Helloooo Indian Summer!

We have been dry and warm in my neck of the woods since July. For Western Washington that is amazing. No measurable rainfall since then. Here we are in the second week of October and it's been well into the 70's almost everyday. In fact last week we hit 80. Carazay!

Enough about the weather...The girls are getting extra outside playtime with this nice weather. They have a new playhouse at my parents house. We've been spending a lot of time over there this summer. With it being so dry they get awfully dirty. We seem to leave there with them looking like dirty little orphans.

They love the dirt, rocks, grasshoppers, Grandpa's tractor, picking apples from their trees and driving their little power wheels vehicles. Actually, they don't like to drive them by themselves. They seem to only enjoy it when they're both in the vehicle.

My dad recently dug out a go-kart track in their field. The girls love running laps around it. That seems to be more fun that driving their car around it.

Kaitlyn has been in the "Momma, Momma, Momma!!" phase lately. I can't take my attention away from her for a second with out her tapping me and repeating "Momma" until I pay attention. It was cute for the first day or two, but now it's been at least a month and my patience really wears thin sometimes. I'm trying to teach her to wait until I'm done talking, but she still to young to get it. She has caught on that a lot of the time I try to brush her off with a "Ya...uh huh...wow..." she isn't satisfied with that. Now Natalie is seeing how much attention Katie gets with that so she's starting to do the same thing. Oh boy!!

We've tried breaking the pacifier habit recently. It is going okay, but not as well as I'd hoped. Kaitlyn is obsessed with hers, but she is improving. We've tried taking it away when they get up and they can have it back at bedtime. Natalie is usually cool with that, but K wants hers more often. She'll get so hysterical asking for it, I admit, we give in. She is, however, really good about not leaving the house with it. She'll leave her "wower" as she calls it and her blanket inside when we go out or when we leave. Natalie only really wants her when she's really tired, but during the day she doesn't care.

We transitioned into toddler beds about a month ago. That has went extremely well. Some nights they fall right asleep and we don't hear a peep out of them. Other nights they may play around for a bit, but generally they do really well. They still haven't completely grasped the idea that in the mornings they can get up and I don't need to come in and get them. Kaitlyn will sit up and whine until I open their door. I wish she'd just get up when she was ready...

Another change (wow, I'm realizing we've done a lot lately) is potty training. I actually just started that with them yesterday. I guess, they are actually doing okay. I'm having a hard time relaxing about all the accidents. I swear it's easier to potty train a puppy. Natalie goes to the potty chair on her own and pees a little then stands up and goes the rest on the floor. We started out the day with underwear and no pants. After they went through like 6 pairs in no time flat, we skipped the undies and they ran bottomless. Natalie loved it. Kaitlyn is still a little apprehensive about sitting on the potty with no clothes on. She eventually refused about 10am and we put a diaper back on. When she's got bottoms on, she'll sit on it all day long. Weird.

They had diapers on a nap time and actually wore a diaper until about 6pm yesterday. I took them off again for about an hour last night and they had a successfully couple of goes, but Natalie still wet the floor a couple of times. I don't think Kaitlyn has actually pottied in the chair yet, but I keep encouraging her.

I think this is the hardest thing we've had to do with them since they were born. I think I'd rather deal with getting up in the middle of the night than following them around with carpet cleaner and paper towels. I know today is only day two, but I'm over this training thing already. My friend, who is a mother of three, says the first week is the hardest. I want to cry.

Well, I think that's about all the updates lately. Wish us lots of luck...and lots of patience...in getting through this potty training business.

As always, here's some parting pics: