Christmas Ships

In Seattle, there is a big company that does cruises, like dinner cruises. At Christmas time, this company take their boats and comes down the shore stopping at the beaches along the way. One of these beaches is about 10 minutes from our house. So on a very rainy night, we loaded the kids up and went to the beach. They had a choir on the boat with a sound system so we could hear the carols on the beach. The event was complete with a bonfire and Christmas cookies. The rain didn’t keep anyone away as we even had a hard time finding a parking spot!

 

O Christmas Tree O Christmas Tree!

A couple weeks ago (I know I’m behind), we drove north about an hour or so to look for a cut it yourself tree. It was the weekend after we started to potty train Hannah Gray. So as an incentive to keep her pants dry, we told her we’ go pick out a Christmas tree. We arrived at the farm hoping we’d find a good tree in the “free” section, but no such luck. Perhaps, maybe, if our ceiling was 35 fee tall.

So after a couple potty breaks in the freezing cold, a couple temper tantrums (she fell asleep in the car on the way and we had to wake her when we got there), we ended up at the tree lot up the street from our house. It was much more fun than you’d expect from the parking lot. Huge selection, actually a huge landscaping business to walk around and super nice help. We found our tree thanks to Hannah Gray and threw it up on top of the 4Runner and managed to grab a few more pictures after another potty trip…

 

Can you see the blur?

Cold

“CHEESE!”

Hannah Gray’s silly face with B

Up top

Cascade Mountains on our drive home, about a couple blocks from our house.

Hannah Gray woke up at about 9:30 one night, totally awake. She came down to join Ethan and me as we were doing the finishing touches on the tree.

Potty Training Part 2

Well, we are to the point where I don’t even think to ask Hannah Gray if she has to use the potty 0r if her pants are dry! That’s gotta be a huge step, right? But I think the thing I realized the most is that it has really done a lot in our communication with each other. Nothing like being attached at the hip for a week to make you feel super connected to your daughter. But seriously, it’s as though we just both respect each other more and just kind of “get” each other more. We have really enjoyed a laid back, peaceful and restful week of not having anything going on (or not being able to have anything going on). We’ve had quiet mornings and Tenley had great sound morning naps that gave Hannah Gray and I some time together. It was cold and snowy a few of those days, so one morning we did our “window shopping” via a catalog with hot chocolate. Hannah Gray had hers in a regular mug and felt pretty special about that. We sat at her little table as we flipped through some toy magazines and she would show me what caught her eye as well as plenty of, “momma, what dat?”. I look forward to many more coffee dates with my big girl.

She has a huge chocolate mouth that’s kind of hard to see in the picture.

bath time!

this was the first time the girls have taken a bath together and HG has looking forward to it! But HG got shy and wouldn’t look at the camera…

Wow, what a week!

Hannah Gray successfully said good bye to her binky, learned to use a potty and had her first trip to the ER. We have been staying at home to work on the potty training. This morning ended up being a beautiful day, so I asked HG if she wanted to go outside to ride her scooter. So we started up the stairs to go get changed (she’s been in a tshirt and just underwear all week) when her little foot slipped off the first or second stair and she cracked her chin on top of the step. The sound was horrible and I expected to see a mouthful of blood, missing some teeth. I didn’t see blood and called for Ethan upstairs because I knew it was bad, somewhere. Ethan came down and we found the cut on her chin.

Hannah Gray was screaming, so Tenley had her sympathy cry going on. It was one loud house. We took her to the ER where we waited for about 20 minutes then another 30 or so back in the room. We tried to mj 8kuiprepare her as much as possible for what was going to happen. After the first nurse left, you could see that she was just scared. She wouldn’t get off of Ethan’s lap and her little lower lip just quivered as she tried so hard to not be. When the doctor came in, she saw that it was open pretty wide and needed stitches instead of the glue. They wrapped her up in a sheet like a burrito and she let Ethan cradle her head to lift her chin upwards. She did not move a muscle during the entire thing, and got up with 2 stitches. I guess it’s really not that bad, but when it’s your own kid, it’s different! I have had myself a bloody mess and been fine, but it all changes with your little ones.

Here are some pictures from our adventure today…

(ps, you know you’re in Seattle when there are Clif and Luna bars in a hospital vending machine)

waiting with her lollipop

Getting numbed

waiting for the numbing effect to kick in

and her being brave reward!

Thanksgiving

Wow, we had such a big year and so much to be thankful for! This year, we were not able to go home for Thanksgiving which was something that neither Ethan or I had ever done before. We both had always been with family every year. So we were so thankful for our friends who invited us to join them with their extended family for Thanksgiving. We had an amazing meal with wonderful company who treated us like family and loved on our kids like their own.

It was also Tenley’s first Thanksgiving, so we had to take a sibling picture…

I’d say that Hannah Gray is pretty thankful for her “baby sissy” or “b” and how thankful we are for both of them! Thank you Lord for the many blessings we have in our lives, especially our family and the health of our family, those that were with us that day and those that were far away. Thanks for your grace and mercy and for loving us!

potty training

Today is the Friday after Thanksgiving, so it gives us a long weekend. So we decided to use these three days to stay at home to try the 3 Day Potty Training method. And I am surprised, because I have mixed feelings about this. My routine, my idea of what it looks like to get out of the door in the mornings or to take off and run to the store or the idea of being in the car (or stuck in traffic for that matter) has to be adjusted. Am I selfish or paranoid? To be honest, I’m a bit worried about being in the produce department with Tenley sleeping and hearing from my eldest, “Mommy, I have to go potty”…

So we are on Day 6 and yes, I’m just getting around to finishing this post if that’s any indication of how this has gone. Hannah Gray is actually doing really well. We started on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and we had accidents all day. But that was to be expected. Naptime was a nightmare trying to get her to stay in her room without using the excuse of “I have to go potty” every .2 seconds. And she was on a sugar high from so many post-potty treats. But that night she stayed dry! And the last daytime accident we had was Saturday afternoon. We’re still working on the nighttime wetting, but we’ll get there. We are so proud of our big girl! She likes to say, “Mommy, daddy, where’d my diapers go?”. Then we say, “we threw them away because…” “I a BIG GIRL!!!!”. She’s so proud of herself and she should be. Bye to binky and diapers in a week!

Oh, we did incur one little issue. Constipation.