Potty Training 101

Well, now that I'm home for a while with Gwyneth, I've decide that it's time to introduce the potty to our little girl. I'm not sure the amount of success that we'll have, but I know after a little research that it is possible for a child at this young age to actually be potty trained. So we've begun to have diaper free times - for this I'm thankful that we have wood floors throughout much of our house. Right now we're working on a bodily awareness. It seems that with the absorbency of the modern diaper, Gwyneth rarely even realizes when she goes to the bathroom, when it streams down her legs when there is no diaper, she certainly notices that! Yes, we've had puddles, but we've also had some potty hits (both #1 and #2! - pretty good for a 15 month old). We'll take it one day at a time, but with any luck, we might have a potty trained child in a few months...we might not, but we won't win if we don't give it a try.

Now for an adorable picture or two:

Exhaustion

This is what happens when a child wakes up at 5:30AM and then you put them in their crib for a few minutes for your morning shower.

Daddy We Miss You

Here's a little video from on the road...daddy, this one goes out to you!

Quickly Nearing 14 Months

Gwyneth is quickly nearing 14 months. She's looking more and more like an actual person versus a baby (not that they're not actual people, but sometimes they seem more like another species than a human). I loved the baby stage, but this is way more fun. Some of the cute things she'll do is walk up to me and Wes and give us hugs, grab our legs and kiss them, bring books over to us so we can read them to her, say "hi" to everyone and anything, and she's got this odd fascination with our smoke/carbon monoxide alarm where she'll point at it and go, "beep, beep, beep." Well, I'm sure it's really the pictures that you're most interested in so, here we go:

Gwyneth Make-Believing She's Amish:


Amlette on the Move:


A Day in the Life:


Hugging Mommy's Leg:


Little Girlie on Her Throne (She's obviously watched too much of The Godfather):



See the Resemblance?

Other Miscellaneous Photos

Tough Girl and Her Fat Lip

Faster Than a Speeding Bullet

...that's how life feels right now. Here are a few high velocity updates:

Gwyneth's walking and sometimes running and few times falling flat on her face breaking her lip open with her teeth. This is when she's not poking her eye out with a pinwheel or pulling a chair on top of herself. She's officially a toddler, a dear, sweet one that's a menace at the same time.

I was laid off of my job on Jan 31st. The news received two weeks previous was a shock to the system, but apparently once daycare and travel expenses are nixed from our budget, unemployment is just a bit shy of what I was making. So, it's really a blessing in disguise for now. I get to stay home for a short time with Gwyneth and also invest in gaining some experience in church ministries.

Yesterday we signed the purchase agreement on our house. Pending a successful inspection, we will close on June 27th and we will be homeless. In this market, it feels so good to say that. Of course there are so many benefits to owning a home, but I'm admitting that I've been a bit envious of those who are in rentals. We will soon be one of those families.

Work has been miserably slow for Wes' business. Of course with the housing market in "crisis" and our country in a recession, not many people are eager to invest their money in their homes at the current time. We've been nonetheless making it through and it's giving Wes time to write our 2-year church planting plan. That's a good thing.

I've been sick with the stomach flu. Although this is probably the most insignificant of my post, my body disagrees. Monday night in the midst of entertaining guests, I fell ill with no warning. I spent the night vomiting every hour. 10 times in 11.5 hrs. to be exact. Not that you want to know those details, but that's got to be some sort of record. I spent Tuesday and Wednesday recovering, only to start it all up again in the wee hours of the morning on Thursday. I thought the 24 hr stomach flu was only supposed to last 24 hrs.

I'll have to post some photos. It just means that I have to take some. I've got one somewhere with Gwyneth and her fat lip.