Bath Baby

Here's the backstory on this post. When Finley was about 1 1/2, she got an anal fissure. Don't know what that is? Consider yourself lucky. Anyway, the fissure is painful and it caused Finley to refuse to sit down in the bathtub. So about that time we started just running water with the drain open and letting her stand up. It wasn't a big deal except that it was nice when she would sit down and play and I could use bathtime as a time to be productive. I could sit by the tub and read or fold clothes or whatever for about 15 or 20 minutes. It was nice :) Plus, I can remember how much fun it was to play in the tub and I felt bad that Finley thought it would hurt her if she sat down to play in the water. I didn't want to scar her for life by forcing her to sit down, so we just went with it. Even though the fissure healed and it hasn't happened since, she just couldn't get past it. For Finley's birthday this past weekend, my step-mom got a Baby Alive that you put in the bathtub. Voila! Problem solved and for the first time in a year and a half, Finley is sitting in the tub again and playing. We are all very happy!

DIY Pinwheel Mobile

I really wanted a mobile over the crib in Sam's room. Of course, my first stop was Etsy. I found a mobile I loved! It was $100...seriously?? Next, I googled DIY crib mobile and I found a ton of bloggers making pinwheel mobiles so I thought I would give it a try. I'm pretty proud of the finished product. It came out better than I thought it would! It took some time, but was really easy. If I had it to do over, I would put the ribbon I glued to the outside of the hoop on the inside also and I would have alternated the pinwheels so all the stars weren't on top and all the swirly ones weren't on the bottom. I may still change it, but I've had enough DIY for today. The mobile cost less that $20 and only took a couple hours to make (with lots of breaks in between).

She's filled with the Holy Spirit!

My niece was selected to be a part of the Children's Honor Choir this year! It is a really big deal. She had to audition along with children from Baptist churches all over the state of Alabama (you can imagine how many there are)and only 150 kids were chosen. We are so proud of her! Way to go, AG!!! I was so excited to find out that they were coming to Huntsville for 3 days to do concerts at churches in the area. We went to the concert on Saturday night at Mt. Zion Baptist Church. Finley had the best time! She sang and danced and clapped and really enjoyed it. At one point she got so excited we joked that she was filled with the Holy Spirit and was going to start speaking in tongues any minute. Joey's brother had the video camera so I hope he caught her little episode on camera. It was so good to see my brother-in-law and sister-in-law and the kids even if it was only for an hour. We don't get to see them enough :(

Chuck e freakin' Cheese

We decided to celebrate Finley's birthday early this year just in case Sam decided to come early or late or somewhere in between. We'll do a little something on her actual birthday. If you'll remember from an earlier post, I had a really cute fancy tea party birthday all planned for Finley's 3rd birthday until she informed me she wanted an animal party at Chuck e Cheese. I felt I had no choice but to arrange a party at Chuck e Cheese instead. I got some animal invitations, an animal cake, a monkey outfit for her to wear and we headed over to Chuck e Cheese. If she could express herself that well I'm sure she would say it was the best day of her life. She had a BLAST!!! She was red-faced and exhausted when it was over. That's the sign of a great party right? I was really impressed with the staff at Chuck e Cheese. The one in Huntsville was recently renovated so it was really nice and clean. She has been obsessing over her party ever since. The Chuck e Cheese balloon is buckled into my backseat. She wears her birthday medal everywhere we go and instead of singing the "Gummy Bear" song, she now sings Chuck e Cheese to the gummy bear tune. It was a great day!

Time's a wastin'

Well, since I'm due in 3 weeks (eek!) I figured I better get started on some of the projects I planned to do for Sam's room. This chicken wire frame was something I saw on a blog and luckily the blogger had a tutorial. I will use it to hang pictures, cards, his birth announcement etc. I really like the way it turned out.



The glider we had in Finley's room is being picked up to be re-covered later this week and my changing table is on its way.

It's funny how different things are this time around. Here is a picture I took of Finley's nursery on December 31, 2008 (she was due April 2, 2009)



Clothes, blankets, towels, bibs, burp cloths were all washed in Dreft and put up, pack and play was set up in our room complete with diaper changing station. We were ready!

Here is a picture of Sam's nursery taken on February 10, 2012 (I'm due on March 23, 2012).



Oh well, we'll get it done :)

Ginastix (gymnastics)

My Mom got Finley an early birthday present this year...gymnastics class! Finley LOVES going to gymnastics. She talks about it all day on Monday, she wants to wear her leotard all the time, she can hardly contain herself while we're there and she cries when we have to leave. I really wish the class were an hour long because she isn't satisfied with 30 minutes. I tried to sign her up for another class so she could go twice a week, but they were all full :( She is a lot more coordinated than I thought she would be and it's so fun to see her interact with the other kids and her teacher. She is a good listener and she is great at following directions which is surprising since she refuses to do what I say when we are at home ;) For now, we are all very happy with her extracurricular activity. Yay for Ginastix!!!

Potty training

I was trying to wait until Finley was closer to 3. I even thought about waiting until summer. I've heard my friends who have girls say the closer to 3 they were, the better. Summer would have been good because we could be outside in dresses. I know Finley is ready to be potty trained, but I wasn't quite ready to start. The other night she absolutely insisted on using the potty and wearing her panties. I felt like I had no choice, but to go ahead and let her. I was afraid if I denied her any longer it might backfire on me. So on Monday morning we went to Target to get a potty and some treats and when we got home, the clothes came off, the thermostat went up and we had a talk about how tee tee goes in the potty. I gave her a lot of juice, water and popsicles (like it says in the 3 day potty training system)and put the potty in the playroom. She only had 3 accidents all day. I thought that was pretty good! Unfortunately, the next day she had school so I put her diaper on her and told her teacher that we had started potty training. She said she would put Finley on the potty often. When I went to pick her up the teacher said she didn't go potty, but she stayed dry the entire time. A little less than 4 hours. When we got home, she took a nap so the diaper stayed on. Wednesday, we had a friend come over to played and then went to get lunch so the diaper was on. Thursday, school again, same routine as Tuesday. Today, we are home all day and she has had 2 accidents, but she did poop in the potty so I made a huge deal about it (even though is was disgusting cleaning that thing out) and she was really excited. We already have plans for Saturday so she will have to wear a diaper half the day. I know we are supposed to stay home for 3 straight days, but I honestly don't know when we would be able to do that so I'm just going to keep doing what I've been doing and try to stay home all day Sunday and Monday. Wish us luck, please! :)