Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere!

Yesterday was a busy day. I started by going to my friend Elliot's house to paint pumpkins. We had a blast and I managed to get more paint on the pumpkins than on myself! When Daddy came home from work, we went to a local church pumpkin patch. Of course Mommy made me sit by the scarecrows for a few pictures first!I got to pick out which pumpkin I wanted to take home. It was a lot of work deciding so I had to take a break for a minute and rest on these pumpkins while I thought it over!
When I was finally ready, I had Daddy help me get a wagon to carry the pumpkin in.
Then I had to help Mommy load the pumpkin into the wagon. It was heavy!
When we got home, I was excited to show Daddy the pumpkins I had painted earlier in the day. After looking at my artwork, Daddy thought it would be fun to sit on my shoulders! He is so silly!

Happy early Halloween!

I was finally able to convince Claire to try on her Halloween costume. Once she got it on, she loved it! Her friends, Marley and Ava, came to visit the other day and the girls dressed up in their costumes for a few pictures. We walked down to the pond with them dressed up to get some pics. It was fun watching people get huge smiles on their faces as they drove by! The girls all looked so adorable. I am sure there will be just a few more Halloween pictures to come!

On a side note, after 8 long and challenging days of trying to potty train, we have decided to let it rest for a while and wait until Claire is more ready. After 8 days, she still was not telling us when she had to go and had no problem going in her panties. I talked to many different people about our situation and almost everyone suggested we go back to diapers and wait until she is a little older. So that is what we did. I was very sad about it at first, but have found that life is so much better not being completely consumed with trying to get my child to do something she just isn't ready for. Then today before her nap, out of the blue, she said "mommy, I have to go potty". I put her on and she went right away! Go figure!

Sing Along

I have been trying for some time to catch miss Claire reading (singing) her books. Every time I pull out the camera, she instantly stops and does something else. I finally got her by hiding behind the cabinets so she didn't know I was there. When she gets in her reading mode she is so funny to watch. She completely dives into the book. What I am most amazed at is how she can remember all the words since she can't actually read. I guess I will have to be more covert so I can catch her again.

Potty training...ugh!

We started to potty train Claire on this past Wednesday afternoon. We were given a book on how to potty train in 3 days and were told by a few people that this works. So, we got all excited and pumped up for this "3 day" adventure. Jeff went to the store to pick up some little toys and candy for rewards, I got on the computer and printed out a potty chart for Claire to place stickers on, and we got a selection of books placed in her bathroom to read. We even got her some Dora hand soap to use. Here we go....the first day we had 4 accidents but went on the potty 2 times! Not to bad I am thinking. The second day we had 2 accidents but went on the potty 3 times and even went #2 so I was pretty proud. The third day we stayed dry all day long so I was thinking, ok so maybe this book has some clout. Well, we had 2 accidents in a row that evening. Ugh...Jeff was home with her for day 3 and 4 and on day 4 Claire had no accidents all day or evening!!!! Thankfully she has woken up every day dry so no bed changes yet. We will see how today goes. The only difficult part now is that Claire does not tell us when she has to go, she still tries to hide to go #2 instead of letting us know she has to go. We will keep working and stay strong. Claire has been in big girl panties now since Wednesday afternoon and we are NOT going back to diapers! She is such a smart girl and she will get this! We are very proud of Claire for doing such a great job so far.

So this is what rain is!

It has been an extremely dry summer for us. The other day we were blessed with rain for most of the day. Claire was finally able to try out her rain boots and got to go splashing in the puddles for the first time. She had a blast!

I love pizza!

 Last night we had pizza. I am such a big girl now that I can eat the pizza whole. Mommy or Daddy does not have to cut it up anymore.

 We had veggie pizza. I gave it a "thumbs up"!

 Pizza is so yummy! I really like veggie pizza (minus the tomatoes which I hand off to Mommy!)

 During dinner, Daddy and I had a very intense conversation. I did a great job of listening to Daddy tell me about his day at work.

Today Mommy put me to work vacuuming. Of course I had to vacuum in style with my high heels on!