Friday, May 29, 2009

Hooray For The Potty!!

So we had a pretty fun extended weekend. Saturday night we had a barbeque with some friends; Sunday we just relaxed and had fun with one another; Monday Robbie went fishing with some friends and I hung out with the girls and we had a barbeque that night as well, but just with ourselves. The best part about it all is...

Gwen is officially potty trained!! (and during this post I've had to stop twice to put her on the potty...she seems to not be able to tinkle and poo in the same visit...she waits for a few minutes in between). She has been using the potty for two weeks now and even tells us when she has to use the potty. She even makes it through the night without having any accidents. She is out of diapers/training pants for good!! Gwen goes to the bathroom without any help too. She pushes her "potty stool" around to turn on the light and get on the potty, takes everything off, goes pee, wipes (with supervision...she's still having issues with wiping her bum really well) then puts everything back on and washes her hands...all by herself!! It's taken over a year (with many breaks due to frustration) but she finally decided she wanted to do it and when she did it took 2 weeks!! I'm so proud of my little peanut, and she's proud of herself too. This past weekend Rob was relaxing on the couch and she came up to him and said "Look Daddy!" She pulled down her pants and said "I'm wearing polka dot underwear!!" and showed off her underwear. She did the same thing to her Uncle Matt when he stopped by. Such a big girl.


Now it's Gracie's turn to potty train. I know that she's not quite 2 yet, and they tell you to at least wait till they're 2, but she wants to use the potty and she's so interested in it that I'm not going to wait (plus, how awesome would it be to have both of them potty trained and not have to buy so many diapers?). Every time that Gwen goes potty Grace has to use the potty too or she gets mad. She also has to use the big potty with the special "princess" seat like Gwen-she refuses to use our little training potty. She gets mad too when I don't let her wear training pants instead of a diaper but since she doesn't really have the hang of things yet and is peeing herself more than peeing in the potty, she still uses diapers mostly. On Monday I'm really going to start working on potty training her and hopefully she'll follow her sisters lead on this like she did with everything else (crawling, walking, talking...) and potty train quick.


Georgia is now eating cereal!! I've heard from a lot of people now that doctors and the American Academy of Pediatrics (I think that's what they're called) have recommended not feeding them any solids until 6 months, but my doctor said it was all right, and since I started feeding the two older girls rice cereal at 4 months, I decided to go ahead with Georgia. She's 4 1/2 months now, but she's not picking it up as well as Gwen and Grace did. Within a week of starting cereal with them, they both had it down and were eating it without any problem. I have been doing this with Georgia since Sunday, and she is having a hard time with it. She spits it out, drools it out, plays with it with her tounge and then spits it out...she gets very little of it into her stomach. I don't know why it's been so hard for her but she's not taking to it very well (she even blew raspberries over and over again while I was trying to feed it to her and spit it out that way). Hopefully as I keep trying she will get the hang of it soon.

They are all getting so big!! Gwen and Grace are both so very close to moving up to the next size clothes (Gwen to a 4T and Grace to a 3T) and Georgia is just getting so big so fast!! We got our little kiddie pool out of storage 2 weeks ago and the girls have had so much fun with that. I just sit there and remember them swimming in it last year, and how they wouldn't really get in the water last year and this year they do (Gwen wants to learn how to swim). And last year I only had two kids in the pool...this year I have three (well, I just hold Georgia on the edge of the pool and let her stick her feet in). It's amazing how fast they grow and I am so greatful for all the fun we've been having as the question of what we're going to do in 2 months looms over Rob and I (he's still applying for jobs, but so far...nothing). Who knows where we will be this time next year, but by that time I will have a 4 year old in preschool, one who will be almost 3, and one who will almost be 18 months. Crazy!!
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Friday, May 22, 2009

Night Terrors?

So I don't know if young kids can get night terrors, but at least two to three times a week, Grace wakes up screaming. Luckily, we can get her to calm down in under 15 minutes and she will usually sleep the rest of the night. However, at least once a month she wakes up screaming bloody murder. I mean...the child has an amazing pair of lungs, and she uses them to her full potential on these nights. She wakes up screaming at the top of her lungs, and she screams anywhere from an hour to two hours with very little calm periods in that time. Last night was one such night. She woke up at about 9:30 screaming and confused and Rob got her to go back to sleep without much of a problem. At about 10:15 though she again woke up screaming and confused and she would not stop. We tried everything!! Robbie sat with her for a few minutes whie I got Georgia back to sleep (the screaming had woken her up) then I went to sit with her. I sat with her until midnight when Robbie came out for a turn. She didn't calm down until about 12:30...and I fell asleep shortly after that. I don't know how long Robbie was up with her because she was talking to Rob and sounding very awake when I fell asleep in our room. When I got up to feed Georgia this morning they were asleep on the couch, so it must have been late enough to just stay there and sleep by the time she finally fell back asleep. I've thought about taking her to the doctor to see what really may be going on because of how often this occurs. It's almost like having a newborn 2 or 3 nights a week when she wakes up like this, because it goes on all night long-she wakes up screaming, sleeps for a little while, wakes up screaming, sleeps for a little while...and while it does gradually get better (when she wakes up later in the night, she'll just mutter or cry out and then go back to sleep) it's hard on Robbie and I. I don't know if it really is night terrors or if it's something in her diet that her body just doesn't agree with, but it's happening often enough that we have seriously considered taking her to the doctor to find out what the cause is. So crazy. Neither Gwen or Grace has any issues sleeping through the day though!!


Everything else is going good though. I'm still removing dark blue crayon from some of our clothes and trying to clean up the mess that was created during those 2 days where all I did was dishes and clean up crayon. We got out our swimming pool last weekend and I took the girls outside to swim in it on Monday. All 3 of them had a lot of fun, and it was nice to get outside. We might do it again today. And we did get a good laugh this week...Gwen told us at dinner Monday night that alien pickles must have taken her salad since she didn't have any with her dinner (we were having peas with dinner, and I tried explaining that to her, but I guess alien pickles are a better explanation). Oh, and the only other thing happening...the LCD screen on my camera is broken (all you can see is white) so my pictures aren't turning out as great because I can't see what the picture looks like before I take it. Guess I'll have to get it fixed...nice things that happen when kids get a hold of your stuff. I also made a diaper/wipe case this week, but the pictures are on my other blog-the one I have to show my family back home the things I do in what little spare time I have : ).
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Friday, May 15, 2009

Why Am I Still Awake...

Because I finally got my dryer clean!! Yes...it took me TWO DAYS to clean all the crayon out of my dryer. Yesterday was pretty much just cleaning out the main part of the dryer, and today was cleaning all the little gaps and holes of the lint trap. I didn't get it all out of the lint trap, but I did my best, and when your fingers (and arms, and back...it was caked on real good) hurt from scrubbing away for two days, and even a sharp nail/fork/knife won't get the crayon out of the tiny holes in the lint trap grating, you just give up and hope that it doesn't come out on your clothes. I did a test and a tiny tiny tiny bit of crayon came off on the clothes so I am running the clothes through again after wiping out what I could and hopefully now I won't have any problems. I better not...I really need to wash our clothes. Robbie is down to his last pair of clean jeans, and I literally have NOTHING to wear...pajama pants and holey t-shirts have been it. I hope that I never ever have to go through this again...and I still have to work on getting all the crayon out of my ruined load of clothes...sigh. Oh the joys of being a parent!! And hooray for clean clothes!!

I'm going to have a bit of a moment...I guess it's because it's so late and this is a bit like having a journal for me. I have been really bummed out this week. I don't know if it's the stress of 3 kids under the age of 4, worrying about Robbie finding a job, or the fact that after spending a weekend with my sister I just really miss my family. We have not been back home even for a short visit since we moved out here at the end of December of '06. Rob and I have not seen any grandparents/cousins/relatives besides our parents/siblings who live on the east coast in over 2 years. I know that we could end up nowhere near any family at all, but just since Mother's Day I have just been homesick I guess. This has not been an easy week-Georgia getting her shots and being on edge for 2 days...Gwen and Grace have been something else when it comes to being nice and obeying this week...and the dryer incident (which as I said before, left me in tears twice). I am by myself with the girls 4 days a week from about 6 am to 6 or 7 pm. It was so nice to spend 2 days straight having another adult female to talk to and vent with...the girls have been sick so often lately that I haven't had the chance to really get out of the house besides running errands. I think that everything just piled up on me this week and I just needed to vent and let things out. Hopefully the next few weeks will be a bit better and we'll be able to get out more. Oh, and a big thanks to Rob and my brother Matt for watching the girls AND scrubbing the dryer for me yesterday...I owe you guys!!
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Thursday, May 14, 2009

I HATE Crayons!!

While we were down at my sisters place this past weekend, Grace got into her crayons and ended up losing about half of them. Well, she found a dark blue one and instead of getting up and putting it in with Gwen's crayons, I stuck it in the bag we were using for diapers and just thought that I'd get it out when we got home. Well, Wednesday of this week was my scheduled day to do Rob's and my laundry. I always do the girls laundry the day before ours, and after all their laundry is done I put in a load of our colors to decrease the amount of laundry I have to do for us the next day. So, I decided that after all the dirt that got on the diaper bag (it's a bag made out of old jeans) from packing and unpacking the car twice (to go down and come back home from my sisters) I would wash the bag. I checked all the small pockets but didn't think to really look in the big part of the bag, and stuck it in with my laundry (which included all of the clothes that still fit me after losing weight...the only clothes that fit). When I took them out of the dryer on Wednesday (I left them to sit in the dryer over night because the load got done a little late) I noticed that they had blue specks all over them and remembered about the crayon. However, I thought that the crayon had probably melted all over this load of clothes and I had nothing to worry about. Well, the next load of clothes that I had put in the dryer after my load came out completely blue. Thankfully it was just a pair of Gwen's undies (yes, she is almost potty trained!!) and a blanket of Georgia's-a white blanket. Needless to say there will be no saving these two articles of clothing. Oh, and my dryer is caked in melted crayon. I have spent the entire day cleaning blue crayon out of my dryer, and I am still not done. I'd say I have a little less than half the dryer to clean. It was bad!! The dryer before hand was white inside...it's dark blue now. I have learned a serious lesson about checking everything twice before sticking it in the laundry because now my fingers, arm, and back hurt from trying to clean the dryer (which is what I've been doing all day except for feeding Georgia and 15 minute periods where I have to run the dryer to heat up the crayon so it will come off). Hopefully I will get it done by tonight because I have no clean clothes. I am sitting in one of Rob's T-shirts and my pajama pants because I stuck all my laundry in dirty piles on Wednesday, thinking I would have them all clean by the end of the day. I will be spending all day tomorrow hopefully doing laundry and cleaning crayon out of all of mine and Robbie's clothes. It's enough to make a person cry (and I did...oh did I!!). So, if any one ever has this problem...I know how to get crayon out of a dryer and clothes now!!
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Monday, May 11, 2009

4 Months Old!!

As you can tell from the title, Georgia is 4 months old today!! However, I'll start with everyone else and move my way down the list.

Robbie is doing good. He has only got another 2 months until he graduates and oh is he excited!! No more pulling double duty with school and work. He has still not been offered a job, so those of you who have been praying for us we ask that you please continue to do so. Right now we only have one job that Robbie hasn't heard anything about but hopefully more will open up before he graduates. It's putting a lot of extra stress and worry on Robbie. I hate that there's nothing more I can do to ease the burden for him. So just continue to keep him in your prayers that he will be offered a job.
I am doing pretty good. Now that things are getting into more of a routine everything has been easier for me. I had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend...we went to Diana and Quinn's in Wyoming and spent some time with them. We hadn't been down there since Thanksgiving and it was nice to get out of Rexburg for a while and spend more than a few hours with them. Robbie had a blast going fishing and antler hunting with Quinn and I had so much fun doing a craft with Diana (you can check it out on my craft blog http://sarahcongdonscrafts.blogspot.com/ ) and just relaxing. It was a really nice weekend.

Gwen had a lot of fun this weekend too. She loves to run around, and being in a big house was wonderful for her. She had a ton of fun with her cousin Madison, playing outside and riding the 4 wheeler but not so much with the puppy Kiwi. She really surprised me this weekend when she showed me that she can recognize any number from 1 to 10 in any order. I had no idea that she knew her numbers that well. Now if I could only get her to recognize her alphabet better she'd have her numbers, shapes, colors and alphabet all down pat. She also gave us a good laugh when she saw a sign for Icee's (the ones you get at gas stations that have the Polar Bear as a mascot) and told us she wanted "Bear Milk."



Gracie also had a blast this weekend. She loved exploring Diana's house and while she really freaked out over the dog and riding on the 4 wheeler she had so much fun playing outside and playing with Madison. She and Madison got along so well...guess it's because they're so close in age. She is talking more and more and picking up so many words. She finally says "I Love You" clearly enough to understand and is starting to recognize some letters and numbers. She also knows the colors blue, pink, green and yellow very very well. She too gave us a laugh this weekend when she woke up and while still half asleep grabbed her diaper and said "I poot" (poot meaning pass gas) and went back to sleep.

All right...my 4 month old sweetie Georgia is getting so big!! She is rolling from her stomach to her back and is so close to rolling from her back to her stomach. She laughs, talks, and growls a lot now and just learned how to blow raspberries this week. I took her in for her 4 month checkup today and she was 13 1/4 pounds and 25 1/4 inches tall. She's a really tall little girl but her weight is a bit below usual. I'm not concerned because she was so sick for those 2 weeks back in March/April (when they put her on the nebulizer) and I don't think she really gained any weight during that time. I'm sure that she's just making her way back up from that and she will be back to normal by the time she's six months. The doctor said she is doing very well developmentally and didn't tell me I couldn't start feeding her cereal, so I'm going to try once a day feeding her a little rice cereal. I know that a lot of doctors are now recommending that you don't feed them any solids until they are 6 months but because my doctor didn't tell me not to, and because I fed both Gwen and Grace rice cereal at 4 months, twice a day, I'm going to give it a try. I may wait until she's 5 months, but I don't think I need to wait until 6 months. She's getting so big and her personality is really starting to shine through. I'm such a proud momma of all 3 of my little girls!!
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Saturday, May 2, 2009

The Job

Just thought that I'd let you all know that Robbie heard from the company he interviewed with, and he didn't get the job. We're both pretty bummed but we're moving on with faith and hope that he will find a job before he graduates. Thanks to all who were praying for us to get the job...it meant a lot to us that you would think of us. We will let you know about any job updates as they happen (or if they happen)!!
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Friday, May 1, 2009

Weigh In

At the end of the month I like to post about how much weight I've lost. I have been trying really really hard to lose weight before Robbie graduates-that's my goal that I'm working towards. I need to have lost at least 20 pounds (5 pounds a month) to reach my goal by the time he graduates. I have been pretty overweight since having Gwen, and while I did try to lose weight after having Grace, I didn't start until I had stopped nursing her at 7 months, and 2 months later I was pregnant again. So I took advice from people about exercising while nursing and it's working!!

I lost 4 pounds in April. I know that's not as much as the 6 I lost in March, but to me that's great. I didn't work out as much in April due to Georgia being sick for about 2 weeks...I just didn't have the energy to do it every day. So although I wish it was more, 4 pounds is great, and I am proud of it. So I am now 10 pounds lighter than I was before, and I am still on track to lose 20 pounds by the end of July (Robbie's graduation). All in all a nice loss for my efforts-I am happier and feel better about myself, and that's worth all the missed desserts/extra helpings of food and the extra hour of sleep. Hooray!!
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