Changes in Callie's Life

On Monday, January 23rd - Callie came home from daycare having gone potty 4 times in the potty.  Well -that was it - time to do it at our house!  

I'm proud to tell you that after one week - Callie is consistently going potty in the potty and telling us when she needs to go.  There are still accidents, but she's 22 months -that's expected.  We don't go anywhere in panties (well, to and from Jessica's house), without pull ups on!

And when we play outside - we wear a pull up!  Callie also enjoyed playing in the snow...it's so warm outside the snow is so sticky :)  Callie got some snow on her face, and instead of crying, she licked it...well, that was it!  She is now an official snow eater :)

Just not the yellow stuff...as my dad would say :)

We were watching the clouds move quickly through the sky, and watching the moon appear and then disappear as the clouds covered it.  I took this picture below because Callie pointed in that direction and said the following, "Pitty, take pitur" - which obviously translates to "Pretty, take picture!"  So I did!

We had the potty in the kitchen to get her going.  It is now in our bathroom!  And during dinner, when eating tacos, and you have to go potty - why not just get up, take your taco with you - and do your business!  Crazy kid!

Saturday morning, we began taking apart Callie's crib!  She made sure that her puppy could see what daddy was doing :)

After her crib was all out, she decided that she wanted to sleep in the corner with her blankies and her "Goldy Pillow Pet" that she sleeps on every night!

She was helping her daddy A LOT - which was a good thing because it helped the process of her understanding what was happening.  Soon, the daybed bed rails were moved into her room!  No going back now :)  I gave her a rag, pretended to spray pledge on it, and she helped mommy wipe the boards clean!

Taking a water break from mom's cup...while hanging out in the living room with everything from her room :)

BIG GIRL BED!!!  Her new bedding and all :)  Thank you Denzer's for letting us borrow the bed rails :)  They don't match, but we don't mind.  I do have fabric that would look nice, so I may do some velcro covers...but we'll see how long she actually needs them :)

I love this :)

Callie's first nap - it took her 45 minutes to finally fall asleep :)  Here she is - so tiny in her new bed...sleeping away, all curled up nice and cozy!  It reminds me of her first time in her crib as a baby!  She got out of her crib, tried opening her door, came out once, cried often and eventually fell asleep!

She love her new "big girl" bed!  She enjoys going in there and reading her books!  We are trying to encourage her to leave her toys out of her bed.  I want her to know that beds are for sleeping, but she can have her books in there!

Reading books with Daddy in bed :)

Time to get ready for her FIRST night in her big girl bed!  This is it...will she fall asleep?  Will she wake up?  Will she fall out?!

Big girl all ready for her first night :)

As a recap for you - her first night went GREAT!  Callie slept through the entire night.  It only took about 20 minutes for her to settle down.  She only got out of bed once - but a simple reminder had her back in her bed.  She woke us up by turning her music up :)

Back to the potty training - still going great!  She bends ALL the way down to be wiped...which cracks me up!  Oh -and because she wouldn't use the toddler potty we had, we bought the same one that Jessica had at day care...now we have two!  She uses both now, so one is upstairs and one is downstairs :)  HIGHLY recommend this for anyone :)

On Monday when we got home, Callie received a package in the mail from her Gramma & Grampa...something that they have done for all of their grandkids (I LOVE THIS)...

The letter told Callie how proud they were of her for using the big girl potty and how much they loved her!  They included two packages of panties - Princess & My Little Pony!  They also included 4 Elmo books that are easy readers (which we read before bed tonight...Elmo's Shoes was her favorite!).  She was so excited about her new panties that she put on ALL 3 of her Princess panties...Oh Callie!  Never a dull moment :)

Check 'em out Gramma & Grampa :)

21 - 16 - 2...What these numbers have in common!

You must be asking yourself - what do the numbers 21-16-2 have in common?

Well, let me tell you!

21 - we are at week 21 :)  I have been feeling GREAT!  I have a good amount of energy - probably more than to be expected from a mother of a toddler, a full time teacher, and a woman pregnant with twins!  But I do have a good amount!  I like to give my credit to the good night's rest I receive almost every night :)  It is a very rare occasion for me to wake up in the middle of the night to use the restroom.

Our twins currently weigh about 3/4 of a pound and are about 10.5 inches long (the length of a carrot!).  Our babies currently have eye brows, and their lids are now present!

This week we had a check up with our Dr.  If you remember from our last Dr.'s appointment (end of December) it was a tough visit for us; however, if you also remember in that same post, I commented that we recognized that EVERYONE is entitled to a bad day and a busy day.  We felt that our Dr. had that kind of day.

This past appointment was completely different.  It was an appointment like "the old times" - if that's the right thing I'm trying to say.  I'm so glad that we didn't jump to conclusions!  Our Dr. made me feel so good about myself and he answered several questions I had!  Josh had a basketball game, and with the timing, there wasn't any rescheduling; HOWEVER, my best friend Alyssa wanted to come down and hang out - little did she know that I had an appointment...so she came with to hear heart beats :)

Here are some statistics!  Babies are both growing and doing wonderfully!  I'm growing - as you can tell from the pictures!  So that brings me to the next number...

16 - When I first got pregnant, I weighed in at 150 pounds.  I felt really good about myself, because granted I weighed 5 pounds more than I did "pre-Callie" - I was healthy and physically fit!  I like to call that 150 pounds of muscle!  My first trimester I hadn't gained any weight with these twins...and then in Dec. I had only gained 4 pounds.  I remember thinking, "Man, when is the weight going to kick in?"  Well, 16...I stepped on the scale and weigh 16 pounds MORE than I did before I got pregnant!  AHHHH - HOLY CRAP, that's a lot of weight!  166 pounds...WOW!  Josh was quick to remind me that I am having twins.

Baby A has a heart beat of 136 BPM and Baby B has a heart beat of 144 BPM.  

Bending over is getting VERY difficult, because there are two babies in there.  Honestly, I'm not so sure how much longer I will be able to shave my legs...OH JOSH!

No wonder my stomach feels so heavy and that it is crazy hard doing a lot of movement...these two babies are getting BIG!  And I still have a ton of time left!

My Dr. told me that I am the 2nd happiest pregnant woman with twins that he has ever met :)  What a compliment!  I do love being pregnant...and I feel so good!  

Some other projects we have completed this week:

I have sewed 4 crib sheets.  They are all the same fabric, but that way we'll have back ups!

 As you can tell Callie wanted her mattress back!

On Saturday (the actually week 21 mark), Callie went down for a nap for the FIRST time in her BIG GIRL BED (a different post), and Josh and I walked into the nursery to see what we could do.  Honestly, I'm not sure what we WERE going to do in the first place, but we quickly started ripping up the carpet!

Oh yes, that is beautiful hardwood floors underneath!  SCORE!!!  Josh is hard at work!  He ripped it up and cut the carpet into chunks.  We were going to save it for Callie's future playhouse (that I hope is still being built this summer by the men in our family!), but it is gross and we decided against it.

My job - I pulled up the staples - not hard, but let me tell you - remember that "weight and bending" thing I talked about?  Oh yeah - I felt it the next day!

 

2 - In the two hours that Callie slept (we let her sleep a little longer because of our project - usually it's 1.5 hours) - we ripped up all of the carpet, pulled up all of the staples, swept, and disposed of everything!  The only parts left are:
- pull up the tack boards
- lower the baseboards or put some sort of spacer thing in the bottom
- fix the piece by the door (where the hallway carpet meets the hardwood floor
- Swiffer the floors!

Josh is half way done with the 2nd Gopher, and the M has yet to be started!  In the picture above, you can see our beautiful trunk (that was hand made for us!) - well, that is where the dresser/changing table is going to be.  Above that, Josh is going to have the big Gopher "M" on the wall.  I tried convincing him to paint that and then write "GOPHERS" through it - but he said it'd be too hard :(  Maybe I can sweet talk him into it!

The other blank wall in this room will house picture frames of our babies :)

So, as you can see: 21-16-2...all important numbers...I just don't like the middle one :)

Potty WHAT!

So, if you remember back to this summer, I had posted about Callie using the potty quite frequently!  She was doing so well :)  Then she had a setback - she got an ear infection, which caused her to go on antibiotics, and then gave her a yeast infection :(  Poor girl associated her potty with pain.

During this school year, she has been slowly going more and more at Jessica's house!  YEAH!  But would NEVER EVER go at our house.  Not sure if she still thinks the potty we had for her was the devil or what, but it was not happening.

Last Friday, Callie went potty on Jessica's potty again, so I said, "THAT'S IT!"  I went to the store and bought the SAME potty that Jessica has :)  And new panties!

Yesterday, Callie went on the potty at Jessica's 4 times!!  Callie and I got home, I put her in her panties, and we waited!

Callie had one accident - DARN!  But that's okay, it happens!  It can be cleaned up :)  A little while later, she peed on the potty!  THANK YOU LORD!  Granted we have the potty in our kitchen, because we're afraid she'll hate it if it's in the bathroom where her "old" one was...

It was about 7:25 and Callie said "pee pee", so we sat her down on the potty.  She sat, and sat, and sat, and sat!  About 7:40ish, Josh suggested we get her ready for bed!  I wasn't quite ready, because earlier that night, she did the same thing and eventually just got up and said, "I'm done".  So I figured she would get up when she was ready!

So we decided to ignore her!  Within a few minutes - plop plop plop!  YEAH!  Poo Poo in the potty :)  We were beside ourselves excited!

After she went to bed, I quickly ran to Target to get some of the "thicker" panties - the training kind, so she can wear them to and from Jessica's (in the car).  And then I went grocery shopping - at 9:00 at night, because I didn't want to go after school with Callie...mainly I wanted to get her home and into a pantie :)

TODAY - at Jessica's!!!!  She pottied 4 times in the morning, refused to wear a diaper for her nap (good thing Jessica found a pull-up) and then pottied 1 more time in the afternoon before I picked her up!  NO ACCIDENTS!

Tonight - she peed on her potty 2 times, then pooped on her potty!  ZERO accidents!  I put her in the bathtub for her bath and within seconds, she stood up and said, "Pee Pee" - so I took her out, soaking wet and all, plopped her on her potty and guess what...she PEED!!!!

She went to bed having gone on the potty having peed 8 times today and pooped 1 time today!  NO ACCIDENTS ALL DAY LONG :)  I am so proud of her!

Wow - big girl!  I can't believe this is happening.  Wasn't it JUST yesterday that Josh and I were changing her VERY FIRST diaper in the hospital after giving birth to her?  Now she's ready to be done with them!

You go girl, mommy and daddy are SO proud of you :)

Date Night, Play Date & Sillies :)

For Christmas, Josh and I decided to MAKE each other something this year!  Granted we didn't give each other these gifts until January - they are still special :)  Josh gave me an album that has pictures in it from every stage of our relationship - THAT HE DREW!  It is so awesome and special :)  There is a 'to be continued' section as well :)  Hey Josh - make sure you continue!!!

I gave Josh 12 envelopes that were filled with "Monthly pre-planned Date Ideas"!  I got this idea from Pinterest, so I did some research and planned everything out according to our likings, our time, and basically - what our summer is going to look like.  There are some dates that require us to go out (so we need sitters) and some that are at home (here's to hoping 3 children will be asleep at one time!)

Saturday evening, our sitter arrived at 4:30 and Josh and I hit the road for Rochester :)  His January pre-planned date had a choice of either Outback Steakhouse or Olive Garden (two restaurants I was craving) & a movie at home.  We decided to do some shopping!  Josh chose Outback on our drive there, so it was in my head and the cravings were kicking in!  There was no turning back...even with a 55 minute wait!  So we walked to "Savers" which is right next to Outback.  It's a consignment store.  We took one step inside and were ready to leave - it stunk!  But we've heard our friends have found some great buys in there, so we thought we'd give it a try!

We found "Pizza Elmo" - something Josh has been wanting to get Callie forever now, but can't find anywhere!  And a Tickle Me Cookie Monster!  Talk about two AWESOME finds for 8 bucks total!

We also went to Office Max and bought a computer piece - but the best buy here was that I had found a $15.00 gift card to O.M. in my wallet - SCORE!  Josh was able to hook a computer/Internet up to our TV upstairs - now both TV's have Internet on them :)  I can watch ANYTHING upstairs now...WHOA WHO!

Our dinner was perfect and Josh and I were able to relax and have a great time!

After dinner, we drove to Babies R Us to look at car seats - on our way there we saw the most beautiful sign EVER!  Austin friends - COLOR ME MINE IS BACK IN ROCHESTER!!!!  It's located behind Savers towards the mall :)  SCORE!  We are so going there next time (wish I would have known, I'd have added it to our date nights!).

Babies R Us informed us that we can take car seats to our vehicle to measure everything out and make sure they all fit - THANK YOU :)  Put that on our list of things to do!

We were laughing, because we kept joking about going to "Bed Bath & Beyond & Home Depot" - from the movie Old School - as their Saturday afternoon!

My favorite part was sitting in the "massage" chairs that they have at BBB and using the foot massage :)  PERFECTION!  

Perfect night with my PERFECT husband :)  I love these date nights already!  I know we'll go on more dates, but these are 12 dates throughout the year that are fun and we don't have to plan - I already did the work!

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We were so fortunate to have one of Callie's friends over for a play date today!  Ella came over for about 2.5 hours and these two girls played their HEARTS out :)  It was so fun to watch them interact with each other more and more as they got more comfortable!  I love when Callie says her name too - it's like she's singing the song "You can stand under my umber-Ella Ella Ella" - because it's all repeated every time!  Here are some pictures from their fun afternoon together :)  Callie slept REALLY HARD after Ella went home...she was WIPED out :)

Ella will turn 2 years old this week!  So they are SUPER close in age :)

Playing together in Callie's play house! 

High Fives!

Lunch together!  I think it would have been nice to have two booster seats!  We later had Ella go up on her knees! 

Ella & Callie share a love of Elmo and all of his friends :)  There's this part of Callie's Cookie Monster toy that he starts singing.  Callie stood up and started dancing - I love that you can see her hair flying in the air as she dances!

The girls were taking turns putting the cookies in his mouth :)  

MMMM - Apples :) 

Painting fun :)  The girls LOVED this and had a blast!  Of course our typical Disney music was on in the background (one of my favorite Pandora stations)... 

:)  This makes me smile! 

:)  Reading a book together!  Elmo Seek & Find 

Pointing to Ernie together!  We were quizzing them on where everyone and everything was - they did AWESOME at this :)

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Callie is absolutely HILARIOUS!  She is repeating anything and everything Josh and I say - so if you're around her - WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE!   She has great manners!  She is learning that crying doesn't get her anything, but when she says "pease" she almost always gets what she wanted!  And she follows it with a "tank you"!  We've been saying things like "Whoa Whoa Whoa" - Daddy's line!  And "Oh Geeze" - Mommies line!  I love when Josh says something to me, I respond with a dramatic "NO WAY" and Callie says it the same way!  Haha - too funny!

Here are a few pictures of Callie that just crack us up!

Callie enjoys helping mommy in the kitchen!  Here she is with her "own" cutting mat, the tops of the green pepper and one of her "knives" - they are more for practicing!  She knows to bring over "mommies chair" so she can help!  We made fajitas that night! 

She was working with green peppers, tomatoes and water :) 

After dinner, it's time to clean up!  Notice we removed the "Swiffer" bottle - she is constantly pushing the button, so we just let her "dust" the floor for us! 

When we were cleaning out one of the rooms, we found part of our friend Lisa's Halloween costume from 2 years ago :)  Callie likes it :)

Callie and her BEST FRIEND!

She plays AWESOME by herself - this is how we found her...haha - Seriously kid, you crack me up :)  Her toy corner is a complete mess EVERY DAY...and why we clean it up at night is still beyond me!

Not sick, not even tired - just wanted to watch Elmo & she figured this was the best way to do it: )

Potty training is not going very well, but she enjoys wearing her panties!  She's going to KILL me for this picture later, but when she pulls them up, she always forgets to pull them up in the back!  Hehehe!  I love her cute little butt!

Auntie Heidi gave her this for her first birthday!  When Callie first turned 1, she loved riding in it!  Turns out - at the age of 22 months - she still fits :)  A little more crammed, but still having fun!  (there's her Pizza Elmo too!"

Of course Kixie had to go for a ride :)  So sweet!