Potty Training and Bottles..

Okay, first of all I just want to start out by saying that I am not the Mom that has to do things when "society" says I have to. Like potty training for instance. I know "most" parents start PT around 2 years old maybe even sooner. Not me! I do not start until my children show an interest in going to the potty. Ayla is 3.5 and she is just now potty trained but still not 100% . She wears panties all day and never has any accidents BUT she will not poopy in the potty. She does not want to, it scares her for some reason so I will not force her to do it. I do not want her crying, throwing a fit and even holding it if I make her sit on the potty when she does not want to. In my opinion, that would cause even more problems, (like constipation) for instance. Every time she has to do #2, she goes and gets me a diaper and then I put it on her and then she goes and does her thing..lol. I do not stress out over things like this, it really doesn't bother me at all. She will go when she is ready and like everyone has said, there has never been a child that is NOT potty trained by the time they start school. I just think there are more things to worry about and get stressed out over than this. Of course I would like to stop buying diapers one of these days, but we will get there. Okay on to Brennan. He is just now 2.5 and shows no interest in going to the potty at all. I have not "tried" to potty train him, I didn't start with Ayla until she turned three. Every once in a while I will ask Brennan if he wants to go to the potty and he screams 'NO" like the potty is evil so I will wait. I guess Ayla thinks that he needs to be potty trained NOW because this is what I saw the other day...









I asked Ayla what she was doing and she said that she was teaching Brennan how to go to the potty! Alright then, just go right ahead. Oh and Brennan went right along with her... I phone and all!!! I do want to add that he did NOTHING in the potty, he sat there and just played on the I phone. Good try though Ayla!! I have to admit this was very cute and it made me laugh a little. Ayla loves being a teacher to Brennan!

Okay now that we have covered the potty issue, let's move right along to taking a bottle. Okay, it is a known fact that most pediatricians suggest stopping the bottle at ONE years old. Ayla was sick and not feeling well around her first birthday so I did not take it away from her. Shortly after that she was diagnosed with JRA and she was crying ALL THE TIME, so if a bottle made things better than a bottle she got. Again, It was not a big deal and even if she wasn't sick, I would have continued giving her a bottle if she wanted. I would however NOT put her to bed with one, I believe that could form bad habbits not to mention it is really bad on the teeth. So Ayla happily took a bottle until she was three years old. She would get one before nap time and one before bed time, so only twice a day. At three years old she decided that she did not want one anymore so I have to admit that I was happy about that, I was beginning to wonder if she was ever going to give it up. In my mind, my cut off age was four. I had already decided that if she was still taking a bottle at four, that I would have to take it away from her. I did not want her taking a bottle at four years old, the same age that she would be starting pre school, I thought that was a little old. Brennan on the other hand was off of the bottle at 18 months old, one day he wanted it and the next day he wanted nothing to do with it. So he made it very easy! Each child is different, and I truly believe that they will do these things only when they want to and when they are ready to....but then I saw this picture yesterday of four year old Suri Cruise taking a bottle



I was a little flabbergasted and I have to admit that I was SO GLAD that it was not my child this time..hehe...like I said, in my mind four years old is too old for a bottle but of course it is really none of my business, so I am curious, what do you all think?

I Scream, You Scream

WE ALL SCREAM FOR ICE CREAM!!

One day earlier this summer, I promised to take Ayla and Brennan to the Clay Center to play and watch a movie. They have a free day every year on their Anniversary and I planned to take the kids on that day. I kept telling Ayla about it (mistake) and she was so excited to go. We have been there several times and she remembers the Clay Center quite well.For those of you who don't know, the Clay Center is a 240,000 square foot Center for the Arts & Sciences. The Center houses the performing arts, visual arts and the sciences. They have a huge play area for the children with a ball pit, a bridge and tunnels to crawl through.



So it turns out that I got the dates mixed up and when we got there we discovered that in fact it WAS NOT the free day. We decided to leave and come back on the actual free day. Ayla had a major meltdown. She was screaming and crying and nothing I said made her happy.

Until.....





I had the bright idea to go get an ice cream.





Ayla thought this was a great idea and the tears immediately stopped !





You see our kids have never had an ice cream cone before, just bites here and there...





It definitely made up for the Clay Center fiasco, Don't you think?

(*FYI-this post was from last summer, It was still in draft, so I thought I would finish it! Took me long enough hu?)

Easter Morning

The Easter Bunny was very good to the children this year! They both got the Zhu Zhu fun houses and accessories to go with their Zhu Zhu pets. Ayla also got the Princess and the frog DVD and Brennan got the Toy Story DVD. I only put Jeally beans in their baskets because #1 they do not need alot of junk to eat and #2 I knew if they had candy, they would NOT eat breakfast and #3 it would just be a huge fight before Church so I decided to just leave it out. Bad Mom, I know!

After Church I tried to get a few pictures of the kids together, yeah that was NOT happening. I can rarely get one of them together anymore. Brennan is on the move at ALL TIMES! Kaleb went straight in the house and changed his clothes so he did not cooperate either!

We had my family over for Easter dinner. It was a beautiful day, we were able to sit outside and talk and enjoy the nice weather. And of course we had ANOTHER Easter egg hunt..lol. Ayla put her dress on inside out and backwards and refused to put it on right. I finally just gave up and let her wear it like that. Oh well, you pick and choose your battles, right? It was too hot and I was too tired, so I just let her wear it like that. I mean seriously, I didn't really want any nice Easter pictures in her Easter Dress anyway...


Like the dress, it's a new look I guess!!

My sister and her hubby Neil

My Mom and nephew Kurt

The Family

Kurt and Samantha

Cousins


My niece Angel

The handsome boy

If you have made it this far, thank you for suffering through!! Trust me my fingers are suffering from copying and pasting all of these pictures!! I am officially finished with Easter pictures now!! Hope everyone is having a great week!

Easter Egg Hunt

Okay this is my attempt to get caught up, I am so behind on blogging lately! This Easter Egg hunt was one of three that my kids went to this year, I was afraid that the kids were starting to think that finding candy in eggs was a daily thing...lol. Anyway, this Easter Egg hunt was so much fun! It was on Saturday, it was a beautiful day, we met family there and had a great time. The kids also got to see the Easter Bunny AGAIN but we did not do pictures this time. Here are some pictures of our day!


Ayla and Auntie Amy


Playing games with Katie and Evie





and they loved the snowcones....

Collecting our goodies!!

Mommy's boy!!



and Daddy's girl



We had such a great time, I love seeing a smile on my children's faces...

What a fun day!

Happy Easter

HE IS ALIVE!!

Thank you Jesus for dying on the cross so that we can have eternal life! God is so good, I do not feel worthy....

Hope everyone had a most wonderful Easter!!

One Sweet Chick

We have just been hanging out this week, having playdates, playing outside, coloring easter eggs and watching the Chipmunks! The new Chipmunks movie came out on Tuesday and I swear I already know every song to that movie. My kids love the Chipmunks more than any other movie! For some reason Ayla's favorite is Theodore, she keeps telling me," I love Theodore, he is so adorable". It really is a cute movie and that is saying alot because I never thought I would be a Chipmunks fan but it turns out they are not so bad after all...hehe!

We went to a friends house this week and colored easter eggs. That was alot of fun and we plan on coloring some more tonight! We are having family over for Easter dinner on Sunday so I am hoping to have an Easter Egg hunt outside as the weather is supposed to be beautiful the rest of the weekend.






Ayla loved playing with this Kitchen while we were at her friends house this week. We have one of the plastic walk in Kitchens like this one,



but she liked this wooden one much better. With the walk in Kitchen, the stove, fridge etc are not big enough to put anything in. She likes this wooden one because she can actually put food and pans inside of the stove. So I am thinking about selling the one we have and buying a wooden one. She also loved all of the wooden appliances, the toaster, blender, coffe pot. She has been asking for the coffee pot EVERY DAY since then. She helps her Daddy make coffee everyday so I guess that is why she likes it so much. I can not find these around here anywhere so I guess I will have to order them on line.







Brennan was fascinated by the Zhu, Zhu pets and he played with them most of the time. I think the Easter Bunny might have a surprise for him!!





Remember the $9 outfits that I bought for Ayla at Walmart? This is one of them, I love them and she has actually wore two sets this week. She loves the zip up hoodie jacket and I just think they are adorable! Oh and her shirt says, "One Sweet Chick"....





and that she DEFINITELY IS!!

Hope everyone has a great Easter Weekend! We are going to an Easter Egg hunt tomorrow and then WV plays Duke in the final four tomorrow night, so if you think about it, please help a friend cheer on the West Virginia Mountaineers!! GO EERS!!