Wow, been a long time. Sorry about that. Let's see what has happened in the last 2 months.

Kylie is potty trained!! She just decided in early October that she was done wearing diapers, they were for babies. And she had some accidents but did very well. Even with the poop, she did well. We got her My Little Ponies for every poop for about a week, then once a week. But now she is doing it all on her own, doesn't even want help at all. She'll just yell if she needs help with wiping. What a great thing potty trained kids are. It is so easy now, I just ask before we leave if she needs to go and that's it. Very nice.

Matthew is still not sleeping. We have tried letting him Cry It Out (CIO) twice. Once at 5 months and once at almost 7 months. Doesn't work with him. He'll just cry and cry and cry for 90 mins at a time. He just doesn't seem to know how to settle back down. This last time, which was just this weekend, he would cry, fall asleep, wake up and cry again, all in 5 mins. We did stop swaddling him at 6 months and he really likes to sleep on his stomach and/or side. No more back sleeping for him. And he has found a blanket that he likes a lot too. I think we'll just keep doing what we've been doing - getting up every 2-4 hours at night. Maybe he'll figure it out on his own. I can only hope.

Kylie turned 3 in November. She had a Cars themed party. She just loves Lighting McQueen. The movie came out on video on her b-day so that was cool. She pretends to be different cars in the movie all. day. long. so you have to act with her. It's crazy how well she remembers the movie. It was a nice party, we had a small party with her friends Emma and Camille on Friday and then her larger, family party on Sunday.

Don't remember if I wrote or not but we had Matthew dedicated at church on October 1st. He did very well, smiled at the pastor and everything. He sure is growing. He's in 6-12 month clothes now. Sitting up very well. He'll probably be crawling in the next month or so. What a challenge that will be! It's hard enough keeping Kylie from giving him things he shouldn't have but once he's able to move, he'll be grabbing and finding EVERYTHING!

MK is going well. I won the contest this fall by having 5 bookings every month for 3 months. I will get a purple ring, necklace and earring set. Next time Cindy, my boss comes down, she'll bring them. I also reached the Ruby Consulant level and got a really neat leather purse. I'm on track to get the Sapphire Consulant level this quarter. I think I'll pick a nice leather band watch. I don't like the other gift choices this time (another purse and an organizer).

Matthew won't eat food. He apparently likes breastmilk so much that nothing else tastes good. He won't eat rice or oatmeal cereal, pears, applesauce, green beans, sweet potatoes, squash or carrots. He did eat some mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving. And he does eat Cheerios and Fruit Poofs. But he sure can't live on those! The dr isn't worried, most of his nutrition comes from BM anyways, the food is just to get him used to textures and learning to feed himself.

He moved into size 3 diapers this weekend. Weighed almost 16 lbs at his 6 month appt. Kylie as 24lbs, 34 inches at her 3 year appt. Still very small for her age but healthy so the dr isn't worried. We're going to start her in gymnastics in January. See how she likes that. Matthew is in Gymboree now too. He's doing good pushing with his legs which is a pre-crawling skill. He also has "discovered" his tongue. he's constantly sticking it out and smiling. Very cute but I'm glad I got their Christmas pics done before he learned this new skill!

Getting ready for Christmas. We're going to get our tree on Saturday. I've got a lot of present bought but still need to get some. The kids have way to much stuff. I started buying for them back in August and kinda lost track of how much I had gotten. Oh well, we'll do better next year. I have decorated the house some. Kylie helped me put out the nativity. She likes baby Jesus and the sheep best. She was talking a lot about Santa last week until I told her that Christmas wasn't about Santa, that it was Jesus's b-day. That got her interested and she asked what Jesus got for presents! I'm glad her pre-school will talk to her about Christmas too, so it will be re-enforced for her.

Anyways, Matthew is awake and has a poopy diaper. I'll try to get back into the habit of posting more.

Well we made a decision as far as Matthew and sleeping goes. After much talk, we decided to start letting him Cry It Out at night. I know he is capable of sleeping through the night and is just waking up out of habit now. I know this because Brett gave him a bottle last week and he only took 1 oz of it. And he has been nursing less, just doing it to fall asleep. So, last night I rocked him till he was really drowsy and then put him down. He woke up but I left him to settle down on his own. After about 20 mins of fussing and crying, he feel asleep. I fed him at 11 and then he was up at 2:45. So I turned the video monitor on so I could see him and let him cry. Little stubborn bugger cried for 59 mins! I felt awful but could see him falling asleep, waking up and crying. So he was tired but just didn't know how to get back to sleep on his own. He did sleep then until 6:15, which is when I got up and fed him and he was awake for the day. I think tonight will be much better, he should settle faster.

K has been pretty much giving up her naps. Even the movie in the afternoon doesn't put her to sleep very often. But I keep the rule that she has to lay on the couch so at least she is getting some down time to rest.

We're busy planning her b-day party. It's Cars theme. B and I ordered her party stuff on-line last night, discounted. I got her a cake from Meijer too. In order to keep the party at our house a little small, I'm having some of her friends whose moms are at home over a few days before the party. That way she has some friends but not everyone at the same time. And we're not serving lunch like we have in the past, just cake and ice cream. Too much work!

MK is going well. I had 2 parties last week and 2 this week. The two this week should be good money-wise because they are the tradition skincare parties. I have 2 contests that I want to win this month so I gotta work hard! I did make Star Consultant and picked out a purse. Should be in soon.

We had Matthew's dedication this past weekend. Pastor Fred said some nice things about M and our family. He had Brett introduce our guests. Sara, Nick, Owen and Sophie were able to come, that was awesome. I hadn't met Sophie yet and hadn't seen Sara since May. It makes me miss her more and more. We'll probably take a trip up there in January or something. After the dedication we had brunch at our house which was very nice. Lynk, Nancy and Alex came for that and stayed till half time of the Colts game. Everyone else left about 12. Sara and family stayed until 1 or so.

Well, that's about it. I'll try to post this week to update on M's sleeping.

Long time again. I'm trying to get more work done around the house during nap time and K and M haven't been napping at the same time lately either. Oh well.

Let's see, what's new. Mom and Dad are staying up in Chicago. Their low offer was accepted so they'll be there for the next few years. Mom may or may not work for the whole time, now that her pension is screwed up, work doesn't seem to have the same appeal. But she is putting a lot into 401K so maybe she will work for a few more years. I wish they were coming down here still but they asked God for a clear sign and having such a low offer accepted is pretty clear. They may still move down here in a few years.

K had picture day today. She wore a new outfit from Gymboree. It was brown and she only had black shoes so I had to make a quick run to Meijer to find brown shoes before her picture turn. Just made it as her name was being called. She really likes school this year. Her crafts are more complicated and they play "duck, duck goose" at the end of the day. Today I guess all the kids could recite their memory verse, which was "God made us" so everyone got to pick a prize out of the treasure chest. K came running out of the room with this super ball above her head, chattering at high speed all about it.

I'm doing good with my e-bay stuff, sold some stuff today and yesterday. It's not a ton of money but I'm getting rid of stuff and making more then I would at a garage sale. I am debating selling more of K's clothes. I took a bunch of the older clothes that were stained or I just didn't like to Goodwill a few months ago. But I still have a big storage container of nice, clean 6-18 month clothes. I could sell them but also want to keep them if we have another child. I don't think we will at this point but it's probably way to soon to decide that. I do want to keep some of my favorite outfits to make a quilt out of when she gets older. That will be hard to choose!

M is still getting over his cold but last night he slept better. Woke up at 2:45 and at 6:00 and up for the day at 7:00. He's over 4 months and should be sleeping through the night but we can't try to push that issue until he gets over his cold. I do well most of the time with the lack of sleep. I definitely have gotten better, God has answered my prayers for patience.

I've been doing really well with MK. I had 5 parties in 4 weeks and won a purple stone ring. I can earn the matching necklace and earrings by having 5 parties in 5 weeks in October and November. I already have 5 booked so as long as those hold, I'll get there. I have one tonight and one on Friday. I ordered the holiday stuff and got it all in. It is some great stuff, should be easy sells. And by being a Star Consultant for 1st quarter, I got a prize. I picked a black leather purse. B thinks its ugly but who cares, it's not his purse!

That's about it here. I'll try to write more often.

Been along time again, sorry about that. Let's see what's been going on.

Today Kylie climbed to the top of the playarea at Chic-fil-a for the first time. She was so excited that she screamed "I'm a big kid" loud enough for the whole resturant to hear. :-D

Matthew had his 4 month appt on Monday. He weights 14lbs, 13 oz and is 25 inches long. 50% for everything. The dr gave us some suggestions to help him sleep through the night, like letting him fuss for 10-15 mins before picking him up so he can learn to self-sooth. We did that on Monday night and it didn't go well, we were up from 2:30-3:30 and again at 5. We also are trying to get him used to not sleeping swaddled to see if that works, thinking if he could suck on his hands, maybe he would sooth himself. Didn't work either. So we're back to letting him keep one arm out and the other swaddled (he feel asleep instantly when we did that vs. waking up every 2-3 mins for 30 mins straight). I guess he's just not ready yet to sleep through the night or not be swaddled. Oh well.

Kylie has been doing great in school. She played Duck, Duck, Goose for the first time yesterday. She said that Camille picked her and she picked Camille. Hopefully the other kids got to play too! Nothing new with the PTing. Although Dr Collins told her that princesses (since she'll be one for Halloween) don't wear diapers, they were princess panties. We'll keep telling her that to see if it has any affect. I always thought she would be PTed by age 3 since she does other things so early but now I just don't know.

Brett is getting frustrated at work. Seems every day he comes home and tells me about something that bothers him or that he doesn't understand why it is done a certain way. I think he may actually get his resume updated and start looking. That used to make me nervous but now I think it a good idea. He pays way too much for insurance and could do project management for more money somewhere else.

Mom and dad are thinking of moving to Indy. I think that's a great idea. Mom would retire and take it easy, dad might work or retire, they don't know yet. I really would like mom to live close to some family member with her health now. Not that she needs help now but in 10 years, she might. And I'm the only one out of us kids, who can do that. And I would really like Kylie and Matthew to be able to spend as much time with my parents as they do with Brett's.

MK is going well. I took a big leap of faith (maybe not that big considering how well my parties have been going, how well I did last year at Christmas and how many parties I have coming up) and order quite a bit of the new Christmas line and other skin care products. Enough to earn my second "Star Consultant" quarter. That's very cool. So I'll get a neat prize and recognition. And I'll have plenty of products on hand so I'll spend less on postage and time delivering stuff. But I"m not using the money I make for my eye surgery, I'm taking over some of the household bills so we don't have to go into our savings as much. That puts the pressure on me to sell, sell, sell!

My bf Sara seems to finally be feeling better after having Sophie. She said her boobs are healing, Sophie is feeding better and Owen is doing well with school. It was great to hear her sound more like herself. I told her that there were more then one occassion that I was considering packing the kids up and driving to detriot because I was so worried about her. She admited that she probably could have used that. I think next time I get a gut feeling like that, I should just do it. She really needed a friend up there, not just on the phone. I'll talk to her about coming back up there sometime this fall or winter. I miss her so much.

That's about it here.

It's been so long since I last wrote. But not much has gone on with us, just our usual lives.

M is sleeping. K was sleeping but woke up so she's watching Jonah on our TV in our rooms.

Labor day was spent in Chicago visiting my parents. Josh and Sarah were there too. It was great to see them both. It warms my heart when I see them play with K and M, they seem to really like being aunt/uncles.

We did go disc golfing, which is one of Josh's hobbies. It wasn't easy but I tried. Brett and Dad started to get better by the end. Josh is really good. And we went to a fair on Saturday. They had a craft show that I really liked. We didn't get anything but the booths were very nice. We didn't get to look at everything because K wanted to ride the rides.

K is sleeping now on our bed, she's so tired but fights those naps like you wouldn't believe. Thank goodness, I need the mental break.

M has a cold that has been keeping him from sleeping well - naps and at night. I thought he had an earache since he's been screaming when he eats and waking up so much. So we went to the Dr today. She didn't see an ear infection but thought it might be coming on so she gave us a perscription for Amixoicillin anyway. He is very congested so she told us to use Children's Nighttime Triminic, which I already had for Kylie. It doesn't contain any sleep aids but lasts longer then regular Triminic. And we'll run the vaporizer tonight and put some Vaporub on his chest. Just the fact that he's sleeping now, going on 90 minutes without waking up makes me very hopeful for tonight. He's still not sleeping through the night, Dr. Collins says he's old enough to do it so we don't know why he isn't yet. Maybe after he starts solids he will.

I've gotten several of the items I bought off of E-bay in the mail this week. I'm very impressed with everything so far. Gymboree clothes wear well anyway and the used ones I've gotten look brand new. And the dresses and jeans that I sold went for $35+, which is well over what I would make at a garage sale and without the work. I'm still waiting for the lady to pay for them but it's only been a few days. Speaking of waiting for payment, my MK weekend bag sold on the 30th but I haven't been paid for that either. If I don't get payment then I'm filing a "no-payment report" with E-bay to see if that wakes the buyer up. If she doesn't pay, then I'll just re-list it in a few weeks. It only sold for $52 and I know it can go for more then that.

Speaking of MK, my business is doing much better!! I have had 3 parties in the past week - with $450+ in sales. Pretty good for one week! And I have 3 maybe 4 more parties this month. It's great to get back into the swing of my MK business - I want to start saving for my eye surgery.

Well, that's about it here. I need to do some MK work while the house is quiet.

Sunday afternoon. M is sleeping, K is playing and B is golfing with D.

Not much has been going on so that's why I haven't written lately. Friday I dropped K off at S's and cleaned the house, paid bills, ran errands. We had a block party at our house that night. we had 6 families come, I think everyone had fun. Several people volunteered to host another party at their house so we'll see if that happens. People didn't leave until 11pm! I think if we didn't have kids to put to bed, they would have stayed longer! There were five girls from 2 years to 5 or 6 so they all ran around playing. I made potato salad, baked beans and brats. We also had burgers, mac and cheese, corn on the cob and brownies.

M has been sleeping pretty good. Sleeping till 3-4am and going right back to sleep. We haven't needed to get up and give him his paci in a while. :-)

No improvement on the potty training. I hope maybe when she sees kids at school doing it, she'll decide that she can too. Right now she tells us that she's scared to go poopy in the potty.

Today we worked in the nursery (6-12 months old). It was our last day with that age group. We move to the walkers/talkers for the next year. Instead of being the 4th Sunday of every month, we'll be all of Nov, Feb, May and Aug. It will be different but this way we're not in the same room as Matthew, which they recommend.

Tuesday afternoon. Kids are sleeping.

Went for my Lasik appointment yesterday. I'm not a candidate at this time since I'm BFing. Apparently the hormones from pregnancy and BFing affect your eyesight so they can't get an accurate reading on your eye. So I can't have it done for a while. I wasn't pleased with the place anyway so I won't go there when I do get it done. It's way up in Carmel and they didn't even have a Dr there to do an exam, only a nurse who could check my prescription to see if I could qualify for it. And I would need to not wear contacts for 2 weeks before I could even get the pre-op exam. Why wouldn't they tell me that when I made the appointment?? Grrrr. So that's on hold until next summer or something.

Went to the zoo with Besty and her daughters. The girls did well together. The animals were really active, even heard/saw the lions roaring. Very eerie sound. I think we'll go to the CM next week with Betsy again. She's off work until January and doesn't have other SAHM friends so she's bored. That's fine with me, she's a lot of fun.

Speaking of Betsy, IU and Ball State play each other in football on September 9th. So we're going up to Muncie for the game. Been a long time since I've been up there! I can't wait to show Brett my old dorm, houses, class room building and other hangouts. Betsy and Scott might try to come with us too. It would be so weird and fun to "break" into the DZ suite too. And of course we have to check out the bar scene.

Sunday evening, both kids are in bed and B is at the pre-season Colts game (I didn't feel like going).

Before I forget, K said the cutest thing when we prayed before lunch on Friday. We had just gone through the kid's farm area. She prayed "God, please make me a farmer." LOL!

Friday evening we went to Ben Davis for the football game. We didn't stay long, kinda hot for M. They had a "fun fair" that K went to with D&S but she was gone before we got there for bedtime.

Saturday morning we went back to the fair with D&S and John. Before we left for the fair, we were adjusting the straps on the car seat for K in D&S's car. Brett saw that they didn't have the seat belt through the car seat to keep it stable. Brett flipped out at his parents, the seat wasn't at all stable, you could move it 4 inches to each side at least (you're not supposed to move it more then 1/2 inch). We got in fixed but B was still pretty mad. Especially since we've shown them how to do it and they have the instruction manual which they've never bothered to look at. So Brett planned to talked to D again to stress how important it is to have it installed correctly and if it's not, they can't take her in the car anymore.

Anyway, Kylie had lots of fun. She did the farm thing again, and rode lots of rides. Brett tried to win her a prize doing Skee-ball, which he normally is very good at. But after 7 tries, he just couldn't get enough points and that made him mad. He tried again later and 8 more trys, still didn't win, I think it was rigged! But he did win her a few things on other games. Matthew did well, even let John and Dick carry him in the front pack. Dick got M overheated so I took him into the Ball State building to feed and cool him down.

We had to leave early for naps and because I had a MK party. Turns out, after I got to her house, that she had called (supposedly) to cancel the party a week ago. Her number had been disconnected so I couldn't confirm with her. But she does want to reschedule so hopefully that will happen.

Sunday was church and then B went golfing with his dad. I put the kids to bed and took a nap!! We went to dinner at D&S's.

Tomorrow is my appointment with the Lasik people. B is coming so he'll get his questions answered too. I don't know if we'll do it, it's certainly not in our budget but I don't want eye issues for years either. I guess we'll see what they say.

Friday afternoon. M is sleeping, K is at D&S's.

M slept better last night. Slept until 3:00am and was up again at 4 something but fell back asleep after B rocked him. Up again at 5 something. So not too bad. Better then how he's been doing.

Rainy today but we went to the fair anyway. Kylie had fun and Matthew was really good. We ate, played some games and she rode a few rides too.

I had an appointment to have my eyes looked at by a Lasik company. But I forgot the address and couldn't find it. So I re-scheduled for Monday evening. I don't think I posted here but I have a bad eye infection that got diagnosed on Wednesday. My contact in my right eye has been bothering me in the afternoon for the past month or so. Feels like sand is in my eye, extremely uncomfortable. At first I thought it was just a bad contact so I put in a new one. Same problem. So bad that I took out my contact at the Hendricks county fair and left it there! Well, the Dr said that I have an eye infection caused from over-exposure to my contacts. My white blood cells are attacking my eyeball, thinking that the contact is a foreign object. So in the morning, the blood cells were calm and my eye felt fine. But by afternoon, they were on a rampage and that's why my eye would hurt so bad. And even after I would take my contact out, it would still hurt because the blood cells took time to calm down.
Anyway, I have to wear glasses for a week and the infection can return at anytime. So I need to carry my glasses, contacts and contact solution with me everywhere in case they hurt again. Great. Oh and if the infection gets too bad, I could go blind.
So I'm looking into Lasik. It's expensive but maybe they have payment plans that we could afford. We'll see.
Kylie is spending the night at D&S's. And we're all going to the fair tomorrow morning. Fun times!

Thursday morning, Matthew is awake and on my lap, K is still sleeping.

Well, M's good sleeping habits have gone to pot the last 2 nights. I'm really hoping that he has been sleeping poorly due to a growth spurt, which normally is over in 2 days. He's been sleeping from 11-2:45. Then I feed him and put him back down. But he's been waking up at 4 so I feed him again and changed his diaper. Then he's up on and off every 3o-60 mins. I send Brett in to give him a pacifier, he settles down for a few minutes, then wakes back up. Brett and I are both exhusted and don't know what to do. I really don't want to make him cry himself to sleep, that is just heartbreaking. And how do we take the pacifier away for sleep when we use it during the day so much to keep him calm? I'm not asking for him to sleep through the night, just to sleep as well as I know he can. Is that too much????

We went to the Kid Rock concert last night at the fairgrounds. It was a very good concert. Super loud. We had very good tickets, close to the front. People kept coming up front to take pictures but then would stay so by the end of the show I could hardly see. D&S watched the kids.

Tuesday afternoon. Matthew is sleeping, K just woke up and is watching Little Mermaid.

M has been sleeping better and better since Friday. Last night he woke up at 3:45! And he hasn't been up earlier then 2:50. What a difference it makes for all of us.

Sunday we went to the State Fair. We had a great time, ate corn dog, elephant ear, sno-cone, lemon shake-up - yummy! Kylie had fun, even with the heat. Matthew slept most of the time. I was so thrilled and impressed that there was a Lactation Station there! It was a nice tent with rocking chairs, fans, free water and tee-shirts. Plus a table and puzzles for older children. Very progressive and perfect for when I needed to feed M. I sat next to a lady who is breastfeeding twins! That was inspiring.

Monday we went to see Sara and her son Joshua for a playdate. He's only a year old so too young for K to play with but she did like all his toys. K didn't take a nap and it drove me up the wall!

Today we went to Sara and Gillian's house to go swimming. It was too hot to stay for long, M couldn't handle the heat, no shade. So the girls played outside and had a picnic. Sara and I visited. G seemed to be nicer to K this time, which is good because I was considering not doing anymore playdates if it didn't get better. But she sure is bossy! Maybe it will improve once she starts school and gets around more kids her age.

Saturday night.

I don't think that dairy is the problem with Matthew and I'm more convince then ever now. Last night, as I was praying, I asked God to show me whether dairy was the problem or if he was just dependent on the paci. I asked Him to have M wake up after 3am if it was a paci problem or before 3am if it was a dairy problem. So, I'm in M's room, feeding him for the first time and it was the first time he was up that night. What time was it on the clock? 3:03am. That's a good enough reason for me to keep up with the dairy and figure something else out about the paci.

We had the golf outing today. B and I took K and M to K's art class. Then I drove up to Brownsburg to drop K and M at Nancy's house. I left my car so Nancy had the carseats and drove to the golf course with Lynk. We were late getting there and I had all the gift bags so B and Coach were irritated at me. But it all was fine in the end. I drove the beer cart, as usual. I drove it with Charles Harris. We made $33 in tips and split it. Brett's team came in 4th place!

After the golf outing, I went to get the kids and ended up staying for dinner while we waited for L and B to get finished (I left early). Then we all went to Ritters. Yummmm. And I don't feel a bit bad/worried about having ice cream. I believe God came me a very clear sign that milk isn't M's issue. That's cool!

State fair tomorrow!

I had my first MK party yesterday in a long time and it went very well! Sold a Miracle set, basic set and some other things. I was very pleased. And I got 2 bookings off it too. The party I have booked for the 19th might not happen. The lady's phone is disconnected and I don't have any way to get ahold of her. Sucks because she called me asking for the party! I did send her a note via mail to see if she would call. I hope she does.

Friday afternoon - kids are napping.

Matthew has been sleeping very poorly this past week. He is taking shorter naps which are interrupted by him crying for his pacifier. He calms right down and goes back to sleep when you give him a paci. And night time has sucked too. He's been up 2-3 times a night, just looking for his paci. He doesn't get hungry until 4ish but will be up at midnight, 1:30 and 3 for his paci. Driving me crazy. So I called his Ped to see what they suggest we do. I thought they would say "let him fuss for 10 mins" or something. No, the Dr seems to think he might be getting fussy and waking up from a upset tummy. And suggested that I cut dairy from my diet for 5 days to see if that helps. No DAIRY for 5 days?!? That will really suck. But I guess if it helps, then I'll be cutting dairy out for a long time. Ugh.

Kylie has been doing well the past few days. We've been playing a lot of "little people" toys and other imagination games. Today I was practicing my closing for the MK party I have tonight. And she sat down and started answering my questions. Kylie wanted to order some green sparkles for her face and a Curious George CD! And the first time I asked, her skin felt pretty good. The second time it felt "scratchy". I told her she needed more moisturizer and she said "Yes, I need moisturizer. And green sparkleys for my face." How funny!

Last night we took M to get his 3 month pics taken. He didn't do so well. It's so hard to pose a baby his age - can't sit up, can't hold his head up when he's on his belly, doesn't want to lay the right way, smiles at the wrong time... But we did get some decent pics.

I hope my MK party does good tonight. I need to get some more booked soon!

Tuesday afternoon. Kids are napping.

I feel like I'm losing it! Kylie is having such a bad time with PTing and I'm losing my patience with her so easily now that I think it's best if we just put the pull-ups on and wait a month or so. I just get so angry at her for having an accident that it's not worth it. When she tells me that I'm being mean, it just breaks my heart. So, not more PTing until she is more ready. Just not worth it.

M slept well last night. I fed him at 11 and he was up at 1 something for his paci and 3:30 for a feeding. Then slept until 6:30. That's becoming his standard wake-up time, which is ok. Gives me time to shower before K gets up. She slept in until 9:00 this morning, which she needed. Busy few days for her.

The house is a sty but I'm just going to clean it good tomorrow. We have our small group here so no point in cleaning it today when it will be all dirty tomorrow anyways. I did do laundry and cleaned the kitchen.

Not much else going on here.

Monday night. What a weekend.

The Bakers and Kayleigh's friend Bridget got into town on Thursday morning. We hung out and swam that day. D&S took us all out to dinner at Rick's Boatyard - everyone but the kids who babysat Kylie and Matthew. Kylie was in 7th heaven with Dillion. She just thinks he is the best thing ever. Good thing he likes her too since he couldn't get her away from him. He got her a play golf bag with balls and clubs. She pulled that thing around and played with it for hours. I took Melinda, Kayleigh, Bridget and Matthew to Keystone Mall so I could return my 5 pairs of fireman socks that accidently came with the Gymboree order I placed. I also got an outfit and teeshirt on sale. We stopped at Cheesecake factory and got some pieces for Sharon since she couldn't come with us since she was at Dick's funeral. Brett and John were pallbearers.

B's suit jacket wasn't lost at the drycleaners. Turns out it was in the backcorner of the closet and I thought it was in the drycleaning pile. B is going to stop at the drycleaners and apologize for accusing them of losing it. I feel pretty stupid but very glad that we didn't lose the jacket.

We "juliped" that night but no one got drunk. Brett and I stayed late with the kids, past 10 but then went home.

Friday B had off work so we swam. I went to the track with John and Bill who had suite passes and garage/pit passes. The suite was very nice and really nice since it was hot outside. I toured the garage area with John. Had to buy a $22 Dale Earnhart Jr shirt since I couldn't get into the garage wearing a tanktop. I had jeans and close toed shoes but needed a shirt that covered my shoulders (safety deal, I guess). Gave the shirt to Dillion. I did see some famous drivers, I never would have recognized them but John did. Got my picture taken with Kasey Kahne (very young and little), Sterling Marlin (old time driver), Ryan Newman (jerk) and some other guy. I also had my picture taken with Richard Childress who is a famous owner. And had my picture taken on the yard of bricks at the start/finish line.

Friday night was more drinking and eating. I didn't have much to drink. Barb and Alan came over plus Lynk and Nancy and some of D&S's friends. It was getting really late and I left at 10:30. Brett wanted to stay but felt like he needed to come home too. Riley asked to spend the night so I took her home and had Brett stay. Riley and I had fun trying on lipstick and having girl talk.

Saturday Brett went golfing and I swam with K while S took care of M. Everyone else went to the track. We came home for naptime and Brett finished my potato salad while I took a nap (what a nice guy). We all went to John's for dinner. We had Beer can chicken for dinner which was really good. I played my Ipod and I think a lot of people liked my music. We walked around the track area, which wasn't very busy. Then Brett took the kids home at 11, while I went to D&S's to hang out for a while. Us ladies hung out by the pool until 12:30 and Melinda drove me home since we didn't have another car there.

Sunday was the race and we just went over to D&S's again and swam more. It was very relaxing. We ate leftovers and just hung out. Got home late again. Then Monday we went to D&S's to see the Bakers off at 10. Then we went to the Children's Museum since Brett had the day off work. Kylie loved the Bob the Builder exhibit. She played in there until we pulled her out. We also checked out the new glass artist exhibit (he's really famous but I don't remember his name). Dale Childy or something. He is very talented, I was impressed. Kylie seemed to like it too.

Monday afternoon I took a long nap which felt wonderful. M wasn't sleeping well probably because he was off schedule. But he did sleep from 11-4 last night. Brett got up with him at 4 so I could sleep. Very nice treat. Monday evening B had a meeting at the high school for all the coaches this year. Kylie went to bed fine but Matthew wouldn't settle down. And I found ants in the kitchen. So combine Matthew crying and ants and I was losing it. So I called B and told him to come home, which he did. By then Matthew had stopped crying but I was still upset so it was good to have him there. I don't normally lose it like that but I was feeling very overwhelmed and the ants and crying broke the camel's back. I'm cool now.

PTing has taken a big step back. All the excitement and not being at home caused some problems. We were keeping K in pullups because she was telling us when she needed to go so she was staying dry and just pooping in them. But with all the fun she stopped telling us and I wasn't around her enough to remind her. So we put her back in panties on Sunday and she did ok but had several accidents in the evening. And today she did good at the museum but had 2 accidents at home. So we're back to the basics this week. I'll keep us all home and work hard with her again. I was naive thinking that once she decided to use the potty that we would be all done with the training!!

Sarah is having her eyes lasered tomorrow. I hope it all goes well. Mom is out there helping her. I sure wish Sarah lived closer, I'd love to go visit more. I had a great time when we went before but it just isn't something we can afford to do. Plus, I don't think 2 kids would fit well in her place!
Well, I'm tired and it's late so I'm going to bed.

Wednesday afternoon - naptime.

Is it too early for a drink?? What a day. Let me start with Tuesday.

M went to bed at 8:30 and I feed him at 10:30. Then he was up at 1:30 and I should have just given him a pacifier but I fed him instead. Then he was up again at 4:30. So not a good night for sleep. By Tuesday afternoon, I noticed he was sneezing a lot and was congested. Great, another cold.

I went to dinner with ladies from my Sunday school class. I was so happy to be invited since they were the "cool" kids in the class. We went to dinner at a nice place in Speedway called Dawson's. I got smothered chicken and shrimp cocktail. Very nice. Leftovers for dinner on Wednesday! I got a chance to get to know some of the ladies better and they were all very nice. I'm really glad that we've gotten involved in that class, definitely gives me some new friends that are easy to keep in touch with since I see them often. And it's nice to get together with people that aren't bad mouthing others and complaining about everything. Refreshing.

I got home and B said that he tried calling 5 times in the last hour to tell me not to hurry home because everything was going well. My stupid purse is so thick that I can't hear my cell phone when it's inside. Which sucks because it's a beautiful Coach purse. So I changed to a cheapo pink Target purse and surprise, I heard my phone ring several times today.

M did not sleep well last night due to his cold. I didn't feed him when I got home because I wanted to see how well he could sleep without a "dreamfeeding" - feeding when the baby is still asleep - and he was up at 12:30, 3:30 and 6:30 to eat. Plus he was up several other times looking for his pacifier. Hopefully he does better tonight.

We went to the Detwilers for a playdate. Kylie asked before we left if Nicholas was going to push her. She's so used to him pushing her at some point everytime they see each other that she knows it will happen. I told her that he might push her and just to ask him beforehand to not push her. So, about 15 mins into the playdate, she was walking over to him and he was laying on the couch. She wanted to listen to his heartbeat with the doctor kit and he kicked her in the face!!! I was shocked and so was she. She just turned to me and looked with wide eyes and then started crying hard. Val took him to timeout and made him apologize. And Kylie looked at him and said "Please, don't push me, Nicholas.". Thank goodness they didn't have anymore problems. I can't wait till Brett teaches her how to throw a headlock so she can put Nicholas on his back when he pushes her!

Picked up the dry cleaning today and they couldn't find B's suit jacket. The lady was really busy and didn't have all our order together so I just took the one suit (dropped off 2) and Kylie's dress and left. She said I could pick up the other jacket, that she couldn't find, in the morning. I get home and she had called, saying that the receipt was wrong, that I had dropped off 1 (2) piece suit, 1 dress, 1 jacket and 3 pants - total of 7 items. No, I dropped off and it's written on the receipt, 2 (2) piece suits, 1 dress, 1 jacket and 2 pants - 7 items. We argued and she kept telling me to check my closet because they didn't have another jacket, I only dropped off 1 suit. So after arguing for a while, I hung up and called Brett. He was livid, of course, and called her back. From what he could understand from the lady, sounds like they found the suit jacket and he needs to go and identify it since it wasn't in our ticketed items. What a pain. I sure hope that they found his jacket. It's a new suit so we can't have the jacket go missing.

We went to Taco Bell for lunch. As Kylie was eating her soft taco she said "I love you mom, thanks for bringing me to Taco Bell."

The viewing is tonight and funeral is tomorrow at 2. I'm not going to either. I wasn't close to Dick and I need to take care of the kids. Brett is going to the viewing after work and the funeral too.

The Bakers come into town tomorrow about noon. We were going over after nap time but with the funeral now, I'm going over earlier so they aren't alone while everyone else is at the funeral. K won't get a nap but she'll be so wired from seeing Dillion that it shouldn't matter. I need to do some cooking tomorrow to get ready for them. Pasta salad, potato salad, calico beans, lemon bars, peanut butter pie, shrimp, cherries. I think that's about it. It will be a fun time!

Monday afternoon, naptime.

Let me start off by saying M slept great last night! I put him down at 8:30. He woke up about 10:30 to eat, but didn't eat much so I was afraid he'd be up about 2. Well, he started waking up at 4:00am!! I'm thrilled. I'm really hoping now that he is getting close to 3 months that 4am will be the norm. How cool would that be?

Speaking of M, my milk supply issues are fixed. They improved a lot after I finally kicked my cold last week. I actually was able to pump 10 oz. on Sunday morning - I felt like a cow! I'm keeping up with the fenugreek pills to help, at least for a few more weeks.

Brett's family is coming into town on Thursday for the Brickyard. Can't wait to see them. We always have so much fun with them. I have my menu planned. I always try to bring 2-3 things over to help with the food. I know Kylie will be so excited to see Dillion, she just thinks he's the best thing ever. We'll have to be careful and considerate so Dillion doesn't overdose on K!

Brett's mom's cousin Dick died this morning at 6:30. S thinks the viewing will be Wednesday evening and funeral on Thursday. I dropped off his suits at the cleaners this morning, they should be ready at noon on Wednesday.

K and I went to the pool in Plainfield today. That waterpark is so fun. K loved it! I could hardly sit down, she kept saying "Get up mommy, come over here". It wasn't too crowded, probably because it was a Monday. S watched M for the morning while we were there. It was nice to have some time with just K. I also stopped by Metropolis and exchanged my new Yankee candle for a scent that I like better. And I got M a pair of knit pants from ON to match a onesie that we have.

PTing is going ok. We did the naked thing for 1.5 days and it went well. No pee accidents. She didn't pooh on the floor or anything either, she would just start grabbing her butt and I'd rush her to the potty but she wouldn't finish going. Last night she actually played with a magnadoodle on the toliet for 15 mins while I tried talking her into poohing. Seemed like she was actually trying but didn't. Today she had a little bit in her panties when we got home from the pool but didn't go anymore when I got her to the potty. I did tell her that she would have to wear diapers like a baby until she started going on the potty. She did not like that at all. She is NOT a baby. And does NOT wear diapers. I also told her that she needs to go in the potty before she can go to school. We'll see if anything happens with this now.

Sunday evening.

Friday evening we volunteered with our small group to do free babysitting at the church. We had about 15 kids!! Wore us all out.

Busy but good weekend. Saturday Brett took Kylie to Art class and I took Matthew to the grocery store. I got food for this weekend for the Brickyard party. Talked to mom too, she sounds like she feels much better. This bronchitis has really knocked her on her butt. I'm glad she is on the mend.

After naps, we went to Tonya's wedding. It was so wonderful to see her clean, sober and healthy and very happy. Her husband is Alejandro, we call him Alex. The wedding itself was very short (we got there late due to getting lost. Kylie asked me "What does frustrated mean? What is wrong with my daddy??). There were probably 50 people there or so. Art, Cathy, Dick, Sharon, John and us were there for our side of the family. It was so impossibly hot that M was miserable. We kept him inside but after a few hours he couldn't handle it anymore so we left. They had a pool and Kylie and John got in it to cool off. Kylie came up to me after dinner, pulling her dress up and said "I can take my shirt off, please?". They had a mariachi band there for a while too that was really good. Interesting to see the Mexicans enjoy it - lots of dancing and singing! Dick wanted to hire them for the Brickyard party but I told B who told D that it's an "in the moment thing" and we'd just stare instead of dance since we don't know any of the songs or dances.

Tom came over after we got home and stayed until 11:30. He seems to be over the divorce but was upset about a girl who he really liked dumping his this past week. Brett and I talked with him and gave him some advice. He's trying to keep his life as normal as possible for his son but doesn't know what his new normal is yet.

M was so tired from the wedding that he slept from 8:30pm - 4:30 am!!!! I could hardly believe it. Tonight I bathed him and put him to bed at 8:30 so we'll see what happens. He very well might be up at midnight looking for dinner, who knows.

Sunday was church and then we went to our friends Andy and Sara's son Joshua's first b-day party. We got a call that Cousin Dick is dying. Brett went to the hospital to be with his mom. I guess he actually flatlined for 18 minutes but they brought him back. So he is brain dead. They turned off the respirator and are waiting for him to die. The man has been miserable for years so this is what he would want. Guess we'll be going to a funeral / visitation this week.

Friday afternoon, kids are napping.

Wednesday night Matthew slept till 2:45 and up at 5. Thursday night he slept till 3:30 and to 6. I don't think cluster feeding him works well, he has been getting up earlier when we do that. I think we'll stick to feeding him at 10:30 for the night. I also want to try to get him into bed for the night earlier, like 7:30ish. Maybe we'll try that this weekend.

PTing is going ok. Kylie didn't have any accidents yesterday with pee. We even went to Gymboree and the fair with no problems. She did poop in the evening on Thursday in her panties while playing outside. Friday, today, we're doing "naked" day. No panties, no clothes at all for Kylie. She has told me every time she needs to go tinkle and she knows now before she starts to go too. She did try to poop in the living today while she was naked. I saw her grabbing at her butt and rushed her to the bathroom. She had already gone a little bit, which fell in the toilet. But she refused to push anymore. We're babysitting at the church tonight with our small group so I'm sure she'll poop there if she doesn't go beforehand.

I had my MK celebration party at my house last night. Cindy came, it was good to see her. She gave us a Polo sleeper for Matthew. And I earned several gifts for my sales - red emerald cut earrings and matching necklace, a silver watch, hoop earrings and I got to wear a bright pink sash that said "Unit Queen of Sales" on it. That was fun! Sharon, Regina and Amy came to the party to celebrate with me.

Nothing much else is going on here. I'll update over the weekend.

Wednesday afternoon, both kids are asleep. We stayed in all morning to work on PTing. She did fine with peeing, actually stayed dry all night long! I had her sit on the potty several times in the morning, especially at 10am because that's her normal poop time. We talked a lot about going poop in the potty and I thought she understood. I even told her that if she didn't go poop in the potty then we would take the Lighting McQueen (LM) car away (it's still in the box until she goes poop but she can play with it while she sits on the potty). Well, I was doing dishs and she was playing in the sink with the bubbles about 1:30 when I smelled something. She got upset when I brought her into the bathroom and flushed the poop. She sat on the toilet for a few minutes but I'm sure she was done. Then I cleaned her up and took LM and put him into the garage. That got her very upset. She kept wanting him and I told her "No, not when you poop in your panties.". So she got her blanket and crawled onto her bed for her nap. I felt really bad for taking the LM away but maybe she will figure it out. She refused to wear a pull-up during her nap, only panties, hopefully she doesn't wake up all wet. I do have a water proof mattress cover so it won't be a big deal to wash the sheets.

I talked to my friend Sara this morning! It's been the first time since she had Sophie. Sophie is doing great, sleeping well. Sara is having a hard time with nursing. I guess Sophie has a very strong latch and is causing "tramatized nipples" on Sara, bleeding and everything. Ouch. Owen seems to be doing good too but wants to be right next to Sara when she is feeding. Nick went back to work today. I guess he wasn't much of a help because he suffered a slipped disk in his back right when they got home from the hospital. So Sara had to take care of him, Owen and Sophie. I wish so bad that I was up there to help her. She doesn't even have anyone to bring her dinner.

Matthew slept ok last night. Up at 2:45 and at 5. He wouldn't settle down at 5 so I was back up at 5:30 changing his diaper and feeding him some more. Frustrating.

It's Tuesday night. Let's see what has happened in my life.

Sunday night M slept terribly. He was up at 1:15, 3:30 and 5:30. I was exhausted. I needed to get the car window fixed so I brought K over to S's and asked if she could keep her till that evening. That way, I could get a nap (seems like every time I need a nap, she decides not to take one!). So glad the car is fixed, you don't realize how much you use your driver side window until you don't have it! I cleaned house after I got home, while Matthew napped. I took a great nap and actually felt much better. It was a nice day so we all hung out outside with our neighbors until K came home.

Monday night he was up at 3:30 so that was a big improvement. I got on my mom's website and nursing website and asked about my milk issues. The general consensus is that my milk is getting hurt by giving bottles at night. And that I just need to keep nursing and my supply will be fine. And I need to relax about the sleeping thing because he is sleeping better then a lot of BF babies at his age. I just need to keep that in mind at 3 am!

Tuesday we went to the Hendricks County Fair and had a good time. We went early in the am so there weren't crowds. Kylie got her face painted like a girl pirate - pink bandana, purple eye patch, skull cross bones, scar. It looked really cute! Kylie liked all the animals, Matthew slept the whole time. K did use the bathroom 3 times, when I asked her too. She had an accident on the way to the car, I forgot to ask if she needed to go before we left and we didn't have enough time to get back to the bathroom.

She also had 4 poop accidents. I'm pretty tired of those. I've told her that she could use a diaper to poop in, it would be cleaner then going in her panties. She doesn't seem to care and/or understand. We've told her she can have a Lighting McQueen car if she goes, just once. No dice. We're staying home all day tomorrow and working on it some more. She's had accidents every time we've been out since Friday so we need to spend the day re-enforcing things. Wish us luck.

We watched Emma, the next door neighbor girl, tonight. Gave her parents a break. They went to the fair. The girls had tons of fun playing. I guess E fights her bath every night. But she had a blast with K so I told her parents the toys we have that E played with, hopefully they will have some luck at their house.

I fed M 3 times between 6 and 9:30, trying to fill him up really good. I hope we have a good night tonight!

It's Sunday so let me catch up from the weekend.

Friday we went to Sara and Gillian's to play. On the way there Kylie told me that Gillian was mean. She's never said that about any kid before so I was really surprised. So I told her that hopefully Gillian wouldn't be mean and she would have fun. And this time I really watched how Gillian played with Kylie. And she is mean - very bossy. Kept telling Kylie that she couldn't do something because she wasn't a big girl, to which I said "Kylie is a big girl and she can do that." And Gillian would get frustrated or mad if Kylie wasn't playing exactly how Gillian thought she should. On the way home, Kylie told me again that Gillian was mean, so we might not do another playdate for a while with them.

Friday night was lots of fun at Howl at the Moon. We met up with people from Brett's work that I've met before. They are all nice people. I had several drinks and was feeling pretty good. The music was fun and I even got some of the ladies to dance on stage with me. We left about 11:30 and picked up Matthew. He was sound asleep so took him home and gave him his last bottle (he didn't drink both at D&S's). Then he slept until 5:30.

Saturday we slept in a little bit. Then watched the tour until Kylie came home (she went to Gymboree Art class with D&S). After she got home, I took her to a health food store to look for some supplements to help with my milk production. The man who owns the store helped me and was very knowledgeable. He has 4 kids, the youngest was only 6 days old. All home births with midwives. He suggested some fenugreek capsules and said that I could get lots of hops by drinking 2 India Pale Alex. He said those 2 beers a day would greatly increase my production. He said this is what he suggests to women who are nursing twins. I thought it was pretty cool of him to suggest something that I couldn't even buy at his store so I got the fenugreek and will try that with the beer.

After the food store, we went to Meijer. I kept asking Kylie if she needed to go to the bathroom - "no, mommy." As we were leaving she says she needs to go. We get to the bathroom and she's already wet and had some poop (for the second time that day). Not cool but what can you do? I can't get upset because I don't want her to get discouraged. So she just sat on a plastic bag all the way home. (I had a change of clothes but we were close to home so I didn't bother).

Saturday evening Lynk, Nancy and Alex came over. We cooked brats, porkchops, corn on the cob on the grill (yummy). We just started this summer cooking sweet corn on the grill. Man, we should have been doing it for years. It tastes so good on the grill. Super hot, buttery, just plain yum. It's like eating summer in Indiana, if you know what I mean. About as Indiana as the State Fair. Which I'm looking forward to. I'm becoming such a Hoosier now. It's taken 9 years but I'm about as Indiana as I can imagine being.

Alex was playing with Kylie in her room and accidentally locked Kylie in the room alone. She didn't know that Kylie didn't know how to open a locked door. Alex got really upset about it. Kylie was fine, we kept telling her we were playing hide and seek. Brett stuck a hanger in the hole of the doorknob but couldn't pop it. Then we tried to take the doorknob off, which didn't do anything. The hinges were on the other side so we couldn't take the door off. And her windows were down and locked so we couldn't go that way. While we were messing with the door, we kept talking to Kylie to keep her mind off of being locked in. We said we were playing hide and seek and she said "Come find me, I'm in here!". Brett eventually got a credit card and used it to push the latch in and open the door. I don't think she was stuck more then 7 or 8 minutes but I sure was glad to get that door open!

Saturday night, Matthew went to bed after his bath so about 9pm. I "dreamfeed" him at 11 and he slept until 3:15. Then was up at 5:30 but I just put a pacifier in his mouth and he went back to sleep. We worked in the nursery during first service. We had one boy who would not stop crying. I think he was quite for 20 minutes the entire service. Brett was taking care of him while I was playing with another girl. After a while I could tell that Brett was out of ideas so we switched but then Matthew needed to eat. A lady from the other nursery came over and got him to be quite, which worked for a while but then he got all upset again. I was glad when he parents came to get him!

Kylie did ok with the potty at Sunday school. She wears a tag that says "Please take me to the potty." but I don't know how well the workers pay attention to that. I took her when we first got there so she knew where it was, which she told me she already knew that. And I guess Kylie told the helpers several times that she needed to go but didn't actually pee. Then she had an accident. What can you do? You take her when she says she needs to but she doesn't. The she pees in her dress. Oh well, I guess the workers in the 2 year old class are pretty used to that.

We were going to the St. Chris fest after church, told Kylie we were going and everything. Pull up and it's all packed up. It was over last night. Kylie got all upset and confused. So we went to D&S's instead to go swimming, which she didn't want to do. So we went to the park and then to Baskin Robbins instead. Now everyone is napping. Brett is out at Best Buy getting a new video camera for the wrestling club. We use theirs for our personal use and had it in NC. The camera messed up somehow and the tape doesn't play right so we need a new camera to play the video. I don't completely understand it, that's why Brett handles these things.

Floyd Landis won the Tour de France. Very cool. Sure didn't look like he would win on Wednesday but he had the ride of his life on Thursday to make up for it. Very cool that an American wins again. I'm sure the French hate us even more. Oh well.

Not much new to report. It's Friday afternoon. I'm feeling better from my cold but Kylie has it now. Yesterday I felt like complete crap. Both kids are napping, I was laying down but B called me so now I'm awake and watching the Tour de France.

M slept till 3 on Wednesday night. Why only till 3? I don't know, we're doing the same thing as the night he slept till 5 and till 4. Thursday night Brett didn't feed him until almost midnight and gave him 5 oz that time. He slept until 5:30, which was very good for me to get that rest. But I'm having a hard time keeping up with pumping that much every morning. It doesn't allow for me to pump any to store for another time, like when I'm leaving him with D&S or something. Example - tonight we're going out to Howl at the Moon. I'm leaving D&S with 2 bottles that I had to defrost from my stash. If I keep using the milk I pump in the morning for the late night bottle, then I can't store any. I have 4 or 5 feedings in the freezer now, which is good. I'm looking into ways to increase my supply. I can buy a tea and drink that but I hate tea. I can buy the tea in pill form but it's $26 for 15 days. I can look at getting hops in pill form. I'm drinking tons of water and eating plenty. I'm eating oatmeal, which is helping. I could add some formula to what I pump during the day so I wouldn't have to use all that I pump every night but I don't want to open that can of worms. I really want to keep M exclusively BF. I guess I'll figure something out. Brett seems to really like giving him that last feeding and I don't want to take that away.

We had Gymboree yesterday. Kylie was so proud to tell her teacher and friends that she's using the potty. No accidents there either. She still went poop in her panties later that day but at least she's peeing consistently in the potty.

We also went to the St. Chris festival last night with D&S. The food was yummy - homemade blueberry pie, mmm. Kylie rode several rides, all by herself. Even this space shuttle ride that swung out a little bit. No fear, she was just excited. And she went into the fun house with John. Part of it was a rope net that she had to climb. John said "I'll have to carry you up to the top." But I told Kylie that it was just like at Gymboree and she could do it - and she did. Plus she used the potty several times there too. And she picked the winning number for a fruit basket! What a nice evening.

My dad stayed at our house last night. Kylie played with him until her bed time. He held Matthew most of the night before I put him to bed too. We all watched the tour together. Can't believe what an amazing day Floyd Landis had. Truly amazing. I'm watching now but can't tell where he is at or how he is doing yet.

I haven't heard anything from Sara since she called to tell me about Sophie. I hope she is doing well. I know how overwhelming those first few weeks are. I remember wanting to call and talk to her but having no energy or tons of stuff to get done. I'll give her some time to get home and adjusted. I can't wait to see pictures of the little one.

I cashed in my Gymbucks yesterday. I filled up my shopping cart at 10pm on Wednesday and then logged on-line after feeding M at 3:00 a.m. One of my favorite items was already sold out! In three hours! Those Gymboree addicts are crazy (no, I'm not an addict!)

That's about it, I'll write about Friday later.

What a day. I'm exhausted. Beat. Dead-tired.

We went shopping with S, which was nice. There was a big sale at Old Navy so S got the kids several outfits each as well as getting me a pair of jeans and 2 shirts and B a shirt. Then we went to Penny's and S got the kids some more fall clothes. I think with these clothes, plus the ones I already have and the ones I'm ordering from Gymboree using my Gymbucks coupons, will be enough for both of them. Cool!

K did good at the mall with pottying. She told me 3 times that she needed to go and had one accident. That wasn't really her fault, she told S that she needed to go but I wasn't there so S had to get Matthew and Kylie and get to me (I was in line at Culvers) so by the time I got K to the bathroom, she had already gone. And she pooped in her panties twice this afternoon. And one accident on the floor but that was because she was so upset about having to go to bed that she just lost it. Tomorrow is Gymboree so we'll see how we do with that. I'll be really happy to tell my mom friends that Kylie is working so hard and doing so well.

Speaking of mom friends, Sara had her baby. I was right, it's a GIRL!! Born at 10:58 a.m. and weighed 7lbs, 2 oz. Sophia Rose and they will call her Sophie. I guess they were both shocked that she was a girl. The labor went so fast that the doctor didn't make it. One of his partners had to deliver and I guess was putting on his shoe covers when Sophie was coming out! I really wish I could be there to see Sara and Sophie but Sara doesn't think she can handle company for a while. But they'll be down here in September so I'll see her then! I'm sure she is beautiful.

Kylie didn't take a nap so I didn't get any type of break this afternoon. The house seems trashed, toys everywhere. I've done more laundry then I can count due to the PTing. I am so drained.

K also likes watching herself on the wedding video. She talks about being a flower girl and shows me how she walked. She actually told me that "Devin wasn't at the wedding. Devin was at the dinner." How does she remember the name of a kid she met once for a few hours more then two weeks ago?

Matthew did sleep until 4am this morning. Not through the night but close. Unfortunatly, I wasn't tired and didn't fall asleep until midnight so I didn't take advantage of it. Not tonight, I'm hitting the hay very soon. I have a cold that is kicking my butt too. And since I'm BFing, I don't want to take anything for it. Grrr...

Brett has been busy with work. He didn't get home last night until 9. He's training to learn a new product so that's been keeping him busy. He works so hard to provide for us, we're lucky.

That's about it. I'm going to bed.

The excitement continues at the Nabb household. Matthew slept through the night last night. B gave him a 4 oz bottle at 10:15 and he slept from 10:30-5am, without waking up. I could hardly believe it. I didn't sleep as well since I kept waking up and checking the clock and listening for M. We'll keep giving him a bottle to see if this continues. I hope it does!

PTing went well again today with K. She peed several times and didn't even think about protesting when I told her to pick out panties for the day and take off her diaper. I think it's becoming a habit for her now. No accidents for pee. She did poop her panties again. I've talked with mom's on my mommy board and I guess pooping can just take a lot longer for them to feel comfortable with doing. We won't push it, hopefully I'll catch her getting ready to go and get her on the potty fast.

We went to S's for swimming this morning for a little while. K did well there again. I left her there while I took M to get my hair cut and colored. It looks good, very blonde and shorter then before. I brought our car into the dealership to have the window looked at. It broke and won't go up after you put it down. Turns out it's a common problem, so common that the part to fix it is on national backorder and won't be in for 3 weeks or so. Great.

Checked in on K with S. I guess she pooped again in her panties and it got pretty messy and she got upset. Maybe that will help her figure it out. But I guess she pooped again as soon as they put her diaper on for bed. As long as she pees and doesn't poop in her panties, then that's cool for now. If she feels most comfortable pooping in her diaper at night, then that's fine. She'll figure it out soon. S even took her to McD's and K went twice there. And they went to the park and she didn't need to go then.

I know most of these blogs have been about PTing but that's the only thing I'm really working on in my life right now! It's such a big deal. Between K pting and M sleeping through the night, I feel like I got the best high of my life today!

Josh and Sarah both called to congratulate Kylie on doing so well with PTing. I talked to my mom this morning, she is very upset about her diabetes. I guess she has to try new medicine to keep it under control. It has me concerned because she gets so upset about it herself. And then she gets morbid, thinking she'll die early. Which isn't true if she takes care of herself. She worries me, especially with dad traveling. Retirement can't come soon enough for them! I know Brett is concerned about me keeping healthy and my weight under control so I don't hopefully develop it later in life.

My best friend Sara is at the hospital right now, being induced. I'm guessing Girl, 7lbs, 5oz. I wish I was closer to her to help, it must really suck to be 6 hours away from family right now.

That's about it for now.

Things are still going well with the potty training (PT). Yesterday she did well even going to the bathroom at Olive Garden and got out of the pool again to use the potty. Very good. She did go poop at church in the nursery but we had a change of clothes so it wasn't much of a big deal. She did tell the teacher right away that she did it and needed to go to the bathroom. So it's starting to make sense to her, I don't think it will be long before it all connects.

We had a nice weekend with my parents. Sunday we went to church and then to lunch at Olive Garden. I actually tried something new, something with VEGETABLES in it!! And I LIKED it! Who would have thought? After naps yesterday, we went swimming at D&S's. It wasn't blazing hot so that was nice.

Matthew slept well last night, not as good as Saturday night when he slept until nearly 4am before waking up to eat. He got up at 1:30 but I had just fed him at 10:30 so I sent Brett in to give him a pacifier (Matthew won't settle down if he sees me but will if it's B.) Then he was up at 2:45. Still earlier then I would like but not bad. Then he was up again at 6:30 but wouldn't go back to sleep so that was when my day started! Tonight I'm going to have Brett give M a bottle of 4oz to see if that will help him sleep later. Maybe he eats more from the bottle then when he eats but falls asleep with me.

Monday- We're staying in today to work on the PTing. I gave Kylie watered down juice for breakfast, thinking it will keep her busy on the potty. It's now 3pm and she's gone more then 10 times on the potty. Most of the time she wets a little in her panties and then runs to the bathroom yelling "I have to go potty-potty!!". Sometimes, she'll realize before she goes that she needs to go. And twice she just went without saying anything until it was too late. And unfortunately, she has pooped twice in her panties. But she told me (showed me once) that she had gone and needed to get clean. It will take some time but I think if we work hard and are consistent this week, that she'll get it. Pray for us!!

What an exciting weekend so far. I think Kylie is really serious about potty training now. She wore panties all day yesterday and only had two accidents. She even got out of the pool (we went swimming at D&S's) to go instead of going in her swimmy diaper. That means that she knew she need to go before feeling wet since she wouldn't have noticed feeling wet in the pool. The two accidents she had weren't a big deal, the first was in the car going over to D&S's and the second was in the evening while she was busy playing. No poop yet, she says it's sleeping. We told her she gets a "My Little Pony" if she goes poop so we'll see what happens when the urge hits.

Matthew slept pretty good, up at 2:30 and at 6:00. Kylie was up at 7:15, came into our room to wake us up. Much different then when she wasn't able to open the door and would just call our name until we got her. It's sweet to open my eyes and see her face inches away from mine.

We had a nice day with my parents. It was so hot that after Kylie got back from art class, we all headed over to the pool. We brought KFC for lunch and stayed a little over 2 hours. Kylie is doing better and better with swimming, such a big girl. You have to pull her out of the pool before she'll get out - her lips turn purple and she's shivering but she still wants to stay in!

After swimming everyone took naps. Then Brett and I got ready to go to Les Miserables. We went to dinner at the hibachi grill at Jillians (no one was there, we were the only people in the whole restaurant). Black Expo is this weekend so downtown was very busy. After dinner we went to the play which was awesome! The music was great, the set and costumes were amazing. The actors were great. I was very impressed. Brett didn't like it as much as me but I think he appreciated it, but didn't love it like me. But he's not an art guy so I understand that. I just appreciate the fact that he'll take me and not complain. ;-) What a great guy.

What an exciting day!! First off, Matthew slept well, he didn't wake for his first feeding until 3:30 a.m. Brett got up to feed him since I had pumped a bottle so I didn't need to get out of bed until nearly 7:00! Amazing and wonderful. I'm so thankful that B is willing to help at night, it makes a big difference for me, even just one night a week is a big help. I hope Matthew sleeps as well tonight. His Dr. did say that he's getting close to the 12lb mark which is the "magic sleep through the night" number. We'll see, I think it's more of a maturity level in the baby then a weight gain.

We went to see Cars today. Kylie loved it and I thought it was really good too. Matthew slept most of the time. During the movie, I noticed that K had dirtied her diaper and it stunk. I didn't have the diaper bag and frankly, didn't want to leave the movie to get it and change her (there was only about 20 minutes left). So she waited and as we were leaving she said her diaper was falling off. I checked and it was very full especially since I had changed her before we left for the movie, I guess drinking most of the medium Sprite will do that to a little kid. Anyway, I told her she would just have to wait, that I would change her when we got home. We get home, I change her and a little while later she tells me that she's going tinkle in her diaper. I asked if she wanted to sit on the potty and she said Yes (!!). She had already finished going but she did sit on the potty without arguing. Then she asked if she could wear her big girl panties, another shocker. So I let her pick them out and she had them on for about 30 minutes when she told me she was going tinkle so I pulled off her panties and put her on the potty (we were in the bathroom when this happened, washing our hands). And she went!!!! She was excited, I was excited, we were all thrilled. Her panties were damp because she didn't realize that she was going until she felt it. We got new panties out and tried again. About 15 minutes later, she told me she was going tinkle again and we hurried to the bathroom. Repeat from before. More excitement! Again I had to get her new panties. After an hour or so, it was time for us to go to dinner with my parents so I told K that we needed to change to pull-ups, which she didn't want to do but she didn't want to sit on the potty again. All she wanted to do was wash her hands. So, she was washing her hands and suddenly, she got down from the chair she was standing on, went to the potty chair, pulled down her panties and went all on her own. And her panties were still dry!! So she knew before going that she needed to go. What a big step for us. She's never told me before that she was going, it was always us catching her at the right time, just dumb luck. But now she's telling us. She did stay dry all through dinner but refused to go potty before we left the restaurant. She informed me as we were driving home that she was going tinkle. Five minutes later and she would have made it home. She didn't want to try any more the rest of the night. I hope this is a turning point for us. I really think that if she decides to do this that the training will be very easy. She just has to decide to do it. (Sorry that I'm so detailed about this but it's a big deal in our house and I want to remember the details in case we have a set back later.)

I talked to my best friend Sara today. She is 38 weeks pregnant. She had her appointment today and the doctor scheduled an induction for Thursday. She is really hoping to go before then, she doesn't want an induction. I hope she does. She was induced with her son and want to see what going naturally is like. I think it's a girl.

My parents got into town this evening about 6. They met us at Cazuala's which is my favorite Mexican restaurant. I had a Mango margarita and got a little buzz off it. My dinner was yummy as usual. I'm glad they are visiting, it's great to see them with Kylie and Matthew. I think if it's not rainy tomorrow we'll probably head over to D&S's for swimming after K's art class. That's about the only thing you can do in this heat.

Not much has happened lately. Matthew was pretty fussy after his shots, he ended up with a fever of 100.4 on Wednesday night from his shots. I called the Ped just to make sure. So he was up at 1:30 and 5 because of the fever. That made for a long, tired day for me on Thursday. We went to Gymboree for Kylie and just came home and played until nap time. Then we all crashed, it felt so good to nap for nearly two hours! I don't normally nap, not since I got used to getting up with M, which happened by the time he was 3 weeks old. I sleep better a night by not napping during the day. Sometimes I get cranky with the kids but I try to keep it in check.

We went swimming last night at D&S's. It was hot so it was nice to get in. Kylie loves the water. It's scary how much she likes it. I worry all the time about her drowning. But she seems to understand that she can't go near the pool without an adult holding her hand. I know I won't relax until she knows how to swim well. She does have a swimsuit that has a lifejacket attached to it that she likes to wear. We've been working on teaching her to kick and use her arms to move in the water (with one of us holding her around the waist). Yesterday she actually was able to "swim" from person to person on her own. We didn't hold her or anything. The suit helped her float and she kicked to where she wanted to go. She's a little fish. I wonder if it's too late to get her enrolled in swim classes?

My parents are driving in to town this evening. Brett got me Les Mes tickets for my birthday and it's tomorrow night. So they are babysitting both kids for us. I'm looking forward to a nice night out. And next Friday we're going to Howl at the Moon with Brett's work. D&S will watch the kids that night.

We're all getting excited about the Nebraska family coming into town in a few weeks. It will be great to see them all. We always have such a nice time. Hopefully this time everyone can just relax and enjoy themselves - no pre-planned activities other then sitting around the pool. We will have people over to our house that Friday for a party too. I'll have to start coming up with a guest list and menu in the next few weeks for that.

I finished putting the pictures into our vacation Ofoto album. It's 57 pages long! Brett and I will do the captions together, he comes up with some funny lines, better then I can do.

I think that's about it for us today.

Rough night with M's sleeping. I put him down at 11 but he was up at 1:15. Then back down by 1:30 (I don't think he was very hungry, just looking for some comfort) and up again at 4:30, when he ate a good amount. I get pretty tired when he's up twice a night, I can handle once a night but up twice is hard. Oh well, he may start sleeping through soon, I hope.

We're still working hard at trying to figure out how to get K potty trained. She doesn't have any interest in it. She's happy to sit in a dirty diaper for hours if you let her. Just in the past week or so, she started telling us that she's dirty and wants to get changed so maybe we're getting closer.

Matthew had his 2 month appointment this afternoon. He is a chunk! Eleven pounds, 6 oz. That's the 45 percentile for weight, 23 inches which is the 50 percentile for length. He's bigger then Kylie by a month (she didn't hit those measurements until 3 months). Dr. Collings isn't concerned with his hernia at all, said it's very common and is actually small. She expects it to heal on its own but may take up to two years. It doesn't cause him any pain so there is no need to make a big deal about it. She also said that he's getting big enough to possibly start sleeping through the night but we'll see. He did get 4 shots which were harder on mom and dad then on him. But he calmed right down after nursing for a few minutes (he's such a boob man!).

All in all, it was a good appointment. We did ask about tips to help Kylie with potty training and she gave us some ideas. Most of which we've tried already. But she said not to stress about it that she might be more interested in it after she starts school and sees other kids her age using the potty. Let's hope that is true.

We went to the Children's museum this morning. It's getting easier to take both kids out by myself. Still not second nature yet but at least I don't feel like crying anymore! I just put M in the Moby Wrap so I have my hands free and he snoozes for hours in there. I let Kylie walk around so no need to haul out the stroller this time. It was pretty busy today. They have a new traveling exhibit about Seseam Street that Kylie loved. And she's really interested in the "Mystery's in History" area, which is all about pioneer life. Which is interesting since I always loved and still do like that type of history. Maybe she'll want to be Laura Ingalls like I did! Guess we could make a trip up to Walnut Grove and see Uncle Josh on the way. I have heard that you can take a Laura Ingalls Wilder road trip, to see the different towns that she lived in. I would like that but I think Brett would be bored out of his mind.

Josh sent some new tunes for my Ipod, TV theme songs like Mac Giver, Knight Rider, GI Joe, Smurfs and stuff. Rather funny. Although, I had to delete some off my Ipod to make room, it got full after Brett added some of his own songs on there (mainly 70's stuff from his childhood, after all, he's a hippie at heart, being born in 1969 and all.)

I'm uploading pictures from our NC trip onto Ofoto now. I want to make a photo album in the next few days. We got so many great pictures. I love our new digital camera, it takes great pictures, well worth the money. I'm glad we took so many, that way when K and M get older, they can look at them and hear all about our trip.

That's about it here.

So, we went to the Outer Banks of N.C a few weeks ago. It was a great time. We met up with my parents, brother, grandmother, Aunt Brenda and Uncle Jack, Sara Roberts and her friend Claudia. We all rented a house in Corolla, about 200 yards from the beach. We flew out there, which was a challenge. You have to have so much stuff with two kids - 2 car seats, clothes, diapers, wipes, some toys, stroller, ect... We were lucky enough to give some of our stuff to my aunt and uncle and some to my parents to bring with them since they were driving (trailering their Harley's). We managed to get our luggage checked and all our carry-on items on. Kylie was great on the plane, she liked being next to the window in her car seat. Matthew just slept the whole time in either Brett or I's arms. We flew into Norfolk and had a 3 hour drive to the house. The house was very nice, plenty of room. We were put in the furthest room because no one wanted to hear Matthew crying in the middle of the night! Kylie stayed with my brother in another room. But after he woke her up getting into the top bunk, he stayed in another room. So little Kylie was the only one who got her own room!
The beach was great. Kylie loved it and had so much fun playing in the sand, waves, and looking for crabs and shells. There was another family with several kids a little older then her that she would watch. You could tell that she wanted to play too but they all seemed to hang out together and didn't notice her.
There were some rainy days but that's to be expected. We did take a Horse Safari to see the wild horses in Corolla. They are descendents of horses that were shipwrecked on the island 400 years ago. We all piled into a old Suburban and drove onto the beach where they are allowed to roam freely. There is too much traffic now for them to be completely free so they are fenced into about 10,000 acres. We saw 5 or 6 herds, which had between 3-6 horses in each. It was very cool to see them on the beach, right next to the water. I don't have pictures to post yet but I will include some later.

Kylie and Brett climbed the Currituck lighthouse, 214 stairs. He carried her up but she climbed all the way down herself. I stayed below to videotape with Matthew.

The whole reason we were on vacation was because Kylie had been asked to be the flowergirl at my cousins wedding on July 1st. So we drove up to Norfolk for the wedding on Saturday morning. Kylie had done ok at the rehearsal the night before (we drove back that night to help insure that she would nap in the car on Saturday, no nap = crabby toddler which no one wants at a wedding). We stressed to her that she would only get one chance to walk down the aisle in her beautiful dress. Once we got to the church, Kylie saw the bride, Alli, and seemed to "get" that this was a big deal. She did great with the pictures and then I took her out of her dress until the wedding. Kylie was a little hesitent to walk down the aisle when the doors opened, but the ring bearer, Henri, kinda pulled her and got her started. Then she did beautifully, even dropped the petals from her basket and everything. She did so well that I could rent her out as a flowergirl for some serious money!! I was so thrilled when she did it that I could have cried (I think I did a little bit). Brett told me that he was more nervous for Kylie then he was for some very big wrestling matches when he was young! So we both sighed in relief when she pulled it off.

The reception was lots of fun. The food was good and so was the music. Kylie was annouced with the rest of the bridal party and actually stood still on the dance floor with everyone while the bride and groom had their first dance. Then it was the bridal party dance and with a little encouragement, the ring bearer agreed to dance with Kylie. So cute!! Then we couldn't get her off the dance floor. At one point, I looked over and saw her sitting in the middle of the floor, pulling off her shoes and socks (what woman likes to keep on uncomfortable shoes??). Her feet were black by the end of the night. Kylie also had her first taste of champange. I had put her water in the champange glass because she thought it was so pretty. Later, the glasses were filled for the toast and I didn't know it. Kylie took her glass, took a big drink, spit it out and told me it was "nasty"! LOL! Matthew pretty much just slept the whole time, I don't think most people knew he was there. But we did get many comments on how adorable he is. Which he is. ;-)

That's about it for our vacation. We had a great time!

I thought it would be a good idea to start a blog for our family. Things get so busy but we have so many moments that we want to remember but don't write down. So, blog seems to be the answer.

Matthew is 9 weeks old now. He's sleeping pretty good at night. He normally wakes up about 3 and then again at 6. Most of the time he goes back to sleep for a few hours. But I don't. I try to snooze until Brett gets out of the shower and then I get in. I like to be showered and ready before the kids get up. This allows me to feel "ready" for the day. I may be a SAHM, but I treat it like a job and I need to be up, ready to work, before the kids are.
It's raining today and we're going to my friend Betsy's to have a playdate. It's good to get out of the house, we all seem to enjoy a change of scenery.
Let me think of some funny moments that have happened lately that I should record. Kylie, 2.5 years, has started calling Matthew "Little Man" just like Brett. Before, when he would call him little Man, she would correct him and say "No, his name is Matthew Stanley. " Her favorite phrases now are "cool" and "unbelievable", which is a big word for her but she says it pretty well. She wants to know what is going on with Matthew at all times. Last week, she was eating breakfast and I jumped into the shower (she was up early so I couldn't get ready before she got up). I put Matthew on the bed while I was in the bathroom. A few minutes later, she comes into the bathroom and pulls back the shower curtain, looks up at me through the water falling on her face and says "I looked everywhere, I can't find Matthew, he's not in his crib!" I smiled and told her he was on my bed. She was very relieved and told Matthew that she was very worried about him. Cute!
Matthew has an umbilical hernia. Basically his belly button has become an outie. It looks like a big bubble stuck on his belly. I guess it's not uncommon for babies and is caused by straining, which he does all the time. He goes to the Dr for his 2 month appt tomorrow so we'll see what the Dr thinks. Hopefully he won't need to have surgery. He will get a few shots which is normal for a 2 month appointment. :-( He's smiling better and more often now. I love catching those smiles, they are so special right now.
We just got back from our vacation to the Outer Banks. I'll write more about that later, too much for this short amount of time. I need to get Kylie dressed so we can go on our playdate!