Adah is 18 MONTHS!

UPDATE:  We went to Adah's 18 month check-up on the 6/14/11. We decided to see a local doctor instead of driving to Waterloo since they recently started doing well-child visits in the office now. We saw Dr. John Epperly and he did an excellent job.  I felt like he was thorough and asked all the right question.  She had to have one shot which she of course cried through but did great!  We also got the ok to stop her Fer-n-sol (iron drops) since her iron has been low in the past.  She weighed in at 25.2 lbs. and was 31 5/8 inches.  Her head was 18.75".  She is growing nicely and seems to be ahead on the developmental charts.  The doctor asked things like, can she walk backwards, can she stack things, can she go down stairs holding onto the railing, etc.  Yes to all of the above!!  She is starting to talk more but still has a limited vocab and he thought that was just fine! Overall it was a great apt. 

Adah is amazing.  I love watching her learn and do new things!  Her smiles and giggles are so contagious!  I love this stage of life (I think I say that with every age).  Here are some things about Adah this month: 
Adah dropped the feeding before nap on 5/17/11 leaving her nursing in the morning and right before bed.  I say Adah dropped it but really I made her do it because I feel like I can't keep up anymore with trying to chase a three year old, keep up with a twelve year old and create life inside of me!  She still asks for it every day and I just tell her no and offer her a drink of water.  She will give me a pouty lip for a second and then take a drink of water and then I lay her in her crib!  I feel bad but I have no desire to give it to her at that time anymore.  I am very content with the two times a day because, although I haven't taken advantage of it, I could potentially feed Adah in the morning and not return until bedtime if I wanted!  Of course, that would require me to find a qualified and willing babysitter!  Any takers?  Just kidding!!
Adah got a new tooth (bottom right eye tooth) on 5/26/11.  This has not been an easy process and I fear what the other three are going to bring.  Adah continues to use sign language very well.  I wish she were talking a little more but she will get there and if she's anything like her sister we will one day wish she would forget how (just for a little bit)!!  She is talking more and more though and I am getting really good at figuring out what she is talking about!  Almost everything she says resembles what she is trying to say it's just hard to understand it.  And she is very willing to try to repeat after you when you ask her to!  Here is a picture of her getting ready to take a bath but she is asking me where the water is because I haven't started it yet!  She LOVES her bath, by the way!  I'm not sure if I have talked about this before but Adah lives for her bath!  We all take turns getting to tell her when it's bath night because we get such a rise out of her!  Have I mentioned how totally awesome Adah is at potty training?  She is staying dry ALL the time (more than her older sister)!  She wakes from her nap dry and wakes from a 12-13 hour night's sleep dry!  I am so impressed with her!  And even though she can't express that she has to pee/poop with the actual words, she does a really good job of letting me know she needs to go!  I am just never really sure what's going to come out! 
Adah has a lot of favorite things to do.  She loves to put things in and out of compartments, she loves playing with her babies and feeding them and taking their diapers off, she loves coloring, she loves to cuddle her mommy and big brother, and loves seeing her daddy in the morning and gets so excited when he comes home at lunch time, but I would have to say Adah's biggest thing she loves to do is ANYTHING her big sis likes to do.  She will follow her anywhere, let Kezzie beat her up/drag her around by her arm, do whatever Kezzie asks her to, pester Kezzie (because she likes to make her scream), give her hugs and kisses, and share her food and drinks with her.  She also really likes to read books with Kezzie!  She rarely complains through any of this, I guess for the mere fact that Adah just loves her big sister!  I realize this is the month that Adah should be getting her 18 month shots and a check up but unfortunately I will have to post an update because I couldn't get her in to the doctor until the middle of June.  We are giving our local doctor's office a try since we usually travel to Waterloo for all her check ups!  I guess it was a little harder to get into when I needed to!  We will also be getting her 18 month pictures taken soon so I will post on that in the near future also!

Potty Training!!

(Sorry if you don't want to look at poop and pee pictures!) 

Yep, you read that heading right! We are at it again!  We started bright and early Monday morning May 2nd. As many of you already know, I am a huge fan of the naked method.  I don't know who originally came up with the idea but John Rosemond is an advocate and I like a lot of his parenting ideas.  I have seen a couple articles by him on this particular method of training.  It also became a part of my life way back when Austin was in an in-home daycare and training at 18 months.  Nancy (the provider) just decided he was ready.  She taught me all I needed to know and between the two of us (and probably with the help of my parents) Austin was trained quickly!  I still can't believe she was willing to deal with all that.  God definitely blessed me in many ways having her in my life! 
 Here is a summary of how the last two weeks have gone:
Day 1: Three successes before 10AM!  The rest of the day was hit and miss.  The biggest issue was her crying and not wanting to sit when I knew and she knew she needed to go.  She was very afraid of the feeling and letting it go.  I partially feel at fault for this because we got so excited when she peed her first pee of the day that maybe it scared her in some way.  I would have to sit in front of her on the potty (facing her) and just hold her legs down until it started to come out.  She would start to cry when it started coming and squirm even more so I would have to hold her down.  I wasn't sure if I was going to continue but she wasn't having many accidents and when she did it was just little dribbles and then off to the potty.  I knew she was getting it so I decided to give it the week. 
Day 2: There was a lot of crying!  She was still very afraid and acted almost like it was hurting to release it.  The same story continued with her crying and squirming when her pee started coming out.  I was worried I was jeopardizing getting her trained EVER by forcing her to sit there and decided to see how the evening went.  I can't tell you how much prayer went into my every moment of the day and I really feel like God was giving me peace with what happened next.  I was making supper and had the potty seat next to me in the kitchen.  Adah literally walked into the kitchen, opened the potty lid and sat down.  I sat down in front of her and positioned her correctly (she couldn't quite get herself on there all the way).  I started holding her legs and like every time before she started crying and squirming when she started going.  BUT this time while her pee was coming out she was clapping and smiling while she was crying.  This was a huge improvement!  The rest of the evening was the same.  I was so HAPPY!  This was my ticket to go on to the next day.
Day 3: I had to leave the house for a hour in the morning so she wet in her diaper.  She had two successes before lunch though and even had a successful poop right after lunch!  She woke from her 2.5 hour nap DRY!  She told me she had to pee and went!  There was very little crying when the pee would come (still squirming and I would lightly hold her legs) and much excitement!
So here we are on Day 15 and she is doing great.  Last Monday (day 8) we left the house for a short time with training undies on.  She has since then gone just about everywhere in undies.  Even day 7 (the first Sunday after starting training) we had to pull over on our way to church so she could pee in the little potty.  She had a diaper on but she really had to go and didn't want to release it in her diaper.  I still wasn't comfortable putting her in undies for church yesterday (day 14) because for one we have an hour drive (don't need pee on the car seat!) and for two I didn't want the nursery to worry about her peeing in her pants.  She stayed DRY the whole day yesterday.  We did have to pull over again just a couple miles from church so she could pee but she did excellent all day even staying dry for her almost 3 hour nap!  Now here we are today (two weeks to the day of starting) and she is amazing.  She has taken herself to the potty twice already after waking up with a barely wet diaper.  Now if I could just teach her how to say a word for pee and poop.  ANY word would be nice.  Right now all I'm getting is a panicked look and she points to her butt (for poop and pee).  She does kind of say a noise with the back of her throat that resembles the word poop, I guess.  What a smart little girl!  And to think I almost gave up on the second day!  Thank-you Jesus for the peace to keep going!

29 Months!

Keziah is another month older and it continues to amaze me how big she is! She is such a joy to be around. I know I say that every month, but it is so the truth! She makes me laugh all time! She says the funniest things and is learning more everyday. Every morning that she wakes up I swear she is smarter! Her sentences are becoming very complete and she almost speaks as well as some adults! She gets her words jumbled in a sentence sometimes but I can always tell what she is trying to say (ie: 'what say you?', 'where she is?', etc.)

Keziah is still taking her afternoon nap. I am just waiting for that to one day come to an end. I will cry when that happens! She sometimes has a really hard time getting to sleep and if I have her skip her nap for a day when we are busy she isn't hardly even phased by it. When she does fall asleep she will sleep for a good two hours and still sleep the same amount at night as she usually does which is great (8pm-7am). Also, we just took her door handle cover off so she is free to leave her room when she wakes up in the morning. It's only been two days and so far she hasn't been taking advantage of it. We will have to see if it becomes a problem and we need to put it back on! Every night when I put Kezzie to bed we pray on our knees next to her bed. She really loves this special way of praying and I love that I am teaching her something so important. She prays and says thanks to Jesus for many things but one thing she never forgets to say thank-you for is 'the pool'. We haven't swam yet this summer, other than at a hotel and that was over a month ago, but she insists that she thank God for it. I guess she really has a love for the pool! She also comes up with new things to be thankful for, things that I wouldn't even think of that we do earlier in the evening that she is happy about and thankful for. She will also frequently thank Jesus for her warm bed. I think we all too often take for granted things like our warm bed that we get to crawl into every night, so it really warms my heart that she thinks of those things. I think it is so sweet!

This month we also took Kezzie's pacifier away. It didn't even seem to phase her. Here is the funny story if you missed it. Another instance this month she actually found a different paci somewhere in her bed and when she came out after nap she was sucking on it. I asked her where she had gotten it and she said, 'it was just in my bed'. We had been missing that paci for a while and I guess she had found it! She is a smart girl but not smart enough to stash it away and keep quiet about it! I don't think there are any others hiding in her room anywhere that are going to emerge!

And a word on potty training...we had some major setbacks this month. I'm not sure what it was all about but she was definitely having more accidents...like one-two too many a day more accidents. All I did was went back to a day without pants on and she is back at it like a big girl. She is actually even better than before holding her pee for much longer at a time. Hopefully this will work her into a dry diaper at night time. For a while there I was actually waking her up before I went to bed to have her go potty because I wanted to see if it would eliminate her from wetting her diaper. A couple nights she stayed dry and it was successful but more nights then not she still woke up wet. I guess her body just isn't ready for that phase, so for now she will continue to wear a diaper to bed. For naps she is still staying dry but still wears a pull up. I'm just not brave enough to leave it off!

Keziah also had a dentist apt. this month (4/20/10). She did great but has a slight cross bite. I'm sure this is due to two years of pacifier sucking but the dentist thinks it should be fine especially when she gets her permanent teeth in. She just warned me that we probably need to start saving for braces! No shocker there since both her parents wore braces!

Kezzie says some of the cutest things...here are a few:

'whatever' using hand gestures and all.

'for ever, ever, ever' she will use this phrase for many different things whether it makes sense or not!

'don't you?' she will pretty much end any statement with this question. ie: I want to go outside, don't you? or I want to have a snack, don't you?, etc.

I know there is more so maybe I will be adding some again. I hope you are enjoying life with us as much as I am. I try not to bore you but at the same time there are things I want to put on the blog just for me to remember and be able to go back on! So thanks for going along for the ride!

A Yay and an Ooops!

Tuesday night (4/6/10) Kezzie gave up the pacifier for good. She has gone through two pacis in the last three weeks due to biting holes in them and I finally decided I wasn't replacing another one at over two years old. To my surprise she was fine with this. She asks about it for nap and bed but doesn't put up a fight to get it. I put the pacifier on her dresser so she could still see it and that is where the paci 'went to sleep'. However, at nap time today I heard some footsteps and a crash. I was busy with Adah so I didn't get up there to check on her right away but when I did, she looked very nervous as I walked in. She was laying in bed sucking her paci! I asked her how she got it and she proceeded to tell me a long story of how she got her chair out and climbed on it, got her paci and then fell, etc.She almost started to whimper as if to get sympathy for the fall. The funny thing is she didn't want me to see the chair out so to keep me from noticing, even after falling off the chair, she took the time to put it back where it belonged! It is so crazy to me that she came up with this brilliant/sneaky idea all on her own. Oh and I forgot to mention...the first night she went to bed without it I was so focused on remembering to put her to bed without it that I forgot to put a diaper on her...luckily she woke at 6:30am yelling over the monitor "I got to pee, I got to pee". She was completely dry! Yay Kezzie!
The next morning was Kindermusik and we have to drive almost an hour to CF. As we were sitting in the parking lot of Gallagher I was nursing Adah before going in for class and Kezzie said she had to pee. I asked her if she was going to be able to hold it and she said yes. I was sitting there nervous she was going to pee and encouraging her to hold it. It was silent for a few seconds and she said, "Mom, don't be mad." I said, "why would mommy be mad?" She said, "I pee my pants." How could I possibly be upset when she is so darn cute?! But my question is...how does she make it 12 hours the night before but can't make it one hour the next day...it can be frustrating! Needless to say, I had both girls in new outfits before we even arrived in our Kindermusik class!

Keziah is 28 months!

Eventually I am going to get to the point where I don't do this anymore. I don't know what point it is that it will stop, I just know one of these months it's got to! It's not like I post monthly about Austin at 11 years old! It's not that I mind doing it, it's just that it's usually days overdue by the time I get to it and I am racking my brain to remember anything and everything that I want to write for the past month. I'm too busy...or so I think!

Keziah is definitely getting older and wiser. She gets into more trouble then ever before because well, she is learning how! For example she has kind of started to get out of bed every once in a while to get a book or something to put in bed with her. This is as much as she does though so I haven't cracked down on it yet. There was one night that I kept hearing her run across her room and when I went to see what she was up to I found a huge stack of books in her bed with her. She hasn't ever done it again to that extent though. Another way she is getting into trouble is with her stool. The other day I was working in the kitchen and she asked if she could have a pear. I said yes and cleaned one for her. She always likes to stand on her stool and watch me in the kitchen so she stood at the counter and ate her pear. She happened to be in front of the fruit bowl eating her pear and when I left to go to the bathroom she must have decided she wanted a different pear. When I came back I noticed her reaching for another pear and then noticed that the bowl was looking pretty sparse so I asked her what happened to all the pears. After looking around I found them all in the sink each of them nearly half eaten. The photo doesn't do it justice. Needless to say, I had to cut them all up and put them in the fridge. We ate diced pears with every meal for a couple days! Silly girl!

One night as I was putting Kezzie to bed she asked for a hug and I said, "of course I will give you a hug!" so now every single night as she is climbing into bed she boldly states, 'of course you get a hug?' in a question sort of way!

While making decisions about things Kezzie always says, 'how 'bout this one?' Or if we are reading books and I tell her to get another she will say that! It's so cute!

Kezzie doesn't eat as much as she used to. I don't know if it's because she is just too busy to slow down and eat or what. If I sit and help her eat she will usually eat really well but I don't know if I should really have to help her at 2 years old. I hope it's just a phase and she starts doing better on her own soon!

Kezzie still loves her wiggles jammies...here is a photo of her with them on. I am just waiting for the day she outgrows them! She also loves the wiggles themselves. When doing different things throughout the day she will say for example, while eating an apple, 'Anthony likes apples'. Or when going to sleep she will say 'Jeff likes to sleep'. I can't think of the other things she has said but I would have to call her a super freak!

She equally loves her little taggie blankets. She has a pink one and a blue one that she calls her red one (the corduroy taggies that got chewed off by our dog were her favorite ones and they were red). They go everywhere with her and it is devastating if we can't find both of them for bedtime.

Kezzie has been mimicking me as a mommy. She has taken interest in her dolls more and even tries to nurse them with her belly button. It is pretty sweet!

Kezzie's sleeping has pretty much stayed the same. She does sleep in just a little later now then last month until about 7:30ish. This is nice but also hard because Adah is part way into her nursing session by then. I really liked when she was up before Adah and I could get her day going before anything else. I'm not about to wake her though.

Until next time...

Keziah's 25 months!

Instead of the big brown chair I think we will start taking her monthly pictures in her rocking chair. One of these days I will take a picture of her in something other than her jammies! And this other picture is her sporting her new robe. She loves it and looks so cute after a bath!

My angel is now 25 months old. Not much changes with her these days. I would say she has become a little more ornery. I think that goes with being 2 though! And having a little sister to compete with! She really is a good girl and does very well at listening. She still wants to please me so it makes discipline pretty easy! For the really trying times she has to sit on the carpet for 2 minutes and when she gets up she has to apologize. She is very cooperative. Although there have been a couple times that I have had to send her to her room for a time out. She really hates that.

Keziah is sleeping from about 8-8 and still takes an afternoon nap for about 2 hours. Sometimes more sometimes less. She is a great eater. She loves peas (frozen or cooked) and broccoli. She will eat any kind of fruit and thinks of bread as the main course! She isn't a fan of carrots or green beans but will eat them occasionally. She gets pretty excited about mac and cheese, pizza and hot dogs but will eat just about anything you give her!

A funny thing to note about Kezzie is she has kind of started getting into Blue's Clues. And for those of you who have seen it you know that Steve 'skadoos' into pictures-meaning he can go into any picture he wants and live in it for a little bit. One of Kezzie's favorite things to do is look at photo albums and she frequently gets on top of a picture and tries to skadoo into the picture. She will say 'get in this picture'. It is so cute some of the pictures she tries to get into.

Kezzie is waking up dry more often in the morning now. I still wouldn't dare leave a diaper off but I think she is starting to hold it more. She has also woken up a couple times in the night this month to have us take her potty. One night though (I must have had my head on backwards) I forgot to put a diaper on her...that was not one of the nights she decided to hold it either. Brian and I were awakened by her saying 'all wet'. I knew exactly what she was saying because a couple weeks earlier she must have scratched her back and her diaper came loose and the same thing happened. This time though, Brian went upstairs to help her (I was nursing) and searched everywhere for her diaper. He yelled down the stairs asking if I forgot to put one on her and that's when it hit me! I don't think I will be making that mistake again!

Another funny thing...Kezzie wakes frequently from her nap with her socks on her hands. Don't know why she likes them there!

Also I have to take note of her dry skin. It has really escalated this winter and has actually kept her up itching a few times at night. We try benadryl to stop the itching and then also use aquaphilic cream and have even tried a couple other creams. I have a vaporizer in her room running but nothing seems to be making it better. One more reason to wish winter was over!

Well, that's it for another month. In the meantime, she's going to keep making us laugh! And I will tell you all about it next time!

24 months!

It's official...Keziah is 2! What a big girl she is. She is doing great at learning her ABCs and recites them regularly (see video at bottom of screen). She is so smart and it amazes me that she is able to know something so complex at such a young age. She will even sing the end part of the ABCs. Another favorite of Kezzie's to sing is 'Pinkle Pinkle Little Star'. She is starting to get the hang of a couple others too: Row Row Row Your Boat and Rock a Bye Baby. Her favorite CD is one I found from when Austin was little and it has songs like 'The Wheels on the Bus', etc. She LOVES that CD and requests to listen to it all the time.
Keziah is back to her normal sleep pattern. She is going to bed by 8 most nights and wakes by 8. She will nap a solid two hours. I wasn't sure if she would keep this pattern being that she just got into her big girl bed but she is doing so well. She rarely gets out of bed. There was one time that we 'had it out' and she hasn't gotten up since. It was a long two hour battle during nap time but she eventually gave in and went to sleep. I WIN!!!
Keziah continues to wear a pull up at nap time and still wakes dry. At night she wears a diaper and still wakes fairly wet. Someday she will get the hang of it but for now I am fine with this! She does excellent during the day telling me when she needs to use the potty.
As for the pacifier. I think we are getting close again to giving that up. She almost completely has all of her molars in which is what I am waiting for to attempt taking it away and knowing that she won't have that need to suck. With a new sister on the way and just getting into a new bed and new room, I think this is on hold for a little bit too.
At Kezzie's two year check up she weighed in at 26.5 lbs. making the 50%. She is 35" tall which is in the 75%. I don't know where she gets that from! She did have to get a couple shots which she did wonderful at. She also had her iron tested again and she was in the normal range. Yipee!
I am excited to have another little one to share our day with but I can't believe how quickly these past two years have gone by with just the two of us home during the day. It's going to be an adjustment for both of us. In the meantime I continue to cherish the last couple weeks we have together and try to do as much as possible! Keziah is so much fun to be around and I consider us extremely blessed to have her as a part of our lives!

22 months old!

My baby is quickly approaching her two year mark. It's amazing how fast this year has gone. Kezzie is getting more of the attitude that comes along with turning two. It is really frustrating sometimes because you don't know how she is going to react to certain things. For example, sometimes she will be completely happy to get up in the high chair and put on her favorite bib and other times she will scream that she doesn't want to wear a bib at all. Her newest thing is putting her head on the ground and just crying...a couple minutes later she will get up and be just fine. It's funny what she will try to get attention...as if she doesn't get an abundance of that!!

Funny things she says: 'Sorry mommy', or whoever. She is really very polite when she wants to be! She pretty much always says it at the appropriate times and sometimes doesn't say it when she should. As a discipline action she sits on the carpet for 90 seconds and when her time is up she immediately says it and repeats it over and over until you give her a hug and say it's ok. She will say 'tay to (thank-you) mommy' when I get her something she wants or when I help her with something. She says 'pease (please)' as well, although you usually have to prompt her on that one. She is more likely to get frustrated about something and start yelling 'help mommy' repeatedly before she is willing to calmly say please. Her favorite ways to respond are by saying yep, yes, yeah, uh huh and sure. She has also started this really funny thing at the beginning of most of her words. It's something like this 'i-e-i-e-i-ya'. It can mean several things depending on the words that come after it. I want, I got, I have, etc. It's pretty cute. She will often say to me 'i-e-i-e-i-ya idea (I have an idea)'. Whenever she comes to me with an idea I always tell her, "wow Kezzie, that's a great idea". I guess she picked up on it! In the morning lately she will abruptly wake up yelling 'i-e-i-e-i-ya (I got to) PEE'. She is holding her bladder a lot more at night and I guess she really has to go! She will yell it over and over until somebody enters her room and then she calmly states it once more!

Favorite piece of clothing: I found a nightgown at a garage sale that is pretty hideous but comfortable looking so I bought it for Kezzie. It has The Wiggles characters plastered on the front and the sleeves are decorated in some pretty obnoxious pattern. Kezzie saw them in the laundry and thought it was the Imagination Movers and fell in love with them right away. I set her straight on who they were and ever since she calls them her Wiggles jammies. She wants to wear them constantly. If we go out to play or to run errands I make her get dressed but the minute we get home she requests to have her Wiggles put back on. She hadn't ever even seen The Wiggles before until I recently found a video at the store and bought it for her. I wish I never had! I am really hoping this phase passes quickly! I guess one positive is I am not washing as many jammies these days!

Quarks about Kezzie: It's really quite strange but we have noticed it getting worse lately...Kezzie is afraid to walk on shiny floors. Wal-mart and Target are pretty much a guarantee that she is cart-bound. Anytime we go into a bathroom when we are out she has to be carried over to the toilet. If we try to have her walk she will take the tiniest steps yelling 'help' and have a look of horror on her face the whole time she is doing it and you can tell she is so frightened. It has something to do with the reflection of the lights on the ceiling. Maybe to her it looks like the floor is missing in those areas or maybe it looks slippery to her... and recently she has started doing it in our own kitchen. If she is playing hard enough or has something on her mind enough to not be looking down at the floor and notice it then she is fine.

Kezzie continues to learn her numbers and alphabet. She will often spout off three numbers in a row. For example, if I start out counting she will usually chime in with seven, eight, nine. She can't/won't say the number one so she will never start there. She is a pro at her colors. I think this is contributed to all the things we do with colors. When she picks her candy after potty, when she gets dressed, etc. Pretty much everything we do/see is defined by its color.

Pacifier update: Kezzie started sucking her finger the end of last month but it didn't get really bad until this month. She was sucking it more then she ever needed her paci and it was starting to interfere with how much she would talk. She was laying around more and not playing purely to get the gratification of sucking. After a lot of prayer and thought we decided to give her the pacifier back (9/15/09). We have been letting her have it whenever she wants, all the time to try to get her re-attached to that so that maybe when we take it away again she will forget about her finger and be done with it all. I think she started sucking her finger because she is getting her two year molars (first noticed it poking through 9/1/09) so I am hoping she won't feel the need to go back to it. This is a process and only today has she started having limited paci time (she can only have it when she is in bed). She hasn't even once asked for it and hasn't put her finger in her mouth at all. She played really well all morning and has been talking up a storm. And she is easier to understand when she isn't trying to talk through her paci! I just pray this works! There was no way we were getting that finger away from her and it only seemed to keep the moisture around her mouth which irritated her rash even more...

Rash update: We took Kezzie to see the dermatologist on September 9. There were only three little specks on her face when we went and that morning I even contemplated going because I didn't think the doctor would know what to do for her. Regardless we went and I'm glad we did. He thought from what he could see it didn't look like yeast and he took her off all previous creams she was on (we were told she never should have been on that yeast cream for so long). He prescribed something called Elidel which is used for Eczema. This didn't seem like it was working so I took her back to see a different dermo (our first one was on vacation) on Sept. 16. This doctor said we just hadn't given it enough time and said to continue using the Elidel but to quit using any shampoos, body wash, bubble bath we were using and only use the CeraVe samples that she gave us. It's a new moisturizer. She was right. In just a couple more days we started to see some results. We put on the Elidel and then over top of that we placed the CeraVe lotion. And when she takes a bath we use the CeraVe body wash. It seems to really be working. Pretty soon we should be able to stop using it and only use it when her skin is irritated. I never would have thought she had something like Eczema! I am so thankful to finally know how to treat it. Hopefully this is something she will eventually grow out of. We won't need to see the dermo again unless we have further concerns!

Like I always say, everyday is an adventure. I must say...I look forward to putting her to bed at night but then after a couple hours I find myself excited to spend the next day with her and see what new things we will both learn! It's so much fun being a mommy!

Kezzie's 19 months old!

I can't hardly believe that another month has passed since I was last telling about my little girl. She has started doing so many new things this month too! Austin was gone a little less then a week and he even said she learned a lot since he had been gone!

It is getting harder and harder to take these monthly pics. As you can tell in this picture she is sticking that little lip out and crying with her hands over her eyes hiding! I just have to catch her at the right time and this evidently wasn't the right time!

She continues to do wonderful on the potty. We pretty much take her everywhere in panties now and she is telling me when she has to go every time, even when she has to go frequently from drinking too many liquids at once! We haven't had an accident in a while (knock on wood) and still haven't had any 'out and about' accidents. Although I continue to haul around several outfits as if she is just going to all of the sudden have several accidents in one outing! I guess you can never be too prepared! At nap she is staying dry but I haven't braved going without the pull up yet. And at bed time she is still wetting her diaper. Sometimes very little, leading me to believe she will be holding it through the night in no time as well.

Just in the last couple of weeks Kezzie has started putting two words together. This isn't an all the time kind of thing but she has done it a couple times and it is so adorable. She says "mom please" so sweetly! A few of her favorite expressions to use are: Oh Boy, Oh My, Oh No, OK and she says them with such enthusiasm. Within the last week a favorite game of Kezzie's is plugging her ears to hear what different volumes she can make. I will catch her in the back seat of the car testing this out. She will do it for long periods of time too and will laugh about it when she sticks her fingers in and out! Kezzie has also started answering yes or no to questions and does it accurately. Usually if she says yes to something she really means it but sometimes when I ask her if she needs to go potty she will tell me no because she doesn't want to go! Pretty typical, right?! Kezzie has also started to try counting. She can't say the numbers well enough to understand them but she will lay items out and make noises as if she is numbering them off. Also she has been trying to learn how to jump. It is pretty comical to watch because her feet never leave the floor but she is proud no matter what! And lastly, sometime in the last month Kezzie has once again changed her schedule. I can't really put my finger on when she changed it, but I think it was very close to when Austin was done with school! I wonder if that has anything to do with it?!! Kezzie no longer takes a morning nap and instead will eat lunch between 11 and 12 and nap by 12:30/1. She will nap until about 2:30 or 3 depending on what time she woke up in the morning (which lately has been as late as 7:30/8:30)! She still goes to bed by 7:30!

Wow how time is flying by. Kezzie is so much fun to be around and brings life to my every day boringness! She makes me smile all the time with the way she is so carefree, dancing to music and tapping her feet even when there isn't a beat to follow! Here she is being the girl she was created to be...putting on her fake lipstick and combing her beautiful hair in pigtails! God has truly blessed my family with her!

Potty Update!

Not much has changed, Kezzie continues to do very well on the potty and has even started to tell me when she needs to go (although she calls #1 and #2 both poop so you never know what's going to come out!). This morning she had her first accident in several days. I don't really know what happened and I don't even think she realized it...I hope we aren't starting another trend! We have even started leaving the house in panties this week. Sunday morning she was in a pull up in church but the nursery staff was more than willing to take her to the potty. She wouldn't go for them but she also didn't go in her pull up either. We went and visited Grandma and Grandpa Uglum that evening and she wore panties and kept them dry the whole time. Since then we have gone to get groceries wearing panties and even went to Austin's baseball game last night wearing them! She has yet to have an accident in them. When we are home she continues to be bare bottomed as that is the way the method works. It is easier for her to sit herself on the potty without having to pull anything down. That will come later! For now I either take her, she will take herself to her little potty, or she will tell me. That is tremendous progress from two and a half weeks ago!! I knew she could do it! I think once the last two pull ups run out we are done using them as a crutch and we will be full fledged panties! *Side note* Kezzie is still in a diaper/pull up for nap and night. She stays dry during her naps but soaks a diaper at night time. Eventually I will get brave and put her in panties even during her naps! Let's not rush things!

Potty Training Update!

I am happy to say that Kezzie is pretty much potty trained. I thought being gone over the weekend would cause us to pretty much have to start over, but it turns out it just made her want to do it even more! We didn't completely neglect trying to potty in the toilet while away so I think that helped keep it fresh in her mind. When I was gone on Saturday Adam tried to make her sit on the potty a couple times and then on Sunday at my parents I had her sit on the big potty whenever we were there (at church she was in a pull up) and she would go like she had been doing it forever! We got right back into the routine of it when we got home Sunday night and it hadn't even phased her we were gone! She is doing such a great job and even prefers the big potty over her little one we have set up in the living room. She has had only two accidents this whole week! She has even gotten her poo poo where it belongs! One time this week she was playing in her toy box and started to dribble, she stopped herself and ran to the potty to finish! I think that shows some pretty good control! She impresses me every day. I can't believe my little girl is getting so big! I am so proud of her! I am starting to feel like we can leave the house even! The last three days we have had somewhere to go for just a short bit and I just put a pull up on her (I'm not quite brave enough to go in undies) and take her to the potty usually once while we are out and she hasn't wet a pull up yet! Yeah Kezzie! She must know she is going to be a big sister in a few months and have even bigger responsibilities!

Three days of pee pee!

I can't tell you how excited I am to report that Kezzie is getting it! I woke up Monday morning (5/18/09) and just decided in a split second that that was going to be the day I start potty training! I don't know what came over me but it seemed right! I prayed a quick prayer about it asking for patience and peace about starting it and I really felt complete peace about giving it a shot. At a little under 18 months old I was thinking I may be crazy but Kezzie has really been giving me all the signs that she is ready. So with that said I went in and got her out of her crib and immediately took off her diaper. I love this 'no pants' method. It worked fantastic for Austin when he was being potty trained at a little over 18 months too! The only time they wear a diaper is during nap and bed. So as the morning progressed, we had about 5 accidents and 1 success. I was feeling a little ridiculous but told myself I was going to give it the full three days of strict house arrest before giving up. I laid her down for her morning nap and never heard a peep out of her. She slept for an hour and a half! When she woke up, she was completely dry. I put her on the potty and she went! A little bit later she even told me she had to poop and then proceeded to do that in the potty too! The day went so much better than expected. Kezzie continued to have very few accidents and the successes eventually outweighed the accidents more then I could count. After supper time, she had zero accidents and even went right before bed.

5/19/09 Tuesday was equally impressive. I really thought Kezzie wasn't going to have anything to do with the potty today but it turned out she just needed a little time to wake up and wasn't really in the mood to be whisked out of her crib and immediately put on the potty. Could I blame her?!! The rest of the day was incredible. Again she woke from her 1.5 hour morning nap dry. She had one accident the whole day which also consisted of two poops on the potty! On Monday, I definitely needed to be right by her making sure she wasn't peeing. She would actually pee about every 20-30 minutes so I really had to watch the time. But by Tuesday she had already stretched out the intervals anywhere from 1-3 hours. I didn't feel like I needed to watch her half as much! Plus, I felt like I was able to see signs of her detecting she needed to go. Poop was a no brainer because she tells me, but when she needs to pee the only way I can tell is she gets really quiet, stops playing, and just gives me this look. A few times she has even looked down like she is getting this alarming feeling! Hopefully it won't be long and she will start telling me she needs to go...this is the goal, right? Total for the day we went through one diaper...Way to go Keziah!

5/20/09 Now today...she woke up with a very wet diaper. Not a huge surprise and actually very much to be expected. She didn't pee her first pee until almost 1.5 hours out of her diaper. She must have just gone in her diaper :( Then I did get her to pee once before I was going to lay her down for a nap at 9 but at about 9:40 I heard her still playing quietly and I went upstairs to find that she had peed and pooped in her diaper (not consistent with the two previous days). I thought this was why she wasn't falling asleep so after changing her diaper I put her back to bed. At 10:15 I finally went and got her out of bed since I didn't want her falling asleep at that point. I brought her downstairs, took off her diaper only to find she peed even more :( . This was a bit discouraging but then she did have a couple successes before eating lunch (for meal time I just put down a hand towel on a regular chair-not her high chair-I can't see what's going on in there and it's harder to get her out if I can tell she needs to go). After lunch she had her first accident of the day, she completely emptied herself on the floor. I know she's going to have accidents but at this point in the day I am feeling really discouraged. After the morning we had with diapers I felt like she just wasn't getting it but then I think about where we have come from Monday and I realize she is doing wonderful. I pray again and all day for patience and peace that this is the right thing to do for her and I do feel like it is. It is just hard to keep going when you don't know if it's working! I got her to go potty on request before nap time this afternoon. I was really excited about that and it gave me hope again! We will see what the afternoon brings! Maybe we will even be able to go outside for a little bit this afternoon! I will keep you posted on the progress she is making!

PEE PEE!

Ok, so I'm not getting too excited, but this is certainly a start...This morning I changed Kezzie's diaper at about 7:15. I laid Kezzie down for a nap about 9:00. She didn't need changed. At 10:30 Kezzie woke from her nap and I got her dressed for the day. Before putting her pants on I went to change her diaper only to find it was completely dry! I had a quick thought to just stick her on her little potty just to try it out and see what happens (I have lazily been toying with the idea of starting the process of potty training). SHE PEED! I stuck her on there and then went to her room to get some books to read and by the time I got back I heard some trickling. SHE PEED ON THE POTTY! And yes, I had to photograph this very momentous event! I do believe Kezzie is definitely ready. She tells me every time she is pooping and even gets irritated if I don't promptly change it. And she has stayed dry like this before for a couple hours at a time. I am so nervous to attack this huge task, but I think I better go with it before it is too late! Say a prayer for me (and our carpet)!! It's time to get naked!