misadventures in potty training

we have begun potty training ella. it hasn't been fun-of course, we didn't expect it to be. this weekend was no exception. after one week of fits when i told her it was "potty time" and trying to coerce her using tigger i tried the 3-day method. that didn't work and by saturday ella was on a pee strike. she would hold it in pain for hours! it was awful. well, we decided we would get her a little mermaid doll and sit her down with a small bowl of warm water, and of course, bribe her with chocolate. we were ecstatic when finally around 6:30pm she peed in the potty! here's where it gets good. i had to go to vocal rehearsal for our church's christmas eve services, so ted was solo with the girls sunday night. when i got home i nearly had an accident as he told me this story:

i took both girls upstairs and got ella settled in with her little mermaid and bowl of water on the potty. of course, corinne kept trying to get in the bathroom and play with ella's toys so, i took her into the girl's room and closed the door. corinne and i sat for a while reading books when i heard the toilet flush. i thought this was odd as i hadn't heard the potty song (ella's potty plays a song when you "deposit" something in it). i opened the bathroom door to see ella with the tray for her potty in hand flushing the toilet repeatedly. there was a clump of toilet paper stuck and so the water started overflowing! by now corinne had made it into the bathroom too, so i grabbed both of them, stuck them in their room and shut the door while i tried to clean up the mess of water pouring over the sides of the toilet. while cleaning up ella's potty i realized that she must have had the tray part (the part you pee into) because it was missing. so i went in their room to retrieve it only to find ella putting it on corinne's head like a hat! i asked ella if she had peed and she said "yes", but the tray was dry so i hoped that she hadn't and was just confused about my question. i put the potty back together and finally got the girls settled down for bed.

so, when i (denise) got home later that night corinne woke up (because i had to clean ella and her bed of an accident) screaming- due to the fact that she's also teething. as i rocked her i couldn't help but notice the overwhelming odor of...pee on her head. hmmm....

the silver lining

so, we have started potty training ella...sigh. gone are the days of nobody needing to coerce ella into the bathroom. gone are the days of pee-less smelling laundry. gone are the days when my days didn't consist of meltdowns. there is one silver lining for one member of the family, however. while ella spends lots of time trying to go potty someone else gets all the toys. any guesses who?

thankful

today i was explaining thanksgiving to ella. she's two so i tried to break things down in pretty simple terms. i told her that we were going to have a feast to celebrate being thankful and glad for all the things jesus has given us. then i asked, "what are you glad for, ella?" and she said, "i'm glad for corinne, mama."

time away

this weekend ted let me get out of the house for a while on top of singing at church. so, i was gone most of saturday. it was a really nice treat! while i was at church singing this morning ella looked at ted and said, "daddy, i wanna go home". ted of course said, "ella, you are home". the same two sentences were repeated (if you have or have had a 2 year old, you understand this) and then ella said, "daddy, where's mommy? i want mommy"...sometimes it's nice to know you're needed.

bonds

i love these sweet moments. corinne was upset because she was tired and ready for a nap. ted put her in her carseat and by the time i got in the car there was no more crying. ella was comforting her by holding her hand.

fun!

today a friend of ours hosted a fun-filled fall day at her parents apple orchard. we had lots of fun playing in the playground, picking apples and chatting with friends (i did the chatting, in case you were wondering). before we left ella found the mud puddles. she not only jumped in them, but she also sat in them...fun! to top it off she mistook the mud for chocolate milk. that probably won't happen again. like i said, it was a fun-filled day.

the other dancer

this is ella's version of dancing. funny thing is that i remember dancing to music by going in circles, too.

baby boogie

corinne loves to dance. i caught her dancing to her little turtle toy. she will pretty much dance to anything...

choo choo!

a few weekends ago we took the girls to train town in sonoma. it turned out to be such a beautiful afternoon and a really nice little "outing". at first it took some coaxing to get ella on the train, but, other than the tunnels, she really enjoyed the ride.

both girls liked the merry-go-round.

right out near the entrance they have these old train cars that you can walk through. ella got such a big kick out of sitting up in this seat with ted.

closet finds

saturday night i was getting ready to head out to church to sing for the eveninig service. ella was hanging out with me in my room while corinne was napping. she was in my closet for a while before asking for my swim cap. then she asked if she could wear it. i couldn't believe she sat still while i shoved all her hair in there. she thought she was so cool. i don't know how long she wore it. but, it was still on when i left her with the babysitter.

birthday bash

we celebrated corinne's first birthday on sunday. she had so much fun with all the kids.

was i really thinking they'd all sit still for this?!

you can't tell but the pink cupcakes were decorated with little orange flowers and yellow dots.

let's just say her first birthday cake tasted a lot better than ella's. this was a carrot-raisin cake with cream cheese frosting. corinne ate almost all of it. of course, the icing was the first to go.

happy birthday, corinne!

today was corinne's first birthday. as i nursed her tonight i looked at the clock and it was 8:15pm. a year ago that same time i was snuggling her in my arms for the first time. i can't believe it's been a year already! i am so thankful for our sweet little treasure. she is growing so fast and has 5 teeth with a sixth on its way. she can walk but still prefers crawling unless mommy or daddy are right in front of her. she gives hugs and kisses and she has started talking. this morning as i got her dressed i could have sworn she was trying to sing "baby beluga" with me. thank you God for our precious gift: corinne. she melts my heart!

cookie monster

as a treat i made snickerdoodles last week. when ella woke up fom her nap i gave her a few cookies and a cup of milk. she made the mistake of leaving her cookies on the table...isn't that more than enough explanation for this picture?

green thumb

if you've been to my house you know i don't have a green thumb. but i decided that it would be fun for ella and me to plant an herb garden. so, we picked up all the stuff and while corinne took a nap, ella and i planted the seeds. she was interested in planting a few and then just wanted to play in the dirt. i couldn't believe how quickly they sprouted! we've got sprouts in all the little "pots". very cool.

this is ella playing with rocks in the yard after "gardening" with me. she did enjoy herself.

cool playground

they had a really cool play area in the aquarium. ella had a ball. she really loved these little spring cars or whatever you call them.


heres ella sportin' a crab shell.

this is just one of the many amazing tanks right next to the playground. look at the colors on those fish!!

more monterey

my little cutie! she just loved the fish!!!!

these tiny gold colored fish were pretty cute.



i think we all were thinking this, it just reads better on a kid's face!

monterey aquarium part 2

this is just a cute picture of ted and corinne having fun at lunch. who doesn't love riding on daddy's shoulders?! you can see everything from up there!

after lunch we sat on the deck for a few minutes enjoying the fresh sea air.

the girls had fun tickling each other and "bonking" heads.

then we headed over the to "secret lives of seahorses" exhibit-awesome! how many seahorses can you find in this photo?

monterey bay aquarium

after staying at santa cruz sunday night, we drove down to monterey on monday. the girls absolutely loved looking at all the fish! monterey really does have some impressive exhibits!

this large tank housed many schools of fish, tuna and several different types of sharks including a baby white shark.

corinne wanted to get as close as possible to the fish. she kept getting upset that she couldn't get in the tankss and go swimming too.

ella having some lunchtime entertainment!...more photos to come...

santa cruz

so, sunday after church we were sitting down to lunch (or breakfast since that's what we ate). ted says, "i was thinking we could go down to santa cruz." i say, "ok, when would you like to go?" "after lunch". wow! an hour later we were packed and all in the car.

we made a reservation at a hotel while en route and got there around santa cruz. we did hit a bit of traffic south of san francisco.

the girls did so well during the drive and during dinner. their was a woman sitting at a table across from ours who kept both girls entertained! thank you jessica!!

we made it back to our hotel room around 9pm and i ended up falling asleep before the girls- yawn! it was a good night sleep that i was not expecting!

all by myself

in order to have sanity during the day i try to get the girls down for their naps at the same time. in order to accomplish this i have to put ella down and once she is asleep corinne goes down. so, typically this means that corinne gets playtime by herself while ella is falling asleep. she has realized the benefits of having mommy and ALL the toys to herself. look how happy she is in the top picture sitting at the table in the playhouse. of course, ella's bookbag is open and the teaset is there, too.

she climbed in the tv cabinet just the other day. she was playing with a "veggie tales" dvd box. it didn't last long, i mean, look at all those wires! not the safest place to play!