Build a Bear

I can not believe how time flies. Kaylie's dear friend Claire has just turned 3. The two are such good friends. They may not get to see each other all the time but when they do they act like they had never been away. That is the sign of true friends.

This year Claire had her birthday at Build a Bear. We were so excited until the day of her birthday. We ended up having to cancel for yet another major respiratory infection. We figured it wouldn't be nice to share with Claire and the other kids on such a special day so we ended up missing the celebration.

Thankfully, Ms. Way Way wanted to make sure Kaylie got to enjoy the party even if it was a few days later so Monday (Valentine's Day) we met up with them to reenact the party. The girls had so much fun. Kaylie was so excited to make her first bear ever. She was a little frightened to add a heart to the bear and absolutely loved bathing her new friend. We finished up by picking out an outfit for each of the bears and used bows to accessorize her ears. Afterwards we went to the Safari store, road the train and played in the play area before having a lunch of Chick Fil A. All in all it was a great day!!! Happy birthday sweet Claire! We love you!!!

Brown Dog's new friend

Ms. Kathy gave Kaylie a new friend named Dotters. He is just like Brown
Dog but is blake and white polka dots. The two dogs took to each other right from the start.

We have finally finished!!!

We have finally finished. After 3 1/2 years we have officially been dismissed from both of her feeding therapies. We have come a long way with Ms. Kathy and appreciate her more than words could ever say. She and Kaylie have gone through so much together and seeing Kaylie graduate brought tears to both of our eyes. As she presented Kaylie with her certificate of completion both Kathy and I had tears of joy rolling down our face. We both knew how much it took to get to this point. Thank you Ms. Kathy for giving us a life of normalcy. You have definitely made a difference in not only our daughter's life but her mommy and daddy's.


This the second year Kaylie has baked me a cake for my birthday. This time she actually sang the birthday song to me.

Laundry time

She preferred that I didn't do laundry.

Silly dog

Some how he always seems to find the pile of clean clothes.

Minnie Mouse

After 4 days stuck in the house you have to get creative with finding things to do. Thankfully I had a Minnie figure for her to pant. I was surprised by how well she did painting her. She tried hard to switch colors and actually painted the majority of the figurine.

Snow Angel

This snow day little miss decided it was time to try making a snow angel. I was so upset because the first one she did was so much better than this one but my camera wouldn't take the pictures. After the first one she stood up and demanded to go home. Thankfully after a little persuading from the neighbors she dropped down and made another. I had to run over and quickly get the pictures. If I didn't I wouldn't have gotten it because she stood up and went home because she was cold.

Snow pictures

Snow day #4...6 inches of snow...2/4/11

Potty training

Now that we are officially snowed in for yet another day we figured it was time. Since I had no more reasons why we shouldn't potty trained we made the decision to spend the entire day in the bathroom...seriously!!! From the time we woke up until the time we went to bed we were in the bathroom. The only exception came when she had just gone. Then we would take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to play. What I didn't know is playing made her need to go faster. That was were are only accident from the day came from. Aside from that our first day of training was great. We had food, drinks, chair for me, books, and movies. Thankfully she was happy. She really seemed to want it and was so incredibly cooperative. Considering how much I dreaded this process I was grateful for how it went.

Day 2: (2/4) This day was painful. Another day at home and I was not excited about continuing with this process. We woke up to a full 6 inches of beautiful snow on top of the 2 inches of ice we already had. We started in the bathroom but was rudely interrupted by a mouse that decided it wanted to be in our house to escape the warmth. That immediately caused us to pull out the little potty and move to alternative locations. Not being in the same state of mind as I was the day before we ended up letting her play more. This caused 3 out of 4 accidents. Thinking we were in for it we would talk to her about what needed to happen when she started to go. Whatever that meant to her apparently worked because the next day we went out for the first time and even though we stopped at a bathroom easily 7+ times she was accident free the entire day. Thankfully she was starting to cross her legs and hold herself giving us a few minutes notices to get her to the potty. Superbowl Sunday: one accident of #2 - After that she has done great.

As of today (3/9) she has done excellent. We are surprisingly night time potty trained. She did this all on her own. She will actually wake up on her own, go potty and immediately go to bed. She didn't care about being wet when she was in her diaper but now that she is trained she gets so excited every morning to see the design on her pull up is still there. I could probably do without pull ups but their is something about knowing your child isn't wetting the bed. I figure the first time we go without one she will wet the bed. The only thing we are struggling with is #2. She can do it and did a great job for awhile but now tries to not go. We started out with toys and rewards that she really wanted. That is no longer working so I think we are going to have to try a plan b. Pretty sure the difference is made depending on how much Miralax has been given.

Snow day #2

With the temps not going anywhere near the above freezing line school was cancelled for the second day in a row. The roads were still solid ice and their was no way we were going anywhere. Since we were all going stir crazy we decided to take advantage of the 2 inches of solid ice we had on our driveway. With the help of a laundry basket and pool raft we enjoyed sledding down the driveway. This was a first for Kaylie and she took to it quickly. She wanted to go in the basket but even attempted to sit on the float. That only lasted a few minutes but she tried. Towards the end we even got daddy to go down. Even though he wasn't too excited about it he was a great sport and went down. The best part for me was how much fun Kaylie had. The entire time she slid down she yelled weeeeeeeeeeee...and woo hoooooooooooo!!! She didn't want to go in.

The ice wasn't too slippery until you got to the very end of the driveway. We would have to grab their hands and help them past the worst part. Once everyone had finished their last run I went to get Kaylie and of course slipped on the ice I had been so careful to walk on. I started completely flailing, nice camera in hand and thankfully was able to catch myself on the laundry basket before completely taking out my daughter as well as smashing my camera. It was one of those moments where time stood still as everyone watched what was about to happen. I am thankful for the ability to balance.

Dora hat

I think the hat is a little small. What do you think?!? Didn't seem to bother her. She loved wearing it.

Snow day 2011

When we went to bed last night we were blessed with rain and a few thunderstorms. The weather had been in the 50's but if all went according to plan we were going to wake up to the complete opposite. The weather held true and sure enough we were rudely awakened at 2am with sleet pelting the windows. It was so hard Shiner was shaking, Kaylie was crying, and mommy and daddy counted the minutes before we were able to fall asleep. If I remember correctly it pretty much did this until 6 or 7 in the morning. I could tell the minute it stopped. It was definitely a long night but thankfully they cancelled school due to 2 inches of ice on the roads and temps not expected out of the low 20's for the rest of the day/week. Thankfully, our neighbors (aka "the girls") were home and we spent several hours of the day with them. It made being stuck in the house that much easier. The picture below is showing how dressed up we got to walk down our short driveway, cross the short alley, and walk up our neighbors driveway. I have to say it was COLD!!!


She insisted on hiding her baby.