Saturday I got to take Kate to a Mommy and Me Princess Tea.  Kate got to wear her Cinderella dress and her magic slippers, eat yummy food, make crafts, and best of all, meet “real” Disney Princesses!  She got all giggly and smiley when she saw Cinderella and Belle.  Was a fun experience and a memory I will treasure for years to come!

Here are some pictures…

Kate’s mini tot class getting their medals

the personalized pillowcases hanging were the party favors

food and drinks

beautiful cake made by aunt jen

donut cake!

fruit ice cream cups

birthday girl

Carter says, “I’m loud!”

Carter finished off everyone’s juice.  haha!

blowing out the candle

her new bike from gma and gpa

she needed no help unwrapping the presents

although carter was close by to supervise

juice break

eating the fruit loops instead of making necklaces.  way more fun to just eat them straight out of the bowl!

“Oh praise the One who paid our debt and raised this life up from the dead!”  Happy Easter family and friends!

Note to self: next year have brunch BEFORE egg hunt.  Carter is a full fledged Gray when it comes to being hungry.  Keep us fed and we’re happy!   We sneaked out a smile from him just barely.

don’t you love the way she decided to carry the basket?

My beautiful kiddos.  Love them so much!

Egg hunt at Tetee’s neighborhood (Kate named Tracie TeTee )

This was the first year Kate wasn’t scared of the Easter bunny.  Carter LOVED the bunny and kept giving it his eggs.

Her official 3 year stats:

Weight: 28 lbs (25th percentile)

Height: 36.5 inches (40th percentile)

and two cute pictures of Carter….(because I have them and have to share!)

Height – 33.2 inches, 75%

Weight – 28.3 lbs, 78%

He is starting to talk more and more.  His current favorite word is “bye bye” as he waves.  His other sometimes legible words are  bubbles, uh oh, all done, please, mama, dada, ball, dog, cracker, block, tv, and nite nite.  He knows where his nose is and can point to it when you ask.  We’re working on recognizing all the other body parts.  He also knows the letter A and C, and tries to name the rest but it’s not in English.   He LOVES to play outside, especially in the dirt and water.  He also loves to read books, play with trains, and to sleep!  He is starting to say the right sounds that animals make, and especially loves to say “ooh ooh ah ah” for the monkey.  He can also say “roar” for lions, “baa” for sheep, and “aaagh” for dinosaurs.

He is growing up so fast.  Wish I could just press the pause button.  Here’s a recent picture of our handsome little fella…

More updates later this month after Carter’s 18 month doctor’s appointment, but I wanted to share some cute pics from the past couple of weeks.

Day 1:

Carter was off at Gma Candi’s house this day so I could focus completely on Kate since it was a Friday and Ryan was working.  I put her in panties after she woke up that morning and said bye bye to diapers!  It was a messy day, and very tiring for both of us.  She had 13 accidents, but three of those started as accidents and ended in the potty. She was very uncomfortable sitting on the potty early in the day, but later in the day got more used to it.  She just didn’t quite understand what was going on and why she couldn’t just pee anywhere and anytime, like she did in her diaper.  This picture best describes how she AND I felt by the end of the day….

Daily stats: 13 accidents, 3 of which ended with some pee in the potty

Day 2:

Day 2 Kate got good at controlling her urge to pee, but still wasn’t comfortable enough with the potty and the process to release on the toilet.  She still had some accidents, but not nearly as many as day 1.  We spent a lot of the day running her to the toilet when she started to do the “potty dance”, only to have nothing happen.  We’d put her down, she’d start hopping around again and crossing her legs, and we’d wisk her away back to the potty. Eventually she’d either pee in the potty or have an accident. She just didn’t have enough practice and didn’t know how to let her pee out.

Daily stats: 4 accidents, 2 potty successes!

Day 3:

Today was a day of hope.  The day our book promised it would “click” and Kate would be potty trained!  Overall, the day was not bad, but it was still very frustrating.  Mainly because she still didn’t know how to release her pee on the potty or just didn’t want to do it.  So we had many false alarms taking her to the potty and it got real old.  But, she did have 4 successful trips to the potty!

Daily stats: 2 accidents, 4 potty successes!

Day 4:

The first part of day 4 was very disappointing and frustrating for me because it started with accidents plus I was just completely worn out and tired of potty training.  I was on my own with both Carter and Kate that day, so I was juggling a crying Carter when Kate and I ran to the bathroom, and a crying Kate on the potty.  Kate not only was able to control the urge to pee, but also got very good and telling us she needed to go or running us into the bathroom with her.  This was great, but we still had many false alarms.  But, thank goodness, it finally “clicked” at 1:00 and she has been great ever since!   She’s still wetting the bed at night, but that’s mainly been because we hadn’t been able to get her to go potty before going to bed, so it was expected.

Daily stats: 2 accidents, 5 potty successes!

Day 5:

Still wet the bed last night, but otherwise she’s had no accidents and even went #2 in the potty!!!!  She also went to preschool today and came home in the same clothes she went to school in!  What an awesome feeling!

Will post an update later with our nighttime progress.  Hopefully in less than a week we can have her fully trained, daytime and nighttime!

Thank you “3-day Potty Training” for making our potty training experience as quick and painless as possible!