Bubbles and more Potty Success

I am warning those of you who read this blog that from now on, I'll probabily be talking about my child's pee and poo activity on a regular basis...it's just one of those things at this stage in her life and ours. sorryyyyyy

Anyway, Brynn surprised us all this morning when she woke up and told me, "potty, mommy" and lifted up the lid to the toilet. I told her to go get her seat and stool, so she did. She sat on the toilet and minutes later, she was grunting away and pooped in the potty! I could not believe it! if potty training her is going to be this easy, sign me up! LOL

I included some pics of little Bee blowing bubbles, her new favorite thing to do. Every day when we get home, she asks if we can go out and play bubbles. Sometimes it's too cold or too windy out, and since she's had a bit of a runny nose and a cough, I have decided we can only go out on warmer days to try and keep her healthy enough until I am done w/ school.

I have been working hard to get rid of her "mimi" (AKA Pacifier) when we're driving in the car. So far, 3 days down after daycare and no mimi. Now, we have had some tantrums, but I have invented this little game I play with her as we drive home. I tell her to look out the window and find the doggie...or I ask her, "Brynnie, do you see that kitty cat out your window?" and she always says, "yeah...mommy out window: kitty cat...meow" We go through all the animals and she'll say, "mommy...out window" and then I'll ask her..."What do you see, Brynn?" And she'll say "horsie...neigh" or "Sheep...baa" or "Duckie...on the water...quack quack" it's so cute and I am soooo thankful this little make-believe game has been working. I need to try and get it on tape somehow b/c it's quite funny all of the animals she comes up with that she "sees" outside on our way home. Sometimes we do actually see some of these animals, like doggies and horses..and the occasional duckie. :) I am waiting for the day she sees Elmo out the window. LOL

My Little Man and Princess Peanut

Yesterday and today, Brynn has been obsessed with blowing bubbles outside with her new BIG bubble wand she got from her friend, Cade. She gets so excited to go out on the patio and take turns "mommy's turn" "my turn" "daddy's turn" (she says) and blow bubbles with the big wand. Yesterday there was some good wind, so the bubbles were really big and really blowing all over. Today was more challenging to get big bubbles b/c it was pretty calm outside. She loves chasing them and trying to pop them, as well as just stand at the gate and watch them float away.

in other exciting news, this weekend, Brynn went potty in the toilet four days in a row!!! we are on a roll! Although, we had one minor set-back this evening when we sat her on b/f her bath and she didn't go...then I let her down, naked and she ran in her room and peed on the floor on the carpet. Whoops! She was actually pretty embarrassed and we didn't scold her or anything, but she knew that it wasn't supposed to end up on the carpet. I tried to explain to her that accidents happen and it was okay...but next time, to try and go in the potty instead of on the floor.

Baylen is good...he had a full day of one poopy diaper after another, which now explains why he was "high maintenance harry"/Mr. crabby pants on Sunday....he must have been really plugged up or something, because yesterday, he unloaded and I think he felt much better b/c he was such a fun little guy and all smiles all day long. I was looking at some of his baby pics from when he was just born and he had SO much hair! Now he's really bald and keeps losing more and more of his hair...poor guy! The same thing happened to Brynnie too...I just hope he is able to grow some of his hair back sooner than Brynn did...cuz he hates to wear hats! His acid reflux seems to be acting up today b/c he has been spitting buckets since I got home from work, and blessed Mary b/f she went to work, causing her to change into another outfit. I am like you, Megan and agree that baby spit-up is definitely my new accessory...I think today alone I got spit up on probably 10 times. yikes! I just hope he can grow out of it...poor little guy!

a new purse, more potty, and BBQ...can't get any better than that!

So far, our weekend has been really relaxing and enjoyable. Friday, of course, I was off b/c it was our built-in snow day. Yesterday, we packed up and drove over to Marysville to the Premium Outlet Mall. It is a great outlet b/c it has tons of great stores. My favs are the Coach, JCrew and Nike outlets. Dj decided to go gambling next door at the casino while my sister, the kids and I shopped. Anyway, as we were shopping along, Mary and I saw that they had a new Kate Spade outlet. It had tons of great purses in there for great prices. Mary ended up buying a cute white and pink one for $60! It was a great deal and we both agreed she could not pass it up. We both went to go see what they had at Coach first and then would decide if we were going to come back and buy one at KS. The line (yes, I said LINE) to get into Coach store was freaking insane. It was like we were waiting to get on an amusement park ride. Once we got inside, it was crazy! There were just people everywhere, flying around the store taking in all the bargains. I had been saving up some money and ended up buying a cute Scribble purse that was pretty big, so I was excited about that. :)

On the semi-potty training front, Brynn peed in the potty yesterday morning AND this morning! We were jumping up and down with excitement for her. We were clapping and she was clapping. It was so cute! Sometimes, she just tells me "potty, mommy" and she will sit the seat on top of the toilet and want to go. So far, those times haven't brought any pee pee. I bought some Elmo stickers today and hopefully I will start making a chart that she can add a sticker to when she goes potty. I am hoping sticker incentives work.

Baylen is going through some sort of growth spurt/crying spell lately. The past 24 hours have been a little crazy with him. He was up pretty much every hour last night wanting to eat and crying/screeching and spitting up. It was a vicious cycle. Today brought much of the same thing ...so I don't quite know what the deal is. I wonder if he has a tummy ache or just fussy today, or just plain starving. Whatever it is, if he's going through another growth spurt, then omgshhh I swear he goes through spurts like every other day. The kid has grown out of so many clothes already. Sometimes I feel like all I do is feed him and feed him. Oh and speaking of Baylen, yesterday morning, when I was changing his diaper, he decided to poop all over me. It was not cool. I thought he was done pooping and then all of a sudden, it flew out everywhere. I never got pooped on when Brynna was a baby, or peed on...but Baylen has nailed me several different times with his bodily fluids. The best part of yesterday? Right before he pooped on me, he had just finished spitting up a huge puddle all over my shirt. sweet, huh?
As I was changing his diaper for the second time, at 6:34 in the morning, and we were changing our bedspread, he looked up at me and gave me the biggest grin...like "haha mommy!" In that moment, (and moms you know what I am talking about) that smile just melted my heart and gets me everytime!

We went to Famous Dave's for dinner last night and it was really good. Our waiter was one of my former and favorite students, Josh. He took great care of us and gave us a discount and Dj extra meat. The entire time I kept thinking that there are so many benefits to being a teacher. I have had 7 years worth of great kids and each year, that number builds. So many of my students have been so great to me! :)

Dj updated our gallery with some new pics so check them out. Email me if you don't have our gallery site and I'll send you the link. My email address is : sfitz@mac.com

ABC movie

I know, two posts in one day is crazy for me! I have the day off from school so have a little extra time on my hands since Baylen is here sleeping on my lap. Today was our built-in snow day and since we had no snow days, then we get today off, and Monday off too. Anyway, here is the ABC movie I have been working on. Don't mind the pacifier or the bad mommy singing in the background! LOL

I'm hoping we can get some scrapbooking in today as well but Brynna is home too, so we'll see.

Pee Pee in the Pottay!

We decided to start introducing her to the concept a little early. We bought a little toilet seat that fits on the big potty and a step stool. A few weeks ago when I put her on the seat, she was terrified, but each day, she figured out it was fun to climb on the stool and sit on a padded seat. She asks to sit on it sometimes, and then every day, we've been sitting her on it b/f she takes a bath. Soon we will add another sitting time when she wakes up in the morning. By the summer, we will try plastic pants and real underwear vs. pull-ups to see if we have quicker/better results. Even though she isn't two yet, it's a good thing to at least try working on.

Our first night of success came a couple of nights ago when she peed in the potty! We made a big deal out of it, but I am not quite sure she understood fully that she actually went. She often tells us she "went pee pee" but it is usually false. Soooo the other night, she totally peed! It was awesome! It will be interesting to see how long it will take to get her fully trained...but I know like all kids, she'll do it when she's ready. I'm not going to rush her yet...she's still young.

today is my birthday

I am 29 today....that obviously makes me one year closer to 30. I always told myself when I reached 30 I would feel so old, but really, 30 is the new 20, right?! ha! I had a great day. A couple of my students bought me a balloon and a card, so that was really nice! My sister, husband and kids also showered me with a wonderful evening of gifts and fun! :) My sister bought me a pedicure, which is fantastic and I CAN"T WAIT to go and get it done. My kids bought me a gift cert. to my favorite scrapbooking shop, and Dj bought me this ring which I have been wanting since it was added to the collection (late fall/early winter).

We went out to eat tonight at California Pizza Kitchen which was yummy! Mary then took us out for ice cream which was also verrry yummy!

Thank you for a great day, everyone! :)

She is soooooo honors!

For awhile now, Brynna has been able to count to ten. I finally got it on video! Please try to ignore the fact that she still has the pacifier in her mouth while counting...she's in the middle of getting her eye teeth and it's been really hard on her (and us). She is a little sponge and just soaks up everything we have been teaching her, reading to her and it's so amazing! Her daddy and I still think that she is honors material because she can count already at just 20 months old. She can also say part of her ABC's...I've got one video of that I might post later.

sister, sister

My sister, Mary has been helping us out since mid April. She has been taking care of Baylen and helping watch the kids since she arrived and we have loved having her here. She will be with us until early July when she and I will return with the babes to Iowa for about a month to visit. She takes great care of Baylen and we have appreciated everything she has done for him and us. She has put her life back in Iowa on hold to come and help us out so Baylen didn't have to go to daycare so young and so we didn't have to start paying for two kids at once until the fall and for that, we will be forever grateful. Auntie Mary is always a favorite of her nieces and nephews because she is so patient and loving. The pic I posted of her w/ Baylen was not long after she arrived and Bay was about one month old.

Mary had the day off on Saturday so we all went downtown and went to the aquarium. I haven't pulled the pics off of our camera yet, but Mary had some she loaded off her camera, so those are the pics I'm posting today. Brynn just loved it! The last time we visited, she was just about 9 1/2 months old, so she was pretty young. She just loved looking all fishies, otters, and seals. We had a great time!

Two Months Old

Baylen was two months old yesterday! I can't believe it!

Fun Stuff he's been doing lately:
*smiling up a storm
*cooing and "talking"
*he learned to screech when he cries (not cool)
*watching people/noticing things around him like the ceiling fan

But, he is definitely a monster baby! The other night at Applebee's, a woman sitting across from us guessed he was 3-4 months old...I was like...uh nooooo he's only about 2 months old..she was like, "wow, he's a big boy!" LOL He is going through ANOTHER growth spurt! I swear, this has been a weekly occurrence lately. Last night he wanted to eat every hour from one-three a.m. Sunday night was very similar. Dj and Mary had to take him from my exhausted arms both nights. I just couldn't stay up any longer. Thank God for their help. Anyway, I am so curious as to how much my big guy weighs. I won't find out until June 19 at his next Dr. appt. I bet he's at least 13 pounds and he is wearing 3-6 month size clothing already. *sigh* My little boy is growing up so fast! sniff sniff

Coolio

Last Thursday when I picked up Brynna from daycare, her hair was in 4 pigtails. Sometimes her teachers put all of the girls's hair in piggies and usually, it's one or two on their head tops. But Thursday, she had 4. It was pretty cute! I brought her home and Dj was like, "Hey, you look like Coolio!" LOL We went out to eat at AppleBee's and all the waitresses were saying how cute her hair was calling her a little "rocker" girl. Pretty funny! So I included a bunch of pics of her Coolio hair.

Mom's Day and Weekend Recap

WOW two posts in one day!!

Yesterday I had a wonderful day! Dj surprised me with a bouquet of roses on Friday night after I got home late from school. I was so happy and definitely shocked to see them sitting on the table! I love getting flowers, and it's especially meaningful when Dj gets them for me b/c I never know when it might happen. I have been staring at them ever since. Too bad my cats like them just as much, because they've been eating on them since Friday night too. Dj also made a nice breakfast of muffins and eggs, and then I opened a cool new gift which is a new adhesive gun that I can use for scrapbooking. It's HUGE and I love it! I want to personally thank Brianna for telling me about this gun, b/c it's going to change my scrapbooking life for the better! I L-O-V-E this new tool! I got a chance to use it a little bit last night and it's going to be great! No more of those little cheap adhesive pieces of shit that always break from Michaels or JoAnn's.

Saturday night we went to Brynn's daycare's 3rd annual Auction/Casino Night. The director talked me into buying tickets to go. There were lots of items up for auction and there were two parts to the night: a silent auction and a live auction. They were serving alcoholic drinks all night and then after the auction ended, they set up tables for casino games. Dj and I bid on a few items but we didn't end up winning anything. I REALLY wanted to win the cat teeth cleaning prize b/c it was such a good deal. I thought for sure we had it in the bag and then the director's daughter ran in at the last second and put her name down as they were finishing the countdown and that the room w/ that item (among others) was closing. I was so pissed that she signed her name TECHNICALLY when the auction ended. I didn't say anything to her, but I probably should have. I think I was so mad b/c she was the one who actually won it over me/us. I KNOW her parents are going to pay for it b/c she doesn't have any money or a real job right now b/c she's finishing up college. But STILL I really wanted to win that item because both of our cats could have really used a cleaning. GRRRRR Oh well....I guess if we would have won it, then we would have had to choose between our two kitties who would get the cleaning...and choosing between them is just as bad as trying to choose b/t your two children..it's pretty much impossible.

Ballad of a Happy Momma

For so long I have wanted to become a mother. Before our two babies were born, we experienced nearly two years of heartbreak and sadness. I wasn't sure it it was possible for us to have children. There were times when I felt like I couldn't get past the sadness and wherever I looked, I saw babies or pregnant mommies. Time seemed to stand still back in that part of my life. I had always felt like I had that motherly instinct and I desperately wanted babies!

Thankfully, God heard my plea for help and kindly answered our prayers. In September of 2006, we were blessed with our firstborn, Brynna. She is our little Peanut Princess Bee and is the smartest little girl. She talks all the time and can say so many words and phrases. She sings, dances, plays with her baby dolls, puts puzzles together, uses sign language, and her new love is watching Elmo on TV. Her teachers at daycare tell me that Brynna is very advanced for her age. Brynna loves to be read to and I could probably type out all of the lines and stories from each of her very favorite books b/c we read those "for sure" every day/night. :) I love this little girl with all of my heart. She has taught me so much about enjoying the small things in life and appreciating every "moment" life has to offer.

Life has a beautiful way of working out, especially when you don't expect it. Our little Baylen boy (aka Porkchop) joined us in March of 2008. He is becoming more easy-going every day. He's a smiley little guy and pretty vocal at times. Bay's temper is very forward and loud. He doesn't hide anything back! He is our big man on campus--a BIG BOY with a BIG appetite and my adorable chunky monkey. Dj laughs and reminds me every hour when Baylen wants to eat, that he's our money maker--he's going to be our NFL Star an take care of his mommy and daddy when he grows up. (gee I hope so!) I love this little guy with all of my heart and he, too, has taught me the importance of patience, embracing life's surprises, and not to sweat the small stuff. :)

God has blessed us with two beautiful and amazing children. With happy tears in my eyes, I thank Him everyday for the miracles of life he has given to us. He has helped make one of my dreams come true.

I could not be the mother I am today without the help and love of my better half. My dear husband has dealt with two years of a pregnant woman full of hormones. Any guy who can handle that two years in a row deserves some kind of award. Seriously. I love Dj so much. He has been there for me in the saddest and most joyful times in my life. We have been able to share in the joys that parenthood brings each and every second of the day, which we cherish more than anything. He is an amazing father and an amazing husband. He, too, has been a MAJOR part of making this dream happen.

Of course, I had wonderful role models who showed me "the ropes." My mommy is an awesome mother! My grandma is also supermom! I can't believe how calm and collected they are after raising so many kids throughout the years. They have both loved and supported me. They have both exhibited qualities of beautiful human beings and moms, such as kindness, the importance of forgiveness, friendship, and unconditional love.

Thank you to all of you who have helped mold me into the mommy I am today.

First Week Down, 27 days to go!

This has been my life this week: getting back into teaching how to write memoirs, writing scripts and planning book-it performances for our Greek Myth on Ulysses and Cyclops, and connecting controversial issues to the Constitutional ideals, principles and amendments. All good stuff! LOL

I made it through my first week back to work with very few problems. I shed quite a few tears on Monday and each day, but it is much easier to leave my baby with my sister rather than leaving him at daycare or w/ a sitter, in my opinion. My students were very happy to see me on Monday, which made this week very pleasant. They are all working hard and very appreciative of all the help I have been giving them.

Here are some of my favorite comments of the week:
1. "Mrs. Fitz, your face looks so skinny now!"
2. "Mrs. Fitz, you don't even look like you had a baby!"
3. "Mrs. Fitz, I work so much better now that you're back in class!"
4. "Mrs. Fitz, I respect you so much. I am so glad you are back!"

Man are these kids trying to get some brownie points or what?!!!

I guess I shouldn't say "week" because I really only taught 4 days, M-Th. Today we had student-led conferences. They were from 8-10 a.m. and then 5-7 tonight. I stayed all day b/c I did not see the point in driving back home for a couple hours to drive right back, esp. when gas is so darn expensive, and REALLY because I needed to sort through all the shit my sub left behind. I recycled a TON of papers that were unnecessary for me to have around.

I picked one of the busiest and personally, one of the most stressful weeks known to man at our school to return. First of all, everything needed to be turned in for my Culminating Seminar class last night. I have been working on it since before Bay was born in early March. I spent a lot of my maternity leave writing the papers and organizing my evidence. I spent the last two weeks working on my Power Point preso and scanning all of my evidence. I had 91 items to scan. yeah, it took me 3 days to get all of my evidence saved. But, I did finish it all and it's all submitted. I have some paperwork I need to fill out for the state in order to get my continuing certificate, but it's DONE. My teacher asked if he could use some of my papers to share as samples of great work for next year's candidates...that proved that all of my hard work has paid off. Second, Dj was gone to Portland a couple of days early on M-W. That was tough too b/c my morning routine was thrown off. Third, student-led conferences were this Friday and my kids were a little behind b/c the sub didn't really understand what to do. And finally, I found out grades for mid-term are due May 14 and I didn't find ANY grades written down anywhere or any papers to actually grade. Oh well..I'll figure something out.

I think the worst thing about going back physically was that my breasts are trying to adjust to not feeding a baby every couple of hours. I count the minutes sometimes until lunch so I can pump and stop that annoying burning sensation! Sometimes I feel like they are going to explode, but luckily, I've been able to make it until lunchtime. I also forgot that sometimes milk supply is affected by stress, so because this week was REALLY freaking busy, yesterday I noticed my milk supply was a little less than normal when pumping. Oh, and of course, I am so tired! Baylen has been sleeping better this week at night, sleeping 4-5 hour stretches b/f wanting to nurse. The bad part? he thinks he needs to "Store up" and will want to eat for an hour. I am really dragging by about 9 p.m. these days.

I hope next week goes well and fast like this one did. I am definitely looking forward to summer. I forget that even though my kids have been particularly good and unusually good for this time of year, there are some who are still pretty squirrelly...8th graders get that way at the end of the year.

Say Cheese

This weekend we went to the mall to get profess. pics taken of the kids and one of the new family. They turned out so nice! Brynn actually cooperated for the first time sice we started getting her pics taken there way back in Jan. of 2007. She was quite the ham and little model. :) I am going to attach just 3 of the pics from that day but there are a ton. We chose a whole bunch of photos this time, which is not normal for us, usually because we only get like one good one of Brynn b/c she cried or had red eyes in rest of them. Anyway, we were happy that we had such a difficult time choosing which ones we liked best.




I also returned to work today. It was pretty hard and there were many tears, but I made it through the day. The kids were pretty good and happy to see me, and I them. That made it easier. It also made it much easier to leave him w/ Mary rather than be dropping him off at daycare at such a young age. Brynn went when she was 10 weeks old and I hated it! When I entered my classroom this morning, it was a frakkin' pit! My desk was a nightmare and my room was just so out of sorts that it was really bothering me. After seven years of teaching, I organize things very specifically and in a way that's easy to keep up with, but not for my sub...I mean, I fountd like 5 pairs of scissors in my desk drawer...what the heck is up with that? There were like 25 folders full of shit of all sorts, student papers, handouts, just all so randomly put together. It was ridiculous. I got a lot of it cleaned out throughout the day, but it made me mad that it took me all day to find the bottom of my desk. sheesh.