Happy St. Patrick's Day

Cally got into the Irish spirit this morning at work at and broke into a little Irish jig while she was in her boppy. I think it might have been her fabulous gaelic dancing shoes, made by a very amazing shoe designer (aka NANNY) or it could have been her delightful Shamrock dress, provided by Calista's stylist (aka TITI BUG). Either way she was all smiles and in such a good mood full of holiday spirit for the day and she has asked me to pass along a little greeting...Happy St. Patrick's Day and may the Irish eyes always be smiling down on you!!

Oh Glory!!

I think of myself as someone pretty rooted in their faith in God. He seems to be a big part of my life and someone I lean on in my good times and bad. However, I never realized how much I truly needed Jesus until I started potty training my son. It seems as if every night I find myself saying something to the effect of "Sweet Jesus please help my son to poo!" or "Lord Almighty just sit on the little red potty!!" or "Dear Heaven above, get this boy to realize how fun peeing in the potty is!"

Well the good Lord came through BIG time for me tonight!! Xander was doing his typical potty dance, kicking one leg out and saying "Ouch! Oh nothing hurts and I am NOT going to go to the bathroom!!" I knew it was getting really bad when he could not stand in one place for more than two seconds for fear his poo might make an explosive entrance into this world. He finally went into the bathroom when his potty timer went off and shut the door so no one could come in with him. I began by sitting outside the door praying, VERY sincerely, that Xander would find "relief" in the bathroom tonight. Then I found myself just praying prayers of thanksgiving that he was actually in the bathroom. I couldn't handle it anymore, so I stood outside the door peeking throught the crack to make sure he would make it onto the potty and this is what I witnessed...

Xander: (dancing in front of his little red potty) "I am not going to the potty!! I don't have to poo! I am...Ouch, nothing hurts!! Ohhh...I am not going to go poo poo just pee pee!! I am not going to go poo poo!! (now sitting on the potty writhing around trying to hold his poo in and only make pee pee) "I am only goin' to go pee pee!! I am only goin'...Ohhh...I am only...OOOOOOO...I am..."(now complete silence, a very still little body with only his hands moving to hold onto the edges of his potty for leverage and his little eyes turning red and watering)...It stays very quiet for a few seconds and then I see him look between his little legs and whisper to himself "I am doing it!! I did it!!" At this point I could not be a prouder mommy and could not wait for him to open the door. I swung open the door with the biggest grin on my face and told him how proud I was of him. Then I quickly yelled out to Dan to get the frosting ready because we were going to have Lightening McQueen cake tonight. With a HUGE smile on his face, Xander and I headed out to the kitchen to greet Dan and eat cake.

So keep your hammer pants ready because when Xander is completely potty trained we are having a potty party. And by the looks of tonight that day is coming soon!!

Happy Easter!!

There may be only one Cadbury bunny, but the Cadbury Bunny doesn't even come close to being as cute as my Cally Boo Easter bunny!!

I'm a big girl now!!

Cally had her 2 month well check with Dr. Garrity yesterday and was a little show off. She weighed in at 9 pounds 10 1/2 oz and was 21 1/2 inches long!!! She is progressing as normal physically and is doing well socially too. She chatted a bit with her doctor and was not just handing out smiles, but did give a little pirate grin. Her big moment from the day was when Dr. Garrity asked if she was trying to roll over yet and I said yes she had rolled over once from her tummy to her back, but that was about two weeks ago. Not two seconds after I had finshed saying that did Miss Cally roll over on the exam table from her tummy to her back. It was like she heard me and thought to herself, "Oh, just like this Mommy?" She is such a big girl now!! We finished the appointment off by getting 3 horrible shots. The picture says it all on how Cally felt about that.

Dance, Dance, Dance

We are officially on to potty training day three and still doing the potty dance. Day one was not as overwhelming as we had anticipated, just time consuming. We are still taking Xander every 20 minutes and have only had one major accident. The potty dance is still going strong and Dan and I continue to burn lots of calories getting our son to use the toilet. All in all, keep your hammer pants at bay and be ready for your invitation to the potty party in the near future. A Mater cake is still calling our name.
One of the most memorable things from day one was car washing with daddy. Dan had put Xander in sweat pants for easy on and off at potty breaks. These sweat pants happened to also be the pants that fall down at random moments. Xander was very happily being an amazing helper by putting bubbles on the car with the wash cloth, but in the process began soaking his pants...WITH THE WASHCLOTH!!(I knew you were thinking soaking of a different sort since we are working on bladder control.) The pants were getting heavier and heavier and every time I glanced up Xander was doing a different move to keep his pants up. It went from kind of kicking his leg out to keep his pants up, to holding the waistband with one hand and washing the car with the other, and the final time I looked up at him he was standing over the car scrubbing with his pants around his ankles and his little tooshie hanging out with his Mater underpants staring back at me.
Being the kind of mother that I am, instead of running to pull his pants up, I ran to get the camara. I took many shots of his cute little self putting his heart and soul into the car washing...Working his pants off...literally.

And so it begins...

Earlier this week, Xander comes up and says this to me, "Mommy, I need my diaper changed." I quickly asked him if he had gone poopy and he replied, "No, I went pee pee and now it is dirty." He looked at me with such a glare of confusion as if to say "Of course I did not poop lady, you would smell it by now. Heck, you would have smelled it ten minutes ago in the hallway and the other side of the house if I would have pooped!" At that moment the thoughts started to go through my mind that my son is probably heading around that corner to be ready to be potty trained.
It all was solidified in my head today at church however. I told the lady in the nursery when we were checking in that Xander may have to go poopy and if he goes off into a corner and tells her not to look or to just go away to page me immediately and I will come change his diaper. I was hoping I gave her the warning signs to tell if he was going to go number two so she could notify me in the church service to come and do something about it before the other children would be knocked out from the overwhelming toxic fumes eminating from my son's hind end. So after we got done singing, I see Xander's number from the nursery pop over the screen. I immediately grab the diaper bag and bee line it to the nursery. Upon arriving at the nursery, the teacher came up to me and told me that Alexander had gone up to one of the other helpers and asked to be changed, so they quickly paged me. When I got to Alexander he greets me with a cheery smile and says "Oh Mommy!!!" I reached for his little hand to take him to change him and it suddenly hits me. No, it is not the smell of poo that suddenly hits me, but the lack of smell. I turn to Xander and ask him if he went poopy and he looks at me (with the same look of "What the heck crazy, are my eyes watering or am I walking like I have a load in the back? Sheesh!!) and says "No, Mommy. I just went pee pee and I need to be clean." And so it was determined, we were going to start potty training.
When Xander got up from his nap this afternoon and was ready for his diaper to be changed, we took it off and told him to try pee on the potty. He went right away, but had to be completely naked in order to go. Since he was already naked, Dan and I decided to leave him that way and start the tedious process of potty training. Dan quickly went to Xander's room and got the Lightening McQueen underwear and asked Xander if he wanted to wear a diaper or McQueen under-roos? Of course Lightening is much cooler than a plain white diaper tooshie!! We then grabbed the timer and every twenty minutes headed to the potty.
Nanny happened to be over this afternoon and was able to witness the beginning to our adventure and told Xander he should do a potty dance or something to let us know he had to go potty. This little suggestion inspired me to break into an impromptu potty dance accompanied by a potty theme song. Think MC Hammer Hammertime but replace the Hammertime with POTTYtime...Duh Duh Duh Duh, Duh Duh, Duh Duh, POTTY TIME!! Xander thought this was so fabulous that we had to dance and sing every twenty minutes to and from the potty. This could be a long few days of potty training, but at least I will get a great workout with the potty dance.
With that, I ask you for well wishes, thoughts and prayers, your fingers crossed and everything else crossed for tomorrow when we are expecting to encounter our first poopy in the potty. We promised the child if he went poopy in the potty that Daddy and I would make him a Mater cake (Mater from the movie Cars) and have a potty party. So, also stay tuned for an invitation to the potty party and come prepared with Hammer pants!!!

2 months old!!

My little girl is 2 months old today. She has become such a big girl in such a short amount of time. There are so many things I love her about her and all her little quirks. She definitely has a personality all her own.
Some of Cally's quirks... The closer you hold her and the more skin she can touch the better and happier she is. She loves to nurse and is quite the snacker. Apparently the mom buffet is always open in her little world. Her brother is her FAVORITE person ever as she will crane her neck to find him when she hears his voice. Calista is very tolerent of her brother, especially when he is a loud banchee running through our house or when he comes up and talks...er yells... in her face. She also loves, Loves, LOVES her green elephant painting in her nursery. Since her elephant hangs above her changing table, she has taken to talking to it whenever she gets her diaper changed (she even smiles for her elephant). One thing that is very apparent is that Calista makes her voice heard. Whenever she needs our attention or has an issue she lets out the girliest screech. Just one shrill screech to let us know to pull it together and help the poor girl out. Another thing that has developed in the past few weeks is her quiet time. She loves to be put on the floor at the end of the night, after big brother has gone to bed, and wiggle around and talk. She does not like the TV to be on or music, she just wants quiet. For about 15-20 minutes she spends time on the floor with me and we discuss the important things of her world, like how beautiful she is and what a strong little lady her mama thinks she is. I adore having a little girl and cannot wait for what is to come in the next month for my beautiful little treasure.

Cally Boo and Xander too

Cally is now 7 weeks old and weighs 8 lbs on the dot. Her newest trick is smiling. Of course this melts my heart and makes my day to know that she is happy to see me. It is funny because she has to take a few seconds to stare at my face before she will give me a big open mouth grin. However, her big brother makes her smile by just getting close to her. At the sound of his voice, her whole body gets excited. She will start to wiggle and dance in anticipation of him. She loves when he talks to her and when he lies down next to her and she is very very patient when he plays with her. She is very intent on taking in every word he says to her and I foresee him being her primary teacher.

A little Xander update...He is definitely 3 going on 30 and has the imagination to prove it. The things he comes up with astonish us on a daily basis. Xander's new favorite things are the Smithsonian magazine and learning about the ocean and everything in it. He informed me the other day that the cover of the newest Smithsonian magazine was a picture of the Great Sphinx and it was in the desert. He also let me know that the great, huge ocean liner crashed into an iceberg and fell to the bottom of the ocean. ( He had just been reading a National Geographic book about the Titanic.) Brilliant, I say, just Brilliant!!!!!

Cally's first day of work

Tuesday, March 2, marked Cally's first day on the job. She was and excellent addition to the office and worked very hard. She has amazing people skills as she can make everyone smile and loves to help whenever she can.
On a seperate note, Mommy had a bit of a hard time going back to work and leaving Xander, but he did great and was happy to be back on his routine of going to Nanny's. I feel so lucky to have such great accomodations for him and also the ability to take Cally to work with me. I don't know what I would have done if I would have had to leave her already.