She's a Green Apple

So.... Because my husband clearly is so interested in what I have to say in this blog about stuff, he told me this morning that he finally got around to reading this post.

Really, it was kind of random and out of nowhere that he brought it up.  Because strangely, as it often is, right around the point that I got so completely fed up with the situation that I went ahead and posted this big long ridiculous rant about it on the internet.... things finally started to get better.

Maybe God heard me and took it as some sort of prayer.

Maybe other people read it and just started praying for us about it.

Or maybe something just clicked with A.J. and we've been making progress F-I-N-A-L-L-Y.

We've got her going without a diaper or a pull up or any panties whenever she is at home and she is using the potty.  She's gone both ways although seems to prefer to wait until nap or bed time to use or pull up for the poo and while not ideal, that's still okay with me because all I really wanted was to be making progress.  And progress is being made.  She's now to a point where when she starts to dance we don't even have to argue with her or remind her to go do her business.  These last few days she is going to do it all on her own.

And today... guys... today she is in underwear and STILL going pee in the potty.

Yesterday she was too but then she had a very smelly accident in those panties, so that chicken isn't hatched or ready to be counted yet.

But guys, seriously.... PROGRESS!

At church today she had a pull up on and even though she could very well have just peed in it she actually told her Dad that she needed to go so he could take her to the bathroom!!!!

Speaking of this morning:

As we were getting her dressed I don't remember what what going on but I said something about how she is the apple of her father's eye.

I never really understood that phrase come to think of it, and even now, having Googled it, I'm still not sure if I'm using it right.

Regardless, I said that and then Matt was like, "Apple?  Huh.  Speaking of Apples...."

And then he reminded me how really he will only eat Green Apples.  The really really sour Granny Smith green apple are his absolute favorite.  (And now because of this, our kids think apples only come in green and really get upset if they are ever asked to eat a red one.)  Anyway, his point was that if A.J. is the apple of his eye, then she should be a little sour, because that's how he likes his apples.

HAhahahaha!

Weird,

Also, then he reminded me that even if A.J. is a bit sour, just like I was, she has him to take care of her and love her and because of this, she will be okay.

Oh Em Gee... so sweet.

My husband is the best father on the planet I swear.  And I know everybody says that, but seriously.  He is.

Just ask A.J.

Anyhow...

I'm actually realizing that maaaaaybe before the end of this school year, A.J. might be able to go to school in panties not a diaper or a pull up.

And that, is just, the best thing I could ever imagine.

Now if only there was some way for me to ensure that she doesn't remember all the negatives of this potty struggle....   but that is just up to her I guess.

Lucy Portraits Part 2

Continuing on from my precious post, as I mentioned I took Lucy in for some portraits last week.

Now, hang with me here for a minute, because I'm sure a few of you are about to decide I am really, really weird.

(My husband definitely thinks that, if you're wondering.)

So alright, do you remember at Christmas when Santa Claus brought Lucy the adorable Minnie Mouse dress?  And then of course, when we went to Florida and visited Disney's Animal Kingdom she wore the dress all day?  Well, so obviously, I thought she was just the cutest thing ever in that dress all day and I tried to take some pictures of her in it myself, but I just didn't have that much luck getting that perfect shot.

And so when we came home from Florida I just kept wishing I had at least one shot of her in her Minnie dress that could go in a frame.  You see, a couple of years ago at Halloween, Peter and A.J. went as Peter Pan and Tinkerbell.  And, because I am a huge dork about such things, and  I am kind of obsessed with Peter Pan, and because I thought they were so cute in those little costumes, I took them to get professional pictures done in them.  Those pictures turned out great of course and so I have the 3rd and 6th pictures from that shoot framed and hanging in my hallway.  They such a cute little set, and that's all well and good, except that now I have a third child and I felt bad that she wasn't included in those pictures.

Um.  I know.  Get over it Jen.  Quit being such a weirdo.  Who on Earth cares if your 3rd child is excluded from pictures taken before she was ever even born.

I never ever claim to be sane or rational.

BUT!  Oh, the big and amazing and wonderful but....

NOW, I could take Lucy to get pictures done in her Minnie outfit and it would be okay.  She wouldn't be part of the other set, of course, but that's okay, because she can have her own little pictures in a funny (Disney) costume.

YEAH!!!!!!

As I mentioned in my previous post, this seriously might go down as the easiest photo shoot in the history of photo shoots.

Honestly, after the very first click of the camera I had a shot worthy of a frame and we could have called it a wrap.

See?

 But of course, the photographer couldn't really just stop taking pictures after only one shot so he kept going for awhile, and these are all cute and adorable too.

For some reason the Minnie's Bowtique song just JUMPS into my head when I look at these....

Not sure why.  

 

Now I just have to find a frame and get one of these babies up on the wall.

I mean, not the actual baby, just... nevermind.  You knew what I meant.  :)

Lucy Portraits Part 1

Last week I took Lucy to get some pictures taken.  I really only wanted pictures of her in this one particular outfit, but I took along a second just in case we got the first one really quickly and I still had frames to use up as part of our sitting.  

Anyway, since it was a couple days before Valentine's Day I pulled her Valentine's dress and Peter's "Snuffy" bear to get some cute shots if the option came up.  

(If you dont know, Snuffy was my very favorite teddy bear as a child.  I still have him around here somewhere.  Actually, I have two, because at some point my mom or someone tried to replace the original because he was all torn up and ratty looking but it didn't help.  I just kept them both.  When I was pregnant with Peter we ordered one for the babybecause... obviously, my kid needed one too.  Peter's Snuffy has largely gone unnoticed until fairly recently and sat on a shelf overlooking Peter's bedroom and generally providing cute, furry, polar bear supervision.  For whatever reason, Peter pulled him down a few weeks ago and asked me where this bear came from.  When I told him, he quickly became very attached to the bear as well and now his Snuffy seems to be ranking right up there with his Bunny as his favorite stuffed animals.)

Not that any of that had to do with these pictures, but Peter had taken the bear to school with him the morning of these pictures, and so because the bear was already in the car, waiting for Peter to get out of school, it was an obvious and easy choice to include in the pictures with Lucy's red and white dress.  

Happily, I was right about taking the extra outfit.  My smiley baby sat perfectly and flashed her marvelous toothless grin and really, we could have stopped right there after only the first shot.  The photographer didn't of course, he took several more shots and poses in that first outfit and then eventually we changed her and tried the second look.  We had some fun with them of course, because they didn't matter.  They were just bonus shots afterall.

I mean, it wasn't like every single picture was going to be perfect and I'd wind up having to buy the CD again, right?

RIGHT?

*sigh*

Wrong.

Seriously.

Ever. Single. Picture was basically perfect and adorable.

I bought the CD.  Thankfully they were on special for 50% off the normal price.  

Anyway, here are those "bonus" shots.  I'll post the others (the ones I actually took her in to get) later.  :)

Haha.  This one is probably my favorite.

The photographer guy put together this collage.  

Cute right?

Someday my husband is going to have to buy us a bigger house so I have adequate wall space to display all the adorableness.  In the mean time, I shall save these photos, along with all the others I have of my kiddos to be put in a scrapbook/photo album someday.  

Hmm.  I wonder when I'll get to that?

How long til they're all off at college again?

Haha.

In the mean time, this blog is good enough, right?

RIGHT?!?!?  

Baby Bottles and Food

Just a quick post today.

I wanted to share a couple pictures of the littlest one:

If you recall, I've been complaining a bit lately that Lucy wouldn't take a bottle.  This began sometime around Thanksgiving and got worse over the past 2 months.  In so far as I basically never go anywhere for more than a couple hours without the kids it wasn't really a big deal.  But, one of the biggest reason I've always supplemented my nursing babies' diets with formula and/or had their dad give them pumped milk in bottles is for my own sanity.  I NEED to feel like if something happens and I can't get to them right away they are not going to starve.  I also kind of need to feel like I can stop nursing at any time if I want or need to.  I don't know why this is such a thing for me, it isn't like I have commitment issues or anything, but I don't know.  I just get afraid about it.

Also, there is a formal coming up next month.  And we're going and we're obviously not taking the baby.  So she needs to be able to be with sitter for an entire evening without screaming her head off the whole time (like she did on our anniversary in November.)

So we've been working on it.

It's been a struggle and there's been a lot of screaming (mostly but not exculsively coming from Lucy) but I think we've got it worked out.

She is taking bottles again.  (She takes them from both her father and me, even though the photos seem to show otherwise  because I'm the only one who ever takes pictures.)

PHEW!

She does much better with pumped milk but will also take formula too, just it's a bit more of a struggle.

The trick?

For whatever reason she has to have it really really really warm.  Like, I kept giving it to her literally fresh from the breast and she hated it.  Obviously as it got colder she hated it more.  But if I heat it up in the microwave (I know, GASP, you're not supposed to do that) or on the stove she'll take it.  I literally have to get it just this side of too hot.  So that can be trick and I wind up with a very sticky wrist from doing all the temperature tests to find that sweet spot.

Oh, and also....

(As you can see from the pictures above) she kind of thinks she needs to be a big girl and hold the bottle all by herself.

*sigh*

Why do they have to get independent so fast?

On the plus side, sometimes, her feet distract her and she can't decide what to hold onto.

D'aw!

In other news, it's starting to seem like my milk isn't enough for her.  She's been getting up several times at night to eat and this is kind of new for her.  I'm not sure if she is just digesting it really fast or I'm no longer making enough for her.

So since she's rounding the corner towards 6 months old already, we've been working hard on the baby cereal.  Except, it isn't going well.  She does manage to eat a little of it now but she doesn't like it.  So to try to help her with the taste we've tried to add a few more first foods.  I think so far we've tried applesauce, baby food pears and baby food bananas.  We've also gotten the little oat puffs for her to try to chew on.

And, well....

None of this is helping.

She'll have some success for a few bites, and then not so much.  Or she get too much in her mouth because she forgets to swallow and then she'll gag and throw everything back up.

It's splendid.

But we'll keep trying.

Because, really, what other choice do we have?

Haha.

Stone Soup

At A.J.'s preschool this year they frequently offer little Enrichment activities.  These happen after the kids finish their regular morning at school.  The kids whose parents sign them up stay for Lunch Bunch and then gather with whichever teacher is leading the activity to have some extra fun.  The first one of these she did was an Advent workshop where she learned about the season of Advent, made a tree ornament and made an Advent wreath centerpiece for our family as well.  

She LOVED it.  It was kind of strange because back at the end of November when she attended she was definitely at the height of not wanting to go to preschool and of generally screaming and throwing a fit whenever I took her there.  I found this interesting.  It's like, the added bonus of getting to stay for something special really appealed to her.  

The next workshop was on the book The Polar Express.  They read the story, acted it out a little bit, made an ornament and enjoyed cookies and hot chocolate.  She brought own her own punched golden ticket, just like in the story and a special jungle bell from one of Santa's reindeer.  Again, she came home thrilled!

Shortly after Christmas there was one on a book called The Gingerbread Baby.  I haven't read this story (but I do need to order it soon because she asks me about it all the time) but they read the book, decorated their own little paper gingerbread houses and did a little scavenger hunt around the school for the runaway gingerbread babies.  She came home with a gingerbread cookie she'd decorated put a blob of icing and sprinkles on all by herself and kind of hasn't stopped talking about about it since.

Most of the Enrichment activities are basically all reading workshops.  They take a book and build activities around the story to help the story come to life.  A.J. love books in general.  Even though she can't read yet she often memorizes the words to her favorite books and will pretend to read the story to herself or anybody who might listen.  I can see now why she enjoys these sessions so much and am glad she has the opportunity to attend them this year.  I just made the decision to move her over to Peter's preschool next year now that she'll be old enough, so that they are both in the same building and our lives can become a lot easier in the morning, but I will be sorry to leave her current school.  I went into it thinking this year would just be a little bonus/time filler for her and I wound up really loving that school.  I really think that these Enrichment classes have made the difference for her this year and I will be sorry to see them go when she moves to Peter's school and they aren't really an option.

Anyway, so I have decided that if I can find the money, she can attend all the sessions for the rest of the year.  We may as well let her enjoy them while she can.

So last week they had one on the book Stone Soup.

You know that one right?  There are a few variations of the story but basically a poor beggar winds up some place asking for food.  Nobody is willing to give him a meal so he asks to simply borrow some water and a pot to make some soup out of his stone.  The secret of course is that his stone doesn't actually do much in the way of making a soup but then everybody is so intrigued by his soup from a stone that they willingly contribute all sorts of potatoes and vegetables and noodles and things and wind up making the soup delicious in that way.  

To be perfectly honest, this story tended to kind of annoy me when I was a child.  I always got kind of frusterated at the people in the story for being dumb enough to fall for his trick.

In any case, this was the next Enrichment so I signed her up.  The director was leading it and was VERY excited.  She promised the children would come home having prepared all the ingredients to make our own Stone Soup for dinner that night.

And A.J. did.  She came home with a small packet of instructions and a tray containing a baggy of spices, a package of noodles and a baggy of chopped vegetables, and of course a special cooking stone.

(A thoroughly scrubbed and well boiled stone of course.)

So when she got home we set to work preparing the family's dinner for the evening.

Showing me her stone before we got started.

The directions and list of ingredients that was sent home.

The cover of the book they'd read and the song to sing as we put the ingredients.

Good grief.  Not only do I dislike cooking, but I dislike it even more when I have to closely follow directions (unless the result in cakes or cookies.)  I didn't think we had reached the point where my kids were bringing homework for me to do yet?  Guess I was wrong.

We got started.  I had to be very careful I didn't mess this up, because I really wanted A.J. to be proud of making a good dinner for everyone.

She put the stone into the pot.  

We added water and set it on the stove to boil.

Unlike the story, we started with some bullion cubes first before the vegetables to make a good broth.
A.J. peeled them all by herself.  She also tried to eat one (thinking it was candy) and was NOT happy.

She amused herself with my phone while we waited for our pot of water to boil

Finally we got bubbles and could start adding ingredients.

We carefully put in the bullion cubes followed by the spices and let it start to
simmer for a few minutes to ensure the cubes thoroughly dissolved.  

Then I asked A.J. if she could go try and use the potty.

This did not go over well.

She has had a great deal of success with the potty this past week or so whenever her Dad is home.  When it is just me around, well, it's a big fat fight.

Long story short, she never did use the potty for me that afternoon, but rather spent the rest of the day sitting on it and refusing to cooperate.  Then her Dad came home and eventually she did what she needed to do to get back up again.  Don't worry, it was only a couple of hours that she sat there.  And if she would have just taken care of her business willingly for me (and not insisted upon waiting for her Dad, well, she wouldn't have sat there so long.)

STUBBORN MUCH????

But of course while she was sitting I had to keep working on our soup.

Next came the vegetables.

The recipe packet suggested adding some meat to make the soup more of a meal.  I chose some chicken breasts, since, well, this is what I had in the freezer.  After they took approximately 6 months to thaw in my microwave and cook on the stove top, I cut them up and tossed them into the soup along with the vegys and the spices and of course, the stone.

I poked around the kitchen a bit to find more things to add.  I wound up adding more garlic and some corn.  I wanted to throw in a can of diced tomatoes too but we didn't have any.  My husband, who does 99% of the cooking around her and tends to stock our cup boards like maybe it's the apocalypse must really be slipping.  I honestly can't remember a time since he came home from the last deployment that we haven't had several cans of tomatoes.

This is about half way through the cook time.  Looks yummy right?

Just before it was finished and we added the noodles.  Looking even yummier still.
And of course, there's proof that this really was a stone soup.  :)

When Matt came home we added the noodles and gave them a bit of time to cook before we could eat.  And, okay so maybe there were too many because they soaked up nearly all of our awesome broth!

I am forever begging Matt to prepare the noodles separately when he Makes soup from our leftover Turkey bones at the holidays because they always do soak up all the broth.  I can't believe I was so foolish this time!
So I added a couple more bullion cubes and a few more cups of water and let it all cook a little bit longer so it was actually soup again and not a very noodle-y stew.

When it was all done, I chose to overlook the potty battle with my girl and we got a picture together with her Stone Soup.

After I poured out everyone's portions I dug out the stone again to make sure it hadn't wound up in anyone's bowl on accident.  

Nope.  There it is.

So then we had dinner.

The soup was really good.  Peter and A.J. didn't really eat theirs because they don't really do well with noodle soup.  (They only ever dig out the noodles.)  But Matt and I ate ours right up and that's really saying something since there were peas in it and Matt HATES peas.  He usually avoids any foods that have peas in them like the plague.  I guess he was either really hungry or he just really didn't want to hurt A.J.'s feelings.

No, it wasn't that.  Actually he was just so happy to have dinner on the table that he didn't have to make.

*sigh*

I guess I should  make a better effort to cook dinner more often.  Even though I hate it.

A.J. and her soup and the salad we had with it.

Lucy, because well, she's cute.  She didn't get any soup.
She played with some toys and had a bottle of pumped milk afterward.  

Fun right?

I mean, maybe if one of my teachers or my mom or somebody had ever let me make real soup from a stone I wouldn't have disliked that book so much.

Also I like they way the Enrichment workshop made A.J. feel special not just because she got to go to it, but also because she got to share what she did with her family when she got home.

Oh, and did you happen to read the whole page from the instruction packet I posted at the top?  It makes me cry a little actually.  The director talks about how she brought in her own daughter's stone from her preschool Enrichment on the story, to share with the kids.  Her daughter is grown and married now but she still has that stone.  It lives in the cabinet with her other cooking spices and is "well seasoned" now from use in making lots of soups over the last 19 years.  Better yet, it holds all the memories as well.

So I bet you can guess what I did after dinner.

That's right, I scrubbed off our soup stone and when it was clean and dry, I put it away in the spice cabinet to use again soon.

:)

Valentine's Day

To be honest, I put very little thought in to Valentine's Day this year until it was basically upon us.  I opted to buy the boxed Valentine's Cards for the kids to hand out at school rather than make them and frankly, by the time I'd sat with Peter while he signed his name on all over them (constantly forgetting letters, writing too big, "messing up" and asking for an eraser even though pencil wouldn't show up on his little Planes cards so he had to use a pen) I was over being crafty with him so I decorated his box myself for him just to get it done and taken care of.

But even without my efforts, the holiday still had lots of excitement in store for them at school.  It started on Thursday when A.J. had her class party.  Peter and I arrived with Lucy a bit late after picking him up at school and by the time we got there basically the kids had finished eating and the fun was wrapping up.  Even still, A.J. seemed pleased to see us so I snapped a few pictures and helped her pass out her Dora cards and tried not to stress.

All the kid's Valentines bags lined up to get stuffed with cards.  

A.J. in her heart hat playing with the twisty straw one of her friends gave her.

It would figure that last year nearly very other person had store bought cards when we made ours.  This year though, at A.J.'s school at least, nearly all of the others were home made.  Oh, irony.

A.J. finishing up her special snack.

Aren't they cute holding hands on the way to the van.  :)

Haha.

When we got home, I helped A.J. empty out her bag and sort through all her cards and little treats.

So much sugar.  She was very excited.

I was most excited by the adorable personalized cookies the Teacher's Assistant gave all the kids.  

Peter was a bit jealous of course, even though I explained that he'd get his Valentine's the next day at his school.  To appease him, I pointed out to him that the new tennis shoes I just bought him (after he's mostly worn out his last pair) match my running shoes and then we took a picture to prove it.

You almost need sunglasses to look at this picture.

Speaking of sunglasses.... the next day (Friday) while Peter was at school I took A.J. to Target to find some.  Hers have been missing for some time now and she has such sensitive light blue/green eyes that she is constantly complaining about the bright sun in her eyes.

They had a few styles for her age, and it was a tough call between the Hello Kitty and the Princess ones but in the end the Kitty ones won.

She was wearing this red dress for the holiday.  We got it as a hand-me-down from some friends at church and school.  I've been keeping her in dresses as much as possible this past week because it helps to make it less awkward that whenever she is at home right now she goes commando.  We've had some progress this week on the potty but only when she goes commando.  If you put her in panties she still makes a mess, and of course she still wears a pull up to school and dance and to sleep.  But at least she's been using the potty once or even twice a day all week.  Not willingly of course.  No, not willingly at all.  But while she screams and objects and hollers, eventually, when no other option is available, and if we can wait it out, she eventually goes.  I asked for progress and that is progress.  But it's going to be a long road with this one.

In other news, the other day while we were "waiting it out" on the potty, I offered to paint her toe nails to match mine.  It was supposed to be a bribe to get her to go.  It didn't work.  She never did go that morning before we had to go leave and get Peter.  But what was I going to do, take the polish right back off?

Cute little Valentine's piggies

Pretty matching mommy and daughter toesies

Of course, Lucy needed to get in on the fun a little too.  And, purely because both of the other two had little outfits for every holiday, Lucy has to have them too.

This Valentine's day dress might be one of my all time favorites.

Anyway....

A.J. thought she as pretty hot stuff in her new shades and basically wouldn't take them off all day.

She got this little bubble bottle in her Valentines and begged to do them so
before we went toget Peter we played in the front yard for a few minutes.

When we arrived at the school still a little early, Peter and his friends were still out on the playground.  I parked my car for a minute up on the hill where we pick them up and spied on him for awhile.  He was playing soccer with a couple of the other boys.  It was really cute.

Then of course, when the kids came up to head home with us I snapped a few more photos because they are always so cute clutching their little boxes of treasures.

Haha.  He'd been upset at me for not taking him to get a stuffed animal or other such special gift for her favorite girl friend that morning.  He was even more mad at me when I said we weren't going to be having a playdate with her that afternoon like he wanted.  Oh well.  Since it was Valentines Day though, and they are in "love" I took their picture together.

Hahaha.  Funny thing actually, that there are 2 girls in this photo.  His "girlfriend" (as he calls her) is beside him.  But, and this is purely accidental, the other girl is the one he says he is going to marry some day.  It's purely an accident that she is in the photo too.  

Also, his girl there in the pink shirt?  She is a full 9 months older than he is.  Obviously in preschool 9 months is a lot.  But it's funny to me that he loves the older girls already.

Anyway, here he is with his Valentine's box as well.

I decorated it with the extra heart stickers from his cards and I cut out the Planes characters from the card box.  On the back I put El Chupacabra (the plane, from the movie, in case you don't know who I'm talking about) and I wrote "I'm just a love machine" because that he sings that song in the movie.  And also because Peter tends to be a bit of a little Love machine himself.  Always chasing the girls...

With his Valentines

Enjoying a ring pop.

So basically, I thought that was it.  Matt and I didn't have any plans to exchange gifts or go out, because really, there is no need.  Spending time relaxing as a family on a Friday night is just as good.

And Lucy sure did look cute didn't she?

Since it was Friday, Matt came home a bit earlier than usual and BOY was a surprised when I saw him...

Oh My Gosh.

I mean... wow.

And pretty!

And also thank you dear that's so sweet!!  Totally unnecessary and unexpected, but so nice!  

Honestly, I was shocked.

Now please tell me you didn't spend a ton of money on those dear because....

"Not to worry honey.  The First Class Petty Officers Association were selling them at work for a fundraiser."

Oh.  Hahah.  So the price wasn't that bad.  And also, good for them to sell flowers and take advantage of all the folks at his office who hadn't gotten their significant others anything until the last minute.

Still, that was nice.  

Oh.  But since Lucy's dress said "Daddy's Little Valentine" obviously I needed a picture of her with him.

Aw.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  I hope everyone had a great day of love too!