Thursday, September 30, 2010

Happy BIRTH-day Madison Lynn Southern!!!

Welcome to the world Madison Lynn Southern
Monday, September 27 4:49pm
9 pounds 15 ounces, 22 inches
Excited Grandmothers getting to see their granddaughter for the first time.

Mother, Son and Granddaughter
Holding hands...
Madison was not happy to be unwrapped.
Carrington looking in on her cousin.
All smiles after seeing Madison through the window.
So sweet...mommy and daughter looking in each others eyes.
Carrington happy to see her aunt and cousin
In love!
Carrington adores Madison. If we weren't at the hospital she was constantly asking, "mommy go hospital, mommy see baby".
When we would get to the hospital Carrington would say, "wash hands, hold baby" before we even got in the room.
I love you Madison!
Sisters with their little girls.
MeMe and her granddaughters. She is in heaven!!
First Grandchild for the Southern Family.
I can't wait to see you soon Madison. We love you so, so much!!!

ABC's, 123's, and other fun!

Carrington is starting to learn her alphabet and numbers in an at-home preschool setting. It's been a lot of fun to have structured teaching, and to watch Carrington learn. She really enjoys the tracing, coloring, and learning bible stories too.


Since she was learning about the letter 'A' we made apple pumpkin muffins. She is a little Betty Crocker in the making.


To kick off the fall festivals we stopped by a Family Fun Day Festival in Wilmington. Carrington loves, loves, loves the jumpy slides and fun houses. It's hard to pull her away once she gets on one.


She got a flower balloon and thought she was hot stuff carrying it around.

Her first hand painting. She held still just long enough for the girl to put a ladybug on her hand.
Her prize for holding still.
Freak Friday at Kelly's school!
Awesome hair-do!
Kelly should get best Freaky Friday dress at school!!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

I'm a Big Girl Now!

I think it's safe to say that we have a potty trained little girl, who has completely ditched the diapers, and is accident free except for the night time and a few naps here and there. We started the task over Labor Day weekend using the 3 Day Potty Training Method. The first three days were very wet and messy. Carrington had more misses than hits in the beginning but by day four all the hard work started to pay off. We really didn't leave the house for the long Labor Day Weekend until Monday afternoon. That was the last day that she had any accidents during the day. We are still working on night time training which involves waking Carrington a couple times at night to have her potty, and changing the sheets while we are half asleep. She does well with using the potty in the middle of the night but doesn't always make it in between trips. I'm really proud of her accomplishments and hopeful that with time the night time training will become the final success in her potty training adventure.
Having a sucker and playing with playdough after a succesful trip to the potty!
I thought you might get a kick out of my potty training diary. I had good intentions to write each day but only got to the computer on day one. It's really funny for me to read this two weeks later.

Morning #1 - I'm already in serious need of hip waders, an extra pair of hands, a beer, a hot bath, a massage, anything that can help me survive, not just the next three days but, the next five hours after Carrington wakes from her nap.

I was ready for the challenge when Carrington woke up this morning. We got off to a fairly easy start without any accidents in the first hour. Then we went 0-6 for the next three hours. Literally, the flood gates opened! I'm sure it had something to do with the entire sippy cup of apple juice/water mix and pouchy (Capri Sun Water) drink she consumed in less than an hour. I wanted to make sure she had plenty of liquids so we could practice pee peeing on the potty. Problem was, we never made it to the potty. She sent out "signals" ("mommy pee pee") but it was in midstream while going in her big girl panties. I questioned this "3 Day Potty Training" technique after I was pulling off the third pair of wet panties in less than 10 minutes but by the time we were at accident number six, I was just laughing at how funny my current situation was. There was a lot going on at the moment; Bear trying to lick up Carrington's puddle, then Bear trying to eat Carrington's snack that was within his reach, Carrington running around naked without having been hosed off, and the FedEx man trying to ring the door bell that doesn't work while he is jumping around the front porch so he doesn't get carried away by the mosquito's. Had I not laughed, the FedEx man would have been pulled in the front door while I ran out, jumped in his truck, and drove off.

Off in search of hip waders before nap time is over!

Afternoon/Evening #1 - So exhausted I can barely type! How we didn't float away, I'm not sure. She woke up dry from her nap which was short of a miracle. I'm dreading having to clean up the crib the most so to delay that until tomorrow morning is very nice. That's when the ark will be needed! I think she went 2-8 this afternoon. That's right, she went on the potty twice!!!! There was a serious amount of jumping up and down and shouting in joy; plus stickers and suckers and gummy bears. Also, daddy got several calls to celebrate in the victories! She's nervous to do the "real" business on the potty so I had to clean up one stinky mess, gross! I'm smiling, with my eyes shut, at the end of day one. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be but by no means was it a piece of cake either.

Here's to a good night sleep, with hopefully no potty training dreams, and looking forward to further accomplishments on day #2!