The Freaky Doll
A couple of years ago Victoria got a baby doll from Santa. Since receiving this baby doll, we have freaked out more people than you can imagine. The baby looks freakishly real. We have had instances where Victoria was carrying it through a store and we could hear people commenting…”I thought it was real”. The best was when Gabe had the baby doll in the trunk. He opened the trunk to let some co-workers stow their briefcases. For a brief second, they thought this doll was real and gave Gabe very strange looks. I decided to lay Rhys next to the baby doll. Her head is a little bigger but they are about the same size. It looks like Rhys is having his first playdate. The best kind….with a friend who won’t fight over toys!!!
Two Months Old
Rhys is two months old. It is hard to believe that it has already been two months since he was born. He is doing well. At his two month check-up, Rhys weighed 15 lbs. 14 oz. and was 24 inches long. That put his weight at the 98% and his height at the 90%. This is quite a change for us considering both girls were always below the 50% and Ellie is more at the 25%. So, he is obviously doing well in the eating and weight gain department. He is also sleeping pretty well at night. We had three nights in a row where Rhys slept from 8:30pm until 6am. Sometimes he wakes up about 4:30am which isn’t too bad. I hope the trend continues. Napping during the day is a bit harder. We are in the car a lot driving Victoria to school and picking her up. As a result Rhys prefers to sleep in his car seat or swing. We are working on the crib, though. He is a pretty easy going baby. He is smiling at us all the time now and making all kinds of baby noises. It is so much fun to watch him. He still isn’t fond of tummy time but he does like laying on his activity mat (on his back) and staring at all the fun stuffed toys dangling above his head. The girls are still enjoying having him around which is a good thing. They are amazing helpers…telling me when he is crying or getting diapers for me. They love the big sister role!!! Here is a picture of Rhys in Ellie’s favorite outfit for him. There is a crocodile on there. Ellie loves crocodiles. She believes they live in the sewers by our house.
“Kick the ball, Toria”
“kick the ball, Toria!”….those were the words heard on the sideline at Victoria’s first soccer game Saturday. Ellie was quite the coach/cheerleader. We had to keep her from running out onto the field. Rhys, of course, slept through the whole game. It was a chilly, fall day for Victoria’s first game. She was so tired after her first week of school but she was excited once we got to the field. This age group is hysterical to watch play soccer. They were all clumped around the ball chasing it. Victoria got her foot on the ball a couple of times and kicked it away. Gabe said that she is a liability on defense though. A little puppy on the sidelines caught her attention at one point. So, the ball is coming toward her and she is not paying attention at all. The coach is yelling, gabe is yelling and Victoria is just watching the puppy. In her defense, it was a cute puppy. She told us she had fun which is most important and her team, The Wizards, won! I just feel for the coach. He has to stand on the sidelines and constantly direct the girls where to go and what to do. I understand why Gabe did not want to coach.
1st Day of Kindergarten
Wow! It is so hard to believe but Victoria started her first day of Kindergarten on Wednesday, September 3rd. She is going to St. Pius X school which is part of the Catholic School System in Appleton. We drop her off at 8:15am and pick her up at 3:15pm. It makes for a long day for her but so far she seems to be doing well. They have rest time after lunch which helps. Gabe went in to work late on Victoria’s first day so we could both drop her off. Victoria is such the independent one. She just jumped out of the car and didn’t even look back. Gabe and I drove off slowly watching her gather with all the other kids. I think we were expecting something much more dramatic. I would much rather have it that way than have her clinging on to my leg crying and screaming. I guess she is having fun. Although she can be quite talkative with her imaginary friends, she doesn’t share much with Gabe and I about her day. She tells us they do “stuff”. As long as she is happy, we are happy. The rest of us are adjusting to Victoria being gone during the day. I think that Ellie likes the additional time spent with mom and she is quite happy to be able to play without having to share toys or be told what to do by her big sister.
Ellie’s Got Potty Power
It’s official….Ellie is potty trained. She has been accident free for two weeks now so we figure it is safe to say that she is officially out of diapers. It was a rough couple of weeks in the beginning but all worth it. Since she seemed ready about the time that Rhys was due, we decided to try the training pants method. As with Victoria, that just didn’t work. She had no desire to use the potty when the pull-up held everything. When Rhys was about two weeks old we decided to go back to our previous method since it worked for Victoria. We took away the pull-ups and Ellie wore underwear except for naps and bedtime. We had lots of accidents which was no fun for me since I was trying to take care of a newborn but by the second week we had fewer accidents and then finally the third and fourth week no accidents. Yeah!!! Early on in the process we got the Potty Power video from the library. It was so cute to see Victoria watching the video with Ellie. She remembered most of the songs. One of their favorites is “No More Diapers for Me”. Ellie has been singing that song around the house. She loves to tell everyone that she pees and poops on the toilet because she has potty power. I took a picture of her in her infamous potty power pose. Congrats Ellie!!!!
