Pool Day

Yesterday, we skipped Aubrey's normal afternoon nap

and decided to head to the Pella Aqautic Center for the afternoon.

Aubrey started squealing as soon as she saw the 

"Big Big Pool at Pella!"

I didn't get a lot of pictures since we were busy going down slides,

playing with the water, or going down the lazy river.

We had a great time and the weather was perfectly HOT!

We were there from about 1-3:30.

And everybody was sleepy at home!

Summer Things

Amidst the intense potty training, we are managing to do a few fun things

inside the house, too! 

LOTS of juice pouches this summer!

Aubrey was helping Mommy unwrap the carmels

for Daddy's favorite rice krispies carmel bars.

(Thanks Mom Van Grouw)

 She was doing REALLY good 

until she snooped one, silly girl.

So Mommy got to snoop one too :)

Her favorite requested hair style as of late :)

Such a sweet little girlie :)

Aubrey's first time at sweet corn this season!

She LOVED it!

Lovely, Aubrey, corn all in your teeth :)

Painting and Princesses!

Aubrey has continued to do GREAT going "potty" on the potty chair

but she still struggles going #2. She has never had a problem before 

but now she says "it's scary" but today FINALLY

she made it on the potty...with a lot of hugs from Mommy during the process.

We told her that if she could go in the big potty, we

would go get a toy from the Dollar Tree so off we went to

the store today to follow through.

It was a great lesson of using only ONE DOLLAR

and you can only have ONE THING!

She found a thing she liked and then another

and we would ask her, do you want this or this and she would keep

one in her hand and keep looking.

This happened a few times until she decided on a 

Minne Mouse paint set - she was SO EXCITED.

She even got to give the cashier her dollar!

Painting with Mommy 

Her beautiful picture! 

Working hard on her second painting. 

Big Girl so excited! 

 She got to wear one of Daddy's old softball shirts while she painted...

KAISAND #11 

Another thing that has occupied our time lately is

PRINCESSES!

Aubrey is obsessed lately with dressing us up, even DADDY!

She has even named all of us:

Princess Cinderella (Aubrey)

Princess Snow White (Daddy)

Princess Jasmine (Mommy)

Here Daddy is being a great sport getting dressed up for the tea party!

(also a shot of her "new room")

Her Sad Place - video!

Aubrey has learned what it means to be sad about something

or upset that she didn't get her way.

She has recently discovered her "sad place" - on her bed.

It is has happened several times in the last week and 

TODAY I caught it on video.

It's pretty funny...

she just sits on the end of her bed and whines and mumbles and retells

herself why she's sad or upset :)

Enjoy!

Potty Training Day Three

Deep Sigh! We made it through day three!

(all while Steve was gone the entire day and night)

Overall, today was FANTASTIC!

Aubrey has finally realized what "the urge" is and she usually does a little

dance or lets out a "agh" and we hustle to the potty!

My essentials in a potty training day:

For the most part today, there were no REAL accidents

(as in she would run away from me and pee in a corner).

Instead, if there was an accident, 

it was a little trickle before she could get there but she was on her way.

Or, there was a  little trinkle in her panies 

and she would realize she was going and then we would run and 

she would make the rest in! 

Yippee, little girl! You are doing it!

No BIG messes, just a quick little change of the panies and we were off and running!

I decided to take her to the Library for one hour today since it was story time

and she had been doing so well.

I knew she would probably have to go, so I showed her the potty

right when we got there.

Sure enough about 10 minutes in, she was doing the potty dance

and "oh ohing." I rushed her to the potty but it was too late.

We had an accident in transition, BUT we were on our way.

I tried to put her on the potty there but it was a BIG ONE

and she was scared.

So tomorrow, we work on not just our little potty chair

but trying the BIG ONE (with the Dora insert of course!)

Overall, I am SO PROUD of her! She did great!

I think it is safe to say that I will be cancelling my diapers and wipes subscription today!

That's not to say we won't have accidents, but I think she has got the idea.

Because she did so well, I rewarded her with McDonald's for supper.

She was so excited!

The only disappointment for today was she did not go #2 

at all today. I know there was a time or two she had to go, but just got 

all whiny and scared and wouldn't go. 

We still have to work on that...but we are off to a great start I think! :)

Thanks for following in on all our fun! LOL.

Potty Training Day Two

Well, day two is complete with potty training - yay!

Aubrey is really catching on that I am "following her around" all day and often just says

"play by myself!" - poor girl just wants some alone time and Mommy doesn't let her

without chasing her down. 

Anyway, the early morning started off pretty well shooting about 50 %, but by the late morning

I was ready to scream! At the same time, a salesperson came to our door

and wanted to sell some educational books to me, which I was very interested in.

I warned him that we were potty training, but still came in anyway! In the 15 minutes

while he was here, I set Aubrey on the potty in front of the TV and 

she went in the potty by herself (YAY) so I had to politely

leave the salesman to do our victory routine! 

Poor guy (he was still in college and pretty clueless about this stage of life) :)

THEN two minutes later she started crying and 

she had pooped on the floor - oh goodness!

The guy was still here, so I politely dismissed myself AGAIN 

to deal with the mess. 

I told him that this was probably birth control for him - lol!

Then the next couple hours were ROUGH and I wondered if we were gaining at all!

There were three messes in 20 minutes, and Steve was still gone for the morning - ugh!

FINALLY, once Steve came home, things improved quickly...go figure.

We proceeded through lunch, playtime inside, naptime, playtime outside and

we were ACCIDENT-FREE for SIX HOURS, making it in the potty each time!!!

We were on a roll! 

I found on the key was to suggest that we try to go potty (every hour or so)

and then she would go! 

Then came suppertime and she threw a fit since she wanted to pour her drink and 

I wouldn't let her...needless to say, extreme crying causing one to lose bladder control,

which I knew was going to happen. But with that only mishap,

we were good from noon until eight o clock bedtime - YES!

Our score for today:

10 makes

2 missed poopies

1 naptime dry

1 kinda-made poopies 

5 missed potties 

(our Tinkerbell notebook with Mommy notes

and Aubrey's Dora and Princess stickers) 

Potty Training Day One

Just a caution, read at your own risk, but I want to document this process :)

We have designated the next 3 days to POTTY TRAINING!

My sister Ashley gave me the guide to use and we are doing our best.

The guide says to do a few things:

1- set aside 3 days to do nothing but WATCH your child and their cues

2- when they go, catch them and haul them over to the potty

3- push the salty snacks and lots of drinks

4- PRAISE, PRAISE, PRAISE

We woke up this morning and Aubrey had been prepped for a long time that TODAY was the day.

The only thing was, I didn't have her "incentives" yet - oops!

So we quick ran to Walmart to pick up the essentials:

stickers, candy, pretzels, and juice boxes and we were set!

Overall, the day was quite disappointing. She ran around ALL DAY

with just big girl panties or nothing at all on and I followed her like a hawk

all. day. long.

I knew that little stinker had to go, and she would willingly sit on the potty

but should would not go! UGH! 

Then, she would quick run away from me for one second, and as I chased her,

I saw the potty running down her leg. I finally figured out she likes to do her business alone, but that didn't help the situation since it only takes a second for me to look away, and she goes!

I would quick rush her to the potty even with potty dribbling down her leg, hoping something would click, all the while watching like a hawk, but nope...nothing.

Wow, it is exhausting to do that all day long!

So, we mixed things up:

(all while keeping the towels and blankets nearby so we wouldn't have to carpet clean)

We went outside...accident.

We went in her room...accident.

We played by the kitchen table...accident.

We sat on the potty chair in the living room watching movies...nothing!

We sat on the floor playing games....nothing!

We sat with her in the bathroom...accident 2 seconds AFTER we left.

LOTS of accidents and lots of laundry to be done I can say that much!

Finally, it was after supper and it had been almost 2 hours since an accident and we had been really pushing the fluids, we knew she had to go and probably SOON!

So we were in the living room with nothing on, just waiting, waiting, waiting!

That little stinker quick ran out of the room and Steve caught her and yelled, "NO!"

The dribbling had begun and she stopped....I quickly ran and got her and threw her on the potty 

and we waited...and it was MUSIC TO OUR EARS...literally!

We have a potty chair that plays music and it SANG!

We were all so excited!

She FINALLY got her candy and money to put in her piggy bank!

YIPPEE!

Here's to hoping she remembers that tomorrow :)

Day one...check!

Camping, Babysitting, and Swimming!

Father's Day was spent hanging out with the Kaisand clan

camping near Lake Red Rock.

Aubrey had a BLAST hanging out with all her family!

She really loved the bubbles Grandma Char got her!

Aubrey was brave walking "Carmel"

with Great-Grandpas help.

Grandpa Craig with his 2 grand-daughters

Aubrey and Kailey

We got to take ALL THREE home!

YIKES!

We watched Baby Noah (7 weeks)

overnight for Dan and Andrea!

(what an awakening of what it would be like to have two kiddos)

Aubrey wanted to do just what Baby Noah 

was doing; she did really well with him for the most part!

Awww...cousins!

We got to enjoy our friends' pool for the first time

this summer tonight - SO FUN!

It was Aubrey's first time in the "BIG BIG BIG POOL" as she called it!

Ready, Set...

Goooooooo!

Fun with Daddy (and Mommy, not pictured :)

 and squirt guns in the pool!

Aubrey is making a new friend! 

It's so fun since we only

live about 5 minutes from them.

5 Year Anniversary Outing

Since Steve is going to be gone to a class in Cedar Rapids on our

FIVE YEAR ANNIVERSARY,

we decided to celebrate it a bit early.

Special thanks to Grandpa and Grandma Kaisand for watching Aubrey overnight!

We headed out to Des Moines and first hit up the 

for supper.

Then we walked around a bit downtown 

until we headed to the

Hoyt Sherman Place 

to 

watch

It was a really funny improv group from the old TV series

"Whose Line is it Anyway?" It was really good!

After that we drove to Jordan Creek to end the evening with some

It has been a LOOONG time since we had ice cream there - YUM!

What a nice evening out - Happy 5 year Anniversary! 

Peaches and Aubrey -video!

Sometimes to get Aubrey to eat, we tell her the opposite, like

"don't eat your peaches!" and tonight we caught it on camera - pretty funny!

Make sure you watch until the very end for a surprise peach attack :)

Do the Zoo!

Today, we traveled on over to the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines.

We had never been there before as a family and it is on our "summer bucket list."

We knew it would be a hot day, so we left early in morning to get there right after they opened at 9:15.

Here was our highlights:)

YAY, we are at the ZOO!

Beating the African drums

The monkeys were so fun to watch.

Here was a baby and her Mommy!

"I don't want to smile for a picture!"

These three guys must have thought something

looked interesting over there...pretty cute lined up there :)

Aubrey kept saying "see more animals!"

They were in a safari truck and a 

TIGER came right up to that window!

A nice man offered to take a family photo - thanks. 

"ROAAAARR" - these buttons all played a different

cats roar.

The penguins are always so fun to watch!

Aubrey likes to "waddle waddle" like them.

They were swimming and jumping in and out.

We got to ride the train around the area.

Aubrey had fun saying 

"chugga chugga chugga chugga choo choo!"

Aubrey was brave and pet the goats. 

In the gift shop, cooling off with some AC - it was getting HOT out!

We stayed inside the zoo until lunchtime

and then went to the park right outside in the parking lot for a picnic.

Getting sleepy from a busy morning!