Potty Training...

It was a GREAT weekend for a lot of reasons!  But the reason that makes me the MOST excited is that my little girl is finally willing to sit on her little princess potty and use it for what it was intended!  We got this for her back in May as part of her birthday present and it has been used for many things since then but she has REFUSED to sit on it and use it as a potty—until this weekend.  I sort of put my foot down this weekend and decided this was it.  My nephew, Connor, who just turned 2 last week, has been peeing on the potty this past week so I decided that it was time Addi stopped being stubborn and accepted the reality that the diapers need to disappear—VERY SOON! 

My daughter is stubborn—my mother says that comes from me (surely not) so Friday night and Saturday morning were ROUGH.  Despite the really cool reward chart that we had made and the prize stash that we had accumulated for when she started using the potty, I was basically sitting her on the potty kicking and screaming.  I would make her sit there for a couple of minutes and then I would let her get up and would tell her that there was nothing to cry about.  Then she would always say, “Sorry Mommy” as she was crying and would hug my neck… BREAK.MY.HEART. I would tell her that she doesn’t have to be sorry and that mommy isn’t mad at her but that it is time for her to be a big girl and use the potty.  My girl is so sensitive and she DOES get that from her momma no doubt.

But when it finally happened (probably by accident) Friday night and we heard that little tinkling sound, it nearly brought tears to my eyes.  SHE DID IT!  She was so proud and so was I.  Lots of high-fives and running through the house telling Daddy and Austin multiple times that “I’m a big girl now because I pee-peed on the potty” was music to our ears.  That happened right before bed time Friday night and of course I put a diaper on her for bedtime but I hoped that Saturday morning would pick up right where we left off….. WRONG…  Saturday morning was like Friday night had never happened so I would put her on the potty despite her crying and begging NOT to sit on the potty and at 11 AM, she still hadn’t gone even after making her sit like every 15 minutes.  Craig was at work and I needed to run some errands which included the bank which closed at noon so I put a diaper on her and off we went.  When we got home from the errand running though, she picked up right where we had left off Friday night and earned lots of stickers for her reward chart…  She is so smart though—she was telling me about every 10 minutes that she had to go potty JUST to earn stickers!  J

Anyway, I’m so proud of her.  She still isn’t going #2 on potty yet but I know that’s normal and will come in time!  And she looks so cute and tiny in these little panties!  Love it!

I’m so blessed to be her mother and to have the opportunity to teach her things and watch her grow and learn.  She has really made motherhood easy and a complete joy.  It’s all happening too fast but I’m certainly enjoying each and every moment.

Pontoon...

I just wanted to write about this because I think it is sweet.  Addi loves music which I am so thankful for since we are a musical family and she loves to dance.  She and I are all the time cranking up the TV and dancing around the living room together. 

One of our favorite songs of this summer was the song by Little Big Town called “Pontoon.”  If we are driving in the car and it comes on or if we have the TV on CMT and the video comes on, she will always say, “Mommy, there’s our song” and then wants us to dance.  I LOVE IT!!

Uncle Jackie loves this song too and we always think of him being silly and dancing and singing when we hear it!

Speaking of boats, here are a couple cute pics of her helping Daddy winterize our boat!

Curly Hair...

Lately, Addison has become very aware of her curly hair.  I’m not sure if it is because she gets so many compliments on it or if she just notices how different it is from my hair (I flat iron my curls out).

She occasionally will look at Craig and tell him, “I have curly hair and you don’t have curly hair.”  HAHA!  He barely has any hair at all.

And she talks about how her hair is yellow but mine and Austin’s hair is brown and daddy doesn’t have any hair!

She is so funny and so observant at this precious age.  Never a dull moment!

Helping Mommy Cook...

Lately Addison has been more and more excited to help me cook when I get home from work which I love!  It gives me and her some extra one on one time together after I’ve been away at work all day.

Normally, I let her sit up on the counter and pour things into a pan or add ingredients or stir whatever we happen to be fixing.

One thing she especially loves helping with is when I make oven-fried chicken.  She loves to hand me the raw chicken breasts so that I can rinse them off and then she loves to put them in the flour mixture for me. 

She tells me over and over, “I’m your BIG helper, Mommy.”

She sure is! 

Vacation 2012,,,

Vacation this year was so wonderful!  I was a little anxious about the drive this year since this would be the first time we drove with Addi for that long but she couldn’t have been any better!  We didn’t leave until Friday night at around 10:30 (after giving Craig a few hours to nap) and she was (seriously) asleep by 10:45 and slept until about 4:15 AM when we made a stop to get gas.  We got her out of her car seat so that she could walk around a little and stretch her legs and changed her diaper and off we went again! I took over driving at this time and about 30 minutes later, Addi threw her one and only fit in the car wanting me to sit in the back seat for her.  (I need to backtrack a little and make a slight excuse for my sweet girl—she hadn’t been feeling well for the two weeks prior to our trip—battling a double ear-infection, runny nose and cough and had been through a 10-day antibiotic but still hadn’t completely kicked the cough.)  Since I knew that she just didn’t feel great and it was like close to 5 AM, I pulled over and took my spot next to her in the back seat.  I rubbed her head and tried to get her to calm back down and while rubbing her head, I noticed that she felt pretty warm so I got out the Tylenol because I didn’t want her temperature to continue to rise.  She was NOT in the frame of mind to take medicine so I had to get Craig to get off at the next exit and we had to take her back out of her car seat and basically pour the Tylenol down—by this time it was 5:30 AM but we were back on the road and she was quiet and happy with me beside her.  I rubbed her head and by 6 AM she was asleep again.  That was truly our only little meltdown of the long trip which I thought was excellent considering (1) it was her first really long car ride and (2) she wasn’t feeling well! 

We arrived in Panama City Beach at around 9:30 AM and found the nearest Waffle House and had a wonderful breakfast—we were all starving!  Even Addi ate a WHOLE waffle (and those are huge) as well as some bacon!

We stayed at a different condo this year—we normally stay at the Gulf Gate—but stayed at Dunes of Panama this year.  It was beautiful and the patio/deck was huge and the view was amazing! 

The kids were so much fun this year and really enjoyed the water.  Addi loved the ocean and you had to watch her because she was a bit of a daredevil and would have liked to go out there by herself.  It was nice because there was a really shallow sand bar that was really in close so the kids could play in the water there without us being right next to them since the water only came up to their knees.  They had lots of fun finding shells and trying to catch the little fish in the water.

They also had fun in the pool.  There were 3 different pools there but the 2 larger pools were a little cool (the water had recently been refilled) so we stayed at the smaller, heated pool and the kids loved it.  Katie took big strides in swimming without her puddle jumper this year.  There were quite a few people there from KY so it was nice to meet some new people.

We ate at most of our “usual” places this year—Pineapple Willies, Angelos, Hammerhead Fred’s, Reggae J’s, and the Boat House.  We ate at the Boat House Thursday night for Austin’s 17^th birthday.  Then everyone came back to our room for cake and ice cream.  Austin had requested that Nana make him a chocoloate éclair cake for his birthday so she did!  After that, several of us went down to the beach to look for crabs in the dark with flashlights!  The little ones enjoyed that but after a little while, I thought it was getting too cool for them so we came back up!

For his birthday, Lisa and James paid for Austin to go on a Sea Doo ride with them.  James and Dalton rode on one sea doo and Morgan and Austin on the other.  They had a good time. 

The weather was PERFECT all week.  We had no rain at all and it was like low to mid 80s all week.  We all came back with a great tan (especially Addi) but no one was burnt!

Friday we spent our last day at the beach and then the pool and then came back to the condo and got showers and baths and then Addi and Craig laid down and took a good nap.  We left the condo around 4 and went to Pier Park to do some shopping before getting on the road to head home.  We left Pier Park around 7 and found a KFC to stop at for dinner.  Addi watched movies (Max and Ruby and then the Lion King) and didn’t fall asleep until around midnight and slept until we got home at around 5:30 AM.

It was a GREAT trip.  I’m so thankful that we get to take this trip every year with our parents and extended families!

Sensitive Girl..

Addi is a smart girl and she is starting to learn my weak spots already.  If I tell her that she can’t do something or can’t have something, she will get this sweet little pitiful face and say, “but mommy, I just love you.”  Yep, that is definitely a weak spot for me because hearing her say that, melts my heart… However, I have to be strong and learn that my sweet, little, innocent girl has figured that out about mommy at the young age of 2 and even though I know that she loves me, I know that she uses that sweet little proclamation to try and get her way!

She is also very sensitive and if she gets scolded for anything, it really does break her heart.  When she gets in trouble, we will usually tell her she needs to go to her room for a while and she usually takes off running to her room, completely heartbroken.  I usually let her stay in there for 5 minutes (or less) before I go in.  She immediately wants to hug me and she is very good about saying, “Sorry Mommy” through her tears.  Discipline is difficult but very necessary, no doubt.  I always try to explain to her why we had to send her to her room and she always listens carefully.  It always ends with a big bear hug and telling her I love her.  We have a book that we read quite a bit called “I Will Always Love You.”  It’s just about how little ones can do things that their parents don’t like and they will be disciplined but the parents will always love them anyway.  Through the discipline, I always want her to know that I will always love her! 

Here are a few random pictures taken lately...  Some of them have her friend the caterpillar in them (look closely)!