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.

And of course, lots of time hanging out.  One activity that Natalie enjoys is body painting in the tub.