Fun weekend at the Zile's

We went to see the Zile family this last weekend. We had a great time. We went to the Indy zoo on Saturday. It was really fun to see Emma’s reaction to all the animals. I think she spent more time out of her stroller than in her stroller. She wanted to get as close as she could to see everything. They have a great dolphin show and it was pretty cool to go down under the dolphin tank and see them swimming around us.
I think that seeing the giraffes or the elephants was Emma’s favorite part. She picked out a stuffed elephant to take home with her as a souvenir. Emma had lots of fun playing with Kate and Micah. They all shared the toys very well. The kids swam in the baby pool after we got back from the zoo. The water was freezing cold, but they didn’t seem to mind. Emma and Kate loved scooping the water up and putting it into cups. Micah loved jumping in and splashing. Afterwards, Emma was pretty cold for the rest of the night. She was bundled up in a sweater and jeans while Kate ran around with just her diaper on. It’s always nice to go there and be able to let Emma play with the kids without worrying that she will get into something she’s not suppose to. It was really nice to be able to hang out with Jamie and Betsy. We had a great time.

Emma did great on the potty this weekend too. Potty training is going a lot better than I expected it to. On Saturday night she wouldn’t go to sleep, she just kept yelling “potty, potty”. I didn’t realize what she was yelling until I went upstairs to check on her. So we went downstairs to go potty and she did have to go! So now she’s telling us when she needs to go. Yay! She prefers to just go on the toilet rather than on the potty seat or the potty chair. I guess this is good, because it makes it easier when we go places. I came home this afternoon and found out that she went for Grandma and stayed dry all morning! Yay Emma!

An answer to the daycare question

Here’s an answer Sharon’s daycare question in the comment on the previous blog. I think she will do great in this particular daycare. We’ve been to several churches in the last couple of months and she seems to do really well when there are fun things in sight to play with. Sometimes I have had to go in and play with her awhile until she gets acclimated. I am completely against leaving her crying. I just can’t do that! There was a time that she didn’t want to go into the nursery at church, but she has gotten over that for the most part. This daycare is so awesome, they will let us come play a couple of days this summer so she will get use to it. There are tons of fun toys in site that she will love to play with. And the teachers and staff seem like they care for the children as much as their parents do. We have toured several daycares in the past couple of months and none of them seemed like Emma would fit in very well (and some were completely horrible and terrifying that anyone would place their child in that kind of care). It is important to us that it is not just a place that can look after Emma while we work, but a place that she will enjoy and have fun at and learn all kinds of new things. We realize she will also learn some bad behaviors that we have to correct, but I think overall it is good for her to start learning and socializing in a place that she will enjoy. Another important aspect of this daycare is that it is in a church that will teach her about Jesus, they have chapel 3 days a week (which might be the 3 days we choose for her to be there). I think since it is in a church, they do care a little more about the children because they have the love of Jesus shining through them. So, needless to say we are very excited and we think that she will love it. But for some reason that she does not like it, we will not continue to force her to go there. It is very important to us that she is happy.

Yay Emma! She's such a big girl!

This month we have officially started to Potty train. She's been sitting on the potty chair off and on for a couple of months now with no successes at all. So, I decided we would start on Memorial Day weekend. I read all of the articles online and had all kinds of different philosophies floating around in my head. Do I start with letting her run around bare bottom and clean up the mess? Do we just try to go ever so often? How do I start this potty training thing? I started with high hopes that I could get her trained in one weekend. I soon learned that this was going to be a process that takes time. Well, on Saturday morning I tried the bare bottom thing and kept her on the tile. That went pretty well and we had two successes and about 4 accidents. So then I decided that I didn't want to clean up any more accidents and left a diaper on her. So, then lately I have been trying to put her on the potty every hour and that seems to work REALLY well. We were very successsful yesterday afternoon. I think that it is starting to click in her brain what she needs to do when she sits on the potty. She gets really excited afterwards and is so proud of herself. Since pull ups are so expensive,we have been keeping her in the diaper and putting it back on after she goes. A little inconvenient, but much cheaper. Yesterday I put a pull up on her after she pooped for the first time in the toilet and told her that she gets big girl underwear with princesses on it when she goes in the potty. She really seemed to like that!

In other news, we went and toured another day care today. We were very impressed. It's been VERY difficult to find a good daycare around Goshen. It looks like Emma will be starting "school" on August 13th. We get to choose what three days she goes per week, we are not stuck to one schedule. The director was way cool! It really feels like this is where God is pointing to, it feels so right! We are really excited to find a competent, reliable, and loving place to take Emma to.

The other day I was painting my toe nails. Emma said "I too!" (One of her favorite things to say now) So she got her toe nails painted just like Mommy.

When we go to Meijer, we always get to ride the horsey and the dinosaur for a penney. The last couple of times we have went, they have not had the horsey. So this may be the last time we see the horsey!