A Day of Fun!

Priya had a pretty fantastic day today. She has been asking me for a while now to take her to gymnatics so we headed out for open gym this morning. We hadn't been for a few months and I was amazed at the new things she attempted and how much more daring she was. She didn't stop running, jumping or moving the entire time we were there - and loved every single minute of it!

Priya's friend Elliot from church/Mom's Group came to spend the evening with us. The two had a blast together and had me cracking up too.

They are wrapping up the evening by watching Toy Story 2 and enjoying some popcorn. Fun times!

Elliot will be coming over again tomorrow evening. Should be another fun-filled night!! :)

Is it a BOY or a GIRL? We finally have the answer!

The verdict is in...

We visited the doctor this afternoon and brought Priya with us to give her an opportunity to see her brother or sister for the first time (Ashish's mom also joined us - she'd never seen an ultrasound before so it was extra special for her). I talked Priya through what the doctor was going to do and showed her the equipment (without touching it of course). I'm not sure that she fully understood what she was seeing on the screen, but it was neat to have her there to take part in that special moment. It didn't take long for the doctor to announce that we are having a BOY (and it looked pretty clear to us too)! Yep, Priya is going to have a little brother and her cousin Jake is gonna have a little buddy to play with only one year apart in age (now if we just lived closer to Uncle Joel & Aunt Emily...or the rest of our family for that matter)!

A funny note to end the day... When we got back to the waiting room Priya came up to me and tried to pull my shirt up asking if she could see the baby in my tummy again. There were quite a few people in the waiting room and that gave them all quite a giggle. Kids really do say the darndest things... :)

Random Cuteness

I've seen and heard some pretty cute things from our little monkey lately and thought I'd take this time to record some of them.

*Tonight when putting Priya down for bed she came running at me from across the room, jumped into my arms, gave me a big bear hug and said "I so proud of you". With all of her potty training success, she's heard that statement a lot lately. I thought it was really cute to hear it back. ;) (By the way, she is fully potty trained now! She's even had the pooping down for the past 2 weeks and hasn't had a single accident!) Yes Priya, we are so proud of you! :)

*A few weeks ago we were at the grocery store and I accidentally bumped Priya's head when taking her out of the shopping cart (there was a metal bar above her). She cried for about 2 seconds and then broke into song singing, "Glory hallelujah, I shall not be moved..." How timely!

*We've been trying to get Priya used to the idea of having a new brother or sister soon. Last night while we were getting ready for bed, she asked if she could pray and ask God for a sister. We are totally open to either and will actually find out on Tuesday afternoon if Priya's prayer will be answered the way she hopes. We'll be sure to update the blog once we know more.

*Below is a video of what a typical day with Priya looks like. She absolutely LOVES to dance and twirls her little heart out every chance she gets. She was given this bathing suit/grass skirt when she was a baby and wants to wear it almost every day!

The weather in Redding has brought us back to our usual summer sweat fest. So after going to multiple stores to find a little blow-up pool for Priya to splash around in and finding nothing (seems everyone else in Redding had the same idea we did), we came home with this crabby monstrosity. Priya loves it and it provides a little shade for her as well so we're thankful. It's just challenging to store when not in use...
Apparently it's really fun to play in with no water indoors as well! And it does a number on Priya's hair which had us cracking up quite a bit. We are currently keeping it in Priya's room (she's sleeping in the baby's room for now and uses her room as a play room so it's all working out right now).

Thanks for looking! :)

Playdate

Yesterday we enjoyed having Bella and Lucy Slavens over for a couple of hours to play. These are two of Priya's favorite little buddies and she loves every opportunity they get to play together.

I love to observe the create games that kids come up with in their play times. In the pics below they were pretending to be cowgirls. They also took turns being mommies and babies and putting each other (including me) down for naps. They read stories to each other, sang songs and tucked each other in. So sweet!
Emily (SIL) gave me the idea of getting some pipe cleaners and beads and letting Priya make necklaces and bracelets out of it. She has loved the craft and it's been amazing to see her dexterity sharpen with this task. We used heart beads and amazingly enough she arranged them by alternating color (never repeating the same color before using a new one) and managed to get all the hearts facing the same direction! Impressive! Bella and Lucy enjoyed making their jewelry as well and did a fantastic job!

They are showing off their finished products below...

Family Vacation

Ashish, Priya and I are currently enjoying a small vacation in the Sacramento area. How wonderful to get away and to enjoy some quality time as a family! We drove down yesterday and tomorrow we'll be heading home again. It's been quick but we've managed to cram quite a bit of fun in. Here's a "highlight" of our adventures (warning, lots of pics ahead!)...

We visited Fairytale Town this morning. What a neat place!
The Old Woman in the Shoe...

Owl's House (Pooh's friend)...
The Tin Man and Dorothy :)
Petting the "cow who jumped over the moon"
Cinderella's carriage (this was definitely Priya's favorite)


Jack's Beanstalk

Pirate Ship
Watering Rabbit's Garden
Mother Goose slide
Priya's first exposure to Shakespeare. It was a condensed version of Macbeth. Sadly she didn't last very long and was ready for a nap.
Swimming at the hotel after nap time. "I love swimming!"

Dinner at Chevy's
Priya's 1st Carousel ride after dinner. She LOVED it!

Back at the hotel for some snuggling before bedtime.

Morning Sickness...a BLESSING?!?!

I seem to have "ideal juror" written all over me. I've been summoned more times than I can remember in the 10 years that I've lived in Redding and have served in 2 trials. I was *overjoyed* when I received yet another summons a few weeks ago to appear during my vacation time. I did truly enjoy my previous two experiences, but this time I was hoping and praying that they'd somehow pass me by. We've been moving and there's still a lot of work to do plus this is my vacation and my time to really focus on Priya without work being a distraction. Not to mention the fact that it's not the way I pictured spending the majority of my vacation time...

I'm 18 weeks along in my pregnancy and the morning sickness sadly has not subsided. With Priya I was sick all the way through - to the very day that she made her appearance in this world! I've been hoping and praying that this pregnancy would be different. But so far it hasn't been. So you can imagine my happiness when the morning sickness finally worked in my favor!

I appeared for jury duty yesterday morning still hoping and praying that they wouldn't select me. I was selected in the first random cut (before going up to the court room) and was then dismissed for a long lunch and instructed to return at 2pm. I had a queezy morning but the afternoon was much worse. And after getting sick two times in the afternoon I spoke with one of the employees in the room, she called the court clerk and eventually got me excused with credit for time served! What would I do if I found myself getting sick in a court room with no opportunity to make a run for the nearest bathroom? Needless to say it wouldn't be pretty. I've never been more happy to be sick in my life! Who knew that morning sickness was actually a blessing in disguise?!

We're Moving!

This weekend is our big moving weekend. No, we aren't moving far...just to another (bigger) apartment on campus that will better accommodate our growing family. I have been in the same place for the last 10 years so packing everything up has been...interesting... How in the world were we ever able to cram so many things into such a small space?!

We started slowly taking small items over yesterday and today and have managed to get almost everything unpacked and into their new places. Our closets are nicely organized and ready to go, our kitchen cabinets are almost completely transferred and most of Priya's toys are in her new room. But there's still a long way to go. The majority of our move will take place on Monday (all the furniture and big items) and then we'll try to finish everything up throughout the rest of the week.

On a side note, I did something really stupid the other day. My cell phone has been missing for the past 2 days and for the life of me I couldn't find it. Today I finally realized that it had gone through the wash and was waiting for me at the bottom of our washing machine. It was completely dead (but at least it was clean). So if you've been trying to reach me and I haven't gotten back to you, now you know why. :) What a crazy mistake. Can I blame it on "Mommy Brain"? :)

Day 4

Every day seems to improve on the next. Can I expect this to continue? Am I really lucky? Or are there potential pitfalls along the way? Priya successfully used the potty 6 times today! And the final time was the elusive poop experience! She woke up at about 9pm from sleep crying - and sadly continued to cry through the whole experience but she did it! We'll have to celebrate in the morning...

I can't believe I've spent this much time talking about using the bathroom! Who knew what parenting would do to a person? ;) I'm sure Priya will be mortified by these posts one day... Sorry in advance baby girl! I'm just so proud of you! :)

Need Your Ideas!

The time is quickly approaching when we'll need to change the url of our blog to fairly represent the fact that we'll have more than one child (priyagrace.blogspot.com just won't cut it anymore). We certainly don't want to make baby #2 feel left out. :) So it's time for a little contest. Who can come up with the most creative and winning blogger address? Ready, set go!

Day 3

Day 3 of potty training was our best yet! Priya earned 4 stickers on her reward chart for successfully using the potty 4 times! She even woke up this morning completely dry! This has never happened before! Now we just need to figure out how to get her to use the potty for the poo too! We haven't had success there yet. But I'm still celebrating! She's come a very long way in just 3 short days! Way to go Priya!

Day 2 Success

Day 2 of Priya's Potty Training Party was a bit of a roller coaster but ended with success. The morning was challenging as she really didn't want to cooperate and had very little interest in trying to even sit on the potty. She even asked me a couple of times to put diapers on - even to the point of pulling one out and lying down on the ground to wait for me to comply with her wishes. I know that it's hard to give up something that she's always known but I didn't want to derail her progress so we plugged along in her cotton panties. She refused to go before naptime (and hadn't gone since she'd woken up in the morning) and I debated for a while whether or not I should put her in pull-ups but I decided to be a "mean mommy" and let her experience the consequences of holding it in. About an hour into what's usually a 2 hour nap Ashish and I heard her crying and went into her room to find her standing in a puddle in her bed. It was the end of her nap but the beginning of greater success.

We ventured out in the afternoon to run some errands. I opted for pull-ups this time just in case. At one point she asked to go but then refused to enter the bathroom at the grocery store. By the time we got home she was ready and begged me to take her home to use the potty. Amazingly she stayed dry and made it to the potty! Her excitement over her victory was priceless! She even asked to go one more time before bed and was again successful!

I'm so happy to see the progress she is making! I know that there's still a long road ahead, but it's such an encouragement to finally see the progress. :)

Everyone Poops...

Disclaimer! Ramblings of a proud mommy ahead...

Now that I'm off work for the months of June and July we are going full speed ahead with potty training efforts (today marked the first day of our serious attempt to leave diapers behind). Priya has shown almost all of the signs of readiness and has had some success, but it's been difficult for us to be consistent with her in the midst of our varying schedules.

We've been trying pull-ups but they haven't been effective thus far because she can't feel that she's wet, just like in a diaper. We've tried padded cloth panties that absorb the wetness but they haven't seemed to phase her either. So today was "Operation Cold Turkey" day. I put her in cotton panties (with Elmo on them which was a huge hit) with absolutely no absorbency. We tried the potty a few times in the morning but no real success. We had fun though! Every time she sat on the potty we read a book called Everyone Poops. Priya's pediatrician recommended it just before I left for my Washington DC/Pennsylvania trip and it's been a huge hit with her. It helps to take the pressure off by focusing on the fact that everyone poops - animals, birds, fish, big people and little people - and doesn't just focus on the steps to using a potty. She has been asking for it again and again and has been reading it to her stuffed animals as well.

Around 10:30am I asked her if she wanted to try again and she said no. I stepped into the laundry room for a minute to transfer a load of laundry and heard Priya crying, "Mommy, I peed!" She was so upset and was crying pretty hard. Ironically, this was what I had been waiting for! She is so picky about her shirt having even drops of water on it that I knew if she'd just feel what it was like to really be wet she would hate it! I reassured her that it was ok and all part of the process of learning to use the potty like a big girl. I gave her a quick bath and she was back to her happy, playful self again.

We tried 2 more times before nap time and didn't have any success. I eventually put her in a pair of pull-ups (calling them panties) and asked her to call for me if she needed to use the potty and that I'd come right away to help her. About 5 minutes later I heard her crying (and assumed that she'd gone in her pull-ups already). But when I opened the door she said "I want to try again. I have to go potty." I praised her for telling me and immediately took her to the potty. About 2 minutes later she peed in the potty! We had a huge celebration and she just kept smiling and talking about how she was a big girl and that she did it! I'm so proud of her! I know that we still have a long way to go, but this was a big accomplishment that I had to record! :)

Way to go big girl!

End Of The Day Update:
I'm back as a proud mommy once again. Please forgive the bragging...I love recording milestones to look back on one day and I can't help but be proud of my little girl's accomplishments. :)

We ended the day with another victory. Priya remained dry from 1-7:30pm (I on the other hand had to go at least 8 times in the midst of that time - oh the joys of pregnancy). Finally at 7:30 she was ready for round 2 of successfully using the potty. This resulted in another celebration. Now on to Day 2 of "Operation Cold Turkey"...

Turtle Bay

Warning - Big Post Ahead! :)

This morning I took Priya to Turtle Bay Exploration Park. It was our first time visiting this amazing place. Priya had such a wonderful time we went back for another round after her nap!

We spent the morning in Paul Bunyan's Forest Camp playing in an awesome playground area that looked like a really awesome tree fort.

We then ventured over to the water feature where Priya enjoyed moving various pieces around to create a dam and change the water flow. It was about 90 degrees out today so splashing in the water was a welcome activity.

After her nap we came back and spent the rest of the afternoon in the museum. There is nothing like watching a child explore and experience things for the first time. Priya was wide-eyed and absolutely enthralled with the various exhibits.

Below Priya takes in the aquarium.

This was a really neat exhibit. It shows what a tree's root system looks like below the ground. Priya was delighted with it!
They had small caves to walk through...
And a teepee to explore...
We ended our afternoon building different types of structures - another big hit!

I'm Coming Home!

I am happy to report that I am currently sitting in the San Francisco airport, about 45 minutes from departing for Redding. I'll be in Redding in about 2 hours! It's been a great trip - loved the sightseeing and the conference was really good - but I am ready to be home! I am missing Priya like crazy and am very eager to see Ashish as well! :)

I've been up since 3am EST (midnight back home) and only slept about 3 hours last night, so I'm pretty wiped out. It'll be great to be home! :)