The Tar Heel State

One week ago yesterday, Kenadie, myself and my parents headed out around 6 a.m. on a little 13 hour adventure that would take us to North Carolina! First of all, I need to note that Kenadie could not have been a BETTER passenger!!! I truly thought she had been replaced by a child that actually ENJOYED riding in the car! I had EVERY trick in my bag imaginable. Her good behavior was probably a little influenced by the fact that I spent, oh... probably $100 or so just to get us there with new activities/DVDs/My Little Pony/light up toys/candy... you get the picture :) Needless to say, she had a WONDERFUL time in the car and after the "newness" wore off of an item, I was quickly pulling out the next one :)

This was our first visit to see my brother and his sweet family since their move back in November. It was also Aaron's first time NOT to be a part of a trip in the past 13 years! We missed him, but I took plenty of pictures to fill him in on all of our fun.Attempting to pack our suitcase...We're Here!!! We arrived to their house late Wednesday. On Thursday, we met Wes for lunch, Hayden and Kenadie had fun playing ALL day and then we celebrated "St.Papa's" birthday that night. His birthday is March 17th--so he pretty much always has a St. Patrick's Day themed cake :)Oh my goodness...Henry is the SWEETEST and HAPPIEST baby I know!!! Precious!On Friday, we headed over to Raleigh where we had a FABULOUS lunch at Cheesecake Factory. I must admit, I did feel a wee bit guilty for partaking of mine and Aaron's favorite cheesecake without him. Mmmm... white chocolate raspberry truffle...

We did a little shopping before visiting the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. On our way back from Raleigh, which is about an hour away from Wes and Joy, we stopped by the outlets in Smithfield. Mom, Joy and I had a wonderful time shopping... Wes, Papa and kids...apparently not so much! When we were done shopping, Wes greeted us with a friendly "If ya'll had half as much fun as we did, then you were COMPLETELY miserable!" Ooops...sorry, but thank you Wes and Papa for letting us girls have fun shopping :)
On Saturday we enjoyed a picnic lunch, followed by the NC Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores, a visit to the beach, and lastly, you guessed it...a tiny bit more shopping :)This picture was taken only seconds before Kenadie fell in the water, and freezing water at that :)

Hayden, Kenadie and Henry woke up Sunday morning to their filled Easter baskets from Papa and Kay Kay :) After lunch and naps, we had fun doing a little Easter egg hunting :)All ready to go find some eggs!Thanks so much Wes, Joy, Hayden and Henry for such a great time! We can't wait to come back!!!

"This is cool Momma!"

As Kenadie and I were on our way home this afternoon from doing a few errands, I heard her in the backseat doing one of her favorite little rhymes/songs. When she finished it, she exclaimed "This is cool Momma!" That just made me giggle, and so, because she knew that made me laugh, for the rest of the way home she repeatedly kept saying "This is cool Momma!" Here is what she was doing that was apparently "so cool!" Here's the church...Here's the steeple...Open the doors...And there's all the people!

Thank goodness for...

These...these...and ESPECIALLY these...Kenadie LOVES all of these!!! And so,I felt inspired to share :) It really makes you feel loved and reassures you of how special you are when your child wakes up in the morning or from a nap and IMMEDIATELY greets you with "cupcakes Mommy?" They are called "Smart Snacks." Toys R Us has the ice cream cones, the others I ordered from Amazon. BEST money I've spent yet on toys! Not to mention, they are very educational, colorful and durable. We also have the do-nuts. Can you tell I like these toys and plan to have everything they make :)

Aaron left this past Tuesday for Washington D.C., and Kenadie and I can't wait for his return home tomorrow! It should come as no surprise that she and I fled the scene upon his departure :) One night alone is my limit--and we didn't even do that this time! I am such a wimp--there, I said it! Stop reading here if you aren't interested in potty training info :) Have a great weekend!

If you chose to stick with me...

On a note about potty training... we are SO almost there! We are down to just using one diaper a day, and that's for bedtime. If my one reader is reading this :) and by chance, you are about to embark on the adventures of potty training, my few tips to pass along are:

1.) Be patient. I think my patience has just about been tested the most on this journey.

2.) Taking Kenadie to the potty every 10 minutes got us NOWHERE! I discovered that by taking a step back, and letting her "learn" how to go, rather than trying to "make" her go worked wonders for us. That being said...

3.) We started round 2 of potty training by only "going" to the potty twice a day, once first thing in the morning and then before bath time at night. By doing this, she learned "how" to go, when by nature, we pretty much all have to go anyway :) Sorry if this is too much information, but just giving some tips here :)

4.) Once we mastered our two times a day, I started taking her hourly, with two M&M's as her reward. I highly recommend the training pants that Gerber makes. I've only seen them at Target. They pretty much absorb all of an accident if it happens, but yet give the feel of panties/underwear.

5.) I've lengthened our potty visits to every hour and a half or so. I'm now trying to let her tell me when she needs to go. It's so hard when it has been two hours since she has gone. The controlling part of me wants to take her because I know she would go, but in making an effort to let her become more independent... I'm waiting for her to tell me, which sometimes does result in an accident, but we are definitely improving. I guess they DO need to have accidents so that they see what happens when they don't go to the potty :) FYI--I only do that at home, letting her tell me... I'm not quite that brave yet :)

6.) My final point, potty training is DEFINITELY a process. It surely doesn't happen overnight, or at least it didn't for us. We have been working on it successfully now for about a month. With each week, I see DRASTIC improvements that I guess just have to come on their own. Good luck and hang in there!

Hand In Hand

And so, this is how I have been finding Kenadie lately after she has fallen asleep.Ever since Kenadie was an infant, she has LOVED hands! Especially when she is sleepy. When she was smaller :) I jokingly said I was going to get her a "hand" at Halloween for her "comfort" item. You know, the creepy "prank" hands? That was how she fell asleep, playing with mine or Aaron's hand. It could be quite painful as she would pull your fingers and fingernails backwards :( Needless to say, I am so happy to see she has learned to comfort herself by holding her baby's hand :) Her baby in the picture is also a newly added bed buddy. She informed me yesterday that their names were "Baby Minnie" and "Baby Baby."

I'm pretty sure the putting "baby" in front of everything at the moment stems from our wonderful visit we had last week with Wes, Joy, Hayden and "baby" Henry :) To Kenadie, Henry is not just Henry, he is "baby Henry." This was their first visit back since Christmas. They were in town for Joy's brothers' wedding, and we were so happy we got to spend time with them. This picture was from the wedding. Hayden was the ring bearer and did such a good job :)

Strawberry the Snowman and Valentine's Day

Kenadie and I had so much fun playing in our 5-ish inches of snow last Friday! She was quite the helper with making our snowman :) She named her all on her own. Usually she "names" things whatever they are, but not this time. I asked her what she wanted to name our snowman, and she put her finger to her chin as if she was thinking, and said "Strawberry." After a couple of days of having Strawberry be a guest in our backyard, she actually began resembling a dog :) Should have taken a pic of that! We enjoyed our snow while it lasted, and officially said goodbye to Strawberry yesterday.Taking a lunch breakIt's after nap and we are back out! Socks also double as mittens :)Yay for Valentine's Day!!!Our Valentine pancake dinner!A close-up in case you're interested for next year :)

All grown up, and I don't mean Kenadie

Well, let me just say that I am ever so proud of myself! I have blogged about alot of "firsts" for Kenadie, and now I share a first for me. I stayed ALL by myself last night!!! I am actually still in shock about it all :) Due to this big "snow storm" we are having:), Aaron stayed at the office last night. He was ready and prepared for lots of chaos and power outages. I talked with him this morning and there actually were none...yet.

I DO NOT like to be by myself, and ordinarily I would have loaded Kenadie and I up and headed to Camp Kay Kay~Papa. Due to the fact that I still have LOTS of unboxing to do, I decided if I was going to be "snowed-in" somewhere, it should probably be my house where I could continue being productive. When I FINALLY got the least bit sleepy to brave going to bed after MIDNIGHT, I grabbed one "comfort" item just so that I could sleep a little better :) Can you guess what that item was??? Yep, Kenadie :)

Well, I started this post this morning, and several hours later I am trying to finish. I just got an update from Aaron that they have had about 700 power outages, but most are already back on. Also, he informed me that he may have to stay at the office again tonight :( Therefore, looks like I will be making history staying by myself for TWO nights in a row! Wow--that's HUGE for me :)

A side note and for documentation purposes... Kenadie at 2 yrs. and 3 months will now hold you to what you say. Example: She wanted to go outside and make snow angels, and I told her when it stopped snowing we could go out. Well... she remembered :) She told me "Mommy, snow stopped. Let's go outside." And so, we did :)

In Just Two Years...

It is so hard to believe that in just two short years, you go from this...
To this...:(That's right, Kenadie slept in her "big girl bed" last night, sigh. She LOVES it and is so proud of her yellow room, "Glad Yellow" to be exact. It seems like just yesterday we were shopping for her baby bed. It is way too true that you don't have a baby for long at all :( She has done great with transitioning to her new bed, as well as a new room too. We got moved into our new house this past weekend. Her furniture was delivered yesterday, so for the first couple of nights she slept on her mattress in her room :) I think she was just as proud of her mattress as she was her bed. When she woke up the first morning in her new room, she was so cute calling for us as she always did from her crib. Aaron went in there to get her, and he said she was just standing on her mattress like she did in her baby bed :) Wonder how long till she discovers she can get out herself :)