Weekend Wrap-Up: The Big Girl Edition

This weekend was the start of some big new things for our self-proclaimed "BIG GIRL."  And her becoming a big girl has been...quite the experience...

Friday

We went to MOA with Jenna, Charlie and Baby Mabel.  The toddlers did a pretty good job staying in their strollers so we could get some shopping accomplished.  We let them free while Jenna fed Mabel in the Macy's bathroom.  They stayed happy with banana bread in hand.

CHEEEEEEEEESE!

On Friday night Callie stayed at G-ma and G-pa's house while Chris and I went out for an early anniversary date night.  Callie had a blast hanging out with them and Auntie cat...

While Chris and I enjoyed biking around downtown/north east, dinner (with 2-for-1 happy hour specials!) and a movie.

Cheers to getting a night off from the sleepy time battle! ;)

Of course, we found out that  Callie went down like a perfect little angel for G-ma and G-pa at 8:30.  Stinker... :)

Saturday

We spent the morning FINALLY converting her crib to a toddler bed.  After we picked her up, we went to Target to pick out new bedding.  She requested something orange, and we found cute stuff.

This was after the first nap in the big girl bed- a success!

Thankfully, the transition has been SUPER easy.  **knock on wood**

Saturday evening we met the Wicks family for dinner and play time at our house.

Watching Baby Kylie yawn!

Sunday
I think today might have been the longest. day. ever.  It was day #1 of our attempt to kick potty training's butt.

As you may recall, for about a month our potty training chart looked like this:

So today, as soon as she woke up, we were off like a shot to the bathroom and in the undies.  It was a rough day.  There were a few different points were I just wanted to give up and give in. 

The morning was ridiculous.  We spent SO MUCH TIME in the bathroom, but seemed to ALWAYS miss the actually peeing episodes.  By 9:30am we were on to the third pair of undies about 0 for 6 on the toilet.  I resorted to searching the iPad for "potty training" apps.  I found a pretty good one that has cute videos and a virtual sticker chart.

Despite our potty bag and iPad, failed attempts continued until nap time.  I was so done.  Thankfully, at the exact right moment, my friend Casey texted to check in (THANK YOU CASEY!).  Then she called me and gave me advice and some new ideas, including setting a timer and getting some little toys/trinkets as rewards.  So during nap time I headed out to Party City to pick up a bunch of cheap little trinkets and a cool new Owl timer. 

We put a diaper on her for the nap time, but as soon as we heard her rustling around we woke her up and got her on the pot.  She was excited about the different "Potty Treasures" and the new timer.

Finally (FINALLLLLY) at 3:15 we had our first peeing in the potty experience for the day.  Yay!  But after that til about 5:00 was THE WORST time of the day.  She would scream bloody murder EVERY time we put her on the toilet and would FREAK OUT every time she peed in the potty. 

But we stuck to our guns, stayed true to our plan and powered through the chaos.  It started to get better, and we had a lot more successes.

At the end of the day, she had 8 stickers on her potty chart(s).

Fancy iPad sticker chart

 She has a pull-up on now for overnight, and we'll see how it goes.  We made it through this day with smiles...

 ...and we get to start all over tomorrow. :)