Potty like a Rockstar

This post goes down in history for the Gailan clan. It's safe to say I (Kelli) have been DREADING potty training since the day they placed Mr. Clark in my arms. I'm seriously terrified of it. Last year we had a truly horrifying experience trying to push Clark into the welcoming arms of the potty because his daycare demanded it. Horrible. Just terrible. So we stopped when Charlotte came along and since then we've hemmed and hawed and pretty much avoided it. But no more! It's time. He was ready so off we went. 

We spent the first week with him in diapers just getting the basic skills down and what I learned was: 

a) my kid is awesome at flushing and washing his hands and peeing in the potty

b) my kid will avoid pooping in the potty like the plague. He will wait until you are knee deep in little Charlotte's poopy diaper to make his escape to his room to poop in safety. Yeah, it was a crash and burn week. 

So on Friday I did the unthinkable and...made the diapers disappear. Poof! Gone. No more diapers. Which left no choice but to let him run around nude while he figured out his body's signals. That lasted all of two hours (I know some of you are surprised I made it even two hours!). Because at that point the nasty virus Charlotte had picked up reared it's head in Clark and brought with it...diarrhea. Yeeeeaaaaah. I'll spare you the details. Suffice it to say Friday and Saturday tested our resolve and our carpets durability but Dana talked down my panic attacks and we survived, barely. 

Sunday went better. Monday was a struggle with a few accidents. Tuesday - Thursday he held in the poop. We got desperate and gave him an enema on Friday. The following Monday he elected to go poop all by himself. I almost cried. Now here we are two full weeks later and Mr. Clark is looking quite schnazy in his underoos each day. He's been accident free for a few days; had lots of successful poops and can use the potty at church, friends houses, anywhere! 

Not gonna lie people. It was everything I dreaded and yet also went better than imagined. We had a lot of fun just hanging out, drinking juice and being silly around the house watching Cars 3 over and over and over. Sure do love my crazy little Mowgli. One small step outta diapers, one big milestone for this little man. 

Birthday Buddies

This post is all Mr. Clark. He had quite the Saturday last week when his cousin, Anderson, turned the big 4. We all went up to Ellensburg to see the over the top dinosaur party Kristina and Fred had thrown together. It did not disappoint.

They had a T-Rex bean bag toss. Gift bags with whistles (which "accidentally" got lost on the way home), snacks and tons of mini dinosaurs.

 Cake and goodies of course. Clark loved eating on the floor with the other kids.

 They learned about volcanos and got to make their own lava.

 And the each got to crack open these funny poo shaped dino eggs and inside was a teeny tiny dinosaur for them to take home and lose in bathtub, uh, I mean treasure forever.

The babies mostly tried to stay out of the way but Natalie got a good hair pulling session in and Charlotte loved nibbling on this toy.

 Kristina's decorations were above and beyond. She even made balloon dinosaurs!

 Overall, quite the awesome party. After all you only turn 4 once right?!

8 months in a flash

It's GREAT to be 8...months old that is:) What a milestone for our little squirrley girl. She has really mastered the hair bow this month and also this funny squinty cheesy smile. I'm sensing a lot of drama from this one already. 

 Charlotte has lots of favorites right now. One is this wicker basket that holds her diapers. She loves tipping it over and emptying it's contents and really really loves sucking on the little ribbons on the front. Sucking on anything really is a favorite. Seriously, doesn't matter what it is. Clark's cars, golf balls, stray rabbits, toes. Anything. It's all good.

 Dana is determined that she will crawl this month (and we think she will) so he puts enticing goodies in front of her whenever he can. The ball was nice but you should have seen her try to shuffle when his phone was in play. Mostly, she just likes chilling with Clark. She basically wants to be doing whatever Clark is. Here she's trying to hold his hand. Clark can be grumpy with her but truth be told he spends half his day trying to get her to laugh. Two peas in a pod.

We had a sick week this month where everyone went down with the icky ickys. Charlotte got a fun head cold that may be the start of a tooth popping in. She spent a lot of that day laying on the floor too lazy to move just making ba ba ba ba and da da da noises rather pathetically. It's was adorable. Sad, but adorable sad.

Ahh yes, the hair. How can we forget the hair? It is in a word: magnificent. Dana lets it dry however it wants overnight so we never know what hairstyle she'll have in the morning. One day we woke up to the Charlicorn. Equal parts unicorn, sparkle glitter, and cuteness. 

Other days it goes a bit wild. Enter the bows. Sometimes she loves them. Sometimes she's like, hey mom no I don't think so.

And food is back on the menu for this girl. She's tried it all: pears, peaches, mangos, apples, strawberry mixed fruit, carrots, other weird combinations, etc etc. The one thing she does NOT like is puffs. Our girl has one serious gag reflex and anything bigger than a crumb sets her off. 

We love ya girly. We love you even though you have thrown up on both mom and dad twice already this week. And even though you are down to one hour afternoon naps now (NOOOOOO!). We love you always. You are the cutest, happiest, funniest little lady.