hmm......

i wonder why toy manufacturers haven't been able to create a toy more entertaining to a 10 month old than my sunglasses.......

casey updates......

the big news is.....CASEY IS POTTY TRAINED!!.......yay!.......i think this is the first milestone that as a parent, i feel i've earned too......it took a lot of patience and fortitude to get casey off diapers.......i think i've said the word potty to her about 9,000 times (not exaggerating!), carrying around a potty seat EVERYWHERE we go isn't exactly a piece of cake, evaluating how much liquid she can have and at precisely what time she can have it (not too close to leaving the house, etc) is kind of a pain in the ass......and i think she was fairly easy relatively speaking (from what i've read and heard from other parents)......one day about a month ago, casey got up from her nap and i said to myself, ok we're done with diapers......we had tried potty training back in may, so the concept wasn't that foreign to her.......i kept her naked on her bottom half and she started going on the frog potty seat we have on the first floor (too hard to run her upstairs every time, espeically with molly crawling around)......she is still using pull ups for naps and bedtime, which are essentially diapers just with velcro sides, but at least for her waking hours she's diaper-less......of course she's had her fair share of accidents, but they're not that frequent and really not that bad to deal with.......i'm so proud of her (and me!).......

casey has also taken up singing.......she could sing her ABCs a while back, but has recently added other songs to her repertoire.......we've sung "Getting to Know You" from the John Lithgow baby CD to her every naptime and nighttime since she was born, and she now sings along with us, and will also sing it solo when requested......if i were more tech-saavy, i'd upload a video of her singing it, but i've since given up on how to post videos to this blog site!!......

casey can be a great big sister.......i say "can be" because there are plenty of times she's really super awesome to molly, but there are times that she can be awful with her.......so, she has the capability to be, but isn't always a great big sister.......she gives molly plenty of hugs, kisses, pats, smiles, giggles, etc.......she brings her toys.......she asks her "whatsa matta molly?" when she cries.......she tells molly that she's cute and she loves her.......she also whacks her, kicks her, steps on her, bangs things off her, bites her and sits on her all sprinkled in between the loving things.......steve and i try to play referee, but it's hard to stop all the onslaughts......especially now that molly's moving and always seems to move TOWARDS casey rather than the logical AWAY from her.......molly's a tough kid though.......she takes most of casey's accidental and intentional abuse really well, usually with just a little cry most of the time......and overall weighing the attacks and the love.......the love definitely wins out.......most days molly's awake when casey wakes up from her nap.......i carry molly upstairs and she giggles the whole way because she can hear casey calling out from her doorway.......casey starts laughing because she can hear molly giggling.......then the two see each other and molly's smile couldn't be any bigger and casey yells, "molly!".......it happens almost every day........it might be my favorite part of the day......i hope it stays this way for the rest of their lives - some bickering/disagreements because they are inevitable, but the love wins out always.......

molly updates......

molly officially said "mama" for the first time last week - although i'm going to pretend that her trend of only saying it when she's really pissed is just coincidental.......

she also officially said "dada" yesterday, and no, it was not said in the midst of a screaming fit - she said that one in a calm playful manner.......hmm.......=)

today molly clapped for the first time ever - it might've been the cutest thing i've ever seen......i'm not even sure i remember when casey clapped for the first time, but molly was so crazy proud of herself it was hysterical......

molly is totally the official most chill baby on the planet - she's fine with pretty much anything......she handles restaurants fine......she handles casey fine......she handles sleeping fine......really the only thing that gets her mad is teething......

speaking of, this child now has 6 teeth.......yes, she is only 8 1/2 months old.......casey was nearing 2 years old when she had 6 teeth (kidding, well sort of - it was definitely well after a year though!).......amazingly having all those teeth really doesn't affect breastfeeding at all.......when she got her first couple teeth it was worse - i think she was just getting used to the sensation of biting - same phase when she would grind her teeth a lot.......but now she's used to it and it really isn't painful at all like i expected it to be.......

i'm shocked that i've been able to stick with the breastfeeding so long.......true for about a month now i've been supplementing with formula (bottles are 1/2 breastmilk and 1/2 formula) because my milk production hasn't been great, but at least she's still getting some of the nutrients and whatnot that they claim is ideal for the first year......and it saves a ton of money - formula's crazy expensive.......we haven't even gotten through one can yet, so i'm psyched about that......

hmm, what else is new on the molly front?.......oh well, she started crawling about 2 months ago, and now she's pulling herself up with ease and "cruising" - walking while holding on.......she can stand with one hand on something and a toy in the other hand.......we're working on standing without holding on, but she's not quite there yet.......

i swear casey is her favorite person in the whole world though.......the two of them will giggle at each other for full minutes.......it's really hysterical.......molly likes to grab whatever is in casey's hands......which results in casey grabbing/pulling it back, but more often than not casey will go get molly something different to play with and they'll enjoy a few minutes of playing next to each other.......of course there are plenty of "leave your sister alone" moments, but the times when they play together are really awesome......

molly looks so much like steve it's nutso......if steve was a baby girl, that's what he'd look like......funny though his baby pics don't look like her........she looks like he does now if that makes any sense.......her expressions, especially her little 1/2 smile thing she does, are all him.......i would've thought i'd be a bit jealous of that, but i'm totally not - it's neat that she looks so much like him......of course he doesn't see it, but everyone says so, so it's not just me!.......

and molly's just learning how to splash and it's definitely her favorite thing to do in the water.......in swim class everyone around us gets wet........in the bathtub, the kitchen floor gets soaked.......it's really funny how much she likes it......

anyway, i guess that's about it for molly updates for now!......

bodypump craze......

so here's a post for my kids to laugh at - when they're older and read this, they can google "bodypump" and read how long this exercise/workout fad lasted before it fizzled out - my guess is 2 years.......then they can ask me how anyone thought it was a good idea to have a workout program that consists of the same exercises to the same music for 3 months.......and the music is awful!.......mostly all dance club like songs that get stuck in your head and when you hear them out somewhere make you want to bust out and do some squats or chest presses.......it's a highly choreographed weight lifting group exercise class.......in theory it's a good idea to have a weight lifting group class - brings in more women since they don't typically cross over from the cardio area of the gym floor to the weight lifting side, but it's such a strict and expensive program that i don't see it lasting.......first you have to be certified in bodypump to teach it - so $300 for the certification.......then even if you pass the training, you have to video yourself teaching a live class, pay $50 and have the bodypump gods review and give you another pass......then every 3 months you have to pay $45 to get the package with the new music and exercises.......seriously??.......i only teach 1-2 classes a week at $30 a pop!!.......is this really worth it??.......it's somewhat fun, but memorizing the choreography is a pain and having these pop songs in my head are driving me nutty.......anyway, just a fun post to see how long the bodypump craze lasted......

potty training......

ok this begins my chronicles of potty training.......first let me pull out my soap box.......there are NO good sources of how to do this seemingly impossible feat.......there's all this crap about, "wait until they're ready" and "let them be the leader".......um, ok what???.......if casey had her way, she'd be in diapers until she's 22.......if she's never experienced the world without diapers, how will she know she's ready to not be in diapers??.......not to mention, we don't let our kids lead anything, so why would we let them lead us into this crazy, dark, scary world of no diapers?.......

ok soap box away.......so our first potty training attempt was about a week before going on vacation back in may.......it actually went pretty well - casey was peeing and pooping in her froggy potty seat when we were home, but because i really had no idea what i was doing, we'd put diapers on for car trips (which i'm convinced confused an already confusing situation) and then when we went on vacation, it seemed crazy to keep up the training in florida.......so we put training on hold until i could collect my thoughts and energy and try again.......

last week i decided we were done with diapers.......it's monday and casey hasn't worn a diaper since thursday afternoon......granted we've had quite our share of accidents since thursday, but most of them have either been peeing in the carseat or pooping anywhere but the potty seat.......today we had our first poop in the potty and we made a crazy big deal about it.......hoping that'll end watching where we walk in our living room.......and although true we haven't been in the car today, she hasn't had any peeing accidents today either.......god let's hope this time sticks!......

i just can't get over how little help there is out there for this......don't know if it's because it's so different to train each kid that they can't compile a general help type book, but it's very frustrating to those of us that have NO IDEA how to do this!!......fingers crossed!......

my little fish......

so both kids are now taking swim lessons at the ymca......and they both love it......casey's such a crazy independent swimmer it's nutty......she's sort of between needing 1/2 bubbles to help her keep afloat while swimming - she's either lazy in her form (scooping and kicking) with 2 bubbles but 1 doesn't really provide enough flotation to allow her to focus on form either......so once we work past this stage it'll go better, but she loves the water and loves jumping in......molly's really great in the water too - not fussy at all (in fact it pulled her out of her teething funk last week) and she even has no problem at all dunking all the way under.......it's funny the looks of horror the first time moms with babies molly's age give me when i dunk her......i'm sure i was much more leery about doing that with casey too at molly's age, but guess i've relaxed in my "old mom age".......if molly's ok with it, i am too.......

funny little story here - i took molly to swim class the other day and was talking to one of the other moms there - she mentioned that she was talking to another ymca friend about the age difference in our swim class (there's a bunch of babies molly's age, but also some that are 2-3 years)......her friend was saying that when she takes her daughter to swim class (a different day/time than molly's class) that most of the kids are around the same age/skill level - except for this girl that swims on her own and is kind of crazy - um, yeah that'd be casey.......her daughter's totally in casey's class.......hahahaha.......she's 2 and has a reputation already!......

teething sucks.....

we definitely lucked out first time around with casey......she barely noticed her teeth coming in......took her forever to get teeth, but they never really bothered her at all......molly's the polar opposite.......she's such a mellow baby normally, but when those teething pains come man she's a monster......won't nap, won't play, won't calm down at all.......and she's already got 4 teeth (2 on bottom and 2 on top)......please teething train, slow down!.......she's only 8 months old!.......