Potty Training Success!

Oh my goodness!  Potty training has clicked (I think...knock on wood) for Natalie!

We have randomly tried to get her to use the potty for what has seemed like FOREVER!!!!  On Tuesday night after picking the girls up from daycare, I decided to have Natalie try to go potty and I used the phrase "make the potty wet" and it just clicked! Last night she went 4-5 times with no accidents. Today at school she only went once, but hey, that's progress! Then tonight she went twice before we left to meet her friends at an indoor playland. She went on the public potty and then went twice again before bed!  She's a rockstar with potty training right now!  I can't even explain how happy I am that this is finally making sense to her!  We still aren't all the way there, but we are SO much closer than we have been in the past!!!!

Bobby told her that if she went potty at daycare today that he would buy her ice cream, so we went to the grocery store to pick up ice cream and toppings (Bobby's idea...great idea). Then, once we got home, Natalie got to help make her sundae, complete with:

mint cookies and cream ice cream
star sprinkles
chocolate syrup
marshmallows
whipped cream
...and a cherry on top!

We are so proud of you, Natalie! (I hope I don't jinx her progress by talking about it...lol!)

 

Some other things I have forgotten to post about Natalie lately:

When we went to the splash park last weekend, Natalie got stung by a bee on her finger because she tried to catch it!  She thinks all flying bugs are "ladybugs". So, when she got stung, she was very brave and barely cried. She did say "The 'ladybug' bit me!" Poor girl! Luckily we learned she isn't allergic and we were very shortly on our way to have fun!

"Thank you so more much"

She uses "just" in a lot of sentences and "will not" a lot now.

I'm sure there is more because she is getting so big!

Aubrey news:

Still not walking!!!  We have gotten her to take 6 steps total and she stands without holding onto anything for a little while, but she still prefers crawling!

Splash Island

We seem to be getting in as much water fun as possible these last few weekends of summer. Today, we headed up to Plainfield for Splash Island with my sister and mom. Later on in the evening, everyone but Bobby and my dad went out to dinner at Mesh on Mass Ave. for Devour Downtown. It was a very busy but fun day!

We had a lot of fun at Splash Island. The water was cold, but it was a sunny and warm day. We stayed from about 10:30-2.

Bobby's cannonball

This is how Bobby teaches our girls to swim...just drags them along, poor Aubrey!

For Devour Downtown, we decided to try out Mesh, which was really good and had great service. I would definitely return. Luckily, the girls were good, so taking them to a nicer restaurant didn't go as disastrous as I thought it might! Both girls ate a good dinner.

Afterwards, we walked up and down Mass Ave which has a very eclectic group of people. It is known as the arts district and has lots of restaurants and theaters.  It also has the Flying Cupcake that is Amanda's favorite. Although I didn't get one there, they looked yummy! Natalie came home with a Pretty in Pink cupcake so she'll get to try that out tomorrow. There were magicians, fire people, and just all kinds of entertainment going on. It was a fun night to walk around and take in the sites.

Holiday World 2013

We made our annual trip to Holiday World yesterday and it was a blast! The weather was perfect...not too hot or too cold and sunshine all day! I was a little worried because there was a 30-40% chance of rain, but there were hardly any clouds in the sky. Rebekah came along with us, too. We had a good mix of adult and kid activities all day and we all got to do a little bit of something. It seemed busy, but really the lines weren't very long at all and when us adults did something, we rode in the single rider lane so the wait was much shorter. The girls had so much fun! Natalie is still just below 36" so she was a little limited on some things she could do, but by next year, she'll be able to do a lot more. But still, she was able to still do a ton! The park has such a great mix for all ages. Aubrey even got to ride a ride with Natalie, unsupervised by an adult. I'm pretty sure we didn't do that with Natalie last year because she freaked out on just going on a little kid boat ride. We have 2 pretty fearless girls when it comes to water and rides. The girls were so good all day...Natalie of course didn't take a nap, but Aubrey took a quick one. We can't wait to go back next year!

Because Aubery's cup wasn't good enough for her, but at least Natalie was willing to share :)

Rebekah and I on her favorite ride before heading to the water park

Natalie loved watching the rollercoaster

 

 

 

Thanks to Rebekah for taking photos throughout the day too!

Bobby and I on the new Hyena Falls ride

 

Watching rollercoasters

 

Twin faces!

 

 Aubrey loved the slides too!

 

 

 

Natalie was not very happy about the large bucket of water dumping on her

 

Natalie says the purple and blue slide is her favorite...it's a tunnel slide.

 

 

Natalie chose to ride the bunny rabbit...over and over

Rebekah shooting some hoops

In this section of Holiday World...Santa/Christmas section, Natalie LOVED that they played Jingle Bells!

 

Then, she wanted to ride the Santa ride, which she just barely made the height cut-off. You are supposed to be able to make your ride go up and down by pushing a lever up and down, but she didn't quite grasp that concept. She was content just to ride it.

Can you spot Natalie? :)

Aubrey's turn. I was a little uneasy about Aubrey going on this because it flies in the air, but she absolutely loved it!