Party Planning

Well we are planning Bella's 2nd birthday bash. We are going to have it at Reed Canal Park at the playground. I really wanted to have it at "Let's Play", a place here in Palm Coast but it was way out of our price league at the moment, maybe next year. It's a really cool place though, kinda like an indoor gym and climbing place with slides and other fun stuff. But she also loves the park so that is what we can swing this year, no pun intended! I just can't believe my baby girl is almost two already!
We gave up on the potty training for a while. She was turning it into a battle of wills and let me tell you, she won. But we will try again. If worse comes to worse I was thinking of signing her up for daycare for a month and letting them teach her! lol.
Little miss Lexi has been sick for the last two weeks. Started out last month as a mild case of RSV and then this month was your run of the mill upper respiratory infection. So many days of staying home and using the nebulizer later, she is finally better. Poor boogie. But she is even a happy sick baby. This was all new to us as Bella has only been sick like 3 times so far and poor Lexi girl has already been sick close to that much in her short 4 month span of life.
I have no pics to post since my stupid camera broke again. We just had it fixed not long ago. This is the second time, so next tiem we get a new camera. Have I mentioned how much I hate the one I have?! I really want to learn more about photography and get better pics going. Maybe with a better camera, I could do better. Any recommendations on cameras would be greatly appreciated by those pros of you out there with all these fabulous shots on your blogs! Help a sister out here!

Potty Time? Warning, lots of pee talk!

Well, the B is long gone. She did surprisingly well with the whole transition, way better than I had expected anyway. I would say the first day was of course the worst. She had a bit of trouble at bedtime on the second night. But after the 3rd day she was going down with no fuss at all. She never even asks for it anymore, and she is even sleeping a little better at night. For some unknown reason, she still wakes up a few times throughout the night, but less than she was when she had her B. So with that under our belt, I decided to see what would happen with the potty. She has had her potty for a while now and will randomly ask to sit on it here or there. Since I was prego with Lexi at the time, I never pushed her but let her pick her own little time table for when she was ready. Now that Lexi is 4 months old, I figured it was time to try a little harder. It has been a little rough but we are making some progress. I am just not sure if she is really ready or not. She finally peed for the first time a few days ago, after about 3 sippy cups!!! She went three times that morning and I thought, hey this will be easy. Wrong! Since then it has become more of a battle of wills. She is willing to sit there, for very long periods of time, but she is holding that pee in as best she can. I even went out and bought her big girl panties but she has not shown much interest. She wants Shrek panties and I have not been able to find them yet. I tried the whole letting her run around naked and we have had a few accidents and she freaks, but will still not go on the potty. The crazy thing is, she treats it like a new chair. She does not want to get off it, the other day she sat on it for almost two hours! Then once I put her diapers on, she pees. I even busted out with the M&M's, not working. We'll keep at it for a bit loger and see what happens.

The "B" is broke

I have been thinking about taking Bella's "B" away as she is about to turn two soon. She only has it during naptime and bedtime but I still felt it was time to get rid of it. I thought about it a while ago but it did not seem right with Lexi coming, especially since I knew she would be using one. And for all those who don't know, "B" is what we call her binkie. So I decided yesterday was our big day. She made a new friend at the park, Abby, that she talks about non stop so I figured, I could use that to my advantage. I told her that Abby does not use a "B" so we were going to give ours up. I also told her about everyone else she knows that does not use a "B". On the car ride home from our playdate with Miss Abby, I explained that we would be throwing away her B when we got home. It did not quite go down that way though. As soon as we got in her room, she asked for "B". I went into the kitchen and snipped the end off of it, as I have been told by many friends that this worked for them. I brought it into her room and told her that her "B" is broke. She repeated broke and tried it and immediately spit it out, while giving it a funny look. I thought, alright, this will be easier than I thought! How wrong was I???? Very much so come to find out. She fell asleep after about 10 solid minutes of crying, which she does not normally cry when she goes to sleep, she usually conks right out. I figured she was overtired because we were way behind our normal schedule so I let her cry it out. Ten minutes was not so bad, but then she woke up crying after being asleep for maybe 15 minutes. And she would not go down again. I tried everything. I brought her and turtle and pillow in with me as she always sleeps with them, but she wanted nothing to do with either one. She did let me rock her and sing to her for a few minutes but then started crying again. After an unsuccessful 30 minutes, I just let her get up, because at that point Lexi was crying too and there was no way any of us were getting any sleep. Then came bedtime. Ouch. 48 solid minutes of crying. We did take turns going in and trying to settle her but all she wanted was "B". I showed it to her, as I had decided not to throw it away but use it to show her it was broke. But she is a smart cookie and asked for a "nodder one" since she knows she has about 8 other ones laying around. But I told her no, they are all broke. After a bit more crying, Daddy went in and she went to sleep shortly after that. But it does not end there. I was up with her at least ten to twelve times troughout the night. She kept waking up crying. I felt like the most awful mom in the world by the time we got up this morning but felt much better when she gave me a big hug and kiss when she did get up. At least she did not hold a grudge. Yet. Today she asked for it again at naptime but went to sleep within minitues without much fuss. I think she is just exhasuted from lack of sleep. So here's to hoping for an easier transition. Oh, except she's crying and up again after only a 30 minute nap. She used to sleep for 2-3 hours........