Welcome New Cousin

George's sister, Carrie, had a new baby girl this week. She's so cute and looks just like her sister Melody did when she was new. 8 lb, 9.5 oz. She came a couple weeks late, but it sounded like it was a good delivery.

We went to meet the new baby after church on Sunday. Daniel usually has a hard time staying awake on the way home from church, so he just took his nap on the way to his Auntie Carrie's house. Vincent kept holding his hand during the drive. What good brothers.

My Aunt Sheila came to visit from PA this weekend. She and my Grandma are admiring Devyn (3 months). For those of you who are "Office" fans, Aunt Sheila flew in from Scranton.

It's so great watching how much fun Daniel and Darian have together. They hug and kiss non-stop when they see each other. There was a lot of sliding down the stairs on Sunday at my parents.

My usually very good napper has not been napping so good. This is a source of great frustration for me as I just love having that hour or two (or sometimes three) in the afternoon to work on the computer and have time to myself. Yesterday, Daniel stayed up and played and laughed and squeeled and bounced around for 2 1/2 hours. After going into his room time and time again I was completely frustrated, in the midst of trying to get everything organized for taxes. Nothing I tried would keep this two year old in bed. So today I tried a different approach. I pretty much stayed out of his room, going in only a few times when he was extra loud and running around the room. Mind you, there is a baby sleeping just feet away in the same room. This wasn't making Daniel stay in bed anymore, but at least I wasn't losing my mind trying to figure out what to do with the two year old. Nap time begins at 1pm. At 2:21 I was on the phone and heard Daniel start crying (the hurt cry.) So when I got off, I went in to check on him, thinking he banged his leg on something. Of course, the tough little guy never cries for long, so by the time I went in there at 2:24, he was already giggling to himself about his mischievousness. I checked his legs, "where did you get hurt?" It's already forgotten. Lay back down...wait...what's this...a gigantic bump on the ol' noggen. Poor kid really got himself and I have no idea how. A little ice, a couple pictures, a trip next door to the sherriff and teacher to make sure it's not a concussion, he's back to bed and still bouncing off the walls.

At 3:25 I decided peeking in on him was not going to work this week. So I took my book and sat there in the chair until he finally drifted off to sweet peaceful sleep at 3:40. It's now 4:48 and they are both still asleep. Ahhhh, the nap does wonders for us all.

Watch them learn

It's been a milestone week in our house. Vincent learned how to stick those yummy Cheerios in his mouth. Daniel has got about 20% of the ABC's sound down, he then fills in with some repeated letters and a few numbers for good measure. The biggest headline would be that Vincent is pretty much getting where he wants to. Shown here are three clips of the boy's accomplishments.

A walk to the park

Daniel took Maggie and Vincent to the park the other day. They loved riding in the wagon and waited patiently all bundled up while Daniel played at the playground for a little while.

Daniel has been singing a lot more the past few weeks. He's gone from kind of chanting the songs to actually carrying the tune. Some of his favorites are the ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle, Jesus Loves Me and of course, Jingle Bells. He's using more words everyday. I have fun giving him long words to repeat, like "individual", "cooperate" and "agreeable." He's talking more and more in complete sentences, but what really gets me is when he sings. He can sing several lines of a song which is more than he ever says at once.

Vincent has all this energy for crawling but still hasn't figured it out yet. It seems like he's starting to get really frustrated with his limited mobility. Every time he tries to move towards a toy, he ends up pushing himself farther away from it. Now he's started making this loud screeching sound to let everyone know when he's unhappy.

Take One

Here is Daniel posing in front of his new playset with Vincent and Maggie. It's a big hit with all of them. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!

There is something missing in this picture. Do you know what it is? It's a little boy named Daniel. We made our first attempt at potty training today. I was excited (and nervous) to start after reading a couple books about it. It was supposed to be a fun, exciting, encouraging day of learning and treats. Things did not go as planned. We were using the book "Potty Training in Less Than a Day" which has some great ideas. My mom used this method with a couple of my sisters so even though it sounds too good to be true, I know it can work....well, not on my boy.

The whole foundation of this method is getting the child to check if he's "dry & clean", when he checks himself and answers "yes", he gets a treat and congratulations, exciting stuff. There is also a doll that wets that we practice the whole toilet procedure with, then he practices sitting on the potty himself and all that. Well, let's back up to step one: I'm supposed to ask him every 5 minutes if he's dry and clean and every 5 minutes, he's supposed to say yes. This is a kid who has known how to say yes and no for over a year now. Does he ever answer yes? No, he doesn't. He says the word "yes" when I tell him "say yes" but he's never once answered a question "yes". If ever he wants to answer in the affirmative, he says "okay"... never "yes". So when the first part of our training requires him to do something he just doesn't do, we've failed already. Add to that, the more encouraging and enthusiastic I was about what he was doing, the more annoyed he got. He cheered up once I got all frustrated. And as for training a boy, when he does someday go in the potty, the mechanics don't look promising to me. What I mean by that is, looking at where things are aimed, there will be a big mess in front of the toilet even if he leans forward a bit (which is the only remedy I've heard for this so far) He hates the little guard attachement for the seat and the pediatrician recommened having him sit at this point. I'm at a loss and looking for some helpful advice. I'm hoping some experienced mothers will be able to give me some pointers or a different method. Until then, it's double diaper duty for me. The good news is that he's pretty young, so I've got some time. Maybe he'll be up for it in a couple months.

Coloradorado

Last weekend we got to stay in the castle at the Glen Eyrie in Colorado Springs. It was beautiful there and we even got to see it snow.

Daniel called in Coloradorado and kept asking for the castle once we got back home. It seems he thought we moved there permanently. But we're all glad to be home again.

We did a bit of driving while in Colorado. This is how Daniel chilled out around town, with his legs crossed.

The boys shared their first bath together the other night. They both seemed to really enjoy it. Vincent loves splashing around on his tummy.

Garage Take-Over

Between the winter weather moving toys inside and the onset of many Christmas presents, Daniel's stuff has completely taken over the garage where he plays more and more. Notice the little guy in the upper left corner.
It seems Vincent's wrist is bigger than his hand.