Halloween Fun

I'm just trying to check up my blog so here is how our Halloween Week went which is now three weeks late.

First, we go to the library twice a week generally. Tuesday is book babies so I'm in there with Robert and Hailey. On Thursday, Hailey gets to be in there by herself for 40 minutes. For the week of Halloween, the sweet story lady took the kids on a Halloween Parade to the different desk so they could get candy. I thought it would be a great way to introduce Robert to the concept of Trick-or-Treating.

However, leaving to go there was not easy. I had the kids ready and Hailey's hair done nicely. I wanted to just put on their costumes on at the library but Hailey looked cold and asked for Snow White. So right before, we walked out the door, I put it on her. Then I strapped her in the car and went to the other side to put Robert in. When I opened the side door, I heard Hailey cry "Accident!" At that point my patience level dropped. She had peed a lot all over her seat, shorts, and costume. So I strapped Robert in the car and ran inside to get extra panties, pants, and a little tutu so she is still dressed in something.

I start undressing her in the car and then Hailey said she needed to pee more. I knew she didn't but still took Robert out of the car and carried my naked bum girl in the house. She sits for a little bit and tells me she's all done and didn't pee. I quickly got her dressed again and put everyone in the car, again. Luckily, I'm in the practice now to leave the house a half hour before so we weren't late.

The kids greatly enjoyed story time and the parade while I tried to hide the fact that I was completely out of patience.



Hailey went to story time on Thursday with Luc (he didn't have school so I had him all day). This time it went a lot better and both Hailey and Luc put on their costumes at the library.

On Friday, the ward held their trunk-or-treat, followed by dinner and a carnival. Since it was cold outside, the trunk-or-treat got moved inside. So I was lined up in the hall to pass out the candy as Nathan took the kids around. Thankfully, a husband in the ward got his wife and me soft chair to sit in.

The kids had fun with daddy and got a lot of goodies.

The Chilly dinner was great. Hailey and Robert just ran around the gym, playing games. Robert liked the fishing one the best and just stood by it most of the time.

Finally, it's really Halloween Night. Nathan took the kids around the complex while I passed the candy out. Not a whole lot of people came by so we still had a lot of left over candy.

This is the best picture we were able to get of Robert in his Scarecrow outfit. He looked so cute but was constantly on the move. He figured out this whole candy thing and was excited.

To end our Halloween night, we went over to Chloe and Luc's house to have pumpkin pie.

This is the most we have done for Halloween so far. There were so many places we could have gone to.

Potty Update

Today's been a long busy day for me with a lot of errands, a late lunch, late quiet time, and a fun but late night at a church dance.

However, Hailey had a great day.

We have been potty training for over a month now and she has only had three dry days. For some strange reason, all three days were Sundays. Also I only remember her pooping in the potty twice which means a lot of laundry for me since those kind of accidents generally happen during quiet time in her bed.

Lately, Hailey has been holding it all morning which is frustrating for me because I hold off my plans until she pees in the potty. Today started off like that. She peed once before breakfast and won't go again. Since I wanted to run errands, I decided to go along with it and just stop at every potty we see. But she did not go the whole time.

I'm driving back home around 1:00pm and smell something funny, so I asked Hailey and she said she pooped in her panties. But when we got home, she was dry as can be (however, sleeping Robert needed a change).

So we had lunch and I'm low on patience and very anxious about Hailey having an accident. And still she won't go in the potty; she tries and sits there but no success. I leave my fate in her hands and continue with our routine of one hour quiet time. About a half hour into it, she opens the door. I shout up my usually questions: "Did you pooped?" "No." "Did you pee?" "No." "Sit on the potty and keep the door closed."

A couple of minutes later, she opens the door and shouts "I peed!" "Where?" was my immediate response. "In the potty!" (We keep her little potty in her room for this reason.) This was great to hear and I ran up stairs to help her finish the process (wipe, flush, wash hands). Since "she listened to her body", Hailey got two fruit snacks (we run out of fruit snacks downstairs and am trying to wean her off needing a treat). So after big congrats, I send her back to her room to finish her quiet time.

A couple of minutes later, she opens her door. I shout up my usually questions: "Did you pooped?" "No." "Did you pee?" "No." "Sit on the potty and keep the door closed." So she closed the door.

A couple of minutes later, she opens her door again. I shout up my usually questions: "Did you pooped?" "No." "Did you pee?" "No." "Sit on the potty and keep the door closed." So she closed the door.

A couple of minutes later, she opens the door and shouts "I pooped!" "Where?" was my immediate response. "In the potty!" And that was the greatest moment I had that day! So we finished the process and she asked to two pieces of fruit snacks which I gladly gave and sent her back to bed to finish quiet time.

When Nathan heard this, he told Hailey he will take her out to ice cream tomorrow. (we are trying to have them have daddy daughter time)

Ending the story here would still make it a great day but I still have good news.

Hailey had an accident free day!!!

In Joy School** we are talking about goals and she just finished her first goal of making her bed, so we set another goal of having dry days. We are back to the sticker chart method.

Sadly, I know that I might not get another day like this for a month or two but still it's good to remember the accomplishments on the way.

**Side note: I do Joy School with just Hailey after quiet time. To find out about what we are doing go to HaileySchool.blogspot.com

Hannah's Coat

Unfortunately, it's been cold here, it has even snowed once. Since the weather changed, I've had to quickly run around and get them new winter clothes. Hailey is now in 3T and Robert is in 18m clothes. Also their feet grew and Hailey's in size 7 and Robert is in size 5s.

I've been thinking about Hannah coming in the middle of winter and have been keeping my eye out for warmer clothes. Hailey has cute baby clothes but they are all for the summer. So when we were at Walmart right before Conference and I saw cute snow suits for $20, I had to get it. Hailey loved the coat especially since it is for Hannah and held it the whole time we were at the store.

When we got home and were ready for Conference, Hailey set up a chair for Hannah and spread her coat over the seats.

So as for an update on the pregnancy:

I am 31 weeks on Tuesday and now have doctor appointments every other week. We are having a little girl and will name her Hannah Marie Clements. Hailey is very excited about Hannah coming and most of the time thinks that she is pregnant with Hannah too.

We were walking to the mail box when Hailey told me her tummy hurt. I asked if it was the baby and she said yes, the baby was hurting her. When we got back to the apartment and got a drink, Hailey said the baby felt a lot better.

Robert has no idea what is going on and has been getting more clingy to me.

I have pretty uneventful pregnancies and the doctor tells me the baby is on track growth wise. Hannah moves a lot and likes to stay very close to the surface which makes my belly button stick out already.

I'm not ready for her to come because I feel like I need to have Christmas shopping done. Also I know they really she could come any time after Thanksgiving so I want everything ready for then.

Dancers

We were having a lazy morning, when Robert decided to change the channel on the TV. The channel above PBS is a classical, art type program. Robert switched it when a ballet was on. They started dancing and Hailey wanted to get danced up. Robert also wanted a dance skirt. Too bad my camera was basically out of battery because after these pictures were taken, they held hands and danced around together. I love me cute kids and they are cuter when they are playing nice together.

First Week of Potty Training

First here is a little background on our potty training experience. We first started potty training Hailey at 2 1/2 years. After doing it for about a month, I realized that Hailey just wasn't ready. She didn't care whether so was wet or not. The rewards just weren't helping so I just stopped.

When Hailey turned 3 she started talking about the potty, so I knew we were getting close to potty training again. However, I wasn't ready to deal with it and we weren't at home very much during the summer. (She had dance twice a week and park lunches everyday)

Now that the fall semester started, I decided we would potty train again. For the first two weeks, she kept fighting it and I gave her a choice on whether she wants panties or diapers. She started choosing diapers all the time and really fought me. If I convince her to wear panties, she wouldn't go on the potty. Also whenever we went out, I put her in pull ups.

Since all this wasn't working for me, I remembered that the books "How to Potty Train in One Day" had the children spend the first half of the day training her doll. So, Hailey and I spent almost two whole days potty training "Briella" (she wets when she is given a bottle).

Since Hailey did such a great job training her doll, she got to pick out new panties. She picked out Tinkerbell panties. This happened last Thursday night.

So now that's it's been a week of Hailey wearing panties all day until bed time when she gets pull ups. During her hour quiet time she is still in panties and has a potty in her room. She only used that potty one day and has peed in her bed three times.

Hailey has had one completely dry day which was Sunday. Generally, we have 5 accidents a day. We talk about good choices and bad choices. She knows that wetting her panties it a bad choice and to make it better she needs to go on the potty. However, knowing the right answers and actually doing it is different. When Hailey does use the potty she gets one Princess Fruit Snacks (she also picked those out).

We have a pee-pee timer to is set to go off every 20 minutes. Then it generally takes 5-10 minutes to convince Hailey to go on the potty and sit long enough to count to 10. By the end of the day I am out of patience and discourage but it's only been a week. Hopefully, by the time the baby comes Hailey will be completely trained. I have about 3 months left. Wish me luck!

It's a GIRL!!!!

This is my favorite part during my pregnancies. I love finding out the sex of the baby. I love to plan, prepare and decorate. The baby seems more real to me and this is also around the time that baby starts moving. I like to identify the movements and personality with the sex of the baby. I don't think calling the baby an it even though that's the easier pronoun to use before we know what it is.

I was very surprised to find out that it was a girl. I had no idea one way or the other. I'm excited to get my little preemie dresses out again. Dressing up a girl is so much fun. There's a yellow flowery dress that is my favorite. However, she's in the wrong season and no one will see the close clothes with all the layers she'll need on.

Hailey thought it was a girl so having that confirmed is no big deal to her. Robert still has no idea what is going on and will soon be out numbered.

More importantly, I have having a healthy baby. She is measuring on track and was a little stubborn with the ultrasound tech. She wouldn't let the tech have a good look at her heart but eventually lost that battle.
Here's her profile.

In the picture on the left, she has her hand by her face. In the picture of the right you can see both hands.

Here are her tiny legs.

This baby is very precious to me.

Pioneer Parade

Hailey was in the pioneer parade for her dance class. It's funny that she had a parade the day we left to go to Iowa and the day we came home was the Chubbuck Day parade that she was supposed to be a part of also.

She was so excited about her frog dance shirt which is huge on her.
We stayed around her float until the parade was close to starting. We drove to the end and found a nice grassy spot to sit.
Robert was very happy about being outside and stayed close by us.
Chloe and Luc's parents stayed with the float. Their dad ended up being in charge of the music.

Their float was on top of a huge tow truck. The cute little cheerleader sitting down is Chloe. To the right of her (looking at the picture) is Luc with green sunglasses. Their teacher is next to him in a black shirt. Hailey however, was behind her teacher and I couldn't get a picture of her.

Chloe's mom walked beside the float the whole time. At the beginning when the float started, Hailey got scared and Jenny ended up carrying her for a while. I'm glad they were there, being pregnant, I couldn't have done that.

It's kinda of a cool moment to see Hailey in a parade. I didn't think this time would come so quickly, I was expecting junior high. Most likely she's stay with this gym and do the parade again next year.