Potty Training!

   AnnElise has been using her little potty for about a month now. She's been doing really, really well with it. So well, that Daniel decided to put her in panties for the first time as we ventured out to our small group meeting. She used the bathroom 3 times with no accidents. She also went to church the next day without any diapers and used the bathroom 1 time. She was clearly ready for it to be so easy. I will credit Daniel with her potty training. We are now using a lot less diapers which should save quite a bit of money. We still put her in a diaper at nap and bedtime. I just don't expect her wake up when she needs to go, plus that would mean I would have to wake up too to help. So happy to say that she is potty trained at just over 2 years old.
   Hardy has slept for 12 hours the last 3 nights without any feedings. I'm also really excited to say that I have the best of both worlds with him. I can put him down fully awake for naps and bedtime and he'll go to sleep on his own, but I can also rock him to sleep when we're away from home and he needs to nap. AnnElise would not be rocked to sleep after we did the "cry it out" method. Which I highly recommend if you have a troubled sleeper. It has worked on both of ours with just a few tears in the beginning but far less in the long run. If you look it up, its not a torturous cry it out like many people think. But as a parent, you have to follow your intuitions and do what you feel is best for your little one. Just don't complain until you try all the sleep training techniques!

4 month pic of Hardy! He looks so much like AnnElise.

    Hardy is also trying to go mobile. He's up and rocking on his hands and knees just before 5 months and can sit for a short period of time, but I still wouldn't call him a sitter just yet. Maybe when I can walk off and leave him sitting up then it'll be official.
    Daniel and I are taking on some more responsibilities with work and church. Daniel accepted a position at church as a Deacon and he's working a full time job at the FD where his scheduled has changed from 24/48 to a 48/96 and he's selling fundraisers for school sports teams all over Middle Tennessee. I'm starting back at Clinique as a Promotional Consultant in Murfreesboro and Nashville areas during special events.
    I'm pretty stoked about my new part time job. I can work as much or as little as I want and we still won't have to worry about someone else taking care of our kids since I'm working around Daniel's schedules. And I get paid to do something fun. Our 1st event is coming up and its a special event that only Middle TN (and Jacksonville, FL) is doing. Its a new Clinique GWP only at Belk locations. I can't give details yet, but its going to rock a Clinique lover's socks off compared to the usual GWP. If you love Clinique you'll want to check it out. I'm getting excited just thinking about it!
   We also have some sad news to report. Daniel's favorite great Aunt, Ruth Daniels, is in the ICU. She just turned 90 and we've been meaning to get over to her for a visit, but now, I'm afraid we waited too long. She fell a few days ago and is now unresponsive. They've tried giving her fluids, but they're seeping out of her skin so she hasn't had anything to eat or drink in about 11 days now. If Hardy had been born a girl, we had Ruth picked out as a name after her. She is Jack Daniels' great-great niece, which makes Daniel's dad, Jack Daniels'.... well, I'm not sure how that works. Too much for my brain right now. So prayers are appreciated for her and her family as they prepare funeral arrangements and have to watch her suffer silently.
  We're anxiously awaiting for our friends in Dar es Salaam Tanzania to have their 2nd baby, another girl. Christie had a really hard time with the 1st baby. She went two weeks overdue, delivered with pitocin though not necessary and no epidural (not an option). She also had a tough time healing and such. She's scheduled to have the baby in a different hospital this time around. The latest on her and her baby is that they think her amniotic fluid level is dropping and may induce depending on what an ultrasound reveals. Their family also welcomes prayer for a safe, healthy delivery and quick healing.

Does your spouse come 1st?

   So here's a question that I've been pondering since I've had kids. Does (or should) your spouse come 1st? I have a hard time wanting to put him first, and I'm sure he has a hard time putting me first. For me, my kids have come 1st. I recently read an article on Baby Center about putting your spouse 1st. One of the things that makes it hard is going out on a date (just the two of us). 1st we would have to schedule it, then find a sitter, who we trust, and then we have to pay for the night out and for the sitter. Doesn't sound hard, right? Well, it is. I have a really hard time trusting someone else to keep my kids and worry that something bad will happen while I'm away. So I think, is it worth it to go on a date and risk something bad happening just so we can enjoy our dinners without interruption or sharing food with a messy toddler? And Daniel has a hard time fronting the money for a sitter and dinner. Both of our kids go to bed around 7, why can't we talk and put each other 1st during that time? So far, we usually just zone out in front of the TV or surf the internet, and I usually finish cleaning the dishes from dinner during that time. The last thing I want to do is put someone else at the top of my priorities after I've been putting my kids 1st all day long.
    So, I'm not proud of this by any means, but here's the deal, Daniel and I have spent 2 nights out by ourselves in the last 2 or 3 years. Both of the times on our anniversary. We've passed up opportunities to go out b/c we don't have family that lives close by, and we don't use a sitter. One of those dates, we left AnnElise with Daniel's mom right after she was born. The second we left AE and Hardy with a couple from small group that lives pretty close to us. We came back and both said, we should do it more often, but I have a feeling that we won't.
   We hadn't planned either of our kids, SURPRISE, so we didn't have the fun travel stuff before. I'm OK with that. But, now I'm really starting to get to the point where I'd love to travel and leave them some with family. Most of the time, thinking about leaving them stresses me out. Will family stick to their schedules, do they know that AnnElise has absolutely no fear and will do dangerous things if left alone for even a minute, will Hardy be easy enough to leave behind? Hardy is difficult to figure out even for me. Any time that I manage to get away, I leave them with Daniel b/c he's the next best thing. And let's face it, when I want to get away, I want to focus on me for once. So, it seems that I've been putting Daniel dead last b/c its the easiest thing to do, and its what we've become comfortable with. I mean, he's old enough to take care of himself, the kids need things. They can't make their own bottles or read themselves a book. With that being said, how do we start putting each other 1st without abandoning our kids' needs and our own? (I never realized how much I appreciate being alone until I started considering a trip to the grocery store my "me" time. Seriously, I even use the bathroom with the kids (AE plays in the sink), and I put Hardy in the bouncy seat when I take showers.)

Are there actually parents out there who truly put their relationship above their kids, especially young kids?