Ada's 3 Month Pictures

Ada turned 3 months last weekend. We had some pictures made today at Portrait Innovations. Ada only cried once, but we'd been there at least 45 minutes, so I consider it a success!

This has been a week of firsts for Ada. She started batting at the toys hanging above her on her floor mat on Monday. And she grabbed a toy and brought it to her mouth for the first time on Monday, too.

Josephine has moved into a new bedroom this week. We painted the guest room purple this weekend and took out our stuff. She's slept in it the past 3 nights. For some reason, she's chosen to nap in her old room this afternoon, but overall she's excited about her new room. Josephine is in a "big girl bed" now. It's my old twin bed on the floor. She hasn't fallen out of it yet. I would put pictures up of her painting her room, but she only had panties on and I don't want to put those pictures on the web. When we get it all set up, I'll take pictures and post them. We haven't put anything on the walls yet. We're going to add shelves and some decorations to the walls. My next challenge is to figure out what to do with all our things that were in the guest room. The office desk is now in our bedroom . . . we couldn't figure out where else to put it. I also need to straighten up Josephine's old room so that Ada can move in there and out of our room. It may take a week or two to get everything where it needs to be.

Josephine is doing well with her new "challenges". She is using the potty (even poopping!) all the time and has not had an accident yet, even through the night. She is also getting better at putting her own clothes on and off. Shirts are still tough, but pants are no problem. The fruit and vegetable cards have really helped motivate her to eat fruits and veggies. She still resists sometimes, but now she just won't get a card if she doesn't since making her sit there until she eats it obviously doesn't work. She really likes corn and cucumbers (not together). Eating the peel of apples and pears is no longer an issue. She still refuses green beans, though. : )

Potty Trained!

Last weekend Greg, Meredith, and Audrey Clinton came to visit us for the UT - GA football game. Despite the game, we had a great time. Here are some pictures of the girls.

Audrey (4 mo.) and Josephine holding hands. Notice Audrey's half red half orange dress?

Audrey Clinton

Audrey and Ada (2 mo.).

Here are some pictures of Ada and Josephine from this morning.

Josephine and I had a rough beginning of the week. I call it the Great Green Bean Indicident of '08. Since I was pregnant with Ada, I have become too laxed on making Josephine eat her veggies and we're making more of an effort now. On Monday, I gave Josephine the choice of corn, green beans, and an apple with peel. She chose green beans. However, she refused to eat them and threw them on the ground. I figured that if she sat there long enough, she'd give in and eat them. She was there for 6 hours before she fell asleep. She was in her seat for 3.5 hours on Tuesday. We finally compromised and she agreed to eat an apple with peel. She has done much better the past 2 days. She may not have eaten her green beans, but it certainly made an impression. She tells me all the time that she will eat her corn (or whatever the food is), and that she won't throw it on the floor. She says it in a happy way, not a sad way.

Another big thing this week is that Josephine is no longer in diapers or pull-ups! No major accidents so far either. She's very happy to report that her panties are dry each morning. : ) She's a little disappointed now that she doesn't get a potty card every time she pees in the potty.

We've changed the card reward system a bit this week, too. Now she can get a potty card only when she poops in the potty. Because of the green bean fiasco, I decided to add a vegetable and a fruit card to the list. If she eats all the vegetables or fruits we ask her to, then she gets a card. So far, so good on that. I also changed the diaper and clothes changing card rules. She has to start dressing and undressing herself now in order to get a card. I'm still having trouble getting her to try to put her socks on. Everything else she'll at least try to do by herself.

Ada isn't really doing anything new since the last post. She's still happy and smiling. She really likes bouncing on my lap. I got a small laugh out of her yesterday doing that. I finally put new batteries in one of Josephine's old toys that has a mirror on the front. She seems to like it, but doesn't realize who she is seeing in the mirror. She's paying more attention to toys that are danging above her when I put her on the floor. You can tell that she is thinking about reaching for them, but she's just not quite there yet. The ceiling fan and air vents are still her favorite things to look at. Those were Josephine's favorites too.

Paris

We took a trip to Paris, TN last weekend to visit Nathan's Great Aunt Sue and Great Uncle Vance. It was a busy weekend! Nathan's sisters, mom, and uncles came, too. The pictures posted are not in chronological order like I usually have them, but I'm too lazy to put them in order (plus I don't know how long it will be before Ada wakes up from her nap).


Ada in Josephine's fireman's hat. Behind her is a house that used to be in the Carter family, but they lost it during the Depression.



Josephine fearlessly petting a boa constrictor. One of Aunt Sue's sons was working at Oktoberfest that weekend, so we went there to see him. One of the booths was this woman and several of her pets. Not sure why she was there, but Josephine enjoyed it.


Nathan with Josephine and Aunt Moug with Naomi in Sue's backyard.


Granna Lynda with Naomi and Ada.


Our first family picture since Ada was born!


Ada Potata in her Swaddler. She loves the Swaddler, she sleeps so well in it. She looks like a potato in it, so she got named Ada Potata. Josephine isn't too keen on the nicknames.


Ada looks so much like Nathan when he was a kid in this picture, so I had to add it.


Uncle Vance is in assisted living, so all 19 of us went and surprised him. Brian brought his banjo and Leah brought her mandolin. Uncle Vance plays the bones and harmonica and loves music.


Aunt Sue with her Great-great grand niece. With perfect timing, Ada was smiling in her sleep!


Nathan and Josephine in a tree in Sue's backyard. Josephine didn't get near the amount of sleep she needed and was pretty cranky. She refused to smile for the picture. I'm impressed that they got her up there in the first place.


Elizabeth and Ada.

Here's a video of Uncle Vance singing and playing the bones.

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Updates:

Ada is doing very well. She even rolled over from her back to her stomach last night! I think it was a fluke because I haven't even seen her try any other time. But she did do it unassisted on the couch. Luckily towards the back not the front where she could fall off.

Ada will start reaching for things soon. You can tell that she is thinking about it, but she just can't control her arms well enough yet. A couple weeks ago she was reaching for Nathan's face when he was playing with her. Very sweet.

Ada is still an easy baby. Although, the past two nights she hasn't gone to sleep until midnight and woken up around 6am. It's still better than most babies at this age, but I got spoiled with her sleeping 10 hours or so at night. This past weekend threw off all of our sleeping schedules so hopefully we'll get back on track soon.

Josephine is almost 100% potty trained now. She still has issues about pooping in the potty, though. She wears pull-ups right now. She pees in the potty, but poops in her pull-up. I told her that once all the pull-ups were gone, then she was going to wear panties all the time. She wakes up dry from both naps and nighttime. She'll get up and use the potty if she needs to pee. The next step will be her being big enough to get on the potty without a stool or parent. That will be awhile, though.

Speaking of Josephine, I'm being beckoned. She has a slight cold and coughs when she lays down, so she can't really sleep during nap time. Apparently she's tired of laying down.