My Big Little Girl :)

Rachel has just grown so much in so little time! I guess with the seasons changing and with the soon to be arrival of her baby sister she just had to grow by leaps and bounds!

This past month Rachel has decided that she no longer wants to wear diapers. She is now pretty much officially potty trained. It only took a few days for her to master the art of going to the bathroom like a big girl. It's still weird for me her hear her go pee in the potty, it just seems like yesterday that I brought her home from the hospital, now she is a sweet little kid! I don't think we have changed a diaper in over a week now. Before naps and bedtime she has to go potty and then she will usually wake up dry asking to go potty. There have been a couple accidents but that's to be expected, she's only 2. I'm just amazed at how quickly she caught on.

On Tuesday (Oct. 12) I read a blog that my cousin wrote talking about her experiences potty training 6 of her 7 children and it inspired me to try potty training Rachel. I had always been told to wait until she was ready to start but how do you know when that time is? That morning we had taken a shower together and I usually let her run around naked for a few minutes while I get ready, during that time she came running to me telling me that she needed to go potty. I sat her on the toilet and she went! It was amazing so after reading Teri's blog I just knew that I was time to train her. I'm so glad that she had posted that because I wouldn't have known how to go about starting it. So Thursday after my Dr.'s appointment Rachel and I went to Walmart and picked out some panties, a new sippy cup, a timer, and I got some M&Ms for her treat. I wasn't planning on starting that training until Monday because I knew that we were going to be doing stuff during the weekend and I didn't want her to get confused with wearing panties and then a diaper later on. But she was so excited about her new panties that we had to put them on right away. So that afternoon we started our training. I put the timer on for 10 minutes and when it went off we went potty. We did that for a while before I extended the time and soon she was jumping up saying "potty!" whenever the timer would go off. We put diapers on during the night and she wasn't happy about that but in the morning we started all over again with the panties. Friday night we went out to eat and she was in her panties and didn't have an accident. Saturday morning we went out for breakfast and she didn't have an accident. But that afternoon was pretty bad. She had quite a few accidents including the dirty kind. With those we just dumped out her panties in the potty and said "bye bye poo poo" and flushed it. But Sunday was when we had our break through. That day we didn't have one single accident. Josh is a part of a bowling league that takes place every Sunday evening. That night we took her potty top with us and some extra clothes in case we had an accident. She told me twice that she had to go potty and she went both times! No accidents! Josh and I were amazed! It wasn't until the next week that we decided she didn't need to wear diapers to bed because almost every morning she would wake up dry and tell me she needed to go. And it also wasn't until then that she started going poop in the potty as well. With all of that said, I think I can proudly say that my 26 month old daughter is potty trained! I gives me about a 2 month break from changing diapers until her little sister gets here and I am definitely enjoying this break.

Another thing that is astounding me, is her vocabulary! Everyday a new word or phrase is said. Josh and I can't believe how smart she is. She will tell us something and we will look at each other and ask "Did you know she knew how to say that?" It really is amazing in only the 2 months of being 2 years old she has grasped so many new words and concepts. Right now we are working on counting to ten and her colors. She is pretty good at recognizing blue and white, she gets pink and green mixed up though and she LOVES purple. Today we went to the park and I was pushing her in the swing. Every time I pushed her I would count. Soon she was counting with me to 10! Yes, she would get the numbers mixed up but that was the first time she did that. If I had had my camera with me I would have gotten a video, maybe next time I will catch it and show it all to you. I did have my phone but I don't know how to upload any of my pics or videos onto my computer.

So we don't really celebrate Halloween but we did still get her a pumpkin. She calls them "pumpins." She had a blast coloring it with her crayons.

My mom did buy her a really cute Fairy Princess costume but Rachel wouldn't have anything to do with it. I got it on her for a whole 2 seconds before she took it off. All I wanted was a picture to show Gma. (It's so cute the names she come up with for family members. Grandma is Gma or Bma and all her Uncles are called Dohkoo.)

The start of Fall has been a fun time for us. It makes me wonder how the rest of the year is going to play out.