Doing the Potty Dance!

Exhausted and tired after an awesome weekend spent with 6th grade girls at our church's Revolution Weekend, I literally drug myself to church last night. As it turned out, I was down for nursery duty in Andrew's class (yeah, me!) so we dropped Caroline off at Cubbie's and Andrew and I went to his class to wait for another Leader and his playmates to arrive.

Walking in the room, Andrew grabbed at his diaper and said, "tee-tee!" Purely amusing myself, I said, "Let's run to the potty." So we did. Once in the bathroom, Andrew pulled at his pants and tried to stradle the potty. To be honest, I thought I don't even know which method to use (I have never trained a boy). I also thought one of two scenarios were about to play out: 1) Andrew's diaper would be wet, and he was just letting me know he went tee-tee or 2) He would go before I could get him on the potty.

After I got his pants down and noticed his diaper was still dry, I set him on the potty and helped ensure there was not a soaker hose sticking out (if you know what I mean)! To my shock and amazement, Andrew tee teed in the potty! Yes, read that again, my baby boy, peed in the potty!! As the tee-tee was coming out, I looked at Andrew and he had the biggest, chester cat grin spread across his face. When he finished he clapped and then grabbed for the toilet paper. I had to explain to him that he didn't need that, but he could stand up and flush the potty.

As we both waved good-bye to the tee-tee, Andrew flushed the potty. And that's when I broke out in my potty dance! I could not have been prouder of him. For those of you that know my experience with Caroline - this was a MAJOR event!! We then left the classroom and spread the word about Andrew's experience. He was high fiving everyone - wish I had a picture of this!

Clearly, I am not saying that he is potty trained but considering we have not even started Day 1 of potty training, this was a HUGE step in the right direction. What Andrew showed me last night is that he is ready to start training. He was able to acknowledge he needed to go tee-tee, tell me, hold it and then deliver upon command -- would I have ever guess I would have experienced this last night, NO! I honestly woke up this morning wondering if I dreamed the whole thing. Thankfully, I did not.

While we will start working with him on this. I will commit to taking the laid back approach - Caroline's potty training days left me stressed, confused, agitated...you name it. I definitely don't want a repeat of those days!

Excuses, Excuses..

We are all still alive and kicking. We have just been extra busy. I hope to get the blog caught back up soon. I will probably go back and do a monthly update to catch everyone back up. This week I am busy, busy with Andrew's birthday party! I still can't believe my baby boy is TWO. I will be sure and update the site with his birthday pictures as soon as we make it through his party this weekend.

Thanks for your patience!
~Barbara

Additional Christmas Card Photos

Anyone who has ever sent a photo Christmas card knows that although one picture makes it onto the card, there are always several shots that are left behind. Here are a few of our out takes:

Location for our photos: We actually took our picture in October this year. Just down from the Appling cabin in Blairsville stands a lone fireplace (the only remains of where a house once stood). I have always thought the fireplace would make a cool photo spot. As we drove away from the cabin this Fall, I looked at Ben and told him I actually had the kids Christmas pjs, and that I had planned to take their Christmas photo at the fireplace down the road...much to my surprise, Ben said, "then let's do it!" So we pulled over and changed the kids into their pjs and did a quick photo shoot before heading home. It was very spontaneous and lots of fun!!

Pictures with Santa

I guess it is obvious what Andrew thought of Santa!!

Best of Fall

Fall came and went quickly this year, and I did not get around to posting any pictures so here is my attempt at catching you up with a few pictures.


We took our annual trip to the cabin in mid-October to enjoy the fall foliage. We visited Brasstown Bald, enjoyed GoldRush in Dahlonega, spent lots of time outside and just enjoyed "playing" together.

This year for Halloween Caroline dressed up as Sleeping Beauty, and we dressed Andrew as "Little Man" complete with a tie, mustache and sport coat. Caroline and one of her bestfriends, Harper, were quite the glamour girls in the Costume Parade at preschool. Caroline waved like she was a beauty queen to all of the parents...it was quite a hoot!

Double Check!

While Caroline was riding with Mrs. Cheri (who keeps our kids on Tuesdays), they were discussing the word "Wolf." Caroline is really into phonics lately so she sounds out and what letter each word begins with. While Mrs. Cheri was driving, Caroline says, "Wwww...olf" wolf starts with a "Y." Mrs. Cheri kindly corrects her and says, "Wwww...olf" actually starts with a "W."

Caroline comments from the back..."ummm...I think you better double check that!"

Picking out Glasses

So after I made myself realize this was not such a BIG deal (and as Caroline would say this was just a "little" deal), I was reminded how thankful we are to have Doctors, Scientists and Engineers who have perfected a way to help the vision impaired. I mean I could be a Mom hearing that my child has some sort of incurable disease, but thankfully this problem has an easy remedy....GLASSES!

Following the vision screening, we met with a girl to pick out Caroline's glasses. Like any other 4 yr old, Caroline immediately ran to the board and found the pair of "PINK" glasses she had chosen before the appointment. I then proceeded to pick out a sleek pair of metal rimmed glasses. Thankfully, the staff member had good sense to pull me aside and remind me that unless Caroline buys into the glasses and likes them, she is NOT going to wear them. I then search the board for a pair that was pink but not so "PINK!" We settled on a pair of plastic frames that are an almost opaque rose color. Caroline seemed happy throughout the fitting of her glasses and was in good spirits the entire process. Of course, I don't know that she realized the impact this appointment would have on the rest of her life!


They said the glasses would take two weeks to arrive, but they actually arrived early. We got a phone call that they were in on Friday, October 22nd. Ben and I decided to make it a family outing so we all went to pick up Caroline's first pair of glasses. We arrived just 30 minutes before closing time, but we were able to pick them up that night. Caroline was just starting to show signs of a cold coming on so she really was not feeling well. She was a great sport and tried on her new glasses for the lady to fit them to her face. She was most excited about buying the Princess glasses case to put her glasses in. As we were leaving, instead of wearing her glasses out of the store, she carried them in her case. I really think she thought getting glasses was a lot of fun, because it provided her lots of special attention! We did not push her to wear her glasses much the first weekend since we knew she was not feeling well. We have been slowly easing into having her wear them more. Currenlty we have her put them on when she sits on the couch to watch television and she carries them to school each day (but I am not so sure how much she is wearing them at school). Of course, the first day all of her friends tried them on and everyone made a big fuss about them.
We are currently starting to experience a little bit of push back on her wearing the glasses. I think she has started to recognize that they make her "different" and she does not like that. We will soon have to start being firmer with requiring her to wear the glasses. I know that she "sees" a difference when she wears them, but she is still trying to get used to the idea of wearing them. I don't think she understands that they are a "permanent accessory."




Here she is in her very FIRST pair of Pink Glasses. We are all having to adjust to "seeing" her differently