Success!

Sorry to keep you hanging about the van purchase. I'm not sure why I thought I had blogged between then and now. My Mom blames facebook. I blame pregnancy-induced alzheimer's.

But! The van! It did check out on all fronts and we bought it two Fridays ago. Well, our credit union bought it for us and is letting us drive it for the next five years while we pay them back. You know how that is. But anyway, it's wonderful! It's so nice to not have to plan out my outings for the whole week and deal with taking John to work or finding a ride to the pool if I want to go somewhere. And I can do all my grocery shopping in the early morning when the produce is fresh and the checkout lines are minimal. I love it! I also love the built-in DVD player. It mostly comes in handy after a shopping trip. I park in the garage, but can't lower the garage door until I unload the back of the van. If I let the girls out of the van, they'll run out into the alley while I unload. So I pop in a dvd and they watch in the van while I unload, then I bring them inside after closing the garage door. It's been a HUGE success so far.

An unexpected succes: Libby is basically potty training herself. She's been poop-trained for over a year now, but has stubbornly refused to pee in the toilet. We tried a variety of potties and found one she liked to sit on, but still wouldn't pee in it. Naked days resulted in Libby peeing wherever she stood or sat, half the time not telling me, the other half saying things like "Look! It's slippy!" or "Mama, I jumping a puddle!". A bit stressful on my part, no? The whole panty thing was a flop because she liked them so much she would deliberately pee in them to get another pair. But then when I told her she couldn't use them any more and had to wear a diaper, she could care less. I've known all along that Libby is the type who will do things only when she is ready. So we waited and we talked and we left the little potty sitting in the living room, and last week she up and decided it was time. Progress was sporadic at first and accidents happened, but then this weekend she really buckled down. Now, whether she's wearing a diaper, panties, or nothing, she only pees in the potty while we're at home. She's been waking up dry from her naps, and for the last two nights has woken up after 9 hours of sleep still dry and going directly to the potty to pee. Yesterday at church she told the nursery leader she had to pee and they brought her to me so I could take her to the bathroom. She made it all through church without an accident. I'm not quite ready to take her out in public without a diaper on, but I think I'll start that next week if this week continues as it has begun.

Jaina is picking up some new words - "Uh-oh" when she drops something, "whee" when she's doing something fun, like spinning or dancing, and "ow" when she falls. "Ow" is the cutest, the tone of voice when she uses it is just so dry and practical. I love it. She has 6 teeth now, her diarrhea finally stopped this last weekend, and she is growing like a stinking weed. We'll be hard pressed to keep her clothed by the end of the summer, we're running out of summer clothes that fit her. She LOVES the pool still, even if the water is so cold it makes her whole body shake. she just doesn't want to get out. And yet she still hates baths and showers. We're beginning to eliminate jarred baby food, and she doesn't have a problem with that. She does, however, have a problem with cow's milk. She refuses to drink it, even if it's chocolate! she loves cheese, and meat, and kefir, and bread, but isn't wild about fruit, fresh or jarred. She's a veggie girl through and through.

Remember how in my last post I was all "I still don't feel all that pregnant"? Hah! Finally folks, it has hit me and I feel as large as a house. I have heartburn all the time, I'm not sleeping, I have to pee every 30 minutes, and my hips hurt like mad. I'm so tired from lack of sleep that taking a shower wears me out. This has happened with each pregnancy so far, and I think it's to make me thankful for the sleep I do get once the baby is born. I actually sleep better with a newborn than I do my last two months of pregnancy. The good side - my baby shower was great! Since I'm fairly new to this ward, the girls threw me a "getting to know you" shower and invited the whole Relief Society. About 17 people showed up, and I knew about 5 of them, and one of them was my sister-in-law! I was really touched at the number of people I haven't even met who brought gifts and celebrated with me. It was such a nice night. I made some new friends and got some great stuff for the baby. Sadly, most of the clothes had to be returned because they were too little. Newborn sized clothes would fit this baby if he were born tomorrow. There's no chance they'd fit him in 8 weeks! So I had to return almost all the clothes, but now I have a nice gift card balance to get more of what we need for his arrival.

John, well, John works. And mows the lawn. And helps out around the house. He's pretty great. He's still on the Atlanta project, so there's been nothing new or exciting job-wise. He will be off travel the end of August hopefully through the end of October because of the baby. There hasn't been any talk of August travel, so it looks like he's home for a while. When he gets home from work the girls go into a frenzy of welcome, yelling and running and spinning in circles and throwing themselves against his legs and trying to climb his body until he picks them up. It's very sweet to see how happy my girls are to see their Dad, and how happy John is to see his girls. We are a blessed and happy family.