Lake fun!

It was so nice Saturday that we got to go to the lake for the first time. Lauren wanted to get in the water, but because of all the rain lately, the water was too cold. She got to sit on the back though for a bit...but then decided it was too cold for her as well. :-)

Eating an apple...

Giving daddy kisses...

Sitting on the back with daddy...

Eating some chips and milk while getting some sun...

'driving' the boat by herself! Hehe

'Driving' the boat with daddy...

Baby Kieran

Last night we had the opportunity to watch baby Kieran while Ryan and Lisa went on a date! Lauren LOVED it!


Lauren telling Kieran stories...

Giving kisses...

Being a big helper...even showing Kieran how to open her mouth to take the paci! :-)

And finally...Lauren sitting in Kieran's seat (a way to stall going to bed) and saying "hold Kieran"...it was cute...but we didn't let her yet...I know she would have loved it but we were winding her down to go to bed and I knew that would just make her really excited and she would not sleep. :-)

Thanks Ryan and Lisa for letting us watch Kieran! She was just a doll! I hope baby Williams #2 will be this good! Kieran never made a peep! She is such a blessing to all!!!

18 Wks

I can't believe that 18 wks have already passed!!!!

This is me at 18 wks with Lauren...and me at 18 wks with baby #2. I have definitely popped this week!

Please excuse the lovely pale skin! I hope to get some tan on it next week in Florida! I hope everyone around has their sunglasses to protect them from my whiteness! LOL

Baby #2's Heartbeat

I had not felt the baby move in about a week so I wanted to make sure everything was ok. My sister let me hear the heartbeat today using a doppler. So here it is...It was in the 140's-150's. When I counted I got 152. :-)

Bubble Bath!

Lately Lauren LOVES bubble baths! Today she took two and asked for more! :-) Here is a photo I took of her with my new Flip Video device that I got for mother's day as well as some videos that I had to crop because they were too big. Thanks babe and Lauren for my new Flip Video! I love it!

Maternity Clothes...Oh How I Love The...NOT!

Ok, so I thought I would just take maternity jeans to Branson this weekend thinking they would be the most comfortable and I would have the 'ok' from Kraig. :-) Well, lets just say that every 5 seconds I was pulling my pants up! They are all old from when I was prego with Lauren so not sure if that's why or if I just don't remember having to pull them up every 5 seconds...but either way, I'm thinking the only jeans that will not fall down and look saggy are the jeans that have the full belly on them so that they have more 'grip'. Does anyone know of ANY maternity jeans that do not fall down when you sit/bend over, etc? If so please share the brand/type, etc! We are going to the beach in 3 wks and I need to get two things...#1 - jeans for going out to dinner and #2 a GOOD maternity swim suit. I have a tankini that I took with me this weekend, however it also failed me...I'm sure the 8 year old kids at the pool really enjoyed everything they saw! LOL So this weekend was a great 'pre-vacation' learning trip for me because I have learned that I need new maternity clothes so I don't look like a hobo and so that I will be comfortable walking/swimming, etc. So if anyone knows of a great place to buy maternity swim wear and pants please share the news. Thanks!

Branson Weekend

We decided to take Lauren to Branson this weekend since we didn't go to New York. Saturday we left the house around 9 and got to Branson around 11. We ate lunch at Cracker Barrel, checked into the hotel, took a nap, went swimming, then went to the Landing. We walked around the Landing and shopped at the Childrens Place, then ate Dinner at Texas Land and Cattle and watched the water show (every hour for 5 minutes). Here is a photo of Kraig and Lauren at TL&C. She loved walking around and looking, so we had to stop and get her some ice cream (and us too!). We then went to Cold Stone Creamery and ate way too much! Lauren only wanted some of her daddy's vanilla ice cream...not her mom's chocolate. :-) We thought about going to the Dixie Stampede but since we were going to Silver Dollar City on Sunday, and we were not sure if Lauren would like the DS, we decided to not go and save the $$. I'll post more on Silver Dollar City later. :-)

Golfing with Daddy

Please excuse the toy mess behind Lauren, but Kraig was practicing his golf swing (yes in the house...I know!) and Lauren saw him so she had to get her pink golf club and practice her swing as well. Aren't they cute!

16 Wks

WOW! This morning hit two pregnancy milestones for me.

#1 - I woke up to Dolly Parton again! Yippee! I know Kraig is happy. :-)

#2 - It's maternity pants time!

I was getting dressed for work and tried on a pair of pants...they were pretty snug so I tried another pair on and they worked but Kraig said they were still too tight on his baby's belly that I was probably smashing the baby's head or something...and since I had already worn my two looser pants this week, I thought what the heck?!?! So today I wore maternity pants! I started wearing maternity pants with Lauren at 18 wks and everyone says you start showing sooner with the 2nd one and most of the stories I've heard/read are people saying they were about a month different from their first pregnancy...so I figured 2 wks was not too bad. Now I could have done what I did with Lauren and started to wear rubber bands on my pants for the next 2 wks, but what is weird is that with Lauren I started wearing maternity tops at 3.5 months because of the Dolly Parton thing...but with this pregnancy I'm still in some regular shirts...so I didn't think the rubber band would look too cute if my top was just a little too short. Although, I'm going to have to make sure I wear long shirts from now on so that beautiful elastic doesn't show! LOL
Here is a photo from this morning marking my 16 wk point.

And the first photo is a photo of me at 16 wks with Lauren and the 2nd photo is me today! The upper stomach is definitely sticking out sooner this go round!

P.S. I know some of you might not see the difference, so let me just be clear that this was first thing in the morning before I had breakfast. After a full day of eating the 2nd photo would look like me at oh I don't know 22+ wks of pregnancy with Lauren! So yes I'm sucking in here...and anyone who thinks that's crazy...just wait until you are prego with #2 and you will understand! LOL

11 Wks

Our Dr. likes to do ultrasounds at your 1st or 2nd appointment to check on the baby. So with Lauren we had an ultrasound at 10 wks and with this baby we had an ultrasound at 11 wks.

Stats:

Heart Beat = 171 BPM

Crown to Rump length = 3.92-4.02 cm

Based on CRL our due date is October 31st...Halloween day!

Heart Beat Photo

Front View of the baby.

Face with brain, eyes and jaw.

Right arm up beside the face and left hand by the chest.

The big round area is the baby's stomach.

At 11 wks they seemed to think it will be a boy!

We don't care if baby #2 is a boy or girl, we just want a healthy baby!

Have a great week!

Big Sister!

Lauren is going to be a big sister!!!!

Baby #2 is due October 28!

Potty Pics

Ok, so I went a few post without having any potty photos. :-) Here they are!

This is our little potty that sings when you go the bathroom in it!

Hmmm...tooth brushing and going to the potty??? Probably not the best sanitary thing in the world...oh well. :-)

This is the 'big' potty where she has her mini toilet seat sitting on top of the big seat.

Glad my toilet was clean! Haha

Baby Kieran

Lauren got a new cousin 5 wks ago. Kieran Mackenzie. Ryan and Lisa came over last week to get some photos of Lauren and Kieran together. Here are some...enjoy! I'm still jealous of Kieran's hair! LOL

Night 4

Ok, so after 4 days of potty training and 4 nights I think I've decided that it's ok to use pull ups at night. :-) My sister said that the night time potty training will just work itself out so to not stress over it and I trust her...she has 2 kids of her own!

Last night was night 4 for Lauren without diapers/pull ups, etc...just big girl panties! Well, she woke up at midnight and when I got to her I just missed her accident again. That's not the problem though...the problem is when I get to her she has already gone so I sit her on the potty and she wakes up like it's 6:30 a.m.! So then she doesn't want to go back to sleep or if I try she just says over and over "pee pee potty" so that she doesn't have to go back to sleep. The other problem with this is that since she doesn't want to go back to sleep, she is cranky at night so in order to get her normal bedtime routine back to normal, I think tonight I'll put a pull up on her and see if she sleeps all night because she needs it and it would not hurt Kraig or myself to get a full nights sleep either. ;-)

All in all though I'm still very impressed with the 3 day potty training program. Lauren now knows when she needs to go to the potty and most of the time she actually goes in the potty and she is only 23 months old and 3 days now!

Potty Training Day 4

Ok, so the program I used was a 3 day potty training guide. I have to say I think it worked pretty well! I mean Lauren just turned 23 months on Sunday and I would say she is about 90% of the way potty trained in just 3 days! Today was her 4th day and last night she woke up at 11:30 p.m. so I went in to check on her...she must have had a dream because she was fine...dry and didn't need to go pee pee. Then at 4 a.m. she woke up crying and by the time I got there she had just gone pee pee so I had just missed it! Darn it! But at least she is waking up now where the first two nights she just slept through it. Tonight is night 4 and I'll let you know how it goes.

At daycare today she had 1 accident and she had 2 accidents at home...one this morning because she wanted to watch her cartoons more than pee pee on the potty and one this afternoon. We even went over to Greg and Jen's for dinner and she told us she had to go pee pee and she did! Then tonight she only told me 3 times she had to go pee pee when I was putting her down for bed and she actually went pee pee on the 2nd try! :-) She was falling asleep on the potty on the 3rd try so I could tell this was just a way for her to not go to bed like she was doing last night. :-)

She is now asleep in her bed and I'm hoping she goes all night without wetting the bed, or will at least wake up again and yell for me (this time I'll go to her room first instead of stopping to go to the bathroom myself first!) :-)

Anyway, I'm very pleased with this so far.

Also, I had to add this in...when Kraig picked her up from school her teacher said that Lauren and Hannah (her best friend at school) talk about going potty at school like they are big girls! They talk about it and tell each other when they go! :-) Isn't that cute!

Potty Training Day 3

I just called Lauren's Daycare to check on her progress. They said she sat on the potty a few times today and didn't go but has also sat on the potty and gone to the bathroom! So far NO ACCIDENTS!!!!!!

Go Lauren!!!!

So that was at 12 noon today. when I picked her up at 5:30 her report card said that she had gone pee pee on the potty 2 times today and had 2 accidents that afternoon. I still say that is a success since this is just day 3!

5:50 p.m -
Lauren went pee pee on the potty at home!

6:20 p.m. -
Lauren went pee pee in her panties but told me

6:30 p.m. -
Lauren went poo poo in the potty!!!

6:40 p.m. -
Lauren went pee pee in her panties

7:00 p.m. - 9:15 p.m. -
My daughter has totally learned how to work her mommy! We sat on the potty about 8 times from 7-9:15! Each time we would get off the potty (especially from 8 p.m. on) Lauren would say "pee pee potty" and I being the good mother I am had the big "what if she really has to go?" question in my head...so each time she said she had to go I would take her. Trust me it was frustrating especially when at 9 Kraig came in and looked at me like I was crazy and said "it's 9!" I was like "I KNOW!" but tried not to yell. :-) But in the back of my head I knew she was partly saying it so she didn't have to go to bed, but at the same time I didn't want to lay her down and then have her wet the bed 5 minutes later. So even though it was hard work and a frustrating 2 hours...I'm glad I stuck with it...see below.

9:15 p.m. -
SUCCESS!!!! Lauren finally went pee pee on the potty!!!!

After that she said one more time that she wanted to go pee pee but at this point I knew she was just working me so I told her no and put her to bed. ;-)

Hopefully she will do just as good at school tomorrow or even better and not have any accidents at all!

Potty Training Day 2

Today went better than yesterday...but we still had some accidents.

3:00 a.m. -
I woke up to go to the bathroom so I assumed Lauren probably needed to go as well. I woke her up thinking she would be a zombie like she was at 9 p.m. the night before. Well she was a zombie, but the longer I sat her on the potty the more she woke up. Finally she woke up and started crying saying "no potty, no potty" so I didn't want to torture her so I put her clothes back on (still dry by the way) and put her back to bed.

3:30 a.m. -
She started crying when I was leaving so I went over and rubbed her back. The next thing I know she is saying "pee pee potty" so I thought 'ok she is telling me she needs to go!' So I swooped her up and took her to the potty only to find out that when she was saying "pee pee potty" she was actually going pee pee. :-( So I changed her clothes and put her to bed with us. :-)

7:00 a.m. -
woke up

7:30 a.m. -
Pee Pee in the potty!!!!

7:50 a.m. -
Poo Poo in the potty!!!

8:40 a.m. -
We were about to give her a bath and Kraig asked if she needed to go to the bathroom. She said yes and went into the bathroom...pulled down her own panties and sat on her little potty and went pee pee! :-)

9:40 a.m. -
Lauren said she needed to go to the bathroom so I took her but she didn't go.

10:00 a.m. -
Lauren said she needed to go to the bathroom so I took her but she didn't go.

10:20 a.m. -
Lauren said she needed to go to the bathroom so I took her but she didn't go.

10:40 a.m. -
Lauren said she needed to go to the bathroom so I took her but she didn't go.

10:45 a.m. -
Lauren went pee pee in her panties but ran in and told me. At least she is realizing what it is now.

11:20 a.m. -
More pee pee in her panties

11:30 a.m. -
Pee Pee again in her panties

11:40 a.m. -
One last pee pee not in the potty. :-(

12:00 p.m. - Nap time

2:00 p.m. - Woke up wet from her nap

2:30 p.m. - Lauren went poo poo in the potty!!!!!

2:45 p.m. -
Lauren said she needed to go to the bathroom so I took her but she didn't go.

3:00 p.m. -
Lauren said she needed to go to the bathroom so I took her but she didn't go.

3:30 p.m. -
Lauren went pee pee in the potty!!!!

5:20 p.m. -
Lauren went pee pee in the potty!!!!

6:00 p.m. -
We asked Lauren if she needed to go potty and she said yes...but she didn't go.

6:50 p.m. -
Lauren went pee pee in the potty!!!!

8:00 p.m. -
Lauren went pee pee in the potty!!!!

8:15 p.m. -
Bedtime

9:30 p.m. -
I woke Lauren up to see if she needed to go pee pee since she was still dry. She didn't go and started waking up again so once again...I didn't want to torture her so I put her back to bed. She slept until 6:30 this morning when we woke her up only to find that she had just gone pee pee.

So no one ever said this was going to be easy...and it was a lot of Kraig and I repeating ourselves saying "Tell mommy and daddy when you need to pee pee ok!" with a lot of non-responsiveness...but the book says that even if they don't respond they are hearing you. So I sent her to school today with 12 pair of big girl undies, 7 pair of pants, 5 shirts and 4 pair of socks. I know that seems like a lot but I have no clue how she will do at school. This morning while we were giving her a bath, Kraig said "do you want to wear big girl panties today" and she said "YES" very enthusiastically so when we got to school I said "are you going to go in and tell Hannah that you are wearing big girl panties?" and she said "yes" but of course when we got there she was just worried about playing with Hannah...but I did tell her teachers to not put diapers on her all day and if she has an accident to just change her clothes and put her on the potty. So right before I left I asked if she needed to go pee pee and she said yes...I took her to the mini toilet they have in her room and she sat there for about 5 seconds and said she was done. I had to get on the road to go to work so I told her teacher that she might do that all day too but her teacher seemed fine with it and said "once they realize the praise they get from doing it right she will want to do it 20 times a day"...so hopefully she will continue to be a big girl at school too! :-)

I'll keep you posted!

Potty Training Day 1

The life and times of a potty training mother!

Today we started the day out by changing Lauren into "big girl panties". A few hours in she had still not gone to the bathroom...then all of the sudden we were in the kitchen and I looked over and she started to pee pee in her panties. So I instantly scooped her up and took her to the potty and we sat there for a short time where I explained to her that we go pee pee in the potty and that now that she is a big girl we keep or panties dry. So after that we put new panties on and played. Then it was nap time. I did what the book says to do and I didn't use a diaper. I put her down for her nap in panties. When we went in 2 hours later she had gone pee pee but it didn't wake her up. :-) So we changed her and got a snack. After she had her snack I noticed her normal 'standing still routine' so I said "Lauren tell us if you need to go pee pee ok?" Well she didn't say anything but continued her 'standing still routine' so I knew something was about to happen. So I said "hurry...lets go to the potty!" So I again scooped her up and ran to the potty. We made it! She poo pooed on the potty AND her panties were still dry! So then a few hours later and a million "tell mommy when you need to go pee pee"'s later I was doing laundry and saw her standing in the hall. She started peeing but just a small amount. So I continued with the scooping her up...running to the bathroom...and changing her panties. Now a few hours after that she just said she had to go pee pee but we went in the bathroom and nothing happened. Hey, I'm just happy she told me! The book says "don't just sit there and wait for it...make the bathroom times short and sweet and if you have to sit on the potty...tell them good job...go do something and a few minutes later see if they need to go again" So in a few minutes I'll ask if she needs to go to the bathroom. :-)

So 7 hours in and we have 3 pair of wet panties, 1 set of wet sheets and 1 successful poo poo in the potty!. :-) I'll let you know how the rest of the day goes.

THE REST OF THE DAY -
5:00 p.m. -
Lauren - pee peed in her undies
Me - Scoop her up running to the bathroom saying "hurry to the potty" and changing her undies

5:40 -
Lauren - pee peed in her undies
Me - Scoop her up running to the bathroom saying "hurry to the potty" and changing her undies

6:00 -
Lauren - pee peed in her undies but came out and told me
Me - Scoop her up running to the bathroom saying "hurry to the potty" and changing her undies

6:20 -
Lauren - pee peed in her undies
Me - Scoop her up running to the bathroom saying "hurry to the potty" and changing her undies

6:50 -
Lauren - pee peed in her undies
Me - Scoop her up running to the bathroom saying "hurry to the potty" and changing her undies

7:30 -
Lauren - pee peed in her undies
Me - Scoop her up running to the bathroom saying "hurry to the potty" and changing her undies

8:00 -
Lauren - pee peed in her undies
Me - Scoop her up running to the bathroom saying "hurry to the potty" and changing her undies

8:30 -
Bedtime without sippy cup of milk! I've been wanting to get rid of the cup of milk before bed because the dr. says that the sugar in milk is not good for teeth. Even though we are supposed to give her the cup of milk and then brush her teeth I still don't want her having that as a crutch to go to sleep. So tonight she went to bed without the milk! I'm happy about that!

9:30 - The 3 day potty training program I'm using says that if your child normally wakes up wet to either wake them up 1 hour after they go to bed or 1 hour before they normally wake up and take them to the potty...I decided to try the 1 hour after bedtime.

I got Lauren out of bed...she was a total zombie! I sat her on the potty and just kept whispering "go pee pee for mommy" over and over thinking maybe even in her sleep she hears me and knows it's ok. I'm balancing in a squat position so that her head can rest on my shoulder (totally uncomfortable for me by the way...but the only comfortable part of it was her snuggling me so it was worth it!). After a minute or two I thought 'this is never going to work, but I'll give it a little bit longer' and sure enough about one or two minutes later she went pee pee!!!!! I doubt she even knew what was going on because she was still asleep resting her head on my shoulder but I told her "good job! Mommy is so proud of you!" just in case she understood. :-) Then I rocked her for a second and put her back to bed without any problems! I'll let you know if she wakes up dry in the morning.

We are using the 3 Day Potty Training Guide by Lora Jensen. http://www.3daypottytraining.com/

Granny and Papa's

Lauren stayed the night at my parents house along with my niece Katlyn and nephew Austin while Kraig and I went to the DU Sponsors dinner. When I went to pick Lauren up this is what I found Saturday morning.

They were all watching a movie! Look at Katlyn and Lauren's feet...both up in the air! :-)

Katlyn loved to play waitress my mom said.

Lauren wanted to put on her own big girl panties...

And Austin wanted to play his game.

I love you guys!

Thanks mom and dad for watching the kids! I know Lauren was sad to leave!