March 7

She was so busy "driving" the car, I couldn't get her to look at me for a picture.

Our fun day out of the house was pretty good. We didn't do anything especially exciting, but it was nice to be out of the house for a while. First we went to the special library with Lindsey, Simon and Elliot. Then Audrey and I went to the mall. We rode the escalators a few times, Audrey climbed on all ride on toys for a while (thankfully, she is still willing to just climb without riding, so it makes for free, easy fun for her!), and we had lunch. Then it was back home for nap time, piano lessons, dinner...all the same old stuff we do every day.

Potty training day #1 starts tomorrow. Stay tuned!!

March 6

Audrey was feeling much better today. No fever, and she was happy and hyper and normal!! We did stay home from church this morning, but since she was acting so much better, we took her to small group tonight. I think she was happy to get out of the house, and SO WAS I!!!

So, Audrey's big girl panties are all fresh and clean and ready for her to wear. I'm just not quite ready for her to wear them yet! We have spent so much time in the house this weekend that my patience is wearing very thin. To maintain my sanity and start this week on a positive note, we are going to get out of the house tomorrow and do something fun. I don't know where we are going to go or what we are going to do, but we are getting out of here for the day. Then on Tuesday, the potty training will begin (no more excuses!!).

I've done a little research on potty training, and there are many people out there that will tell you they have discovered a surefire way to potty train kids. I'm not sure that I believe there is any one correct method of potty training. I think every kid is different, so I don't know how there can be any guarantees. I have found a few ideas that I like, but they are not set in stone. With all that said, here is my potty training plan...ready to be adjusted as needed as the week progresses. (WARNING: I will probably be using a lot of "p" words this week: potty, pee, poop. If you would prefer to avoid these topics, then you may want to stop reading for the next week or so!!)

1. No diapers while Audrey is awake. We'll do pull-ups while she is sleeping, because I know she is not ready to be dry at night, and I am definitely not ready to deal with dirty bedding yet. But while she is awake, she will be wearing her big girl panties, aka training pants. And we will make lots of trips to sit on the potty in the bathroom. And hopefully she will quickly get the idea! =) She hates to be dirty, so I'm really hoping that those first few wet/dirty panties will motivate her to use the potty.

2. We have a little potty, but I don't care if she uses that or the big toilet. She likes to sit on both right now. As long as she is going in some kind of potty, I don't care which she chooses.

3. I may give her extra snacks/juice this week to help "spur" things along. We'll see. If that just causes me to have to clean up more accidents and do more laundry, I may change my mind about it.

4. I'm thinking about a reward system. This will probably develop as we go along and see how things are progressing and what she responds to. I think a sticker chart (especially if we used Mickey Mouse stickers) would make her happy. But we might get crazy and do M & M's or marshmallows too.

5. We are going to stay home. There are a few details to work out here. We have to be at church Wednesday night and at Sprouts Thursday morning. So I think she will have to do a pull up at church, and then we are going to try our first public outing with no diapers on Thursday at Sprouts (though I may change my mind about that after the first 2 days). But other than that, we are not leaving the house...it's all about the potty this week!

6. I'm going to try this through Friday or Saturday. Then we will evaluate how it is going. If she seems to be getting the idea, we'll keep up with it. If she doesn't get it at all, we'll stop for now and just try again later.

I am open to any suggestions that all you experienced parents may have for me!!! I'm really dreading this entire process, so I probably need to get a more positive attitude before Tuesday gets here. It's going to be fun, right????

March 5

I didn't take any pictures today. Audrey has been running a fever. She's had a stuffy/runny nose the past couple of days, so I'm guessing she has some kind of cold or virus. Her mood/behavior has been up and down all day. At times, she acted like she felt horrible and could barely lift her head. Other times, she has been acting completely normal, like nothing is wrong.

Her fever was up around 101 this afternoon and evening, but it was starting to go down tonight on its own, so my guess is that she will be doing better tomorrow. It is fairly common for her to run a one day fever, and then be fine the next day. But still, I want her to be fever free for 24 hours before she is around other kids...which means no church or small group for her tomorrow...which means another day stuck in the house.

I was planning to start our Potty Training Boot Camp on Monday, but I may have to postpone it for a day or two. After spending the whole weekend in the house, I'm not sure I will be able to spend the whole week in the house too without getting out for at least a little bit in between!

March 4

Daniel went to a concert tonight, so Audrey and I were on our own. My plan was to take her to Barnes and Noble, and then stop at Dairy Queen on the way home for some ice cream. But then it started to rain. And I decided that running around town with Audrey in the rainy/stormy weather didn't sound so appealing.

Instead, we decided to have a movie night! First we put on our jammies. Then we rounded up all of Audrey's friends who wanted to watch the movie with her. Curious George, the caterpillar we made the other day, Donald, Minnie, Pluto, Mickey (which is really another Minnie but don't tell Audrey), and a cat puppet that we made yesterday (another letter C activity) all joined Audrey on the couch. We enjoyed some popcorn and watched Toy Story 3.

This was Audrey's first full length movie. I was surprised that she sat and watched the whole movie. I don't think she was really following much of the plot. She knows many of the Toy Story characters (because they are everywhere!), so she spent much of the movie pointing out everyone that was on screen. She especially liked the baby (the scary creepy one!).

I was worried that parts of the movie might be too scary/intense for her. There was one part, when it got kind of loud and dark, that Audrey seemed a bit scared for a second. Maggie was sitting next to her, and Audrey reached out and grabbed Maggie's paw and said, "Hold Maggie's hand. Feel better."

It was a fun night at home with my little girl!!

March 3

This morning our Sprouts playgroup took a field trip to a nearby aquatic center to go swimming! It was lots of fun! I wish I had taken more pictures. But it's kind of hard to take pictures when you are in the water, and we were pretty much in the water the whole time! So I didn't really take any pictures until it was about time to get out.

There was a nice toddler pool area, and Audrey enjoyed being able to walk by herself and sit down by herself. She did not like all of the spraying water and waterfalls that were a part of the play area. She refused to walk anywhere where it was "raining".

There was also a little lazy river area and a circle vortex. Audrey really enjoyed swimming with me and kicking her feet in the lazy river and then spinning around in circles in the vortex. She keeps talking tonight about how she went swimming in the "rivers" today.

March 2

OK, time for another belly picture. I don't know why I feel the need to document this, but since I took pictures consistently while I was pregnant with Audrey, I feel the need to do the same this time.

I'm 24 weeks now...which is the 6 month mark! At first, I was eager for this pregnancy to go by quickly, but now I'm really ready for time to SLOW DOWN! In 4 months (or less), we will have another baby. And I'm kind of freaking out at the idea of having two kids. I'm feeling very unsure about my ability to take care of two kids without losing my mind.

For those who care to compare, here is a picture of me at 24 weeks with Audrey. I feel much bigger now than I did then...it's hard to tell from the pictures though if that is true or not.

I'm also thinking it is time to get serious about naming this little girl. Right now, I have one name on my list, and Daniel doesn't like it. So we either need to come up with some more options OR Daniel is just going to have to deal with a name he doesn't like! =)

March 1

Wow, how can it be March already? I think it would be great if time would just slow down a little bit for the next few months!

Today, we picked back up with our Letter of the Week theme. This week's letter is C. I keep finding lots of fun C ideas, so we will see how much we get done this week. This morning we were ambitious and made TWO crafts:

A caterpillar C:

And an egg carton caterpillar:

Of course, we also read The Very Hungry Caterpillar after making our caterpillar crafts!