Savannah turned two! (a month ago)

Heaven help us all, our little princess has entered the ever-feared age of two. She is already well-versed in bossing her big brother around and has experience-a-plenty in tormenting him with her various methods of torture. How someone so young can be so full of personality, spunk, attitude, and energy has been beyond me. Watching her grow has been fun and full of surprises. She is hilarious. Proudly wearing her cute dress from Gramma Berry

We like to have fun on birthdays. Even if Savannah didn't get all into the festivities, Cade's excitement over her new presents more than made up for any lack of interest on Savannah's part. I fulfilled my place as the giver of practical things: Elmo underwear and undershirts. Here she is proudly sporting her new big girl look:


Onesies are now a thing of the past due to potty training. Her grandparents spoiled her rotten and we loved it. Below is a picture I took when I caught Savannah all dressed up in her new winter clothing from Gramma and Grampa Sheppard. She had climbed up on my hamper and was singing, "head, shoulders, knees and toes" in front of the mirror. It was precious. Don't you love the matching purse? It came complete with her own little bottle of lotion, a comb and some chapstick. Boy did she think she was the stuff.




Here she is playing dress-up and multitasking watching her new movie from Gramma and Grampa Henriksen and "working on her new 'puter".


Since before Thanksgiving, Savannah had expressed great interest in going to the bathroom on the potty. Initially I wanted to wait until after the move to do it. Continuation of the potty training process while on the road for 1500+ miles would surely hinder our ETA with constant potty breaks, and I doubted I even had the patience to let her go to the bathroom at her every request. When the move and sale of the home didn't happen, I decided her 2nd birthday would be the best day to jump in all the way and commit myself to it.

Then, figuring if she was going to be done with diapers, I decided she may as well be done with her pacifier, too. Included in the days festivities was to rid her of her strong addiction to the pa-see-fie-ah as she affectionately refers to it. We even took a picture of her with it on her birthday to commemorate the last day she used it.



My plan was simple. Take Savannah with me around the house to gather all her pacifiers and put them in a little gift bag. Later that night we were going to our friend's home for dinner and birthday cake. Savannah would bring with her the little bag of binkies and give them to their baby girl. Savannah loves babies, so I figured this would be easy.

Sure enough she was all over it. She was excited to hand over the gift bag to adorable Addison. She got the concept: the baby has all my pacifiers, so my pacifiers are all gone. Once it was bed time we discussed it again.

Where are all your pacifiers, I asked. "Baby Addison" she responded a little sadly. She cried herself to sleep, but she certainly didn't give it all she had. It was just 20 or 30 minutes of half-hearted crying, which is far less drama than I expected. She went the rest of the week without it. Bed time and nap time was more sad and not as easy as it used to be, but she always smiled and spoke fondly of her gift to Baby Addison, even if it meant a few tears were to follow. We were on the road to success. Hooray!

Potty training was proving to be just as successful. I went a good 10 days of not changing a poopy pull-up. Accidents were few and far between. Could it really be? Having a diaper-free life in just a matter of days by the time my little girl was 2 years old? It seemed too good to be true!

And it was. Because I caved. Once closing on the house became a reality, and any ounce of determination and willpower I had that was not surrounding the move, completely melted away. I take full responsibility for sabatoging my own efforts to have my 2 year-old free of diapers and tooth-deforming binkies. I started depending more on pull-ups and packed away the Elmo panties for a day in the future that a puddle of pee on the floor wouldn't bother me. I couldn't ask her every 10 minutes if she had to go potty anymore. And sleep was essential. In order for me to get anything done, I had to wait until she was asleep---and I didn't want to wait long, so I used a spare pacifier we had discovered in the packing stages to put her to sleep. I promised it was just a temporary thing...but as life goes.... she got sick while we were driving to Boise and I couldn't bear the thought of her without her beloved pacifier to help her sleep in the car as she looked so pitiful....

So here we are a month after her birthday. She goes to bed with her pacifier and she is nowhere near as excited about the potty training as she used to be. Cade went to the store with me last week and helped me pick out a potty for her, so maybe it'll happen it this week? He was very convinced that if she had a pink one, she could do it. I sure hope he is right.

In the mean time, shame on me.

As far as the present beyond potty training and pacifiers, the kids are doing great. Cade really misses the snow, though. I do, too. But I am enjoying the nice, balmy weather. It is far easier to talk myself into going for a run when it is 39 degrees as opposed to a mere 1 or 2 degrees. We seem to be the only folks to frequent the neighborhood park, though. Cade and Savvy go at least once a day. So far it's been too cold for the locals. 40 degree weather feels like summer after the brutal Chicago winter we just had and it is hard to convince Cade to wear a jacket. He's used to his nose hairs freezing on the way to the car. Oh, the memories of this brutal winter!


Here is a shot I took of the kids that reminds me of one my dad took of my brother Austin and sister Melody back when they were little tykes....




Bye-bye Chicago!