Proof

32 Weeks! Just wanted everyone to know that I do, in fact, have a belly.

I saw the doctor today, and she says that Anna is already head down, with her head pretty low in my pelvis. Looks like she's right on track for a good delivery in 8-ish weeks.

Day 3: Progress

Tommy is doing a LOT better today. He's running to the bathroom all by himself, and *so far* hasn't had an accident all day. Yesterday he only had a few tiny ones, and he would usually catch himself.

However, I think our water bill is going to be huge. Like, REALLY BIG. If he wasn't in training mode, I really wouldn't think it's worth flushing the toilet 25 times a day. And he's decided that washing his hands is a new form of fun.

Guess that's the literal price we pay, eh?

I think we'll try underpants tomorrow.

Here's hoping that by Friday, all will be accomplished!

Extreme Measures: Day 1

It's time for Tommy to be potty trained.

I've been putting it off, and making half-hearted efforts for a while now, but it's just time. There's only 2 months left before the next kiddo comes, and if we get too close to the birth I'm worried Tommy will have major "regression" issues. And since he's hit the 3 1/2 year mark, I'm starting to feel he'll never gain an interest "on his own."

My current method of choice is the "bottomless" technique. Basically, Tommy ran around all day with no pants (or diapers, or underwear). This goes against our usually strict you-have-to-wear-a-diaper rule (which Jack has been having issues with lately), but, like the title of the post says, we're in to extreme measures.

Tommy's main problem has not been a lack of understanding what "go on the potty" means; he simply didn't care. He's happy to stay in his soiled diaper, and even if he's wearing training pants or underwear he'll go on the potty when we say so, but just let nature take it's course if we're not paying attention.

So, today he went pantless--and he suddenly had to pay attention. Because he does know that he's not supposed to "pee on the floor." (We had a discussion about this after Jack did it, and Tommy has since repeated the phrase several times). That's not to say that mistakes weren't made today, but I do think significant progress has been made.

It's going to be a long week. He hasn't really learned how to "hold it" yet, so he needs to go potty about every 15 minutes, but I do see a light at the end of the tunnel. I saw him do at least one "potty dance" today, and that's a good sign. Plus, he's been asking to put his diaper back on (when he needs to go potty), so he's beginning to understand the warning signs.

It's just really weird seeing him run around with no pants.

Ah, parenthood. So many weird things.

Now We Know!

At my baby appointment today, I casually mentioned to my new Dr. how frustrating it is that we don't know the baby's gender, because I feel bad referring to the baby as "it." (You may recall that during the 5 month ultrasound, Baby Davis kept its legs crossed and refused to share). The Dr. then said, "Well, let's check and see if the ultrasound is free."

It was!

And......

We're having a baby girl!!!

We're really hoping that little Anna Rae Davis will come a wee bit early (she's due May 20th) so we can get her a cute little dress to go to her uncle's wedding on June 3rd, but I guess we'll see how things go :-)

Now we know!

Little Bakers

My boys love to bake!

If I make any mention of the word cookie, cake, muffins, or bread, they immediately push their chairs up to the counter and want to help. Sometimes it's a challenge keeping eggs from getting broken or fingers from getting burned, but they love it and I think it's adorable!

On Sunday we had several bananas that were overripe, so it became obvious that we needed some banana bread muffins! They boys were very helpful:

Tommy's getting really good at mixing. Sometimes I can even let go!

Jack grabbed the spatula from me as soon as I went to use it. He needs to work on his technique, but it wasn't bad for his first time :-)

(Daddy's taking the photos, in case you were wondering if I had a 3rd arm)

These pics are from the Valentine's Day cake we made for Daddy. This is their favorite part!

Little cuties :-)

The boys did an excellent job of putting the muffin liners in the cupcake pans. They're growing up so fast!

We Believe...

Tommy just said the First Article of Faith completely by himself! Amazing!

I think that kid will do just about anything for a jelly bean. Except potty train.

Finding Fun

This past Sunday was the first Sunday in a loooong time that a) no one was sick, b) everyone was "in town", and c) Logan wasn't scheduled to work, so he wasn't sleeping during the day. So the family had a lot of "together" time.

So....what do you d0?

Growing up, my family always tried to avoid treating Sunday like another Saturday, and so movie options were limited to Sabbath appropriate materials (scripture stories, etc.). Logan and I haven't built up a good "Sunday Movie Library" (I REALLY miss those old Living Scripture movies!), so I've been pretty flexible with the boys as far as watching Disney films goes, but this tends to make the boys want to get into their "weekday routine", including asking to go to the store and things like that. Now that Tommy is getting a bit older and more conscious of church and things, I'm trying to find time to focus on building our family and start some Sunday traditions.

Last Sunday Tommy did not have a good day at church (he had to leave his classes several times, and declared that he "didn't want to go to Sunbeams.") So, I've been "practicing Primary" with Tommy each day this week, trying to help him learn how to sit quietly while someone else is talking. To do this, I've been enticing him with jelly beans. The first day he got jelly beans after sitting quietly for 1 minute, the next day 3 minutes, etc. I've started adding teaching a mini-lesson as well, and he's getting better. He was reluctant to go to class on Sunday, but when I told him he would get jelly beans at home if he stayed in class his spirits rallied some. However, I was shocked that he actually stayed in class the WHOLE TIME! I guess practicing does help. I wasn't planning on "practicing" on Sunday, since he had already been to Sunbeams, but on Sunday afternoon he ran up to me and said, "More jelly beans, Mommy?" I responded that to get jelly beans he would have to practice sitting, and he needed to get his chair. He quickly ran over to his chair (Jack following along, of course), and asked to practice. So precious! We made it to 6 minutes with both boys. Yay!!! Small victories feel so good :-)

When Jack went down for his nap, Logan and I tried to play "Candyland" with Tommy. That was...interesting. He was so excited to see the game pieces, but he had no interest in playing! He kept taking the little plastic children and using them as action figures in his imaginary world (he has a very active imagination), and he quickly lost interest in identifying colors or trying to count. For a first attempt it wasn't bad. We'll have to try again soon.

We then moved on to one of our favorite family activities--baking! The boys LOVE to help me bake, and it's been so funny to watch Jack try to "help" more and more each time. I started out with just Tommy, but as soon as Jack realized what we were doing he pushed his chair right up to the counter and started saying "Hep! Hep!" (his way of saying he wants to help). I let each boy put in some of the ingredients, and Tommy actually held the mixer all by himself for a while! I wish I could have gotten a picture, but that would have required me stepping a way for a moment, which would NOT have been a good idea! The cookies were delicious, and are almost gone already...must be elves or something, eating them when we're all asleep...

Anywho, those are some of the "major events" from the past week. They boys are growing up so much, it's crazy to think they'll have another sibling soon! And then we get to start the desire for crawling/walking/talking all over again...