W.O.W.

I might have to be the worst blogger on the face of the planet. sheesh. So as you know it's been a while! So much has happened since my last blog post, there is so much to update. I think I will just use up this blog space for just that purpose.

For one I am an official stay at home mom now! yahoo!!!! The one thing I have wanted to be for my entire life and here I am, 3.5 years after becoming a mom and I am finally living it! I am over the moon happy I can't even tell you. I have only been "home" a couple of weeks now but the family time is so wonderful. I love that when Chenda asks me "mommy you work today?" I can tell her "no mommy doesn't need to work anymore I get to play with you!" It makes her (and myself) so happy.


Miss Chenda is growing into quite the spunky little girl. She is stubborn beyond belief and so so loving. I can't imagine a more perfect oldest daughter. It's fun to watch her express herself in different ways now that she is older and understands the meaning of things better. She will run up and give me the biggest hug and just shout "I love you Mommy!" and then give a kiss attack (something I've done to her since she was a baby". She has also grown into quite the little mommy herself. She loves to put her dolls to bed and sing them lullabies she makes up for them. Here are a couple"Go asleeeeep, go asleeeeep, go asleeeeeeeeeeep sllleeeeeeppp", and my personal favorite (to be sung in the tune of Barney's I love you song) "This old man...E,I,O...He played Nick Nack on my toooeeeee". I think that one is supposed to be a combination of "this old man" and "old Macdonald". She's got quite the imagination.:



Miss Kali is growing herself into such a big girl! She's definitely not my little baby anymore, although to me she always will be. She can already count up to 3 by herself and to 10 with help. She says a few words, mostly "hello", "shoes", "stuck" and "more". It's an interesting combination of words but she knows when to use them haha. A typical girl, she LOVES to get dressed in frilly things and strut around the house, and she loves to sing and dance. She can hum the tune to just about any song on the radio and sings along to all her Disney movies.

She is also my little sensitive one. I can tell that as far as discipline goes, I'm going to have to come up with much simpler tactics for her. With Chenda, you need a stern voice and time outs...With Kali just saying "no" to her will set her crying like she just took a swift beating, so redirection and a gentle voice is all you need to get her to listen to you. This is something I am learning and I'm sure when the next one comes I will have to implement even more different tactics (no there isn't another on the way any time soon).

Alright it's late and that's all I can muster from these tired fingers for now. I promise if anyone reads this at all I will update regularly from now on! Good night!

Something to sleep on....

Just before I go to bed tonight, I want to share a story I saw right as I was about to close my internet and hit the sack....



From The Star Thrower by anthropologist and writer, Loren Eiseley (1907-1977)
Once upon a time, there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work.

One day, as he was walking along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself at the thought of someone who would dance to the day, and so, he walked faster to catch up.

As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young man, and that what he was doing was not dancing at all. The young man was reaching down to the shore, picking up small objects, and throwing them into the ocean.

He came closer still and called out, "Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?"

The young man paused, looked up, and replied, "Throwing starfish into the ocean."

"I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?" asked the somewhat startled wise man.

To this, the young man replied, "The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don't throw them in, they will die."

Upon hearing this, the wise man commented, "But, young man, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You can't possibly make a difference!"

At this, the young man bent down, picked up yet another starfish, and threw it into the ocean. As it met the water, he said, "It made a difference for that one."

Who will you make a difference for today?

Just a reminder....

Song for a Fifth Child
By Ruth Hulburt Hamilton



Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due,
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo.

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

Recipe Thursday - Fried Zucchini!!

Did I even spell that right?! Oh well! This is a GREAT recipe for delicious fried zucchini (again, spelling?). The batter for this actually makes wonderful onion rings too, if you aren't in the mood for green stuff.

Here's what you need!

Wet stuff:
2 cups buttermilk
2 tbsp of your favorite hot sauce (or 1 tbsp if you want a little less kick)
2tsp sugar
2tsp Cajun seasoning, or seasoning salt is good too!

Mix all that together and set aside

Dry Stuff:
2cups flour
3-4tsp baking powder
2 tsp pepper
1/2tsp cayenne powder (you can leave this out if you want)
2tsp salt

Mix all together and set aside.

Fill your deep fryer with veggie oil till the stop line. If you don't have a deep fryer you need 3-4 inches of veggie oil and heat it too 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Don't use a small pot and fill it, oil expands as it heat up so use a good size pot. A deep fryer is easiest though.

Cut up 4-5 zucchini's into spears. I usually half them the fat way then cut that into quarters the long way. So you get about 8 spears out of each one.

Dip them in the wet, then the dry. At this point you can double dip back into the wet, then dry again, or you can put them in the fryer. (I find that single dipping makes more of a tempura-like batter and double dipping is a thicker batter once cooked)

Let 'em fry till they are golden brown and scoop out with a strainer or metal slotted spoon and lay onto a paper plate lined with a paper towel.

DONE! Aren't they yummy???
I like to dip with ranch dressing.

Presents Everywhere!

Wow! What a whirlwind November was! Not that December is any better, but November is always a busy month for our family. Birthdays galore!


We made it through the kids' birthdays pretty much unscathed, and it was a lot of fun (although stressful planning between work and everyone else's birthdays on top of it). We had a big family and friends get together and got both of them done at once; One great thing about them being born so close in the same month (another being I haven't had to spend a dime on new clothes for Kali). Woohoo!

They got some great gifts and everyone was so generous! Fun moves, books, new shoes and clothes (for chenda, she needed that!), and toys toys toys! My mom, uncle and Aunt made cupcakes for me that I was able to decorate, and my in-laws made some wonderful food for everyone. It was delicious! All in all a great time for everyone.


Now with Christmas coming up it's time to start thinking about presents again!

*AHH!*

Just when you think you are done Christmas sneaks up on you doesn't it? (just one of the DOWNsides of having so many birthdays right before the holidays!) By the way, Chan and I went to Toys-R-Us for their 12am "Black Friday" sale, and let me say I will NEVER do that again. Not fun. However, we were able to get this great play kitchen for Chenda for about $40 that's usually $100 and to see the look on her face will make the 2 hours of standing in the blistering cold with no coat (yah I'm the idiot who forgot my coat) worth every minute. The things we do for our children are just rediculous aren't they!?

It looks like I'm being summoned to watch the closing scene of Tinkerbell with Chenda (it's her favorite part). 'Till next time!.....

Wordless Wednesday 11/10

In honor of Baby Sister's 1st birthday coming up this weekend, here is a picture to commemorate (with more coming on her actual birthday, of course!)


Our first time making eye contact

A conversation with Chenda....

Baby sister is very sick with a high fever the last couple days. Chenda noticed that this morning when we woke up and she came to lay in bed with us for a few minutes...This short conversation cracked me up.


Chenda: *feels baby's forehead" uh-oh! Baby hop (hot)!
me: I know baby is sick so her head is hot
Chenda: ohhh. I blow on it! *blows on her head like it's a hot bowl of soup*

hahah So sweet trying to break a fever by blowing. Well, it works for food doesn't it?!?!?

Halloween and other Shenanigans!

Halloween is definitely one of my favorite times of year. I find now that I have children, it's even better! Especially this year, since Chenda is finally into it enough to do things like pick out her own costume, sit still (sort of) for face paint, and help gut the pumpkins without throwing the goop and/or eating the seeds and choking on them. This year, her costume of choice was a black and pink Kitty Cat...Which ended up driving my CRAZY by the end of the night because the pink fuzzy trim kept falling off of it! But it was still cute.


Of course, in the spirit of having 2 girls, daddy wanted to get baby sister a matching costume, and since the closest we could find was a pink and black leopard, that is what we went with.




The night before Halloween we had a family pumpkin carving session! It was a lot of fun. Chenda helped us gut them and tape on our stencils, and then Daddy and I carved them out. They actually came out really well! Halloween was spent out and about trick or treating! Chenda started out with some pretty nice face painting that was smudged into oblivion in about 10 minutes, and halfway through the evening her costume was coming apart at the seams (remind me next year to just spend the extra $10 and get the nicer costume) but she loved it, and Kali even seemed to enjoy being out in the fresh air! It was definitely a fun night and I can't wait till next year to see what their little imaginations spark them to dress up as again.

Little Kali is an official full-time walker, and she is busy busy busy! I thought the two of them would be trouble once this happened and boy was I right!! They are in to EVERYTHING! But alas, they make trouble so cutely that it's hard to be mad at them. In fact, here is a recent (short) conversation that I had with Chenda as her and baby were playing.

*Baby starts crying in other room*
Me: Chenda what are you doing?
Chenda: uhmmmmmmm....
Me: are you being nice??
Chenda: No!
.....
......well, at least she is honest right?!

Recipe Thursday!! *on saturday*

Ok, so I realise that it's not Thursday...And yes, I'm a couple days late for Recipe Thursday, but I have 2 kids, 2 dogs, a husband and a full time job so I'm sure I have your forgiveness.

OK! So, this weeks recipe is......Rum Cake!!

Ingredients:
Cake
1 Box yellow cake mix (Duncan Hines Butter yellow is the best!)
1 small box vanilla instant pudding mix
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup dark rum
4 eggs

Glaze
1 stick butter
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup rum (the same you use for the cake)
1 cup sugar

Steps
1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2:Mix all cake ingredients together and pour into a greased (yes you want to pull out the Crisco for this) AND floured bundt ban....If you like nuts, sprinkle them into the bottom of the pan and then pour the mix over
3: Bake for 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean

4: *When the cake is done, do not turn out of the pan quite yet. Take out of the oven and make the glaze*
Mix all the glaze ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
5: Boil glaze 2-3 minutes and pour over the cake (while still in the pan..careful it's hot!)

Let the cake sit one hour at least before turning out of the pan. Then eat, and try to stop!!

Wordless Wednesday 11/3

The first wordless Wednesday of November!! How about some Halloween fun!!

Purpose.

"And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me." Matthew 18:5


Some people spend their entire lives trying to figure out why God put them on this earth, and never find the answer. Or, well, in my opinion, they don't work hard enough to figure it out. God usually puts that kind of stuff right in our faces and it's up to us to pray about it and then recognize the signs. I recognized them several years back while attending a Women of Faith conference. I was a couple of years out of high school, and so naturally I didn't want to go. I thought it was going to be some boring Holy Rolling 2 day sermon that I would barely stay awake through. Pretty sure my dad said I HAD to go..To which I was not happy about, but I went. To my surprise it was a most entertaining event. About midway through the second day, they showed a video on the big screen for a child sponsorship program called World Vision.

That was it. I found my purpose.

Once the video was over I rushed to the WV booth and chose my first sponsored child. A young girl from the Philippines. The next year, I added another girl from Africa. No, no, sponsoring children through Christian programs is not my calling from God. I know for a very specific fact that my purpose in life, the REASON I was born to this Earth, is to love and help children in any way I can.

And so you might ask, "How will I know why God has put me here?"...Listen to your heart! What tugs at you when you see/hear it? If you could choose what you would do, if given the chance to do ONE thing with unlimited resources to help someone. What would it be? For me, it is adoption. Perhaps, it is appropriate then, that I was an adopted child myself.

I had a bit of an epiphany the other day after reading a friend's Blog about her journey through the process of adopting not one, but two children from Africa. It only makes sense. My God given purpose in life to do what I can to help children (most specifically my life-long desire to adopt) and being adopted myself. God must have (duh) designed my life to be so, in order for me to best use this purpose. I mean, who better to be a parent to an adopted child then someone who was herself adopted!!? Not saying that someone who wasn't adopted wouldn't make a good adoptive parent though, so don't misunderstand that. I'm just saying, for myself in my journey that is what I think.

I think the calling to help helpless and orphaned children is something that everyone needs to take an answer to. The bible says:

Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.

James 1:27

Take a few minutes to think about that verse and really let it resonate you. God may have not called you to adopt a child but there are other ways to help. Send a box of clothing to an orphanage over seas. Mentor a foster child. Donate money to a family in the midst of raising money to bring a child home.

I prayed the other night...I was feeling a bit guilty that I wasn't sure if I was being selfish wanting to wait until I was done having biological children before we decided on the adoption route. I asked God if I was ignoring something I shouldn't be. If I should be looking deeper into this now. After I while I felt a peace come over the guilt and I knew that it was Him telling me that now isn't the time. Why? I'm not sure. Perhaps the child that has been destined for us hasn't been concieved yet, who knows. But I do know that I am ready when the time comes, and I am listening and waiting, ready to follow the leader...and we all know who THAT is!!

And so, I will leave you with a few things to think about. One is: Find out what your purpose in life is and make the choice to participate. You have NO idea how fulfilling it is to take part in the thing you were born to do.

Second is some global stats on the orphan crisis in this world. I will admit living in my little bubble of the USA (no matter how hard things are here, we have NO true idea how privileged we are) I really had no idea the grand scale of things....
*There are between 143-210 MILLION orphans in the world today (to give you a perspective, the current US population is just over 310 million)
*Every year, 42,000 more children become orphans
*Each night 60 million orphans go to bed hungry, and
*Each year, 400,000 of them die due to malnutrition. (that's every 90 seconds)

"This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.
John 15:12

Recipe Thursday - Beef Stew!

So I decided I'm going to dedicate Thursdays to posting some of my Favorite recipes! If you need to find one later you can go to my "Recipes" page at the top of my blog.

Here is the best Beef Stew recipe EVER! This is from a diabetic cookbook so it is healthy.

Ingredients:
3 tbsp flour
1 lb. boneless lean beef stew meat, trimmed of all fat
2 tbsp olive oil
3 large shallots, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
3 cups beef stock - reduced sodium
1/2 cup red wine
6 carrots cut into one-inch chunks
6 medium red potatoes cut into one-inch chunks
18 small boiling onions, halved OR 1 cup chopped onions
3 large portabello mushrooms, brushed clean and cut into one-inch chunks
1 cup celery cut into one-inch chunks
1/3 cup chopped parsley

step 1: Place flour on a plate. Dredge meat in flour. In a large sauce pan, heat the oil and add the beef. Brown on all sides and then remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.

step 2: Add shallots to the pan and saute till soft and golden. Add salt, half the pepper, thyme and bay leaf. Saute for one minute. Return the beef to the pan and add the stock and wine. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to low. Simmer covered about 30-40 minutes.

step 3: Add the carrots, potatoes, onions, mushrooms, and celery. Cover and simmer gently, stirring occasionally, until veggies are tender (about another 30 minutes). Stir in the parsley and remaining pepper. Remove the bay leaf and serve.

Wordless Wednesday 10/27

A look back at my Chenda's shenanigans! I can't believe this was just over a year ago, she looks like a little baby here! (Of course I'll be saying that in a year about her most recent pics I'm sure!)

Birthday season is beginning!!

So I always say my mom's birthday marks the start of "Birthday Season" in my family. In just about a 6 weeks period we have about 6 birthdays in just my immediate family. It's a fun time!


Chan and I decided to kick of the kids' birtday "season" by taking Chenda out on a VERY special dinner date with Mommy and Daddy. It's a few weeks early but given the amount of dinners and birthday parties that will be happening in the month we figured there's no better time. Plus it was very overdue as I'm pretty sure that she has been feeling a bit like she needed some time with just us without little sister. She does love her very much but sometimes you just need the one on one time. I knew it was time because the day our dinner was planned she just came up and sat on my lap and just started crying. I felt so bad! I try to be the best mom I can be to BOTH my kids equally, but Kali is still quite clingy to me and so I know Chenda can feel left out even when I am giving her attention, because I almost always have the baby on my hip, or attaching herself to my leg haha!





Anyway, our dinner was at Red Robin and she did SO GOOD! She didn't even try to get down from the table once! We ordred her chicken and fries and a very special birthday sprite. Then they came out and sang to her and she was a bit shy but still loved it. She even had to take her balloons to the bath with her when we got home.

I'm so happy that I had the opportunity to make my sweet little Chenda's day!!

Wordless Wednesday 10/20

Today's wordless Wednesday photo is a funny one!




Dont worry the dog cage was clean!! She actually had her locked in there but I couldn't get to my camera before she decided to let her out!

Wordless Wednesday....

So a big thing on Blogs is to do "wordless Wednesday". I will just post a picture and a caption (or no caption), the jist of it is that a picture is worth a thousand words, and therefore there is no big long post required with the photo.
*I am aware that those are words above, but I felt the need to explain**

MOMMY AND BABY

Bedtime Antics...

Ok so, night time has been a bit hairy around here lately. A lot of NON sleeping going on by both me and the kids (and daddy too most nights). Not sure what is going on, but they are each getting up several times a night, leaving me on 3 hours or less a night of sleep for a few weeks now. Needless to say I'm suuuuuuper tired!

So a friend let me borrow her book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child". Aside from being the most boring book I have ever read, it does have some good tips and points. One being that overtired kids have more trouble getting to sleep and staying to sleep at night. I know Chenda is overtired. The poor thing hasn't had an afternoon nap in who knows how long and rarely goes to sleep before 10pm. Not by my choice in that I WANT her up like that, but it's a relentless fight to get her to sleep. On top of all this getting up at night, just GETTING Chenda to sleep is a fight in itself involving a lot of screaming and crying (and not just by me!! HAHA!) causing a lot of stress on everyone and probably just exadurating the issue. I always figured that she just wasn't tired and would fall asleep when she was.

I know now that I was wrong. She can't sleep because she is SO tired and her body is pumping out adrenaline and other hyper hormones in order to fight fatigue. Thus causing hyper alertness, fussiness, and higher levels of agitation (hence constant fits through the day). *This is all according to the book, but fits her like a T"...So in light of being fed up with no sleep and really not wanting to do any permanent damage to her (according to the book, these kinds of sleep habits usually develop into ADHD and insomnia as they grow), I have decided to implement a new sleep schedule.

After dinner, we will begin our night schedule with a bed time (for now for the sake of easing her into it) of 8:30-9, and wake up time of 8am (eventually I will be making bedtime 8pm and get up no sooner then 7am but no later then 8am), nap time at 1 or 2 and on and on. Of course the baby gets one extra nap in the morning around 11am which she pretty much already takes anyway.

And that puts us where we are now. Chenda is currently up in my room hollering because I am making her take a nap. I promised myself I wouldn't go in there till 3pm to check on her. Because then if she is awake she can come downstairs and we will do bed time earlier, or I will let her sleep till 4pm if she is sleeping. We'll see what happens. I'm glad the baby is easy to get down at this point!!

Growing up!

I realize that I am wayyyyy overdue for an update here. My apologies, but I figure it's OK. A lot has gone on in the last couple months, and has kept me quite busy from blogging, and really doing much of anything.

The kids are growing in leaps and bounds here. Kali is officially mobile and expect she will be walking in the next couple of months. She is already trying to walk from one thing to the other, but the balance isn't there yet so she just lets go and falls. She's really giving it some good tries though!! She is now eating mostly table foods, so I haven't made her baby food in a long time. She really doesn't like the purees much and prefers mashed soft fruits and veggies that she can pick up and eat herself. This is quite a surprise for me, since Chenda was on the purees for a long time and didn't have a lot of interest in table foods until she was slightly older.

I tell you, once you think you have parenting figured out you have another kid! They are so different but similar at the same time!!

On top of the table foods, Kali also has a taste for anything laying on the floor. I am constantly vacuuming/chasing her around digging something out of her mouth before she chokes on it. This is one of the things she is just like her big sister on. Chenda did her fair share of choking on stuff off the floor when she was a baby, and Kali is no different! So I am whipping out the vacuum about 3 times a day and sucking up everything i can.

Still a boobie monster, Kali loves to nurse. I think this is great, although at night she is waking up several times wanting to "comfort nurse" which is making me very tired. I talked to the pediatrician about it and hoping to implement some of her ideas soon. Another thing I don't like so much is TEETH!! AHHH! Well, of course I like that she has teeth but not while she is nursing and, well, you get the picture.

We are also going through some (OK major) separation anxiety with her too. Perhaps because I wasn't nursing Chenda at this age she was never really like that. Chenda would literally shut the door in my face when I dropped her off somewhere to go to work. Kali doesn't want anyone but me. Even Chan can't hold her if I am in the same room. It's definitely different and taking some getting used to since I can hardly leave the room to go to the bathroom without a little one chasing after me crying! But I do love that she wants to be around me so much and I will definitely miss it when she is OK with me not being around when she is older.


Speaking of going to the bathroom....Potty training Chenda is still underway, but getting better. She's got the #1s down but the poos are a bit more difficult. I am trying to convince her that squatting in the backyard isn't where we do that, we need to go in the potty, but it's really not sticking too well. I'm sure she'll figure it out soon though! I can't wait for the day we aren't spending money on pull ups for her!

Chenda is getting great at counting, and ABCs and all that! She can count to five in English, Khmer and Spanish and can say please, more, and *we are working on* thank you in sign language. Kali can also say "more" in sign language too. Chenda loves to play mommy to her dolls and baby sister too! Sometimes she tries to discipline her baby sister, which kind of makes me laugh because she's not doing anything to hurt her but I have to tell her no because I don't want her to think it's OK to give her sister a spank!

My babies are growing up so fast! I will try to not make it so long before my next post, but as you can tell I'm sure things are nuts around here!

Life's Lessons...

Wow what a month July has been!

I realise that I have not updated in a while. I definitly haven't forgotten this, I just haven't had a ton of motivation to really sit down and write *not to mention no time either*. Recent life events have left me more then slightly drained, as our family has prepared for the uncertainty of major life changes. Now, don't get yourselves too worried, we are ok, but it has definitly got me thinking about things that I don't often pull to the forefront of my mind. Hard times, uncertain times...And how people often deal with them.

Not that I have never been a religious person, but I haven't always been a "church" person. I enjoy church, but I have never made it a priority. That has changed now. I don't by any means think that I get any extra brownie points from God for going to church..Plenty of people go every week and manage to do damage to other people's lives. Even still I don't think that making it a priority will make my life easier (not that it's hard in comparison to many). I just love the lesson. I have been trying much harder to make my work schedule work around church as apposed to the opposite which is what I was doing before. I still can't make it EVERY weekend, but the majourity, and even if I cannot my husband takes the kids. That is most important - that my kids go. I don't want them growing up not knowing about God the way they should, and that was another of my main motivations.

I guess that is how my little family has dealt with one of our darker periods of life (of which we are finally coming over the fence on), we are bringing ourselves closer to God, and in return God is bringing us closer to each other. Sometimes it feels like we kept getting knocked down, but we are able to stand together, and find the good in a situation and come up from it. If the path of our lives leads us to be knocked off the path again, then we will stand up and get back on. And that is how it goes.

And so, I ask you this question: How will you handle the dark days that come your way? They can't always be sunny.

And when your children go through the tough times in their lives, and they will, what will you tell them about your life experiences?? Did you ask "why me?!" or did you see what you could do to help those still less fortunate then you? Did you take the easy way out and run away, or did you stand head on into the storm and fight through till the problem was resolved?

Perhaps this post is a bit off topic from what my blog is about, but I think it is important. Our children will always look at how we handle all situations in life. They will mimic us, learn from us...

...How do you want them to see you?

Potty Days....

Woohoo I got both kids down for a nap together AGAIN *dang I'm good!* Although I'm pretty sure this will be short lived because Kali has been asleep much longer then Chenda (she's a sleep fighter). So this might have to be a quicky.

Our main focus (well, one of them) right now is getting Chenda potty trained. She's doing pretty well, actually, but seems to have lost interest the last couple of days. I think it's because we have had a few really nice days and she wants to be out playing after months of being couped up in the house. I even asked her yesterday if she wanted panties and she told me "no mommy!", so I didn't push it but asked her after her next diaper change and she said she did. She did really well but then after about an hour took it off, and brought me a diaper and said "byper mommy"...So i put it on her. And that was that! She still "peepee pottied" a few times but really right now doesn't have a whole lot of interest in the panties.

I have heard some hardcore mommies online talk about this "3 day potty training" stuff before and I thought I would look into it. So I googled it and (wouldn't you know) you have to BUY it. Like $30!! Uhm, no thanks! I kind of read up on it and it's pretty much you put the kid in undies and let them run around the house in them. Then after a few days they get it and want to potty on the toilet more to keep dry. And you wake them up at night to potty so you do day and night training at once.

Ok, first off, I don't need to pay that kind of money to figure out that just letting them wet/soil themselves for three days is going to help, and if anyone knows my toddler, waking her at night to pee would only mean I would probably not get back to bed! The offficial website even says that if you have an infant it probably won't work because you have to give your WHOLE attention to the kid in training (probably chasing them around cleaning up pee and poop all day)....Soooo pretty much that's out. I'm sure we'll get through this, but it would be nice to be done with diapers for Chenda. I just hope we get it done before the fall because we might look into some spring time three-year-old preschool programs and I'm pretty sure potty trained is a pre-requisite.

Chenda is becoming such a smart little kid! She is really starting to pick up on colors, shapes, numbers, etc....She can count to 10 all on her own, and draw hearts, circles, and triangles! She also knows a lot of shapes by name, and can sing her ABCs. It's really fun to watch her grow intellectually after watching her develop physically as a baby. This is like a whole new world! A lot of people who know her know that she really only started talking after her second birthday, so all of this new communication is a lot of fun...Except the "no mommy!"'s I get on a daily basis! But that's just a part of her learning her independence and I usually get what I want out of her anyway. Speaking of, it's amazing what you can get a toddler to do while singing the "clean up!" song from Barney!!!

Kali is on her way to crawling! She's pretty much got it down backward, and is working on forward movement. But I'm really excited to see how she discovers her world once she's mobile (I'm sure I'll be taking this back when she's all over the place in a month!) I think she might be teething again because she's back to waking every couple of hours wanting to chew on everything. I was really enjoying the rest I've been getting but I suppose it will just have to wait until they are out of the house or something in 18-20 years. I am most likely going to graduate her from her bassinet to the crib today and I'm pretty excited about it! Maybe she'll sleep better in there, since she will have more room to wiggle.

I can't believe how big she is getting! I found myself the other day looking up things to do for her first birthday! I was thinking a joint birthday party for both of them maybe at the Children's Museum would be fun, but not sure yet. It blows my mind that in just 5 months I will be the mom of a one year old AND a three year old! What a whirlwind!

Life continues to truck along here in our home, and what a great adventure it's been!