Times are Changing

They won't stop growing! We will start potty training Jeffrey in a couple weeks...this will start with just introducing him to his little toilet :)I'm excited about it, he's been giving me some "cues" lately - tugging at his shirt and pants like he wants to take them off and then getting into a specific cabinet when he poops. lol! So no pressure, I don't care if he pt's or not right now, but if he's ready, we're ready. We'll see!

I think he went through a little growth spurt, because all of a sudden he is reaching things he's never been able to reach before. Trouble! And with that, he's tall enough to get into the dining room chairs by himself. This leads to me walking in to the room to find him dancing in a chair, which is TOTALLY funny, but not allowed. It's hard not to smile when he looks so darn cute up there.

Along with all this, I'm considering instituting a "time out" area. I'm asking friends and reading up on strategies. He isn't a bad toddler at all, by any means, but I feel like I should be doing more than just saying "No" and removing him from the situation. I don't feel like it's getting us anywhere because he just goes right back to it.

He says "Doggie" (or "Daaahh"), "Sissy (or "SShhhSS"), "Juice" (or "Deuce"), "Trash" (or "Tassh"), "Oh no!" (or "AH NAH"). LOL And of course mama and dada.

He is now sleeping in his big boy bed :) I can't believe it! It took a couple weeks of him sleeping on his floor with his HUGE stuffed doggie for us to put 2 + 2 together. We put the doggie in his bed and now he sleeps there with the doggie.

Seeing him grow up so fast really makes my skin crawl because I have no control over it and he's just becoming more and more independent and needing us less. I know he'll always need us, but in different ways.

Adrianna is rolling, and loves playing with her feet. She's so beautiful! She started eating solid foods a couple weeks ago. She does fine with that. Quite a piggy actually! I think I will make her baby food - all it takes is fresh fruit/veggies and a blender, so it's no trouble at all, and should be a good $$ saver. Meanwhile, I've got a nice stockpile of store bought food in the cabinet already.

We think she's teething. She's drooling & biting. The next step is a lot of crying in the middle of the night, and I am NOT looking forward to that! Our medicine cabinet is prepared.

She's been sleeping through the night since mid-March. She may wake up a couple times, but I just replace her pacifier or put her on her tummy and she goes back to sleep. She's very talkative! :) She continues to be an excellent nurser.

It's the sweetest thing to see Jeffrey kiss her and hold her and hug her. It's awesome!

Meanwhile, Jeff & I are still chugging away at our school work. I will be done in Jan '10 - as long as I don't take a single day off between now and then. GEESH. All this work and all I will get is a piece of paper and a ton of loans to pay back. Alright I know I'll get more then that, but I'm working my butt off and it's taking forever! And, I don't have any "career plans"...it all revolves around the kids, because as long as they are home, so am I. I don't get a high salary, or even daily showers - but we feel very strongly that it is the best thing for the babies.

We are also discussing Jeff's future career plans. Lots of options.

I think that's it. Next time I update, Jeffrey will probably have conquered a ton of new things!

We need an update!

Sorry it's been about 2 months since I've posted anything. Those 2 months have been crazy, with the holidays & packing & moving & school work & adjusting to having 2 under 2! It never ends around here. We've moved into a much much bigger place and are very happy here! There's room for our family here. Now that we're here, I can't believe how long we stayed in the condo, and how small it really was.

Jeff continues to excel at everything he does...he finished up his last college class with a 100 average, and is at this moment returning from a formal school he took in NC, where he performed so well yesterday that the teacher told him he didn't have to take the final exam today! He makes me sick ;) We're almost opposites in that respect. He over-achieves, while I do just enough to get by. Not because I want it that way, of course. But because that I can't afford to put any more time into anything else around here! I just can't hold myself up to those standards anymore.

Jeffrey is a full-blown walker now. Almost as soon as we moved in here, he just took off. I guess children really do need ROOM to grow, and that condo just didn't have enough room. Makes me sad because I feel like it's my fault, and that I slowed him down. Oh well, no biggie I guess. It's a lessons learned. He's definitely understanding what we're saying now. I can ask him if he wants to go potty with mama and he walks to the bathroom. :) No, we're not potty-training yet, but it's never too early to introduce it I suppose. He's a picky eater, in my opinion. Some of his favs are PB&J with milk for lunch, grape juice, fruit parfaits from McDs, ckn nugget kids meal from McDs, stuffing, and cheerios for breakfast. He shovels them in by the handful!

Adrianna is smiling, cooing, and just being a happy little girl :) It was very difficult for me for the first 2 months...she seemed to cry for no apparent reason, Jeff didn't take any middle of the night feedings because I'm breastfeeding - so I got crappy sleep, and trying to take care of Jeffrey during the day was just plain hard. But now that we're moved and we have room, we're all much happier, and it's much easier! Adrianna has her own room with her own crib and dresser. She sits in Jeffrey's old bouncer (of course, we got her a new, expensive one that she doesn't seem to like near as much!) and talks to the fish that move around when she kicks. She's an excellent nurser, and I typically only have to get up twice in the middle of the night to feed her. The 2nd feednig is so close to "wake up" time that I might as well not even go back to sleep...

There are little playgrounds all over the place here in the community, and we have a nice sized fenced in back yard. I can't wait for summer and spring so that Jeffrey can experience the outdoors as a toddler. Lord help me.