Potty Training Day 1!

I had been contemplating potty training Cadence for a long time now, and just never convinced myself it was a good time.  I've been reading about lots of different methods, and the 3 day "bare bottom" approach appealed to me most because although it sounded intense, it also seemed like we could get her trained quickly!  Last night I told James I was ready to start it this week, because I realized that although it might not be an easy task, it's not going to be any easier once school starts and I'm home alone with the kids!

So I woke up and got Cadence this morning, after talking to her last night about having no more diapers and getting to wear panties like Mommy.  I even had her go and tell James that she wanted panties and "NO MORE DIAPERS!"  This morning when I woke her up I reminded her of no more diapers, took off her overnight diaper and put her on her potty.  She went right away, so we had a little celebration, and then we went on with our day....with a naked booty.  She had one accident right after breakfast, and then went a few hours without one until James left to go to his office.  She had a couple of little accidents while climbing on top of the furniture, and two bigger ones when I was out of the room, but she seems to be catching on really well so far.  Before her nap she even went "caca" in the potty, which was a big cause for celebration.  At first I wasn't giving her any food rewards for going in the potty, but once James left and she didn't seem as interested in it, I started giving her one mini chocolate chip as a reward for using the potty, wiping, and washing her hands each time.  I'm pretty excited to see how she progresses over the next few days!

one month old!

Today Asher hit the one month mark, and boy, that month certainly flew by!  He's been such a good baby, mostly just because he's very predictable....still needing a nap after he's been awake for about 2 hours, with a long nap in the afternoon and generally going to bed for the night around 9pm.  Last night unfortunately one of his two hour awake windows fell between 1-3am, but knowing that I just have to make it through two hours makes it easier to handle without getting frustrated that he's not sleeping.  He took his first bottle a couple of days ago, and did really well!  He's still wearing 0-3 month sized clothing, and over the past week or so has started smiling for real! 

Cadence had another gymnastics class this week, and boy, does she love it!  She impressed her teachers with her bear crawl, but is still working on some of the other skills.  James and I have to laugh because she really did inherit our flexibility and coordination, but I love watching her because she really doesn't give up and tries to listen to her teachers and mimic what they do.  Her favorite song right now is "Rock Me Mama" by Darius Rucker, and some of her favorite things to do are play with balloons, play in the pool, eat cookies, and watch any sport with Daddy.  She loves to come into our room in the morning and wake me up and see Asher, and since we started her "Happy Face" chart, she's done a wonderful job of completing all of her tasks everyday.

We survived our visitors!

The past two weeks have been a flurry of activity as we have had three different sets of visitors descend on us from the North, plus the everyday stuff we normally have to do!

James's parents came first, and then two days later James's friend Steve came down to hang out with James for the day, and then two days after that his sister Missy and her family came down for five days, and the last day they were here my mom and Katrina came and stayed for two days.  Luckily after James's parents' visit we were able to keep a pretty normal routine for Cadence so that she was still able to nap and go to bed at her usual times, so I think that definitely helped her sleep better.  While my mom and Katrina were here she had another bout of constipation issues which lasted two days and was no fun for anyone.

Last Thursday Cadence tried out the gymnastics place in Murfreesboro with a free trial class, and although I will admit that she was not the best one there, she definitely tried to follow directions and enjoyed herself even if she was a little tentative to begin with.  We were unsure if we were going to pay for her to continue classes, but we decided it's probably good for her because with us as her parents flexibility is going to be a major challenge, so we might as well try to get her to be limber early on!  I'm glad we did go ahead and sign her up, because all this week she keeps saying "Nastics fun!", jumping, and doing other little moves that they asked her to do last week.  She's definitely super cute to watch as she tries out new things and learns to take risks. 

We've also been to two Webb library storytimes, which Cadence mostly enjoys because she gets to see her little buddies.

Asher has tagged along to all these activities and been so great.  His schedule has only shifted slightly, with him usually staying awake until 9:30, waking up around 4:30, and then again around 6:30.  He usually has a good two hours of wake time in the morning, again in the afternoon around 4 or 5, and then finally right before he goes to bed for the night.  He's down to pooping only once a day usually now, which makes going out less stressful!  He started taking a pacifier at the end of last week, and this week I plan to introduce a bottle and see how he does with that.  I can't believe he will be one month old on Friday!  So crazy!