Time to start back up with the updates. We had a busy summer. A family wedding, lots of beach visits, story time at the Peabody Essex Museum, visiting, BBQs and local field trips.
Lulu turned three and is no longer in diapers. Rosie grew two inches and is starting to talk more and more. School has started and Lulu loves it. Rose and I have been spending some quality one on one time together. My girls are lovely and full of love. They amaze us daily at how smart and beautiful they are. We are lucky.
Instead of trying to recall every significant event that’s happened this summer I’ll just post lots of photos. And end with a promise of trying to be better at updating.
I don’t even know where to begin when it comes to Lulu these days. Lately, I’ve been struck with the fact that she is no longer a baby. I watch her play and the way she runs, climbs, jumps, twirls and hops…she’s a kid now! She makes up silly songs and scenarios using her imagination and she plays with dollies, dances around builds with blocks and sings songs…and she IS a little girl.
The biggest thing we’ve been up to the past few weeks is potty training! It was a rocky start, beginning with using the little potty chair. She did great starting out with that. Then she used the regular commode one night and she never wanted to use the potty chair after that. I got her one of the little seat inserts for the toilet and she used that for a few days, but then decided she didn’t want to use that anymore. Then there were a few set backs, frustrations and even flat out refusal to use the potty.
But the past few days there’s been an amazing transformation with her. She’s finally “getting it”. Today was the first day she spent totally out of diapers. I took her to Target to pick out her own underwear (she chose Paul Frank monkey panties and Disney fairies, cuz she’s all into fairies these days). She successfully used the restroom while we were there and I was astounded. Yes, this is what my life has been reduced to…
We’ve also hit DRESS UP stage (my favorite)! She frequently leave the house wearing strange little outfits. After Easter she refused to leave the house without wearing her bunny ears. One day it was one of daddy’s t-shirts. Some days it’s the devil hat. And the other day she was in full on fairy mode. It’s really fun to see what she comes up with and in Salem, no one cares!
Her communication and speech patterns have changed dramatically. For the most part she has learned how to properly use her pronouns, especially when talking about herself. She’s very polite (although still learning). I love when one of us says thank you to her she says “YouAre Welcome.” It never fails to pull a giggle out of Forrest and me.
It’s crazy to think that she’ll be 3 years old in a few weeks. People weren’t kidding when they told us that the time would go by fast. It has but it’s been amazing to watch her transform from infant to toddler to an incredibly beautiful, smart, sometimes stubborn but mostly silly little girl.
I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that my little cherub is a year and a half. I feel like I say this a lot when it comes to both girls, but she has changed a whole lot over the past couple of months. Her face is changing, she’s getting really tall and has slimmed out a lot (still has that big baby belly, though, which I love!).
Since she started walking she’s been running around all over the place like a pro…inside in the house. Outside the house she’s kind of a spaz. One of the first days I took her out of her stroller to walk around outside, she started to run so fast that momentum took her faster than her feet could go and she fell flat on her face. GIANT fat lip. I felt like the worst mom in the world. Since then I’ve been making it a point to take both girls out on short walks without the stroller, so she can get used to walking on bricks and uneven walkways around town.
fat lip
It’s interesting to see how Rosie is progressing since she has an older sister that sets an example. A result of that is that she is fiercely independent, she refuses to hold my hand while walking and gets frustrated if we offer to help her with more advanced things. The iPhone frustrates her because she isn’t as adept at using it as Lulu is.
Her vocabulary has been growing exponentially and I hear her singing quite often (the alphabet, Ring around the Rosie, Elmo’s theme-she has the melodies down. The words will come soon.). She and her sister are starting to have more fun together, which I love to see. Sometimes I catch Lulu trying to hug her (which ends up in a choke hold) or Rose will dive on Lulu if she’s on the floor. They even gave each other a kiss yesterday which turned me into a total gushing idiot.
Lately she’s been a real momma’s girl. She sits snuggled in my lap for most of the morning while I drink coffee and we watch Sesame Street. I have to admit that I eat it all up with a spoon, but it gets difficult when both girls are clamoring for my attention.
Did I mention that she started going to swim lessons? We started her around the same age that we had Lulu start, but Rosie started at a level up. She likes the water and she does well considering she’s the youngest in the class, but she’s still getting used to being in the pool environment. I purposely don’t sit on the side during her classes because she gets distracted when I’m there. Like this:
Ok, I feel like this has been a long update, but it has been a while so…I’ll just post a few more photos and consider it done.
We finally seem to be on the road to potty training! Lulu is less and less happy with putting a diaper on these days, to the point where we actually have to physically hold her down to wear one. Forrest and I have been telling her that she needs to use the potty if she doesn’t want to wear diapers anymore. Yesterday she was running around here without pants on and he told her that she needs to use the potty if she has to pee and sure enough she ran right to the potty and went!
I was upstairs (of course) so when I came down we made a HUGE happy deal about it. I made her show me the potty and we did a happy dance, praising her the entire time. She was very proud of herself.
Today she’s going without pants again and sure enough she told me when she had to go. We ran to the bathroom and she used the potty. More happy dancing, more praise and hugs. She asked to wear underwear so I just put some on her. We’ll see how she does while wearing them.
The girls and I have been watching this video a lot before bedtime. I really love the animation for the song and while I think Bob Marley is typically over-played, this is a nice rendition of this song.
St. Patrick’s Day last week was pretty fun. The girls had their last music class in the morning (we even dragged Forrest along. He might still be mad at me for that) and then we hit our local Irish pub for some lunch. The girls were a bit antsy but they were still long enough for us to have a pint and some boiled dinner.
Forrest spent a good chunk of the day there while Rose was napping. He came back later to get Lulu because he thought she would enjoy some of the music, plus a bunch of our friends were eager to see her. Five minutes after getting there, she fell asleep on his shoulder!
A hint of spring happened last week as well. I took the opportunity to take the girls to the park. Lulu did some running around in the grass and on a whim we went to the playground. She had a blast going on the slides all by herself. I was so proud of her, as silly as that may be. She was very cautious going up the steps, she seemed a little nervous. But after a few times she totally had it under her belt. Rose was content to sit in her seat watching the kids run around her. I doubt that will last very long, though.
Last year Lulu was just slightly too young to go it alone without us worrying about her falling off or getting pushed down by an older kid. Plus I couldn’t run after her while holding Rose. Some of the older kids still snuck by her at times, but she held her own just fine. After she went down the slides about 50 times the swings opened up so that I could put both girls in at the same time. Rosie loved the swings!
Having such a great time really makes me look forward to the warmer weather. C’mon Spring!
So today I’m taking the plunge and starting Lulu on the idea of using the potty. I bought her some Hello Kitty underwear (and my mom got her some YGG panties, too). She loves loves loves wearing underwear. Who could blame her? Diapers seem so uncomfortable.
However, she’s not so keen on using the potty. She’s so used to sitting on it with her clothes on (it’s been in the bathroom since last summer) that to sit on it with her bare bum freaks her out. Patience, patience, patience…
Miss Rose went in for a check up today and she cried pretty much the entire time she was there! She was ok until the nurse put her on the scale and the minute I let go of her she started screaming. I couldn’t believe it. She quieted down after the nurse left, but as soon as her doctor came in, hysterical crying.
Since her last appointment, Rose’s weight stayed the same but she grew 2 inches. That means she’s above 95th percentile for height and she’s in the 50-75th for weight. I knew she had slimmed out quite a bit and I told the doctor that she was eating just fine. Some days she doesn’t eat a whole lot when her teeth are bothering her.
She was pretty pudgy at her last appointment, so I wasn’t concerned about her not gaining weight. But, we have a weight check in a month to make sure that it’s her body getting into proper proportions and not something else. I know deep down she’s perfectly healthy, but the dumb doctor put a little bit of doubt in my head. I hate that.
She is still refusing to walk, she pulls her knees right up when we try to walk with her. But we’ve been persistent with our attempts and she is co-operating more than she had. I always see her standing on her own when she isn’t thinking about it and she does try to take a step on her own from time to time. We predict she’ll be walking very, very soon.
Oh and she added a new word to her vocabulary today: cheese!
