It All Started with a Little Skittle...

Everyone has an opinion about potty training: when to do it, how old they should be, discipline for accidents, etc.  I have decided on pretty much all aspects of parenting to enjoy the baby stage.  It is so precious and for such a short amount of time; why rush any of the milestones (but I don't plan on her being a late developer either)? Almost everyone I know with a child Gabby's age (she is 2 years, 5 months) have begun the process of potty training or have successfully completed potty training.  Gabby was interested when she turned 2 and actually went potty 2 or 3 times in her potty chair.  We praised her and were extremely proud, but she quickly lost interest to the point where she didn't want anything to do with her potty chair any longer so I decided to wait until she was interested because we are in no hurry at this point.  Then I saw this article, thanks to my cousin Michelle, and I realized that there are benefits to waiting to potty train.  I d...

Gabby's favorite alphabet song by Tilly and the Wall from Sesame Street. For a few months Gabby and I have been working on her letter recognition. She already knows "o" thanks to a shirt I wear to bed. I haven't decided whether she should learn them in alphabetical order, or the letters in her name first. Until the last week she has shown no interest in looking at her name written or singing songs about her name (songs include spelling her name to the tune of "Bingo," a song one of her toys sings spelling her name, cheering, the typical alphabet song, the one from Sesame Street, and random tunes I've made up), but I am proud to say we are finally starting to enjoy singing songs about the alphabet!! When at Grandma's she was playing with a baby Leapster toy that plays only a small portion of the letters at a time Gabby will sing along and get the letters correct, which makes me very proud of her!  It's so cute to see how excited she ge...

All of Gabby's cousins (she was napping) cuddling with G.G. (Photo by Danielle McIlroy) It seems that the topics I am most excited about are the ones that leave me with writers block...I know what you're thinking, Amber who never stops talking can't think of what to say? Well the truth is I have plenty to say it's just does not do justice to the wonderful time we had, but I'll at least give you a glimpse at our fun.  Hopefully the pictures (mainly my sister-in-law's pictures) will depict the amazing time we all had visiting with each other, because a picture is worth a thousand words, right? Gabby met her cousins Molly, Reagan, and Cate for the first time when she was about 2 1/2 months old and she hasn't seem them since (besides in the thousands of pictures I've shown her to make sure she knows who they are), until about a month ago that is!  Gabby and Molly have a special connection because they were born 6 days apart and the last time they sa...

One of Gabby’s favorite places to visit is Chick-Fil-A, but she calls it “nuggets” or “slide with friends.”    Since we are frequent visitors of the establishment we decided to celebrate Cow Appreciation Day for the first time.   For those of you who have never celebrated (or God forbid never heard of) Cow Appreciation Day, it’s a “holiday” created by Chick-Fil-A cows in which you dress up like a cow and receive an entire meal free.   You could go for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if you like.    Michael and I opted to eat dinner at home because he was working hard building a Murphy Bed (a post for another day) and I wasn’t sure if Gabby would be in a good mood by the time he completed the project.   Lucky for Gabby, Daddy finished the bed in time to make it to Cow Appreciation Day.   Being a procrastinator I hadn’t picked out an outfit for Gabby and I had to make her into a cow fast! While Daddy took a bath I rummaged through her closet and...