The Police

Sean and I are going to hell. We have found a new and very effective way to get Olivia to behave. I don't know how it came up yesterday but we told Olivia that if she didn't behave and act like a good girl that the police were going to come and take her to jail. Sean is even considering having our neighbor who is a state trooper pull in with his car some night. We've used it a few times since yesterday and it's worked like a charm each time. This morning when I told Olivia to brush her teeth she started to throw a fit and I asked her if she remembered what I told her yesterday and she said "mommy I don't want to go to jail" and she stopped fussing and brushed her teeth with no problems. Yep - we are so going to hell:) She's not a bad girl - she just has a little bit of an attitude (which she totally inherited from her daddy) - and she can be a little "challenging" at times.

She's finally fully potty trained and she has been sleeping in her underwear for the last week all night with no accidents! I didn't think I'd ever see this day. It kind of just clicked with her one day and she just decided that she didn't want to wear pull-ups anymore. Yeah - saves us at least $20 a month!!

Beau started school last week and ended up sick by the third day. He's had a stuffy nose and cough for the last week and a half. He's doing great there. They keep telling me he's such a good baby which is always nice to hear. He's been really good at home too. He tends to get a little fussy every night around 6. He's just tired and we've been putting him down at 7:30 every night and he goes right to sleep. He was sleeping 10-11 hours straight until he got sick. He's been getting up once around 2:30 since then. Hopefully once he's well again he'll go back to sleeping through the night. It still hasn't been too bad though. He usually eats his bottle and goes back to sleep. He's been talking and cooing A LOT. He's also drooling a lot. I think he might be getting some teeth already!

Olivia starts dance class at a new place in two weeks. I signed her up at the Cary Ballet Conservatory. It looks much more professional than the place we were taking her before. She LOVES to dance so I'm excited to see how she likes this place. She can always go back to the other one if it doesn't work out. It was nice there too - it's also a little farther than Cary.

Notice Olivia's shoes in the picture with Beau. She puts them on the wrong feet all the time. She does it just to mess with me.

Well I'm off to bed. I have great intentions of updating the blog more often but I end up choosing sleep.

Beau's First Day of School

I went back to work last Thursday for the first time in 12 weeks and it was GREAT. Great to be out of stretch pants and worn out t-shirts. I feel human again. Today was Beau's first day at daycare. Sean stayed home and watched him on Thursday and Friday because the daycare wouldn't take him until today. He did really well - didn't nap too much but that's not unusual. His daytime naps have become a lot less frequent but he is sleeping 10 1/2 hours straight now!! I can't believe it because it only took Olivia 18 MONTHS to sleep through the night.... He is doing great at night and it makes me VERY HAPPY:) He talks and smiles a lot which is so cute. They even commented on that today at school.

Olivia is also doing really well with the potty training. I think she is pretty much fully trained. She has pooped on the potty for the last 5 days straight with no accidents. She's also been waking up dry all week. She gets really upset now if she pees in her pull-up at night. Last night we had put her down and I was making dinner in the kitchen and heard some loud noises coming from upstairs. I had forgotten to turn on the monitor. Sean came in from grilling outside and asked if one of them was crying. I went back the hall to check and I could hear Olivia screaming and pounding on her door because she couldn't get out and had to pee. I felt SO BAD - she was crying hysterically and I had to check her hands to make sure they weren't bleeding. I left a light on in the bathroom and left her door cracked so she could get up and go on her own during the night. I heard her get up twice after that. She didn't say one word on the monitor so it worked out really well. Thanks for the idea Mom! I'm sitting down in the living room typing this and I just heard her go again. I'm so proud of her!!

Vacation

I just got back from taking the kids home to PA for a two week vacation. Sean wasn't able to take the time off and I thought it would be a good time to do it since I am still off on maternity leave. I go back to work on August 17th. We had a great time. Olivia especially had a great time. I tried to do a lot of fun things for her since we don't seem to get out much at home. We took a trip to the Erie Zoo with family and Chuck E. Cheese and just spent a lot of time with grandparents and family. I took Olivia home when she was a month old so I wanted to do the same with Beau. It's hard for a lot of our family to come down to NC to visit so we try to make it back to PA at least twice a year. I feel bad because I didn't get to see the friends that I wanted to see. It always seems that there just isn't enough time no matter how long I'm there. It's also a lot of work to drive two young kids all over the place to see different people. It's so much easier to just meet at one place.

Beau will be 11 weeks old on Friday. He has been so much easier in the last two weeks. He isn't fussing as much and he will actually let me put him in his swing or bouncy seat without crying. He's also riding much better in the car. I bought him a regular car seat before the trip home to PA and he did great. He pretty much slept the whole way up and back. He's started smiling a lot recently and he laughs and coos which is so cute. I got a great picture of him smiling recently.

Olivia is doing great too. She was a little homesick while we were away and missed Sean terribly. She started developing a little bit of an attitude the last week we were there and for a few days since we've been home but she seems to be getting better. She's back into her normal routine and has been great the last two days.

We just bought a new camper before I left and hopefully we will be able to go camping this weekend. We wanted to last weekend but I didn't feel that great and the weather wasn't cooperating. We just wanted something to get us out of the house and I know the kids will love it. I have great memories of going camping when I was younger. My parents were both teachers so they had the summers off and we would go camping a lot. They still go.