Potty Training Chronicles: The Boys turn.

Oh yes the long awaited potty training journey continues. Only this time it with Darren. He is starting much older than his sister did. Partially because if you read the blogs about our journey with her you will see we started too early, but also partially because I didn't want to. I told myself he wasn't ready, or we are moving around too much etc...But here we are finally settling into our new home, and final home for the foreseeable future. There is no more excuses. He has to start sometime, and I would be THRILLED if we got this done before he turns 3, which is just around the corner.

So let the torture begin.

We are only on day 3 as I write this blog. It feels like we have been doing it for a month already. It is seriously such a pain, those people who wrote the books about being potty trained in 3 days must be the best ever. I swear my kid spends the vast majority of his day propped up on his potty chair. He has the holding his pee power of a super human. Then the second you are not paying attention to him for even a moment, he goes in another room and pees. WHAT IS THIS???

We have tried naked, underwear, outside. I have yet to see him actually pee. Only when he is alone and being sneaky. Haha we have a long journey ahead of us I can tell he won't be the potty training prodigy.

Yesterday, he found the candy I didn't know he knew where it was. And when I went up stairs to reply to an email really quick came down to him in the corner most the m&m's gone and he had peed himself. I don't get it, this job is seriously to torture parents. I should really just be teaching him how to change his own diaper, and he can wear them as long as he likes!!! He will eventually not want to!

On a cool note he stayed dry for nap yesterday, and over night today! So I know he can!!! Just to get him to figure out that it is okay to pee on the potty!!! Come on potty training faeries make this happen!!!

1st Day of Kindergarten Interview

My sweet girl is already a Kindergartner, some days I am in shock and think how is this possible other days I wish she was graduating!!! Awwww parenting!

But alas she is in Kindergarten this year and she loves it so far. We did this interview on her first day but I am just now posting it can't wait to see what she says each year!!

How old are you? 5

What is your favorite show right now? Strawberry Shortcake

What is something you like to do? Make crafts

What is something you are good at? Writing in the lines

If you could pick another name what would it be? Kaysa

Favorite colors? Turquoise and Pink

Favorite toys? My little ponies

What do you want to be when you grow up? A Chef

What do you like to take to bed with you? Monkey

What is your favorite book right now? Huck Runs Amuck

What is your favorite movie? Cinderella

What is your favorite season? Winter

What is your favorite food? Strawberries

What is your favorite Animal? Baby horse

What is your favorite sport? Soccer

Who is your best friend? Colbey

What is your favorite holiday? Christmas

Where is the coolest place you went this year? The Beach

Darren is 11 months

Nicknames: Dare Bear, Darren McBarren, Bubba

Clothing Size: 24/2t

Personality: Such a love bug, you have learned to give kisses and hugs and always want to be sitting with someone.

Things I Could Do Without: This awful case of Thrush and the cold you and Kyra have caught, it has been a rough couple weeks!!

Item/Toy We Love The Most: New bottles you got for Christmas so you can start drinking milk!!

Item/Toy You Love The Most: You love the new car toy you got for Christmas, and the tractor!! And still Moose.

Things I’m Loving Most Right Now: Watching you try to walk, and stand on your own. Soon you will be running everywhere.

Things You’re Loving Most Right Now: Getting into things, and playing with sisters toys!!

Darren is 10 months

Nicknames: Dare Bear, Darren McBarren

Clothing Size: 24/2t

Personality: You are a trouble maker, and get into every thing and leave distruction everywhere you go.

Things I Could Do Without: You throwing food on the floor to feed the dog.

Item/Toy We Love The Most: New high chair so you can eat with us and strap you down while I try to cook.

Item/Toy You Love The Most: Crocodile with blocks, and Moose!

Things I’m Loving Most Right Now: When you and Kyra disappear to one of your rooms and play quietly together.

Things You’re Loving Most Right Now: Being able to reach a lot of new things including the table top to grab down things you think you want!!

Darren is 5 months

Nicknames: Dare, Bub, Bud, Bubba, Chubs

Clothing Size: 12 mins but not for long.

Personality: You are such a smiley little guy!! You are almost always happy, unless you are tired!!  You just love when people talk to you, and watching your sister be silly!!

Things I Could Do Without: You rolling onto your back and then getting mad and not rolling back over.

Item/Toy We Love The Most: The moose, and the train the neighbor gave you to play with, both entertain you for longer amounts of time.

Item/Toy You Love The Most: We bought you this stuffed moose this past weekend and for some reason you decided it was the best!

Things I’m Loving Most Right Now: Your sweet little smile and laughs you are always cheerful so even when I am stressed and grumpy just looking at you makes me happy!!

Things You’re Loving Most Right Now: Kyra and a Dad, you could stare at them all day!!

Darren is 3 months old!!

Nicknames: Bubba, Buddy, Chubba, Monster

Clothing Size: 6-9 months!!

Personality: I would say 90% of the time you are just the happiest little guy!! Or are full of smiles and funny faces!! I could stare at you all day!! But that 10% when you are not happy is so exhausting, because when you are mad you are mad and only walking calms you down!!

Item/Toy We Love The Most: still using the Boppy lounger everyday, and the carrier as it was with Kyra is often a life saver. 

Item/Toy You Love The Most: You are starting to really like your toys!! And you like the blue ones the most. You have a blue elephant you are always hugging and cuddling with, and you still really like your blue monkey and the bunny you got for Easter!!

Things I’m Loving Most Right Now: I love playing with you and watching your smiles!! You are always cheesing!! Your little personality is really coming out!!

Things You’re Loving Most Right Now: Watching Kyra play!! And messing around with your hands and toungue that you have recently discovered how to control.

Darren is 2 months old!!

Oh baby boy, you are growing so fast. It is really hard to believe that 2 months has passed already. And you have grown so much since than!!!

Nicknames: Bubba, Dare, Buddy

Clothing Size: Still fits into a few 3-6 tops but getting really close to going into 6-9. And 3-6 pants.

Personality: Oh man have you recently came out of your shell more. You are always smiling and such a happy man unless you are hungry!! Most expressive little guy!!

Things I Could Do Without:  When you are really tired you fill your mouth up nursing than spit it all out all over me.

Item/Toy We Love The Most: BabyHawk Carrier, Boppy Lounge

Item/Toy You Love The Most: Blue Monkey

Things I’m Loving Most Right Now: Your big smiles and giggles, in the mornings when you do floor time happily, watching you watch Kyra play!

Things You’re Loving Most Right Now: Mom talking to you, going on walks, and hugs from Kyra even if they are a bit agressive!!

Kyra is 3!!

Nicknames: Kyr, Princess, Bug

Clothing Size: 3t pants and 3-4t tops

Personality: Sassy doesn't even begin. You back talk, purposely ignore me, do opposite of what you were told etc. But you are also really good at remembering rules, and manners in most situations!!

Things I Could Do Without: Tempertantrums, jealousy with Darren, and Not listening.

Item/Toy We Love The Most: backpacks, and stools.

Item/Toy You Love The Most: Monkey still!!

Things I’m Loving Most Right Now: When you say I love you too! And when you give me and daddy lots of love!! You are a sweet heart!

Things You’re Loving Most Right Now: Anytime we can give you our undivided attention. Dancing in the living room with Daddy!!

Darren is already 1 month

Nicknames: Dare, Bubba, Buddy

Clothing Size: 3-6 months

Personality: you are such a quiet little guy, mostly just hang out and watch faces or sleep. Only get mad when you think you are hungry, which is like always!!

Things I Could Do Without: you eating for like 2 mins than falling asleep and being hungry again just 5 mins later, it wears me out and ties me down to the table having to nurse constantly, but I'm sure you will get into a more routine nursing schedule soon!!

Item/Toy We Love The Most: the Boppy Lounger! It's nice to have a place for you to hang out!!

Item/Toy You Love The Most: not really interested in toys yet.

Things I’m Loving Most Right Now:  I am loving your little smiles, and watching you get stronger everyday as you are able to hold your head up longer and longer!!

Things You’re Loving Most Right Now: being cuddled and watching Kyra play!

I can't believe your first month is already past...you have grown so much already and getting stronger everyday!! Can't wait to get to know your personality more and more each day!!

Project 52: Make Believe

Kyra got a Kitchen for Christmas!! And was washing her dishes in the sink!! She is such a good little girl!

For complete list of all pictures from my Project 52 follow this link to Resolutions which has links to all of my project 52 blogs.

Well Hello December where did you come from?

Haha why does time go faster when you are older? Is it because we are busier? Or has time really sped up? I think since the day Kyra was born someone stepped on the fast forward button and we can't seem to get it unstuck. I can hardly believe that this is Kyra's 2nd Christmas. We are rounding the corner on her second year being over!!

Well this year has been a long wild ride for us. Most of you whom have been following our journey know just what has happened, but for those of you who just have joined us here is a quick recap.

January: Well we started out the year with what was probably the coolest New Years and I am eagerly waiting for this year!! Germans really go all out. I thought Hawaiians (before the new laws) did, but I have never seen so many fireworks in my life at one time. It was SOOOOO impressive. Later in the month we took a beautiful trip to the Bavarian Alps. We fell in love even more with this country during this trip, what a gorgeous place to live. We loved it so much it has become a family tradition for the time we are here.

February: However it was started out fairly uneventful, the last couple weeks brought a new challenge for our family. Dustin's first time away from Kyra longer than during the day. And my first time being the only care provider for Kyra. I was so nervous and stressed out about the situation, but it was good for us, and turned out to just be a trial run :(

March: Brought our family A LOT of fun and excitement! Well the time of Dustin being at his leadership course was dwindling it way down. But before he was to get home we had guests coming. My dad and brother came to visit. For a couple days Kyra and I showed them around our home area. The good foods, the hopping places you know the works. Than we took a trip to pick up daddy and check out what the Czech Republic looks like....Surprisingly just the same as Germany. Lucky for Dustin he got a weeks leave after his course and we were off onto a major adventure as a family, including, Koln, Rhine River Cruise, Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam. It was a great visit and we had so much fun!! However 1 week away from home traveling with a toddler is very tiring! Oh did I mention Kyra and I had our birthdays? She turned 1 in March sigh.

April: After a long trip we were ready to spend sometime just relaxing at home. The biggest even this month was Kyra finally started walking...I didn't know what I was getting into!

May: What an exciting month for our family, well the first half was. We had a little fuzzy butt dog join our family straight from the streets of Hungary!! Haha not many people can say that one!! Shade is a doll, and has progressed amazingly since. Her and Kyra are best friends! However this month brought with it the news that we only had 27 more days with Dustin for the year.

June: I was sooo excited and proud of myself in June. Why?? I got myself back to school finally for the first time in 5 years!! And that energy is still with me. I get excited to enroll for classes like the day after I finish a course and I have already finished 9 credits towards my degree in just 6 months...that is just 1 course less than I would have at the University and with a toddler running around. With all the school business keeping me busy, I barely had time to be sad that the day of Dustin leaving was drawing near. And on the 27th Dustin woke up Kyra gave her a big hug and some cuddles and than walked out the door. It was heart breaking, and makes me teary eyed just thinking about that day.

July: As you can imagine this month was a very long month as the first and last months of deployments/TDY's are. We enjoyed 4th of July on a very low key level. And than a few weeks later of course right at Finals week we heard the sad news of my Grandmother passing...Can you see why this month was not so great? After rushing around trying to find the money we took a last min flight to be home with family.

August: After the sad funeral we did get to spend a full month with my Grandpa, parents, inlaws, siblings, and my other grandparents!! It was soooo nice I had began to think I wasn't going to be able to go home this year, so as sad as I was it was a blessing in disguise. I had a great time hanging out with everyone and it gave me the energy boost I needed to make it through the next 4.5 months alone.

September: So this month was pretty boring. Just a lot of fall walks and hanging out with Kyra. I think this was when I found out I had made the Deans list for Summer semester which was just enough push to enroll for fall. And this was the month I really jumped on the fitness wagon and have yet to fall off!! I love it and I love what it has done for my health and my body I just feel way better!!

October: Bring on the fall crafts, and festivals. We got out and did festivals galore and enjoyed the nice fall weather. This month was when we first tried to Potty Training Kyra...FAIL. This has yet to be acheived I am gonna give it another big attempt next week when we are home for 4 days straight see if she is ready now or not. Maybe we will be awesome this time. October also brought the biggest most exciting change for me. Well I don't know if you would call it a change, but I decided to pursue my intrest in Photography on a bigger level than taking pictures of my nephew, hubby and Kyra! A new friend at the time who is now a very close and supportive friend I couldn't imagine not knowing allowed me to do her Maternity pictures, and was so happy with them gave me the shove I needed to get the ball rolling. And I have never been happier!! I have already done 5 other shoots since in just 2 months, and everyone seems to love my work!! I also started my second semester of classes, talk about being busy busy busy!!

November: What I remember most about last month was PHOTOGRAPHY. I have really dove in deep and I am loving it. I am watching workshops, submitting my photos to critique boards, got a nice new camera, and doing as much practicing as I can. Many a night was spent behind the computer between edits, and homework. And I love it. Can I say that enough. I am sure as followers you saw the sudden shift to the blog starting to fall more towards photography? Well that is likely to only get worse. Oh yeah and I did get to enjoy 2 huge thanksgiving dinners!! Boy did I feel fat for like a whole week!

December: Well here we are this month somehow has been flying by. Probably all the Christmas Markets!! My dear friend and I booked our days all up with Markets, whether our bodies wanted to do it or not Haha! We have been to Nuremberg, Strasbourg, Heidelberg, Mainz, Frankfurt, Eppstein, and are hiting up Koln, Wiesbaden, and Rudesheim. Talk about a lot of traveling jam packed into one month. And only a few days from getting Dustin back! I don't think I could be more excited these 6 months are almost over.



So for those of you who have been here for us this past year we really appreciate it!! And we really hope next year we will have tons of more fun adventures to share with you!!

A look back on where we were fall 2012

As I work on the fun Fall stuff I have planned for this year with out trying to jam pack it all into one month. I'm trying to spread it out over all 3 months so more fall stuff is coming just only a couple times a week.

But all this fall stuff made me wonder what I blogged about previous years when it came to the fall season! And so I began browsing and what did I find? Well first off last year was our first fall since I started this blog since we lived in Hawaii prior to Germany so I had only one other year with Fall Fun.

So last year was the only blogs I had but they were great. Memories of many Kyra firsts. So lets take a little Journey back!!

Happy Halloween!! that was Kyra's first Halloween, follow the link to see how cute she was in her costume, and her learning how to carve her first pumpkin! I'm sure that is going to be an even more fun adventure this year!

She was such a baldy!!

Ich Liebe Germany fall was the season that made me fall so uncontrollably in love with Germany. This country turns so beautiful in the fall although it leads to a long cold winter it is still a great place to live. I wish I could bring my family here and than everything would be perfect.

Im going to have to take my own fall pictures with Kyra this year!!

Kurbisfest

Pumpkin Pumpkin everywhere!!

Okay so the festival wasn't exactly as pumpkiney as I had expected!! They did have a really cool pyramid of pumpkins, but it was nothing compared to the pumpkin patches we have seen in the USA. Even Hawaii has a bigger patch!!

Plus you don't pick your own pumpkins they already did the picking. But I guess the Germans don't have Halloween in the way we do, so they aren't as excited about getting a pumpkin. For them the pumpkins are for eating and decorating during the fall.

The Pyramid of pumpkins

Kyra and her bestfriend!! Lol hard to get 2 toddlers to look at the camera at the same time.

The beauties of the pumpkin patch!

Lillia insisted on being in our picture!!

We had fun hanging out!! Love all my outings with my love!!

Again with the getting two toddlers to look at the same time is Hard

These two love each other!! I can't believe that Kyra is almost as big as Lillia, and 6 months younger!

The fest was interesting however, they had stands set up all over with cool things to look at and buy, and they even had a stand with all things pumpkin! Like Pumpkin waffles that looked so tasty!

They had pony rides, 4-wheeler rides, tractors to play on, and a hay ride. But sadly all the lines were outrageous even the one for food was moving too slow! So we opted out of doing anything besides walking around and enjoying the sites with the girls!!

17 months!

Nicknames: Kyra Bug, Bug, Bunny, Fluffy Butt, Butterfly, princess

Clothing Size:  18 months and some 24 months

Personality:  Haha if you didn't have one before you certainly do now. You do things just to see what our reaction will be. You laugh when you do something you think is funny and watch our faces to see if you should be sad. I think you learn new things everyday and are just amazing me with your brilliance!

Things I Could Do Without:  Well again its going to be Jet Lag. Its been a year and I had forgotten the pain of getting a child back on a sleep routine that is opposite of the one they were living the past month.

Item/Toy We Love The Most: My camera. With everything cute you are doing and now our family really getting to know you I just wanna be recording all day!!

Item/Toy You Love The Most:  Horses and books. You are constantly bringing me both. You make all your horses kiss each other its so cute.

Things I’m Loving Most Right Now: Watching you learn. You are repeating words and signing animals. You sing songs back to me. And watching you run around playing with Shade again. I sure did miss those giggles and watching you two play a match made in heaven!

Things You’re Loving Most Right Now:  Being able to run. You are like a little turbo. You love being home and keeping me up at night but the darn cute things you do when its the middle of the night make it worth it. Like carrying the baby doll around and patting her back when it cries. HEART MELTED!

Bed time for our toddler

'I originally started this blog post with the intention of writing about how great my daughter is about bed time. I intend to write how we taught her to do so well with going to bed, what our routine was etc. But I also decided to use this post to document our adventure of moving her from her crib to a toddler bed which has been a very tiring journey. But now we have finally reached a point where she is asleep most the night in her bed!!! But not without a few.....nights of barely any sleep at all.

Our pre toddler bed nightly routine:

Each night we began the slow down of the day around 630 when we all sat down to eat dinner together, generally it was a very quiet and interactive time, we just enjoyed each others company. After dinner I read Kyra a book or two while Dustin got the bath ready. Than it was daddy time as they played during her bath. After bath we all 3 would go into her room, and dry her off and get her into pajamas she would help us turn off the lamp, and than we would lay her down and 9 times out of 10 she would lay down and go to sleep and sleep the entire night. The warm bath and calm time before bed allowed her to distinguish it was bed time. She was on this routine from about 2 months on and did GREAT with it. Even when we would travel as long as we stuck to the routine she slept so well.

Than she started trying to climb out in the morning and in the process getting her leg stuck between the rails. This was very traumatic for both of us and I knew the only way to change the problem was to move her to the toddler bed. So I went out and bought a really cute little pink bed. For the first 5 days I had it set up in the living room, so she could get used to seeing it around. She would climb up on it and hang out with Shade all the time.

Than stage two was moving it into her room I left it in there basically as decoration for 3 days before ever laying her in it. Than thought one night she was ready for it since she was so tired.

Day 1: So here I was so confident that since she was signing tired before bath time she was gonna go to sleep after maybe 1 or 2 attempts of getting back up. BOY WAS I WRONG. I laid her down and after 2 rounds of screaming and laying her back down she passed out...On the floor behind the door. I let her sleep there for an hour than slowly made my way in thinking I would be able to move her to the bed while she was still asleep, NOPE. She woke up and it all started over. But this time no matter what I did, going back in and silently laying her down, laying with her, sitting silently, and than a couple more rounds of putting her back in bed nothing was working. She was exhausted but still screaming at the top of her lungs 3 hours after we started. So I gave up and put her in her crib. Although she continued to scream for like 10 mins because she was so wound up she did manage to pass out in the crib....so night one was a fail.

Day 2: I decided this day that I was going to make her crib into a toddler bed thinking maybe the familiarity of the bed would help her sleep. During the transition of the bed she was super excited and kept climbing up to play with her toys. At bed time she was really tired after taking a longer bath than usual, we did pajamas and turned off the light together and laid her down, she was initially upset, but I shut the door she cried for about 2 mins than it was silent. Having learned my lesson the night before I just let her sleep where ever she fell asleep. Hoping she would find the bed more comfortable! She slept for about 40 mins on the floor by the door before waking up, probably because she was uncomfortable!! I went in brought her water, hugged her moved her cuddlies back to the bed and layed her down she had a but of a whine about it for a couple seconds but went back to sleep!! She just looked so cute laying in the bed!! She did wake up a couple more times during the night but I just went in and calmly gave her some water and laid her back down and she went back to sleep in her big girl bed!!!

Day 3:  after a fairly successful night, it was the day time, and with no choice of the crib, the real challenge was gonna be how she was going to do at nap time! But it was no different she loved the big girl bed, and the freedom it gives her. This night was the one I knew we were not going to have anymore issues. Although she woke up one time which was fairly normal even in the crib, otherwise she slept the whole night!! And has ever since! 

I am super proud of her for transitioning into the toddler bed!! Even though the first couple days were hard on both us, it went well after shegotused to it! And when she does wake up she goes back to sleep really quickly as we get some nice cuddles, some water, and go right back to sleep!! It has been so nice having her be in the toddler bed. Although I am a little disappointed with having bought another toddler bed she won't use, I will just have to resale it!!