Success!!

My baby is going to the potty!  All of a sudden, something clicked!  We put the potty in the living room and after a couple accidents, she got it!!  Elizabeth was so excited to wear the princess panties that Brenda got her - and I think they really helped because she didn't want to get the princesses wet.  This morning, she went to Bible study with no diaper (and a skirt, since we haven't worked with pulling pants down yet).  She stayed dry and came home and used the potty right away!

Some people read books, others color on the potty!

Why she is posed like a majorette, I have no idea.  But here is ERS in her princess panties.  And this is Rachel's "mom, why aren't you picking me up" face.  Lovely, huh?

When I pulled the camera out, Rachel was standing up, clawing at her sister.  Mama is too slow and she is on the move again.

We are so proud of our big girl and I think she is really proud too.  The first time she had success, she ran in and gave Rachel a huge hug, yelling, "Rachel, Rachel!  I pee-peed in the potty!!"  I wish I could have gotten that on video.  She was so happy to show her daddy too and we were both stunned last night when she poo-pooed on her own and came in to tell us.

Mom and Elizabeth, the day we brought her home from the hospital.

I have to admit, I was a little sad after she went to bed, realizing how much and how fast she's growing up.  I'm so glad that God makes this a gradual process.  My heart couldn't take it moving any faster.  She is talking more and more each day and even today, she told me that she needed to take a nap in the middle of our book and went and laid down in her bed.  I'm so thankful for this gift of being a mother, even during the "they drive me crazy" times.  Thank you for riding this potty training roller coaster with us.  I'll still keep you updated...and then, there will always be Rachel! 

The Inspector

I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to prepare for this cross-country trip to see the girls' Grammy and Grampie.

Am I packed and ready?  No.
When do we leave? Today.
What am I doing?  Updating the blog...  :)

Rachel has done so much changing in the past week, I just can't leave and not tell you about it.  She is a full-blast crawler now and has discovered every room in the house.  Her little knees are bruised and I have hand and slobber prints all over.  Most times, I walk into a room and can hear her little hands slapping the floor behind me.  As soon as she enters the doorway and makes eye contact, she breaks into a huge grin (or cry...depending on the mood of Miss Rachel), as if to say, "I just wanted to see what you were up to."  This has earned her the nickname of "inpector."

Looking for the dogs

Elizabeth and her crazy hair, coloring while Rachel naps.

The inspector loves to explore mommy and daddy's closet, follow her big sister into her room and bang on her piano or petition that it's time to eat from mommy.  She gets stuck under the table, inspecting the chair legs.  She wants to do anything her sister is doing.  Lately, they've been playing in the little kitchen together.  Elizabeth pulls down all the food and dishes and Rachel gnaws on them.  This morning, Elizabeth confiscated all of my bread pans (old and metallic, handed down from my Grandma) and Rachel banged on them for 10 minutes straight. 

Elizabeth saw her and told me, "Rachel stuck." 

Playing music for mommy

The inspector loves the vacuum cleaner and wants to climb it / chew on the cord every morning.  Yesterday, I was so focused in getting my house clean that I swept and then pulled out all the attachments to clean the couch and dust the window sills, TV, bookshelf...so engrossed that I turned around to find both children chewing on hose attachments...yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck!!

I just can't get enough of watching them play together.  This music table is a huge hit in our house.  It sings and lights up.  Elizabeth likes to do dances for Rachel, which she thinks are hilarious (of course!)

But yesterday was the big event - Rachel pulled up for the first time!!  She has been pulling herself up when holding onto our fingers, but never on her own.  My little baby, so big.  Her sister is never going to know what hit her when we are totally mobile!!

Mom, I just need a better look at this thing.

Attempting to follow her sister on the rocking horse.  Elizabeth had just put a new definition to the term "oatmeal bath."  That's why she's just in her diaper.

Ok, now I really have to go pack.  Pray for us on the airplane...well, maybe for the fellow passengers on our airplane!!

Halloween 2010!

Can I just begin by saying that Halloween is probably my least favorite holiday?  I've always hated being scared and shelling out money for costumes and candy just isn't my thing.  So Scott and I have agreed that we'll just keep things simple until the girls are old enough to care one way or the other.  

We turned this picture into a postcard for Scott to drop to his clients.  We wrote on the front in orange, Happy Halloween from Scott Shipman and his "ghouls."  Yes, I am a cornball.

Poor Rachel is cutting teeth so she looks stuffy in this picture but I thought she was so cute.  The bib and booties were actually gifts to Elizabeth from Andrea a couple years ago.  The mummy booties crack me up...they're little rattles.  Of course, they were ripped off before we could walk into church.  And yes, I have my daughter in white pants after Labor Day...we work with what we've got!

 

Susie found this little play princess dress for Elizabeth so we put it on as our costume.  She loved it and the skirt and kept twirling around to show me.  "Mama!  Pincess!" 

 Oh yes, Rachel loved the skirt too.  We also broke out the Easter hat.

Miss Opinionated...Don't even think about putting a princess dress on me, mother...

Unfortunately, the first kid to show up in a mask at our door sent Elizabeth to the hills.  My little helper spent the rest of the night tucked into her daddy's arm, afraid of the doorbell ringing.  So we shut it down early and Scott and I mended our broken heart over our little girl being scared for the first time.  For the record, Rachel just looks scared in this picture.  Shockingly, she was just fussy.

So that was our Halloween this year...short and to the point!  On to Thankgiving and turkey!!  I really do prefer my pumpkin in pie.  :)

Gone to Carolina in my Mind...

I feel like it took me all last week to recuperate from the four days we spent in the Carolinas.  Taylor was sweet enough to ride down with us and enable us to visit friends that we haven't been able to see in a year.  We spent the night with the Mason's, Dana and the Swofford's and got to visit with the Campbells', the Epley's, and the McSwain's.  Elizabeth got to play with puppies, kitties ("diddies"), birds, a goldfish and lots of kids...she was in pig heaven!  Thank you so much to everyone who either hosted us or made the trip to see us.  It was such a blessing to get to see everyone.  Enjoy the pictures!

Cheesing with Aunt Dana

ERS playing with the kitties

"Diddies!  Wheh ah you??"

I think she would have spent the entire time at the Swofford's outside if we had let her!

Rachel contemplating if she would rather attempt to chase her sister or eat the grass

"Mom!  A doggie!!"

"Oh, sweet diddy."

"Billy, just let me down for a second!  I just saw a rock I can gnaw on!"

Ah...thank you to the Campbell's for the princess panties and thank you to Donna for putting them on over the sweatpants. 

The girls didn't really care that Chelsey was hurt...that is not a good enough excuse not to play!

At the Swofford's

We love Austin!  She isn't shy to grab a baby!

First time crawling!!

You just have to know Rachel.  She has such a little determined look about her when she wants something or wants to do something.  She gets her mama's furrowed brow and sets to work.  Well, we've been working on this crawling thing, but Rachel has two things working against her:  

1. She has a huge head.  I'm not ripping on my daughter, but her head is massive.  We're talking high 90th percentile here.  She's got the cure for cancer growing in there!  

2. Her sister.  Anytime Rachel gets on all fours and starts the rocking back and forth process, Elizabeth sits on her.  Or lays in front of her.  Or pushes her over.  Or (my all time favorite) grabs her hands so that she falls flat on her face.

I know...poor Rachel...She can thank her sister when she's winning her multiple Olympic gold medals. 

So today was the first time she got everything headed in the same direction and I was able to grab my video camera!  She looked so...gratified!  Until she got to the thing that she wanted and her older sister grabbed it away.  Ah, onto the next challenge!

I texted Scott right away (he was in a lunch meeting) and his response was "Aren't you glad that you're home to be able to witness her firsts?"  And I am.  Being home with the girls all day can be stressful...and hard, and lonely all wrapped up into one.  There are days of limited adult conversation and the hours are long.  I hate that there are times that I jump into the self-pity pool with both feet - and like anytime the devil can get a foothold, he works on my mind until I'm so down in the dumps that my husband comes home to a cranky wife.  

But let me tell you, THE BLESSINGS FAR OUT-WEIGH ANYTHING BAD!  I am so thankful for my husband who works the long hours so that I can stay home and see my kids.  I love the hugs from Elizabeth when she gets up from her nap and the fact that I can watch Rachel change every day.   I cherish being able to control my gag reflex when I watch my daughter disassemble her cheese sandwich to eat the cheese first and then mash together the bread with mayo and stuff it all in her mouth.  Even the whole potty training fiasco...I know that this is a stage and she's going to go to the potty.  You don't see many 6-year-olds walking around in Pampers.  So my writing is mainly for comic relief and to record her adventures.  

Not to get on my soapbox there, but I know a lot of moms have the same thoughts I do and go through the same trials and tribulations.  I think Tonya said it best in her blog when she said (and I'm paraphrasing you, my friend) that she felt justified in the challenges of staying at home because she was doing exactly what her Heavenly Father had called her to do.   I can't tell you how many times I've been comforted by that thought when things have gotten hard.  And it is even harder when you are a working mom - because then you have GUILT!  When I was teaching, I would skip my workout (even though the gym was just down the road from school) because I would feel guilty about taking any more time away from Elizabeth.  And just this morning, Scott had to come home because he forgot his phone and ended up sitting down and reading Elizabeth's Elmo book to her (for the millionth time) because he just couldn't resist the "Dada...read?" she threw out at him.  

I guess the trick is just to stay continually thankful.  Thankful to get to witness the "firsts."  Thankful for the job that puts food on the table. Thankful to have the ability to cook the food that goes on the table.  Thankful for healthy, growing, curious kids.  Thankful for a spouse that is loving and appreciative.  And thankful for friends who read my ramblings. :)

Thank you, Lord for my husband.  Thank you for the sacrifices he makes every day to get up and go to work and provide for us.  I know he misses his family when he's away.  Thank you for my healthy and beautiful and MOBILE children.  Please protect them as they continue to grow and help me not to take a second for granted.  Amen.

Baby girl after my own heart

My daughter went hunting through our closet the other day and found...a softball...  While this may not shock many of you, I really haven't played with actual baseballs or softballs with my child.  She loves to throw things...in the house...at her sister...  so most of her toys are soft!!  So when she found this, she LOVED it!  And she especially loved the CLUNK sound it makes when you drop it on the floor.  She can't wait to go to Furman this weekend to see some girls that might play with her!

Anyway, enjoy the pictures.  They made my heart smile!

Sigh...still potty training...

You know when you're pregnant and people make all kinds of silly comments to you and you feel like you could write a book about things NOT to say to a pregnant woman? (You sure there's just one in there?  You look like you're about to pop!  And my favorite...Weren't you JUST pregnant??!)  Well, I think the same thing goes when a mom is going through the potty training process.  For some reason, people just want to share with me their stories of how EASY their children took to potty training...at 18 months...and never had an accident...actually, all of their children were like that...  

Well let me tell you, that's not our child.  

Last week, I had a stomach bug hit me pretty strong.  Of course, it was the worst on Scott's busiest day at work, so I was at home for 15 hours with the girls just praying not to get them sick.  That was the same day that Elizabeth decided that she didn't want to wear an even-slightly-wet diaper and took them off and threw them away every 10 minutes.  She'd then run in to me, yelling "di-pah chain!" with the new diaper.  I just knew I was going to run out of diapers and have to drag my pukey self with my wild, been-in-the-house-too-long kids to the store.  So we decided that we'd give the potty training another go.

Coincidentally, this was the same night.  I ran Rachel's bathwater and Elizabeth jumped in.  My first double bath!  Elizabeth kept trying to wash Rachel.  Rachel thought the whole thing was awesome!  I don't know what they're trying to grab here...

 Again, we did the no diaper around the house with the potty in the living room.  She screamed every time we put her on the potty.  As I was changing Rachel's diaper, Elizabeth actually picked her potty up and moved it back to the bathroom.  Maybe she'd sit on it there?  No...scream...great.  She really enjoys walking in on me going to the potty though and announcing to anyone that listens that "Mommy pee-pee!"  Then she gets to flush for me.  She loves that part.

So two nights ago, I thought my husband was a genius when our daughter ran out of her bedroom with poo-poo in her hand to give to him.  "Dada, Dada!" she calls.  She had obviously taken her diaper off and fished it out to bring to her daddy because she didn't want to sit in it.  I would have freaked out.  But without blinking, my husband said, "Let's go put that where it goes...in the potty!"  And he marched her down the hall, and let her flush her poo-poo down the potty. She was so excited...and then mad that it didn't earn her any m&m's.

Yesterday, we had her diaper off and were talking about the potty again when I took Rachel into her room to get dressed.  Within a couple minutes, I heard the toilet lid slam and the flusher being jiggled by little paws.  When I went in the bathroom, Elizabeth just smiled at me.  "Mama, poo-poo in potty!"  So I lift up the lid and sure enough, there it is.  She had gone on the floor, picked it up and put it where it went.  After scrubbing her hands for five minutes (which she LOVED) I tried to explain to my two-year-old that you put your poo-poo in the potty, but not with your hands...

I swear, people...I have a master's degree...I should be better than this!

So the adventure continues and I'm still waiting for that ah-ha moment from my daughter.  Until then, hope you enjoy the stories!