We ALL survived but there were doubts.........

..............is like being pecked to death by a duck!! The last 13 days here have revolved around the bathroom, specifically; the toilet, underpants and hand washing. We started potty training Olivia on Sun. July 22nd as I wanted to be sure we were past the crazy part of our summer. Sun., and Mon., were okay with some accidents and very occasional, just by chance successes while she just happened to be sitting on her potty chair. I didn't really want to start the M&M's but for Olivia candy incentive is HUGE! She got one M&M for tinkle and 2 for poo poo. Tues. was the day I thought I was literally going to pull my hair out and I emailed all of you in desperation and defeat. She had 4 accidents in 2.5hrs. and I thought it was all over for sure. Wed. morning Olivia told me she was all done with potty training. I said okay thinking in my head fine with me cause I'm done too! I took her to school on Wed. and she had 2 accidents but was told she had to wait a little bit before the toilet was available. It was on Wed. that I tried Gwen's idea of using a timer and this was the start of a turning point for Olivia. I grabbed a few of her favorite books and we would read while she sat on the toilet for over 20min. at a time and Olivia would sit there forever just to get an M&M. I then pulled out the Nemo Bubble Blower and she was fascinating by this turning it on/off, spilling bubble solution on herself, etc. She was actually wanting to go on the toilet now. I knew that it had to be Olivia alone to make this all click and this was not a battle I was going to win no matter how much I wanted to be done with the diaper scene.

Thurs., Andrew and I had off and we spent the day focusing on potty training again. It was raining all day and we couldn't have enjoyed the outside anyways so we did everything from Play dough to playing Uno. Olivia had one accident that day that trailed all the way across the carpet and as I did everytime before, I whisked her off to the bathroom, the panties came off and on the toilet she went. Fri. eveing I had to work but Andrew relayed to me that Olivia asked to go potty and this had never happened yet, another turning point.

We went through the entire weekend with dry underwear but we had to now work on the BM's. Olivia would take off behind a curtain or bedroom to do her business and mom would follow behind ready to have her take care of it in the bathroom. I allowed her to do it in her underpants but she had to be in the bathroom. Needless to say, she was not very willing and I wondered how long she would continue to do this.

This whole week she has not had a potty accident and of course every time she goes; she gets her M&M. I too started what I call a responsibility chart early into the potty training that I picked up (made by Melissa and Doug) and it has wonderful ideas on it.: put toys away, say please and thank you, apologize to someone. I could add goes tinkle in toilet and poo poo. I LOVE when she will say out of the clear blue, "it's my responsibility mom." (hoping the chart you have works well for Mya, Verna!)

This past Wed. when I picked Olivia up at school her teacher told me that one of the other girls (a three year old) in her class took Olivia to the big girls bathroom and Olivia went poo-poo in the toilet all by herself. I was shocked and honestly didn't believe it since her underwear were clean......... until tonight. Now, when Olivia has to go the bathroom, she'll say mom I have to go and I'll say okay go ahead your a big girl now and she'll walk in by herself and call me when she needs me. I hear her scream, MOM COME HERE! I go in there and she says, I'm pooping!! And with the look on her face she was and I hear this big plop in the toilet. I couldn't believe my ears and sure enough she went. Poor thing, it was SO huge and wide coming out of that little butt! I screamed to get Andrew in the bathroom and he looks and starts jumping up and down as we all are cheering in the bathroom by now. It was a great moment and a huge hurdle! I kept Olivia in underwear for her nap today and she woke up dry but I don't think we are ready to give up the pull-up for bedtime yet but who cares. The diapers are now in the basement and I intend to keep them there!!

My sister said something that was endearing really as I was questioning continuing potty training Olivia early last week. She told me to accept the assignment God was giving me. She said more that I can't recall but this stuck with me and when I first read it I thought "assignment?" come on......... That's exactly what it was an assignment even though I thought it was an annoyance. This annoying assignments did have a purpose and that was to develop my character in patience and love. I did gain from this little annoyance far more that I could have realized and my daughter has literally been transformed in the past 13 days with truly showing me how she takes care of her responsibilities.

Thanks God for this little annoyance and for growing both me and my daughter in more ways than one.

Vacation Bible School 2007

July 16-20 Olivia and I participated in Vacation Bible School at our church. It was Olivia's first time attending and she seemed to have a great time. I volunteered to be a crew leader as we had about 350 kids this year! That's right 350 kids and I think I heard someone say that we had just as many volunteers to help make everything go as smooth as possible. On the left you can see all the Avalanche Ranch characters the children received everyday as we had a "bible point" everyday with a scripture memory verse. These characters each had a name and the verse was imprinted on the back of the character for the children to remember. I thought it would be a simple way for Olivia to remember scripture in simple short sentences. Olivia had ALL of the music down pat several weeks before VBS and she even started to memorize some of the motions to the words. It was a fun filled but tiring week especially for me since I worked 2 days in the evening and I had a wild bunch in my group. We used a yellow rope to have the kids hang onto as we traveled from station to station and it was much easier to keep track of them then. Someone was REALLY thinking here!!! I am looking forward to volunteering next year as I am SURE it WILL be another WILD RIDE!!!

Okay, so I'm a LITTLE late over here!

Aren't these faces the most beautiful one has ever seen!! A few weeks back already, 10 of the 11 families gathered in Tennessee to reunite the girls and their families once more. It was a GREAT event that left all of us wanting more time together and already talking about the next reunion. It was such a wonderful experience to see how each girl has grown into each family. I am truly looking forward to seeing the pictures the photographer took and the video Scott put together for the families. The Oatsvall family hosted the event and REALLY thought of every little detail for the kids and families. We really felt spoiled and so much a part of their family.

Missing you all and looking forward to seeing everyone in 2009 and hoping the Johnsons will be there as well!

Birthday Memories

Three years and one day old....

This picture about sums it up. I am sure Olivia doesn't nap well when she is at school and I have been told she is often the last one to go to sleep. A few weeks back I picked her up at three o'clock and she was still sleeping on the mat. Napping at three in the afternoon is not a good sign for bedtime since she turns into a night owl. However, on this particular day after her birthday, I was hoping she would go down for an afternoon nap since mom REALLY needed one too. No such luck there, she was in my room 3 times crawling into my bed and flying over or on me. When we got ready to sit down for supper that night, Olivia could barely keep her eyes open as she was just so thrilled to see veggies on her plate, right? She didn't seem interested in eating and just put her arm down on the table and rested her head on it. Within minutes she was sound asleep and Andrew and I decided we would enjoy our dinner with a little peace instead of bringing her up to bed. This all occurred around around 5:30pm. So the big question now was should we let her sleep because if we do we know she will be up in the middle of the night. We decided to let her sleep and she made it all the way to 11:30 and was wide awake! Andrew took her back in her room two more times after this and on the fourth try mommy decided she would lie down with her on her sleeping bag which is on the floor. Of course, my body could only handle this so long so I kissed Olivia good night and reminded her that angels were watching over her and she needed to stay in her room. Thankfully, it worked but now this was 4:30AM, which is such a pleasant time of day. URGH! Olivia woke up the next morning for school at 6:30AM and I got her ready for school with one eye open. The naps are slowly fading away at the Tang
house :( Another sign that my little girl is growing up (big sigh).

Birthday treats everyone.......yum!

I mentioned to Olivia that we would be making birthday treats for her to bring to her class and share with her friends and teachers. I always wanted to make these ice cream cone cupcakes and they actually were very delicious but a little messy since I kept pulling them out to check to see if they were done. You have to stand them up in muffin tins and any little movement of one makes it topple over onto the other. Olivia helped pour the batter into each cone and then I let her frost them and apply the colored chips and some received much more than others. She had a great time and enjoys sampling her efforts as you can see. She had a great time with her friends at school the day of her birthday and enjoyed opening two of her presents that night. It was great to see her getting into her birthday this year with more excitement and realization. Stay tuned for more birthday week updates tomorrow. Olivia was having so much fun she couldn't keep her eyes open long enough.........

Having fun outside in the pool.....

Here is my dancing little hula girl just being her silly self again. She loved the grass skirt that came with her new bathing suit. Today was the first day of swim lessons at the high school within walking distance of our house. Olivia did swimmingly!!! First thing she recognizes is the teenagers jumping off the diving board and says,"I wanna go on that!" I said oh......... well, you are going to have to do a lot more swimming first before you can do that. Well, half-way through the class what does the instructor say, " Okay we are going to have everyone go over to the diving board and the parent can lower your child down to the coaches into the water. The mom next to me said she would watch with her son and I agree with her. Olivia starts seeing the kids few kids line up and she decided she has to try it, REALLY! So we did and she did fantastic! She was even more thrilled when mommy got her attention to watch her jump off the diving board into the water and of course my technique was flawless, Ha Ha! Olivia had the most surprised look, half-smile on her face when I submerged. It was great fun! She was so relaxed in the water and even allowed me to put her on her back. She's not into blowing bubbles in the water yet as we do in class but she handled water on her face like a champ!! I was SO proud of her and can't wait for more lessons!!