My Birthday Girl and Her Birthday Boyfriend!

My sweet, little girl just turned 1! She is amazing, and this last year has seriously flown by.

Her stats:

20 pounds

Size 18 months clothes

Size 4.5 shoes

Knows and uses approx. 10 words

Waves bye-bye

Blows kisses

Cruises along furniture

Can stand up by herself (without holding on to anything)

Can take a few steps

Is CRAZY about her brother!!

Still nursing

LOVES french fries!

Only wants to feed herself

Does not like getting messy

Cuddles her baby dolls, pats them, and says, "Aw baby!"

Is an extremely happy, laid back girl!

(Big brother with the birthday girl! She wasn't really into it as you can see... Don't you just love the streamer background? In my next post, I'll show you what they were really up for!!)

We spent the day with my side of the family and enjoyed spaghetti and cake at my Grandma and Grandpa Synek's house...just like we did for Hudson's 1st birthday!! 

(She touched it but didn't like it...wanted nothing to do with it. But she did like the balloons on top - after we wiped them off, of course!)

Opening her first vanity - a Disney Princess Musical Vanity!)

Enjoying the box just like any baby would!

Loving it!

Reese crashed on Grandma and Hudson played with Grandpa! Both kids slept the entire way home!

Then, we John came home from work, and we had some friends over for dinner and to play! Reese and one of her BFF's - Shane - share a birthday! They were only born 2 hours apart!

Reese was totally uninterested in her cake pop (just like she didn't want anything to do with her cake!) She preferred to play with her baby and "drink" her baby's bottle instead! Silly girl!

And a picture of the older siblings enjoying their cake pops!

Reese's Play Fort!

One of my favorite things about having a little girl is everything GIRLY! I love the pink and frills and sparkles and ruffles and bows! Seriously...GIRLY! Already, I can see Reese gravitating toward baby dolls and dress up. She always has a headband or bow in her hair and a necklace on...and doesn't mess with either! 

Well, I am in the process of redoing her room into a special, girly place for my sweet, little girl! Tonight, we were playing in her, and I created a play fort connected to her crib! Isn't it so fun?! I used a shower curtain tension rod and a lavender Pottery Barn curtain that I bought awhile back and ended up being too short for her bedroom window. I moved the crib away from the wall and adjusted the length of the rod to the length of the curtain. Then, I put the rod in place and pushed the crib up against the rod as tight as possible to keep it in place. It's a great, little hideaway for her to cuddle, read books, snuggle and play in!  It was inspired by this: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/flickr-find-handmade-play-tent-99232. Inside, I laid down a cuddly blanket, some pillows and a few of her favorite friends. 

The overall look

H & R checking it out...they couldn't wait until I finished setting it up to go check it out.

Crawling in and out...in and out.

More pictures of her Princess Room Makeover coming soon!

The Elf that Potty-Trained My Son

Potty-training. Ugh. It comes SO easy for some kids...and others have heads as hard as rocks.

When Hudson was around 19-20 months, we started potty-training. We used Toy Story stickers and a cool sticker book. Every time he went potty, he got to pick out a sticker to put in his book. He LOVED this idea and did AMAZING! And then, he got sick with tummy problems (horrible diarrhea) for about a month. Because it was SO messy, we ended up putting diapers/ pull-ups back on him. BIGGEST. MISTAKE. EVER. Christmas came. New baby came. Finally, we got around to trying undies again...and being the stubborn little boy that he is...he refused. It's not that he couldn't do it (because we knew he could...when HE wanted to!!), he just didn't care. So...for several months, we tried many different things.

We tried to go back to the Toy Story stickers but that wasn't doing it for him so we gave him a little bigger of an incentive: Chuck E. Cheese tokens!! We even took him to CEC in the beginning to show him how fun it was. This actually worked...for awhile. He would go...and then, not go...and then, go again. He wasn't consistent.

We tried putting cherrios in the potty and letting him use his "pee pee gun" to shoot the "bad guys". He LOVED this game and would go often so he could go shoot them. But it got old. And he stopped going.

We read lots of books about going potty. He LOVES reading books!!! But as soon as he saw it was about using the potty...he was uninterested and just wanted to go play.

We tried moving his little potty out in the family room, giving him lots of juice and salty snacks and letting him run around naked all day. It worked. It really did. But he'd wake up the next day and INSIST on wearing a diaper, and when we would insist on underwear or being naked, he'd just pee on the floor or in his undies...on purpose. He didn't care.

We offered to get him a new toy or movie...We'd tried EVERYTHING.

But then, we went to my mom's house, and she had a wrapped gift sitting on the fireplace hearth. Of course, his curiosity got to him, and he begged to open it. My mom told him a cute little story about a little elf coming to visit her and brought it to her house. The elf said it was for a very special little boy who wore underwear, and if he didn't wear underwear, it would magically disappear as soon as he opened it. She asked if he was wearing underwear, and he got really sad and said no. She told him that as soon as he started wearing underwear, he should come back to open it.

And...to my complete and utter amazement, it WORKED. We went home, and he started going. And going. And going. Literally. He wore underwear straight for a couple of days, and then, asked to please wear underwear during his naptime. So we let him...and he stayed dry. After a couple of nights of him being dry, we even braved the night by putting him in undies...and he woke up DRY.  He was SO proud of himself and finally got to open his present.

It was done. He was finally potty-trained. I don't even remember the last accident he's had, and we rarely have to remind/ ask him to go. Who knew all we needed was a magical little elf?