First Food

This is Walter eating  peaches, which he didn't like this time but we had to get the picture!  The first food he really likes was bananas and after that it was easier to convince him to eat other things. :)  I traumatized him with rice cereal so he doesn't like that any more.  (I accidentally gave him some gas drops that I hadn't realized had been sitting in the car in 100+ degree weather... which apparently made them bad... he was throwing up rice cereal that next night... which would make me not want to eat it ever again either... poor thing!)

Potty Trained

Oh how long have I anticipated writing this post?  Much too long.  We did have Lena potty trained back around Christmas time, or so we thought... she never really went by herself... we would always have to watch for her "dancing" and it was a fight to get her to actually go to the bathroom each time... she also never really figured out the pooping thing.  When Walter was born she completely reverted and it was just two much work to keep track of her potty-training and take care of a fussy baby at the same time.  So we put her back in diapers until now.  With pre-school starting in less than two weeks we had planned to bite the bullet and take away the diapers again.  She had already been going ALL by herself here and there (i.e. going into the bathroom, getting her stool and potty seat set up, taking off her pants/pajamas and diaper and going all by herself) which amazed me.  One day (August 16 ish) we had her in a swim diaper to swim in her pool in the backyard. When she came in she said she still wasn't done swimming so she didn't want to change yet... I told her not to go pee in her swim diaper since we all know they don't ever hold any pee... well, of course she did and it was just a big mess (Randy was with her) and both just had it... we grabbed the underwear and put away the diapers and brought out the sticker charts and treats and told Lena that the diapers were all gone... the first time she had to go after that she said "I want a diaper" so we knew she had to go and ran her to the bathroom... since then she's only had one "pee" accident and she can go ALL by herself... no help necessary... unless she's feeling lazy.  It took a couple of days for her to figure out the "poop" thing but now she can do that too. :)  She even stays dry at night!  I'm so proud of my big girl for figuring this out and I'm SO glad it's not a fight every time she has to go potty. :)

I wrote this post back in February when I thought we had her potty trained:

I've been saving this picture for quite a while now... waiting to post it when I really and truly feel like this girl is OFFICIALLY potty trained... well... knock on wood... I think I can finally claim that she is.  We started this long hard process during our Christmas break.  She was immediately able to "hold it" for quite a while... the problem was getting her to UNhold it in the potty... then when we finally got that down it felt like a constant battle to get her to sit on the toilet when she was "dancing around"... she would always say "I'm not dancin' around, I was just moving for fun" or "I just have tutes coming" or "The pees aren't coming".   Well, after a few more accidents here and there I feel like she finally understands "I don't want to pee in my pants... I pee in the potty because I'm a BIG girl".  

24th of July in Monroe

I have been such a slacker with taking pictures lately so I didn't catch all of the fun on camera... but I did get some cute pictures of the kids. :)   First, Walter in the classic high chair with some of his very first rice cereal. (which he hates now, but liked it then!).  We have pictures of Randy in this chair (as a baby) and Lena... pretty cool!

Chris was super cute with Walter and helped me entertain him with toys in the early mornings when no one else was awake. :)

Of course fun with Grandma was to be had.

They don't look super thrilled in these pictures but Lena insisted on eating up with the boys for each meal and loved being a part of all the fun.  She is so grown up now that she can do everything they can.  She even slept in the same room as them and did great!

Anyone else feel like all of these kids need a nap?  Yeah, it wasn't a happiest picture.. but it almost includes all of Randy's Grandma's great grandchildren... at the moment.

As for some of the fun not captured in the pictures... Becky watched our kids while we enjoyed a water-skiing trip with Jessie, Greg and Kelvin.  Oh it was so much fun and I'm so glad I went.  The best part was the water-weeny which Randy insisted on bouncing on out of control, which made us all laugh so hard that we couldn't breath and eventually couldn't hang on anymore so went flying into the water.  So fun!

First Time at the DENTIST!

Lena went to the dentist for the first time and did SO good.  We went to a pediatric dentist that is SO good with kids.  She remembered the code word so she got a super hero cape.  She had a little bit of a hard time with those annoying poky x-ray things and a little bit of the cleaning... no crying or resistance... just a little bit of whimpering... BUT, she has NO cavities. :)  YAY!  Oh they let the kids choose a crazy hat for the hygienist to wear and she chose a cow hat for her's. :)   The girl there thought she was so cute that she asked us to share pictures of her at the dentist on their facebook page... maybe they do that with everyone... but I totally felt special. :)

4 Month and 3 Year Dr. Appt. stats

Here are the stats for Lena's 3 year and Walter's 4 month doctor's appointment.

Lena:
28 lbs (15th percentile)
3 ft 2 in (80th percentile)

Walter:
12.5 lbs (10th percentile)
26.5 in (80th percentile)

Just some Cute pictures of my Cuties. :)

4th of July

We ended up doing 4th of July at our house this year and were so glad we did! The small town fireworks proved to be amazing... much better than the ones we bought ourselves... which included tiny milisecond lasting and a LOT of snakes... WOO HOO ;)  Luckily our neighbors splurged and got some pretty cool areal fireworks that were amazing.  Lena was so excited about them and Jimmy too!  They also liked their first sparklers and kept wanting more.  :)

Walter got some much needed Nonna time. :)  Then went to bed before the real celebrations began... hey, I would've let him stay awake if he wasn't so grumpy! :)

Comollo girls!

Silly faces... and apparently I have a freakishly long/skinny looking tongue...

Jump!

Again!

And again!

Alex... trying not to laugh at how silly those "snakes" look. ;)