Potty time

We've been trying to get Eliza potty trained for a while but not pushing too hard. We have her sit on her potty before her bath at night and one or two times during the day. Yesterday I was drying my hair in the bathroom and she went and got her potty seat and the Reader's Digest and had me help her up onto the toilet. She just sat there looking through the magazine for a while and guess what? She actually peed in the toilet! I guess if she's on the toilet for long enough, she's bound to go to the bathroom sooner or later but we're still excited. We made a huge deal out of it and kept telling her how proud we were of her so we'll see if we have any more success in the coming days. How funny are these pictures?

Newest member of the family

My brother Brian and his wife Megan welcomed their new baby girl on Tuesday, August 18th. Elsie Marie weighed 7 lbs. 12 oz. and was 20 1/2 inches long. Isn't she cute? One thing is always guaranteed with Megan's girls - they are never without a headband or bows in their hair that match their outfit perfectly.

We went up to visit them yesterday evening and I couldn't believe how big Jackson looked compared to Elsie. It's amazing how much of a difference 6 weeks can make. Eliza had fun playing with her favorite cousin, Michael. She also had a really exciting/sort of terrifying time with their hyperactive labrador, Sage. Eliza was making a kind of half laughing, half screaming sound the whole time and then after a while she finally said, "Okay, can we go inside now and leave the dog out here?"

Here is Eliza with her cousins Michael, Caden, Mylee, and uncle Brian.

Congrats Brian and Megan!

6 weeks old

It doesn't seem like it's been 6 weeks already since we were speeding and running red lights at 4:00 in the morning to get to the hospital in time but I guess it has been. Jackson is doing great. He is getting big and he has already changed so much. He started smiling last week which completely melts my heart. Last night I was rocking him and as he fell into a light sleep he started laughing. It was the cutest thing I've ever seen. He had a giant grin on his face and his body was shaking from the laughter.

I've always heard that around 6 weeks, babies start to get into more of a schedule as far as eating and sleeping. I don't know what I'm doing wrong but we're not quite there yet. It's still a guessing game when he'll be up and when he'll want to eat but hopefully we'll get a little more settled soon. I could definitely use more than 5 hours of sleep a night. It's not even 5 hours in a row, either. He actually sleeps pretty well for the first half of the night but then after he eats, he doesn't want to sleep unless he's being held. So I end up in this kind of uncomfortable half sleep sitting up because I'm worried about smothering him. I'm sure it will get better soon. He's so sweet and Eliza has been really good with him so far. Whenever he's asleep she'll say, "I go make sure baby brother is okay," which consists of her running over to him and putting her hand on his chest which usually wakes him up. Or if I leave the room for a minute, she'll say, "I keep an eye on baby brother."

Here are some unsuccessful attempts at getting a picture of Jackson smiling.

New pictures

I went to a bridal shower for my cousin this weekend and I brought Jackson with me to show him off. My uncle's sister (I don't know what that makes her to me) had her camera and was snapping pictures of everyone and she got some really cute ones of Jackson. I guess we should figure how to turn the flash on our camera off and maybe we could get one where he's not closing his eyes or cross-eyed.

Isn't that a sweet face? I love the yawning one. It looks like he has little elf ears.