Welcome summer!

I just love summer and I have a feeling this is going to be an exceptionally fun one. Since we're just renting a condo for now, we're limited to what we can do outside. I've seen a couple other people out washing their cars so I figured it was acceptable in this odd-ruled neighborhood and was a good excuse to get out and get wet. Alison didn't care for the hose which I was a little disappointed in, but she did have fun watering the plants. We bought a small plant to put on our table by the front door and I let Alison water it everyday. She got a little carried away and started watering every plant in the yard. It was nice to be outside just enjoying the day together.
I cleared the living room the other day while Alison wasn't wearing a diaper in fear of her having an accident on the rug. I was putting away the laundry and when I came out to get the basket Alison had climbed in and asked for a ride. Some times she just cracks me up.

As for potty training, we're just taking things slow. Alison wore underwear for 3 days and only had 2 accidents, but never went on the potty. Sounds impossible, I know. This girl can hold her pee like there's no tomorrow. I got to the point where I wanted her to pee all over the floor just to let it out. I've been able to get her to where a diaper yesterday and today, but she is still holding it for way too long even with massive amounts of liquids. She surprises me how acutely aware she is of what's going on. She knows she has to go to the bathroom and can tell me, but then won't go. Even tonight she was in the bathtub and said, "Uh Oh! Potty!" I pulled her out and put her on the potty, but nothing. I wanted to tell her, "Alison, you're a kid, you're supposed to just go in the tub. You've done it before. Why can't you do it now?" Anyway, for now most of the day she's wearing a diaper and we're trying to get her to go pee on the potty. This is really a blessing though it may seem like a set back. I leave this coming Wednesday for a conference and Ben was a little hesitant having to do potty training on his own while trying to work from home.

I had play group this week and I invited everyone to meet me at the park. Well, forget snacks, these women want to be outside. 10 women showed up!!! Ironically, a woman from Hope was invited by one of the other moms in the play group. It gave me a good laugh to see her there and I was so excited to see the park full of kids. I have learned that there seems to be a big group of women who have kids in preschool that know each other. It kind of feels like a secret club I stumbled upon, but the only problem is I don't have a preschooler to get me in. Maybe I should check into adopting.

What a crazy girl!

Apparently I should have named Alison Crazy Hair Girl. She's always had such crazy hair!
We made the trip to Walmart yesterday and let Alison pick out her first pair of big girl panties. Every time I say the word panties it makes me smile because Ben told me once that when Madisyn was little she asked him, "Bubba, why do your panties look so funny?" Anyway, Alison picked Elmo over Cinderella (which thankfully is a new favorite) and is very proud to wear them.
A lady from church told me her 3 year old daughter wears size 24 month underwear, so I questioned getting size 2T-3T but Ben assured me she can just grow into them. Oh, there's no growing into these! Her Shear tush fills them up.
I got Alison to wear a diaper this morning to go the Y, but when I picked her up they asked me to bring her in a pull-up from now on because she asked to go potty a couple of times. So much for me deciding when I'd potty train her.

Success!!!

I made raspberry & white chocolate chip scones this morning for play group and they actually got eaten. I found the secret! Homemade scones will break any diet.

The past 24 hours Alison has refused to put a diaper on. Thankfully I kept the random pull-ups someone gave me when Alison was only 6 months old and I convinced her they were big girl panties. I haven't had time to make the trip to Walmart to buy real underwear, but I think that's a trip I might have to squeeze in this weekend.

Potty Time

Alison went pee on the potty for the first time today! She's been showing signs of being ready to potty train for awhile and we bought her a potty chair awhile ago. She's started telling me when her diaper is wet or she pooped and will asked to be changed. A couple of times she's even told me before she actually went. The whole potty training thing is somewhat of a mystery to me and quite frankly scares me. I've been putting her on the potty when she asks, and of course it's not the one we bought because she insists on sitting on the "big girl" potty. I kept hoping she would just magically pee so I could super praise her and then she would get the idea. When she got up from her nap today her diaper was dry and she had had a ton to drink at lunch so I knew she for sure had to go. So I set her on the potty and we sang 'twinkle twinkle little star" and at the finale she peed! I was so excited and she acted like it was nothing. I gave her a treat and she just spit it back out. Then of course she didn't want to put her diaper back on. We survived the rest of the day, but I sure could use some advice on potty training. Alison and I went to lunch with our new friend Carolyn today. I let her get a kids cup of milk and she kept calling it pop. Carolyn had a good laugh because everyone here says soda and apparently you stick out like a sore thumb when you say pop (I had a similar experience at the Y one day when I said pop). Just to ease your mind, we don't give Alison pop.

Videos and the beach!

Sunday shortly after Elizabeth and Kent left I got a call from Laura Windheuser. Laura is my good friend Lydia's younger sister and Lydia had told me she was looking into coming to Regent Law School in Virginia Beach. Well, Sunday she called to see if she could come stay with us Monday night-she had made a last minute decision to check out the campus and needed a place to stay. Convienently we still had all of our "guest" stuff set up and had more than enough food left over from the weekend. I picked Laura up from the airport late Monday night and then Tuesday we hung out in Virginia Beach. She had meetings set up at the school in the morning so Alison and I walked around the mall and I got the low down on running shoes at a speciality store there. They tried to convince me I actually needed 2 pairs of shoes....they obviously didn't know who they were talking to. After Laura's meetings we headed to the beach to check out where she could relax after a hard test. Alison was so excited to be by the ocean and it made me excited for when it gets warmer and we can spend more time on the beach.
This video is from this weekend. See if you can figure out what book she's reading!

Happy Easter!

He is risen! He is risen indeed! I'm thankful we were able to celebrate the risen King with family today. Elizabeth and Kent (aka Nana and Granddad) flew down for the weekend.
I started setting up their bed Thursday and Alison thought it was the greatest thing ever...and so did the kitties. I must say the new found fascination with the futon came in pretty handy. I gave Alison a bunch of books and she laid there for a very long time reading to the cats. They were all entertained and off the floors giving me a prime opportunity to mop. It's an odd excitement I realize, but usually I have to fight Alison slipping and the cats getting fur all over my freshly mopped floors.Alison and I played outside while we waited for Ben to get home with Elizabeth and Kent. Alison greeted them with her helmet on and then insisted on wearing it the rest of the day.Friday we went to breakfast at the Bakery before heading to Jamestown. Breakfast was so yummy we didn't even eat lunch that day (unless you count all sharing a bag Combo's on the way home). We had to wait a very long time for the ferry to take us across the James River, but Kent took advantage of the time and got some great pictures. He's an amazing photographer and I'm so thankful he took pictures this weekend and shared them with me. Check out his blog for even better pictures: bostonaday.blogspot.comWe toured historic Jamestown and mostly enjoyed being outside on a beautiful day.
Saturday Elizabeth and I went out for a morning of pampering, while the men and Alison went to Walmart. The girls that did our pedicures were so enthralled with talking to us that they ended up working on our feet for over an hour. Elizabeth said she was pretty sure they used at least half a bottle of lotion on our legs and I'm pretty sure it was the best thing in the world. So lesson learned: it REALLY pays off to make good conversation with people pampering you. I knew it was dangerous to let Ben and Kent go to Walmart alone, but they were unstopable. They came home with a princess hat and new shoes for Alison. Ironically Ben picked the same shoes I've debated about getting for her twice. Now the hat, I never once thought about getting her that, but she absolutely loves it and even slept in it because she did not want to part with it for a moment.In the afternoon we went downtown to walk around and went in some shops. Elizabeth and Kent found this bunny hat and it was just too cute to pass up!
Elizabeth made Alison's Easter dress and she looked, in Alison's words, 'SO pretty!'.
I really enjoyed being at Hope this morning. Ben wrote a trumpet arrangement of 'Up from the grave He arose' and played it beautifully. He never ceases to amaze me, but this morning I was especially impressed.
We gave Alison her Easter basket after church. Ben insisted on getting her the huge duck that was twice the size of the actual basket, but she LOVES it! If there was a word for more than love, that's how she would feel about this duck.

We gave her an assortment of candy, an Elmo Easter book, bubbles, bunny ears and the duck. She took one bite of a Peep and spit it back out. Chocolate on the other hand, she couldn't get enough of. Speaking of chocolate, last week she kept coming up to me and saying, "I want teet." Her language has really taken off and it was very clear she knew exactly what she wanted, but I didn't have a clue. It took me 2 days to figure out she was trying to say 'treat'. She wanted a piece of the Easter candy I had in fun bowls on the counter. Alison ended our fun filled Easter relaxing on the couch, with her new book and princess hat. She sure is cute. Stay tuned for video clips of the weekend!

Story time!

This is the cutest thing ever! Rick and Rachel gave Alison this book for Christmas that is full of animals and she absolutely loves it. She's in the stage right now where she repeats everything we say, or atleast she tries.

I finally got it!

Alison has been singing to Ben a lot lately. She will often sing for awhile before she falls asleep and I finally got it on tape. Hopefully you can hear it okay. She's singing "Happy Birthday" to daddy, but it comes out 'Happy C Do Daddy!"

It seems like since we've moved someone in the house has been sick. Ben got sick on Thursday and Alison's had a fever since Friday. What made me the most sad is the past 2 days have been in the 70's and sunny...perfect days to be outside playing, but instead we were stuck inside feeling yucky. On a good note, we have 3 offers on our house in Michigan! We've had a total of 4, but the first one backed out. We're praying that the bank would get into gear and make some decisions.