The Dowells: June 2011

6.30.2011

New Video Camera!

Our video camera bit the dust. And it lasted far longer than it should have- it was literally $500 cheaper than all of the others at Best Buy, ha! Grams and PaPa had one laying around the house unused, so they shipped it to us straight from Dubai! It came in the mail yesterday- so naturally I had to give it a few test runs today. It's awesome!

Here's a quick movie of Dax and Ada playing throughout the day today. They crack me up! Be sure to stay tuned until the end (if you're a die-hard Dowell fan) so you can see Ada's daily masterpiece. :)

Thanks Grams & PaPa!

Because I'm not boring. -Ada

This is Ada, looking at a picture from our wedding-

Ada: "Where's Ada??"
Me: "You weren't there. Because you weren't born yet."
Ada: silence.
---- about 10 minutes later, taking another long stare at the picture----
Ada: "I not there because I not boring."
Me: "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!"

Not only is she not boring, but she's doing AWESOME pottying. Since yesterday afternoon, she's been telling me whenever she needs to go. Dare I say I have a pretty-much-potty-trained kid!? (Knocking on wood as I write this.)

6.29.2011

Watch and Dry

We got out today to meet our mommy/daughter BFFs- the Atlee girls at the mall-

Ada stayed dry the entire time, and used the restroom twice! :) And she even managed this in all the excitement of the world's coolest mall playground, and a carousel ride, too.

And, since we were at the mall, I picked up a little something I've had my eye on for months!! Finally got my watch to wear over my tattoo when school starts back up. I LOVE it! :)

POOP IN THE POTTY!

Me: "Do you need to go potty?" (Pretty much every 5 minutes for the past week. Typically, the answer is "Noooo... I don't want to go potty.")

Ada: "Yes, I need to go potty." (I'm already taken aback at this moment, for the simple reason that she is being agreeable about it.)

We proceded to sit there in silence for a bit, and then I heard it! Plopping!!! I got so caught up in the excitement I told her she was getting a present for pooping in the potty... even though I had decided to make this potty training experience more of an "expectation" than ways to earn gifts.

Her gift was that Snow White she'd already found and longed for months ago (remember this? http://thedailydowell.blogspot.com/2011/05/lol.html) ... so of course she wanted to watch Snow White. Which is when I realized it'd been accidentally deleted from the DVR. So, now, I have promised her another gift for the next time she poops in the potty- the actual Snow White movie! D'oh!

6.28.2011

Lately...

Oh, you know... just some random stuff to post.

MorMor came over today- and I snapped this picture of she and Dax. I LOOVE it! We LOOOVE MorMor! :)

We hosted the playdate at our house this week- and we put a babypool under the slide. Ada can't get enough of it-

RACING to get back up the ladder to slide again-

Dax had his friend Asher over to play, too! They slept much of the time- but when they were awake, they talked and giggled at each other for a while!

Dax loves TV- I try so hard to keep his eyes off of it (it's not good for their brains, you know)... but he will squirm and turn and watch any chance he gets.

Dax and Ada watching Monsters, Inc in the same position, ha!

Some other random Dax pictures- Dax in the bumbo (3 months)

Loving tummy time (3.5 months)

And potty training is still semi-successful! We haven't regressed or given up... but we are pretty stagnant. But I'll take it- she can pretty much hold it until I make her go sit on the potty. (Except for poopies- we've had 2 accidents. Gross. But she DID make it to the potty today mid-accident and finished pooping in the potty!) She still really does not want to initiate a potty trip herself. Way too boring and time consuming. But we are no longer afraid of outtings- I trust that she can hold it! :) Here we are on an "outting" to McDonald's for some ice cream.

Mwa!

6.22.2011

Another Day Down...

Well, another day of potty training down. And even more successful than yesterday! Only 3 pairs of panties all day- and no accidents at all this afternoon! She had a teeny tiny poop, but wasn't able to manage to get it all out. But hey, she recognized she needed to go and make it to the potty! :) (TMI, sorry. It's my blog, and I'll blog what I want!) And, other than finishing off that poo at naptime (in a diaper, which I changed before she fell asleep), she was pretty much dry when she woke up! (And I'm not EVEN working on sleepy time potty training. She can wear a pull up to bed until she's 8 for all I care.)

No pictures of a cute bottomless girl on the toilet today. Instead, it's of the Daxter inspecting the dog on his exersaucer. I can't get enough of either of these kiddos!

6.21.2011

Potty Training Art Festival

Day 2 of cold turkey potty training was what I would deem a success! We went through quite a few pairs of panties (6)... but Ada never put up a fight when I told her it was potty time, she had no issues tinkling in the potty, and always came to me right away after an accident. She still won't initiate a potty trip, so I was making her go every 30 minutes or so- which is kind of trying with a teething 3 month old to tend to as well. But we survived! And I'm so proud of my girl. I know that tomorrow will be even more successful! :)

What to do while homebound? Art projects! Lots of them.

Which means Mommy will want to go out and get frames.... which means that we can no longer remain homebound. Which means we will have to tinkle in the Hobby Lobby bathroom!

And here are the finished products. From left to right: 1) orange collage 2) turquoise wash over a picture of Mommy and Ada (just watered down some acrylic paint, let Ada go to town, and then wiped off the excess with a paper towel), and 3) my personal favorite, the sponge painting that Ada signed with a turquoise hand and Dax an orange foot. :)

Ada found a loophole allowing her to forego having to poop in the pot. She held it until naptime. Here's to a BM in toilet tomorrow! :)

6.20.2011

PeePee and Dinner

I'm spoiling you all with all of these posts the last 2 days! Just kidding... Anywho, there were a few random things I wanted to post!

#1: recent funny thing that came out of Ada's mouth- "Dax has a penis. Mommy likes to keep it in the house." WHAT!? That girl's mind works in mysterious ways!

#2: first family dinner with all 4 SITTING at the table! (as opposed to me wearing Dax or plopping him in the swing) It's hard to find the time to do family dinner anyway- they've gotten pretty sparse lately... so we've made a pact that Casey will come home early enough for us all to eat together 3 days a week, and I'll have something for us to actually eat 3 days a week! :) Then we go on a family walk.

#3: we began what I like to call "cold turkey potty training" this afternoon... and no accidents yet! I mean, who are we kidding- Ada is 2 years 8 months old. She knows how to use the potty, when she should use the potty, etc... she just is MUCH too busy and having WAY too much fun to stop and properly "go." So we just put on panties today and began her life as a big girl. She did AWESOME... I'm a little worried about her first poop tomorrow, though. I know you're dying to know how that goes, so I'll keep you updated! ;)

6.19.2011

The Exersaucer

Ada loooooved her exersaucer- here she is at 4 months old having a ball!

And now Dax loves it too! (Don't they look JUST alike in these first 2 pictures!?)

Kirsten and Kirk Hinkson!

One of my oldest, dearest friends Kirsten Holmes got married this weekend! We met in 4th grade- we were on the same softball team. And, even though our softball careers abruptly ended after that season, we remained friends... through Jr. High (ugh), High School (double ugh!), college (yay!), and now.. We both went to A&M- she joined a sorority and I met this guy named Casey (wink wink!)- so we spent lots less time together, but never grew apart. I would consider her a pseudo-sister since I consider her parents pseudo-parents. I love her family and was honored to spend the weekend celebrating her future life as a wife! :) Here it is, in typical Alicia fashion- picture overload.

Driving to Cleburne! I felt the need to document this because Dax, who if you remember from my last post, despises his carseat. And he did surprisingly well! Not without some assistance and entertainment by Mom.. but well enough for a pat on the back.

I spent the entire day on Saturday with the girls getting ourselves and Kirsten ready... and Dax tagged along. Here he is chilling in the make-up room. (YES! We got our make-up professionally done!! I didn't even recognize myself!)

Dax loving on Emily-

Meanwhile, Daddy and Ada were L-I-V-I-N' it up in Cleburne! They went to the park and the awesome mini-water park Splash Station- I wish I could've been there with them!