Thursday, July 25, 2013

Potty Training Vivienne

Well, I think it's safe to say that Vivienne is potty trained now.  She wears a diaper for her nap and at night, but other than that, she is almost completely accident-free.  For what felt like a long, long time, I thought she had the ability to do it, but she would always say that she didn't want to wear her big girl underwear or use the potty.  One day, that just changed and she decided that using the potty was the way to go.  The problem is that Miles shows very little interest in using the potty.  I keep explaining to him that if he uses the potty, he won't have to have his diaper changed anymore (which he hates).  Maybe someday it will catch on.

It is nice to have fewer cloth diapers to wash, but I am looking forward to the day when I only have one child in cloth diapers.  I have never had only one child to change, so that will be a bit of a luxury.  And to think that someday I will have no diapers to change... seems like a distant dream...

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Evelyn's First Birthday

Our baby is growing up.  Our sweet girl has turned one already.  She enjoyed her special day, complete with a fun new dress from Grandma.  After church, she had a crawling session with her sister.



Miss Evelyn is full of spunk and smiles and cuddles.  She often crawls a few feet away and then looks back with this devilish grin that says, "You're going to chase me, aren't you, Mom?"  And she crawls faster and faster, giggling all the way, as I chase her down on all fours.


She only pulls up occasionally, but it is a rare sight.  She doesn't show any interest in walking yet.  I'm hoping she just crawls forever because it's pretty darn adorable. 


Miles and Vivienne were more than happy to "help" Evelyn open her gift from Grandma.  Of course, Evelyn didn't get to even touch the wrapping paper.  But at least she got quick access to the fun toy inside.


And at least Miles and Viv let her open her very first card on her own.



After dinner, we let her dig into her smash cake.  I made her a double layer chocolate cake with pink buttercream icing.  I thought the roses were appropriate for our sweet Evelyn Rose.



And the rest of us got to devour some cupcakes.  On a side note, piping icing turns out to be pretty easy and I really enjoy it.  If only icing were good for you...


Evelyn loved her cake.  She started licking the icing off of her hands first, and then, with a little assistance, she dug into the cake itself. 


She really got into the whole "smash" part of the smash cake.  She probably smashed it more than she ate it, but she thoroughly enjoyed herself.




You know the smash cake was a success when you're washing it off the walls.


The aftermath.


It's hard to believe that I have two 3-year-olds and a 1-year-old now.  It's definitely true the the days go by slowly but the years go by quickly.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Miles and Vivienne Turn 3!

It's hard to believe that these sweet little babies...





... have now turned three years old.


We had a fun-filled day, starting out with Grandma and biscuits (two of their favorite things).  Then we headed for Marbles, a kids' museum in downtown Raleigh.  We had not visited since they updated the first floor play area, and Miles and Vivienne had a blast exploring.  Miles could have spent all day at the train table.  Seriously, that thing is toddler heaven.





When we started running out of gas, we came back home for lunch and naps, and then Grandma came back again with a huge bunch of balloons for Miles and Viv.  After Daddy came home, they dove into their presents and were overwhelmed with excitement at their new goodies.





Last year at this time, I was very pregnant and very sick (the worst illness I can remember ever having).  I was unable to do anything special for their birthday, but luckily my mom and dad picked up the slack and bought them beautiful cakes and gave them a wonderful birthday.  This year, I stayed up entirely too late baking them each their own cake - a chocolate cake for Miles and a cookie cake for Vivienne.  They have been talking about these cakes for a few weeks now, so it was fun to make them a reality.

After dinner, I brought out their cakes.  The lack of sleep was definitely worth the look on their faces.  I made Miles' cake into a construction cake (thank you, Lynn, for blogging your beautiful cakes and letting me steal your idea).  Vivienne's cake was pink and sparkly and happy, just like Viv.







After singing to each of them separately, we dug into those cakes.  It was a fun, fun day celebrating our sweet, beautiful children.  Now I can no longer say that I have three children under three.  *sigh*  (or should that be "Whoohoo!!!!  We survived!!!"?)


Thursday, July 11, 2013

Evelyn Pulled Up!

Well, it seems like it has taken a lifetime (or at least Evelyn's lifetime?), but she has finally pulled herself up.  Yesterday, she apparently crawled over to the music table and pulled herself up.  Grandad said, "She just crawled over there and stood up like it was nothing."  He assumed that she had done this before, but I had never seen it.  So, to date, she has only done this once, and she did it for Grandad.  Maybe she will give Mommy and Daddy an encore performance soon.

For quite a while, she has been able to stand at the music table for a long time if we set her up there, but she just had never pulled herself quite all the way up on her own before.

We're still a long way from walking.