"Hear Mama Doo Doo??"

Now if that title doesn't get your attention, nothing will. I'll explain. A-hem . . .

We have several songs saved on my i-pod that Claire truly enjoys. One of them is the Mah Nah Mah Nah song from the Muppets. You have to hear it to understand why her name for the song is "Mama Doo Doo".

We have had many-a-laugh each time we are in the car and she says, "Hear Mama Doo Doo??" We, of course know exactly what she is talking about.

Now imagine me today at the grocery store check out line. I am just about to pay when Claire makes her request rather loudly.

Claire: "Hear Mama Doo Doo?"

Clerk shoots me a weird look.

Me: (speaking loudly enough to be heard by all) "I know you like that SONG honey. We'll play it when we get in the car, okay?"

Claire: (much more loudly) "NO! Mama Doo Doo! Mama Doo Doo! Mama Doo Doo, NOOOOOOOWWWWW!"

Clerk now stifling a giggle as my face beams bright red.

Me: (to the clerk) I promise it's a song.

Now I am not sure what is more disturbing to the clerk, the idea that Claire might not actually be talking about a song, or the fact that I might actually have made up a song about Mommy going potty. Neither are true, but in a grocery store line, who has time for lengthy explanations?

I think I'll carry my i-pod in with me next time so I'll have the proof on hand.

Time to "Go"

I figured I'd better blog something soon before this site becomes solely a "see Sarah's monthly pics" site.

So what's new? Hmmm . . . . well I started potty training Claire. And then promptly stopped the training.

I thought I had it all planned out perfectly.

Pack of training panties? Check.
Child-sized potty seat attachment? Check.
Fun foamy soap for hand washing? Check.
Step stools for toilet AND sink, candy for rewards? Check, check and check.

So yesterday was "Go time". After breakfast, I removed Claire's diaper and dressed her in training panties and a t-shirt. (soooo stinkin' cute by the way) I informed her that we were going to try using the potty so she needed to let me know if she needed to "go".

Now before you laugh at me, I knew that wasn't going to work perfectly. I was totally prepared to clean up several accidents. After all, the pack of training panties came with 3 pairs, so I had my backups ready. Right?? Right.

I gave Claire her juice cup which was 50/50 juice and water as opposed to her normal 10/90. I wanted her to ENJOY the juice enough to drink, drink, drink! And drink she did. My plan was to take her to the potty every 30 minutes whether she needed to go or not in the hopes that eventually she'd accidentally go in the potty. This would allow me to offer grand cheers and a candy treat thus showing her how WONDERFUL it is to go on the potty.

Here is how the entire 1 HOUR of training went before I threw in the towel.

9:00--Claire is dressed and ready.
9:30--I take Claire to the potty (she has drained an entire sippy cup by now) No dice. I re-dress her and replenish her juice cup.
9:55--I am gearing up to take her for the next potty trip when a friend texts me and I take a quick moment to respond. MISTAKE.
9:56--Claire announces, "Tee tee on the potty??" I jump up with excitement only to find that a more appropriate statement would have been, "Tee tee all over the carpet??"
9:57--Hose Claire down. Put 2nd pair of training pants on her cute little hiney. Praise her for understanding the action that took place and remind her that we want to try to "go" on the potty next time. She agrees and I am off to clean up the mess.
10:00--I have just mopped up the floor and rinsed out the dirty training pants. I am just starting to put the pants in the dryer when Claire walks up and says, "Clean up the tee tee Mommy?" I look down to see that she has soiled herself again. Thus a new clean up process begins.
10:05--Claire is sporting her third and FINAL pair of clean training pants just as Sarah wakes and needs feeding.
10:07--I am sitting down to nurse Sarah when I hear, "Tee tee on the potty, Mommy?" Yep. She did it again. Three accidents in just over 10 minutes. In such a short time, I now have NO dry training pants to change her into and an infant who is furious that her feeding time was interrupted.
10:10--All messes are cleaned up and Claire is sitting happily in a diaper watching Elmo's World.

Sigh, sigh, SIGH!

I quickly determined that potty training is not a one person job if you have an infant at home too. We are going to make our next attempt in July (we don't have any other weeks in June that aren't interrupted by travel plans and apparently you need to stay close to home for this potty training business.)

I told Michael that we are picking a weekend where he has Friday off and that way I'll have his help for Friday, Saturday and Sunday before going it alone on Monday.

So as I wait on the next attempt, does anyone want to offer some sage advice on what will work best to train a child who has an apparent gift for frequent urination?

I'm all ears.

4 Months!

Sarah is officially 4 months old. It is crazy how fast the time is flying. I'll try to make time to write something more substantial soon, but for now, here is her 4 month pic with Max the dog--paired with her 3 month shot for comparison.

3 Months:


4 Months:

Facebook Is Killing My Blog

Ever since I joined Facebook, I am finding it even more difficult to take time out to update my blog. The random ponderings that I would normally expand upon and put in blog format are now becoming my quick little "status updates". And alas, I am finding that there really, truly is nothing left to write about here.

But I am not giving up on my blog yet!! Oh, no. It's too fun a place to update on the girls. And besides, I am long-winded. This is the only outlet I have to be my long-winded self. Can't do that on Facebook. So here we go.

This is truly going to be a random, picture heavy post. There is no rhyme or reason to it, so don't even try to make sense of it all. If you do, you'll just be confused.

So we had Claire's birthday celebration.

I made cupcakes:


And Claire enjoyed them:


Immensely. (nothing quite like a chocolate gotee, huh??)


Sarah is growing like a cute little weed:



Claire loves to spend time tromping around the house in Mommy's shoes:




Sarah is finally big enough to sit in the highchair (sort of). So she now has a new place to watch us eat dinner.


And we now have a place for Claire to hang out when we need a break:





(And if you don't know I am kidding about this one, then you don't know me very well.)

Truth is, Nana was visiting and this kennel was her dog's home away from home. However, in true Claire fashion, she assumed it was a new toy for her. She adopted it as her playhouse for the duration of Nana's stay.

Okay, that's it for now. Sorry for the randomness, but you were forewarned.

TWO!!!!!!

Our sweet and precious Claire,

What a special year you've blessed us with!

From silent signs. . .

. . .to speaking your mind.


From timid first steps . . .

. . . to a reckless run.


From wispy strands of hair barely there . . .

. . . to . . . well, we've still got time on this one!


You've learned so much this year, but have taught us still more. Thank you for sloppy kisses and big bear hugs. God blessed us beyond our wildest dreams when He brought you into our lives! Happy birthday baby girl! We love you!!

3 Months Today!

I have not been good at all about taking monthly shots of Sarah. I decided I'd better start it up soon or else she was going to develop a complex later in life.

She is three months old today. She is really getting strong. Of course she should be strong, she is over 15 pounds!! She (er . . . I) made it through her 3 month growth spurt and she is back to 12 hour nights of sleep.

I am TRULY blessed with good sleepers!!

Here are her 3 month pics. I also included one with Max the Dog. He's another Dr. Seuss character (from the Grinch Who Stole Christmas). I chose not to do the Cat in the Hat again because I wanted to be sure I could tell who was who once the girls were older.

Happy Resurrection Sunday!!

You gotta have a new dress on Resurrection Sunday!!