Fun, fun day!

This morning I finally remembered to bring out the dancing Easter bunny. Makayla saw him last year, but here she is listening to him for the first time today (there were MANY times through the day...) The video gets a little long and I wasn't able to edit it, but at least watch the first little bit.



A few minutes later, she is singing along!

Later in the morning we met our friends Ashley and Seth at an awesome playground. Makayla had a great time trying to keep up with Seth.
After running around for about an hour straight, Makayla and I enjoyed a picnic lunch.
Ok, this goes against all the "good parenting" things, but go ahead, try not to laugh...

We put Makayla to bed around 8 and then heard the bunny rabbit for at least an hour. I better find some new batteries for tomorrow. And she also knows ALL the words to the song now...

Future doctor? Artist? Or just a kid having fun?

This morning Makayla gave Rody a full exam.
Say AHHHH!

This afternoon we worked on a new project that Aunt Fran sent - thank you! She had a great time coloring and painting.

After running a few errands, we stopped at the playground. The weather wasn't as nice as I had hoped for and it was really windy, but Makayla didn't mind at all!

She ran around like this for about 30 minutes. She was definitely braver than the last time we were at the playground. I was exhausted just watching her!

Crazy weekend

In addition to starting potty training this weekend, we also had a visit from Jason's good friend, Shawn. Shawn is stationed in Hawaii but was in Richmond for training and we were very happy he made the weekend trip up to visit us.

As far as the potty training progress, there isn't much. Yesterday was filled with a lot of accidents and frustration, so we decided to back off a bit. We tried pull ups today so Makayla can still try the potty if she wants to, but I won't have to spend the next several days cleaning the floor. She started to show more interest again this afternoon so we'll see how the next few days go! I have off all this week for spring break (my county is one of the few in the area that actually gets a spring break) and I am looking forward to doing lots of fun things with Makayla!
After lots of rain last night and dreary weather this morning, the sun finally broke through this afternoon and we were outside to enjoy it. Makayla loves her new bubble toy and Kona loves chasing the bubbles!

We also had another doctor's appointment this morning and everything is going well - and he's measuring about two weeks ahead of schedule! Anyone want to place bets on his size???

Potty training is hard!

Who knew something that is so natural to most people would be so hard to teach! I'm exhausted! Day one of potty training went pretty well though. After breakfast we switched to big girl pants and visited the potty every 15 minutes. Makayla was very excited at first and even more excited when she got one m&m each time she sat on it. The excitement wore off later in the day and she was no longer happy to be visiting the potty so often. But then finally - success! She got 2 m&m's for going in the potty and was excited again. There were a few accidents along the way but I count the day as a success. Although I was happy to put a diaper on her for bedtime knowing I won't have to worry about any more accidents until tomorrow...
So today's statistics:
Accidents: 4
Successes: 2

And since I said we won't be posting any potty pictures, here's one when we took a break to play outside. I found a cool new bubble toy at the dollar store that she loves!

Spring is here!

Check out our flowers! Jason and I are not that best at keeping plants alive so we are very happy to have a few flowers to show off!
This afternoon I made blueberry muffins. What's the best part of helping mommy bake? Licking the spoon of course!

Projects

Makayla LOVES to do projects. She gets so excited whenever we mention doing one. This afternoon when we got home from school, I brought out a project that she had gotten for her birthday. She was so excited to paint and did a great job! Check out her concentration!

Look how great these turned out! All I did was hold the paint, she did the rest all by herself!

After the project, she relaxed on the couch with juice and popcorn and watched Elmo's World. We had a great afternoon!

Check Sean out!

Here's a link to a photo Sean posted on the Team O'Donnell website (check out the link to that site on the right if you haven't yet). While training hard for a big triathlon, Sean still finds time to do a few adventure races. I wish I had that much energy!

http://www.knoxnews.com/photos/galleries/2010/mar/20/urban-wilderness-challenge-south-knoxville/19907/#section_header

Then and now

Dec 5th, 2007 (about 32 weeks)

Today (28 weeks)

Yikes! I think this is going to be one HUGE kid!

Eating like a horsey

Makayla had a good time petting and feeding the horses last weekend. Now everytime she eats with her hands, she says she is eating like a horsey! I guess since we fed them with our hands? I don't always understand toddler logic...

In baby news, everything continues to go well. He's moving around a lot and I am getting pretty big. Everywhere we go, people ask when I am due and are shocked when I tell them not until June. Then they ask if I am having twins. No, just one big healthy boy (we hope!) We had an appointment last week and everything looked good, now my appointments are only two weeks apart. I also scheduled my c-section so as long as he doesn't decide to come early, he should arrive on June 9th. We did a tour at the hospital today and everything looks so nice and new. The best part is that in the mom and baby room, Jason gets to stay with us the whole time (at the hospital where we had Makayla, he had to leave at night). So he can share in the fun of those early sleepless nights!

Welcome spring!

We happily welcomed the first day of spring today! We joined everyone else in town at Lowe's to pick up a few things to fix up the yard. Jason put in a border between the planters and the grass and then took out a few bushes and planted 3 roses. Makayla was a big help and loved getting her hands dirty!

After all the yard work, Makayla had fun playing play dough with grandma. There was a lot of laughing from both of them - I'm not sure who was enjoying themselves more!

Waiting patiently for a special dessert of strawberry shortcake with whipped cream!

Catching up with Makayla

Last night I had to stay at school late for our 2nd grade musical. Although it was a late night, the musical was great and the kids all did a fabulous job. While I was gone, Makayla and Jason had some daddy/daughter bonding time. They played outside, went for a walk, then to McD's for a dinner date.

Makayla loved the little toy that came in her happy meal.

My mom is in the area this weekend for a swimmeet so she came here last night, back to the meet this morning, met me at school for the afternoon today, and back to our house to spend some time outside with Makayla. After a quick dinner, she headed back to the swimmeet. She'll be back here tonight, then back to the meet early tomorrow morning. Whew - I'm tired just thinking about all that driving back and forth! But it's great to be able to spend some time with her and Makayla was ECSTATIC to see her when we picked her up from school this afternoon.

I tried several times to get a good picture with Makayla looking at me but each time I tried, she would run away! This was the best I could do!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Nevermind the fact Makayla's shirt says, "fa, la, la, la, la," it's green! When we came home this afternoon, we went for a walk and then she was excited to get her shovels and look for snow piles. I'm sure we got a few laughs from people as we walked around with our shovels, but the only laugh I care about hearing is Makayla's!

Happy Birthday Grandma Meg!

Today is my mom's birthday and my sisters and I decided to head down on Friday for a surprise visit. My dad did a great job keeping the surprise and the look on her face was priceless when we walked in Friday night. Makayla did great in the car and we had a wonderful time. Sean, Kristen and William, you were missed!

After a trip to the pool (where I forgot to bring my camera!!!) and an afternoon nap, Makayla was put to work filling up the birdfeeders. You know you have a lot of birdfeeders when you can store the seed in a large trashcan!

There was lots of time for reading...

And playing....

and there was lots of cake with blue icing!

Today was more playing...

and a few photos before we headed home.

Makayla was worn out and took a great nap on the way home!

Happy birthday mom/gamma/grandma meg!

So comfy

Makayla watched the last half of Sesame Street in her cart. We really do let her sit on the furniture!

Camera shy

The last two days have been beautiful and Makayla and I have enjoyed our afternoons outside. I've tried to get a picture of her but she refuses to look at the camera!
She is still excited to shovel what little snow is left.

And she carries it over to Kona so he can eat it. What are we going to do once that pile melts???

Here she is running away as I tried to get a picture.

Then she was a little more willing to cooperate, as long as she could hold her juice. And in case you are wondering, yes, she is able to choose her own outfits in the morning now...

Wet weather is on the way so it may be a while before we can get outside again!

In other news, Makayla has started to transition from the toddler room to the 2 year old room at daycare. We are a little sad because we love her current teachers, but Makayla is ready to move up. She visited the new room a few hours yesterday and today and did great. There were no tears and the new teacher said she jumped right in and was more vocal than most of the older kids in the room! The other big thing about the change in room is the start of potty training. Today she sat on the big girl potty, but wasn't a fan. We'll slowly continue to talk it up to her, then I am going to attempt to potty train her while I am home for spring break. (Don't worry, I will spare our readers the details!) We'll see how it goes! She is growing up so fast!

Fabulous weekend

We enjoyed some great weather this weekend! It was nice and sunny and at one point got up to 55 degrees! We took advantage of it and spent lots of time outside, as well as doing a few little projects in the house. We are ready for spring!

Makayla started her Saturday morning with her new favorite drink, "hot coe."



As you can see, most of the snow is finally gone except for the big piles. We went out and spread them out to help them melt. Yes, I am sure everyone that drove by and saw us shoveling snow thought we were crazy... Oh well! Makayla was a big help and would get a pile on her rake and carry it over to Kona for him to eat. So considerate!

Ribs were for dinner tonight. Makayla did a great job chomping away!

We also spent a little time putting together baby #2's room (it sounds strange to say his name before he gets here...)

We are very happy with the turtle theme and all the decor that came with it.

My "relaxing" spot where I will be spending a lot of time the first few weeks. We are also going to get a little chair for Makayla so she can have her own hang out spot when I am in here.

We hope everyone had a great weekend and enjoyed some spring weather!

More counting...

I don't know why she needs to throw things as she counts, but we should probably break that habit before she goes to preschool... She is really good at counting to ten, then I was curious what she was going to say after that. Most of the words I didn't understand, but I did hear some "teens" in there.

What language is this?

As I was getting dinner ready, Makayla sang this song for about 5 minutes. Of course she stopped as soon as I got the camera out... I managed to catch her singing a little more, although it may take a few views to understand what she is saying! This kid cracks me up!

The room decor has arrived!

Makayla and I were excited to see big boxes waiting by our front door when we came home today. We have decided on a underwater turtle theme for baby number 2's room and part of the decorations arrived. Makayla was a big help bringing the boxes in and unpacking them.
I wonder if she realizes these things aren't for her....

We were excited to put the things up in his room and see how it looks. So far so good! And Makayla wasn't upset when we put the new stuff in his crib :)