Christmas Festivities: Week One

Christmas is already so much more fun to me with a kid. Lillian doesn't really understand it yet, I don't think, but she is old enough to enjoy the festivities. I decided to try and do something special each day from December 1st through the 25th. I pulled some ideas from pinterest, family traditions, and events going on around our town. Let me just put it out there Huntsville knows how to celebrate Christmas. There are so many light displays, charity events, and Santa meetings going on in this town. And a lot of them are free or super cheap! Some festivities are little more exciting than others but 25 days is a lot to do something extravagant each day. I ended up with way more pictures than I thought so I broke it down into weeks. Here is what we did:

Day 1: Decorate Lillian's Tree

We put our family tree before thanksgiving but made Lillian's tree be the first event for December. Its a small (Charlie brown tree as we call it my mom super cheap after Christmas from Hobby Lobby one year. It has just a few small silver ornaments and then we will add her ornaments as we get them each year. She currently only has two we received last year; first shoes and an angel baby first Christmas ornament. She actually wanted to help put the ornaments on and then loved when we turned the lights on. I didn't have anything for the tree topper yet to Kevin put one of Lillian's large hair bows and I actually really like the idea. He is so smart!

It's just her size!

can you tell by my face I was a little worried she would drop the ornament and shatter across our wood floors...

Day 2: Watch a Christmas Movie.
To be honest I forgot to do something this day. Things were a little hectic but Mommy did watch a Christmas movie and Lillian paid attention every now and then. lol

Day 3: Santa

The Little Gym and a local mommy blog sponsored Smile and Say Santa. It was a FREE opportunity to get your photo taken with Santa. It was low stress and while you waited your turn to sit in his lap you got to play around the gym. I took Lillian just to see how she would do with Santa. My expectations were correct and she did not care for him, I finally got her to stand next to him long enough to capture one photo where there were no tears; no smile, but no tears. We planned to take her all dressed up to see Santa again for our Christmas card picture so I was hoping that would help her maybe warm up to him. I was very pleased with our experience. Not only did I get a quick picture but free play at the gym helped release some energy. We were number 14 in line and they were already on number 12 when we arrived. Super quick and they allowed you as long as you needed to capture your photo.

eyeballing Santa from afar

So glad Santa thought of this. Made for a funny picture at least.

Day 4: Tinsel Trail

Tinsel Trail is a FREE display of Christmas trees in the park in downtown Huntsville. The trees are each sponsored by local companies, organizations, and families. Lillian really loved seeing all the trees and the dogs. Apparently we went on one of the two nights they have where you can also bring your dog to walk around. I am not a dog person but every two seconds if Lillian wasn't screaming at the lights on a tree she was screaming "hup" "hup" (puppy) as a dog walked by. It was super cute.

Day 5: Bake something sweet
Technically we didn't bake anything. Does using the microwave count? We made puppy chow (aka crack to us because it is so addicting)! Luckily Daddy got home early from work and was able to help. It was much more than Mommy could have handled by herself. Lillian is quick to get sweets.

helping stir

BUSTED! so funny that Kevin got my finger in the picture

hard work deserves a reward. I think its safe to say she enjoyed it. 

so upset when Mommy took it away. I felt like I crushed her dreams.

Day 6: Christmas craft with Daddy

Kevin took Lillian to our local Home Depot for their FREE kids workshop. Kevin needed to pick up some supplies there anyways and this made for a cute little outing for them. They made Christmas yard stakes. 

Day 7: Christmas Special

We watched the I Love Lucy Christmas Special on TV.

Decorating the Tree

Lillian and I had gone to Nashville the weekend of Nov. 20th to see my newest niece Aubrey. When we got back Sunday night Kevin had already set up our Christmas tree. I was so excited for one reason because it meant I didn't have to fluff the branches but mainly to start decorating for Christmas! That next night we decided to decorate the tree. Unfortunately we couldn't find any of our lights so after a quick run to Target we were ready to go. I was excited we had to buy new lights because I had seen an idea on pinterest about putting two different sizes of lights on the tree to really make them pop. It turned out great and Lillian did a great job helping put the ornaments on and hasn't tried to take any off. She loves it when we turn the lights on.

Trying to eat the gingerbread house ornament.

I like a "pretty" tree and Kevin likes the traditional family tree so we made it into both. We have silver ornaments and snowflakes and white lights. Then we put on all of Kevin's ornaments his Gammy and Pappy gave him every year growing up. These are just a few.

 I had ornaments growing up to but not sure where they are now but my mom did find these two in her decoration tubs this year so I added them to our tree.

PRICELESS! right?

The last two pictures aren't as good as they are from my phone and was before we out the ornaments on but can you see house the bigger bulbs pop! It looks awesome in person with all the decorations and lights on.

Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving with my family up Tennessee at my parent's house. Lucky for us it is only about an hour and a half drive so we never had to worry about holiday traffic. All three of my siblings live near there as well so everyone was able to attend.

We started the day off with our Traditional Thanksgiving breakfast at Waffle House. 

And we still bring our own bacon.

Lillian loved looking through all the photo books my mom made and especially enjoyed Aunt Brittany looking through them with her.

While everyone else entertained Lillian, Kevin and I snuggled this sweet little girl. Aubrey Lea our newest niece who was only 8 days old!

We also had our traditional puzzle to complete. Jill and I mainly did it all but others helped here and there.  

Here is the finished product minus one missing edge piece but included a duplicate piece to make sure it had 750 pieces. That stray pink piece in the bottom corner actually goes in the top right corner.

Lillian got some baby Aubrey snuggles too.

Not so sure Aubrey was a fan though. :)

Lillian was very interested in Aubrey and always wanted to look at her. She kept saying "baby" and never seemed  jealous when Kevin or I held Aubrey.

We also took lots of family pictures for Aubrey's first Thanksgiving. 

Four generations: My mom, my brother nick, his daughter Aubrey, and my Mom's Dad Pawpaw.

All the men and Aubrey

Parents, children, and grandchildren

All the ladies of the house! We all coordinated pretty well without meaning to. 

The new happy family of three!

We are so thankful that we always get to spend the holidays with our families. We go around the table and always say what we are thankful for, and it is always for the loved ones we have that are always surrounding us.

Potty Training Lillian

We started legit potty training on Nov. 18th. Lillian was 2 days shy of being 20 months old. I had been putting her on the potty before bath and bedtime since she was about 17 months old. I may have been able to potty train her earlier but I don't think I was ready to commit to that and felt she was still too young and not able to voice her needs at 17 months as well as she can now. It has been 2 weeks since we started the process and I am impressed at how well it went. It was not easy, especially at first, and was very stressful on me those first few days. Kevin and I were watching a movie together on the night of day 3 and it was so funny. I was laughing so hard I started to cry and then I couldn't stop crying. Kevin had no clue what was going on. I assumed it was just the stress over the last few days had built up. Side Note: we had actually read an article recently about how laughing and crying are very similar and that's why some people laugh when they are  hurt or cry when they are laughing. After the first few days though it got much easier.

Picking out undies at Walmart. We got one package of training pants (3 pairs) and regular Minnie Mouse ones (7 pairs).  I wanted to make sure we had multiple pairs in case of accidents. I was surprised at how expensive underwear was but I guess it's better than diapers int he long run. I was worried they would be too big. She wears 18 month pants with a diaper and these said 2T. The lowest weight I could find was 26lbs at Babies R Us but she is only about 24lbs. Surprisingly both sets were smaller than I expected. The training pants were a little big but still worked fine. 

I had read many blogs about different techniques and got a lot of advice from others and basically compiled it together for what worked for us. My plan was to try and stay home those first few days so we didn't have to worry about having accidents outside of the house. That was the hardest part for me because I like to go go go. Sitting at home all day is terrible to me. I took  a few notes those first few days so I could remember how it all went down.

Day 1: was very frustrating. Mainly because I had no idea what I was getting myself in to. You can read all the books and blogs you want but it boils down to what works best for your child. It took me that whole first day to figure it out. I read stick your child on the toilet every 20 minutes. Lillian did not like this one bit and actually made her hate the process. I pushed it back to 30 minutes then eventually to 45 minutes I learned quickly that she does not need to pee often. I also always kept her bottom covered because she would have an accident if I let her run naked. Two accidents that first day were while I was in another room (brushing my teeth and doing laundry) so I knew I had to watch her like a hawk. 

The first day we did actually leave the house once to go buy her smaller underwear. I put her in a pull up for out outing and made her go potty before we left, while we were at the store, and once we got back home. She never went potty and kept her pull up dry the whole time as far as I could tell. It was hard to tell if she went in her pull up or not because it felt dry. 

Our biggest success of day one was when she went poop in the potty. She has always been "regular" and goes after breakfast. That day she never went after breakfast so I had no clue when it would come. I read its okay if she doesn't go for a day or two but luckily she went that night on the potty before bed. 

The day ended with more successful potty trips than accidents. It was just as hard as I thought it was going to be. Every time she had an accident I felt like giving up. The times she did make it to the potty made up for the accidents because i was so proud of her. I also learned she does not like to sit on the potty long. She lets me know by signing "all done" if she doesn't need to go. If she hadn't gone pee in awhile I would turn on the water faucet and that helped but generally if she signed "all done" she never would go. 

Day 2: Lillian generally wakes up between 7-7:20am. "They" say to take them potty as soon as they wake up but she is like her momma and needs about 10 minutes to fully wake up in the mornings. She probably went during that 10 minutes because once I did get her up and eat breakfast she didn't go potty until 9:30am! Unfortunately shortly after that I caught going #2 in her pants. :( Other than that accident she did keep her undies dry the whole day. I felt much better after day 2 than day 1. 

Day3: We have done okay so far today. I noticed she was about to go #2 and I ran her to the potty. Unfortunately I think I scared it back in. Lol. This happened twice that day. I was worried if I didn't just let her go she would get constipated. She ended up going in her diaper during her nap and I was ok with that because I wanted her to be able to get it out. She did have a pee pee accident in her undies today but she expressed that she didn't like the feeling which was good to know she is understanding this process. 

Would have been nice to do this in the summer when is isn't so cold but we managed with our legwarmers!

Apparently I stopped notating after day three. Day four we drove up to my parent's house for the weekend to meet my new niece so she did wear a pull up more often that week but didn't have many accidents during the day. everyone was helpful about trying to get her to go potty throughout the day so she would  regress. 2 Weeks later and multiples trips out and about to church, the store, and traveling for Thanksgiving I'd say we are having success. I take her to the potty about every hour to an hour and a half and she will usually go. I still make sure she goes before we leave the house and before naps. There have been multiple naps since starting this process that she has kept her pull up dry and she only wears a diaper at night now. She hasn't had any more poop accidents in her undies but she does not like when I get her to try and go poop on the potty. She just hates sitting there that long. I wouldn't say she is completely potty trained (especially during sleep times and going #2) but I am one proud momma of how well she has done and so happy that we won't have to worry about spending money on diapers much longer!

Other things we did to help the process that I may not have mentioned are we did bribe with M&Ms. I didn't start that until day 2 and they were more to get her to sit on the potty than actually go. But she only got one if she actually went. I don't give her them anymore unless she specifically asks but most of the time she doesn't remember to ask for one. We also celebrate big time when she did go on the potty. We had a song and dance we sang.  I did try and have her watch short videos/books on YouTube before we started the process but she didn't seem interested in any of them but this one Potty Time. Another video our friend suggested you can try is Potty time with Bear. We did not get a separate potty chair although it may have helped more with going #2 but we used this one that a friend graciously gave to us.  No clean up for mommy has been nice and she will go on any big toilet.

We haven't had to travel farther than 1hr 30min. yet so if you have pointers for our upcoming trip to Atlanta let me know.