July 4th Fireworks

Brynlee is a little scared bunny

I love this picture of little lilie

This is Bryn before the big BOOM

This blurry picture is of Aiden cooling off his burnt finger. He touched the flame on the sparkler after we told him that it was hot.

My Princess Peach

I bought this tutu, umbrella and top on this AWESOME website for super cheap. I absolutely love it and so does Bryn. We had fun taking pictures today. She is so uncooperative at this age especially when it comes to taking pictures, but I think we got some good ones. She kept telling everyone she was a princess. I most definitely agree. (most the time)
GIRLS are so much FUN

Potty Training

So the funniest thing happened tonight. Just to back up a little, my efforts to potty train Bryn at 19 months back in March was unsuccessful. After two days she refused to have anything to do with panties or the potty. So I put the potty away and thought that maybe she might forget about the horrible two days. Every now and then I would ask her if she wanted to wear her character panties. We had gotten her every character she loved from Tinkerbell to Little Mermaid to Minnie Mouse. She absolutely refused and cried for a diaper. I was a little frustrated but because she wasn't even 2 yet, I wasn't horribly pushy. I especially wasn't pushy because Bryn has chronic diarrhea. She has episodes up to 10 times a day with doubled over pain. I didn't know how I was going to potty train with that extremely frustrating issue.

So back to tonight... I was putting Bryn to bed an hour later then normal and I was changing her slightly wet diaper. She said "no diaper, panties!" I was shocked. So I got some out and let her pick between her new Minnie ones. She is very particular about every piece of clothing she wears. If she doesn't want to wear something she fights you until you finally give up and not put it on her. So she picked a pair of panties and then I started thinking "now what? it's time for bed. NICE timing of course" So after I put the panties on her that hung on her little bum, she told me she wanted to go show daddy and Aiden. She seemed very proud. I let her run up stairs to show them. On the way she found her potty training doll that we had gotten her for her birthday. She grabbed it and put some panties on the baby and said "baby go potty too mommy." After she showed Ben, she came back downstairs and grabbed the baby's potty and went to stick it by hers in the bathroom. Then she put the baby on the potty and then she sat on the potty (with her panties down of course). I was very surprised.

Ben let the baby do her thing so Bryn could see. Bryn got excited and wanted to dump the water out of the baby's potty. I told her that the baby gets a potty treat for going potty. I put a sticker on the baby. Then Bryn got excited and said "My turn" She didn't end up going but the concept was there. I put her to bed and 5 minutes later she yelled for daddy. He took a minute of course to go to her but when he did she told him "need to go potty, daddy" She got up and ran to the bathroom. She of course didn't make it in time because it was ANOTHER bowel movement, but I was excited that she told him she had to go. Who knows if she would have made it if he had been a little faster, but oh well.

Now why she picks at 9:00 at night to decide she wants to wear panties and be a big girl is beyond me, but at least it's finally happening. Now I am not sure what to do with the constant bowel movements but maybe she can get used to potty training with that issue. We shall see.

My Birthday Girl

Look at those princess shoes. She finally has her own high heels. She has been wearing her mom's for months.

Lilie and Aiden laughing at Brynlee's reaction or lack of reaction.

BRYNLEE turned 2 on June 27. She wanted a Strawberry Shortcake themed party. She wasn't quite sure what to think of even the presents until she started opening them. She really didn't even seem to care what was in them. We got her a potty training baby to help encourage her (even though she is ready). This is her favorite toy so far.

Brynlee has been such a joy to our family the last 2 years. She has obviously grown both physically and intellectually. She finally hit 20 pounds about a month ago (and it's still the same). She is in the 10th percentile for her height. The doctors at Primary Children's still haven't figured out whats wrong with her gut. The last tests were inconclusive. She still has chronic diarrhea (now for a year), which seems to be bothering her more and more especially when she wants to wear big girl panties. She has been waking up at night for the last three weeks complaining that her "tenders" hurt, which she calls her tummy. I have my own opinions on the problem, but I am not a doctor.....and parents know nothing. LOL

Bryn LOVES to sing. Her favorite song right now is Taylor Swift's You Belong With Me. She will sing the entire song. She also loves to talk and act like her brother. She will say 8 word sentences as well as talk back to me, just like her brother. She takes a lot of crap from him but dishes a ton out to him herself. She is a very caring child. She can always tell when there is something wrong with one of us and tries to comfort the best she can. She loves to carrying on conversations with her babies and her favorite stuffed animal Minnie Mouse. It is so much fun to watch. I love watching the differences in growth between Aiden and Bryn. It definitely makes life so much more interesting and fun.

Brynlee's First Hair Cut

We decided to trim Brynlee's hair because it just wasn't growing on the sides very well. I read, plus I heard that trimming it or cutting it will make it come in thicker and grow faster. We will see if that really works. I remember when I cut Aiden's hair for the first time, it was really thin, then it came in super thick.
Most of the curl in Bryn's hair is natural but I did curl some pieces. I think it turned out super cute with the touch of some hair gel. Now we will wait for it to grow.

The World Through The Eyes of a 4 Year-Old

This is just a few of the many, many pictures Aiden took with Aunt Britt's camera. He had a blast taking pictures of everything. It was very interesting to see what he thought was important enough to take a picture. Aiden is very good about keeping his room clean and his bed made most of the time. He is very proud of his room....including the garbage can.

Cooking

Brynlee cooking with Aunt Brittany. Boy was is yummy