Roadside Pit Stop

As I posted Sunday night...Keely has been potty training and has continued to do well. Tuesday night, Jordan and I went to a wedding shower and when Jacob and Keely came to pick me up Keely needed to use the restroom. However, after getting into the bathroom she had never been in before, she freaked out and refused to use the restroom. In typical Keely fashion, the next day she wanted to use the big toilet instead of her potty chair. Later I realized she was practicing for when she was faced with the big potty issue again. That afternoon we went to an indoor inflatable jumping park and she had no problems using the restroom. Yea Keely. On our way home, she needed to use the restroom again. We were about 5 minutes from home and I didn't think we'd make it home. Jacob goes, "What do you want me to do?" "Pull into a parking lot," I said. So we turn into a church parking lot and take Keely over to the grass where Jacob holds her upper body and I hold out her legs and she goes potty. Yea Keely. This afternoon we went out to lunch and on the way home, again Keely needed to us the restroom. This time we were on the highway and just turning onto a ramp that connects to a different highway. We got onto the other highway, pulled to the side of the road, got into position and Keely used the restroom. As we were pulling her pants back up, excitedly Keely points to the grass and says, "Tee tee!" Oh the things I never dreamed of before having kids...and before we started potty training!

Potty Training

We started potty training Keely Tuesday. I had heard about a book called, "Potty Train in 3 Days," and we used it for pointers and a plan-- though it felt like Keely led the whole process! She is doing really good. Today was day 6 and she only had a poo poo accident. She has been dry at nap times since day 2 and at night since night 4. She even used the restroom at church today! We are really proud of her and she is doing a great job. The funny thing is how Keely does most things-- it's her way. We can ask her if she needs to use the restroom and she'll tell us when she needs to, but not even on the first day would she let us make her sit on the potty every hour to try like the book suggested.

We went with a cold turkey approach, where we "threw away" all diapers and pull ups (they are in a trash bag up in a cabinet). The first two days were very stressful and I was ready to get the pull ups back out...but then she started telling us the afternoon of day 2. That evening was crazy because she had several false alarms and it felt like we were running back and forth every few minutes, but by day 3 she was figuring her body out much better. We are so proud of her!

Now we'll have to figure out a good plan when we take that long flight back over the ocean. Any tips? I'm thinking about purchasing a travel potty seat that folds-- maybe to use even when just out and about. The big potty at church scared her and we found a smaller one in one of the children's classrooms that she was willing to use. And you know toilets in Asia can be scary! Anyone ever use one of these or after she gets use to it will it not be such a big deal?

Where are the...

screwdrivers?

Jacob has a neat little set of screwdrivers that he uses to work on computers with. We also use them to unscrew the backs off of toys to replace batteries. We were trying to remember what we put 3 of our rechargeable batteries in that are designated for Pooh and Pooh Jr (also known as Jordan's seahorse...but Keely calls it Pooh because he lights up and plays music like her Pooh). We were unscrewing off backs of toys searching for them. I laid the screwdrivers on the dining room table while I looked around to see what toys had batteries in them. I finally found the toy I thought we had put the batteries in but then I couldn't find the screwdrivers. I've been pretty tired (that story to come) and so not surprised they weren't where I thought they were. I call out to Jacob, "Where are the screwdrivers?" Keely responds, "Right here, Mommy" and starts running to the back of the house towards the bathroom. Now I'm thinking what was I doing with them in the bathroom? I take them from Keely and thank her and finish my task. When we are finished, Keely takes the box again and heads to the bathroom. Keely has found a new home for the screwdrivers. From the sounds we heard, we thought it was in the cabinet but later in the day when Keely and I were in the bathroom I discovered it was in the bottom drawer. Tonight we needed to replace Jordan's sea horse's batteries and I went into the bathroom and got the screwdrivers out of the bathroom drawer. What would life be like without kids? Pretty boring and mundane, huh?

Hats Off

Last week, I was washing dishes and Keely walks up to me and pulls on my pants. I look down to see she is sporting Jacob's new hat. (She loves to pull out one of her hats or Jacob's and wear them around, this was just the first time with this hat). Jacob was able to capture this cute moment for us...and Keely seemed to pose for him too!

5 Months!

Jordan turned 5 months on November 6th! I can't believe how fast she is growing and how fast time goes by! She is such a happy and joyful baby yet again (like the first 6 weeks of her life). Things seem to be making her less gassy and fussy and I'm figuring out how much time should go by between me eating things that make her gassy and when she nurses. I was thinking today that one things that seems to be a unique characteristic to her is how much she seems to enjoy when you talk or sing to her. She just gets this big smile on her face and coos at me. Before naptime and night time, I'll pray and sing to her and she just smiles and coos. It's so sweet. Today was one of the first times Jordan got on Keely's nerves. I was reading to the two of them and they were both laying on the couch. When Keely would lean up, Jordan would grab the back of her shirt. Keely kept saying, "Jordan, let go." Then Keely would scoot up closer to me to get out of the reach of Jordan. It was pretty funny!

Baby

All of you realists (Laquita and Jacob) are probably right that I won't be getting caught up! So, if I end up posting more October pictures yea! If not...so sorry!

On to current things. Keely is in this phase of doing what we do...which we have posted some stories illustrating that. Like last night at church, my mom and I were saying we probably needed to change Jordan's diaper before taking her to childcare and Keely came over and smelled her bottom to see if she had a dirty diaper. Friday night, Jacob and I needed to run to the mall and my parents watched the girls. They were eating popcorn and mom told Keely she would hold the bowl and just to take one. Later Keely wanted to hold the bowl and let mom take one.

So, this morning Jacob was either asking me something or telling me something and called me baby when doing so. I didn't even notice it until Keely looked up at me and said, "baby" of course with a little mischievous smile. The rest of the day when she would get my attention she called me baby. "Baby, more goldfish please." "Baby, Jordan cry." It was pretty funny!!

Do you do this?

I think I'm doing so good getting caught up and then I get behind again! I still have lots of October pictures to post and here it's almost mid-November!

Jacob has had 2 15-page papers to do for his classes and they have become team projects! Jacob writes them, but I have been helping with formatting it (inserting the footnotes right and doing the bibliography). He also did one of two of his book reports on the wrong book and had to redo that! So he has 2 out of 3 papers done! This weekend has been a vacation from all those crazy things and we'll start back up Monday! Looking forward to December when his classes should be finished! So, sorry ahead of time how far behind we are in sharing pictures and events that have happened!!

Virgina: Family Festival

The last day of our conference we had a family festival. They had inflatables, a petting zoo and a little train.

Keely was a little nervous to do the big slide by herself, so she convinced me to go too.

Jacob and Keely on the train.

We had a lot of fun!