Baths, Potty Training, and Crawling

Since Ben is getting better and better at sitting up on his own, I decided to cut bath time in half and let them bathe together (with Ben using this awesome bath seat handed down from a church friend--Thanks Moons).  

They LOVED it! 

And potty training has officially begun at our house!


Here's how the timeline has gone:

• June 5th- First time going pee in the little potty chair.
• Went potty in the big and little potty chair off and on for the next month or so, but only when I asked her if she wanted to go.  And even then, she wouldn't go every time.  She'd either say no or ignore me...  She also enjoyed showing off for guests to show them she could "go" on the big potty.  
• July 11th- Started a sticker chart.  I told her at the end of the sticker chart we would try big girl underwear.  
• I continued to read her many potty books and checked out a few potty training videos from the library.  
• The sticker chart ended up being WAY too long and she lost interest, big time!
• Sept. 13th- Checked out Potty Power! from the Library.  My s-i-l, Laurie, swears by this movie!  And sure enough, after watching it daily, by the end of the week, McKenna was asking to wear underwear.  I had a lot of errands to run that week so I put it off until Monday when I knew we could be home all day for several days in a row.
• Sept. 19th- Put potty chair in the kitchen, dressed McKenna in a shirt and underwear only, and explained she'd get a jelly bean every time she peed in the potty.  I also explained she would still wear a diaper during sleep time.  She had one accident the first day, two accidents the second day, and one accident for the next two days.  Friday and Saturday she stayed completely dry!!  Her nap and night time diapers are even a little dryer than normal.  Sunday was a crazy day, so she unfortunately had two accidents that day.  But so far this week--zero!  I have also moved the potty chair from the kitchen to the bathroom where it belongs. :)  Every time she goes in the potty she says, "You're so proud of me!"    
• The only major problem so far is the whole going #2 thing.  She's only going about every 4 days (in a diaper) where she used to go pretty regularly everyday.  I don't know if she's scared to go #2 in the toilet or what?  We've tried dumping the diapers in the potty to show here where the poop goes.  I've tried letting her take books and toys to the bathroom to keep her entertained while she has to sit for a while.  But she still only sits for 1-2 minutes at a time.  I know she won't poop in front of me, and when I leave her alone she just gets off the potty because she's bored.  We've also offered to buy her "princess stuff" when she does finally go #2 on the potty.  (Is that too abstract?  Should we buy something first and then let her play with it only when she does the deed?)   

Anyway, so at what point can I declare she's "potty trained?"  Cause I'm feeling pretty good about how things are going.  I don't want to get my hopes up and I know we still have a long road ahead of us (I've heard ALL kids regress at some point or another).  But I'm still very excited and pleased with the progress!  

Hope this wasn't a TMI post.  It's just, this has been my life lately. :) 

Oh, and Ben is MOBILE!!  He's been army crawling/worming since Sept. 8th!  He's pretty fast and just yesterday got on his hands and knees and started rocking.  The baby gate is up and ready or not, this new stage in life is here! :)   

August Family Pictures

Our wonderful, amazing, talented sister-in-law, Lara, took our family pictures the middle of August.  I wanted them taken around the time Ben was 6 months old, though, he's actually 7 months in these pictures.  Oh well.  Thanks Lara!!   I've already posted most of these on FB, so I'm sorry if these aren't new to you.  :) P.S.- I couldn't reveal them all because I'll most likely use one of the family shots for our Christmas card.  

Her "Grumpy Dwarf" face

August Wrap-Up

I've got a few random pictures and videos to share from the month of August. 

The three most recent Webster boy cousins.

Ben-7 months, Eli-5 1/2 months, Oliver (Winegar)- 4 months 

Who doesn't love a couple of diapered cuties?  

 We've had two mornings this Summer where Dan has left for work and then called to tell me he saw something black on our driveway.  ANTS!  Crazy amounts of ants!  I promptly sprayed and thankfully haven't had any ant problems in our house.

 We made a countdown chain to help McKenna grasp how long it will be until Uncle Adam gets home from his mission in Sweden.  This picture was taken a while ago.  We now only have 11 days left!!

 Me, snuggling with my kids.  

 Dan went fishing with a few of the Webster men the last weekend in August.

That same weekend, I took the kids up to his parent's house in Mantua for a fun overnighter with Dan's mom and sister Brynn and her kids.  

Cousin Joe hanging out with Ben

 Mantua has it all: a trampoline, a swing set, and a pool!  McKenna would jump all day if she could.  But only by herself.  She's not very confident if anyone else gets on with her.  

Ben loves the little tummy tickle when he first starts swinging. :)

 I took the kids for a little ride on UTA's Frontrunner train.  

 McKenna kept asking for it to go FAST! :)  Ben desperately wanted to be asleep in this picture.

We went back to Mantua for the Labor Day weekend as well.

We've also been having an increase in the amount of deer we see in our yard.  This one was up on our retaining wall.

Dan caught him mid jump too!

Here's a couple cute videos of them playing together.  I'm so grateful that's happening more and more.
Ben loves to help me get McKenna up from her nap so he can try to snag her binkie.