Potty training sure doesn't come easy

I must say that I've been dreading the whole potty training thing for over 6 months.

I first started on this process back in May, and it didn't go too well. Then I decided not to push it, although we tried stickers, M&M's, sticker chart, big girl underwear with Elmo and Mickey & Minnie on them. You went #2 more often than #1, but it was always on your terms, you never would sit on a potty when I asked you to. Well a few months have gone by and I've decided to start getting serious about it once again, especially after hearing that you go at the day care all the time, I thought it was mostly because all the other kids go, so everyone does it at the same time, and then you are interested. So I suggested that you wear underwear and not pull ups anymore, and we're now on day 3 and it's been going ok. So far you've had 1 accident at the daycare per day. At home we are once again having a tougher time. The first day as soon as we got home, you went in your clothes, then I changed you, and almost immediately you did it again, and then for the 3rd time, this was all within 1 hr of being home... I was like what? So I stopped putting anything on you and let you run around naked, and you went on the potty twice #1 and later #2. The 2nd day was a bit better, you promised to keep "minni" dry... and when I took you on the potty once we got home you went, so I trusted you. Well we had 2 accidents, and then once again I had to leave you naked. I am not sure what it is, but you seem to remember to go on the potty when you're naked, not when you're wearing underwear & clothes. And pull ups don't really help at all, you have no problems going in them. So we'll see how this weekend goes. You are still pretty excited to get treats like M&Ms and princess and kitty cat stickers so hopefully that can keep you motivated. I still don't think you have very good control of it though... so once we go out in public I am not sure what to do, put you back in pull ups or keep you in underwear and just let you have accidents? Well one way or another I think we're getting there and I am excited about that!

The other thing which delayed me sticking to this potty training is we went to visit your urologist after having your annual VCUG and ultrasound tests done. He told us that it's actually harder for you to be able to go #1 and get everything out, since some of urine refluxes back into the kidney it's almost impossible for you to really empty your bladder all the way.

So more on the topic of visiting the doctor. This year we were able to have your VCUG done w/sedation. You were such a good girl through it all. It was still tough towards the end because they took the gas off, and you realized what was going on and started crying... but it was still easier than the previous years! Since I couldn't be in the xray room, I just observed from the window, and daddy was so amazing with you, he had Mickey mouse toy on his shoulder, and Mickey Playhouse episode playing on the Blackberry so that you can just focus on the show and now the scary things that are going on around you. Ultrasound on the other hand was super easy, you laid down without a problem and we told you that the lady will just take pictures of your tummy and your back, and you didn't seem to care one bit. You got a ton of stickers at both appointments and you were one happy little girl.

The actual urology appointment was a bit tougher for me to handle. We already knew after your VCUG that you still have the reflux, although we didn't know if it had improved at all, I knew that chances of that are very low, so going into our doctors appointment I thought I had prepared myself for bad news - which is having to do the surgery. Daddy and I have discussed this prior, and both agreed that we didn't want to wait another year and have you on more antibiotics, and then having to repeat the awful VCUG test once again, when chances less than 20% of it actually fixing itself. So like I thought the options were presented to us, and we quickly agreed on surgery especially since baby #2 will be here in November, and it will be much easier for both of us to focus on you 100% of the time and help you recover. After both the doctor and the nurse went over surgery details, I broke down... I couldn't handle it anymore. I kept looking over at you, of course you had no clue what we were talking about, you were just roaming around the room, jumping and looking out the window and I felt so sad that you have to go through something like this... and I still get really emotional thinking about it, and I think about it almost daily. I am sure it doesn't help that I am emotional as it is due to pregnancy. It just became so real, and my eyes tear up at the thought of it.

I am of course thankful for the fact that this condition is not really life threatening and treatable, and it's fixable with surgery (this kind of open surgery is 95% effective, so we definitely have high hopes that it will have a positive outcome). I am thankful for how advanced things have become in the medical world, and that I have the luxury to take my child to a place like Children's hospital where they will take very good care of you, and of course I must only think positive and hope for the best. With all that said, I can't help but feel scared and helpless. Your surgery is scheduled for middle of October... which is so far from now. I was really hoping to be able to get it over with quickly in August or September, but the urologist we see seems to be all booked up. We are on the wait list in case something gets canceled but it's not likely. Now I have to delay your preschool start as well, but that's really the least of my worries, I just hope to get through this quickly and have a successful result.

These un-related to potty training :) pictures were taken at your nephew Aaron's All Star Baseball Game. You hardly sat still through any of it, but we enjoyed coming to watch him play. Even though I or Baba chased you around most of the time. You climbed on these really dirty bleacher seats and we were telling you to get down and be careful not to hurt yourself, and you were making these funny faces at us.

This is just one of many


Just a pretty blue eyed little girl that we love to pieces!

Singing Songs & Rhymes & Books

I am always impressed with how kids remember things and create associations with places and people. We already knew that you loved listening to music, and dancing and have great rhythm (which I think you get from your daddy). He's always humming, signing, he's been making songs up about bath time and brushing your teeth since you were born. Now you start signing his songs and others randomly, and it makes us laugh! You even get the rhythms right... so even if the words are off sometimes, we still recognize what song you're singing right away.
Once on a long car ride home, you and I went though a hand full of songs. ABC song, Twinkle, Twinkle song which is probably your favorite and you know all the words too, Rocka-baby (that's what you call it), Old- McDonald are a few that you just request as soon as we're done with one. The Old-MacDonald song is particularly funny because we wait for you to name the animal and tell us the sound before we sing it. So you've named off a few funny ones like octopus, and turtle to all be on the farm w/a pig, a dog, a mouse, and an owl, a turtle, a ladybug, and lots of others I can't remember anymore.

You also know a few common baby rhymes, even Russian ones that I grew up with. Unfortunately I don't remember most of them by heart, so you learn them from hanging out at Baba & Deda's house and you have so much fun when Baba does them with you. I love seeing your face light up when you see them as well as Inna, Grisha and Aaron. You talk about them all the time and as soon as we tell you that you'll see them you get super excited. Sometimes when we pick you up from daycare, you ask to see them, it's like you know that they're just around the corner from where we pick you up.

But back to the music and singing & books... You usually pick out a few of your favorite books to read after we brush your teeth. You definitely have favorites, and for a few nights you'll ask to read the same book as the night before. There are so many that you now remember. Not only the names of the actual book, but the content. As I flip the pages you finish my sentences... it's pretty incredible, your brain is just like a little sponge of information.

Since most of the nights daddy is actually the one putting you to bed while I relax or finish cleaning after dinner, I actually miss it because I don't want to forget how precious this time is, and then when I do it, I am reminded again how lucky we are to have you in our lives.

A few weeks ago when I would walk into your room to tell you to go to sleep (this happens because you constantly leave the room or start wandering around when it's bed time). You say "I want to rock", which means you want to go on the rocking chair with me and sing some songs. I really love that time, even thought it's usually past your bedtime, I love how you snuggle up next to me or lay around my growing belly and look up at me or the stars & the moon projecting on the ceiling, and just lay there calmly singing the songs with me. Sometimes you touch my lips when you want me to stop, and you continue singing on your own. This has become the last part of your bed time routine and has made a world of difference because you get all calm and relaxed, and you are much more willing to stay in your bed after we're done. It's just so precious, and totally reminds me of when I would nurse you before bedtime in that same big purple rocking chair and how much you depended on me when you were so tiny and now I can still be there for you. Part of me wants to hold on to these moments and hope they never go away! Knowing that's not very realistic, I will enjoy them now and remember them always.

I haven't been able to upload any pictures in a few weeks because our MAC broke :(, so no pictures in this post.

Father's Day

Our Father's day was pretty low key, similar to the Mother's day we had last month. Although Jeromey had scheduled to help a friend with a video job without realizing that it falls on Father's day, so he actually had to work a great part of the day. So we had to try and make the most out of our morning together.

Daddy loves going out to breakfast and we don't do it too often so I wanted to either go to a favorite place of his "Cafe on Park" in Hillcrest or a new place that we could pick in La Jolla so that we could go spend some time at the beach later on. But since I woke up feeling a bit sick and hadn't had a very good night of sleep, we decided to keep it local and go to Panera for breakfast and coffee. Afterwards we took Sascha to a park in 4S Ranch so that she can play in the sun. Well I completely forgot that there is a splash zone right next to it and

I didn't bring anything for her to wear to run in the water or a towel to dry off. At first she didn't seem interested in going, but after she was done w/the slides and climbing, running and swinging, she wanted to explore the water park... and we let her. I had a change of clothes for her, so I said why not, let her run around in her clothes and get it soaked... needless to say she had a blast. Here are a few photos from our morning together.

Getting Help going down from a very tall play structure

Swinging away together

Right before getting really soaking wet! I wish I had taken more pictures of that!

Thank you daddy for being such an amazing husband, best friend and an amazing father. We are truly so lucky to have you and love you with all of our hearts! We love you for everything you bring to our lives, and know that you will always be there,we can count on you and you will never let us down. It brings such happiness to me, to see Sascha run up to you and greet you after a long day at work, the quality time you spend with us cannot be quantified. The love I see in your eyes when she puts her head down on your shoulder is indescribable. The baths, the nighttime stories, even the brushing and flossing her teeth, the little things that you do every day! You are the best daddy on the planet to our little munchkin daughter! I also love that we will have a boy, and you will have such a different bond with him, love him as much as you love all of us, and teach him to become a man that you know he can be. I hope he gets all your wonderful qualities and I look forward to seeing that happen.

You gave me the biggest gift of all and that's Motherhood. I couldn't imagine sharing that bond with anyone else. I know it sounds cheesy, but I feel like our life is complete together and you have given me something that I was missing and didn't know about it. I love how you always try to surprise us, even though I get nervous when I anticipate something going on. You are still determined to do what you set out to do, and it always ends up so very special and memorable... just the way you wanted.

I knew when I first met you that you would be an amazing father watching you with your little brother and my little nephew. I think it was one of the very first things that I was so impressed by when we first met.

I love you!!!

Ultrasound at 18 weeks

We had our anatomy ultrasound today. All the measurements looked great. It was confirmed that it's definitely a boy! He sure wasn't shy about showing us that one... it was one of the first things that popped up on the screen. So we got our confirmation after a spoiled surprise. Part of me is still a little bitter about it, another part is happy to know ahead of time. It was exciting to see the baby move, he was so active, the lady had trouble getting some of the pictures of the heart because he was constantly moving. He measured almost a week ahead! The doctor said she would like me to come back for a 28 week ultrasound to check the kidneys again because of Sascha's history with the reflux. The baby's kidneys measured normal, but she said they appeared very pronounced on the cross section picture, so we'll go once more to make sure that things are ok.

He wasn't shy taking pictures, seemed like he even posed for a few with his hand up, we even have one with a thumb up. I started feeling him move sometime last week. It's definitely one of the coolest feelings ever!

Profile

I don't think we have any doubt that it's a BOY!

Yawning?

So seeing him on the screen today once again made things so real for us. Crazy to think that in just 4 more months we'll be a family of 4. Wow... are we going to have our hands full or what? haha

I think we are up for the challenge, yes it's not going to be easy, but all so worth it.

Being pregnant for the 2nd time is definitely not an easy task. I can truly say I enjoyed my 1st pregnancy a lot more, probably because I had more time to focus on me, be in better shape, and just take care of myself... well and Jeromey (sometimes ;) ). This time around, chasing after a toddler is no easy task while being pregnant. Sascha likes to run away, or throw things and I am constantly on the go. Weekends are the hardest because we're always on the go, and through out the week I am resting at work since I am sitting down most of the time I am there. I seem to have some back issues, mostly one one side, but they are pretty severe. Ones I probably had in late 3rd trimester. It's a bit scary because I still have long ways to go. Sometimes it's very painful to walk, I am already so slow as it is, I can only imagine what it will be like as my belly grows. I am sure 20 weeks will fly by really fast... once I am looking back at it and i won't remember any of the aches once I have a beautiful baby boy in my arms! That's when the work really begins anyways! For now we will enjoy having dinner with just having to take care of one little one, instead of the baby crying and Sascha throwing food on the floor.

27 - 30+ Months

This post is very overdue... I am so behind, trying to catch up.

It's going to be a pretty random blog about things Sascha has done in the last 3 months.


You tell people they are in trouble, and say no no no to them... almost trying to discipline them, similar to what we do to you, even though I try to avoid saying "no" as much and use other words... it's really a hard task. You also tell us "Don't do that!". It took us weeks to figure out that's what you were saying because it sounded like "Atuya!" instead of "don't do that". Your other favorite is "stop yelling"! Yes, you let us know that you're the boss.

Your sleeping habits keep changing. A few months ago, you would often fall asleep on the floor next to the banister outside of your room, or on the floor rug next to your bed, but not in your bed. A week ago you decided that if you do sleep in your bed, it will be at the other end, where there are no rails to protect you from falling. You did fall off a few times, but since the toddler bed is so low to the ground, you didn't even wake up. Also you ask to go to "daddy's bed", but anytime you have come to our bed even in if it's in the middle of the night you have trouble falling asleep, and I end up just taking you back to yours where you go to sleep right away.

Although you have become a pretty good sharer of toys, and food and other things, you love saying that everything is yours. Even when we read books to you. For example very often daddy reads you one of his favorite books by Shel Silverstein "The giving tree". On every page there is a sentence and it ends with a different noun, like tree, apple, boy, boat, house. So after you hear one sentence, you say "my tree", "my apple", "my boy"... etc.

Back in May I signed you up for swim to john classes. I have yet to put together a video of you swimming (Daddy has not uploaded it). On the first day you said, yay swimming... you had no idea what you were in for, on the second day when I picked you up you said "no swimming" and you whined on your way there! It did get better each day, but most days you would get pretty upset before going in the pool. The session was only 2 weeks, every day... yes it was intense, but by the end of the first week you were already swimming. I must say that it was totally worth it.

Standing on the step getting ready to swim out to the middle of the pool

You said "netroguy" meaning "don't touch" pointing to your juice box on the counter. You say a lot of other very funny words in Russian, and repeat sentences as well.

For a while you've been saying that you don't want a little baby brother, but now when I ask you where is the baby you point to my tummy and say "right there!". Also when we ask you to name the baby you keep naming him "Gisha", which is really funny because that's your uncle "Grisha's" name, as well as my uncle Grisha. You seem to be stuck on that name.

Your biggest thing at the playground these days is climbing, you will attempt to climb just about everything, and some how you figure out how to do it, and then you want to do it over and over again. It's been a bit difficult to leave the playground with you, since you refuse to go. A few weeks ago you fell down from climbing up some structure at a playground, luckily you didn't injure your self, just got a few scrapes on the shoulder that you landed on and got a bit spooked. It happened right in front of daddy and it gave us a bit of a scare since it was probably from about 5 feet up in the air that you fell from. We definitely have to keep a close eye on you since you seem to have no fear at all. Not to mention a very stubborn personality, so if you don't get it the first time, you try and try again. We're still trying to figure out where you get your stubborn ways from. :) Daddy is hoping to put that stubbornness into determination when you start playing sports... we'll see how that works out in a few years.

Favorite glasses... you actually like to wear these around

Hanging out at Mission Bay

Playing in the sand,

We hope to be going to the beach a lot more this summer. You seemed to really enjoy playing in the sand and you even weren't afraid of the water, probably because there are no waves at Mission Bay unlike the regular beach.

Sascha will be a big sister!

We are pregnant! Due date is sometime around November 19th. Seems like we all like having our birthdays close together, so this one is going be a few weeks before mine and Sascha's. :) At least it's not December... unless I am 2 weeks late, and I sure hope that's not the case!

Our first appointment went well, we saw the heart beat and the baby measured a little over 8 weeks. I felt like I was so much bigger so early on, that I was actually scared to find out if we were having twins. I was happy to see one baby and a heart beat.

We have decided NOT to find out the sex this time around. It was something Jeromey asked for first time around, but I just couldn't do it the first time... I am too much of a planner, but I promised that for our 2nd time around it can be a surprise. Well it didn't exactly go according to that plan...

We also had our first trimester ultrasound. The baby did not cooperate and get into the proper position to do the measurements and we were scheduled to come back the next week. However, the baby did cooperate and show us something else, even though we really didn't want to know.

The ultrasound tech tried all sorts of different ways to get the baby in the right position, but no luck, all of the sudden we saw the baby's 2 legs, and here is what happened after:

The tech: "Who do you have at home?

Us: "A girl"

The tech: "Well, I think I know what you're having"

Us in a hurry: "We wanted to keep it a surprise!!!!!!!!"

The tech: "Oh... well that can be fun!"

As she is saying this... we see 2 legs up on the screen...

We look at each other and know exactly what we're looking at! IT'S a BOY!

She even printed a picture for us! Thanks lady... which part of "I wanted to keep it a surprise didn't you hear?" Unless of course she printed it before we blurted it out.

We didn't even think to give her a heads up on not telling us the sex prior to her getting started, mostly because we were there for the 1st trimester measurements, not the anatomy ultrasound that happens at 20 weeks, and because I am only 12 something weeks along... who would have though that you'd be able to see this early and this clearly.

After her reaction and the confirmation of the picture it really wasn't hard to figure out. There is just no way she would be this sure if it was a girl, although she never officially announced that it's a boy!

So we both left a bit in shock, we are of course super excited, but this really wasn't the way we expected to find out. But I guess this is the way things are meant to be. After a nerve racking and long appointment without any results other than finding out what we didn't expect to know,

we returned for another ultrasound the following week and the baby cooperated with the measurements and all is well, so we were very happy to hear that!

Here is a picture from one of the ultrasounds @ 12.5 weeks