a) I waited a day to post, so although the excitement is still very high, I am not quite as irrationally excited as yesterday.
b) (and this is probably more the reason) Bart forbade me to post a picture of poop on our blog.
I guess it's a good thing we have spouses to let us know when we're getting a little out of line. ;o)
For those of you who really couldn't care less about the experience, feel free to stop reading now. For those of you who will indulge my excited rantings, continue.
So for the past few days Addison has had a dirty diaper right after I put her down for a nap. So I have to get her up, change her, and put her back down. Today when we got home I let her watch letter factory (something I will write about in another post) while I made myself some lunch. I sat down next to her to eat my lunch while she was watching. All of the sudden she jumped up and said, "I need to hide mom." Something she always does when she needs to poop.
I said, "Hey! Let's go poop in the potty." She is always very excited to do this AFTER she's gone poop in her diaper and is very disappointed when we don't let her because she's already pooped, but whenever we try to get her to do it before, she refuses. Today was no different. She said no, but somehow I was able to coax her into the bathroom. Unfortunately, she wanted to sit on the big potty, not the little potty.
Now, this may not have been a problem, and I would much rather her go in the big potty than her little potty because it's less clean up for me. But, as she sat there, holding her self up so she wouldn't fall in, legs dangling, I remember one of the two pieces of advice the doctor gave me when I asked him about potty training. He said, "It's hard to go poo with your feet dangling, so get her a little potty that allows her to put her feet on the floor, or get a step stool of some sort so she can push on it with her feet."
After attempting to turn the little potty into a type of step stool I was very relieved when she said, "Here mom, you too." And jumped down from the big potty and sat on the little potty. I obligingly sat on the big potty and tried to keep her occupied long enough to go poo. She kept getting up and saying, "All done." I would ask her, "Is there poop in your potty?"
"No"
"Well then it's still in your bum! Sit down until it's in your potty."
I could tell she really needed to go and she was getting kind of squirmy and looking around nervously. Then I remembered she always goes and hides when she has to go poop, so I asked her, "Do you want mommy to wait outside while you go?" "Yeah!"
I could tell she really needed to go and she was getting kind of squirmy and looking around nervously. Then I remembered she always goes and hides when she has to go poop, so I asked her, "Do you want mommy to wait outside while you go?" "Yeah!"
So I went outside and stood behind the open door. "No mom, close the door!" So I closed the door, and laid on the floor (as much as my big belly would allow me anyway) so that I could see her legs through the crack under the door to make sure she was actually sitting on the potty. She sat for a while, then stood up and said, "All done." I asked, "Is there poop in your potty."
"No."
"Sit down until there's poop in your potty."
She reluctantly sat down again. A few seconds later, "All done!"
"Is there poop in your potty?"
"No."
"Go ahead and sit down again until there's poop in your potty."
She sat down again. This time I heard little noises that made me think she might actually be going potty.
"All Done Mom!"
"Is there poop in your potty?"
"YES!"
Sure enough, when I opened the door, I saw that her little potty had been christened! And let me tell you, she was praised like none other. I gave her all the chocolate she wanted...well, maybe not all that she wanted, but I distracted her, so she didn't miss the rest of it. We called daddy so she could tell him, then we called grandma so she could tell her, then we called papa at work so she could tell him. She wanted to call a lot more people, but it was getting to be late and she needed a nap, so I convinced her that she wanted to read her favorite book instead. We read it and she went down smoothly for a nap.
Ah, it was a great day!
And since I didn't post the poop picture, I will post this one. It's my big girl taking care of her little baby, and wearing her purse. I love this picture. Her smile in it is so weird it makes the picture not look anythign like her, but it makes me laugh, so I love it.
I was sitting on the couch and Benjamin climbed up on me and laied down on my lap. Addison followed (I think more because she didn't want to be left out of anything than because she was tired, but we still took the hint). 
All the Girls...well, except one. The week after we left 
And finally Our little family. It was a great Christmas.
This is the one present I will mention. Grandma got Addison and 
Okay, this picture isn't the best, but I just love the story that goes with it. So every year, Zeke would make the Christmas roast. This year, the three oldest took it upon themselves to make sure the Christmas roast tradition lived on...and let me tell you, it was quite the undertaking. 
After extensive searching by Sam and Charles, Sam found a great deal (something very important in keeping the tradition alive) on roast at 
Here's the gender picture! It's a girl, can't you tell? If you can't see anything, don't feel bad, neither could I. Maybe that's why it's a girl. If we saw something, it'd be a boy. ;o) The two kind of bold white stripes in the middle are the leg bones.
