18 months

How is it that my baby is getting so big? Thankfully, she is still super snugly so it's easy to pretend she is still a baby, even as she is getting bigger and doing more every day. 

We had her check up yesterday and she is a hair shy of 24 lbs and she's just over 32 inches tall. I just went back read this blog from when Lainey was the same age and they have the exact same measurements. However, it was a refresher for where Lainey was developmentally and I remember that she was definitely further along with her talking (although Harper is a great talker too!) and was already showing her stubbornness. Harper, on the other hand, is totally chill and easy going. She is so sweet and often comes up to one of us just to give us a snuggle. She is extremely loving and likes to give hugs (her favorite is to walk up and grab you around the legs and bury her face). She is totally a Mama's girl but she loves her Daddy and sister too. 

Harper is finally exclusively walking now. She's been capable of doing it since she was about 15 months old but preferred to do her "knee walking" because it was so much faster. We always said she would just get up and walk across the room one day and that's pretty much what she did finally.  She did the same thing with talking and at about the same time. It seems like one day she was only saying a handful of words and then the next she became our little parrot, repeating everything she heard. She also loves music and any time a song starts playing, she will stop what she's doing to sway and try to sing along. 

We still call her our little monster because she still likes to growl and she can be pretty wild. She will also randomly come up and try to (gently) bite you and loves to wrestle and play. Yes...this one is not a delicate flower like her sister. She will tussle and play and if she gets hurt, it hardly phases her most of the time. I find myself often saying, "I never had to say that to your sister!" after exclaiming such things as, "Don't chew on the bedspread!" or "Stop trying to hit me with that phone!" But she does it in the sweetest way, y'all. 

Troy & I say on a daily basis that Lainey is totally his and Harper is mine and it is really true. Lainey couldn't be more like her Daddy unless she were a boy and Harper looks and acts a lot like me. Both girls are really growing into their personalities and it amazes me how different they are from each other. And while there is more than a little jealously in this house, I know they love each other and will hopefully grow up being close and true friends.

Having a cookie after being good girls at the doctor's office.

Smooches!

Cool girls don't need strollers anymore.

A little Halloween preview for you. We had to dress her up as a monster!

Had to show off some of those curls and that belly! :-)

Tricked you, didn't i? This is a picture of me around Harper's age. Told you she's mine! And just so you can see how much Lainey looks like her Daddy:

Outdoor Living

We've been wanting to add a deck pretty much since we built this house. It came with the standard 10' x 10' concrete pad and, lets face it, that's just not enough space. So after getting several quotes and then watching our neighbor build his own for a fraction of the cost, Troy decided to go for it. Much preparation went into it and it took awhile for Troy to carve out time to get it done but we have it now and it is fabulous. Big thanks to Patrick (our neighbor with the deck), Jason (another neighbor who is a general contractor who states he can't build anything) and Adam (Benton Tech had a few special work days outside). Leave it to Troy to build it a bit bigger than we planned and to me to buy enormous deck accessories to cover it. 

Here you can see the concrete pad and then the outline for the future deck (Troy scalped the grass hoping that would kill it. It didn't. Now it's growing up between the deck bards. Whatevs!).

Grilling on our new deck! Yes, he had a mohawk...he'd just run the Super Spartan race.

Date Night 2013

Troy decided that we should go out on an actual date. This happens so infrequently that I dubbed it "Date Night 2013." I was trying to think of the last real date we went on, not counting anniversaries or special events, and I honestly can't think of one. My sister was nice enough to come spend the night with the girls so we could go out. Since I've been craving sushi lately (I haven't had any since I became pregnancy with Lainey), we knew that was going to be what we ate. Our neighbor recommended Yuri in Cary and he was spot on...it was delicious!! Good enough that I took pictures of the food:

Seriously...delicious! Go there if you're in the area. 

We wrapped up dinner by 9:30 and were trying to figure out what to do next. We figured it was pretty early to try to go to a bar or club (we imagined ourselves sitting around before they've even dimmed the lights and thought that would be pretty lame). So in throwing around some ideas, I suggested bowling. Troy called Sparians but they didn't have lanes open until 11:30. He checked and found a Buffaloe Lanes nearby so we decided why not. They have "Starlight Bowling" starting at 10:30 so we went on over and got signed up.  Since I was in sandals, I had to buy some socks. I think it was $3 well spent, don't you?

Starlight Bowling wasn't all that different from regular bowling. They dimmed the lights on the lanes and turned on some little white twinkle lights but that was about it. I thought the music would be a little more hip but it was some cool classics like YMCA, The Electric Slide and The Macarena. Oh yeah.

Before Starlight Bowling.

Starlight Bowling!

We did have a good time though. We got home around 12:30 and went right to sleep since it was so far past our bedtimes. Hopefully it can be more than an annual thing! I'm still dreaming about that Ahi Tower...

And not to be outdone...

Harper walked today! Ever since the other day (when she turned 16 months), she had taken a step or two. Well, earlier today I was trying to get her to do it again for her Daddy and she walked 4 or 5 steps to me! So I grabbed my phone and took this little video of her going even farther (apologies for the excited Mommy squealing):

The little one

That's what we often call Harper. We say it so much that Lainey has started calling her that sometimes ("Mom, the little one is crawling up the stars again!"). But she's not so little anymore! She turned 16 months a couple of days ago which is hard to believe. And we think she'll be walking any day now! She actually took a step the other day and yesterday Troy says she took two steps before dropping to her knees. I will miss seeing her walk around on her knees though. It is the funniest thing! 

She has such a funny personality. She is feisty and has a quick temper (so that will be awesome when she hits her terrible twos) but she is also very sweet and snugly. She is always crawling up to me just to wrap herself around my legs for a cuddle. She is also crazy loud. Like, all the time...happy, mad, hungry, excited all earn a shrill ear-piercing screech. We already say we're going to have to keep an eye on this one. She seems like she's going to be fun & social and she already likes to grab any drink she finds and chug it (she'll be a blast in college). Here is a picture Lainey snapped of her sneaking up and drinking Lainey's drink:

She wants to be just like her big sister but I think she enjoys being the baby (Troy thinks that's why she won't walk yet...because she likes being carried! Rotten thing.).

She's pretty stinking cute. :)

Lainey funnies

We were in the car earlier and that song "Like a G6" came on. Lainey started giggling and said, "Cheese sticks?! What a silly song!" And she laughed and said that every time they sang about it. Then "Pony" by Ginuwine came on right after it and she said, "Is this a burping song?" You have to know how the intro sounds...it does sound like burping! It cracked me up. :) Then the responsible adult in me changed the station...

It's potty time

Oh yes folks. We decided it was time. Lainey had recently become textbook "resistant" to potty training. And I mean that literally. Here is an excerpt from Pediatric Advisor 2006.4, written by B.D. Schmitt, M.D.:

"There are some children who are resistant to toilet training. Your child is considered resistant if after trying to toilet train your child:

- Your child is over 2 1/2 years old and has a negative attitude about toilet training.

- Your child is over 3 years old and not daytime toilet trained.

- Your child won't sit on the potty or toilet."

Yup...our doctor gave us this information on a handout about toilet training when I told them about Lainey and how lately she'd been really resistant to not only the potty but to having her diaper changed. I mentioned that we were thinking about doing that "naked weekend" every parent with toddlers reads about. Our pediatrician agreed, gave us some tips and the handout and I went home and told Troy we were trying it this weekend. 

So over the past week I began talking up this "potty party" weekend. Lainey was kind of confused, especially since she'd just had her birthday party. "Another party? Can my friends come watch me open more presents?" "Um...it's not quite like that sweetie. This is just a party at home with us and we will teach you how to use the potty. But there will be treats! And surprises!" "Yeah, and my birthday cake!" Um...

We made a run to Target on Friday and I stocked up on some things from the dollar section and grabbed a couple of packs of M&Ms. Then I went to BJ's for Lysol spray & wipes. We were ready. We decided we were going to do our 3 days on Saturday - Monday since Troy can't be "off" on a weekday and I knew I'd need more help on days 1 & 2 than day 3. Friday night I got the extra waterproof mattress pad that we had from Lainey's old crib mattress and a couple of beach towels and set it up along with her Fisher Price singing potty downstairs. I stuck the leftover juice boxes from her birthday party in the fridge and fund a printable potty chart on Pinterest. 

Saturday morning when Lainey got up around 6:30 we made a big deal about going in her room to take off her last diaper. I even let her put it in the diaper genie. I put her in just a t-shirt and explained that she wouldn't be wearing pants today and asked if she wanted to throw away the last of her diapers. That was when she flipped out. She demanded a diaper. She wanted pants. And she definitely did not want to throw out her diapers.

I was a bit worried this was foreshadowing for the day but we managed to hustle her downstairs with the promised distraction of breakfast. Then things definitely improved. We had a very normal morning except that she was sans pants and had to constantly sit on a towel. By about 10, I was super bored. She hadn't peed and I hadn't showered or dressed or anything because I felt like I needed to be there when she went to the bathroom for the first time. Harper went down for her morning nap and I decided this would be a good time to get out the art supplies. Lainey and Troy and I all painted and I realized that Lainey & I are about on the same artistic level while Troy is a regular Bob Ross. Behold his dolphin & flower compared to my snail & sun:

So we're sitting there painting and all of a sudden, I hear the sound of water hitting the floor and Lainey looks up surprised and said, "Mom, I'm going pee pee!" I told her to get on the potty and she did and finished peeing and her potty sang and she got excited and did a little dance. Then we wiped, went to the powder room to dump the pee, I let her flush and we washed our hands. She was really excited when I to,d her she could have a piece of candy and a sticker on her potty chart. It was like it all clicked for her and the rest of the day, she peed in the potty all on her own. I didn't even have to keep asking her if she needed to or even be in the room. She would just go get on it when she needed to pee and call out, "Mom, I'm going pee pee!" Our only mishap came after lunch. Troy & I were in the kitchen cleaning up and she had gone to play in the playroom when she came in the kitchen with this distressed look and said, "I just pooped!" Indeed...there was a turd on the floor. But we cleaned it up and told her it was no problem...we'll just work on that next time and she was fine the rest of the day! She filled her potty chart and got to choose a prize and was super excited. 

I was so excited for her that during the afternoon, I went in her room and took all the diapers out and moved them to Harper's closet and removed all of the changing table stuff from the top of her dresser. I think only a parent who has gone through potty training can understand the excitement of seeing this:

Day 1 was a tremendous success but ended like it started. I gave her a bath and she melted down over the fact that I was putting her to bed in a pull-up instead of a diaper. But I stuck to my guns and told her no more diapers and she was fine after awhile. The poor thing was so exhausted that she fell asleep while I was talking to her in her bed and she slept until nearly 8:30 the next morning! Considering she usually gets up between 6-6:30, I knew she was exhausted.

Day 2 was even better than Day 1. When we started out, I said our goals for today were to keep the towels dry and poop in the potty. I'm proud to say she accomplished both! However, after she pooped in the potty, she still pooped a little on the kitchen floor. Clearly, she wasn't done yet. But it was okay because it was right after dinner and I just took the girls up and gave them baths. So I feel like it was still a good day. And she was excited because she got two toys (one for pooping in the potty and one for filling up her potty chart again).

Day 3 was good too. I felt like she had done such a great job that I thought we'd try big girl panties. She was actually excited to wear them and she still did great peeing on the potty without reminders. I was so excited and patting myself on the back about her being potty trained. Then after lunch we were playing in the playroom and I caught a whiff of something. "Lainey? Do you need to go potty?" "Nope." "You sure? You sure you don't need to poop?" "Nope!" (This is where she tries to run off and I grab her and find that her panties are full of poop.) So...that was kind of a mess to clean up but I tried to stay upbeat and we put on clean panties. 

So she did not get toys today because she didn't poop in the potty or fill her chart but I still think she did great. I am also terrified to leave the house and have ordered a travel potty. We shall see how things go from here!