February was a good month. We had some ups and downs with the experiences we had this month which is just a part of life. We have had some sunny days and we are looking forward to more days like that to come. The spring flowers in my yard are starting to pop and there is such a promise of spring in the air.
The end of January and all of February has been trying to get McCall potty trained. It has been a PROCESS! She is by far my hardest one to potty train. We tried back in the fall and it was an utter disaster with her not peeing on the toilet once in a week. My other two girls did this and then I waited about three months and tried again and with Paige and Baylor it was a piece of cake. I tried with McCall and after about 3 days, there was still no success. I was getting frustrated and wondering why this was so hard. I have done this twice before so what was I doing wrong. McCall has been the best at holding it which is good but also really hard when you want them to pee on the toilet. I had to tell myself that I am teaching her something she has never done before so it is going to take time. One day I had been pumping her with liquids and I had to go pick up Paige from school. By this time, she hadn't peed on the toilet but she also hadn't had an accident and I knew if I put a diaper on her then all the hard work would go down the drain. So I told her she had to hold it until we got to the school and I brought a large bowl and her little potty top and I told her she could try when we got to the school. She ended up peeing in the bowl in the car and after that she was good to go. Of course, there were occasional accidents but she made lots of progress. She even had some new Paw Patrol toys waiting for her on the fridge. Then it was onto number 2, which I knew can be harder than peeing. She got really good at pooping in her underwear and lots of Paw Patrol toys went back on top of the fridge until she could figure it out. One day the end of February, I decided to go no pants and no undies and got the bowl out again and put in a spot that she could access whenever she needed. I had success again! She was very proud of herself and the deal is that if she poops in the bowl and not her undies then she gets to take one Paw Patrol down from the fridge. If she goes poop on the toilet, then she gets to take all the toys down, get some Paw Patrol bath bombs, and we are going to have a poop party. :) I'll be sure to post about that one! We are making progress and I know that one day she will will figure it all out.
Baylor started back into swim lessons this month. She did level 2 again and it was such a tender mercy when we showed up the first day. She was so happy to have a girl teacher, and she is the only student in her class. She has gotten amazing one on one time and her teacher has been incredible helping her where she is at and pushing her. At the end of the month, we found out that she passed level 2! Way to go Baylor! I saw so much improvement and Baylor's confidence in the water grow.
The first weekend of February, we had lots of family in town to support our two missionaries, Blake and Mikey. Blake went through the temple and Paige watched her sisters again. It was sweet to go with Blake and have lots of family in the celestial room. Some of these handsome boys were with us and the rest of them did baptisms while they waited for us.
Then the next day we all got to listen to Mikey give his farewell talk at church. It was wonderful and it will be great to get his letters and see how he grows and learns to love the people in Texas. Later in the month, we got to listen to Blake speak and I also know he will grow and learn to love the people of Portugal. They will both do amazing things and are great examples to their siblings and cousins.
Mike decided to stay longer with his kids and watch the Superbowl with us. We had all sort of snack foods to enjoy!
The girls spent the time from church to game time getting the house ready for the Seahawks. Baylor made the cool sign out of cardboard and they all worked on the poster board. Everyone that came to watch had to sign the back of the poster.
Front (Baylor drew and colored the Seahawks logo and Paige did the helmet)
Back
It was so fun to watch with family! We even brought in the other couch from our front room so we had lots of seating. And the best part of the day was that the Seahawks won the Superbowl!!! There were fireworks outside whenever the Seahawks scored but once the game ended, it was fireworks everywhere and SO many of them. It seemed like more fireworks than 4th of July during the whole day. It was so exciting and such a cool thing to witness.
We took the girls out of school the following Wednesday so that we could go to the Superbowl Parade. It was incredible and there were SO many people (like around a million according to the news)! Dale was willing to take us and drop us of which was super kind of him. We got there about 2 hours early and had to wait around for quite a while. I’m glad I took some camping chair for us to sit on while we waited. The weather was pretty good for this time of year. There were occasional Seahawk chants, and it was cool to be amongst so many people with the same cause. We were about 5 rows of people back from the street and as the parade got closer to starting, people would try and sneak their way closer and lots of people around us where holding firm and not letting anyone pass. The parade was cool. It was fun to see the players, coaches, and the trophy. The mascot was my favorite part. He really knew how to feed into the crowd and had confetti cannons. There was so much confetti and cheering and everyone with their cellphones recording and taking pictures. Seahawks players were throwing beers to people in the crowd. It was quite an experience. We got to walk in the middle of the street in Seattle (which is something the girls will never get to do) with a whole bunch of people as the parade ended and we found a spot where Dale could pick us up. The first one I would say was cooler and more memorable, but this one was pretty cool and I don’t regret going.
The next day, I found lice in McCall’s hair! I didn’t realize what it was at first until I looked it up. This was the first time for me as a parent, and it grossed me out. I think I saw one earlier in the week or the week before but I didn't know what it was and just thought it was a random bug. In my mind for some reason I thought lice were white and not brown. But then when I saw two of them in her hair is when I decided to look it up. I washed all her bedding and did a treatment in her hair. Then two days later, I found lice in my hair. My head had been itchy that day and I washed my hair and found lice on my brush. I was incredibly grossed out! Then when the girls got home, Nate checked their hair and both Baylor and Paige had it. We were all at different stages, but it was gross and I felt that I did laundry for three days straight. We all treated our hair (even Nate) and washed our hair and did the combing treatment every day for a week. Who knew that when we got Baylor this fun microscope for Christmas that we would be using it a few months later to see what lice looks like and if the things in our hair were lice or dandruff. I was grateful when we got to the point that no one had any more nits in their hair. Nate and I both had dreams about it and talked about it a lot. Nate did lots of research and I’m glad that it is past. I really hope we don’t have to deal with that again. I will say that it was a tender mercy that we all pretty much got it at once. It was a long week but if I had to do that in stages it would have been more of a pain. Lice has been something that I have always been paranoid about and this experience has made me realize that it is a nuisance but it really isn't that big of a deal. It's mostly a mental for sure.
Baylor had a doctor's appointment this month. She has had growing pains in her legs pretty much every night for months and earlier this month, they hurt so bad she was in tears. We talked with her doctor about it at her well child checkup in November and we have tried heating pads and massaging but the pain is persistent. So, we went back into the doctor, and they decided to do an X-ray and a blood draw, a first for Baylor for each of these things. She handled it all very well and we got the results a few days later and everything looks good and she is healthy. So, we are going to try and do preventative care and massage and do heat right after dinner, hopefully to be not as bad as nighttime rolls around. The week she had lice and took a bath every night she hardly had growing pains, so we know a warm bath helps.
I taught science in Baylor's class at the end of the month and it was a fun one. The focus was all about rocks. So I had the kids do four rotations. First, I brought a collection of cool rocks from Baylor and Paige's collections. With the group, I had them look at the rocks and I told them about it as much as I could. Then they would pick their favorite one and draw a picture of it on their worksheet. The sweet thing was one boy, when he saw all the different rocks, said how lucky Baylor was that she got to find all those rocks. Second group was hitting rocks together. They hit to big ones together, then two little ones, and last a big one and a little one. They had to decide which sound they liked the best and then circle it on their worksheet. The third rotation was sorting rocks. I went out to the Soos Creek a few days before and got a whole bunch of different kinds of rocks. They worked together and sorted the rocks by size, color, and shape. Then on their worksheet they circled which way they liked to sort them the best. The fourth rotation was the favorite. I bought a geode for each of them to break open with a hammer and take home with them. The funny thing was when I explained what a geode was and that there are mineral crystals inside, they all got excited and said they would be rich. :) They all loved it!
Then Nate hit a big milestone of 10 years being a full time for the City of Covington. We went out to dinner to celebrate. We love him so much and we are grateful he is amazing at providing for us!
Now onto March and spring!
