The potty wand

We are so proud -- Natalie peed on the potty today for the first time!  She had started showing interest a month or so ago but after a few days of sitting on the potty occassionally she stopped wanting to try so we abandoned the idea for awhile. Then recently she started asking us to change her when she was wet ("change me mama"). The one that I thought was even a bigger sign was when I would go into her the few times last week when she was waking up in the middle of the night, she would immediately ask me to change her, even if she hadn't leaked through. Previously, she wouldn't pay any attention to her diaper in the middle of the night wakings (even when she leaked through).

So I decided to try a new approach. Instead of reading her normal books while on the potty (and having a potty chart), I got her a handful of potty books and a "potty wand" (a $3 musical Ariel wand from Target). She is only allowed to play with her potty wand and potty books while sitting on the potty. She loves it! And it turned out on the last page of one of the books, there was a girl holding a wand so Natalie was even more excited that the girl on the potty had a potty wand too.

We just started using this approach on Sunday afternoon and already this morning she peed on the potty when she woke up.  We're so proud of her!  I only hope she keeps it up and this isn't just a one time thing for the next few months.  We'll see how she does.

Unfortunately, we found out today that Claire has her first ear infection.  She's been very congested and super fussy.  She's not sleeping well.  Yesterday, she started absolutely refusing to take a bottle from Kinsey to the point she was all out bawling.  She did the same thing today.  We checked her temperature and it was a low grade fever (100.5).  So I called to check with the nurse about giving her Tylenol.  The nurse suggested she could actually be refusing the bottle because of an ear infection.  The pressure from sucking on a bottle is different from nursing and could be hurting her.  So I took her in.  As expected, she has an ear infection in the ear she lays on the most.  Poor sweetie pie!  I hope she feels better soon and although I don't want her to be sick, hopefully that was why she has been refusing the bottle.  Dr. Loibissio weighed her again and she's already up to 16 lb. 8 oz. -- my little chunky monkey!

Here's Claire "standing" next to the girls growth chart.  She's finally on the chart and only slightly below where Natalie was at 4 months.  Look at that adorable baby rolls!  Natalie is getting to be a such a big girl -- what a difference between the two.

We took the girls to Duke Gardens a few weekends ago.  Natalie loved running around the open grass area and by the flowers.  Everything was in bloom and so beautiful.  There were some people playing with soccer balls in the field that she went running after.

We took the girls to RDU Observation Park this past weekend to see the planes take off.  Natalie always yells out when she hears an airplane over head ("airplane up high") so we figured she'd really enjoy it.  Turns out the Park was under renovation last weekend and it was to overcast for any of the smaller planes to take off so we didn't get to see any take off.  We did walk around by the small planes to show her and got to point out a few big ones in the distance.  She's ready to go back.

Time with Family

Natalie and Claire had a great time playing with their Nana and Grandpa over Easter weekend.  We had planned to go to Pullen Park to play on the carosol and train but when we got there we discovered it is closed for the year for renovations.  It won't be open again until Spring 2011 unfortunately.  Natalie still had a lot of fun running around the pavillion areas with Grandpa and Nana.

Because the park was closed and it was pretty hot out, we went to the mall play area for Natalie to get some jungle gym time in.  On the way in, she kept saying "jungle....gym".  She is pretty good at holding her own on the equipment with all the other kids trying to run and climb around on the toys.  We also let her go on one of these mechnical rides.  She was a little afraid of it at the beginning but then of course, didn't want to get off.

 

Nana brought some large bubble wands and we spent some time with the girls blowing bubbles in the yard.  Natalie's gotten pretty good at being able to blow her bubbles.  It's one of her favorite past times right now.

And of course, there was a lot of time hanging out with the girls, and Nana and Grandpa.

The day that Nana and Grandpa left to drive back to Wisconsin they took Natalie to her Winter Wiggles class (Art to music class).  I think she really enjoyed showing them all the activities she's involved in.

Claire had her 4 mo. appointment this past Thursday.  She's up to 15 lbs. 8 oz (80th percentile) and 23.75" (25th percentile).  Her weight is staying pretty constant on the growth curve (she was 70th percentile at 2 mo.) but her height is finally picking up again (up from 5th percentile).  She had got 4 shots which she was extremely unhappy about, of course.  She ended up getting a fever and pretty fussy from the shots for about a day or so.  She is getting a flat spot on the left side of her head because she tends to favor sleeping with her head in that direction.  I tried using a rolled up towel under her crib sheet to keep her facing the other direction as recommended by the pedi but she kept waking up from it bothering her.  So we're just going to focus on not having her lay down on her play mat between sleeping but rather have her either doing tummy time, sitting in her bebepod or high chair, or sitting with us.  Other than that, the pedi said she's doing great and right on track as to where she should be for 4 mo. old.

Natalie can now say Picus very clearly and can identify and saying about half of the alphabet.  She loves to point out letters on signs and in books.  We're amazed as to how well she's doing with it already.  She's started copying counting down for things such as saying "1, 2, 3 jump".  I don't think she gets the concept of counting yet but it's great that shes's starting to recognize numbers.  She also says "almost" for things now, like "almost done", "almost night night" which sounds so cute.  The best toddler saying she has is "go away" when we try to help her with something she wants to do herself -- I'm sure I'm going to hear this again when she's 16.

Claire rolled over!

We're so excited! Claire rolled from her tummy to her back. And she's already rolling like a pro. I love this stage. They become so much more interactive once they start rolling.

Happy Easter!

Nana and Grandpa were in town for Claire's first Easter. Natalie had a great time opening her Easter basket gifts and going on an Easter egg hunt in our backyard. She colored Easter eggs with us too -- and of course spilled some of the colored water all over. Claire enjoyed spending time with family and watching Natalie look for her Easter eggs.