Potty talk – child #2

Alyssa is potty training herself. I know…it sounds crazy. In fact, I hate to even blog about it because I’m afraid I’ll jinx it! But, I don’t believe in “jinxing” and I feel it’s necessary to blog about it to let the facts sink into my own brain. I can hardly believe the “events” over the past few days are real! I’ll explain…

Yesterday I had the light on in the bathroom (a common occurance so Grace can go by herself). Alyssa and I were walking down the hallway, past the bathroom, to the toy room. As we passed the bathroom, Alyssa stopped and said, “potty.” I said, “do you need to go potty?” She answered with, “yeah!” so I sat her on the potty (she’s been going #2 on the potty for the past month). Grace came into the bathroom with her musical instruments, which prevented me from hearing if Alyssa went or not. After a bit, Alyssa said, “Yeah!” and wiggled her way off the toilet. I looked for evidence. Sure enough…the water was rippling and the seat was wet where she slid off. Hooray! But…probably a fluke.

HOWEVER! Today she continued her streak. She went #1 AND #2 TWICE in the potty!!! Oh my goodness! I could do a happy dance! I encouraged her to go on the potty when I “sensed” her needing to go #2, but she initiated both #1’s!! Both times we were doing something else and she said, “potty.” I followed her into the bathroom and set her on the potty. She said, “yeah!” and then went! I love that she says “yeah” before she goes. Hilarious!

Sorry for the “potty talk”, but this is the latest news in the Flener homestead and the highlight of my week!

Here’s to Alyssa’s continued potty training… We’ll see how tomorrow goes.

Grace the turkey & Alyssa’s balloon

Today at Dragonfly School they made turkey hats…so cute! They were marching in a circle singing a song about turkeys when I arrived to pick up Grace today. Miss Vicki & Miss Molly said that Grace wanted the eyes of her turkey to be to the side of the nose and mouth (see pictures below). They thought this showed Grace’s artistic abilities and that she can think outside the box. Well, Mommy likes things “in the box” so it made me twitch a little.

Today was Kenny’s, one of Grace’s classmates, 1/2 birthday. I guess it’s a tradition in their family to celebrate half-birthdays. She brought in “half” of a cake and balloons for the kids. (I might have to start this tradition…I think it’s such a cute idea and a great excuse to have more birthday cake!). Alyssa and Grace both got a balloon. They love balloons. Our local grocery store, HEB, gives balloons to the kids when you shop there. Well, the balloons from today didn’t last long. They both popped after touching our popcorn ceiling! The first one (Grace’s) popped right after Grace got inside the house. She cried because it scared her. The second one, Alyssa’s, lasted through a few pictures and through part of lunch. Grace “tied” it to Alyssa’s chair while we were eating. Alyssa grabbed the string, let it go, and it popped once it touched the ceiling. Grace cried again. Poor Alyssa just watched Grace cry and you could tell from the look on her face that she thought it was her fault. Poor babies…

Grace & Alyssa update

Grace and I were honored to be in a wedding about a month ago. My cousin Mindy married Doug McGuire. We couldn’t be happier for them. I had the honor of standing with Mindy as a bridesmaid and Grace was a flower girl. Below are some pictures….isn’t she the cutest?!? Let’s just say…she was the life of the party (next to the bride and groom, of course!). She danced the night away (until 11pm) and walked down the aisle like a pro.

She has been going to Dragonfly Preschool and loving every minute of it. They visited a pumpkin farm (Alyssa and I got to go too – they even had animals) and had a Halloween party (see below pics). Unfortunately, because of different circumstances, the school has to close. Grace hasn’t totally figured that out at this point, but will in 3 weeks when we no longer go.

Alyssa is a jabberbox! I don’t mean talking a lot (although she does), but she says EVERYTHING! You say it, she repeats it. It’s amazing! She’s talking like a 2 year old (according to our pediatrician). Here’s a video of her repeating the ABC’s as Matt says them…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/flenerfamily/4054224669/

Here are some pictures from Halloween too! Both girls like to pose in pictures (they take after their Daddy…ha!) We celebrated Friday night with friends. Their church had a Trunk or Treat, so we got candy from people in the trunks of their cars. They also had face painting and balloon animals. After that, we went to Waco and stayed at a hotel with Jeff & Loran. Texas Tech (Loran is assistant vball coach) played at Baylor so we went to the game and got to hang out all day with Uncle Jeff & Aunt Loran…so fun! We also saw our friends, the Gamels, and went trick-or-treating with them (their son, Oliver, is in some of the pictures).

If you want to see more pictures, I’ll eventually have them up on our flickr site. You’ll need “friends & family” access so e-mail me and I’ll get you hooked up.

Wow…it’s been awhile!

I feel like I start every post with…”sorry I haven’t posted in awhile!” Well…sorry! I’ll try to do better! And, I’ll use this post to try to catch you up on things around the Flener estate. I’ll do a separate post for each girl because I have a lot of pictures to show off!!

My etsy business has been keeping me busy. I’ve only had 1 sale on etsy, but several friends have contacted me with orders! It’s been awesome! I’ve really enjoyed making them. It gives me something to think about…a way to use my creative juices. And, Grace has gotten into it. The other day she was using my corner rounder on some scrap pieces of paper. I asked what she was doing and she said, “I’m doing my business, Mommy!” Hilarious!

I’ve also been cleaning a friend’s house every-other-week, which makes me happy because…Momma’s finally bringing home some bacon! Ha!

Matt is still enjoying working for the TV station. He was recently recognized as one of the best TV “Tweeters” and one of the top 50 people in Austin to follow on Twitter. He’s gotten into the social media realm and it’s really helped him as a journalist with contacts and viewers.

In October, he took a voluntary furlow so we all took a 10 day trip to see both sides of the family and attended my cousin’s wedding in Illinois. We had great time with our families.

OK…now I’ll get to the good stuff. I’ll post about the girls in the next post. We know that’s what you really care about.

Shameless Self-Promotion

For several years now, I’ve been dreaming of ways to bring in a little income for our family. Matt’s income meets our needs, but a little extra money in the bank never hurt! Plus, sometimes I miss creating things, accomplishing tasks, etc.

So, recently I started creating wall hangings for children (soon for adults too!) and hair bow holders. I think they are really cute and wanted to share my creations with you!

Check out my stuff at http://namedrop.etsy.com and pass it along to your friends too! If you have any ideas that you would like created, let me know! And, keep checking back at my shop…I have tons of ideas and will be adding new inventory as I can.

Here are some pictures to entice you

Our form of a Rain Dance

Austin hasn’t seen rain in months. OK, so we may have had a small drizzle here and there, but we’re in a severe drought right now. Over the past couple days, we’ve seen overcast skies and rain!!

Today we met Matt and Mark (Matt’s photographer) for lunch. We sat outside and it started to sprinkle. The adults stayed under the umbrellas, but Alyssa started exploring the rain.

For those of you who don’t know…Grace is terrified of thunder which bleeds over into anything related to it. Therefore, she’s not particularly fond of rain. But, when she saw her little sister having fun in the rain, she decided to join in. They had a blast and giggled the whole time.

When we got home, the rain had intensified and was coming down pretty good…perfect for playing in puddles and splashing around. As she was getting out of the car, Grace asked if she could play in the rain. I honestly didn’t think she’d really do it, so I agreed. After a moment’s hesitation, she took off into our driveway with little sis wiggling out of my arms to join her.

They played outside for about 20 minutes and were definitely not ready to come inside. But, unfortunately, it was nap time. Here are some pictures of our afternoon rain dance!

The Flower Girl

Alyssa, Allie, Grace & Mindy at Mindy's wedding shower

My cousin, Mindy (on the right in picture), is getting married in October. She asked me to be a bridesmaid and Grace to be one of the flower girls. We are both honored and so excited about the big day!!!

While we were in Illinois in August, Grace got to try on her dress for the first time…bow and all! She was in the height of her glory. In fact, she cried when it was time to take the dress off. She’s such a girlie girl and knows pretty things when she sees them!

Since trying on the dress, she talks about being a flower girl…all the time! She asked if she gets a “groom” at Mindy’s wedding. No, Grace, only Mindy (the bride) gets a groom!

One night during her bath, she said, “Mommy, can you call me ‘flower girl’?” Oh my!

I still have the flower girl basket and petals from when Grace was a flower girl in Jeff & Loran’s wedding (my brother and sister-in-law). She was only 15 months old at the time, so we were just hoping she would make it down the aisle. Well, now she’s 3 1/2, so I expect perfection! I got out the basket and petals and let her practice. (I promise I’m not “that kind of mom.” I just know activities that my daughter would enjoy!) And she did!

Did I also mention she’s a perfectionist!?! Could present a problem with the flower girl duties…she was very particular about the spacing of flower petals and number of petals dropped.

We’ll keep “practicing”, Mindy!

Alyssa says it all

Well…she does!  She can just about say any word (except for “Grace”…go figure!).  Anyway, after saying “icing” last night, she added 2 more words to her vocabulary tonight…”Bible” and “paci.”  Here is a video of her saying “paci.”

http://www.flickr.com/photos/flenerfamily/3850076445/

Family Date Night

Every once in awhile, we spend some family time with a night on the town.  We have such a good time together and enjoy exploring the city as a family.  Tonight we did some of our favorite things…

We started at Elsi’s Restaurant.  It’s an El Salvadorian restaurant with authentic Mexican food – yummy!  Matt and I have decided that this is our favorite kind of food.  And, the girls love Mexican too, so it works out well!!  While we were eating, it actually rained!  Austin hasn’t seen rain in forever, but later we found out that the rain didn’t come to our neighborhood – too bad for our grass (or dirt and straw at this point)!!

Next we gave Grace the option of Yogurt Planet or Hey Cupcake.  You can’t lose either way, but she chose Hey Cupcake.  Good choice, Grace!!  By the end of our time there, Grace had a chocolate mustache and Alyssa’s newest word was “icing!” (see video)

Our next stop was Central Market.  For those of you non-Austinites, it’s a grocery store with a restaurant/outdoor eatery/playground too!  First we had to see the lobsters and crabs in the seafood department.  Then we listened to some live music outside and ran around on the playground for a bit.  It was way too crowded on the playground so we limited our time there.

On the way home, Mommy & Daddy needed some coffee from Thunderbird so we grabbed some french press to go!

It was a fun night – full of talking and laughing and having fun!  I asked Grace what her favorite part was and she said, “I liked Elsi’s…I mean Central Market.”  I said, “I thought Hey Cupcake would be your favorite.”  She said, “Oh yeah, I mean Hey Cupcake!”  So, I guess really everything was her favorite.

I agree.  I can enjoy just about anything when 3 of my favorite people are with me!!

Sweet Friends, Precious Family

SWEET FRIENDS…

Breck & Brian were friends of ours when we lived in Columbia.  They moved to North Carolina the year before we moved to Austin.  Brian recently got accepted into the PhD program at Baylor and they now live in Waco!!  We hadn’t seen them since they left Columbia 3 years ago and now they only live 1 1/2 hours from us!!

This meant…a reunion!    On Saturday we drove to Waco to reunite with our friends.

We had a fantastic day with them!  We had lunch at their place, let the kiddos nap, walked through the Dr. Pepper Museum (not recommended!), ate pizza at Double Dave’s (recommended), saw the Baylor bears (they have real bears on campus), got a driving tour (from Brian & Breck) of Baylor University, gave the kids baths together, and hung out into the wee hours of the night.  When we left, we were by no means ready to!  But, we still had to drive home. 

PRECIOUS FAMILY…

My great-grandma has always been a precious member of our family.  She’s hilarious, witty, poetic, and someone I’ve always looked up to.  She’ll be 99 in October…can you believe it?!?

She’s in the hospital right now, so please pray for her.  They think she’s had a stoke.

This is one of those times that it’s hard to live far away.  Not that I could do anything if I lived closer, but it’s hard being away.

We all got to see her a few weeks ago during our visit to Illinois.  Here are some pictures of Grandma Hatfill…