Growing Up

Lately I have been having a lot of those moments where I look at Bailey and think, "wow, this works...this while parenting and teaching things pays off!" Going through everything for the first time sometimes I just dive in and think, "I hope this works." It is encouraging to look at my 2 1/2 year old who has manners, language, joy, and personal interests and feel like a very blessed parent.

One of Bailey's biggest changes over the past few months has been language. She was always a quiet observer and now she talks my ear off. She knows what she wants and what her likes are and she does a great job at expressing herself and her needs. Bailey pronounces words a lot better now and it is funny to see her have conversations with other children or strangers in the store. She no longer calls Sleeping Beauty "P Pee Doo Doo" and our dog Frani is being called more and more by his name instead of "Rough." She pronounces her own name now instead of referring to herself and "dadda." Bailey struggled with the "B" words for some time. She can pronounce Jaemus instead of only calling him "Baby" or "baby JJ." Still though some words or phrases still come out funny. She calls her friend Ethan "E E" and her friend Emily "eye-lie."

Bailey's biggest miles stone recently has been her conquering of the potty. We have been casually potty training for a few months but I have been real laid back especially since Jaemus was new and I didn't want to deal with pee and poop all the time. I also was waiting for her to show me enough interest to really commit to a daily practice of no diaper. After a lot of wet panties and potty conversations Bailey began to tell us every time she went pee or when she had to go. The real clincher however was when she would yell to us at 9:30 at night, after she had been in bed for an hour, that she went pee and wants a new diaper. This for us was what pushed us to commit.

Last Tuesday I told her we weren't going to wear diapers at home anymore, only to bed or when we leave the house. Having us all committed to this has been a great success. One week later Bailey has not had any accidents for two days, goes pee and poop on the toilet and yesterday at church she went twice with the caregivers and this morning she went at the bank and Target! I was stunned at her initiative to want to go when we were out and about. I told her she could go in her pull-up when we were out or at church but she wanted the potty. I am very proud of her and so far the ease of her willingness. I am sure we will hit more bumps in the training process but so far I have been so relaxed and impressed with her ability to adapt.

However, it does make doing errands a bit more tricky. I was in no hurry to have her use public toilets and deal with Jaemus in the carrier and all but once you start you can't just stop.

Bailey's potty chart. She took months to fill up this one but filled up her second one in one week! When she fills up the potty chart she gets to ride a train at either the Spectrum or Irvine Park. Way to go Lucky Bug!

I just love this picture of these two! So much love.

5 Months!

The past month Jaemus has grown two teeth and gave us a lot of interrupted sleep. However, the two bottom teeth are in and we are all sleeping a bit more. He takes three naps a day and is out by 8pm. Both kids asleep by 8 is quite glorious.

Personality is really growing in our little guy and he has become quite sociable. Jaemus loves people coming over and welcomes them with smiles. He seems to love guy time, especially attention from Brandon.

Jaemus' laugh is so sweet and he recently started laughing when Brandon talks in funny voices. My favorite time with him is after his early morning feeding, I bring him into bed with me and we hold hands while going back to sleep. He loves holding hands, eating, falling asleep, or just while snuggling. His little hands get cold at night so I hold them until they are warm and we are asleep.

Jaemus and Bailey's time together has grown as Jaemus has become more personable. Every morning and after nap I put Jaemus in Bailey's bed and they will be happy in there for a considerable amount of time. Bailey pretend plays with him, sings to him, or tells him stories. Jaemus just watches her and smiles and grabs ahold of her and tries to eat her. It is very precious.

Our home is full of laughter, joy, and thankfulness. Bailey is full of imagination, Brandon is always entertaining, we all enjoy making Jaemus laugh and smile and watching him grow. I sure love our little family and are full of Thanksgiving to the Lord that He has given us these two children.

Halloween's Cinderella and Gus Gus

Bailey has been talking about trick-or-treating and wearing her Cinderella dress all month. She has been calling Jaemus Gus Gus instead of his name and she has been wearing her dress almost every day in anticipation. She even has the "glass slippers" that light up when she walks.

I managed to make Jaemus a little Gus Gus costume and looked so cute with that chubby little belly hanging out.

Bailey needed her Prince to escort her around for the night so we dressed up Brandon. We even had Bailey make a grand entrance to meet her prince by having her come down the stairs while Brandon sang her a song with his hand out to her. Bailey loved it!

I dressed up like the Fairy Godmother but looked really jank. I only had a blue bathrobe on with a grey hood and I tide a giant pink bow around my neck- it was pretty bad and I looked more like the homeless godmother. But it make Bailey happy.

We love dressing up and are glad that we have seemed to pass this trait on to our children.

He's 29

Brandon turned 29 on the 30th and we celebrated his last year in his 20s by going to Down Town Disney and partying-it-up that night at the Johnson's 5th Annual Halloween Bash.

This picture comes with a funny story. What you miss out on is that Jaemus managed to grab a chunk of Bailey's hair while the picture was being taken. Bailey is on a plat form and jumped off while Jaemus kept a tight grip and she began to scream and try and escape his grasp. Brandon had to pry his fingers open and untangle her hair while Bailey continued to cry and Jaemus smiled proudly and successfully grabbing and holding on to something he wanted. Fun times.

Jenni and Tim's Halloween party is never a disappointment. This year all the classic WWF wrestle's showed up and performed a Royal Rumble. We had the band Kiss, the Power Team, popular U-tube videos such as Double Rainbow, and the "Climbing in yo' window" guy.

Jenni, Tim, Greg, Ryan, and Brie went as the Thunder Cats. Michael was Miguel the Chilean miner and Tawnia was his mistress. Brandon and I went as Bella and Edward from Twilight.

Brandon and I were out of time and resources this year but we enjoyed being Edward and Bella. We recently watched all the movies and were thoroughly entertained. We have since become "fans" and look forward to laughing through the 4th movie soon.