Sitting Up

I'm horrible at recording Elliora's milestones. She started sitting up this week and taking a pacifier. She loves the Johnny Jumper and has discovered her voice. She is wearing 6-12 month clothes and is so interactive. What joy she brings to our home and our lives!

Rachael Neal

Sent to you from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry.

Potty Training Bloopers

Hmph.  I never like to admit that I'm wrong.  But, lest my husband think its impossible, I'm doing it in a very public way. 

Matthew, you were right, Annelise is not ready to potty train yet.

There, I said it.

Yesterday was a long Monday for us.  Daddy had to work a 13 hour day with lots of meetings, so mommy thought it would be a great day to potty train.

Ha!

Annelise had other plans. 

She started out strong, really she did.  We went the naked route, no panties or socks.  Just a t-shirt.  She got up on the potty several times by herself, but didn't go.

"I can't do it." 

Then, I found her in the living room.  "What are you doing, honey?"

"Oh, I just tooted."

"Um, no actually you just pooped on the floor and you're standing in it with your bare foot."

If you could have seen the horrified look on her face...oh it was priceless.

We got her all cleaned up, disinfected the floor 10 times and began again. 

Until she peed on the floor.

I decided that was enough potty training for the day.  I think we'll wait until the summer time when daddy can help.

How Did We Get Here?

I have no idea how we got here.  A house, two kids, one of them old enough to talk and use the potty (though she refuses), jobs that give us opportunities to travel to places like California, Costa Rica and Mexico?

I guess reality slapped me in the face this morning.  Where does the time go? 

Sweet Saturday

Minus the 5 month old screaming from her crib, we are enjoying a very relaxing Saturday morning.  Daddy is up and off to the gym and mommy and Annelise are watching Wonder Pets.

We're looking forward to watching the high school play today.  And then we're off to Uncle Jay and Aunt Leah's house for some basketball fun. 

My silly husband is hoping West Virginia takes it all.  You know, he's still stuck on Bob Huggins from UC.  (Ick, if you ask me.)  My brother-in-law is rooting for UK.  Should make for an interesting night.

Deanna's Playhouse

We have this wonderful place in town called Deanna's Playhouse. 

Its every mother's dream.  We all love the comfort of home when it comes to playdates, but dread the cleanup afterwards.  DP has all the comfort of home with so many more toys than I could ever offer.  Lots of room to run, play music, create pictures, rest and grocery shop (for kids of course!).  We went this morning and it was a great way to spend the morning.  Now the kiddos are sleeping, I'm running a few loads of laundry and dreaming about our wonderful menu for guests tonight: roasted vegetables with olive oil mayo dressing, toasted ciabatta bread, fresh salad and chicken lasagna.  Mmmm....

Blogger Templates

If you use Blogger, you probably received this email today with wonderful news about updating your blog template.  For years we have been searching the web for more eye catching template designs than what Blogger offered us.  This meant dealing with some icky html coding and tedious time editing links, etc.

I love this new design option - its innovative, skips all the html coding, and gives you tons of cool preview features so you can see what changes you've made to your blog template as you go.  No more waiting until you hit "save" and cringing to see what damage you've done.

I'm sure some of you will jump on this new template designer and I look forward to seeing your beautiful, new templates.

What We've Been Up To

I'm beginning to hate March.  Its a very busy month for what seems like no reason.  But, unless you think I'm going to continue to complain, I won't.  That is the end.

I love it when my kids reach the "hold their own bottle" stage.  You can't imagine how freeing that is as a mother.  I was always a very efficient nurser - strap that baby to my chest and I could nurse while cooking, shopping, you name it.  But feeding a bottle is another story.  Needless to say, this is one happy mama!

Annelise is turning into a very self-sufficient little girl...I have no idea where she gets that from (wink).  She wanted more popcorn yesterday and I guess instead of asking she assumed she'd get it herself.  I mean, who wants to risk a "no" when asking for more popcorn.  My only beef is that she is standing tip-toed on the edge of her unstable baby stroller.  Huh?  Amazingly, we haven't been to the emergency room...yet.

She's a doll and she knows it.  Someone rescue me when she's fifteen.

Hot Stuff

The girls and I took a walk today. It was beautiful outside and I couldn't stand to be indoors any longer. Boy did Anne think she was hot stuff! And from the looks of this picture you can guess why. Who wouldn't have an extra spring in their step wearing purple cat eye sunglasses?

What a ham!
Rachael Neal

Sent to you from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry.

Crazy March

Today is the first Monday I've had at home in a while.  Not much on the agenda, mostly because I worked my tail off all weekend to keep the house clean and laundry moving.  Needless to say, I didn't sit down a whole lot, except to watch a movie with my hubby.  That was nice.

The girls are doing great.  Annelise is growing so much, intellectually that is.  She is speaking almost full sentences, loves to say the word "ok" after everything, and is beginning to enjoy her sister much more these days.  She's almost 26 months old, but still wearing 18 month clothing.  I was ecstatic when I bought her a 2T dress at Old Navy (in hopes that she would wear it in the fall) and it fits now.  That doesn't happen often.  She's a peanut in size, but definitely not in personality.  I think she gets that from both of her parents.

Elli is 5 months old.  At the risk of sounding cliche, where did the time go?  I can tell you this, it goes so much faster with your second child.  Annelise was an insanely easy baby - and Elli, well she's giving us a run for our money.  Allergies to dairy, projectile vomiting and diarrhea (yes, projectile diarrhea exists) and wearing 12 month clothes at 5 months...its all new to me.  She is almost 16 pounds and 26 inches long (50 and 75th percentiles), started saying "bada dada" this weekend and is wanting to roll over really bad.  Boy I love her.

Matt is enduring his busiest season at school.  Lesson planning, planning for Spring Break Mission Trip to Mexico and other events happening before school ends.  Lets just say, lots of planning.

I am also pretty busy at work.  Its amazing to me that I am accomplishing what used to be a 40 hour a week job in 20-25 hours a week (only two days in the office).  God has been so gracious to us!  And, I still absolutely love what I do.  I've established a pretty good system for being mom and Development Associate (not mention Marketing Director for Wireless Zone, wife, house keeper, youth leader, sister, daughter...).  I feel like God has our family at a really good place right now.  Yes, its stressful at times (lots of the time), but we are putting our greatest efforts toward the most important things - raising Godly children, giving to ministries and loving our Lord.

This was a good post for me today.  A great way to start the week...reminding myself of all of our blessings.  I think I'll tag this one for future reading.

Home Sweet Home

I took my annual business trip to California this week. Each year our marketing company hosts a one week conference in Southern California. Its really tough to go this time of year. NOT! San Diego was beautiful and as always, I was able to enjoy a week away, even if the pampering was somewhat part of the sales pitch.

Matt and the girls did more than survive with Nanny Neal here. They were also spoiled by fresh bread, roast and potatoes, lots of kisses and hugs and more. I'm having to retrain Annelise that candy is not for breakfast and mommy is not nearly as lenient as Nanny on most things. But, what else are grandmas for if not spoiling?

Being gone for a whole week is always a challenge. Besides the jet lag, I always feel a little out of place when I return from anywhere. Nevertheless, its been a solid 24 hours and we are back into our crazy routine.

I wish I could post pictures, but they are all on my phone. So, google San Diego and you'll get a pretty good idea of what I enjoyed this week. Cheers to being home with my loves.