Lately

Halloween came and went and I can hardly believe it! It's probably because we've only yet had a couple of days here in the middle of Texas that have felt like fall. Spending the previous 5 falls in Utah really got me used to cool fall days. But, I'm glad not to be in Utah now that they had snow this morning!!

Lila's grandma was kind enough to bring this old costume with her when she came to visit. Darren's grandma made the kitty suit for him when he was around her age. Isn't that sweet? 

We subbed the original ears with a pair of leopard print ones I already had since they fit better. Lila LOVED dressing up and trick-or-treating. It was her first year doing it and I'm sure she'll be anticipating it in years to come. Oh yeah, and you might notice the bright "squishy green spider" in Lila's hand. This was by far her favorite thing she got while trick-or-treating. She is constantly misplacing it throughout the day and asking me, "Mommy, where did my squishy green spider go?"

Below you will see a picture of the toilet. We've been working on potty training the last couple of weeks. 

I included this picture to document just how wacky of a toilet set up we have going on in Lila's bathroom. You'll notice that we have a squishy Winnie-the-Pooh seat sitting on top of a normal shaped toilet seat (that actually has a toddler seat that pulls out of the lid--which Lila refuses to use), and all of this has been put on top of our OVAL shaped toilet. So the toilet looks like it has a bad underbite. 

Oh yeah, and the blue step stool to get up to that wacky seat is actually a little potty seat which Lila refuses to use. 

I'm pretty sure the only thing I've done right so far with this potty training thing is that I waited to really begin the training until Lila wanted to do it. When I first approached the topic with her in Sept. she firmly told me that she wanted to keep wearing diapers and did not want to go potty on the toilet. Two weeks and a bag of jelly beans later, she responded to my request for her to try the toilet. Anyway, let's just say that potty training will be started earlier with the next child. In my defense, it's not that I didn't want to work on this when she was younger, but I was juggling the busy full-time student/mom thing and wasn't sure I could give the project my full attention. Looking back, I think I should've just started it a few months ago when I remember her showing a kernel of interest in the toilet...even though I was busy, I think it would have been good. So my two cents to any friends with little ones: get a potty seat before they're even 2 years old and start talking about it and having them sit on it. At least for us, this potty training thing is not happening in one day or even one week! Of course there's lots of different approaches and every kid is different, but I'm going with it's better to start earlier than later.

Today after church. Notice that green squishy spider in her hand? :o)

Last but not least, here I am 23.5 weeks pregnant. That baby belly sure is poking out now, isn't it? I just can't believe how much more my belly is going to grow. Having three years between these two kids really has made me forget a lot about what pregnancy is like. In some ways it feels like the first time again, but maybe that's because it's been different this time around. Anyway, I'm happy to say that October marked the end of morning sickness for me at 19 weeks along. But, I'm sad to say that while morning sickness went away, October brought me two colds. Yeah, two. One at the beginning of the month over conference weekend, and the second one over Halloween weekend...and I'm actually still fighting it off right now :o( So being sick in one way or another is still sort of raining on my parade and keeping me and Lila from play dates with friends, but I'm hopeful that this week will be the turnaround. 

Sadly, I've also been struggling with my English class that I'm taking online to finish up my degree. I had a meltdown about it yesterday and Darren was so good to take Lila on a daddy-daughter date to the cheap theater to see "The Lion King" so I could have some time to work on a paper I have to write. Writing is perhaps my worst subject, and I now realize that I should not have put off this class until now, but I really should have taken the class on campus. Well, it's a little late for regrets, so I'm just praying for the strength to get through all this writing. Words of encouragement are always welcome!