Nature is her Catwalk

Getting Whitney to pose for a picture is pretty tricky. Whenever she is wearing a cute outfit I try to snap one, but lately she has been saying, "No".

Sometimes if we are going for a long walk outside I bring my camera and capture fun pictures in nature. Well, this week was a different kind of walk...Whitney's Catwalk. We have a great wooded hiking hill behind our house that we venture out into most of the year. This particular walk inspired Whitney to strike a pose. I was just randomly snapping pictures and before I knew it this girl was posing with everything!

She loves our neighbors decorated yard!
Dramatic pose.

This is from another day, but too cute not post!

The Clock

This clock most definitely deserves a post. Whitney would perfectly sleep until 7am everyday until she turned 1 yr old and then it turned to the dreaded 6am. I know that seems normal for any toddler, however, Tim and I are not morning people and it was not fun. Sometimes 6am would even turn into 5:45am. I couldn't figure out how to get her to sleep longer. Even when she dropped her morning nap around 18 months, she would still wake up early, but would be incredible cranky around mid-morning. Going to bed a little later, shorter afternoon naps, nothing! Then I read an article about Heidi Klum. She talked about this clock and how all four of her kids slept till 7am. Why I didn't jump on it immediately I don't know, but finally in August I made the purchase. After about a week of training her with the new clock, we have had the luxury of sleeping in everyday until 7am. Sometimes later! You will see in the picture the section where the cow is sleeping is lit up, you set your desired wake up time and the light switches to the cow awake. Whitney is proud to say everyday that she gets to get up because the cow is up. Thank you, Heidi!

Perfect Fall Weekend Part 3 of 3

Pumpkin Patch

On Sunday we went to Ticonderoga Farm with our good friends the Swearingens. It was the perfect Fall day, no lines and the kids had a blast. I will also mention that I do believe that soon to be 4 year old Timmy is Whitney's first crush. She loves to hold his hand and laughs at everything he says or does. We finished the night off at the Swearingens with pizza and a delicious apple cobbler that Maggie made. Timmy did a good job wearing Whitney out by chasing her around the house tickling her (which she loved). With a busy afternoon and a late bedtime, Whitney slept in till 7:30 the next morning!

Off to the Patch!
We weren't sure if she would like it, but she kept saying "More Papa"!
She loved the huge bouncing bubble!

Timmy, you are so funny!
Not too pleased that this one wasn't running anymore:(
But the big tractor will do!
She tried with all her might to pick this one up!
Break time!
Happy with our final three!

Perfect Fall Weekend Part 2 of 3

Art Project

My good friend, Kelly, is very creative and is also a teacher, so she is always doing fun art projects with her girls. She definitely gets me inspired, though our art projects are few and far between. We do color on a regular basis and ventured into finger painting this summer. Whitney also took an Art class that she loved. She loved working with a paint brush. So, what more perfect Fall activity than to collect leaves and to glue them on a piece of paper. Whitney had a blast and I have a feeling we will be doing it again very soon!

I think the berries made a perfect added touch!
Thanks to our neighborhood working on the grass, hay made the project complete!


So excited to get started!

Perfect Fall Weekend Part 1 of 3

Vegetable Lasagna

Last week I became friends with someone from high school on FB and the next day she posted this recipe. On Friday I was at a loss for what to make for dinner and this quickly became the answer. A nice perk from the Facebook world. I would say overall it was very successful, however, it makes ALOT! I had to switch from our extra large skillet pan to our large Le Crueset in the middle of cooking. Also, next time I would only make it if we were having people for dinner. It made eight hearty servings, so I ended tossing half out after a few days of leftovers. It was very tasty and I definitely recommend it for a big group!

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/04/vegetable-lasagna/

Dare I Say...

...we are DIAPER FREE!!

Most Mom's would agree that as soon as you brag about something new and wonderful your child is doing, it all goes out the window, so I have been waiting just a bit to write this post and I think I can honestly say we are 100% diaper free!

I started this potty training a LONG time ago. Whitney was approaching her first birthday, I was flipping through my trusty Baby Whisperer book and came across early potty training. As I read, much to my surprise, she recommended starting between 9-15 months! What!

So, I eagerly kept reading. She likes this time because it is before they can say "No", they still want to please you and really it just becomes part of their daily routine. Also, she said up until the 1950's 80% of kids in the U.S. were potty trained (boys and girls) by the time they were 18 months. People had somehow gotten on the bandwagon, of "oh, they will let you know when they are ready, here are all the signs", but really we need to teach them and just make it part of their day.

I was totally on board and with in a few weeks we were down to only about 4 diapers a day. A few months later maybe just 1 or 2. By 16 months Whitney was definitely ready, but she was going through a horrible time with her molars coming in, so I decided to wait. Dec 1st, she was 18 months, and we made the move to underwear.

I will say the first week was pretty rough. She was so confused and we had many accidents. But then it just clicked and she has been in undies ever since during the day (including naps). We have had accidents over the last year, but really they have been few and far between. Now I thought nighttime diapers were going to be around for quite awhile, so I just put that out of my head. Then in August when we moved Whitney to her big girl bed, I reminded her during her nap that we didn't want to go potty in her big girl bed. She very much agreed. And much to our surprise, for the last 6 weeks she has woken up in the morning completely dry.

I thought, maybe just maybe we could go without, but not ready to take the plunge imagining nights of getting up and changing the sheets. Then last week Tim forgot to put a diaper on her and when I went to change her in the morning I was shocked and excited that we had gone a night in underwear.

We made a comment to Whitney about how she was such a big girl sleeping in underpants but then decided not to make a big deal about it and to just go with it. It has been a little over a week and we have been accident and diaper free!! Yay!

Now, please...don't let this backfire on me!