Our Holiday Weekend

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend. Our thanksgiving day meal with the soccer team was a good time--we had a ton of turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, salad, green beans, stuffing, etc. and there were actually leftovers! Alex enjoyed eating the desserts--m & m choc. chip cookies, cupcakes, etc....We figured it was a special day, so what the heck?!

On Friday Alex and I traveled up to Hazleton, PA to spend the holidays with my family. I didn't take many pictures but my family did, so once I get some I'll post a few. I'll post some of the few pictures I took. It was a good time to relax, spend time with my brothers, and get to know my new niece Kaylee a bit! Alex LOVED "her Kaylee" and wanted to help give her a binky, hold a bottle, and take care of her when she cried (hopefully a positive sign of things to come!). Alex and Nolan also had a great time together, riding bikes around the house and playing with Grammy's trains that she brought up. My grandparents, aunt and uncle were also there. Although my grandparents aren't in the best health anymore, I think they really enjoyed seeing 3 of their great-grandchildren. My grandpa was still sharp enough to play a few games of Scrabble with us (and win!) so that was nice. Aside from Jon having to leave to go be with Renee and Mia, the weekend was very enjoyable. Alex is still fighting a small cold so she didn't sleep too well while we were there, and she has been getting up before 6 AM the past 3 or 4 days! Mommy is ready for her to sleep in again! Below are a few pictures of Alex with Kaylee, Josh, and Kendy. Hope she's ready to be a big sister soon!





I also had to include the next picture because it gives me a good laugh--Alex is trying on ALL of her new underwear that we just bought (with a little help from her dad). I think we are ready to go into underwear every day and see what happens! I talked to her teacher at school about it and she's ready to give it a go with us, so sometime this week we'll send her to school in underwear and see what happens. Over the past week she's been doing great telling us when she needs to go, staying dry all night, and staying dry all day. The pooping may still not be mastered, but I figure she'll probably learn more quickly if she has a few messy accidents in her underwear. (thus the reason for the purchase of a 10-pack of underwear--I'm thinking I'll be throwing out a few pairs that I just can't stomach the thought of cleaning!) Wish us luck!

On a side note that kind of relates to potty training, I have to recommend this soap that my mom found for Alex. She loves it and it really encourages her to wash her hands after she uses the potty. It can be found at www.squidsoap.com --it's made by Airborne and you should be able to find it in Walmart or Target (I'm not sure where my mom found it). The idea is that when you press down on the nozzle, there's a little ink pad that puts a colored dot on your hand--you then have to wash your hands long enough to clean off the dot. Alex thinks it's a ton of fun and it makes her want to wash her hands, which I appreciate because the whole dirtiness of touching the potty so much really freaks me out.