Such a GIRL!

(Still without my desktop as the work continues around here... and will continue until tomorrow sometime...)

As Katelynn and I were reading stories this afternoon, I commented about how she would get to fly in an airplane in September just like the one in her book. We talked for a bit about how she had gotten to fly two times already and this would be her third time, but that Justin had never gotten to fly yet, and it would be his very first plane ride. Then all of a sudden Katelynn says, "Mommy, what are you going to wear on the plane?" Umm... hadn't thought about my wardrobe for two months from now just yet. :) And then she followed that question with, "What shoes you wear on the plane? Maybe your tennis shoes and socks or maybe another pair?" Only a girl would be worrying about what to wear and what shoes were needed for a plane ride two months from now!

"But it's my favorite!"

Are we really getting to that age already where getting out of a store without something for Katelynn is going to be a hassle? Today I had some returns at Old Navy to do. Of course they have all kinds of gidgets at the register that my 2.5 year old can get into while I'm trying to complete my return. Today I just let her play with them rather than hassle with trying to get her to keep her hands off. They had key chains and compact cases that she thought were the best. She had a handful of them and kept opening up the compacts to look at herself in the mirror. When I finished my transaction, I asked her to put the things away. She put everything away but one pink keychain and one pink compact. She held up the keychain and said, "Mommy, it's my favorite." I told her that it was very nice but we weren't buying it today. So, she puts it done and holds up the compact. "But, Mommy, it's my favorite. Pink is my favorite." I again told her that we wouldn't get it today, maybe another day. So, she tried one last measure to get it: "But, Mommy, I can't see myself. I need to see myself." Where do they think of these things? I simply said, "Our mirror at home works just fine for you to see yourself in. Let's go, Katelynn." She finally gave up and came with me free of all her extra gadgets.

Under Construction

No, not my blog- my house! We recently had a new roof put on our house, and they are now coming tomorrow to fix the interior ceilings on three of our rooms from damage caused by leaking of the roof. Jonathan and I just spent hours and hours emptying our living room/playroom, kitchen, and master bedroom of pretty much everything except the really big and heavy furniture. We took down curtains and blinds and picture framesa and moved gobs of toys.. pretty much anything small enough to move without too much trouble. When I walk in those rooms now, it feels like we are moving. We also started tearing apart our master bathroom a few weeks ago. We have been wanting to get rid of the wallpaper from the previous owners since we moved in and never did it so that's our current project aside from the work the repair men are doing. Truthfully, I have a huge itch to do quite a few projects around here, including replacing the floor and paint in the kitchen. I guess we'll just have to take all these projects one step at a time as money allows. But, for now, we will be getting three new ceilings. They are supposed to get it all done in one day, but we'll see if that really happens. Until they get the work done, my desktop computer where I store all my pictures is out of service so no pictures on this blog until they finish up. I took some today, but I just didn't have the time tonight to upload them. I will have plenty for you to view shortly I am sure!

4th of July Weekend

Are you ready for a picture overload???? :)

We had a great 4th of July weekend, but it sadly came to an end way too quickly! My parents and brother drove up/over (whatever direction it is from their house- ha,ha) to visit for the weekend. We started off our visit with the Harrisburg Parade on Saturday morning.Katelynn wasn't too sure what to think of the parade at first. She thought it was kind of interesting to see a few of the things they had........... but then she saw the firetrucks that mommy had promised would be there and the excitment hit!Now, if you were to ask her now what her favorite part of the parade was, she will probably tell you that she liked the popsicles and candy they threw to her. :)

Here was our little family in our red, white, and blue... well, the kids and I did a good job sporting our matching red, white, and blue shirts. Daddy doesn't participate quite as well. He seems to think this white/blue checkered shirt was good enough. Maybe one of these years we'll get him to match us!Justin wasn't too interested in the parade just yet. He didn't mind it until the firetrucks came by with their sirens blaring and then he puckered up and got upset. Other than that, he just slept and hung out with all of us!After the parade, we just went home, cooked out, and enjoyed spending some time with my family. I wish my kids were a little more adjustable in their sleeping patterns so that we could have attended fireworks. I was pretty sad I didn't let Katelynn stay up and see all the fireworks that went off in our neighborhood, but if she loses ANY sleep at night, she is a bear the next day so we put the kids to bed at their normal (before dark) bedtime. Our plans for Sunday were supposed to include spending the day out on the boat. I am still so disappointed that the weather did not cooperate for us. They were calling for thunderstorms and rain all day. We layed around the house contemplating going anyway all day, and we finally gave up. I am hoping (HINT, Mom and Dad!) that my parents will be returning soon to go out on the boat. We have had our boat for nearly two years and only gotten to take them out on it once and it was cold the day we did. I really look forward to being able to go boating with them soon! Finally after spending most the day in our PJ's (okay, so maybe it was just me and my kids that stayed in our PJ's most of the day), we decided to go to the Nascar Speedpark for some fun. This was actually Katelynn's first time riding rides and putt-putting. She really enjoyed these rides! Then we all went and played minature golf. Well, almost all of us played.... JEREMY! :) My brother decided against playing after a few holes, but it worked well as he was able to hold Justin and make it easier for me to play! (Did I mention this was Justin's first time meeting his Uncle Jeremy? They had to get some bonding time in!)

Bright Blues

As I was putting Katelynn into the car yesterday, I couldn't help but notice her big blue eyes have a little bit of green right around the pupil. It's actually very similar to the way my eyes are, but this is the first time I have noticed it. So, I made it my mission yesterday to try to capture a picture of her eyes. Sadly, I was unsuccessful. I practiced on Justin while Katelynn was napping yesterday and got a cute shot of his face and his blue eyes! I am still shocked that both my kids have blue eyes so far. I thought for sure they would both have their daddy's brown eyes but so far we still have all blues here!
This is the shot I got of Katelynn's eyes. No green showing. I am honestly not sure if she always has the green pigment visible in her eyes anyway. Since I just noticed it yesterday, I am going to have to pay attention to if you can always see it on her eyes. It didn't help that by the time she woke up, I was having trouble getting a good enough photo without turning on my flash. So, this picture was taken with the flash and the flash really ruined a true view of her blue eyes. I'll try to take more again and post them then.

Who are these kids?

These pictures are a bit blurry but I thought they were too funny not to post.

Potty Training Update

So, I think we are getting somewhere with potty training, but I am still finding myself hating the whole thing. I really haven't put a lot of effort into potty training. We talk about it, have tried going with just undies a few times with no success, offer her the opportunity from time-to-time, read books about it, but we have never really pushed it too much. Several days ago (okay, maybe a week ago now- my days all run together) we were at playgroup and one of Katelynn's friends told her mommy that she had to go potty and off they went. Katelynn talked about this for days after it happened, how Ellie had went potty with her mommy, and I kept mentioning how great it was that Ellie remembered to tell her mommy that she had to go. Then starting with that day in the bath, Katelynn has started randomly telling me she has to go. In the past three days she has went potty after telling me she has to go at least twice a day. Today she went six times! This is great, right? Well, sort of. The problem is that the only times she goes are when she is trying to get out of doing something she doesn't want to do. She went twice today before her nap, once during dinner when she was trying to not eat any dinner and play instead, and then three times before bed. Does anyone else find it unusual that she seems to go multiple times before bed within a 5-10 minute window? Jonathan and I are at our wits ends on what to do with this situation. It's almost as if she is purposely not completely emptying her bladder so that she can get back up and go several times when she is supposed to be going to bed. But, really is our 2-year old THAT smart? Sometimes I think there's no way, but I have no other explanation for it. We have tried several things to try and eliminate this- telling her she only gets on treat no matter how many times she goes potty before bed, after she goes the first time reminding her that she only goes potty once before bed and recommending that she sit on there a bit longer and see if she has anymore, etc but yet every night we are faced with the never-ending battle of a 2-hour bedtime ordeal which almost always ends in her crying because we finally just have to tell her that potty time is over and she has to go to bed. She cries as if she's in pain and pleads that she "feels pee-pee". We don't want to discourage her from continuing to go potty, but my goodness- 2 hours worth of bedtime rituals and on and off the potty is getting exhausting for all of us, and of course Katelynn has that same stubborn streak that both her daddy and I hold as well so she is determined to keep getting up and trying to go. It would be much easier for us if we knew she didn't have to go after that first time, but she goes multiple times every night! And of course, there's still the issue of getting her to actuall stop playing during the day and use the potty since she is still wetting her pull-ups at any other time that doesn't involve finding a solution to getting out of what she doesn't want to do. I know that may seem harsh for me to say, but it's 100 percent true. So.. on we go with this potty training. I think we are going to try to go back to wearing undies all day in the next few days and see if that helps her remember to go while she is playing and not thinking about it. In the meantime, if you have great advice to solve our nighttime agony, please suggest away!