Summer Fun

Abbie & her doll with their matching outfits

Sophie at the "baby pool" at our neighborhood pool

This summer is just flying by and we've been staying busy. The last time I posted, I had mentioned that Sophie was going home with her grandparents to Virginia for a few days and that I was going to try to potty train Abbie. Potty training pretty much consumed a good part of that week for me. I gave it 3 solid days. Now it's been almost two weeks. Abbie goes to the potty willingly but she doesn't always tell you when she has to go. She only has occasional accidents though. We still use a kitchen timer quite a bit so that we set it for every 30 minutes or so. That way, we have less accidents. Abbie goes and at least tries to use the potty when the timer goes off. I think (or at least I hope) that she will be telling us more and more when she needs to go because it is still kind of stressful to go places when you are worried that she might not make it to the potty in time. I pretty much just put her in panties though and that's what we have stuck with. We gave her a lot of little rewards at first but now we are backing off. One thing about Abbie is that she uses a lot of potty language and we have to stay on her about it. I've washed her mouth out a few times and Matt even put a hot pepper flake on her tongue one time but we're still working on it. It's kind of funny sometimes because if she gets frustrated she might say, "poopy diaper" with a good bit of anger in her voice.

Sophie had a great time with her grandparents and her Aunt Leia! They went to Busch Gardens and to a water park while she was there. We've enjoyed going swimming a lot this summer! This week, we were able to get together with 2 of my longtime friends, Erin and Stephanie and their children. All of the kids enjoyed swimming and eating pizza together. A few days ago we went to story hour at the library and it ended up that Snow Bird (a penguin from the Channel 4 news) came for a visit. Sophie really enjoyed seeing him but Abbie was kind of scared. This week, we were also able to go to Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-Fil-A. We donned our cow spots and earned a free lunch. Yay! This has become an annual event for us. Sorry that I haven't taken too many pictures! I just can't believe how this summer is flying by. We're going to try to squeeze in some more play dates and visits to fun places that we may not have time for when Sophie's in school!