Thumb Guard-One Week!

Last night completed Ashlyn's first week with the thumb guard. She still likes to put it on and enjoys picking out her color of the wristband each night. She also gets to cut the excess band off with her scissors which she thinks is very cool. She has moved from sleeping in our bed (she did that for three nights) to sleeping in her own bed. It still takes her 30 minutes to an hour to fall asleep, but she is doing great! She hasn't sucked her thumb in a week. Movie time (which is almost daily right now because mommy still needs naps) is done without a thumb guard and without thumb sucking! Woo hoo! I told Ashlyn that after she made it through all 60 wristbands that I would take her to Build-A-Bear and she could get a bear. She is very excited abut that. I think she will be over it before we get through all the wristbands, but it won't hurt to make sure. I am so proud of her. I have to say that from my experience the thumb guard is great product!

Ashlyn's Purchase

Ashlyn and I went out to run some errands today and just have some time for me and her. While we were getting ready she asked me if she could buy something with her own money. She has never asked me this before. She has money in her piggy bank that she has been collecting over the years. So today she wanted to spend it. So we went up to the room and took $6 out and put it in her little purse. She was so excited. I am sure that all of you who are mothers can remember this experience. Ashlyn wanted to buy EVERYTHING she saw. I had to explain to her that some things were too expensive for what she had and some things she just couldn't have. Then she wanted to buy Kenley a new outfit. That was sweet. We finally made it to the Dollar Tree where she picked out a pack of headbands and two foam swords for her and Kenley to play with. She was so proud to take her purchase up to the counter. She even counted out her own money and gave it to the clerk. It was so neat to watch her doing this very grown up thing. After we left, she wanted to buy me lunch at Chic Fil A. Very sweet. I explained to her that it is not her job to pay for food yet. I have been meaning to sit down and make a chore list for her so that we can start teaching her how to give, save and spend her own money. I guess I will get on that today.

Thumb Guard-Night One

Ashlyn has been getting worse about sucking her thumb again. I think most of the problem is that she is inside a lot and watching more movies this summer since mommy is so tired and when she watches the movies, she tends to suck her thumb. Well, I don't want it to get any worse, especially since the idea was to have her completely stop when she turned four. So we decided to buy her a thumb guard to help her quit. She really does want to quit. She has asked for medicine to put on her thumb and even wants to sleep with bandaids on so that she won't suck her thumb. But those haven't seemed to work, so we thought we would try this. Last night she got to sleep in mommy and daddy's bed for her first night with it. I thought that she would be waking up several times crying because she couldn't soothe herself back to sleep. But she actually did really well. She was very proud of herself for making it through her first night. I will try and keep posting blogs about how her progress is with it. I think it supposed to take 3 weeks or so. We will see how she does. I thought I would also post a sweet picture of Ashlyn the very first time she found her thumb. I remember being so sad that day and having a hard time with it. (For those of you that don't know, I sucked my thumb for a long time.) But now it is almost bittersweet for her to be stopping. Just one more step in her growing up. My sweet little girl.

Intelligender Results!

I have been waiting (im)patiently for several weeks to be able to take the Intelligender gender prediction test. This is a test that I have heard that other people have taken and it has been correct. So I thought it would be fun to see what it said for us. It is supposed to be 82% accurate at 10 weeks. It took everything in me, but I waited to take it until this morning (I am about 10 1/2 weeks). So anyway, if the test turns dark green, it is a boy result and a dark yellow/orange result is a girl. Here are the pictures of my results.



The color below the sticker should match the sticker. Clearly it does not match the orange girl sticker, but looks exactly like the green boy sticker! Woo hoo! We still have two months to find out if it is correct, but I have felt for awhile that this is a little boy because I feel quite different. So we aren't for sure, but it is exciting to think that we may have a little boy on the way!

Four Years and Eighteen Months (sort of)

I finally got around to getting pictures of the girls taken today. Ashlyn's four year pics and Kenley's 18 month pics even though she is well into the nineteenth month. You do what you can, right? I didn't get Ashlyn's one year pictures taken until she was 16 months old. Anyway, enough about that. Having portraits done is always quite an experience for me. I take the time to make the appointment (because that means that I will be seen when I get there) and I get all the clothes ironed the night before, get the girls to bed on time (because that means that they will be agreeable the next day), make extra time to fix their wispy blonde hair (some moms feel my pain there) and then off to the portrait studio (just a few minutes early to account for any unplanned traffic-always have to be on time). Accept that this morning inevitably, So-and-So didn't show up to work, so you will just have to wait a short while Mrs. Rushing while we get these other people in front of you. And oh by the way, we here at Superstar Portrait Studio book appointments every ten minutes even though they take well over an hour. Thanks for your patience Mrs. Rushing! So we finally get started. Let me just tell you about my two sweet girls that are my precious angels and gifts from God. They are awesome. Ashlyn thinks she is a movie star and feels the need to pose for every single picture. The word candid is lost on her. She is hilarious. I was frustrated at the time, but now that I am home looking at the pictures, her little posed shots are my favorite because that is just who she is. She wanted her pictures taken in her "red and white stripey dress" because that is what she wants to wear everyday (not kidding). Anyway, she is our sweet little bug. Kenley on the other hand hates to have her picture taken. It is like getting blood out of a turnip to get this baby to smile for someone other than family. When I put her on the background to get the pictures, one would have thought that I had left her on the nearest street corner to fend for herself and left. It is quite pathetic. In the end, we got some cute pictures of what both of their personalities are like at this point in their lives. I love these little girls.