Arizona trip, Gretta saying Potty, talking, virus, Gretta timeout

We are in Arizona right now, and Greta is now constantly saying the word potty, and wanting us to set her on it. It's crazy since she's just now 17 months. She seems genuinely interested and wants to be a big girl and go on the potty, but she totally doesn't understand actually going into the potty. She still has yet to actually tinkle or poop in it. It's really cute though, and sometimes almost annoying because we want to accommodate her and set her on the potty when she wants to, but she wants to so often that it gets a little repetitive. And it's not like just pulling down undies and pulling them back up, we have to take off her whole diaper let her sit on the potty and then lay her back down to put her diaper back on. Yesterday she was also trying to put Georgees undies on. It was so cute. I don't think she's really ready for potty training yet, but it's exciting that she's showing interest. Sheis also still just exploding with words and two and three word sentences. She says a sort of unrecognizable thank you now, and please and many other words. She'll say thank you daddy or thank you Paapu. Or all done mommy and things like that. She is truly a good talker for her age. She has A blister on her upper lip that appeared yesterday, that we think is a virus. She also had a small blister on her chest as well. Catherine Schnell and Dr. George really think that it's just a virus and it will go away. We're not really sure how she got it. other than that, and extreme teething and so therefore lots of grouchy Ness, she is doing good rash wise. I was so scared to come to Arizona this year in fears that she would break out and her eczema rash like last year. But she looks absolutely great so far and we've been here for over a week. She is totally at the age where she just gets hurt like literally every five minutes she's crying from tripping or barking her head etc. Dr. Price said this is totally normal, and she will push her limits because she watches Georgie and what he can do, and she's just not quite physically ready for some of the things that she tries to accomplish yet. So it's a little bit hard when she is crying so much during the day, but I know it's normal. She is also turning out to be more of a climber and Georgie. She has already tried to crawl into her pack and play from the outside a couple times now. She is definitely more of an escape he and George he ever was. It makes me nervous for when we transfer her into a toddler bed. She is as feisty as ever and Scowls at everyone she meets. almost everyone we see comments on it, and I just tell them to Scowl back at her and sometimes she'll smile. She's very expressive. She is also fairly clingy to me right now, which is hard but also very sweet. We have the kids in our room for this trip and I has been somewhat of a struggle with some very early mornings, we're making it work the best we can. we've also been starting to do more and more timeouts with her, as she will deliberately sometimes pull hair and thinks it's funny. She doesn't really hit, so that's good, but she does deliberately misbehave sometimes. And she always wants to do what we don't want her to do. We call her Greta Mary quite contrary! :) she is very independent, I think even more so than Georgie. I think George is pretty independent too, but boy is she seriously independent. I am getting quite nervous for when she turns two and three – I see some huge tantrums in our future! :( The other day I was tying my shoes, and Georgie said – mom are you doing that all by yourself? And I said yeah. And he said wow! That's incredible! So so cute. And yesterday he said mom, can you give me a hand please? It's just so cute because sometimes I don't know where he picks up these words. I'm sure it's probably all the videos let him watch. It's hard because I know we let him watch too much cartoons and videos, but sometimes it just seems so necessary. I feel guilty all the time that I don't play with my kids enough. It's hard for me and I'm trying to get better at it. I know that they both just truly love it when I play with them, especially Georgie. That's his love language :-) another Arizona development is that they have been eating us out of hotel and home! Both kids are so active here with walking and running and riding bikes around the hotel, and going to the playground, that they are just hungry all the time! I've been being more active here too, so I've been hungry or two. I feel like they're eating so so much! It's cute. Gretta is still fairly picky, although I've noticed if she's hungry enough she will eat some meat now, and she likes cucumbers which she calls 'come', which is kind of funny :) she has also started to eat tomatoes! I'm so excited! She still loves beans, cheese, Mac n cheese, and all fruit. Been giving her applesauce quite a bit, which she really likes. George is taking Georgie mountain biking for the first time right now. They and Dr. George and Janet went to south mountain while I stay at the hotel room with Gretta so she can nap. I wish I could be there to see it. It's not really going to be technically mountain biking but it will be on dirt. :-) it is all I can think of for right now, I although there's other things I think of all the time. I will try to block again when I get a chance.


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Gretta 2 word sentences

Greta is starting to use two word sentences more and more now. This morning she kept saying applesauce mama and cookies mama. So so cute! She is so good at talking and advanced for her age.


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Gretta Words, Georgie dropping nap, cute conversation, sleep schedules, teeth, videos, food dislikes, TBS dislike

Greta has been getting so many words. She is a good talker, and I would venture to say she picks up almost a new word every day. Of course they are not clear like she will say, for cup etc. Last night I said want to cookie and she said cuckoo – so cute! She is also such a night person and not a morning person. She is pretty grouchy in the mornings, and she is really really happy at night. It makes her it's hard to put her down to bed at night because she is being so cute. She is littleness independent and just walks around grinning with her cute little grin. She broke through The tooth to the left of her top left front tooth slightly before she broke through her top left very front tooth. Those two kind of came in around the same time, but her top front left tooth came in a little later than the one to the left of it. And then she broke through her bottom right tooth – the one immediately to the right of her bottom front right tooth. Hopefully that makes sense! So she has six or maybe seven teeth either completely through or broken through now. So thankful, as that really long stretch where she did not get any teeth was really hard because she was super fussy from teething. She is still doing two naps. She usually goes to bed anywhere between 730 and 830, and sleeps until around 7 o'clock, give or take. She has been waking up slightly earlier, and I think that could be a sign that she might be starting to be ready to wean to one nap. Georgie has been taking no nap occasionally, and I will let him. If he just really doesn't seem tired, and I put him down and he can't Pollis late, or if I put him down to late where he missed his window and it would make his nap too late anyway, I will let him get up. We've only done about three times now, but I expect it to happen more and more. it's really nice though, because I can make him do quiet time when he doesn't nap, and I just schedule that during grad a second nap, so I'm actually getting more time alone when he doesn't nap – it's crazy! he's been doing really good with the quiet time – I set a timer for anywhere between 30 to 60 minutes, and I give him some of his big books that have lots of pictures like the Richard scary books, and I just tell him he has to be quiet and read books during this time. It's so nice because I don't feel guilty like I do when I let him watch videos to get myself some quiet time. George he usually goes down for bed around between 730 and 815. A little earlier if he doesn't take a nap that day. And it's nice to when he doesn't make take a nap, because he goes right down for bed with no struggle. It makes me a little sad that he is starting the transition of not napping. :( greta is absolutely obsessed with bananas. She is a fairly picky eater and it is a struggle. We give her a banana almost every single day first thing in the morning, to ease some of her irritability due to hunger I guess. She probably eats 2 to 3 bananas a day – well maybe not that much but at least 1 to 2. She really doesn't like meat. She likes a few vegetables including you cumbers, sometimes tomatoes occasionally carrots. Sometimes she'll eat green beans but not always. She likes almost all fruit though so that is good. Although she does seem to sometimes almost stick her nose up at apples and pears. She absolutely loves cheese still, and it is always a go to. She seems to like eggs pretty well so that is good. She'll eat toast to with jelly on it. She's drinking orange juice now to – we started giving it to her a few months ago watered down with water just for the calcium. She calls it Jew or ah-Jew - really cute. She really likes rubber ducky's too. She calls them something that's kind of sounds like daddy. George he said something the other day that was so cute we were on our way to Chucky cheese to celebrate grandma's birthday. I was reiterating how Christmas is all about the birth of Jesus and we celebrate Jesus birthday for the whole month, and he said where is Jesus? And I said well, he's up in heaven with God – we can't see him but he watches over us and protect us and feet and we can feel his presence. and then he said I think heaven is a town. And I said oh really? Where do you think that town is? And he said I think it's by Australia! It was so completely adorable. I just died of cuteness! He is just in that cute curious stage where he is just so smart and asking questions about everything, and starting to really understand the world a lot more. He is just a little man at this point. I absolutely love this age. And Greta is getting more and more fun as well. She's really starting to understand everything we say. We have a peekaboo book with lots of animals, and I will ask her where is the sheet or where is the dog etc., and not always, but sometimes she will point to the correct animal. So she understands what I'm asking, and she's learning her animals too. She really does understand everything we say. I'll ask her to take something to daddy and she will. Or to go get mommy something, and she will. I am waiting for her hair to get just a little bit longer so it will start to stay out of her face more. It is in this awkward length where it's really long in her eyes, but not quite long enough to stay behind her ear. And then I will cut her some bangs – I'm so excited! Occasionally I will put her halo hair in pigtails – it's totally long enough, it just takes me a little longer so I don't usually have time to do it. But when I do, it is so so so cute! She looks even more like a little girl rather than a baby. She is a full on toddler. Sometimes when she gets tired, or just fussy, she will just start tripping on nothing, and she gets a little clumsy. It's really cute. Georgie is really a pretty good eater overall. I think we're pretty blessed with him. He definitely has things he doesn't like, but usually we can almost always get him to try at least one bite of something with bribery, and he almost always will. And a lot of times he likes it. he helps me bake quite a bit, and he enjoys that. We still let him watch videos in the morning because he wakes up earlier than us – he wakes up usually between 615 and 645, and we are just not ready to get up yet. Plus, we need him to stay quiet because credit usually sleeps a little later and we don't want him to wake her up. So he really really likes his videos, for better or worse. Probably for worse. He also really likes watching cartoons, which we probably let him do too much. He really likes Mickey Mouse club. Also likes Daniel Tigers neighborhood and handy Manny. For videos he also likes Cayou and curious George and police car videos. he started not liking Thursday Bible school again a few weeks ago when George started taking him because I started a small group on Thursday mornings. It has gone downhill from there. I think it's harder for him and George takes him because Greta is with them too, and he just wants to stay home with daddy on his first day off. He didn't perform in the Thanksgiving program, and had a meltdown when we tried to take him this past . So I think we are going to take December off and then we go to Arizona next month, and then we might try to start him back up in February, with me taking him again. I will just be late to small group.Georgie is absolutely obsessed with his train under the Christmas tree. He absolutely loves it! He lets it run for hours on end and just sits there and watches it. Greta likes it too. He enjoyed helping me put the ornaments on the tree as well. And he really likes wrapping presents for Christmas and birthdays. He can drop himself halfway into the carseat, just really helpful for me. I opened his door and then walk around and get Greta loaded and he can get in the car in his seat and half wait buckled in by the time I get around to finish buckling him in. It really is so nice! I feel like we are through the really really hard time with the kids, I will probably laugh that I just said that someday. But I mean like the newborn stage and the helpless stage. Greta is getting more and more independent every day, and George and I are loving it. She still sleeps in the pack n play in the front room right behind the door that goes into our front room between our bedroom and the front room. It's not totally ideal, but it works for us so were sticking with it. We're just too nervous to put them in the same room together, because we think that George he would wake her up in the mornings, and they don't always go to bed at the same time. So I think we decided to just keep it like this until we move and they have their own rooms. I know a lot of people have their kids share rooms, and we could definitely force it, but we just don't feel like our kids would sleep is good, and their sleep is very very important to us. I'm kind of a nap and sleep naughty! To a fault – it can really make or break me. It's something I struggle with, and I really try to let it go. Georgie does take a nap, it is usually fairly early – around 1130-ish. So usually goes down right after Greta wakes up from her morning nap, and then we all eat lunch after George's nap – usually. Of course there's always exceptions. But I usually do half an hour or two of time and they're both awake in the early afternoon where I can run errands. Then got a naps again around 3 o'clock give or take she usually does about an hour and 5 to 10 minutes, although early occasionally she will do a long nap like two hours or even over two hours. George he never really did that, but she does. I am very nervous to transition her to one nap, as I'm afraid she will still keep doing the approximately hour nap and not make it longer. we'll see! I'll definitely blog about it I'm sure. That's all I can think of for now – I think of things all the time and I will try to just blog about them even if it's a short blog post.


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Georgie Cuteness

So there are so many cute things that dirty does all the time, and even though he is so Mr. independent and sometimes so frustrating because he doesn't know what he wants, and no matter what we do or say he won't be agreeable, BUT he is just so much fun and is having so much personality. A few cute things happened today that I wanted to share. George took him to Thursday Bible school today, for the first time (that it wasn't ME who took him) and I guess on the way there George said that George he kept saying daddy will you play with me? And George would say play with you? And Georgie would get frustrated and say again no, play with me? And this happened a few times and George he was getting frustrated because daddy wasn't understanding what he was saying, and finally it donned on George that he was saying gray with me! When George told me the story I just about died – I started crying in chipotle today. I just was so incredibly happy and touched that George he asked daddy to pray for him on the way to Thursday Bible school, because I always pray for him on our way there. He is such hey creature of tradition – he really likes traditions and routines, and I didn't realize that tradition was so ingrained in him, but obviously it was. And it must really make a difference to him that we pray for him on our way to Thursday Bible school every week, and I think maybe he is starting to understand God more and that God and the Holy Spirit help him through at Thursday Bible school. It was such an incredible feeling of "whew - we must be doing SOMETHING right!" Instilling God in him is our absolute number one goal for his life, so that just felt like such a win!!! And of course God is moving in him and we are constantly working on his heart. He is sometimes a stubborn and prideful little boy, but he has a SWEET heart and lots of knowledge. :)

Two other things that aren't quite as much of an epiphany or anything, for lack of a better term, but tonight before I went in to his bed to talk about our day like I do every night, I was a couple minutes delayed because I was finishing putting Greta to bed. And so when I finally got in there he was just sitting up just waiting so eagerly for me to come in and talk about his day, because he just absolutely loves it and requests it – again – he likes traditions. And as I approached his bed he said I was waiting for you so much! As if to say I love you so much or I want that so much or something like that he said "I was waiting for you so much!" Soooooooo sweet and precious. And The third cute thing was, after we talk about our day we name one thing from the day that we are grateful to God for. Again – another tradition that he just loves now and won't let me let go of. In fact on a sidenote, it's kind of funny because we need to start watching the traditions we start, because he will want to continue every single one of them no matter how often they happen! And now of course it can't just be one thing that we name, but he likes to name something and then say to me now you say something, and then he'll say something else, and then say again now you say something! So so cute. But tonight on our second or third thing that we were saying we were grateful for he said I'm grateful for YOU! It's simple but it just made my heart sing! I love him to the MOON and back!


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- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Gretta teeth

So I forgot to talk about that Gretta got more teeth! Finally finally finally! The same day that she took her first steps, October 2, she broke through her third tooth – that is, her first tooth in FIVE MONTHS!!! It was not a top front tooth, but a top right tooth. It was the tooth to the right of the front right tooth, if that makes sense. So she still has not broken through her top front two teeth, but I think they're coming really soon. As of just a few days ago, I'm pretty sure she finally broke through the corresponding left top tooth – that is, the tooth to the left of her left very front tooth. That one has not broken through very much but just a tiny bit. It's hard to get in there and feel it or look around without her being such a wiggle worm. But pretty sure that her front two teeth on the top will be the next ones to come in, and hopefully within the next couple weeks. I do feel like there has been a difference in her irritability in general, and I think she is really feeling some relief from the teeth breaking through, and not being so fussy. So excited!


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