Merry Christmas 2018

What a happy and busy Christmas we have had! Although we are a bit exhausted from all the festivities, we have enjoyed the time with family celebrating the birth of Jesus. We have continued to work on potty training, and Emmy finished out the week at daycare with a 3-2 record (she was dry 3 out of the 5 days). Potty training has been a bit trickier this time of year with the excitement and non-routine of the holidays. We have spent extra time in the car, and we have had to use several public restrooms and even a port-a-potty! Sometimes, Emmy will be defiant and insist "No, I not go potty." In these situations, we keep M&Ms on hand and use a piece of candy simply to lure her to the potty. On the positive side, she is going on the potty more than not, and she will even say "I not go pee-pee in underwear." Overall I am thankful for those early-December snow days and the jump start we were able to get on potty training. It is still a work-in-progress, but I am proud of our little girl!

After working through the 21st, there wasn't too much extra time to prepare for the holiday. In the last days leading up to Christmas, we fit in a day trip to Star to watch the Wake Forest bowl game with Granny and Paw Paw (the Deacs got a win over Memphis - yay!); we also visited Great Grandpa Bobby, attended our church's Candlelight Service on the 23rd, and had candy canes for dinner and Waffle House for breakfast!

 

 

 

On Christmas Eve, we went over to Grammy and Grandpa's for more delicious treats. The adults open their presents on that night, and Zander, Maddox, and Emmy were great little helpers as they assisted us with our gifts. Emmy didn't quite understood what all the fuss was about, but she matched her cousins' excitement for opening the packages and getting ready for Santa. 

 On Christmas Day, Emmy woke up at her usual time around 7:15AM, and she was excited to see her new play table and chairs from Grammy and Grandpa. It was magically delivered sometime after she went to sleep! It is perfect for coloring and playing make believe with her stuffed animals. She immediately started sitting them in the chairs and laying them on top of the table. In her stocking, Santa brought some of her favorite things: pouches, fruit snacks, and Smarties.

 

We then headed over to the Houstons' to have breakfast with Grammy, Grandpa, Aunt Megan, Uncle Zack, Maddox, and Zander. The boys were excited to show us what Santa had brought - new bikes! Emmy got some cute summer clothes from Great Gma Nancy and a fairy dress-up outfit. 

Around 11AM, we headed to Star to see the Kennedys. From the hustle and bustle of the morning, Emmy was already on her third pair of pants for the day. Her mismatched outfit in these photos will forever remind me that 2018 was the Christmas we were potty training! 

 

Emmy and her cousin Ellison are only 4 months apart, and it was so sweet to see them playing together. They loved reading with Granny and making a mess in the play room. I also got some cuddles with my newest niece Whitlee, who is now 5 months old. 

 We returned to Kernersville today, and after getting the house back in order, we set up a corner of the sun room with Emmy's toy box and her new table. She got the toy box from Granny and Paw Paw last year, and even though the toy box and table were received two Christmases apart, they match perfectly. I envision Emmy spending a lot of time in this little corner of the house!

We had one last Christmas tradition to complete 2018: our annual after-Christmas Starbucks and Tanglewood Lights. It's been a fun tradition that we started a couple of years ago, and this year Boomer and I had a gift card for our fancy drinks - score! Shortly after we entered Tanglewood Park, as we were sipping on our drinks, Emmy said she had to go pee-pee. I whipped out of line at the next turn-off, and after getting Emmy out of her car seat and hustling to the port-a-john, she had changed her mind. Being in a car for two hours while potty training was certainly risky, but luckily before leaving the park, we stopped at another port-a-john and had success there! I am already looking forward to next year when Emmy is even more interested in the lights...and also fully potty trained! :)

We didn't seem to get a particularly fantastic picture of the three of us this Christmas [...see below]  From our family to yours, we hope you had a wonderful holiday! And let us not forget the true reason for the season!

"Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.

This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, 

praising God and saying, 

     "Glory to God in the highest heaven, 

      and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."

                                                                                              Luke 2:11 - 14

Hustle and Bustle and Anniversaries

After being snowed in for a few days, we finally emerged from Winter Storm Diego and wrapped up the week with a couple of teacher workdays and one short student day on Friday. When I went back to work on Thursday, Emmy stayed with my parents so that she could have an extra day of one-on-one attention for potty training. Even though we have still had some accidents over the last few days (and a not-so-good morning in the church nursery...) we are celebrating that Emmy was dry all day Thursday with my parents and even dry the next day at daycare! Here is a picture of Grammy and Emmy picking out a sticker!

Emmy's teacher at daycare, Miss Jewell, was so excited that Emmy was in big girl underwear. After being at home for several days, I was nervous sending Emmy off on her own, but Miss Jewell is such a pro and has been through potty training many times before. She was happy that we went straight to underwear rather than doing Pull-ups, and she said that she would continue to put her in underwear at school. I sent along 8 pairs and a few pairs of pants, too, but to my surprise, she didn't even need them on Friday. I plan to continue to send along several extra items this week, but hopefully when we go back to school in January, Emmy will be more consistently staying dry. Miss Jewell even gave Emmy some Hershey kisses each time she went on the potty, so during the weekend, we moved away from stickers and on to candy in order to coax Emmy on to the potty. Sometimes she doesn't want to stop what she is doing, and she is also a little more defiant with Mommy and Daddy than she is with other people. Unfortunately we have experienced the most of the accidents, but I am happy that she has had some good days with my mom and with Miss Jewell.

We are enjoying all of the fun festivities that come during the month of December! On Thursday afternoon, we all convened at Grammy and Grandpa's to make Christmas cookies. It is quite entertaining as we try to corral 5-year-old Zander, 3-year-old Maddox, and 2-year-old Emmy in an effort to make something halfway resembling cookies. Emmy was awoken from her nap to make cookies so she was a little crabby, but once she figured out how to press down the cookie cutter and especially once she got a few taste tests, she was happy again. We are thankful to Grammy and Grandpa for continuing on this tradition and for sacrificing their kitchen to a mess of sprinkles, flour, and icing! 

We ended the evening with the guys joining us for pizza and watching Christmas Vacation, a true holiday classic! Boomer can quote almost every line, and we've all seen it so many times that it just gets funnier each year. At some point in the movie, all of the Houstons and Kennedys ended up crammed onto the same couch. 

Christmas cookies and Christmas movies are just a few of my favorite things about this time of year. I also love seeing all the Christmas lights, listening to Christmas radio on my way to and from work, and turning on the tree each morning and in the evening. I especially love celebrating our anniversary each year during this time. On Friday, we had a mini-getaway thanks to a raffle Boomer won several months ago. At the Forbush Hunter Safety raffle in the spring, Boomer won a free night at the Fairfield Inn & Suites in Elkin. The certificate sat for a few months until I realized the December 30th expiration date, so we were quick to line up Grammy and Grandpa for a night away. Elkin is about an hour from Kernersville. After a quick trade off of Emmy and throwing a few things in a suitcase, we headed off to Elkin on Friday evening. I had heard that the hotel is very decorated for Christmas, and it did not disappoint! After checking in, we went to dinner at Skull Camp Brewery. I got the pulled chicken sandwich with sweet potato fries, and Boomer got his staple BBQ item: brisket. All of our food was so delicious, and I especially loved the biscuits - a must-have if you go to Skull Camp!

 

 

On Saturday, we enjoyed a leisurely morning working out at the hotel fitness center and then chowing down on the amazing breakfast buffet. We certainly got our money's worth out of our free stay! :) We fit in a Facetime call with Emmy before her nap time. She loved waving at Mommy and giving kisses to Daddy through the screen. 

After checking out of the hotel, we headed off to find a winery. We don't often go to wineries just the two of us, but we thought it would be a fun indoor activity on a dreary, rainy day. We struck out at our first winery, Adagio Vineyards -- they were closed because of a special Christmas event they were hosting the following day. Just a few miles away, we found a second (even better!) winery, Elkin Creek Vineyards. It had a great atmosphere right on the river with views from the side deck and the windows of the tasting room. Boomer did a tasting, while I went straight for the dessert wine, called Vino Limone. We were the only patrons there until another couple arrived about halfway through the tasting. We bought two bottles of wine to share with both of our families over Christmas. I should mention that our Elkin getaway is just the first of our anniversary celebrations...we have another special trip planned at the end of the month. Cheers to 8 years! :)

Operation: Potty Training

The last few days brought an unexpected break from work and daycare after Winter Storm Diego dumped 12+ inches of snow in our area. We don't typically get such an early snow in North Carolina; we usually see our biggest snows in late January and February, even in March, so it was quite a surprise to hear there was significant snow in the forecast. When it seemed that the weathermen were going to get it right, I got the crazy idea to use our days holed up in the house to potty train Emmy. Initially my plan was to conquer this badge of parenthood during the first few days of our Christmas break, but I was looking ahead with dread knowing it would mean staying home and missing some Christmas festivities. Since it was quite spontaneous, I wasn't prepared yet, so I had to make a quick stop at the store after work on Friday to purchase all the necessary supplies: M&Ms, stickers, and Pull-ups for nap and bedtime. As predicted, Diego moved in late Saturday night, and when we woke on Sunday morning, there was a blanket of white covering everything in sight. 

I got a lot of advice from my sister, my friend Sarah, and several other mom friends. Both my sister and Sarah followed a 3-day 'boot camp' where you ditch the diapers and go straight to underwear. They warned me that it means a lot of accidents (and frustration!) the first few days, but then it doesn't drag out the process with diapers and pull-ups. After my weekly run with my sister on Saturday morning and a pep talk, I came home ready to tackle potty training. I put Emmy right into big girl underwear and waited to see what happened. She was very curious about the new potty seat and proud of her new underwear. 

Part of the boot camp is encouraging a lot of liquids during that first day so that the child will need to urinate frequently. Then, as you train them to associate the urge to go the bathroom with using the potty, you ease up on the liquids during the second and third day, but continue to take the child to sit on the potty every 1 - 1.5 hours. The first day was very hard, not gonna lie! Boomer snuck out to write for the day, so it was just Emmy and me. I felt like I could barely keep up with taking her to the potty and cleaning up the messes afterwards. I even had to do a mid-day load of laundry so that Emmy had clean underwear for the afternoon - she went through 12 pairs of underwear just in the morning alone! It seemed somewhat hopeless, and I was beginning to think I had made a mistake! I realize now that mostly when I talked about going to the bathroom prior to this whole boot camp, I was referencing poopie, so I really had to first teach Emmy that 'pee pee' is also 'using the potty.' I'll spare all the extra details and sum up with saying that we've had some accidents, but we've also had some successes. We are mostly using stickers and exaggerated celebrations from Mommy and Daddy as motivation.  

We plan to venture out to dinner this evening, which will be our first time out since potty training. I am nervous, but I'm hopeful that it will be a dry outing! I will have one more day at home with Emmy tomorrow (they have called school for students, but it is an Optional Teacher Workday), so my hope is we can have another solid day of successes before she goes back to daycare. Since we have otherwise been inside during these snow days, we have filled the time in between potty breaks with snow gazing, napping, making Christmas treats, finishing off our Christmas cards, and playing the Wii. I even talked Boomer into a DVD workout during Emmy's naptime. The couple that sweats together, stays together! :)