The Different Faces of Cinderella

Ever since Santa brought the three new princess dresses for Christmas, dress-up has been the main source of entertainment at our house. And although the new dresses have gotten their fair share of dress-up time, Cinderella is still the overarching favorite. I think it helped that Santa also brought Cinderella, the movie, so Anna now understands who exactly she's dressing up as. There have been many days recently, especially with it being so cold outside, that we have had to put on our Cinderella garb, make sure we are wearing our Cinderella big girl panties, and watch Cinderella the movie. It's so cute!

Well, the other day, she decided to add some additional accessories to her outfit to make herself Super Dancing Cinderella. What a hoot!

Milestones

We are in mourning. Once again, a major milestone has been met and we have lost something...this time, it's the booster seat. As soon as Anna no longer needed the highchair, we switched her over to a booster seat at the kitchen table. She's been sitting in it as long as I can remember. Well, before Christmas, she started wanting to sit in the other chairs that didn't have a booster in them. And for a long while now, she hasn't sat in a highchair or booster at a restaurant. So, I fought it for a while, but finally broke down and asked her if she wanted us to take her booster out of her chair. She was thrilled! So now, we have a child who is potty trained and sitting in a big chair like a big girl. Where does the time go?

Mommy to Mama

I don't know exactly where this change came from, but out of the blue Anna has started calling me "Mama" instead of "Mommy". It's not every time, but definitely the vast majority now. And since I hear her call me or say my name 1800 times a day, that's quite a bit. I don't really know how I feel about it. Part of me thinks it's hysterical because of how she says it and it makes me smile. Another part of me isn't quite ready to give up "Mommy" and is a little sad. Our little girl is just growing up so fast! And then I began to wonder if potty training came with a name change? I guess that's why it's good I've got another little one on the way who can call me "Mommy," at least until he becomes potty trained!:)

January 5th, 2011--The Epiphany

January 6th is the date the Christian church celebrates every year as Epiphany, when the wise men follow the star to find the Christ child. However, this year, epiphany occurred in the Hege household on January 5th. I am referring to the epiphany of potty training. Anna Hege has finally gotten it. Hallelujah!

If you look back, we started this process this summer in July during Grands' Camp. Anna did great for the week in Wilmington, although Mom put a lot of effort and rearranged some plans in order to focus on potty training. Anna even did great the week we got back home. Then, she just decided she was done. I'm talking meltdown every time she needed to go sit on the potty. So, after a couple of days of this, I decided that I wasn't going to traumatize her and we went back to diapers. She was pretty upset about not being able to wear big girl panties anymore, but we told her when she was ready to go in the potty, she could wear them again.

My mom continued to reassure me that she would not enter kindergarten in diapers and that one day she would just make up her mind and that would be the end of it. A friend in our Sunday School class is a urology resident and told me that they don't even encourage training until children are three years old because you can't be guaranteed that they are anatomically ready until then. Both of these things made me feel a little better.

Well, the three-year-old birthday came and went. And my due date kept creeping closer and closer. Although it wouldn't have been the end of the world to have two kids in diapers, I really wanted to avoid it if I could. So, as Christmas break was approaching, Will and I decided that we were doing potty training boot camp over the break and we weren't going back.

We told her that we had to save the diapers for Baby Jack and she would wear big girl panties and pull-ups--no more diapers. The first few days were pretty hard. She kept asking for diapers back. The kicker was that she would meltdown and fight me about going to the potty, but would run right in the bathroom with a smile for her daddy. I kept telling myself that this is what we needed to help her become more of a daddy's girl, since that was going to be a necessity after Jack got here. Will became potty-training instructor and I was simply the back-up assistant. It did help that it snowed the first part of the break and Will was home a little bit more than usual.

Eventually, the accidents got fewer and fewer. The resistance became less. We noticed that she had caught on to the difference between panties and pull-ups and would have way more accidents in the pull-ups. We started wearing pull-ups only at night and to preschool. As long as we prompted her, she would stay clean and dry through the day.

Then came the day of epiphany. On January 5, 2011, Anna started telling us when she had to go to the potty. She stayed clean and dry all day and we barely had to prompt her! Her teachers had told me that when she was ready, they were fine with her wearing panties to school, so the next day, she went in panties--and stayed clean and dry! She went four days before she had her first accident, and we've only had two since then. I am such a proud Mama!

Now several of my friends have warned me about doing this so close to Jack's arrival and that I need to prepare myself for a regression, and that's fine. That will only be temporary. At least I now know that she knows what she is supposed to do!

For the last couple of days, she has started going to the potty by herself without even telling us first. She'll just come flying around the corner screaming, "I pee-peed in the potty by myself!" She has a prize bag for when she tells us when she needs to go first, but she's starting to forget about that because it's just becoming what she does. Last night, she didn't want to put on her pull-ups for bedtime, so we let her leave her panties on. She did wet her bed this morning, but kept saying, "Next time I have to get right up and run to the potty". She gets it!

I'm so thankful and so relieved and so proud! It is one of the best feelings in the world! Yay Anna!

Getting Ready for Baby Jack

When Christmas was over, I had a bit of a panic attack. During my entire pregnancy, we had said, "Once Christmas is over, Jack will be here." Well, now Christmas was over and we were NOT ready for Jack to come yet. My Type A/OCD personality kicked in and what Will later termed "hyper-nesting mode" began. Luckily my parents stayed in town for a few days after Christmas and were a HUGE help. They helped us take down Christmas decorations and get the house straight. Then Will and I spent the vast majority of New Year's weekend rearranging toys to make room for new ones and getting out baby stuff. It was fun and brought back lots of memories of Anna as a baby. It's funny all the things you forget that you used!

Here are some pictures now that we are officially ready for Baby Jack!

"Anna's cabinet" in the kitchen had to become the "kid's cabinet" and now has bottles and such in addition to all of Anna's stuff.

We set up the pack 'n play in our room, complete with changing table for downstairs. We even set up a chair next to it so Anna can see and help. Jack will sleep here for the first little bit when he gets home and for naps for a while.

We moved Anna's car seat to the other side of the car so that we could put Jack's travel system in the middle.

We even made the final touches to Jack's nursery...

He even has plenty of clothes, thanks to outlet sales, consignment sales, and sweet friends who have lent me their boy clothes. I did several loads of laundry with Dreft and forgot how much I love the way it smells. It just screams "Baby!!"

Now I have relaxed and feel much better about where we are with everything. Plus, now Anna has time to adjust to these changes before Jack gets here. She has already been so cute with all the questions she has asked. I think it has made her realize that he really is coming. She has been talking to my belly much more and giving it lots of hugs. Jack, we can't wait for you to get here!

So, I have packed Jack's diaper bag and my breast pump is charged and ready to go. I just need to pack my bag for the hospital and we'll be set. Four weeks and counting! I can't wait to see that sweet little face!

Our White Christmas Home

Stealing Nellie

Jeff and Johnna are not into girliness at all, not even really the color pink, even though they have had to relax about that a little bit. So, Mom and I knew we were going to have to steal Nellie for a few minutes over Christmas to take some pics of her in one of Anna's fru-fru dresses.

Isn't she beautiful?!