Swim Lessons

Hi! It's been a long time since my last blog and I've kind of given up on blogging. However, I wanted to send the g'parents and family this video of Katie's last day of swim lessons. She's come a long way with only 4 weeks of lessons. The quality of the image wasn't too great from my camera but I think you'll be able to see how well she's doing.

Katie goes to preschool in about 3 weeks and we're getting excited! She and Abs and I have been spending a lot of time at the pool. Abby is starting to pull up, she gets up on her knees pretty easily and has started getting to her feet now too. We had to lower her crib b/c I was finding her standing up every nap time. She is a busy, busy girl!

It's been blazing hot here the past few weeks. Ric and I joined the church last weekend, finally. Ric has been working out at the new fitness center and I started weight watchers and we've seen great results so far. It's really encouraging. We sold my car last weekend and it was really easy - I was sad to see the Infiniti go, though. That's about it with us.

Riding the Potty Train

I just realized I haven't blogged since last Thursday. Where did the week go???

This week's big events have been centered around potty training. Katie once told me she thinks riding the "potty train" sounds fun! Here is a recap of the week...

On Friday, we took Abby to the doc for a diaper rash. It turns out I was trying too hard to get rid of it with creams and such and that I needed to let it be. Sure enough, it went away. I actually think she was allergic to the cream they had prescribed and that's why it lingered. The girls' doctors are right near Eric's work so as we passed by his building Katie wanted to go see him. I took the girls in and we got to show them off to all his co-workers. We popped by open gym at Gymboree afterwards.

Last weekend, we went shopping in Anthem. I've noticed that when we shop, Eric and I buy a lot less for ourselves than we used to. The # of bags for the girls way outnumbered the # of bags for us. It's ok - they really needed some warm weather clothes.

On Sunday, I started volunteering in the children's rooms at church. I'll be working with the 2yr olds, I think. There are 6 classes of 2 year olds and if I stay in the same age group as they put me in last week, then I'll be with kids just slightly younger than Katie. They may move me around and I'll end up in Katie's class sometimes, but I would prefer not to be with her. I think the separation is good for us. It was a lot of fun to be with the kiddos. It's cool to see their little personalities. Some like to join in with the activities and some liked to do their own thing. I'm looking forward to this Sunday.

On Monday, we stayed in all day b/c Katie got a cold. I picked up a little of it myself but Abby and Eric never did. I don't know how Abby has managed it, but she has avoided getting a cold, stomach flu and croup from Katie. The only time she has been sick was a runny nose and slight cough when we were in TX. She got good immune-genes.

On Tue, we stayed in but got out for an hour in the afternoon to check out the library. It just opened last weekend and it is so nice inside. Katie misses the puzzles at the old one, but the children's section is so much bigger! As we were walking in, Katie pointed at the flags and said "Mommy, that's American". I was so proud of her that she knew the US flag - something I don't think I had ever told her about.

On Wed, we began....POTTY TRAINING! I didn't get a clear sign that Katie is ready but preschool is looming and we have to start trying something. Thanks, Stace, for encouraging me to start when I talked to you. I made Katie go diaperless all day and she said "Mommy, I want my diaper back on" when she had to go. In the past, I might have put her diaper back on but yesterday I talked her into sitting on the potty and sure enough she went! She was SOOOOO proud of herself. Then, I was doing something with Abby later in the day and I wasn't watching her for a few minutes. She went on the potty without me even being there! I got brave and decided to take her to the park diaperless but with big girl undies. She wasn't quite ready for that yet. I am so encouraged by how well she's doing, though! I don't think she'll be out of diapers by the weekend or anything, but she's catching on better than I had expected and she finally seems interested in it.

Today we went to Gymboree where we did "errands" around the town. We drove pretend cars and stopped by an ATM, returned some "videos" and "library books", and played at a "park". Katie's very fave thing was to go thru the "car wash". Miss Chris had set up a tunnel and then a bunch of scarves hanging down as the "car wash". It was cute! The rest of the day was at home potty training. I think we're going to be at home a lot with this potty training stuff.

Abs seems to be sitting up a little stronger this week. I just barely have to hang on to her to keep her upright. This weekend is her 5 month bday and I think we're going to celebrate by starting rice cereal. She's not going to know what to think of it. We put her in the exersaucer for the first time this week and she LOVES it. She spent the first hour in it cooing at all the toys.

That's about it :-)

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Happy Birthday, Mom! Wish we could be there to celebrate with you.

Not too much to report over the past few days. Yesterday, we stayed home most of the morning. Sometimes we need some time at home but Katie tends to get a little stir crazy on those days. She's been kind of rebellious the past 2 days and I think it's related to sleep. I'm still working out whether she needs a nap or not. If she has a nap, she doesn't want to go to sleep at night. If she doesn't have a nap, she gets pretty cranky and I see the effects a day or two later. Hopefully we'll figure it out. Ideally, she'll take a short nap each day instead of her usual 2 hours+. So, yesterday (Wed.), I thought I would have her skip her nap and she ended up falling asleep on the floor in her room during her "quiet time". I guess she needed a nap. We just did errands and had our small group during the rest of the day.

Today we went to Gymboree. Katie still loves it. They learned about farm life for the 2nd week and this week Katie chose to be horse (last week she was a pig). They slept in the barn and ate out of a trough. As farmers, they planted some seeds and took their goods to the Farmers Market. Miss Chris at Gymboree is so creative. I wish I had her energy too! After Gymboree we went to a neighbor's bday party. The kids all had a good time playing and the moms had a good time visiting.

Abby updates...I blog a lot about Katie b/c most of our activities are for her so I'm adding an Abby section. New things on Abby are that she's starting to blow raspberries. She really wants to sit up and I think she will early (maybe another month or so). She is in LOVE with Katie. Whenever Katie comes and talks to her, Abby just grins like Katie is the neatest thing she's ever seen. She started formula last week and about half of her bottles are formula now. She also is loving teething toys and everything is starting to go in her mouth (including her feet!).

A couple more cute Katie items that Eric told me I should add....we were watching Amazing Race the other night and the contestants had to do some gymnastics in a Romanian gym. Katie gets up off the couch and starts lifting her leg in the air behind her and then does the finish arms like a gymnast does. She was very serious about it too. It was totally unprompted and adorable. She was actually pretty good at holding her leg in a ballet attitude position. The 2nd thing is that we were talking about going to the Spring Training game and she says to me "Mommy, Rangers stink!". I had to agree with her, they were pretty pitiful. Maybe she was repeating something she heard or maybe she came up with that on her own. Either way, it was pretty funny.

I'm back

Wow! I am WAAAAAY overdue for a post to the Blackwood Blog. Abby is now 4.5months old and my last post was on her 1 month bday.

Obviously a lot has gone on over the past few months. We had Christmas in TX, we went to San Diego, and Abby has gotten a lot bigger. Too much to blog about so I'll start fresh....


Mom and Dad just came in this weekend and we had a great time. They took Katie to Gymboree on Thursday morning. Abby tagged along with them which allowed me to get a much-needed haircut. I cut it a bit shorter than I've had it lately since Abby has just started the "hair-pulling stage". On Friday, we went to the Rangers spring training game. The weather was awesome! Last year, seats were better than lawn tickets with Katie but I think it's the opposite this year. If we make another game then lawn tix are the way to go so she can run around. The Rangers lost badly to the Cubs. On Saturday, we all went to the park and soaked up the wonderful weather. I hope it sticks around for another few months before it heats up. Ric and I got to have a date at the movies and do some car-shopping. We need a car with some space for all our baby/kid stuff. We saw Confessions of a Shopaholic which was cute. On Sunday, we went to church, had lunch and said goodbye to Mom and Dad. Boo-hoo! Their visit wasn't long enough!

Yesterday, we met our playgroup at the park and once again enjoyed the awesome weather. I think the gorgeousness of Feb and March nearly make up for the miserable summer months. I've noticed that Katie is starting to play more with other kids than alongside them. My baby is growing up! Abby is pretty much happy as a lark wherever we go. She is such an easy baby.

Today we had bible study and went to the grocery store (with the play area for Katie...a god-send). Katie has a memory verse for bible study and I'm amazed at how easily she remembers it. She's had 4 verses to memorize lately (2 for church, 2 for bible study) and she knows which is for church, which is for bible study, which is the old one, which is the new one, etc. That's about it! This is the 2nd day in a row that the girls have napped at the same time and I have a little free time. I hardly know what to do with myself!

Here's a recent pic...