Potty Training in Progress

For the last few months we have been trying to introduce the potty chair to Anastyn. We would have her sit on it before her bath while the water was running or we would let her run around bare bottomed and try to run her to the bathroom when we could tell she was about to go. Then we bought her some cute big girl underwear. We have had some successes and more than a few accidents. Over Christmas break, Nathan was home for about 2 weeks, so he really worked on trying to get Anastyn to go potty. We bought her a book about going potty and she loves it (A Potty for Me by Karen Katz). She will sit there and let us read the entire book and often ends up going after sitting there a while. More recently she has been showing that she is much more aware of when she goes and will grab her diaper or underwear before or as soon as she goes. So on weekends and in the evenings we have been putting her in big girl underwear and letting her run around and she has been doing pretty well. This past Friday, my mom came up and watched her and said that she ran to the bathroom every time she had to go potty. She had a few small accidents in her underwear, but always held most of it until she sat down on her potty chair. Since then, she has hardly had any accidents and we have had her in big girl underwear whenever we are at home. She always runs to the bathroom when she feels like she needs to go and yells for "DAAA" or "MaMa". We always do the potty dance (while singing " Anastyn went potty, Anastyn went potty) after she goes, and she gets a treat (a bite of twizzlers or Nilla wafers). I am so excited for her and she gets very proud of herself. She also likes to dump her potty into the toilet and flush it down. She even woke up the other night crying and after trying everything else to get her to stop I asked if she needed to go potty, she said "yeessss" so I took her to the bathroom, took her dry diaper off and she sat down and went potty. I put her diaper back on and she layed right down and went to sleep. I honestly can't believe how well she is doing. Soooo.... I guess it is time to start sending her big girl underwear to the babysitters.

Is there anything cuter than belly buttons and big kid underwear?

18 Months

Anastyn with her friend Hannah, and Hannah's mom, on her 18 month birthday.

Anastyn turned 18 months old this month! Quickly, her stats at her check-up were 19.5 lbs (2%) and 30 inches (I will have to look up that percent). She seems to be right where she needs to be as far as milestones go. Still small, but I think she is just going to make her own little curve on the graph. She has 12 teeth and loves to have her teeth brushed with the little finger brush. She also has been using her potty some. She has gone #2 about 3 times in her potty, but she doesn't like to pee in it. She has only gotten a few drops in there. She loves to sit on it and read her potty book though, so hopefully we can crack down soon and really work on training her.

~She LOVES our shoes!!! ANY SHOES. She is constantly trying to take the shoes off of our feet so she can put them on her feet. Or she will get them out of our closets. She also likes to put on our socks, which I need a picture of because it looks hilarious. She loves her books more and more now. She finally sits still long enough to get through the stories. And loves to look at a book while she is in her carseat.

~She is always learning something new these days. She tries to repeat most things that we say and has picked up a few phrases that she likes to say for most everything, like...

"one mooore" - as she holds up one little finger (she really puckers her lips when she says more) . She is constantly saying this about everything, especially if she liked it. Like "one more" snack, or "one more" time being tossed in the air, " one more" story, "one more" drink...I think you get the picture! I need to get it on video, because it is so cute... it makes me smile so big everytime I hear it!

"no-no" - has become fairly popular, but she really only says it when it is needed.
"yessss" - she thankfully knows this word, and uses it appropriately so we actually her yessss, more than we hear no-no. That might change, but for now, I like the yes'.

"bye-bye" - which is usually said quite emphatically

"I love you" - which is sometimes said very sweetly and sometimes very loudly

"good day" - every day we leave her at Ms. Norma's, Norma says "have a good day", to which Anastyn says "good day". I love it!

~Anastyn can point to all and says (or repeats) some of the following body parts: head {head}, hair (rubs hair), forehead, ears {eaerss}, eyes {eyeess}, eyebrows {eyebow}, eyelash {lasssh}, nose {noose}, mouth, teeth (shows teeth), tongue (sticks her tongue out), lips (puckers), chin, cheeks (puffs up her cheeks and points to them), neck {neck}, elbow {elbow}, arms, wrist {wrist}, hands {hands}, fingers (wiggles fingers), belly {beyee}, belly button, knees {knee}, legs, feet, and toes.

~She knows all of her articles of clothing and likes to point to them when asked "where is your ...(ex. shirt)"

~She knows her right from her left. If you tell her to give you her right/left foot or wave her right/left hand she is able to do it.

~She knows lots of animal sounds and says them when she sees those animals in books or in person. She has learned tons of new words lately. I won't put them all here but I am writing down a list so I can remember how she says some of them. I love to hear her when she talks. It is such a sweet sound and she tries to say everything that we do.

~Our new bedtime routine is one that I want to remember as well. Either Nathan or I will pick her up and say "time for bed, give me a kiss". She gives whoever is holding her a great big kiss and hug and then looks at the other person and starts to kind of squeal... she is waiting for the other person to try to kiss her so she can turn her head away from them. She thinks it is sooo funny, so every night one of us chases the person holding Anastyn and we pretend we can't catch her and then when we do we give her a great big kiss. It is so much fun and I love to hear her squeal and then when you catch her she laughs sooo hard. Such a sweet sound to our ears! Also, once we put her in her bed, she lets us get about halfway across the room and then she stands up and puckers her mouth and makes a "mmmmm" noise so we will come back and give her another kiss. Then we say "night-night, I love you" then she responds with "niiiight-niiiight" (sounding a little southern) "I ya you".

~She loves to kiss the pictures that we have sitting around the house, especially the ones of her self. She kisses the blankets that are in her bed every morning before she gets out of her crib. And her piggy of course gets kisses as well. She is such a loving little girl. I can not think of a better feeling than having your child's arms wrapped around your neck and getting a sweet little kiss from their puckered lips. Melts my heart!!!

~I could honestly go on naming the things I love about our sweet little girl, but I will stop here for today though. Now go give your babies some hugs and kisses! ;0)

Happy Birthday, Mommy!

I must say, it is pretty great having this little girl around! She makes every day so much more fun! I am one blessed mama and can't wait to spend many more birthdays with this precious little girl!

Anastyn's 2nd Christmas

Anastyn had a very good Christmas. (We celebrated at home on the 18th since we wouldn't be home Christmas morning). It was so much fun watching her see all her presents and excited to open them. I was expecting it to take her a really long time to get through her presents, but she made pretty good time. She, of course, had to stop and play with each one before moving on to the next present. It was so nice to be able to take our time and let her enjoy the morning. After she played with her toys and ate breakfast she went down for a nap. When she woke up I had sugar cookie dough ready for her to help me cut out cookies. She was a pro. She helped push the cutters down and even helped used the mini spatula to pick the dough up (those cookies didn't quite make it, but she had a good time!) It was a very nice, relaxing "Christmas Day" for us. We headed to Belle on Christmas Eve and got to spend lots of time with family. I will have to post those pictures another time because I have yet to upload them. But here are some of her opening presents and cutting out cookies.

This is the first toy she saw and wanted to play with it immediately.

Lining up her little Princess figurines.

She likes her ABC Leapfrog magnets. She likes to push the button that sings the ABC's and she always sings along with it (not actual words, but you get the point)

Kisses for Mommy

Kisses for Daddy

Daddy helping with the sugar cookies

I LOVE THIS GIRL!!!

Merry Christmas Eve!

We hope everyone has a wonderful (and safe) holiday weekend! Enjoy the time you get to spend with your family and friends. I know we are going to!

'Twas the night before Christmas

...when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

while visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.

...or sugar cookies!

So, we celebrated Christmas a little early since we will not be home Christmas morning. We had a wonderful time watching Anastyn walk sleepily into the living room to open her presents and then we spent the afternoon making sugar cookies. She did such a good job helping me roll them out and cut them.

She also wore her Christmas dress to church this week. She was not happy about it and I think the pictures prove that. Maybe we can get some pictures of her this next Sunday in a little brighter mood! Either way, I thought she looked pretty cute!
I will try to post some pics of her "Christmas morning" sometime this week.

We hope everyone has a wonderful week and a Merry Christmas!

Happy Thursday!