Somebody's Been Sleeping in MY Bed

Hmmm.....

Michael's crib was too small.

Katie's bed was too crowded with princesses and fairies.

Mommy's and Daddy's bed was juuust right for a long winter's nap.


Hey, whatever works.

Surprise Success!!

We have a very positive update to report on our Princess Surprise Chart for Katie's potty training! The chart had worked wonderfully to motivate Katie for the first 2-3 days, with her asking to use the toilet throughout the day. And then she lost a bit of steam when she reached 8 (out of 10) stickers late last week. Because she still hadn't seen any great reward for her hard work, she probably lost interest and did not use the toilet again all weekend. Finally, Traci decided to use some new measures to re-motivate her. First, when Katie's buddy Patrick successfully used the toilet during his visit here yesterday, Traci made a HUGE deal out of it and gave him an honorary sticker. That got Katie thinking about her chart again, especially when she couldn't get a sticker. Second, Traci took Katie to the Disney Store at the mall today to take a look at all the wonderful merchandise there. Unfortunately, Katie was told that she could not buy anything because she hadn't made it to her surprise sticker yet. Cruel? Perhaps. Effective? YOU BET!

She's already gone twice on the potty today and finally earned her first big surprise. As another motivational tactic (what is this...The Art of War?), Traci decided to pull out one of the big gun surprises: a set of Disney Fairy/Tinkerbell figurines. Needless to say, Katie was beside herself when the surprise was revealed (see picture above). Do you think she might be a little disappointed when the next surprise is coloring books/stickers?

The Second Generation Babes

It's always fun for Michael when we get together with Katie's closest buddies because almost all of them now have younger siblings. (Connor's new sister should be here any day now!) Just as Katie has always played with Lyla, Patrick, Sam, Charlie, etc., now Michael will get to buddy up with Anamarie, Colleen, Oliver, and Maisie. Today Colleen (almost 1-year-old, pictured) and Michael took quite a liking toward each other, cooing, chirping, and giggling like a couple of little love birds. Colleen even tried to climb into his lap a couple of times. Colleen's mommy Kim suggested that we will have to continue the playgroup tradition for our second generation babes after all of the older kids are in preschool/school. We couldn't agree more!

Finding My Happy Place

Who in God's name would schedule their two kids' pediatrician check-ups back-to-back??? That would be we crazy folk! This morning Traci, Katie, and Michael headed to the docs for the big 3-year/4-month well visit. Traci should have known that things would get dicey when Katie started crying on the elevator up, chanting "I don't like when Michael cries..." over and over again. (You see, Traci thought she would comfort Katie by explaining that only Michael was going to get shots today. Noooo....) Anyway, Katie went into full-on wail mode as soon as we entered the office, surely entertaining all of the actual sick kids and harried parents in the waiting room. When we finally went back to our private exam room, the wailing only intensifed. (Angelic, little Michael was simply gazing around from his car seat through all of this.) Katie was so upset that the nurse had to come in several different times to take her blood pressure, as it was very elevated. (Uggghhh, just the memories of trying to get Katie on the height/weight scale gives me high blood pressure!) Anyway, things calmed down a bit when the doctor came in with a couple of princess stickers. (Word had gotten around that my kid was the loud one.) Katie did fantastically on all of her little tests (throwing a ball, jumping, saying her name, counting, colors, etc.). She even did well naming all of the shapes on her vision screening. She wasn't so hot on her hearing test, but I think she was just tired by then. I know that girl can hear the quietest hardwood floor creak in our condo from a mile away. By the fourth try, she finally passed the test with flying colors. As for Michael, he barely said a peep the whole time. The poor kid just sat half-naked in his car seat while I tended to the loud one. The doc was ecstatic with his growth, eating, strength, and awareness. When the doctor and I finally did focus on our Michael questions, I unfortunately had a little 3-year-old saying "I want to go home" at least 5,000 times in a row. Grrrrr.... Traci just had to breathe slowly and try to find her happy place.

Anyway, both kids are in super shape and Mommy is relieved to have that appointment over with. Here are their measurements:
KATIE - 39 3/4 inches (96th percentile), 36 pounds (90th), 16 BMI (60th).
MICHAEL - 26 1/2 inches (93rd), 17 pounds, 3 ounces (88th).

Short-Haired Marsupial

Katie would like to know who this new species of Mommy is... Not only did Traci lob off many inches of her hair, but she now has a baby joey sticking out of her pouch. Yesterday, Traci decided to rejuvenate herself by trying a new haircut. (Lord knows she's not rejuvenated by any amount of sleep.) This is the shortest Traci's hair has been since she was about 2 years-old; so needless to say, everybody was shocked when she got home. Katie still asks her when she is going to get her "long, princess hair" back. (Not thinking that she is a fan...) Oh, and as for the baby joey (Mikey?) in the pouch, Michael seems to really enjoy his new ride. He is so fricking huge that his foot sticks out the front (see picture). He loves it because he can almost get it to his mouth for eating purposes. Mmmm...nothing like fresh baby toes!

Some Peace and Quiet

Mike desperately needed the house to be quiet this afternoon as he worked the overnight shift last night. So, after tucking Katie in for her nap, Traci bundled Michael up and took him out exploring the neighborhood. Katie, being the first child, used to always enjoy long stroller walks when she was young, but we had yet to take Michael out on his own. (There always seems to be a certain 3-year-old around who nixes the idea of us doing anything on our own with Michael.) Michael really digged the ride, taking in all of the sights and sounds. After about 20 minutes, he fell asleep and Traci was left with the blissful sounds of SILENCE. Traci ended up getting two great deals for the price of one: some great exercise and a 2-hour stroller nap from Michael. Too bad we couldn't do this every afternoon while Katie slept!

4 Months Young

Look who turns 4 months old today! According to most resources, this means that Michael has graduated from newborn-hood and should theoretically become easier on us. Well, who ever said that our kids listened to conventional wisdom? It's not that our little sweetie isn't a pleasant, fun guy. It's just that he's not a big fan of sleep, and...um...we are. He's unfortunately nowhere near sleeping through the night, even with our valiant efforts with sleep training. His latest trick? He now becomes even more awake AFTER he nurses during the night. That means that somebody has to figure out a way to get him back to sleep at midnight, 3AM, 5AM....you get the picture. We guess he just has too much to learn, see, and do to actually want to sleep. But, on a more positive note, Michael is making great strides with his motor development (steady head control, rolling side-to-side, enjoying the exercauser) and emotional development (smiling, "chatting," paying attention to people and toys). We'll just have to make sure "sleep" becomes a part of his vocabulary as well!

Katie's Princess Surprise Chart

Between Katie's paci training and Michael's sleep training, you would think we would have had enough with the transitional growing pains right now. Ohhhh no, we've decided to finally tackle Katie's potty training as well! She has finally shown a little interest in the process, so we've created her official "Princess Surprise Chart." She gets to put up a Disney princess sticker on her chart for each successful potty trip. After 10 stickers, she receives a surprise (perhaps a trip for ice cream, a new Disney figurine, etc.) Bribery or reward? You decide. Regardless, it's been a great success in her first two days - she's already reached 4 stickers! That's four more successful bathroom trips than she's had in the last six months. Once she seems to get the hang of everything, we'll bring out the undies - woo-hoo!

More Exercauser Hijinks

Yep, here are those two same little rascals getting crazy with Michael's exercauser. Katie had begged and begged about getting into the darn thing since we brought it down from the attic, and we obviously had always told her "No." Finally, I challenged the usually-not-persistant one to try to get into it herself. Unfortunately, where there's a will, there's a way. Now she wants to get into it all the time. And, of course, Connor had to try, too.

On an unrelated Michael note, sleep training has certainly had its ups and downs over the past week. On the bright side, Michael has easily adjusted to his moved-up bedtime of 8:15PM. We have to actively keep him from falling asleep from 7PM on, and he usually goes down without a fight. On the major downer side, he now stays WIDE AWAKE after his 5AM feeding, which is killing both parents on the sleep deprivation front. Hopefully we'll work through this really soon!

Sibling Abuse

Katie and Connor (2.5 years-old) decided to use Michael's exercauser as a prop in their silly games. Too bad he was still in it.... Does this qualify as sibling abuse?

The Zoo, and Mr. Wayne, Too

Since Mike had the day off for MLK Day, we decided to do something fun as a family. We rounded everybody up by 9:30AM and headed for the National Zoo. Katie had a blast watching the pandas, monkeys, snakes, and zebras. She's finally old enough to really appreciate what she's seeing; and she loved when the animals (especially the meerkats) interacted with her. For his part, Michael happily slept in the stroller and bjorn. When we finally tired out, we headed to Georgetown to eat a nice lunch. Katie randomly selected a cool, little dive bar because it had an advertisement for the Nutcracker ballet on its front window. (She probably thought there would be a show inside.) We all ended up loving the joint. Mike and Traci loved their food, Michael enjoyed watching the ceiling fan and neon signs, and Katie found a new best friend. Mr. Wayne, the old bartender, made Katie's day by chatting her up the whole time we were there. (In fact, when we later asked Katie what her favorite part of the day was, she replied "Mr. Wayne.") Finally, as we headed back to our car, Katie forced us to stop and watch some freestyle hip-hop street buskers for a good 15 minutes. These guys were pretty good, drawing big crowds, earning money to give to the Red Cross for Haiti disaster relief. Katie loved their beats so much that she was dancing silly on the sidewalk. We wish we had had our camcorder. Please check out some of our pictures from our fun day in the photo album on the right!

Completely Wiped Out

Ughhh...that horrible time has come upon us....time to start sleep-training. As one of Traci's main goals for the coming months is to relocate Michael into Katie's room, we knew we should start implementing the cry-it-out method sooner rather than later. We figure it will be easier to do it in our room rather than Katie's. (At least one family member will be able to sleep!) We started the training last night, with some moderate success. We put Michael down, awake after a diaper change, at about 8:15PM. At first, he just cried out like he was confused. But, as we went in to check on him (after longer and longer intervals), he kept getting madder. By the time Traci went in the last time before he fell asleep, he was physically shaking all over his body with extreme anger. It was heartbreaking to see and hear... But, after about a half-hour, he was sound asleep and slept well through most of the night. (Didn't wake up for another 6.5 hours....) Mike and Traci really, really do not enjoy this process, but we know it reaps the best benefits. Katie has been a fabulous sleeper since we did it with her long ago. Now, we just hope we don't get millions of noise complaints from everybody in the metro DC before Michael's sleep training is over.

Class Clown???

Today was a big day for Katie....she went from being a little girl to being a bonafide ballerina! She started her much-anticipated dance class at an area gym/studio. We were a little unsure how this morning would go since parents are not allowed to stay in the studio room. Well, Katie lucked out, because the teacher let some of us parents stick around to help the transition. At the beginning of class, Katie stuck to Traci's leg like glue and wouldn't join the stretch/circle time. Traci then walked over and sat behind the circle so that Katie would at least be in the vicinity of her fellow ballerinas. Gradually, Traci stepped away without Katie noticing... And, before everybody knew it, Katie was the clown of the class! Traci knew they had made a good choice of teacher/venue when Miss Monica (Katie's new hero) went around the room asking each little one who her favorite princess is. (Katie responded Snow White, by the way.) Fifteen minutes into class, Katie was giggling, chatting with the other 3-4 year-olds, and gladly volunteering for the various new dance moves they learned. Traci wishes she could have captured Katie's beaming joy during class, but cameras were not really allowed. By the end of class, Katie had learned how to perform first position, chasse, and arabesque. Too bad Traci can't sit and watch every class - it was an absolute hoot! (And Michael loved watching, too!)

The Katie-Kat Team

Over the summer, Katie became fast friends with a sweet, little neighbor girl, Katarina (18 months-old). Almost every late afternoon, they would play in the neighborhood playground, take walks, or hang out in front our respective condos. Unfortunately, we hadn't seen them for a long time as our schedules never seemed to match. We finally synched our schedules this afternoon so that they could have a playdate. Katie loved introducing Kata to her new princess toys, and Kata loved showing off her new vocabulary skills. Here are the two little ones bonding...unfortunately, they wouldn't cooperate in looking at the camera. Such divas!

Manly Man

We told you it wouldn't take long for Michael to have to endure some dress-up fun. Today Katie and Mommy thought it would be hilarious to put the little guy into Katie's Ariel top. The poor guy just sat there and took it on the chin. We actually got a better picture of him, but we thought that his look of disgust and resignation in this one told the true story. Poor, poor Michael.

I'm Three and Paci-Free!

One of our big resolutions for Katie this year (we won't say it was her idea, if you know what we mean) was to get rid of her sleep-time pacifiers once she turned three. We were a little nervous about taking them away because she was such a GOOD sleeper with them. We had also heard horror stories from other parents about their pacifier-training experiences. So, we gave her a heads-up about a month ago and eased her into the transition: we took away one back-up paci from her bed each week until we got down to one... The night after her birthday we finally "donated" all of her pacis to the "babies in the hospital." She was especially excited that she would be donating at least one of her pacis to Connor's future baby sister who will be born at the hospital. (Wink, wink.) Well, guess what - our awesome kiddo pleasantly surprised us once again! She has been sleeping and napping no problem without the pacis and has only asked for them once. Probably the only negative that we have seen from the whole experience is that she no longer lingers in her bed once she wakes up. (The paci would often buy us at least another half-hour of free time!) Anyway, we're so proud of our big girl. Up next: Michael's sleep training. Bring it on, cry-it-out!

Smiley Basketball Fan

Now that the college and professional football seasons are essentially over for us (what?...no Steelers or Lions), we have introduced Michael to the sheer pleasure of watching college basketball. We do not get ESPNU, so he could not watch the Irish this evening. Instead, we treated him to his very first Duke game...GO DUKE! Too bad Michael had to see Mommy's team lose in the last minute, but it looks like he had a grand time watching the best sport ever!!!

For those of you who could care less about sports, we guess you can take pleasure in how much the little guy is growing up. He loves his tummy time, flashing grins and waving his arms and legs as fast as he can. It'll only be a matter of time before he's moving all the time!

All Dolled Up

Katie invited her buddies Lyla (3-years-old) and Anamarie (17-months) over for a BIG dress-up playdate. The girls have been excited about this since Christmas. As you all have probably noticed from the blog, the vast majority of Katie's little friends are boys who don't share her love of princesses, ballerinas, and dress-ups. So, Angela (Lyla and Anamarie's mommy) and Traci specifically set up this playdate so that their little princesses could enjoy all things girly. Traci got out all of Katie's best dresses, including the ones she donned at Michael's baptism and for Christmas mass. She also got out all of Katie's little shoes, jewelry, crowns, and purses. You can just imagine how much primping and twirling was done in front of the mirrors. All went perfectly, but the moms just wish that their little girls could do a little more dressing and undressing on their own. That'll come in time... As for poor Michael, we estimate that he will be forced to don one of these beautiful dresses sometime before his first birthday. He'll just grow up being very secure in his masculinity.

GOOOOAAAAL!

Katie has never shown much interest in sports, so it was kind of amusing to see her at Open Gym today. Maybe the cabin fever is starting to get to her, but she actually didn't mind kicking some balls around and swinging some bats. Now somebody should probably teach her the difference between a whiffle ball bat and a hockey stick!

Look at Me!

Hey, Michael here! For some reason, Big Sis has been getting all the attention the last couple days, so I decided to do something about it! What could I do to get some attention back? How about catch another croup-y cough? CHECK! Perhaps shriek at the top of my lungs and smile? CHECK! Or maybe just cutely wrestle with my inchworm while biting its leg off? YOU GOT IT! Now that I've got everybody's attention back, I just wanted to remind you that it's only approximately 8.5 months until my birthday, if you wanted to start designing videos or finding me cool balloons or something. (Wink!)



Oh wait - here's another party trick to get your attention! LOOK - I'm trying to sit...all by myself! Do you see this? Can I get some applause around here? How about some baby talk? Take that, Katie!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Katherine Reese!

Katie would like to thank everyone who helped make her 3rd birthday so special (e.g., gifts, cards, emails/facebook postings). She had a fantastic birthday and told us two things for certain: 1) 34 is "wow, that's really old!" and 2) she can't wait to turn 2 again next year. Perhaps some of her new princess friends can help her with her math. Thanks again, everybody. And, similar to last year, enjoy the video...

Daddy-Daughter Dinner

We started a family tradition tonight where Mike will take Katie out to dinner (just the two of them) on the night before her birthday. Likewise, Traci will take Michael out each year. We specifically waited until the 3rd birthday because, let's face it, who has many memories of when they were 1-2 years old (besides Traci...freak). The birthday girl or boy picks the location, but no restaurant is to be repeated over time.


Katie's first pick? Wendy's, of course! One kid's chicken sandwich meal and a vanilla frosty made our soon to be 3 year old a very happy lady (despite the bitter Chicago-like windchills).

Katie and Dad had a great time together (only a few "where's Mommy?'s") and are looking forward to celebrating her big day with presents tomorrow morning, her favorite dinner (Chicken Kiev) tomorrow night, and, of course, birthday cake. Stay tuned...

Rock and Roll!

He did it! Our little guy has entered the wonderful world of wiggling, giggling, and MOVING! Last night, the four of us attended a fun New Year's Eve party at the Harrisons (parents of Katie's bud, Lyla). Traci and Mike were talking with the adults and Katie was off playing with the older kids. Poor Michael was laid out on a blanket in the corner so that nobody would step on him. (Such second-child parenting, huh?) After awhile, Traci put him on his belly to get some tummy time and so that he could watch all of the kids at a better angle. Lo and behold, out of the corner of her eye, Traci witnessed Michael performing his first roll-over (front to back)! Traci and another mom friend let out a big cheer, and poor Mike (dad) only got to see the after-effects. (He still doesn't believe it happened.) We guess that was Michael's way to get our attention at the party. Go Michael!

In another funny story from the party, our older kid (the one that used to be shy as heck) followed a 5-year-old boy (!) around all evening. We even heard her ask if she could dance for him!! When we left the party, she asked for Christopher and said that she loved him. Good lord, we have our hands full...