Cause for Celebration!

Woo Hoo! I'm utterly thrilled to announce that Alivia is finally potty trained! She's had several days with no accidents. She absolutely loves wearing her big girl panties! Long Happy Sigh... You can't imagine how happy I am that she is no longer wearing pullups except at night. I think we'll be able to curtail that soon, too! Hurray! Hurray! Hurray! (Happy dancing all over the place!)

This first photo is from Alivia's speech therapy. They are doing an electo-stimulus to her throat muscles. She has to eat and talk throughout the one hour session and it's supposed to help her with speech and cure a drooling issue that we have as a result of all the surgeries. She does pretty well with it for the most part and it seems to be helping!

While we were on our trip last month we visited my brother and his boys in Indy. This shot is Alivia with her cousins Bradley and Corey. Bradley is in school learning the automotive trade and Corey has just graduated high school this year. I'm really proud of both of them! They are really nice young men and both just doted all over Alivia while we were there. Her uncle was even more nuts over her--I was amazed at how he tolerated all her spills and demands, but he was a real trooper. (I think he loved having the chance to play with a toddler after all these years of teenagers.)

These last two photos were taken at the American Girl Store in Chicago. We were there with Christy, Cindy and Katie. Alivia got her doll that day--one of the bitty twins--and named it Jeana (after me!) Christy ordered Katie's doll and they picked her up just a few weeks ago. They got her one of the new historical dolls whose story is that she is a Russian immigrant. Both girls enjoyed visiting the store. Livi wanted to also bring home a doll stroller, but I managed to talk her out of it as we already have a couple at home.

While we were there we treated ourselves to a lovely lunch in the store's restaurant. The food was surprisingly tasty and the girls got to have companion dolls with them during the meal. The service was impeccable! I would recommend it for girls slightly older than ours, though, to really let them get the most out of the experience. Here the two girls are lying on the floor next to the American Girl star. They're such little hams!

~ Jeana