Let's get this potty training party started!

I think I can officially say that potty training is underway for AnnaBeth! A few weeks ago, I made AnnaBeth a potty chart so each time she goes in the potty, she can put a sticker on a square and also get a piece of candy as a reward. I borrowed the design from a cyber-friend and in the middle of each row is a heart. When AnnaBeth gets to the heart, she will get a more significant treat. When she finishes a row, she will get some new stickers or a hot wheel or something small like that. She will get something super cool when she finishes the whole chart but I haven't figured out what that will be yet.

Last night after she finished her dinner, she went and stood by the end table where she likes to stand if she's filling her diaper. I asked if her if she wanted to sit on the ducky potty (the seat that goes on the big toilet) or the froggy potty (a portable potty seat). She said she wanted to sit on the froggy so I got her completely undressed (she was going to have a bath anyway) and she sat on the potty. She kept asking me if I heard any peepee and would cup her hand behind her ear while she said it. I finally thought to explain to her that she needed to let her peepee spill out of her bottom like when she knocks her blue cup over and it spills water on the floor. After a little while, I walked away to do something and then all of sudden she's yelling "mommy my peepee is spilling out!!!" And sure enough, she had gone pee in the potty! She was SOOO very excited to get a piece of candy and pick out a sticker from her booklet of Cars stickers to put her on chart.

Today I kept asking her if she wanted to use the potty and like usual she told me "No. I don't want to go on the potty." I tried again tonight to get her to try to use the potty and she was willing to try. She hadn't pooped yet for the day and I fed her oatmeal for dinner (it almost ALWAYS makes her go) so I thought that we might get lucky. Well after quite some time, Mason was no longer patient as he was really tired so I told her to stay on the potty while I gave him a bath. I was almost finished with his bath when she came running in to our room saying "I did it! I did it!" So I wrapped Mason up in his towel and went with her to check the potty and lo and behold, she had pooped in the froggy potty! She was SOOO proud of herself! I had decided earlier today that I will give her a piece of chocolate for successful poops in the potty so she very happily accepted her piece of chocolate and then picked out another sticker to put her on her chart.

Mason loves to laugh and "talk"

Papa loves to make this gurgling sound from the back of his throat at all of the grand kids when they are babies. I can't do it like he can so instead I make a sound as if I'm rolling my Rs in Spanish. And I could be wrong, but a lot of the time when Mason is "talking" back to Papa while making this silly noise, it sounds like he is trying to mimic him. So the other day, Mason and I had a little conversation :)



I'm also pretty sure that Mason thinks I'm the funniest thing on the planet





Yesterday Mason also started a new thing. He was sitting in his froggy bouncer and he was cooing like crazy! It amazes me that he went from only cooing when someone talks to him, to doing it on his own. He was having quite the conversation with the toys on the bouncer. Or maybe he was talking to that other baby in the mirror :)

Belly Laughs!

Mason graduated to belly laughs yesterday!



And today during the Packers and Giants game, he was trying SOOO hard to figure out how to roll over. He still hasn't figured it out but he's improving his ability to inch along the floor on his face.

A couple of AnnaBeth videos

Two days after Christmas, AnnaBeth was playing with her Lincoln Logs and watching Busytown Mysteries on Netflix on the tv. I was on the couch nursing Mason and ended up dozing for a little bit with him. When I woke up, I found AnnaBeth still on the floor with her head propped up in her hands. I left the room and when I came back, I realized that she was asleep like that. So I quickly grabbed my phone, while still holding Mason and captured this video of her.



AnnaBeth is really into watching videos of coyotes on YouTube either on the computer or on Kent's phone and does a pretty mean imitation of them as well. On Sunday night, on our way home from dinner, Kent and I were talking about the coyotes that we can hear that live over by the fire station (he even has a couple of coyote calls so he can mimic them and call them in...it's a hunting thing and it's REALLY loud when he uses it). Anyway, AnnaBeth picked up on the fact that we were talking about them and started making her coyote sounds and singing some random song that she made up as she went about coyotes. When we got home, I asked her to sing the song again (which of course was different than the first time but still very similar).

Mason laughing at 3 months

I am so, so, so terribly behind in updates. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's....stuff in between. One of these days I will get caught up but that day is not today. Instead, I'm sharing a video I took on my phone yesterday. Mason is 3 months now (his official 3 month birthday was this past Monday on the 9th) and this boy of mine is almost always full of super huge smiles. And he is getting better at laughing when something strikes him as funny. Yesterday that funny thing was me panting like a dog (no, I did not stick my tongue out). I'm not sure what's so funny about it but he was just tickled over it. So much so that he gave a teeny, tiny squeal so he's on his way to belly laughs! Just a warning, this will be the cutest thing you watch today :)

Halloween 2011

Every year, I really look forward to our trip to the pumpkin patch, especially this year because it would be Mason's first time going. Once again, it was somewhat warm when we went but AnnaBeth enjoyed herself. The farm added a huge inflatable bounce pillow thing that she LOVED! Mason slept the whole time. We got a huge pumpkin this year and unfortunately, the carving tools broke while we were carving it. Kent took it to work the next day to try to fix it with one of his pneumatic tools but it didn't work and the pumpkin was ruined :(

We also attended the fall festival at Kent's parent's church again. AnnaBeth enjoyed the petting zoo the most and she even rode one of the ponies! Since it was another warm day, Mason went dressed in his little nerd outfit instead of his moose outfit that is fleece. He once again, slept almost the entire time we were there.

For trick or treating this year, we only went with family in Wendy's (Jill's sister) neighborhood (she lives a couple of blocks away from us on the other side of Cooper), instead of going through our neighborhood and hers. It had cooled down enough by the time we went out to trick or treat for Mason to wear his moose outfit and he was just the cutest thing! AnnaBeth finally got the concept this year and ran as fast as she could from house to house. At each house, we reminded her to say 'thank you' after she got her candy but instead she said 'you're welcome' each time. She was also very possessive of her candy. Her bucket got so full and heavy that she was nearly dragging it on the ground but wouldn't let any of us carry it for her. So I ended up tying the ends of Mason's large and light weight swaddle blanket to make a sack and we emptied her candy into it. She protested at first but then went on her merry way with an empty bucket to get more candy. We did our best to avoid anything scary but weren't quick enough at one house where I could hear the guy "scaring" the kids as they walked up. AnnaBeth rounded his drive way to head up to the front door and he still had his scary mask on and she stopped dead in her tracks. I assured her it was ok and by then he had taken his mask off and offered her some candy. As we were walking to the next house she told me that the man looked like a tiger. I was so relieved! His mask had stripes on it so a tiger is what she thought it looked like. Anything else that was potentially scary as we passed it we just told her that it was just Halloween stuff and she was ok with that answer and wasn't scared. For a couple of weeks after Halloween, AnnaBeth kept telling me "mommy, I have to put my costume on and we have to go trick or treating!" It was so fun to watch her this year and see her be excited about her costume.

Mason's Birth Story

Mason is nearly 7 weeks old and I'm *just* now getting around to blogging about his birth. I have a lot to catch up on and this is just the start. (Some of this is TMI so feel free to skip ahead). Sunday morning (the 9th) I lost a bunch of my mucous plug and then lost bits here and there throughout the day. I was having intermittent contractions that I could tell were helping with dilation but they weren't painful and weren't consistent. That afternoon we went to the park with Wayne, Julie and the girls and while we were there, I had about 3 or 4 contractions per hour. We then went to dinner around 5pm and while at the table, my contractions really started to pick up. We left about 6 and I called Kenny and told him we were going to get our bags and bring AnnaBeth over. Around 645pm we stopped at the shop so Kent could forward the phone to our employee's cell phone and my contractions were 5 minutes apart so we called Kenny again and told them to meet us at the hospital. We got there around 730 and a nurse got me settled and checked me a little after 8pm and I was 5cm and 95% effaced and my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart. At about 845 I was all hooked up to the IV and my labor nurse said she would let me walk around for an hour and then come and check on me. During this time, my contractions were coming every couple of minutes and lasting a couple of minutes as well. To help with the pain I walked quickly around my labor room and that seemed to help me quite a bit. 

She came back about 940 and had me get in the bed so she could check me. For some reason this caused the contractions to be insanely painful. I had to keep lifting my body off the bed during a contraction due to the immense pressure. She finally checked me and I was ready to go! My water still hadn't broken and she could feel it very thinly across Mason's head. She called Dr. Reuss and he came in and checked me and said I could start pushing. He then left the room and I started pushing. It didn't take long before they had to call him back though. I pushed through 6 or 7 contractions and he was out (and thank goodness because with no epidural it HURT)! I wanted to pull him out like I did with AnnaBeth but his hand was against his face and the cord was draped loosely around his neck so I wasn't able to but at that point, I really didn't care. I was just glad he was out! He was a whopping 8lbs 15.4oz and 21 inches and was born at 10:18pm. I thankfully only had one first degree tear that only required two stitches. This was so much better than my first birth (which I don't regret it at all but this was just better overall). I never even really felt like I had a baby...it was great! 


At Mason's first visit to the pediatrician, she discovered that he has a buried penis and told me that she couldn't do his circumcision because he would need surgery to correct the problem and that it's usually done around 6 months of age because they have to go under general anesthesia. She referred me to a pediatric urologist and when I took him on October 27 I asked Dr. Bailey if there was any risk to have the surgery done sooner than when he is 6 months old (we lose my good insurance with the City on Jan 31st and if we wait, we will be paying a TON of money out of pocket to meet the deductible of our private insurance when he is 6 months). The doctor said that with as big as Mason is now and how well he has been growing, it will be fine to do the surgery in January so I only have to pay the $80 outpatient fee! He has been doing this a long time and wouldn't suggest a surgery for him at 3 months of age if he wasn't comfortable with it. It will take about 30 minutes to correct (he said his scrotum is attached a little too high up on his penis) and will also do the circumcision at the same time. I hate that he will have to go under and have surgery but I know he will be fine and has a good doctor. He is now scheduled for surgery on January 5th. 

Here's a video of his newborn pictures. 

 And here are the professional pictures we had taken at the hospital.