"I love fancy dinner!"

said Henry after a night dressed up for my cousin's rehearsal dinner. The dinner was held at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club, which is a more formal place, where fancy dinner clothes are required. So Henry got all dressed up in his cute blue blazer.....

.....and although he looked a little worried before we headed out.....

....he brought his little camera along and had fun "snapping" pictures and looking at the Christmas decorations there. This hall provided good entertainment!

We tried to take just one picture of the three of us dressed up nicely with our eyes open and smiling. Now, I know that is too much to ask for three kids, but it is also apparently too much to ask for two adults as well. All the pictures had someone looking awful. So I picked the one with all three of us looking badly!

But at least this one of the three boys in their dress coats turned out nicely.

Henry did awesome at dinner. He asked politely for "more crackers please" and sat quietly and played with his cars while the introductions took place. We were so proud of him! And for a treat, he really enjoyed his cinnamon ice cream. (And daddy sure did too....one of his favorites)

Henry found these bears and really liked them. It was a late night for him, hence the lovey, but he was a peach.

(not a good angle for the pregnant lady - 28 weeks!)

And yes, when we got home, he did proclaim "I love fancy dinner!" So cute.

The wedding was the next day. We contemplated taking Henry since he did so well at the rehearsal dinner, but it would be another long day and late night, so we opted for the babysitter. The wedding was beautiful, Christmas-y, and we did manage a somewhat good picture of the two of us. I'm blaming the darkness and flash for all the half-closed eyes.

(forward shot and dressed in black - now that's a little better :) )

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I can't believe it....

....but my little boy is potty trained!

Yes, the rest of this post is going to talk about pee and poop. Sorry. If you don't want to read, go ahead and close the window. I'll try and keep it as G rated as possible. And yes, this post is quite a bit late, but that's okay too. Two months late - he potty trained at the end of November. We're still just as proud now though :)

We had tried once before this summer right when he turned two, and that was a lot more difficult cleaning up accidents, and he showed us he wasn't ready. That was pretty frustrating for three days, so I was a little worried about this time. Turns out, it was good learning and good practice for all of us, as he took to peeing so smoothly!

We started over our birthday weekend (happy birthday to us!) and planned on staying home all weekend. Henry did wonderfully, peeing in the potty like a champ. We moved the little potty chair all around as he played with no pants on. A timer for "potty time", The Potty Movie from the library, lots of potty books from the library, potty dancing, and M&Ms worked like a charm. We also had made a book with all the steps of going potty, and took pictures of Henry acting them out, and I wrote the words, which he loved, and he got to put his stickers in the back. He was really successful, and really proud of himself! He graduated into underpants the next day, and was so excited to wear his underpants. He would shout, "big boy unnapants EVERY - DAY!" Apparently "boy said that potty movie" according to Henry, but I watched that movie a million times with him and the boy doesn't actually say that. But whatever worked! He got to go with mommy to the mall and pick out new big boy underpants, and even went potty at the mall! We had a fun little date doing that - he walked and held my hand so nicely, was really excited to be able to pick both packages of underpants instead of just one, held his bag really proudly as he walked out, and we even split a Wendy's frosty as a treat on the way home - lucky boy!

Going poop was a little more of a challenge, since he didn't really want to go and then got blocked up so it was painful when he did go. This made the next couple of days a challenge, as he started to say "no potty" and not want to go pee even, but we pushed through because he was still so proud and excited when he did. Grandma and Grandad and Uncle Andrew and Aunt Allison all came for Thanksgiving just in the nick of time to provide extra support and cheering, potty dancing, and potty parades! Thanksgiving weekend was mostly spent with no pants on - by Henry only, of course! And he got to go with the grandparents to the toy store for staying dry! In about seven days, he was fully day time trained, took over telling me when he needs to go, going potty when we are in a public place, wearing big boy underpants every day and pretty much got pooping figured out. Although he still occasionally has accidents when he gets excited about playing and forgets to go, but this is happening maybe once a week. Pretty great! Pull ups at nap time, and diaper at night still, but we will be working on those in due time.

I am so proud of him! It is hard for me to believe that my little baby is a big boy who is potty trained. I didn't think this day would come. The whole experience went a lot smoother than I thought it would, although there were those few couple of days when I thought I would lose my mind and and I wondered if we should give up. But I'm glad we stuck with it, and we didn't have to give up, but it would have been okay if we did. Overall, so much smoother and less messy with far fewer accidents than the first time we tried. I'm really thankful that we got this project done before new baby comes, because I was really motivated to do that if we could. I know now how much time and effort and attention and laundry and cleaning it takes! And hopefully, it will be in enough time for potty training to really stick so he won't want to go back to diapers when the baby comes.

And of course, some G rated pictures of the process -

Sitting on the couch, watching the potty movie, sporting big boy underpants and a towel to sit on of course

A potty parade! The best reward ever

So proud of our big boy!

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Christmas festivities

We've kicked off the Christmas season in full swing here! Our tree and lights are up (I need some pictures) and we've been busy with holiday preparations. Christmas shopping has been done since before Thanksgiving as we celebrated Christmas with the Browns the weekend after Thanksgiving. So first on our agenda this December, see Santa of course!

The local garden shop does a really nice job of bringing in a Santa, providing hot apple cider and treats, and it is more relaxed than the mall. Henry got to spend lots of time talking to Santa and we got to take as many pictures - for free! - as we wanted.

We definitely prepared Henry for his visit to Santa by talking about what he would look like, and what Henry would do, and say. He started out pretty serious and skeptical....
but after just a few minutes he was smiling!
Henry brought his little Santa, which helped, and got to jingle Santa's sleigh bells.
What did he ask the big guy for? "Trains and firetrucks!" Of course! This was the answer he practiced, but he came up with it on his own. Before we went to see Santa, we asked Henry if he was going to cry and he said no. Sitting together having a treat after seeing Santa, Henry said "Cry Santa? Noooo!" He had a pretty good time and it was a great second experience.

We celebrated December 6th St. Nicholas Day. Henry left his shoes out by his room, and St. Nick, with some help from Jenny the Elf, left some yummy and fun treats.
Actually, this elf was Gabe's when he was little. Henry woke up from his nap one day, was holding the elf, and very clearly said "that's Jenny." And thus his magic elf was named! We've been having a ton of fun hiding Jenny all around the house, and Henry really loves to see what Silly Jenny has been up to. In fact, he tells Gabe where Jenny was that morning when Gabe gets home from work. And Henry says "Silly Jenny Everyday!"

And to start a tradition, we baked some Christmas sugar cookies for a party for our Lamaze group. Yes, we still get together after 2+ years! I'm sure that's some kind of record.
Here's my little chef mixing and stirring, and he really liked cutting the shapes as well.
But of course, the most fun was decorating with friends.
Yummy cookies!

Love celebrating the holiday with my baby!

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We're proud to announce....

....baby Brown #2 - due March 13, 2011!

Okay, I'm sure most of you who read this blog already know about our exciting news, and if you've read my last two posts even quickly, you would have seen some not-so-subtle references to the new baby entering our family. However, I haven't posted anything official until I had the cute ultrasound pictures to go with it. And since my OB practice doesn't do ultrasounds until halfway, we had to wait awhile. But we're extremely excited - and have been since finding out in early July!

I'm 21 weeks along, and feeling pretty great. Here's the ultrasounds from today's appointment, everything looks great for growth and development. The baby is measuring in the 47th percentile, about 15-18 ounces. We didn't find out the gender, so we'll be surprised like we were with Henry.

Profile, arm

another profile, arm and stomach

face looking straight up, nose, and jaw, with one arm above head and one hand below jaw

I've been feeling the baby move quite a bit, every time I sit down and am still. Some low back pain and abdominal pain, but not that much of a big deal. Such a difference from the first trimester, which for me, the sickness and nausea lasted until about 17 weeks. This time, I got on a medication to help with that, and it made a world of difference. I felt like I had a little more energy than with Henry (not much more) and was still nauseous but not nearly as debilitating as with Henry. Poor Gabe definitely shouldered more than his fair share of taking care of Henry, cooking and cleaning during the first trimester, so he's glad the "honeymoon" phase of the pregnancy is here. We're so excited to meet this new little one in a few months that really seem to be flying by very quickly.

We've taken to calling this little one "new baby", which we recognize is a little silly because Henry is not an "old baby". We called Henry "little baby" in the womb, so we wanted a different name, and when we said to him "Mommy is having a new baby" it kind of stuck. Henry is starting to get ready for new baby in his own two year old way. He kisses my tummy, likes to go to the doctor's office to hear the "heart beep" and comes home and listens with his doctor's kit. He knows he's going to be a big brother, and he says he wants a sister and a girl baby. We know he doesn't really know what that means, but he's consistent. We ask him what the baby is doing in mommy's tummy, and he has answered in the following ways: "hiding", "night-night", "trains" and today he said "being cowboy". He has a baby doll that he rocks and puts in the crib, gives a paci, etc. He really has been interested in babies that we see, noticing when a baby is crying and saying the baby is sad, and watching what a baby does. He is always really agreeable to when we talk about sharing toys, helping mommy and daddy, and he loves reading books about babies. We hope all of this lasts! It will be so interesting seeing Henry's relationship with his new sibling develop in March.

We've got a lot to do to get ready: convert the office/guest room into a new nursery, give Henry a big boy room so the baby stuff can be moved over, find and decide on names, etc. We've been thinking about a lot of these things, but it's time to make some decisions and complete our preparations.

Love you new baby!

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Happy Halloween

I decided that I like Halloween a lot more as an adult experiencing it through my children than I did as a child. I guess I liked Halloween as a kid in the way all kids do, it's fun to dress up and get candy, sure. But was it ever my favorite holiday? No way. Probably because most of it was too scary. And I still don't like the scary parts of Halloween - just pumpkins and cute spiders (hi Aunt Allison!) but I loved everything we did for Halloween for Henry this year. Making Henry's costume, teaching him about Trick or Treat and then watching him, reading him his new favorite Halloween books, carving pumpkins and pumpkin crafts, and our new tradition of pumpkin soup on Halloween? You bet!

We had a really busy day yesterday. We saved our pumpkin carving to the afternoon, and while Gabe carved Henry's choice of a happy face, I did some pumpkin projects with Henry, to keep him entertained.

First, helping daddy see-saw-see on the pumpkin face

He made a spider!And he really loved Mr. Potato Head Frankenstein pumpkin, where we drilled a hole wherever he wanted to put the part, and then he helped push it in.
Admiring his monster creation. It came out pretty good, don't you think?
He painted a pumpkin too, but that didn't last too long. All of Henry's creations on the porch. And we got a bumpy pumpkin on sale for a quarter yesterday at a place we drive by everyday where they have a stationary wooden train, and we stopped by yesterday to ride it after church.
Then it was time for costumes! He loved putting on his "towboy" costume. Admiring it with his trust cow dog Paddy, who came trick-or-treating with us.
Henry could not wait to get out of the door for "My Halloween!" But first, a horsey ride from daddy!
We prepped a little about saying trick-or-treat and thank you. He was hesitant to say trick or treat, but was really great with the "thank yous!" and "bye!" and by the end of the night, "Happy Halloween!" We also talked about taking the treats home before we went, and every time Henry got one, he put it in his bucket, looked deeply in, and said, "these home." Pretty cute.
I'm pretty sure he's the cutest cowboy ever.
Admiring the loot at the end of the night.

I love making Henry's Halloween costume. The inspiration this year were his boots from an Oklahoma junk shop, the perfect fit this year. Last year, as I sewed on his tiger stripes by hand, I decided that for this year I wanted to try a pattern and sew the costume by machine. His vest was the perfect small project. This was the first time I cut out a pattern and pieced something together without my mom to help, who helped consult over the phone. I am pretty proud of how it turned out, and I'm ready to tackle a more intensive project next year, depending on what he wants to be - I know he'll have more of a say! We have a cowboy belt buckle from when Gabe was little, so even though I forgot, yesterday I quickly made a belt out of the same material while Henry napped - love the iron and glue gun!

Hurray for discovering new things through the eyes of your children.

PS - new baby is pretty excited for all the Halloween candy. It's harder to say no to the unborn than it is to a two year old. :)

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picking the perfect pumpkin

On a gorgeously warm Friday evening, we took Henry to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins this year. Henry scoured the whole patch, looking for the perfect pumpkin. We tried to be flexible and let him pick whichever one he wanted. But that proved to be a little overwhelming for a two year old. So we walked, and walked, and walked....and Henry picked the most unusual looking pumpkins. Of course, the ones that were different from the regular boring old orange ones.

Like this bumpy one.....

And this grey one.....

And this yucky one.....

As flexible as we were trying to be, we weren't going to pay for a yucky, smashed, guts-coming-out-one. So we gave a little guidance, and he touched them all, to find just the right one.

Success!

A little help from daddy to pull it up

And we rode home with a fantastic pumpkin!

We wanted Henry to pick out a pumpkin for new baby
a cute little one
The pumpkin patch had lots of fun activities of course, like a hay ride through the corn field.
Probably the best part was this jumping/bouncing pillow. Henry loved it last year so we knew it would be a big hit with him this year. It was a little more crowded, but he did bounce for awhile.

Gabe took him for a spin on this big pedal car.

Henry's favorite activity this year was the big slide. He went down all by himself, ran around, and then climbed the stairs by himself. I stayed at the bottom and Gabe stayed at the stairs, and he ran that loop a million times, until it was too dark and we had to go home. He slept pretty good that night :)
We'll be carving and painting our pumpkins tomorrow!

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