July 4, 2012: 4th of July and Miss Independent!

We have been having so much fun over the last two weeks...mostly because Max and Olivia were in town!  The kids have had so much fun playing outside, playdoh, bowling, the bounce house, swimming, storytime, building forts, and just enjoying each other so much...

Liam and Olivia were little buddies...

And Bryn had so much fun with Max...

Bowling...

Bryn learning to wink :)

The kids have had so much fun swimming this summer.  We've been swimming a few days a week and both kids are getting more confident.  Here is Bryn telling us "by self" meaning she can swim by herself...

And of course jumping in like the big kids...

Liam especially has gotten so much more confident...jumping in, swimming longer distances, and now diving to 3 ft for toys!  In fact we have to fight to get him to wear water wings because he LOVES to be underwater with his goggles on...

We had a fun kids-eat-free dinner at Luby's one night...

Mal and her babies...

We had a great 4th this year.  The weather was awesome (90s which is awesome for Texas!) and the adults (and Max) went to play Top Golf that morning...

We swam, played games and grilled out that day.  Later that night the boys went to the FC Dallas game to see some soccer and fireworks.  

We also had a fun family movie night at home, and this was probably the first time both kids almost watched a whole non-cartoon (but still Disney) movie...

We let the kids stay up to watch the movie, thinking they would crash when it was over.  This backfired because Bryn was up to 11pm that night.  Although after seeing her do this...

I finally thought to check her mouth, and realized that she is cutting her two upper molars.  Sigh, we did  finally get some sleep and after a few rough nights she is back to her schedule.

On other Brynnie news, she has started to become even more independent...if that's even possible.  So last week when Bryn demanded to dress herself ("I do it mama!!"), I let her.  For 40 minutes I sat and watched her stubborn personality come out, as she never gave up.  She wasn't frustrated, just kept going.  Finally I got out the camera...

Finally got the leg in!

She was sooo proud.  She did it all by herself and I told her how cute she looked...

I just didn't mention how she looked from behind :)

And since Bryn has already been using the potty occasionally coupled with her newfound SUPER independent/stubborn streak, I figured this was the perfect week to train her...

Yes, at 19 mo old, Bryn officially potty trained!!  I have to say this time was so different than with Liam.  For one, I feel like she was showing more signs of readiness than Liam was, so it was just easier.  Within the first 2 days, she was staying dry for longer periods (up to an hour) on her own and always went willingly to sit on the potty.  I felt a little bad that she didn't get the "potty party" with decorations and hoopla that he did, but honestly, Bryn just didn't need it.  I think I def caught Bryn at the ideal time, and in retrospect, probably pushed Liam to do it before he was totally ready.  He did well too, but just had much more resistance initially (and therefore accidents) than she did. No harm though, as he is now completely  independent with the whole bathroom process, which is very helpful :)

Of course both my kids enjoy reading material in the bathroom...

When I got really desperate to hydrate her and she wouldn't drink any more water...

And when mommy needed a break, there were fortunately lots of willing trainers around...

Bryn had a few accidents the first couple days, but on day 4 she stayed home from school with Mallie and only had 1 accident.   I am so thankful for all the help and support so we could get the hardest part of this over with that much quicker!

I sent her back to school yesterday on day 6 and she also only had 1 accident at school.  Overall she is doing AWESOME.  She has successfully traveled in the car multiple times now, and she doesn't even need a treat afterwards, she's just happy for all the cheers she gets.  One week out today, she even told me two times that she had to go, hopped up on the potty and WENT.  I had hoped she would do well, but I could never have expected how fast she would pick this up.  She still has a diaper while sleeping, but overall I am so excited to drop diapers from our budget!  And she just looks so cute in her big girl underwear :)