9 weeks to go...

I was reading a blog post today. It is my friend's friend, Jessica. We read one anothers blogs and comment even though we've never met. She went to college with my friend Meredith. Anyway, her and I are both expecting and she had an interesting post, 'Must Have Baby Items', which has really got me thinking of everything I need to get done before Baby #2 arrives. So in order to stay on top of what I need to get done I've opted to write my list here for everyone to see and hold me accountable.

• Buy furniture for Ryleigh's big girl room - DONE
• Buy mattress for Ryleigh's big girl room
• Paint Ryleigh's big girl room
• Go through tub of 0-3 month clothes in basement
• Go through 2 tubs of baby stuff and clean/pull what I need
• Get Ryleigh potty trained (okay this is more of a wish/dream but its on the list) - WORKING
• Do my pre-registration for the hospital (should have been done 6 weeks ago) - WORKING
• Make and freeze meals for March (not starting this till Feb 1 but need to plan what I will make)
• Purchase items that I feel I need the 2nd time around... double stroller, sling, etc
• Purchase a packet of thank you notes (b/c I assume I will either get gifts/meals from folks and need to thank them without hunting for cards in Hallmark just days after giving birth)
• Donut... need to be sure I still have inflatable donut and if not - buy one since my hospital is anti-donut and would rather see me suffer for 2 days b/c their more worried about my hemorrhoids than they are my tootiefala (that is what my grandmother called it)!
• Buy Ryleigh's "I am a big sister t-shirt" and wrap and have with hospital bag so she has a gift to open when she comes to visit at the hospital
• Buy Ryleigh a banner for Glenn to hang above her new room when the baby arrives (I am big sister)
• Junk food bag... b/c my hospital serves what only can be described as icky food!
• Oh and must not forget to do all the other stuff that I normally do....

Not too bad and now that I've written it down and put some thought into it I feel ready to tackle the next 9 weeks!

The start of 08

Today has been an interesting one. I've decided to give a shot at potty training Ry! What a tall order at just over 2 but Ry has shown signs that she is physically capable...mainly waking up dry in the morning and after naps.
We've had the potty since mid-September and she dragged it all over the house for a couple of months. She filled it with toilet paper (has a removable cup that she would pick up and throw tp in). And basically saw it as a toy. The past 2 months she's essentially ignored it except for the occasional tp fill up. Last night I took the potty and cleaned out all the tp (about a rolls worth) and took it up to my bathroom. I figure when I heard her in the morning I would scoop her up and put her on the potty and we would go together (isn't that a lovely picture to imagine). Well it worked... she peed in her potty. I was so excited for her and it gave me the incentive to stay in today to be her constant reminder.
The rest of the day didn't fair as well. She sat on the potty a lot but nothing happened. After spending the whole day home I decided we needed to just get out after dinner so we went to Barnes and Noble and did some book shopping. When we got back it was time for bath so we dragged the potty to her bathroom and I got the bath ready while she sat on the potty... AND SHE DID IT AGAIN!!! I was so excited for her. It gave me more incentive to keep at it even though I question if this is really working or not. So tomorrow we will probably spend at home again. I have a play date scheduled so at least I will see an adult...
Would love to hear about how others potty trained and what worked for them so leave your comments!

My Date for the New Year

Here is my date for the evening (at least till 8:30). Afterwards I will be bringing in the New Year with Christmas Ornaments and Lysol. My hope is to get all Christmas items put away and to clean my bathroom. I know, very exciting things that could wait but what else is a pregnant girl to do...

Ryleigh's 2nd Year Video

First let me start off by saying that this idea came from a good friend of mine, Alisa, who has 2 wonderful children. She makes a video every year outlining the year they had. I did the same for Ryleigh for her first birthday (after seeing hers) and once again, I did it for her 2nd year. It's about 8 minutes long but trying to put 365 days into 8 minutes is pretty good. Enjoy!

Holiday Rundown

I hope everyone had a good Christmas. Ours was fun filled although looking back it was a bit of a blur. I hosted Christmas Eve and we did our traditional Honey Baked Ham buffet. It was quite good. My parents, brother, sister, brother-in-law and niece all joined us to celebrate. I spent most of the time in the kitchen either preparing, eating or cleaning up. It wasn't that bad and I actually enjoyed it. The best part was having my family together and having Glenn be home to be a part of it.

Christmas day was an early start for us. I did not sleep well the night before. I woke up at 3:30 am and never really went back to sleep. I got up at 5:30 to shower and get ready to head over to my folks with Ryleigh and Glenn. We got there in time to open presents with everyone. It was mad chaos because the kids (Ryleigh and Avery) were mad unwrappers. My daughter loves bows! If she could, she would have taken every single bow off of every present. She also loved tearing paper but if it was clothes she ran to the next item to be unwrapped. She had a ton of loot. She must have been good this year because Santa spoiled her.

We didn't take many photos... too busy. We did get a good one of the girls late in the afternoon. Glenn was also able to get some video. I will attempt to post that too.

Just checking in...

Okay, I should write a post about our holiday... and I will just not now. I am posting a few photos I took with our new camera. I got it up and running the day after Christmas and I am still learning the ins/outs. I am thinking it will fix my appetite for crisper photos...

Need ideas!

My husband is going Christmas shopping this weekend... I need ideas to give him. Any thoughts?