Life lately

Time for a little update methinks!

*Caution: The next couple paragraphs talk about potty training keep reading if you don't mind reading the words poop and pee and accident...

Well, Miss Audree decided to try potty training again. This time we have success! Taking the advice of a friend who commented on one of my previous posts on potty training I took Audree to the store and let her pick out some underwear(even though everything in me didn't want her to get the ones she picked!) and I let her pick out a potty seat(again, it was hard to let her pick the one she did!!). The Sunday following that she asked to wear her panties and then later pooped and peed in them and I was very frustrated!! I told her that I was going to take her panties away and she wouldn't get to use them ever again unless she went potty in the toilet. Well the next day she went potty first thing in the morning and asked to wear panties. I let her and that whole day she went on the toilet except one incident where Mark was watching her in the playroom and she had an accident in there. The next day she got up and we put panties on her again and she once again used the toilet all day and except for another incident after Mark got home. Wednesday was perfect with no accidents and the majority of the time Audree didn't need me to ask her if she needed to go!! Thursday we had another little accident but she stopped herself and finished on the potty, yay Audree! Today has been great and I haven't had to ask Audree once if she needs to go. The real test will be on Sunday when she's somewhere else and friends are around.

So, there was an incident at the Trump hotel, back when we had our Disneyland vacay, where we had to put Arya on the toilet. She was screaming and clawing me trying to get off and I thought, oh great! she's gonna be scarred the rest of her life and never wanna potty train! I tried putting her on the little potty a couple weeks ago and she wouldn't have any of it! Well something you may not know about Arya is that she's flipping smart and very observant. I didn't realize how observant she was all this time we've been potty training Audree and I've hardly let her in while Audree goes to the bathroom. So yesterday Arya kept pointing to the bathroom door, then pointing to her diaper and saying pee pee and then she'd look at me and say "POTTY!!" So I thought since she sounded like she wanted it so bad we'd take a whack at it. So I set her up on the potty and surprisingly she did not freak out at all. In fact she was quite excited. Then she kept pointing to the toilet paper. So i got her toilet paper and then she proceeded to attempt to wipe herself like she's seen Audree do. She continued to wipe herself over and over until she was ready to get off the toilet(she didn't pee at all but the fact that she is getting used to the toilet is all I really want!). When i let her down she promptly went over to the stool and climbed up so she could wash her hands. Another thing that Arya has observed is that we use soap when we wash our hands. So I set her up on the sink, she turns on the faucet, puts her hands under, sticks her hand under the soap dispenser, rubs her hands together and puts her hands back in the water. She absolutely LOVES doing this!!

Kind of along those same lines Arya loves brushing her teeth. All day she asks to brush her teeth. I know that brushing her teeth isn't the real motivation though! She loves sitting up by the sink and playing with the water. Whenever we get her down she throws a huge tantrum and she's always trying to sneak into my bathroom to "brush her teeth." She asks to do it at least 10 times a day!

So a few weeks ago at the in-laws was the first time I realized how truly observant Arya is. She was sitting at the piano bench playing and Mark moved the books and sheet music out of the way so that Arya wouldn't ruin them. Well she proceeded to have a ginormous tantrum. We put one of the books back and she stopped crying. She started turning the pages and then banged on the piano a little, then would turn some more pages, and bang on the piano some more. We tried taking the book away again and she'd have none of it! She saw me play and saw that I used the book and would turn the pages so she knew that that's how it has to be done and it would not do just to bang on the piano! She had to do it right!

Arya can say plenty of words but mostly chooses not to. She can mimic most things we say if she is in the mood. Most the time she gets stuck on a few words, like right now it's pee pee, poo poo, and potty and then she'll babble a lot. Audree said much more when she was this age but I see that mostly as a difference in personality. Arya's got a lot going on in that little head of hers and I see the results of that daily as she sneaks away, destroys my house, and hides things in the most clever places that even after I tear the house apart I still can't find the thing she hid. So really I'm not too concerned that she chooses not to say a lot of words. I've read many articles that say that how many words a child can say is actually not indicative of exceptional intelligence. I used to think Audree was so smart because she spoke so many words so young and was a little nervous about Arya, even though she's always exceeded what the pediatrician says is normal for her age. So after reading those articles I realized that just because Arya doesn't have 20 words she speaks frequently doesn't mean she isn't smart and she's proven that in how freaking observant she can be. The fact that she started doing things Audree didn't do for a year later shows how quickly she learns. I swear she'd see Audree do something and she'd join in with her and then the next day she'd be doing it all on her own. Now she is my terrible two year old(who isn't two) who is drawing on my walls, copying everything us or her sister does, and is already walking down the stairs like she is big enough to be doing it!

Now I know my girls aren't genius' but I love watching them grow and see how smart they are as they learn and grow. I love listening to Audree's hilarious sentences that I don't know where they came from. I love that Audree, when she thinks no one is watching, will sing the whole song that the Wonderpets sing...you know, "linny, tuck and ming ming too we're wonder pets and we'll help you...," I love that Arya thinks she's so grown up and has to do everything older people do. I love that whenever I sing a song, even if Audree doesn't know it, she sings it with me, or when some song on the Disney Channel(like the shake it up song or the one from the new soundtrack) comes on she sings it so cute.

I may be a little braggy today but I'm feeling extra appreciative of my girls today and I can't help but share the many things that sculpt their cute and unique personalities. As their mother, through my eyes, I could not be more proud of them and all they accomplish.

And because mine and Mark's lives pretty much revolve around our girls there's not much to update about us. My sister moved to Provo and started going to Paul Mitchell and she has been a wonderful friend for me to have around and hang out with and my girls love her! I've been reading a lot because I've just been in the mood...I'm sure that will die soon and I wont read a good book for a year or something...Mark just continues to be superman and works hard at work and comes home and helps out around the house and with the girls.

Our 4 year anniversary is coming up on the 16th! I can hardly believe it's been 4 years. Some days, like today, 4 years hardly seems to define how I feel like we've always been together. Then other days I think wow, I'm getting old! I've been married for 4 years and it all went by so fast that before i know it we'll have been married for 10 years, then 25, then 50...

So I need ideas for anything fun we can do for our anniversary. We are not very adventurous in our eating out and I think I wanna try something we have never tried before. Maybe in Salt Lake...any ideas?

Since I started this post talking about pee I think I will end it that way. I better go because my bladder is about to burst!