Happy Birthday Gracie Ann

I can not believe our little baby, our youngest is TWO YEARS OLD today. Where has the time gone? (Click here for her birth story) I still think of Gracie Ann as our little infant..but then she quickly reminds me that she is far from an infant. She has NO trouble keeping up with her 3 older siblings. She is our little firecracker. A little ball of energy. She keeps us on our toes. If Gracie isn't in the room with us, that is a very scary thing. Who knows what she is getting into. I watch her like a hawk yet she STILL seems to get into all sorts of messes. Some of those messes scared the living daylights out of me and had me running to call poison control.

She loves girly things like dolls, barbies and make-up. I think she gets confused as to what is actually make up. She once thought white out was eye makeup and rubbed it all over her eye lids! (For the record..you can use baby soap to wash it off but it doens't come off of the eyelashes. It wears off of eyelashes on its own in about 4 days!) She looks girly dressed in her dresses with her bouncy curls, but don't let the bright blue eyes and blond curls fool you!! She is definetly a tom boy! She loves bugs and dirt. Her big brother Mason and her make quite a pair when it comes to getting dirty! You will also find her in the middle of a wrestling match between her two brothers. She holds her own and has quite the moves! (I think the boys are secretly scared of her when she starts in on their wrestling matches!)

Also, I am believeing she is an artist in the making. Give that child a pen, pencil, crayon or marker and she will give you a BEAUTIFUL drawing. WARNING: it may be on the walls, carpet or furniture. (also for the record, using hair spray and Mr. Clean Magic eraser will get ANY pen marks or even permanent marker off of the walls)

Gracie is also an animal lover. She LOVES dogs and meows (cats...but she just calls them meows). There are some neighborhood cats that roam around and if she sees one she will follow them everywhere! And horses...she LOVES "or-eees" as she calls them. I wish I could just buy her a real pony!

She is independent. She has potty trained herself. (well, we are in the middle of it now...but during the day if we are home she just goes by herself and then comes and tells me!) This is amazing to me as you may recall I had issues potty training my other children (click here to read the post). Mason had just finished getting potty trained about 6 months ago (he turned 3 in Dec)but every now and then he will have an accident and Gracie will be the first one to tell him that he needs to go on the potty and that it's yucky to have an accident. She also praises our ENTIRE family when they use the potty. "Good Job Mommy...you pee peed in the potty! Give me FIVE!" That is usually what she tells me!

She is tender hearted. She will always ask "you okay?" if someone gets hurt or seems sad. And if anyone raises their voice to her she busts out in tears. She gets her feelings hurt so easily. On the otherhand, this girl could fall down hard or bump her head and get right back up without a single tear, but hurt her feelings and she'll sob and sob.

God has blessed me greatly with another beautiful, precious daughter and I couldn't be more greatful for her. I am excited to continue to watch her grow into the beautiful girl God has planned for her to be. I love you Gracie Ann! Happy 2nd Birthday!
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Potty training is for the birds....

I don't even know what to do anymore. It's like every day I wake up and think "okay, TODAY is the day Mya will be potty trained". And then at the end of the day. Still in diapers and we made no progress whatsoever.

It's like I'm embarassed that she will be 4 next month and I'm still changing her diaper. She was wearing pull ups...but those at too expensive to wear when you know she's just going to wet in them. I was willing to pay the extra to have her wear them to make it easier to go potty, but to her..they were just diapers she could put on herself.

Her whole potty training experience started when she was about 1 1/2. She decided she wanted to use the big potty. I was shocked because she was so young..but they say they will let you know when they are ready. I was all excited. She went a few times. But then she was totally not into it anymore. So we stopped. No biggie. Afterall she was only 1 1/2. Then around 2 1/2 we bought her underwear and started the whole potty training process. She wasn't into it at all. She wore the underwear but wouldn't go for nothing. She held it all day long. No accidents which was good but she never went on the potty either. She waited until bedtime when she got her diaper back on. Since this was obviously not going anywhere...and I was about to have Mason. We stopped with the potty training. I thought she obviously wasn't ready.

Out of no where this past November she decided she was going to be potty trained. The whole week of Thanksgiving she wore underwear and went on the potty. I was SO excited. She did tell me however, that I wasn't allowed to be excited for her because going potty was no big deal. She would get upset if anyone made comments praising her. Then like the flip of a light switch she was back refusing to wear underwear and use the potty. I'm not just saying she acted scared or said no, she would have full blown fits that would last hours (no joke!) And now that is STILL where we are at if we even mention her wearing underwear or using the potty. It's SO stressful. I have asked her what the best thing ever would be that she wants. She wants a cupcake maker. I told her that if she would just put these underwear on, we would head to walmart right then and buy her that cupcake maker. I just suggested she put the underwear on...not even for a week or anything..just put them on at that moment. Then she said, "well, then i don't want a cupcake maker". I don't need it that bad if if means i have to potty train. So she obviously has a complete understanding of what is going on. One day she was talking that she might want to get her ears pierced. I said as soon as she is potty trained I would take her. Then she said, "okay, never mind..i'll just wait until I'm a grown up to get my ears pierced". She wanted to go to Pre-K next year. I told her I couldn't sign her up if she wasn't potty trained. THen she said, "that is fine, i just won't go...i don't care about it that much". This goes on for EVERYTHING she says she wants. She asks for candy...and i say, "go try to go potty first, then you can have a piece". Her response, "nevermind, i don't want any". A few weeks ago we had some issues with her diapers coming undone. She was at Jordan's baseball practice with Ryan and she was playing with her friend there and her diaper came undone and fell off. She was embarassed. She had a talk with Daddy and said the next week she would get rid of diapers since she was too big for them. That next Monday came...and the 1st thing she said to me in the morning was "I know i said i would potty train this week, but i changed my mind. I don't care if my diapers don't stay on". I didn't even remember at that moment that she was starting that day, SHE remembered though. So she definetly is "smart" enough to use the potty. It's that she doesn't want to.

I have looked at many books and read many articles online. It's like I laugh at their suggestions. they sound SO simple. But they've all been tried with Mya and they just don't work. I don't know what to do. Sometimes I feel like it's my fault. But I have tried everything. I don't know what to do. this has been the hardest parenting thing I've ever dealt with. I laugh at those that say girls are easier to potty train. Jordan was difficult but still 100 times easier. At least he would put the underwear on at least try to use the potty. I can't even get that out of her. In a month an a half, I'm going to have 3 kids in diapers. I don't know what to do. I did talk to the dr about 3 months ago about her issues. He said then that if she wasn't trained within the next month not to do anything till after the baby is born because it would be too much on her. But that makes her OVER 4 yrs old. I mean, who has a 4 yr old girl still in diapers? Not that I care what everyone else is doing, but it's just like what is wrong with me that she isn't potty trained yet. She is such a smart, beautiful girl. I don't get why this is so hard for her. I just think of how hard this is right now to deal with, I can't imagine what it's going to be like in a couple of months once I have the baby. I'm going to be so much more busy. How am I going to deal with this then? I'm will to take suggestions. I'm to the point where I don't even know what else to try. I pray and pray that she will come around.