Bye Bye Diapers

We are so so proud of Nora!  She uses the potty now!

We've been talking about and occasionally asking Nora about potty training.  She is sometimes interested, sometimes not.  She would pee every once in a while but overall, she just liked her diapers.  Fogg and I decided one day, though she wasn't completely on board, to just dive in.  We asked her every 20-30 minutes to sit on the potty, made a big deal of peeing and encouraging "no accidents".  We bribed her with whatever she wanted as a prize if she would poop in the potty - she chose an Olaf (the snowman from the movie Frozen).

That first Saturday she did great, not one accident but she only peed.  That Sunday morning she pooped - on the floor.  We kept at it though and the next day, she was in the bath and stood up quickly and said, "I have to poop!".  So we pulled her out and sure enough, she did it!  We were all so excited - including Reed - and made a big deal.  She sort of just stared at us like "that was it? that's all going potty is? no big deal!".  And from then on, every single time she has used the potty.  She earned her Olaf and is so proud of herself.

She even once got out of bed one night, pooped in the potty, got back into bed and went to sleep.  I found it the next morning.  She didn't even feel like she needed to tell us about it, she just did it cause that's what you do now.  We have had just a couple of pee accidents when she sort of just forgets to go, but I'll take it!  It's been two full weeks now, I think it's stuck!

We are so very proud of our Nora.  Our lives are changed now, no more buying diapers (she still uses overnight diapers), no more changing poopy, no more toting them everywhere.

Showing off her new undies

Some other random photos:

Reed has been drawing a lot lately.  I mean he always does but he is drawing things for people, cutting them out and passing them out.  

Above, London is showing off his personalized drawing.

Below, Reed decided to draw Mickey Mouse.  He did this all by himself then stated "do you  know how I knew how to draw Mickey? I watched the show and drew it to look the same". 

 Some he keeps for himself.  This is his little gallery that has cropped up on the wall next to his bunk bed.  He gets the tape out by himself and here you go!

And finally.  Oh our independent little girl. She was grumpy about something (can't remember what) and stuck her lip out.  She left it sticking out for several minutes.

Oktoberfest

One of our favorite things to do in the fall is to go to Snowbird to attend Oktoberfest.  They put on quite an event up there and we enjoy the food, beer and activities.  The weather this year was just beautiful!

We went with our good friends, the DesChamps.  They have a little girl, Alice, and are expecting twins in the new year.  Anyway, we had fun eating lunch, riding the tram to see the Alpenhorns, playing in the bouncehouse for the kids, eating waffles and getting balloon animals.  Reed was sort of grumpy all day as you can see by the pictures.  The balloon helped cheer him up a bit.

Fogg went out of town to attend to some family business (see below) and one of the mornings, this is what my bed looked like.  I don't like to share my bed, but at least they are darn cute!

After Fogg got home, he had a battle royal with Nora about eating dinner.  In this picture, she had a full mouth of chicken and wouldn't swallow it.  They started the stare down.  Dad eventually won.  We have made some changes to the whole dinner situation so that we don't do this any more.  One day, I will maybe share with you what we decided to do to change our lives - assuming it works out!

Well, Fogg was out of town because he went up to Maine to visit family and see his grandma who was not doing well.  We were told she was on her last days so he headed up there and she still hung out for another couple of weeks.  He left on a Wednesday, she passed on the following Monday.  She passed away a week ago, on September 8th.

Gram was well loved, a strong willed, great lady and we will all miss her.  She lived a long life, had 4 kids, 6 grandkids and 6 great grandkids.  Here are a few pictures of our trip up to Maine two years ago of Gram.

This is gram (in pink) with 3 of her kids, 2 of her grandkids, and 3 of her great grandkids.

4 Generations!  Gram, Dick (oldest son, second kid), Fogg (Mike), and Nora and Reed.

Gram with Fogg's parents and our kids.

And this is my favorite picture of Gram.  She didn't smile much for pictures so to capture this was great. And it's hard to get a 9 month old smiling has it's own challenges.  I just love this one!  Her great granddaughter, who is her namesake!

Ok, well off to the next week, Fogg is gone again on business this week, wish me luck!