Audrey is 2 Years and 9 Months old!

It's amazing how quickly another month has passed! Here's an update on our favorite younger daughter. ;)

- She is such a little Mommy to her babies.  Every single day she is carrying them, washing them, changing their diapers, feeding them, pushing them in strollers, etc.... it's non-stop!  Baby dolls are really the only toys she plays with regularly.  She adores them! (Except for this one day, when apparently her baby was so cute, she could eat him up?? Hahaha!)

- she can count to 12 with no mistakes.

- she is addicted to popsicles. (Even this one- at 7am!)

- she is completely healed from her laryngeal cleft surgery and can drink with NO GEL at all....did you understand what I just wrote? NO. GEL. AT. ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We are BEYOND thrilled!

- she enjoyed every minute of our vacation and getting to swim and play at the beach.  She especially loved the airplane ride and asks every day when we get to go again!

- she loves going to gymnastics class and is doing really well learning all kinds of new tricks.

-She has been very silly lately-- telling us silly stuff to make us laugh and doing funny little things just for shock value.  Very entertaining!

That's life right now.  Check back soon!! :)

Audrey is 2 Years and 8 Months Old!

Our sweet Audrey beans is doing so well.  It's been a wild month so let's get right in it!

-We spent some time in Cincinnati in the middle of the month.  Audrey had an appointment with a renowned pediatric ENT surgeon to repair her laryngeal cleft.  We spent a super fun day exploring the Newport (KY) area and took Audrey to Build A Bear, the Cincinnati Zoo (she got to feed a giraffe-- so much fun!) and then showed up nice and early for her surgery the next day.  She stayed overnight at the hospital and we were discharged the next day.  Now begins the tedious task of weaning down her gel thickener as she learns to drink regular liquids.

 - She has made HUGE strides with potty training this week-- earning lots of Little Debbie cakes (we call them PooPoo Cakes-- she earns one for every time she poops in the potty!)  She is so proud of herself! She is nearly completely potty trained now and we are so happy for her- she is wonderful.

 - We spend lots and lots of time looking out the window for bugs and birds.  She is very interested in birds but the bugs make her scared....either way it's a very dramatic and very entertaining reaction when she sees either one!

 -We have spent a lot of time outside as well- wandering around, dancing, etc.  We are hardly inside at all anymore- so happy for warmer weather!

 - We headed to the beach for a week of vacation- so needed!  The girls LOVED Ripley's Aquarium and getting to swim for hours every day. 

 - We've spent lots of time unclothed as well (well, she has- I like to wear clothes haha).  We find Audrey buck naked more often than not...such a funny kiddo.  :)

Audrey is 2 Years and 4 Months Old!

Happy New Year, everyone!  Audrey turned 2 years and 4 months old today- here's what is going on this month:

-she speaks almost entirely in 3rd person-- "Audrey get Audrey's shoes on!",  "Audrey do it for you", "Audrey go pee pee now" etc.  It's adorable!

-She had an amazing Christmas and really seemed to enjoy all aspects of it.  She loved Tovey, our elf, Santa, going to church and singing Christmas carols- the whole nine yards.  It was a wonderful holiday season for sure!

- She stayed up all the way til midnight on New Years Eve.  It was incredible to see her keeping up with all the big girls who were at the party with us.  She went super hard until a little after 12, when we left-- then was sound asleep before we got out of the neighborhood, haha!

- she continues to love school, especially Miss Megan.  Every day that she goes she is always asking for her and usually when I pick Audrey up she is being held by someone (almost always Miss Sarah or Miss Megan).  We are so blessed to have such an amazing preschool for our kiddos- I love that my girls are being so well cared for and getting some great socialization in the process.

- she and Emily are learning to play together more often and it is precious to listen in on them.  Audrey got a Fisher Price Little People castle for Christmas and I think Emily likes it as much as Audrey does! I like to eavesdrop on them playing together-- some of the things they say are so sweet.

- she likes to help me cook in the evenings.  I usually give her a big plastic bowl and a wooden spoon and maybe some fruit in the bowl. It's fun to see how long it takes her to "cook" (and then eat!) all of her fruit!

- we haven't been able to go outside much but we did have a rare, warm day recently and it was SO nice to get outside.  Audrey had a great time with our neighborhood kids and walked home with sister and daddy.  Precious!

- she is getting better with colors-- most of the time she gets pink and purple and green correct.  Baby steps!

- she doesn't seem to love newborn babies (or at least, newborn babies who are being held by her mother).  Several of our friends have new babies and Audrey gets SO jealous when I hold one!

That's all the news for now-- check in on us soon for more fun! :)

Potty Time, Excellent!

In true Ferguson fashion, it appears that Audrey is following Emily's footsteps and choosing, HERSELF, when potty training shall begin.  Just like Emily did, Audrey just completely refused to put on a diaper last Saturday.  We weren't going anywhere, just hanging around the house, so I slipped some panties onto her and let her be.  Imagine my surprise when she ran out of the bathroom and yelled, "I PEED A POTTY!" Sure enough, she had!!! I was so proud and made a big deal about it with Paul and Emmy joining in.  Audrey got to pick a "canny" (candy) and was thrilled with herself.  She has even kept it up- on Sunday we went to see my parents and she pottied all day there (she wore a diaper to and from their house, though).  Monday she had one little accident at school and today, Tuesday, she peed all day AND pooped on the potty!  I am insanely proud of her and this newfound habit.....maybe my Christmas gift from her can be no more diapers to change??? Whatever the outcome, she's had an amazing several days.  I am way proud!

Potty Training!

It has been an amazing week! To say that Paul and I are proud of Emily would be an incredible understatement....she has truly outdone herself (again!)

It all started last weekend. I had heard about a specific potty training technique and was eager to try it. I studied the approach and how to implement it and was eager to put it into place this weekend. I started laying the groundwork on Monday and Tuesday-- reading Emily’s favorite pottying book (The Potty Book for Girls) and discussing with her about how this weekend we would throw away ALL of her diapers and she would be a Big Girl who uses the potty. She didn’t have much to say about any of this- just kind of heard me and went on her way. Or so I thought!

Wednesday morning she woke up and informed me that “Emmy’s bottom is NO MORE DIAPERS!” I begged her to let me put one on-- we had to get to Jamey’s house, she was going to make me late for work, etc.-- but she wasn’t having it. She ended up dressing herself and OH BOY did she ever dress herself: pink shirt, pink pants (different pinks, of course!), pink-on-pink polka-dot sock (both pinks were different than her shirt or pants....so 4 different pinks so far), last year’s pink sandals which were so small that her toes hung over the front edge, one pair of big girl panties on under the pants....and one more pair of big girl panties on OVER the pants. (She also had me “help” her with her jacket, which she insisted on wearing backwards, with the zipper up the back). She was quite a sight! She made it all the way to Jamey’s house with dry panties. I explained to Jamey what Emily had told me, crossed my fingers for them, and went to work.

Jamey called me a little while later to tell me that Emmy had peed in the potty!! Over the course of the day she had 4-5 little accidents (I think she was starting to pee before she realized that was happening, and THEN trying to get to the potty) but peed on the potty many times as well. She was having a problem letting all the pee come out though- she would pee a tablespoon, then run around and cheer for herself....pee another tablespoon, run around, etc. I was WORN OUT that evening and she was only with me for a few hours!

Wednesday night I asked Emily if she wanted to wear a diaper or BGP (big girl panties). She said she wanted panties, so against my better judgment, I put panties on her. She woke up twice in the midnight hour having peed all over her jammies, blankets, etc. What a mess! We changed her bedding and clothes and Paul was able to convince her that it’s OK to wear a diaper only at night...thank goodness!

Thursday things went a little more smoothly. She peed more frequently on the potty, had fewer little pre-pees before she remembered to go to the potty, and was letting all the pee out instead of going a little at a time. We were so proud! Paul had to pick her up from Jamey’s since I had an activity after school and she peed on the potty at home for him several times. The best part was that she stopped asking for Skittles (which are actually M&Ms but she calls them Skittles) or any kind of reward-- she just wanted a hug and a cheer and to go back to playing. Incredible!

But perhaps today has been the biggest surprise of all. I mean, we are FLOORED here. This morning at 6:15 she woke up and was yelling, loudly, very soon after waking up (she doesn’t normally seem so panicked to get out of her bed). I ran down the hall and she said, “Mommy- I NEED TO POTTY!” I quickly grabbed her out of her bed and put her on the floor next to her potty seat, which I brought upstairs last night. She said, “No potty chair- I use big potty!” and ran to the bathroom. I ran behind her, helped her strip out of her jammies, and put her on the potty.... at the same time that I realized her diaper was DRY after sleeping 7pm-6:15am, she unleashed the longest pee ever into the toilet! She was SO proud of herself and I just sat there staring at her, stunned. Paul brought up her milk cup and I handed him the diaper and said, “You’re never going to believe this!” He felt the dry diaper, heard her (still) peeing, and was just as stunned as me!

She climbed down off the potty and proceeded to go to our room and climb in our bed (even though it is super high off the ground, she has somehow learned this week to get on top of our bed). She asked for her milk cup and a Barney show and acted like nothing was unusual at all about her activities. No cheering, no rewards, nothing-- just acted like everything was business as usual!

So far today she has peed full pees into the potty and had ZERO accidents. I am so glad it is the weekend so we can help her get super good at this...not that she needs much help! I am just so stunned at how easy she has made it. I guess the old saying, “They’ll do it when they’re ready” really has value!