right now. I need to take her to a petting zoo soon. Anyways I need to go to bed, just trying to jot things down so I can remember them later. Two year olds are pretty funny, crazy, indepedent, cranky, sweet, irrational all in one.

January 2013

SO I cannot seem to get better about blogging but hey its a new year. WE are 32 weeks pregnant with our second baby girl, Mary Petyon Driskell. It was a hard name to come up with but ultimately we have decided on her name. Mary from both of our grandmothers whom we dearly loved and Peyton is a name we both liked and agreed upon :) Allie is getting so excited about her baby sister, she tells everyone she sees that she is going to have a baby sister, its precious. Its pronounced baby siwsta. WE had a great Christmas, half at dads until Christmas Eve and then to the Driskells. We had spent Thanksgiving at moms, which was a great time. OH AND THE NEW news is that Natalie is pregnant, I am so excited. Christmas was great as we were both the non drinkers and also got to spend a lot of time together. Allie got quite a bit for Christmas this year although we were trying to be quite mindful of not going overboard. So Santa brought her an wooden easel with art supplies-paint, brushes, markers, stampers,chalk; then a basketball goal, and a trampoline for toddlers. She also got two baby dolls with a changing station, feeding supplies bottles etc and she got a Minnie Mouse and some books. She got a motorized car from papa d and sherry; all sorts of fun food stuff, CD player, clothes, shoes, and baby carrier from mama mel and fred, she got a big Mickey Mouse from grandmother and grandaddy, and all sorts of other fun stuff. She had a great time hanging out with her cousins. RIght now things are settling down, mrs d and will painted the new nursery *allies old room) and ALlies new room which we painted a baby pink and the nursery a grey. we had the woodwork and doors painted white. SO now since the paint fumes have settled we are transitioning ALlie from her toddler bed to her new big girl full bed which we actually got from craigs list from a lady that only got to use it for one year. still was quite a bit since it was from PB but oh well. We got her a dresser too and all new bedding from PB. SO things are coming together although there is still so much to do. We are in the process of getting both rooms complete, the play room organized including my dads office stuff, and getting all the newborn stuff out washed etc. So I guess you would say I am nesting as I want it all complete, but do feel better since we have started. We also have to clean out our closets, and the garage, and I will feel better. Will hasnt had to travel too much since early dec really before thanksgiving so we have been spoiled having him here so much during the week. Its so nice. Anywho we are also still working on potty training, over the holidays it kindof went to the wasteside although we still tried but being off schedule and so much going on it was just no practical. We got back from xmas, and Allie went to another classroom at her school which really concentrates on potty training and she has done really well but then we have had quite a few accidents since we got back from Crockett which we went to last weekend because Grandmother died she was 101 amazing!sad funeral but then also glad for what a wonderful life she led for that long. Allie is doing really well and talking up a storm. She has def done her fiar share of toddler things such as writing on the couch writing on moms phone, pouring milk out all over the floor, picking up on mommy and daddys wrong language which she remembers but then changes it with Oh my goodness. She loves to sing songs such as oldmcdonald, wheels on the bus, all her primrose music, if your happy and you know it. She loves going to the mall and riding the horsies and she loves talking about the farm where she fed the animals i guess in october. she is a loving little girl and so cute but she def has her two year old tantrums. she loves going to story time at the library. She loves getting in her stroller but then is over it after 15 min. She loves bailey although she will also try to pick her up which I tell her not to. She doesnt eat much these days although obsessed with waffles and pb; she will eat spagehtti, croissants, pizza, ham, chips, chicken nuggets, french fries, she loves reeces mms hershey kisses which are all treats she can get when she potties. She is pretty funny and has great expressions. She told me the other day with my phone in hand, Mommy this is my phone, Ya hear me. I know she got this from me b/c im constantly asking her if she heard me. but she said it in a funny way but still had to tell her she coulding say that to mommy. She also tells us to go away please when she is in the bathroom. She still sleeps to her music but its not a necessity and we are trying to get rid of the paci although she is just moving on to her thumb. SO that is another battle we will fight, right now we are trying to get her bed routine to an earlier time not to mention not as long as she wants us to sleep with her which is our fault b/c she had to sleep with us for 2 weeks while we waited for the paint fumes to settle. She still loves to play with babies and art supplies. I will post later im getting tired. Pregnancy is going well, lots of Braxton Hicks and this baby is acting a lot like allie did in utero with not a ton of movement, she was really active so I didnt think it was going to be an issue but it is , the doc wants to monitor more with sonograms and nst test to just make sure everything looks good. which she thinks it does. Getting ready to meet this new addition although its strange to think we are going to have another one. Crazy.

August and September 2012

I am trying to get better about blogging as I dont want to miss out on not remembering fun things going on and the infamous "terribl twos". But I have been failing thus far :) Nonetheless we have been up to Potty Traning and Moving from our Crib to a toddler bed. The toddler bed was much better than I expected and she has done very well. The first night she got out three times and we put her back in and from there she has only had a couple of occassions where she not been interested in staying put. But she has done fantastic, especially when I hear about some parents battling with their children for more than an hour trying to keep them put. Allie has napped great in there as well and loves her bed, often telling people about it when they see her or of course her infamous "My bed and my room". She often goes upstairs and gets in her bed byherself although mainly because her paci is in there and she knows she can have it if she goes "night night". Potty traning is going pretty well, we have had some accidents but not many and can def count them on my hand. She does the best when she is in big girl panties or nothing at all and will tell me in hasty voice "I have to pee pee" with such an urgency that we immediately whisk her away and go to the bathroom. Yesterday she was successful at the library in a public restroom as that has been scaring her so this was a big deal as she usually wont go near them. She also told me while she had her pull up on which usually she just goes in that. Our next step is to increase our outings without a pullup on and graduate completely to big girl panties. We are close. But just more practice. She is doing quite well. Our next goal after potty training will be to get rid of her paci completely. But that will be an issue as she loves it :). She is so funny these days and can be quite the pill too. Her favorite foods are: spaghetii, pizza, chips/salsa, fruit-grapes/strawberries/sometimes bannanas but not as often as she used to/ apples with peanut butter; M&Ms; Vitamins; peanut butter on waffles NO JELLY, not a big fan of cookies/doughnuts; kolaches but no meat just the bread; ham/cheese; cereal, she is obsessed right now with cereal; sometimes bacon but not much; french fries with ketchup; chicken nuggets. She is a very picky eater and really doesnt mind not eating. She loves her juices and milk. She can be such a pill sometiems, often not minding and telling you NO or thats mine. She tells you always what she wants when she wants it. She has her tantrums at times but we just let her throw them and then she calms down. We were at Ikea the other day and she decided she didnt want to leave so she proceeded to just lie down on the outside of the store pavement, EWWW, I had all sorts of stuff in my hands so I was finally able to get her up and just carry her to the car, but man I was one mad mommy. She doesnt hit as much but when she does its when she is tired and she goes to time out. She doesnt go often, but I do have to use the 1,2,3 or bribery. If on 3 she doesnt do what I need her to do then I have her go to time out, but lately I have resorted to bribing :) I know not great, but when Will is out of town and I am so tired it just gets the job done. We also will take baths together and her favorite thing to do is to drink out of a cup in the faucet and give it to me to drink as well. I got her some bath crayons, what a mess and she likes them alright but she mainly likes playing with the holders vs the crayons. She is wearing a size 2t and size 5 in shoes. She still loves her baby dolls and putting them to sleep. We go through many dish towells as she insists on those being the only blankets the babies can use b/c they are they right size. She also likes blocks and coloring with dry erase markers. I recently bought her some stamps which she likes as well and proceeded to stamp her entire body. She also loves shoes right now, I bought her some black squeaky shoes which she LOVES but mommy and daddy do not so we took the squeaker out for public outings and inside too :) She loves music and is singing all the time, mary had a little lamb, itsy bitsy spider, old mcdonald, twinkle twinkle, happy and you know it, and still some country. One of my favorite things is when she is in bed with me and we have popcorn together and she watches her barney. She gets so excited. She loves to go to story time which we do once a week, and we get togther with Sara McCarroll and her girls too. WE go to the park a lot and do some shopping but try to keep that to a minimum. She says thank you and please quite often and will say "your yelcome" for your welcome. very cute. She states "I did it" for I'll do it. Or she states I do it myself. She is a very strong willed toddler but very cute esp when you see her get so excited for something. she loves animals and loves to count. she sings ABCs all the time. Loving this age although it can be quite challenging. On another note we are pregnant, YAY, about 16 weeks. We find out in three weeks what we are having. I think its another girl, I was more sick this go round in the first trimester-naseous at times and didnt feel like anything to eat, also very tired. but no crazy symptoms, although breaking out for sure like I did with Allie. I started feeling baby move about 11 weeks but no kicking yet just the butterfly feeling. I have been eating a lot of cereal and popcorn, more salty cravings vs sweet which with allie i had no cravings and if i did it was more for something sweet. Nonetheless we are very excited, due date is march 17th, 2012. We have told Allie about the baby but she still doesnt get it as I am not very big. She points the baby in my belly and hers. Another adventure but excited to start.

OUR BABY IS TWO YEARS OLD!!!

How did it happen so fast. Another year has gone by. What a ham we have created. She brings us so much joy and we are so thankful she is our little punkin. Allison is "crazy" these days as I like to describe. She has had some terrible two stances, mainly where she doesnt like to do what we tell her to and she often at times is heard telling us no. WHICH makes us so mad not to mention people turn around like who is talking to you that way, then they see its a 2 year old and laugh. Most of her favorite phrases consist of "No No Daddy or No NO Mommy"... Although lately it has been towards her babies and stuffed animals, and then proceeds to place them all in time out. I looked over and the stuffed dog, elmo, and 2 babies were all turned towards the wall in their respective corners. Of course then I'm like oh no maybe I am sending her too much. I will say she has been great these past two weeks and really hasnt had to go but maybe once to time out. She is doing really well on potty training. I recently started a potty chart and she is doing great with it although its only been two days. She also loves M&Ms and that helps with the bribery. Allie is into many things these days. Her favorite activity of all more than any of her toys is to put all animals and babies night night. She grabs all of our kitchen towells and uses those for blankets and every day/night each animal will have about 5 toys on it. Finally had to tell her no more towells as she had 20 out in the living room. She loves putting bailey night night too but bailey gets annoyed with that. She tries to put Will and I night night as well. She loves to go outside and to the park. For her birthday she got a wagon from Papa D and she loves riding in that. We have been doing all sorts of things lately. On July fourth we were in Florida with aunt natty and uncle wyatt, papa d and sherry, mama mel and poppy, and then sue and company were all with mom at another condo. We had a lot of fun. We took Allie to a july 4th festival with just Will and I and then did breakfast. It started to rain so we couldnt go to the beach until later that day which ended up being great b/c it was cooler. For Allie's bday party we did an under the sea party here at the house with pool toys and then we had visors to decorate. We had a good number of people and little ones and had a really good time. Mama Mel and Jan helped me set up for the party and the decorations ended up being awesome. Allie loves her babies right now and takes them often with us everywhere. She loves to play on the ipdad and calls it "my IPAD" which I dont like but she loves playing the games and watching the movies. The office is soon to be out of our house which I am very excited about b/c most of her toys are all in the garage until we have more room up in the playroom. I think she will play with her toys more once we get them all up there. Jim and Sabrina gave her the entire pottery barn kitchen set which was soooo nice. Allie plays with it at times and I think when she gets older she will play with it even more. Allie is talking so much more as well

22 and 23 months old...

I dont know why its so hard to post for me but it is! So we are combining months now. Allie is just adorable, fiesty, and wonderful all in the same sentence. She gives us a run for her money. For example her favorite things to say to Will and I are "No No Mommy, and No NO Daddy. Or "my phone" or MY ANYTHING. She will tell you what she wants and when she wants it. She is still very sweet and relatively well behaved. Although the other day at the grocery store she proceeded to say hello to the man waiting by us at the deli. She kept waving saying hello and then he turned around to say hi back. Then she stated " Go Away" and No No No. I was mortified and told her that she was the one who started this conversation. But I laughed a little. She started back to hitting a little but not too bad and this past week she hasnt done it once. We dont do time outs as much, I have spanked very gently which has helped I guess. She is still not a great eater, but will eat when she is hungry which isnt that often. We usually can get one good meal in her per day which is usually breakfast. She hasnt been into yogurt these days so its mainly banannas, grapes, oranges, waffles, chick-fil-a nuggets, spaghetti, watermelon, sometimes strawberries, peas/carrots, ham and cheese, JUNK FOOD-graham crackers, goldfish, SHE LOVES CHIPS, pizza-cheese preferrably. She has started to not want to go to bed or naps but she only protests for about 30 seconds. She naps for about 2.5-3 hours and goes to bed around 9-745. SO NOT BAD! She LOVES LOVES ELMO and MICKEY right now. We remodeled our downstairs somewhat so we were stuck in our bedroom for about a week in which case we used ElMO a little too much on the t.v. which has created Allie to insist on watching it. SO Now our routine is a little elmo or mickey in the morning, maybe one more time during the day but mainly about 30 min right before bedtime. which gives me/will a little break to wind down after bath. Allie still loves baths, and is obsessed with bubble baths, but I had to stop those as it made her very irritated on her skin, and I thought she had a bladder infection. She loves to put things and me to "night night" and put a blanket over us. She is talking so much too. Everyday its new sentences and new phrases/words. She loves saying "I Did it" even if she means "I'll do it". She loves bailey and screaming her name as well as giving her treats. She is a little pistol but what a cute baby girl. Love her so much and having a lot of fun with her. Although trying at times aka restaurants its still a great age. I say its a hard age, but then its the most fun b/c they truly get so excited to do and try new things. Her favorite toys right now are bubbles, LAMB and Paci, puzzles, stroller, shopping cart. Her birthday is about a week 1/2 away. Cant believe it, what an amazing two years have gone by. I love her so much and she is just growing so quickly.