march 25

I was up late getting Julia from the airport last night. Conner is still suffering with his cough every couple of hours. The nebulizer seems to help. I also have the humidifier plugged in right next to his bed. It is running 24x7. I hope he gets over this cough sooner than later! Poor little tike.

John got up with the kids. Somehow he held them off until the oven pancakes were finished - that can take 40 minutes or more.

I set up the 2 shelves on one wall in my family room with my bribes. At first the Dora dance was good enough. Kendall was better at doing bowel movements in the potty than Cade. I picked up 2 trucks to reward them with going poopies.

It is amazing what 6 months age difference makes (actually 8 if you count the 2 months Kendall should have been cooking longer) when it comes to reasoning with Kendall and Cade. Cade understood the requirements of "earning the truck". Kendall didn't.

I decided to take them both back to square one with the potty training.They are in "big boy" underwear. I gave them quite a bit to drink this morning before naps. When they produced something in the potty, they got their truck. When they produced something in their underwear, the truck went back up on the shelf. This happened to Cade once with bubbles. He had to produce something in the toilet in order to get it off the shelf. I even resorted to giving them a skittle when they do anything (even sit) on the potty. When one does it, the other one wants to do it first.

I'm working with Kaylee on keeping her pants and undies on while going potty. This is a struggle for her. She says she can't go if she can't straddle the toilet like she is riding a horse. I told her we need to do this because there isn't enough time during the Kindergarten day to do her bathroom potty ritual.

Kaylee's new additions to her princesses are on the top top shelf (she is very clever and would find anything to stack and climb to reach them). When she realized that she couldn't have them today due to her extremely wet diaper she begged to go to church (John caved and gave her sippy while I was gone to get Julia). She has been asking even more often today if it is dark yet. I hope this will be even more incentive. I am going to have her look at the collection before heading to bed so she knows what she is working towards. I catch her glancing at the shelf throughout the day. It is sweet. It breaks my heart to tell her no, I hope it helps her and doesn't frustrate her. At least she has Sunday Sacrament Meeting to look forward to!!!

Conner is scooting all over again! He's back! He just needs to get rid of the cough and work his appetite back up to 6 oz for each feeding. We are almost at 4 oz now!

Julia's first comment when she saw Kendall was that he was talking so much more. I don't know if this was her observation after being in UT for 4 days or finally being around long enough to see the development since she was "gone" for almost 2 months due to AIDA practices. Julia also brought home Kelly's Senior Year prom dress. She tried it on and it is STUNNING. Whoa. She is on a hunt for some kind of shrug, etc... Thanks Kelly for sharing that amazing dress! I like it even more than that hot pink one. It is so much more sophisticated in color and style. Julia is the sophisticated type...

John took the girls out shopping today - they had a fun time with him. I went out tonight to pick up some groceries; we are expecting some major snowfall tomorrow... Weird because last week was in the upper 70's.

Happy Birthday David!!! It was cute to see Kaylee's eyes light up this morning when I mentioned it was his birthday. Cade asked if he could have some birthday cake when he talked to his Dad on the phone tonight. That Cade! I hope you had a great day David! Wish I could have given you the gift of a potty trained boy ... we are working on it!