Friday Fun

Between swinging and ice cream, Friday was a

fun-filled day.

You Never Let Go -- Matt Redman

We're learning this song in our worship team right now. It's currently my favorite Matt Redman song. Click on the image below.

May you be as blessed by this song as I am.

New Things

For the full story on these pictures, visit my personal blog.

These figurines were such a hit, we had to go out and get two sets of them.

Here in Carmichael Land, we are excited to announce that Esther is pretty much fully potty trained!!! Yay! So, so, so much easier with the second child. She still has *occasional* accidents, but usually, it's when we're in some store, and I have a football field to cross in order to rush her to the restroom (not so easy to do carrying a 25-pound toddler while I'm 6 months pregnant!). When she goes poo-poo, she stands up and looks down into the potty and says, "Snake!" Makes us laugh every time.

Some other cute things:

Esther started calling Abby "Ab" yesterday. She walks into Abby's bedroom and says things like, "Hey, Ab! What'cha doing, Ab?" She is no longer speaking in toddler mumbo-jumbo, and everything she says now is understandable, usually complete with subject and predicate.

Abby is getting so helpful around here. She's big enough now that she can dispense ice into my water bottle for me or help me put the wet clothes into the dryer. She is also doing really well with writing her letters. We started that a few weeks ago, and in the beginning, she was struggling with just holding the marker (whiteboard marker on handwriting/learning paper in page protectors -- great idea!) in her hand in the correct way. Now, she's getting faster and faster at forming letters more smoothly. Of course, I'm still making the dots to guide her with the letters, but the lines she makes are less squiggly than before, and she is doing really well with it. She also knows all of the sounds of the ZooPhonics alphabet (letters/animals combination). It's been really interesting beginning the homeschooling process. I'm heartened to know she can sit for up to half an hour at a time and concentrate on academics for up to an hour. I really had my doubts about it, but it's turning out pretty well, and she really doesn't officially start kindergarten until next fall.

Dress Up Fun

We came down the hallway to find this...

Abby, who has entered the loving-to-dress-myself stage, had dressed herself and Esther in her two princess dresses. Esther wasn't so keen on the whole thing, probably because it was a tad too long for her.

Another Day at the Park

Here's some more Hartford Park pictures for ya.

We had fun playing with Grace and her new little brother Tyler.

It was humid with lots of ominous gray clouds.

Thankfully it didn't rain,
but the cloud cover made it really the perfect day for the park.

Gotta love the glam!

Essie kept doing this (above) -- "Look, Ma, no hands."

Needless to say, swinging didn't last too long for her.

Mommy couldn't take the stress of it. :)

Jennifer and Precious Baby Tyler

Abby calls this airplane swinging.

She had fun introducing it to Grace.

Pajama Days

Some days it just takes us forever to get out of our pajamas.

Potty Training Essie

Four successes today! After putting on her training pants at around 11:30, after some visitors of ours took off, I asked her to come sit on the potty, and she just didn't want to, absolutely refused; I made her anyway, very gently insisting that it's been awhile and that she needed to sit. After throwing an almost fit, tears and all, she finally obeyed and...[drum roll, please] went peepee!! The next time around, about an hour and a half later, I asked her if she needed to go, and she said no. Ten minutes later, keeping an ever-present eye on her, I asked her again; this time she said, "Yesh (or yes)!"

After her nap, we sat her on the potty...no luck. Then at the restaurant tonight, after many queries of "Do you have to go?" she finally brought up the issue, "Have to go paw-ee (potty)!" I quickly grabbed her out of her highchair and took her in, set her down, and -- wha-la! -- she went! Woooooohooooo!

After dinner, we took the girls for a quick round at the park, as I had promised Abby we would if she took a nap. We tried sitting her on the toilet at the park restroom, but she didn't go. Then, when we arrived home, we sat her on the potty before bathtime, and what do you know? She went yet again!! No accidents since putting on her training pants today!!! Minus naptime, of course.

One happy Mommy here tonight. :) Oh, I guess Daddy's pretty jazzed too.

Chaotic Victory

We had a rather hilarious cross between utter joy and complete confusion tonight. Esther went big potty in the toilet. Yay! I set her on the potty right before her bathtime, asking her if she needed to go, and she nodded and very gladly sat down and pooped (sorry for the graphic wording; there's no other way to say it!). Then, after she announced she was done, I put her in the tub, and she crawled over to the latter end of tub, got on her haunches, and promptly went some more! Yikes. So then we pulled her out, and while trying to clean and disinfect the tub, she squatted on the bathroom floor and went some MORE!! It all but had us in stitches.

It was a chaotic victory, I guess you might say. :)

Labor Day Fun

So I know Labor Day was last Monday, but you know how time flies around here. Anyway, we took the kids to our local mall which has a fabulous little indoor playplace. They have the best time whenever we go, even though with all the climbing, running, and falling, the rest of us leave a little jittery from nerve shock.

All in all, it was too much fun.

Who is this kid? I don't know.

Abby makes buds wherever we go.

Surfing the Spongy Animals

Couldn't pick my favorites on these three of Esther

This little merry-go-round is a new addition to the mall.

They had so much fun on the thing, but it cost a buck to ride for literally one minute!