Just a few brief words, and no pictures, about potty training for Emily. After putting it off as long as I could, we are starting Emily down the road of growing up. She has been showing signs of being ready for a while and with the arrival of her sister, the holidays, and her birthday it just didn’t seem like the time. Emily has her big girl potty now, we have talked about it, I have read suggestions, and tonight we had our first success. We celebrated with a cookie and a phone call to Daddy in which she announced that she ‘pee-pee in potty’. For her that is a pretty big sentence and it was the most clear her words are. I think she was excited.

I’m aware that tonight’s success is just the beginning of a new level of control and independence for Emily. I also know that she isn’t going to master this for a while, but I’m so pleased that we had such a great success tonight. I’m really proud of our big girl!

Our big girl has turned two. Wow, the time has flown! Two years ago we wondered who this little baby would be and what she would look like as she grew. Last year for her birthday, she was learning the freedom of mobility in pulling up and beginning to take steps on her own. Now she is running, talking in gibberish/words, and playing with her sister. Who knows where she will be next year?

To celebrate this year we went to dinner with Grammy and Granddaddy and then had cake and gifts. I think Emily only ate one bite of her cake because she was more excited about opening her gifts. Unlike Christmas when she opened each gift and wanted to play with it, for her birthday she opened one and then grabbed for the next gift. It worked out because it was already her bedtime and by opening them up in a speedy manner she got to get down and play with all the gifts and get on to bed pretty quickly.

As an extension to her birthday celebration Emily and Elena had a play date and lunch together earlier this week. Elena is just two days different than Emily in age and they have gotten to spend the last two years together growing and playing. Elena introduced Emily to bounce equipment and the freedom of exuberant bouncing. Emily was apprehensive to enter the equipment, but Mommy made her enter each one and then make a judgement about her likes and dislikes of each one. She was exhausted when we left lunch and fell asleep in the car on the way home.

Then today she got to go to the Mommy & Me movie and eat popcorn. The movie didn’t hold her interest much today and when she was full of popcorn she asked to ‘play’. Most of the kids were playing today and she said “please,” so I let her go and play with the other kids. I was pleased to see that she was more interested in playing with the other kids and toys than exploring around the theater. At one point I hadn’t seen her head bouncing above the seats for a while so I stood up to look for her. She was sitting on the front row of seats with 3 other children. It was really cute.

I pray a blessing for Emily that God would grant in her life- the joy that makes dark days bright and sun-filled days overflow in gratefulness- a sweet heart for others including her sister- a willing spirit to listen to her heavenly father. I pray that God would grant us, her parents wisdom in how best to train and love her.

Julia is not the easiest baby to swaddle. She loves to stretch her feet as far as they go and she loves for her hands to move. Some days I watch her struggle and be unhappy until she frees her hands from her fabric cocoon. Although when it is time for her to go to sleep, swaddling her is like magic to help her settle into sleep.

Julia has found that her fingers have uses. They are just lovely to suck on and make loud smacking noises. Fingers are great for closing around Mommy’s hair making it difficult to be parted from her. And lastly, they are good for reaching out and touching toys. Emily loves Julia’s hands to touch and hold. Often in the car, we will look at the girls and Emily will have reached over and taken Julia’s hand in hers.

Pacifiers are real hit and miss with Julia. At times they are great comfort to her. Other times she wants nothing to do with them. I notice it most when she is crying and will not take it. This happens mostly in the car while we are in a drive-thru and limited attention can be given to her. Pacifiers are very difficult for Emily to leave alone. If she finds Julia’s pacifier not in Julia’s mouth she will pick it up and try to put it in Julia’s mouth, bring it to Mommy, carry it around, or put it in her own mouth. If she wants to play with Julia she has been known to remove it from Julia’s mouth.

Emily, Julia, and I were playing on the floor yesterday morning. Emily was laying on the floor next to Julia and asked for ‘cheese’. This is her way of asking to have her photo taken, so that she can say ‘cheese’. I thought it was so sweet that she wanted to have her photo taken with Julia. By the time I got the camera, the moment was gone. Emily wanted to sit in my lap and help me take photos of her sister. I talked her into playing night-night with Julia and getting a photo of that. Julia doesn’t look like she was much in the mood to play.

Emily kissed Elmo – he was giving out kisses to her so she wanted to give one back. Emily does give out hugs and kisses to others, too. Today, she kissed the top of a baby boy’s head in the nursery. She loves to give them to Julia. I have seen her give them to our friend’s dog. Occasionally she gives them to her Mommy and Daddy and they are usually spontaneous and random. She doesn’t give out as many hugs as she does kisses. She has just started coming up to our legs and give them a hug. She gives me hugs to keep me from putting her in bed and she gives them to me at the grocery store from inside the buggy.

Julia had her 2 month checkup today at 10 weeks. She weighed 9 lbs – 6.5 oz. and measured 21 3/4 inches long. This is an increase of 1 lb – 3 oz. and 1 1/4 inches in 4 weeks. The doctor was pleased with her size and felt that she was growing well. She received two shots which she disliked and received one vaccination orally. The doctor heard a heart murmur at this visit that he hasn’t heard before. He said that it could be a small hole that has formed between the chambers that will heal on it’s own, but he wants a heart doctor to listen to the heart and give an opinion. I wondered if something was wrong because he spent a lot of time listening to her heart. He told me what to watch for in the meantime. She should return for her next checkup at 4 months.

Emily joined us at this appointment and I was curious how she would be at the visit, given that it wasn’t for her. She was very curious about what the nurse and doctor did to Julia and wanted to watch. She enjoyed reading a book to Julia while we waited. And let me successfully ‘bribe’ her with her uneaten lunch to sit in the chair like a big girl. The doctor gave her some stickers at the end of his exam and while we waited for Julia’s shots Emily decorated herself, her doll, and Julia with stickers.