It all started last Saturday when we went to Family Fun Day at the elementary school. Raine loved the obstacle course, bounce house, and giant slide. She also had fun winning prizes at the carnival games.

Monday, we went to the zoo where Raine and Carter rode the merry-go-round.

Tuesday, Raine went to school.

Wednesday, we went to the zoo again, this time without a stroller. Carter rode in the backpack and Raine walked the whole way around the zoo. Raine was so worn-out that she fell asleep at 5:00 on the way home and didn’t wake up until the next morning!

Thursday, Raine was at school again and then had tumbling class that night. She and DJ are taking the parent-tot class at the rec center like they did last year. They LOVE it! I haven’t gone to take photos yet, but when I do I will definitely post some.

Friday, my cousin Linda took us to the Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas. The entire basement is a children’s museum and the kids had a blast.

Saturday, Daddy ran in the Zoo Run 5K.

And then we went to the Stake Get-Moving activity.

I’m not sure what about cellulite thighs and knee dimples says “tall and skinny” but that’s what Carter’s doctor called him today at his nine-month check-up.

He was 19 lbs. 4 oz. (>25th %ile) and 29.5 inches (<90th %ile).

Ummm . . . it didn’t go so well.

I started cutting the top and everything was fine, he was a bit wiggly but no more than expected. Then I started down his left side and things were going okay until I nicked his ear. He started screaming, I felt like the WORST mother in the whole world, therefore I quit.

So be it known that Carter’s first haircut was a disaster! Luckily he is so cute, and his hair is so fine, that you really can’t tell.

And now I am in the market for some good clippers. Ours didn’t do anything with that baby hair — that’s why I was using scissors, but I’m not going to do that again. Any recommendations?

Carter is growing up so fast — in spite of my best efforts to stop him. These past few months, he has turned into quite the little ball of personality.

Carter’s favorite foods are vegetables; he doesn’t like fruit much at all. He also loves Cheerios and has mastered the pincer grasp. His favorite song is “The Wheels on the Bus”; it can stop him from crying like nothing else. His favorite toy is a ball; it doesn’t matter what size or color, if it is round he needs to be holding/licking it.

Speaking of licking something, a few weeks ago I was in Sunday School with Carter — a rare occurrence since Sunday School is right during nap time — and he was playing with one-year-old Stella. Stella kept saying “baby, baby” so I thought maybe she wanted to play with Raine’s doll that was sitting on top of the diaper bag. Apparently, she had just been referring to Carter because when I handed her the doll she wasn’t interested. Carter, however, grabbed it and quite aggressively started trying to eat its face. It looked a little “odd” — my son sucking the face of a doll — so I ever so carefully attempted to get it away from him. It was one of those delicate situations where one false move could send the child into hysterics over the stolen toy and therefore cause the exact attention that I was trying to avoid. After a few failed attempts I finally diverted his attention enough to swipe the baby without creating a scene. It was pretty funny . . . if you were there.

Carter is such a great little brother. He loves to play with Raine and endures her constant toy stealing, violent luvies, and smothering without protest. He is always there for her with a shoulder (or head) to lean on.

(Apparently we need to adjust that helmet.)

Carter also thinks Raine is hilarious. He will laugh at her all day long. And he has the most infectious laugh!

We really love our little Carter bear.

It’s official, Raine is POTTY TRAINED!!!

Honestly, I had put off potty training because we are constantly on the go and I didn’t think I could fully commit to it. I was afraid that if I didn’t give it 100% then she would be turned-off to going on the potty and stay in diapers until she started kindergarten — rational, irrational, I don’t know, but moms sure have all sorts of dramatic concerns when it comes to stuff like this.

In the past, I had talked about potty training over spring break so I could let Raine run around outside naked and not have to worry about accidents on the floor or furniture, but I hadn’t fully committed to it so it wasn’t going to happen. Then, the first Sunday of spring break, Rashae asked me when I was going to potty train. Rashae’s daughter Elyse is Raine’s best friend and just turned three last Sunday. Rashae tried potty training in the past but Elyse is very strong-willed (to say the least) and refuses to go on the potty. With baby #3 on the way, and Elyse being the oldest, Rashae REALLY needs to get her out of diapers. She thought that maybe if Elyse saw Raine doing it, then she would want to do it too. So I decided to give it a try.

Monday morning I took Raine to Target to pick out a little potty, underpants, stickers, and treats. I also picked up Elmo’s Potty Time DVD because I had heard it is a must-have and some training pants because I wanted something a little more absorbent than the Hello Kitty panties that Raine picked. Grand total: $60! Who knew you could spend two months worth of diapers just to get your kid out of diapers? I guess I should have looked at the price tags before giving Raine free-reign of the underwear aisle. I’ll tell you what though, spending that much certainly made me a lot more determined to make this work the first time. I had no excuses for failure — “oh, well if only I would have gotten the Elmo movie like everyone told me, THEN she would have been successful.” Nope, if I failed I couldn’t blame it on a lack of supplies.

When we got home, Raine was soooo excited! She wanted me to open the potty as soon as we got it unloaded so she could sit on it. I pulled it out, set it on the kitchen floor and she sat down and peed. The potty played a little tune, she received a treat, I hurried to make a potty chart so she could stick a sticker on it, and Raine put on a pair of pull-ups.

It went a lot faster and a lot easier than I thought it would. I talked to people who said stuff like, “my four-year-old still only goes at home and only when I ask him” or “my kid was in pull-ups for about a year” or “my daughter is still scared of toilets with water in them” or “my son still won’t poop in the potty.” So I expected that even once we got Raine using her little potty regularly, it would be at least a couple months before she was doing everything. Well, imagine my surprise when after a week-and-a-half she had mastered all of the following:
* Peeing in the big potty
* Pooping in the big potty
* Telling me when she has to go so I don’t even ask any more
* Keeping her underpants dry all the time, even overnight
* Going potty at school when I’m not around.

The only thing we haven’t worked on yet is going in a public restroom. Last Friday we were at a restaurant and Raine said she needed to go potty. I took her to the ladies room and she looked at that great big potty with this look that said, “what the h%*# is that.” I told her that I would hold her and she could just sit on the edge, but there was no way she was getting anywhere near that thing. Then, right on cue, the toilet in the stall behind her flushed as loud and scary as any toilet has ever flushed before. Raine couldn’t get out of that bathroom fast enough! And since I didn’t want to traumatize her — resulting in diapers until kindergarten — I got her out of there as fast as I could. But that was our only attempt and she wasn’t even using the big potty at home at that point. So we’ll see how she does.

UPDATE: When we went out tonight, Raine needed to go potty so I took her to the restroom. Luckily, it was just a one-holer (no stalls) and since we were at a Mexican restaurant, it was very brightly painted and fun looking. Raine didn’t hesitate at all. She sat up there and did her business. When we got back to the table she announced in her proudest, loudest voice to DJ and all the other diners around us, “I went pee-pee on the potty!” The ladies at the table behind us started laughing and told Raine good job. And so, that completes the final step of our potty training.

P.S. I regret to inform you that Elyse still refuses to use the potty. She came over that first Wednesday with her potty in tow. They watched Elmo together while sitting on their potties, the whole nine-yards, Raine even went twice while Elyse was here and received treats and stickers, but it didn’t help . . . sorry Rashae.

P.P.S. Here is a little bit of advice for any other first-time potty trainers. When you buy treats to reward your little one for using the potty, think small. Why? Because they pee A LOT! I didn’t realize that Raine would be “earning” as many as 12 treats a day. We quickly downgraded from Reese’s miniatures to Reese’s pieces once I realized the error that I had made. I think it is going to take another two weeks to get her off this sugar high.

Life is always exciting with a walking, talking toddler around. There is no end to the off-the-wall things that come out of her mouth. It really makes me see life differently — from the perspective of someone three-feet tall who knows virtually nothing about social norms except what she learns from watching people around her, particularly me and DJ.

I always try to remember her one-liners, but by the time I get around to writing them down, most of them are gone (lately my memory has rivaled that of a fruit fly). However, I have managed to document a few of them over the past couple months (the dates are when they were recorded, not necessarily the day they happened).

Sunday, January 9, 2011

I was sweeping up the crumbs under the table while Raine was sitting on a chair, out of the blue she says, “your’re a good helper, mommy!”

*****
DJ: “Raine, you’re a nut!”
R: “Daddy, you’re a sprinkled doughnut nut!”

*****
R: “Daddy, I got a poopy nugget. Change my stinky bum.”

*****
R: “Mommy, you have a big bum.”
Me: “Oh, really?”
R: “Yes, and Daddy has a big bum. And I have a big bum. But Carter has a little bum.”

*****
Raine said her prayers all by herself for the first time. Most of it was incoherent, but I did hear, “Please bless the food, and the doughnuts, and the sprinkled doughnuts. And bless mommy, and Carter, and Daddy.” (She always prays for everyone she can think of, usually multiple times each.) “Gama and Gampa and Aunt Sara and Carson and Logan and Gama and Gampa and Uncle Dallin and Aunt Sarah . . . “

Tuesday, February 1, 2011
After my RS presidency meeting, Rashae and I were still sitting at the table talking. Raine was sitting on my lap writing on my agenda with a pen (all of my notes have “Raine scratch” all over them, some to the extent that I can’t even read what I originally wrote). All of a sudden, as I was talking, I noticed that Raine had her pen poised above the paper, looking right at Rashae with her best “grown-up serious business” face, nodding her head in agreement. Rashae and I couldn’t stop laughing. Sometimes I think this girl is two going on twenty!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011
I was in the restroom while Raine and Carter were playing on the bed when the following dialog took place.
R: “Ewe, gross.”
Me: “What are you doing, Raine? What’s wrong?”
R: “Carter has a snotty nose.”
Me: “Can you wipe it for him?”
R: “Yes, I can.”
** A few seconds pass. **
R: “That’s disgusting, Buddy. That’s disgusting.”
** A few more seconds pass. **
R: “You need another tissue. I will get you another tissue.”
Me: (worried that she is either wiping his face to the point of suffocation or allowing him to eat the tissues) “Raine, did you get it wiped?”
R: (coming into the bathroom with her best “grown-up serious business” face) “Yes, I did wipe his slobbery face.”

*****
“My bum is hanging out.” This is heard all the time because Raine refuses to wear pants so her diaper slides up her cheeks as she climbs around.

Friday, February 11, 2011

R: “Mommy I hurt my bum.” Sticking her back-side out toward me, “Kiss it.”

Friday, February 25, 2011

After spending a couple hours preparing food for a funeral luncheon and then delivering it clear up to Keller, I got a call that I needed to do a food order on my way home. Not wanting to make Raine crabby by dragging her to yet another RS duty I decided to play to her LOVE of meetings.
Me: “Raine, I need to go to a meeting, do you want to come and help me at the meeting?”
R: (Thinking for a second and then lighting up with a HUGE excited smile.) “We get pens!”
In her little mind, going to a meeting means that you get to write with a pen, and she loves writing with any sort of contraband. The rest of the drive to the appointment she talked about getting a pen and how she would use the black one and I would get the blue one.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

R: “I’m sharing!” Said as she takes Carter’s puffs or cheerios and eats them. But don’t worry, she gives him some too.

What you don’t see in this photo is the burp-cloth that she has next to her so she can wipe his slobber off her fingers every time she feeds him.

Raine and Carter had their passport photos taken yesterday — let’s just say that it’s a good thing these passports expire before they will be old enough to care what their photos look like!

This past week, Raine and Carter’s only living great-grandparent was here for a visit.

Great-grandma Anderson came last Thursday and left last night. As with anyone that comes to our house, Raine thought that Nana’s sole purpose in being here was to play with her. So every waking moment Raine was right there by Nana’s side, doing puzzles, singing songs, sticking stickers, reading books . . .

. . . and teasing (“boop”-ing as Raine calls it)!

Wednesday we took Nana to the zoo.

This big guy was very active. He put on quite a show as we sat in front of his enclosure eating lunch — roaring, climbing, jumping, and posing for photo-ops.

The parakeet enclosure was finally open again so Raine was able to feed the birds. This is her favorite part of the zoo!

We loved having Nana here — I just hope we didn’t wear her out too much!

. . . you make bath time so much fun!

This is Raine and Dawson (one of her favorite babysitters) last December at the zoo. Raine LOVES Dawson. She is constantly talking about him and always wants to know where he is. On multiple occasions she has excitedly shouted, “there’s Dawson” right in the middle of Sacrament Meeting as he passes the sacrament or gives a talk.

Last Sunday, Dawson brought Raine a book which she was looking at as the meeting started. Just as they were preparing the sacrament, Raine got to this page:

She kept saying, “baby’s sad” over and over again. I didn’t really look at her until about the fifth time she said it. When I did, I realized that she had big ‘ole crocodile tears running down her face. I pulled her onto my lap and turned to the end of the book to show her that the baby was happy, but she kept turning back to the sad picture and saying, “baby’s sad.” So I closed the book, set it aside, and tried to focus her attention on the sacrament.

She started crying. . . . Not the two-year-old fit kind of crying but the sad, break-your-heart kind. I tried to reason with her about the advantages of being quiet so I didn’t have to take her out in the hall. I thought it worked at first, but then in the saddest voice you’ve ever heard she said, “I need to go out in the hall” and then started sobbing. I had no choice, so I climbed over Elder and Sister Jenson and carried her out of the chapel.

After the meeting I had no fewer than three different people comment about poor Raine having to be taken out of the meeting. Why? Because this is literally the first time that I have ever taken Raine out for a reason other than to feed her when she was a baby.

So from now on, all books will be censored for “intense emotional portrayals” before being given to Raine!