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.