In Nessa's words: "went pee on the potty."
YES!!! :-) We heard that wonderful, wonderful tinkle for the very fist time this morning. I fully realize that this does not mean she's anywhere near "potty trained" but learning has indeed commenced!
We bought a small seat to fit on top of our toilet a few weeks ago because Nessa had been asking for a number of weeks to sit on the potty but would get scared when I just tried to sit her on the "big potty." So the last few weeks sometimes she asks and we put her on the potty, but nothing has ever happened. I figured the first thing that needs to happen is that she has to recognize what's happening when she pees so basically we were waiting for an accident -- either she would accidentally go in the potty or she would possibly go at another time while her diaper was off (she did this several months ago and had a brief glimmer of recognition).
This morning she was virtually dry when I took off her diaper so I thought it would be the perfect time for an accident and asked her if she wanted to sit on the potty ... when I first heard it I looked at her and smiled and she smiled and when I asked her if she could pee some more (she stopped after just a tiny bit), she did! I so wish I could have captured her HUGE smile. It was adorable. She was so excited. :-)
Friday, March 23, 2007
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Happy Spring! -- general update
I’ve been meaning to send a general update for a week or so … seems like the first day of spring is a good day to do it! We’ve certainly been enjoying the spring weather! Last week we even had an incredible day over 60 degrees that absolutely required a post-dinner trip to the park! As you can imagine, Frosty is no more and there is actually very little snow left at all in our yard (!) … but it is rather wet in some spots!
Here are a few more random updates of all sorts:
• I’m in denial that Nessa is almost 2, but in less than 2 weeks you’ll be able to see her 2 year birthday pictures here! We don’t have anything major planned (even though it is her golden birthday … I know how she feels since mind was when I was two also), but will have a little celebration with her daycare friends in the afternoon, cake and presents here after dinner … and then Grandma and Grandpa Brooks should arrive in the great north sometime before Easter Sunday and we’ll celebrate then too … we don’t have any definite plans yet with the Groth side but the rumor is she’ll be receiving some pretty special gifts.
• Nessa has started correcting us if she thinks we’re signing something incorrectly. Note that I did not say that we are actually signing it incorrectly OR that she’s signing it correctly (she still has a ways to go before her fine motor skills will match what is required for many ASL signs … but she gets it close enough to count for a toddler) … but apparently what she sees in her head doesn’t match what we’re doing so she tells us “NO, like this.”
• Megan joined 4H in Houston with her dad and while she’s only been to one meeting, she’s very excited. She plans to take a goat to the Houston County fair so I’m sure there will be some updates on how that project is coming along this summer!
• Busy time for the Brooks Groth household coming up: In April, in addition to Nessa’s birthday and Easter, Tami has a work conference the week after Easter (in town but I’ll be gone at night a lot) and will be attending the ICAN conference (www.ican-online.org) later in the month. (Including travel days I’ll be gone Wednesday April 18th thru Monday after April 23rd.) Then right away Tuesday April 24th our local ICAN chapter is planning a larger CAM (Cesarean Awareness Month) event at Winona State. Whew! Then in May Shawn will be in San Jose for work for two weeks (expect this to be somewhat of a reoccurring event). I actually suggested that Shawn volunteer to go in May since it’s better than most other months for us for awhile … I didn’t think about the fact that he’ll now be gone for Mother’s day … oh well, I’m sure us girls will manage a special weekend.
• This elimination diet thing really sucks! Testing found a lot of my food sensitivities but not all of them and the only way to find them is basically trial and error with eliminating them which is frustrating. Then I’ve now reached the point with avoiding the ones that were found in testing (little things like gluten, corn, dairy, soy, garlic and chocolate) that I’ve avoided them enough to get my body detoxing (I even have some days with near normal energy levels) but that also seems to mean that when I slip up and eat something that contains one of these, especially corn, I feel awful … literally drugged tired, headache, digestive issues … blech. So, after a miserable weekend, I’m totally paranoid about what I eat this week. :-(
• I need to brag more about Megan as she is growing up (I’m not ready to call her a young woman though yet!) and while she still has her moments (don’t we all?) she is maturing so much in so many ways. She is responsible about getting her homework done (except art for some reason) before spending too much time playing. Megan seems to be doing so well in school now too (I’ll know more after parent-teacher conferences Thursday) and I just love seeing those 100% on her spelling tests … that is SO huge after everything we’ve been through with reading and recognizing words! Her class is working on multiplication and division and after just a little bump in the road when they started, Megan is now very much into it. And knowing her multiplication really comes in handy when she’s baking or cooking for me and I ask her to double or triple the recipe (she’s a great cook/baker!). I love my big girl!
• One of my very favorite things to watch these days is my girls playing together. Megan has always been great with Nessa, but now it’s so fun to watch them actually play together. They do many different things, but most often they play “kitchen and babies” as they have to make food and feed the numerous baby dolls that inhabit our living room.
• Nessa is very clear way too often these days about what she thinks is okay and what is positively not acceptable to her … sometimes she thinks that Shawn having his arm around me is NOT okay and she’ll come over and push him away from me … of course we don’t think that’s OK ;-) but I think sometimes we take just a bit too much pleasure at testing her reaction.
• Nessa thinks she can do pretty much everything herself these days and she’s right a surprising number of times!
• One good thing (there are a few) about this whole food allergy diet thing is that most of my clothes are at least loose if not outright too big now. Now when I get the energy back and make time for real workouts I won’t be able to put off shopping any longer. :-)
I’m sure I’ll think of a few things I forgot just about as soon as I send this … but at least it’s an update for now … more photos should be coming soon too. :-)
P.S. Sorry if the formatting looks like crap on this post ... I wrote it between throughout the day while waiting for my project to compile at work and apparently Outlook and blogger don't get along well.
Here are a few more random updates of all sorts:
• I’m in denial that Nessa is almost 2, but in less than 2 weeks you’ll be able to see her 2 year birthday pictures here! We don’t have anything major planned (even though it is her golden birthday … I know how she feels since mind was when I was two also), but will have a little celebration with her daycare friends in the afternoon, cake and presents here after dinner … and then Grandma and Grandpa Brooks should arrive in the great north sometime before Easter Sunday and we’ll celebrate then too … we don’t have any definite plans yet with the Groth side but the rumor is she’ll be receiving some pretty special gifts.
• Nessa has started correcting us if she thinks we’re signing something incorrectly. Note that I did not say that we are actually signing it incorrectly OR that she’s signing it correctly (she still has a ways to go before her fine motor skills will match what is required for many ASL signs … but she gets it close enough to count for a toddler) … but apparently what she sees in her head doesn’t match what we’re doing so she tells us “NO, like this.”
• Megan joined 4H in Houston with her dad and while she’s only been to one meeting, she’s very excited. She plans to take a goat to the Houston County fair so I’m sure there will be some updates on how that project is coming along this summer!
• Busy time for the Brooks Groth household coming up: In April, in addition to Nessa’s birthday and Easter, Tami has a work conference the week after Easter (in town but I’ll be gone at night a lot) and will be attending the ICAN conference (www.ican-online.org) later in the month. (Including travel days I’ll be gone Wednesday April 18th thru Monday after April 23rd.) Then right away Tuesday April 24th our local ICAN chapter is planning a larger CAM (Cesarean Awareness Month) event at Winona State. Whew! Then in May Shawn will be in San Jose for work for two weeks (expect this to be somewhat of a reoccurring event). I actually suggested that Shawn volunteer to go in May since it’s better than most other months for us for awhile … I didn’t think about the fact that he’ll now be gone for Mother’s day … oh well, I’m sure us girls will manage a special weekend.
• This elimination diet thing really sucks! Testing found a lot of my food sensitivities but not all of them and the only way to find them is basically trial and error with eliminating them which is frustrating. Then I’ve now reached the point with avoiding the ones that were found in testing (little things like gluten, corn, dairy, soy, garlic and chocolate) that I’ve avoided them enough to get my body detoxing (I even have some days with near normal energy levels) but that also seems to mean that when I slip up and eat something that contains one of these, especially corn, I feel awful … literally drugged tired, headache, digestive issues … blech. So, after a miserable weekend, I’m totally paranoid about what I eat this week. :-(
• I need to brag more about Megan as she is growing up (I’m not ready to call her a young woman though yet!) and while she still has her moments (don’t we all?) she is maturing so much in so many ways. She is responsible about getting her homework done (except art for some reason) before spending too much time playing. Megan seems to be doing so well in school now too (I’ll know more after parent-teacher conferences Thursday) and I just love seeing those 100% on her spelling tests … that is SO huge after everything we’ve been through with reading and recognizing words! Her class is working on multiplication and division and after just a little bump in the road when they started, Megan is now very much into it. And knowing her multiplication really comes in handy when she’s baking or cooking for me and I ask her to double or triple the recipe (she’s a great cook/baker!). I love my big girl!
• One of my very favorite things to watch these days is my girls playing together. Megan has always been great with Nessa, but now it’s so fun to watch them actually play together. They do many different things, but most often they play “kitchen and babies” as they have to make food and feed the numerous baby dolls that inhabit our living room.
• Nessa is very clear way too often these days about what she thinks is okay and what is positively not acceptable to her … sometimes she thinks that Shawn having his arm around me is NOT okay and she’ll come over and push him away from me … of course we don’t think that’s OK ;-) but I think sometimes we take just a bit too much pleasure at testing her reaction.
• Nessa thinks she can do pretty much everything herself these days and she’s right a surprising number of times!
• One good thing (there are a few) about this whole food allergy diet thing is that most of my clothes are at least loose if not outright too big now. Now when I get the energy back and make time for real workouts I won’t be able to put off shopping any longer. :-)
I’m sure I’ll think of a few things I forgot just about as soon as I send this … but at least it’s an update for now … more photos should be coming soon too. :-)
P.S. Sorry if the formatting looks like crap on this post ... I wrote it between throughout the day while waiting for my project to compile at work and apparently Outlook and blogger don't get along well.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
The Little Princess
Some days Nessa is the only girl at daycare (there are still only 6 kids). Yesterday, her sheet had this note under "Today's Activities":
"Nessa had lots of fun cooking with the boys. She was so funny. She sat in her chair (like a princess) and waited for the boys to bring her food. It was adorable!"
God help the boys in 15 years! :-)
"Nessa had lots of fun cooking with the boys. She was so funny. She sat in her chair (like a princess) and waited for the boys to bring her food. It was adorable!"
God help the boys in 15 years! :-)
Monday, March 12, 2007
friend, play, water, boat
OK, I copied that adorable picture from my friend Rachel's site (www.welikedogs.com), and you can see more of the great photos she took while she and Ben joined us at the Children's Museum in La Crosse on her flicker site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/regal_eagle/tags/childrensmusuem/
You can see a few pictures I took below but none of them are as good as hers are (she is a better photographer, has a better camera, and takes time to do better editing afterwards ... so yes, they are a lot better!)
We met Rachel and Ben at the Children's museum Saturday afternoon. I told Nessa that after her nap we would go and play (used the sign) with a friend (used the sign) in addition to telling her we were going to the museum (she wouldn't remember it) to meet Rachel and Ben. So Nessa kept signing friend and play all morning and I kept telling her that we would go after her nap. The problem is that she didn't take a nap (the price we paid for her sleeping in Sat. morning) ... luckily she stayed in a good mood most of the time at the museum and didn't start melting until she didn't wan to leave Pizza Doctors afterwards and the good thing is that she fell fast asleep when we got her home and into her pajamas!
Since Saturday Nessa talks about and signs about playing with a friend with water and boats. Yes, Nessa loved the river display the best of all and could have played with the boats in the water the entire two hours if I had let her. She also enjoyed many other parts of the museum, including the Kwik Trip store and the new Wiggles and Giggles toddler area. Nessa didn't really care for the fire truck though ... well, except she liked wearing the fire hat! :-)
We should have called her Hattie!
Saying Nessa loves to play with Hats (and mittens and gloves to some extent) is an understatement! Nessa LOVES hats (who needs dress up clothes when you have a big sister's old hats not to mention mom and dad's hats!) and here are a few pictures we've captured of her and "her hats."
That basket you can see in the upper left of the above picture is a basket of hats that Megan and I wore last year but hadn't taken out to use this year -- it was like finding buried treasure for Nessa to discover it while she was downstairs with me one day while I was doing laundry! Nessa has been bringing one hat upstairs at a time to wear and play with ... she even insisted on wearing the hat in the first two pictures below outside and to daycare more than a few times. :-)
Nessa was wearing the hat and then decided that Sam needed to wear it. She was also waiting for someone to come and give her a push (she loves riding in the clothes baskets!).
There will be more "Nessa in hat" pictures to come I'm sure as we still haven't captured her usual of putting on a hat and at least one mitten or glove (not hers of course) and then pushing her shopping cart around and saying "ready to go!" :-)
That basket you can see in the upper left of the above picture is a basket of hats that Megan and I wore last year but hadn't taken out to use this year -- it was like finding buried treasure for Nessa to discover it while she was downstairs with me one day while I was doing laundry! Nessa has been bringing one hat upstairs at a time to wear and play with ... she even insisted on wearing the hat in the first two pictures below outside and to daycare more than a few times. :-)
Nessa was wearing the hat and then decided that Sam needed to wear it. She was also waiting for someone to come and give her a push (she loves riding in the clothes baskets!).
There will be more "Nessa in hat" pictures to come I'm sure as we still haven't captured her usual of putting on a hat and at least one mitten or glove (not hers of course) and then pushing her shopping cart around and saying "ready to go!" :-)
Playing Night, NIght
Nessa loves playing "Night, Night" and we snap a few pictures of her once in awhile. She'll lay down and play it almost anywhere (in the bathroom the other day!) but her favorite is when she can find pillows and blankets to use in her play. And of course having someone to play with is always preferable. Then there is someone to cover her up and playfully say "night night" and "wake up."
Here she is recently playing in the great room with Daddy and one of her baby dolls. She recently discovered the basket of blankets and pillows in the great room so it's a new favorite place for her to play.
J is for jump or B is for bounce
Nessa has always loved to jump and whenever we've read her Pooh ABC book and got to the J for Jump page she ALWAYS had to go and try to jump (she's getting much better). Recently I got a quality rebounder for exercise and health and all of us girls are enjoying it ... sometimes I merely bounce (it's good for the lymph system) so Nessa hears me refer to it as bouncing at well. At first Nessa only bounced along with me or with Megan but now we trust her to get on and bounce by herself. She loves taking a few minutes out here or there to jump or bounce! And these pictures were too cute to keep to myself.
Megan's music concert
Megan had her annual school music concert this past Thursday. Even though we got there as early as possible it was still hard to get good photos. Here's a couple that I managed to crop most other people (and heads) out of the way.
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