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- So, if today’s Abby’s Saturday photo looks familiar, it should! I have done “Starbucks red-cup” themed photos around Christmas (almost) every year now & of course, this year is no exception! (and this year, because I have red cups from Red Cup Day last year and the year before – I only had to visit Starbucks one time for a 3rd cup!)
If you’d like a stroll down memory lane, here are the other Starbucks Abby’s Saturday photos I’ve taken: #73, #174, #229, #277 (this one is STILL my favorite), & #329
And it might look EXTRA familiar because Braelynn is actually wearing the SAME SHIRT that she wore last year. I had no idea – I did not look at the photos from years past before I took the photo this week & so I just put her in this fancy red shirt she has & snapped away! Once upon a time, that would have really bothered me – but now, whatever. The shirt was a little too big on her last year, which is why I kept it over for this Christmas season & now it fits her perfectly. (This isn’t the first time this has happened: Braelynn wore the same skirt in her 3rd & 4th birthday portraits! Oh well!)
I know you can’t tell, but they actually have hot cocoa in their cups for this photo & they just thought it was the best . thing . ever. - Okay, so who is here for the big potty training update? I talked (at length) last week about the roller coaster that has been potty training Leander & here we are – almost 2 full weeks in! (If you missed what I wrote last week about Leander’s potty training Week #1, you’ll want to go back & read that before reading the following update.)
Okay – so Week #2: I’m thrilled & deliriously happy to report that this week has been SO much better than last week! It’s still been hard (definitely don’t think that Week #2 has been “easy”), but we seemed to have crossed a mile-marker on the road to potty training.
Our biggest “problem” toward the end of last week was that Leander was refusing to sit on the potty – every time we’d try to take him, he’d literally throw a temper-tantrum. So, that was super rough. All last week, I was rewarding him for going on the potty with a few M&Ms – which was fine (but messy, because he’d just hold them in his hand until they began to melt – yuck). But, I could tell that the M&M reward wasn’t really doing it for Leander. He likes M&Ms, but not enough for him to want to stop playing & go sit on the potty. On Monday, I “accidentally” stumbled across a different reward: fruit snacks. The kid loves fruit snacks (you know, like gummy bears) & suddenly, when I offered 2-3 gummies as a reward for going on the potty – it was GAME ON. Just like that, he stopped fighting us taking him to the potty & he actually started to make really great progress! On Wednesday, he only had one accident, on Thursday, he only had one accident, yesterday: only one accident! He’s started verbalizing that he needs to go to the potty & just taking himself to go (yes!) He started really consciously holding his pee (sorry if that’s TMI, this has been my reality for 2 weeks now) and instead of just going little tinkles on the potty every 5 minutes, waiting 30 minutes & going completely.
In other words: this week has been a WIN. He’s finally getting it & I’m so proud of him!!
We still haven’t really ventured out anywhere (other than to church last Sunday, which I put him in a pull-up for). So, that will be the next “step” (it’s a big, scary one!) But it’s just good to look back over the last 2 weeks & see him progressing & moving forward! - Speaking of Leander: his 3rd birthday party was last Saturday & on Sunday, we took down all of his birthday decorations & Christmas-ified our house! My rule is: the Christmas tree & Christmas lights can go up before Leander’s birthday, but everything else (including ornaments on the tree) has to wait until after his birthday. So, on Sunday & Monday last week – we transformed our house into a Christmas wonderland & I love it.
- Speaking of Christmas: all of my Christmas cards have been mailed out (YAY) It only took two trips to the post office (oops) and thankfully, I hit it just right both times & didn’t have to wait too long. It feels SO good to have that done!
- AND – my Christmas shopping is all done!! YAY I bought my final gifts this past week & so everything is now done! I just need to go thru & wrap everything now (that will be this week’s task).
- One last random thing: yesterday morning, the kids heard the garbage truck going down our street, so they ran to the window to watch it. Leander instantly started yelling: “Oh no! Woody! Buzz!” (have you seen Toy Story 3?) It was quite cute.
- Watched the garbage truck going down the street – Woody & Buzz!
