4 Sick Kids, 3 Doctor Visits, 2 Ear Infections, and 1 Exhausted Mama

Starting last Monday, Elizabeth kept telling us that her tummy hurt.  She never got sick or had a fever, but when she was still complaining on Wednesday, I decided to take her to the doctor.  We left with no diagnosis! 

I also went to the doctor on Wednesday because I had a sinus infection and wanted to get some medicine to knock it out.  It worked, and everyone seemed well when our family arrived on Wednesday afternoon.

But around midnight, I woke up with bad stomach pains and spent the rest of the night sick in the bathroom.  Needless to say, I was exhausted by the time I was supposed to start cooking for Thanksgiving on Thursday morning.  Thinking that I had food poisioning, I moped around while my mom did most of the cooking.

Thankfully, by dinner time I was as good as new!  Unfortunately, I would not be the only victim of what we found out was a nasty stomach bug.  On Friday night, I was up all night with Aleaha who caught it.  Then it attacked Alexis while we were out shopping on Saturday.  And finally, Bert caught it on Saturday night. 

In the middle of passing around the stomach flu, I took Caroline to the doctor because of a bad cold and coughing.  She was diagnosed with two ear infections and bronciolitis.  So she is now on antibiotics and doing breathing treatments. 

Somehow, we were still able to do  most of the holiday activities that we plalnned.  Everyone became ill around my schedule!  I can't really complain about that.

We visited the lights at Life University and even got out to enjoy the Christmas Village on Thursday night.  On Friday, we continued our tradition of getting our Christmas tree from the tree farm and decorating all night. 

We weren't able to go visit Santa Claus this weekend, but we have more Christmas fun planned for next weekend.  Hopefully the Kelly family will have recooperated by then! 

Thanksgiving Week

Our week started off great!  We had a play date with Kathryn and Tate on Monday.  Kathryn and Elizabeth have so much fun together!



Caroline had lots of time to practice sitting up.  She can actually do it for a few minutes without support before falling over.

The weather was so nice we could play outside without coats. 

Elizabeth was giving Caroline some tips on sitting up in this picture below.  She kept saying, "You can do it, Caroline.  Like this."

On Wednesday, Grandma, Jim, Alexis, and Aleaha got here and the girls were so excited!  (So was I!)

On Thursday, the Kelly clan came over for our Thanksgiving dinner.  We fried a turkey, baked a ham, and covered my entire bar with sides.  It was a great feast and a very happy Thanksgiving!

7 Months Old

Happy 7th month birthday baby girl!  The holidays are sure to be so much sweeter because you're here to celebrate with us!

You continue to be one of the most easy going babies I've ever known.  As long as you have a good view to what's going on around you, then you are happy as can be.

You are a great night time sleeper, not as good of a napper.  You go down at night by 7:00 (sometimes as early as 6:00) and you don't stir until at least 6:00am.  After your bottle, you will lay in bed with us (on the weekends) and fall back to sleep until 9:00.  Which is about the same time Elizabeth wakes up. 

You love to be held during naps.  As soon as I lay you down, you are wide awake.  So I usually use that as an excuse to hold you and nap in the recliner.  I know this is a terrible habbit, but right now I love it!  And you still go down so well at night, that I can't complain that you just want some extra snuggle time with your mama.

You are really eating well these days too.  You love your rice cereal which is the only thing I remember Elizabeth never really liking.  You like all vegetables except peas (which were Elizabeth's favorite) and you love all fruits except pears.  But we just tried those this week, so I'm going to give you some more time to warm up to them.   You eat 3 meals of solid food and take 4 six ounce bottles each day.  You are healthy and growing!

You are also starting to sit by yourself.  You can actually sit without the boppy for a few minutes, but I keep it there to cushion your fall.

You started rolling over a little more, but you still don't do it very often.  However, you have started flipping over to your stomach at night.  I'm sure you'll end up being a tummy sleeper like your sister.

The elephant started off in her pictures like every other month, but she kept trying to eat him!

Here is a comparison of my 2 girls at the same age.  I don't think I'll ever have a hard time telling their baby pictures apart, but they will never be able to deny each other either!

Anticipation

I have been anticipating this week for quite some time.  For one, I need a break from school.  I'm just flat worn out! 

Dancing in the living room with her daddy.  We plan on dancing A LOT this week:)

And two, I'm ready to spend a week at home with my two girls!!

She might not be rolling or crawling, but she loves to stand on her feet.

And finally, it's Thanksgiving and our families are coming to celebrate with us!!!  Each year the holidays get sweeter and sweeter as we anticipate the joy they bring!

My little turkeys.

I am so thankful...

 that the first week of potty traing is behind us!  Overall, I would say Elizabeth had a successful week.  Besides the big accident on Tuesday and some near misses, she kept Dora and Minnie Mouse (the characters on her panties) dry.  She still wears a pull-up at night, and she insists on putting her panties on over her pull-up.  Whatever it takes!  She usually wakes up dry, so as soon as we convert her crib we MIGHT try panties at night.  But I'm not pushing our luck for now.

Elizabeth's class had their Thanksgiving celebration this week.  Elizabeth was so excited that her daddy got to be there.  This is when teacher schedules are actually more difficult to work around sometimes.  But that just means she gets special daddy/daughter time!

Potty Update with Random Pictures

I have no pictures except for these from my phone.  So most of them won't be matching my update on Elizabeth's potty training.  But random pictures are better than none.

This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago.  Elizabeth has loved sitting on the potty since she was 18 months old.  I just knew she would potty train early... yeah right!  Unfortunately, she had a fear of actually peeing in the potty.  So one day after school, I sat her on her potty in front of the TV watching Dora and viola!  Every since she has been okay with it.  I put the "little" potty away and she's only used the big toilet since.  It's what got this whole thing going.

Monday she had a perfect, accident-free day at school.  I was very hopeful!

Halloween

 Tuesday started off good, but went terribly wrong on the playground around 10:00 (which is when Elizabeth likes to do her business!)

She had just gone pee-pee before they went out to play.  So her teacher didn't ask her if she needed to go in the 30 minutes they were outside playing.

Then, her teacher saw her running around the playground with brown pants (that were originally pink).

I'm sure she couldn't wait to clean her up (so thankful it wasn't on my watch:)).   When she asked Elizabeth why she didn't tell her that she had to go poo-poo, Elizabeth just said, "I play outside."

The girl really loves playing outside.  I guess even more than having a clean back side.  It grosses me out that SHE wasn't grossed out!  She just wanted to play!!

The rest of the evening went well.  No more accidents.  I'm hoping she does well tomorrow.  Maybe I can ask that they play outside at a different time.  I'm sure they'd love to schedule the whole school's outside time around my child's pooping patterns!  Ha!

Below is a picture of my Senior homecoming girls.  I have taught 4 out of the 5 since they were freshmen.  It has been amazing watching them grow into these beautiful women.  It makes me think of my own girls and how quickly they grow up!   Almost makes me treasure this time of potty training...almost.

Potty Training Phobia

I have had this crazy phobia of potty training Elizabeth.  And just like any good fear, it only magnified the more I tried to ignore it.  So this weekend, I decided I had procrastinated long enough and it was time to face it head on!

 After much over-analyzing with two of my best friends and mommies I know, I felt ready to go!  So when Bert went to Troy to cheer on his team, the girls stayed at home for potty training boot camp.  Can you see Elizabeth's reward still on her face?!

My biggest fear was how she would deal with #2.  And just as suspected, she started begging me for a pull-up as soon as she felt the urge.  I encouraged her to sit on the potty, and she actually did without crying.  Then she said, "Mommy, Go Hide!"  It took me a second to realize that she wanted me to get out of the bathroom.  She usually hides when she's going #2, so I guess she thought that if she couldn't hide, then I at least had to let her be by herself.  Of course I just stood right outside the door, and when she came running out yelling, "I did it!" I almost cried!  I'm not even kidding.

We needed a change of scenery, so we continued our boot camp in the basement.  That also let me relax a little since it's not new furniture down there.

This morning, only day 2, somehow I felt brave enough to go to church in her big girl panties.  I told the nursery workers that this was her first time in public without a pull-up, and to come get me if she had an accident.  They never came to get me so I was hopeful.  Not only had she pee-peed once, she also went #2!  In fact, she ran through the nursery halls yelling, "I went poo-poo!"  So I guess, now my phobia should be my child shouting about her bowel movements in public.

Because it was such a beautiful day, I took the girls to the park after nap time.  There is a port-a-potty on site (yuck) but I just had her pee before we left and did a lot of praying on our walk there.   We only stayed for an hour before we went home, and she stayed dry the whole time!

I knew I pushed my luck all day on Sunday, so it surprised me when she had her first accident right before dinner while standing 10 feet from our toilet!  It was just a little bit (didn't even get on the floor) and she caught herself doing it.  Which is how she stopped and got herself to the bathroom  Lesson learned: don't stop asking if she needs to go!

 Thankfully she's already stopped asking for a treat after each time, and we'll start rewarding her for "good days."  Tomorrow I'm sending her to school with a dozen panties and pants, so we'll see how this goes.

I couldn't leave out Elizabeth's biggest cheerleader who is almost sitting by herself!  She's also trying to get her knees up under her.  I'm not eager for her to start crawling, but it's fun to watch her get closer and closer to it.

Fun Times in our PJs

Now that it gets dark by 5:30, we like to get in our pajamas almost as soon as we get home from school.  It's nice to lounge around and be comfortable.



Elizabeth loves her rain boots and feels the need to put them on over her footed pajamas.

She also likes to watch Dora or Minnie Mouse in her sister's bouncy seat.

Caroline already looks up to her big sister so much.  I always say that no one makes Caroline smile quite like Elizabeth does.

Elizabeth was mocking Caroline who is always holding her feet.  Notice which one of my babies is attached her paci!

This made them both start giggling.

My heart could burst with how much I love these two girls!  Sometimes I can't believe they're mine.  Thank you, Jesus!