life as of lately: July 2011

We have another thumb sucker

It’s so cute, but I’m sure the orthodontist will be our friend when then girls get older! I tried and tried and tried Raelynn to take a pacifier. My thought process was at least I can take away a pacicifer, I can’t take away my kids thumb! Lilly only sucks her thumb when she has her blankie, right now that is only when she sleeps, so I hope we can get Raelynn to do the same eventually. For now we’ll just call it cute and let her suck her thumb to pacify herself whenever she wants. I do really like that she has learned to to self soothe!

I also want to add a couple of pictures that I took of Raelynn, whom we are now calling “little bit” or “bit bit” I’m not sure why we call her that because she is by no means little!

She loves to sit up!

The beginning of a smile

Lilly made this face a lot as a baby. Its the “I need to figure you out” face

This beautiful blanket was a gift from one of my wonderful friends.

Can you tell what this is?

It is the lake behind our house, can you see that little speck to the left of the fountain?

Yes you are seeing that right its an alligator! This is the picture above, all I did was zoom in.

I spotted it from my kitchen, this is what it looked like from far away.

Potty Training

I believe that part of being a parent is to take embarrassing pictures of your kids to show their friends when they get older…snicker..snicker! My mom did it when I was a teenager and I’m sure I’ll do it when my girls get older! I don’t think this is as embarrassing as the picture my mom used (yes mom, you know the one I’m talking about) but I’m sure Lilly will be mortified when I pull it out to show her first boyfriend.

Ok so now onto potty training. At the end of June I decided that I was done changing toddler sized diapers (I really didn’t realize how big they were until I started changing newborn diapers again), and I needed to take advantage of Raelynn napping so much during the day. We rolled up the rug in the playroom, took off all diapers, and confined ourselves to the hard floors in the house for a whole week! I won’t go too much into the details, but Lilly did great. She has been diaper free when she is awake since we started this whole adventure. What is my secret you ask. Bribery..haha Lilly rarely gets candy so we bought her a bag of peanut butter m&m’s and put them in a clear container on the bathroom counter, then told her she could have one every time she went potty on the big girl potty. She sat on the potty for most of the first day trying to get candy.

Where to take the little one we call “buggy”?

Last week Mike was out of town for work, so my mom came over to help me with the girls. We decided to take a trip to the insectarium. My mom and I figured that Lilly would have a blast, aside from us calling her “bug”, “buggy” and “doodle bug” she has been obsessed with bugs lately. I have been trying to convince her that spiders are icky, and she calls the “icky spiders” but she thinks they are super cool and she also loves dragon flies, she thinks they are cute..seriously she says, “awww” every time she see one. All in all it was a great trip, Lilly had tons of fun and even listened very well. We only took the single stroller for Raelynn and allowed Lilly to roam, I actually had another mom comment on how well Lilly listened and how she stayed with us and didn’t wonder away. We must be doing something right :) Raelynn was great again, she got a little fussy towards the end and required the stroller stay in motion at all times. This being a mom of 2 thing is more difficult than being a mom of 1 but it really isn’t nearly as hard as I expected!

Mimi, Lilly and Tigger (we rarely go anywhere without Tigger)

Me and my girls!

Tigger was “nooking” (looking) at the beetles

This is what Raelynn thought about the bugs

Lilly sitting on a big worm

Mimi and Lilly in the love bug

Momma and Lilly in the love bug

More Raelynn..happy as can be

Walking around looking at all of the butterflies

Beautiful, beautiful butterfly

Momma stopped the stroller for too long to take the above picture

Another beautiful butterfly

Lilly smelling the flower

Raelynn’s first trip to the Aquarium

After being trapped in the house for the last couple of months, Mike and I finally decided to go on an outing with both of the girls. It’s so stinkin’ hot outside so we were limited to indoor activities, cue the Aquarium of the Americas! We’ve taken Lilly to the aquarium a few times, but this time was a little different she wasn’t confined to the stroller (that was reserved for the little one) so she was able to roam and kind of choose where to go and how long to stay in certain places. My only regret was going on a Friday in the summer when it was raining, there were so many summer camps there it was outrageous, I think we will stick to going during the school year when it is quieter.

Are you wondering why I have not mentioned Raelynn much so far? Well that is because she didn’t really do much (of course she was only 10 weeks old at the time). She was in the stroller the whole time without even a peep, she did great! I was concerned that it would be too loud with the hundreds of kids yelling around us, they only thing they did was keep her awake and I’m not complaining about that because she took an awesome nap when we got home.

Ok here are a few pictures that I snapped while we were there. Take note that Mike dressed Lilly for the day also take note that Lilly and Mike are wearing matching shirts.