Potty training and other adventures

I've been meaning to update the blog for a while now, but the last couple weeks Kendall has been sleeping terribly and I am exhausted. It's like newborn exhaustion all over again. She has decided to sleep only when being held and sometimes she wakes up at 2 in the morning and just decides to be awake for 3 hours. I've tried bringing her into bed with me and I know that works for some people, but I just cannot sleep when a baby is in my bed. I can't get comfortable and every movement wakes me up. It's just not my thing. So, once again, desperation as driven me to cry it out with my poor, sweet Kendall. She is such a mama's girl and she snuggles right up to me when I pick her up, it was soooo hard to not go in and rescue her from screaming for two hours straight. But we suffered through and she slept the rest of the night and I got 7 continuous hours of sleep. The next night she only cried for a few minutes after I fed her at 1 am and then slept again till 7. I feel amazing and rejuvenated and I think she feels better too. She also took a 2.5 hour nap today so I think she's figuring out how to sleep by herself. Say what you want, parenting blogs, I will risk the "emotional disconnect" from my child so I can be sane during the day as I attend to her many, many needs.

Sleep training Kendall has not been the only endeavor I have pursued recently. Avery is now potty trained! Horray! It was a really lousy first week, but now it seems like she's been doing it forever and it's no big deal. She didn't really have that many accidents, it was mostly just the constant stress of me wondering when she was going to have an accident. And anytime she was sitting on the couch I was on edge thinking she would pee all over our nice couch. (I did have a waterproof blanket on part of it, but she didn't always stay on it). Also we had a problem when I started putting underwear on her she started wetting herself because she thought she was wearing a diaper, but we've got that figured out and she's a pro now! My biggest problem is just getting her to wear clothes now. She liked running around naked for so long that now she thinks that's the norm. And when I get her into clothes (finally) she immediately takes them off the next time she goes to the bathroom and won't put them back on. 

But enough chit chat, here are some pictures.

Avery's new favorite activity is feeding Kendall.

It's really cute, but really messy.

This was Day 1 of potty training. I wasn't really planning on doing it, but Avery woke up from her nap one Sunday and told me she needed to go poop in her potty. Tyler was still sleeping from working the night shift and we didn't have anywhere to go so I thought "why not" and we camped out in the bathroom for two hours. They were quiet so Daddy could sleep and we got a jump start on our potty training. And since we spent half a day on it I figured we might as well keep it up so we continued the next week. 

 

Running through the sprinkler with Daddy.

We've been going on a walk when Tyler is home in the morning to go running. He doubles back and does our route twice and runs 4 miles and we walk 2. Kendall always falls asleep, but Avery didn't make it through this one.

More feeding Kendall. Avery always says, "take a picture!" and then wants to look at it.

Kendall helping Daddy fix the stroller.

Avery fell asleep snuggling Daddy one night. I wish she was always this easy to put to bed.

The cutest little 8 month old you've ever seen! I just love this little chub!

Tyler's intern class. I've met almost all of them and he works with some really nice people. I think he got really lucky with a good group.

His class at the intern party I missed.

Avery loves her baby Kendall.

She always says, "I wanna hold her!" But of course Kendall is almost as big as Avery and super squirmy so it doesn't work that great. But Avery thinks she's holding her.

Sister hugs! I love these two.

Playing with our friend Olivia's dog. Avery loves dogs. I don't really want to get a dog ever, but Avery might convince me.

I got called to do Activity Days for the 8-9 year old girls in our ward. I think it is the best calling ever. The girls are so fun and happy and will just chat your ear off. It will be a fun, low-stress calling. I'm really excited about it.

My partner is an older woman who owns a farm and a horse! Our first two activities have been riding her horse, Rain.

They even made me take a turn!

I'm finally not pregnant when I attend a horse activity so I can ride!

We had Avery's friend, Charlotte, over for a play date and found them back in Avery's bed reading books together. So cute!

Avery trying on Daddy's shirt.

I got Avery up from bed in the morning and she had this all over her face. Since we were in the middle of potty training I had a horrible feeling it was poop, but thankfully it was just a bloody nose. Poor thing.

Daddy teaching Avery how to ride her bike.

Still working on steering...

And so it begins.

Doing push ups with Daddy.

One day I was packing up Avery and Kendall in the car to go to the splash pad and Avery just took off running down the street. She said, "I'm running, like Daddy!" I thought she would get tired after a couple minutes but she ran laps up and down the sidewalk for 15 minutes!! Occasionally she would stop and tell me "I'm all sweaty!" and then take off running again! When she was worn out we went to the splash pad. She took an excellent nap that day.

When Avery dresses herself to go out for errands.

Kendall watching Avery get her nails clipped.

Our friends invited us to go to Hurricane Harbor with them last week.

Avery and Kendall had a blast!

Every meal, every day.

Daddy left Avery a little love note on the fridge since he was sleeping when we got home from church. She loved it and runs over to it several times a day and says "Daddy loves me!"

Kendall always trying to keep up with Avery.

Homemade ice cream in a bag for FHE tonight!