Brylee's Potty Training Song

Tinkle Tinkle Little Brylee
When you do your mom will smiley
Stickers, Chocolate, Praise for you
Maybe more when you go to pooh
Tinkle Tinkle Little Brylee
When you do your mom will smiley

Notes on Brylee's potty training:

Friday was the most eventful day thus far, and I don't mean she used her big girl potty all by herself.  But instead, it was a day of mishaps, and messy ones at that.

In the morning, I stepped downstairs to find her outfit, and I guess I must have taken too long because by the time I stepped back up, she had shed her Pull-Up and pooped on the floor.  I spared everyone with pictures, but fortunately it was not really all too messy.  Just a fast bath to get ready to go to Storytime...which incidentally I decided not to go to because her new mess would be my main focus of attention just before my mom's visit.

Naptime was more eventful.  I put her in her room with just 10 minutes before Cary was due to get off of work.  She may not have been too incredibly tired, but I am good with letting her play quietly in her room.  No later than 1:30, Cary showed up with his mom, who was going to take Brylee for the night.

We looked in Brylee's room to see that she had again taken off her Pull-Up and wet the bed.  But included in this was this:

She had moved the gliding ottoman to her dresser and pulled out a skirt from the top drawer.  So glad she didn't fall over!

Ahhh the life of toddlerhood!

Let's just say that I am keeping a slightly closer eye on her for now...

Project 52: 35/52 Laughter

What more perfect picture to add then this one?  This weekend has been nothing but laughter from Brylee and her 'T'.  More on that later  :o)

How The McFaddens Faired In The Hurricane

So Sunday came and went with a lot of rain and wind, but nothing terrible. We have trees all around our house, so I was glad to see that none (well one small one) went down. My in-laws are without power at their house about 20 minutes away, but other than that, we survived with taking videos and oohhing and aahhing at the sights.

I read this on CNN tonight. My in-laws were taking a mini vacation in Woodstock, 'just outside' Quechee. They decided to come home on Saturday instead of Sunday. I'm glad they did come home because I don't think any of us understood the magnitude of how hard Vermont was hit.

Brylee and I took a walk this morning through the town's Main Street to see if there was any significant damage anywhere.

This is what we found:

Our patio with a couple of twigs and leaves tossed onto it:









The most damage I saw:









But the river was beautiful:









The sky was blue:









As well as her eyes:












Heading home, we walked through a little park and since she is just so sweet, I had to let her play. There was this:









This:












And lots of this:












Thank you, Lord, for your protection!

Project 52: 34/52 Maps

This picture was not taken from me, but found here. I just wanted to document what was going on this week in our life...which of course, there may be more of later, in another post.


This photo was taken by me, in the heart of Boston after finding a geocache. We didn't have a pen, so a very nice saleslady in The Children's Place let us borrow one.

It's hard to believe we walked a large part of the city, and my tootsies were sore afterwards!

The McFadden Way Of Preparing For Irene

So, what kinds of words of wisdom can I share with our fellow friends and family that are facing Hurricane Irene when it hits us as a Tropical Storm either Sunday or Monday?
Go visit another 'house of your dreams' and figure out the location, so that once the storm has passed, you can see how it fairs during and afterwards. (notice Brylee's approval)Make sure you have full (and freshly organized) pantries and some bottled water:

Not to mention some good reading material and crafts to entertain the little one:
Clean the patio and make sure all items are in a safe location (and spray the windows as well to make sure the wife can't get any good pictures of this being done):
Then head to the park to enjoy the gorgeous day outside:And also enjoy the joys of having a drive-in movie theater in your town, but hope that The Smurfs is not the last movie you ever see:Don't forget to enjoy some quality ice cream, you know, so that you can say you regret nothing.
Enjoy the playground some more:Make sure your landing gear is down:And we'll see you once the ride is over!

She's Just So Stinkin' Cute

That's the phrase I have used describing Brylee the past 2 weeks. And so much going on for this little cutie that I figured I'll make notes:

She says 'no' so much that I have tried redirecting her. When she says this newly 'dirty' word, we ask her to say, 'yes', 'maybe', 'sometimes', 'probably', and my favorite, 'okie-dokie', which she says as 'dokie'.

She loves to say bye bye, and will even address the person. a.k.a., "bye-bye daddy". This morning she added for him to 'be safe', which is my typical departing words for him.

We changed her bed from the crib to the toddler bed with railing. It is only a matter of time for her to climb over the bed, but with hardwood floors and concrete just below it, we were nervous about her landing wrong, even with blankets layered underneath. I thought some sleepless nights were coming our way, so I closed her noisy toys in her closet at night, and Brylee has done great! She crawls into bed whenever she is tired, and most of the time not hear a peep until the morning, when she goes to the baby gate at the door and says, 'mommy!' or 'where mommy go?'

She has only earned 2 stickers in the potty training ordeal, but she is still young, and just seeing her sit on the potty for any length of time is good. If she ever catches on how cool stickers are, we might use them to entice her to eat her veggies, too!

She sings Twinkle Little Star and the ABC's like a pro...well, a baby pro at least. She loves belting out a tune, and even better if there are drums, piano, guitar, or harmonica at her disposal. She also knows her ABC's in ASL. She can count to 10, sometimes a little higher, and can even count backwards. Her colors are coming along, this morning with her surprising me with her memory!

Her new favorite activity is to feed Chester. Despite the kibbles being all over the place, Chester is now well fed, even though he might not understand that this came from his newest 'best friend'.

Words of a friend here in Small Town: 'she's becoming a brute'. At playgroup this week, she did her best to take a way a toy walker from a little one that was just learning how to walk. It was an interesting scene as I tried to step in, pry the walker out of her hands and redirect her (which another mommy did great at doing). And she likes to play 'queen of the top of the slide', by sitting there as long as possible and not letting anyone else have a turn. And while I do not think this is any part of the 'stinkin' cute side of her, she and I are working on her learning how to share and be gentle with other playmates. I know it is part of her learning and growing phase, and while I do not want her stepped all over in the future when it comes to toys, I most certainly do not want her to be the bully kid at school (or anywhere for that matter).

Project 52: 33/52 Green

This is in a park in Boston, MA which Cary and I visited last weekend (post to come soon). It was so luscious and green, and I fell in love with the Willows...I hope to have one or two someday!

And I love how the guy in the picture also happens to be wearing green as well! Way to get into the Project 52 spirit!

Project 52: 32/52 Clothes

A week late on doing this one, mostly because as I was writing this one up, I saw some flaws in the picture (read: I see London...)

So, needless to explain, this is how our laundry basket looks after 1/2 week of laundry...well, maybe a full week's worth. Depending on how incredibly lazy I get...

Delayed 20 Months and On-Time 21 Months

It has been a while since I have done a monthly update post, but I'm trying to figure out exactly what is new versus what I have said before.

Let's see what we can find...

She is pretty fluent in the ABC's. She loves the alphabet song and loves to review them daily. She still misses a couple, like "U" and "X". But I'm sure she'll pick up on them quickly enough...

The same with numbers. She says 1-10, but misses 7.

And colors are coming along. We got her a puzzle that are fish tails of different colors, and she can easily match them to the rest of the fish, but sometimes still call everything 'blue'. She has surprised me though, bringing me a fish tail, telling me it was pink, and then walking away, only for me to look at the fish tail and see that it was pink!

Here's a picture of her doing a little sorting game:
Some funny notes:

Saturday I was baking cookies for church and she was my big helper (making a mess and me cleaning it up). At one point I told her that I was proud of how curious she is, and when I turned around and looked at her, she was looking inside my oven mitt. Couldn't have asked for better timing!

As of 8/7, she now sings the ABC's perfectly, as well as knows most of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

And now for her 21 month update:
We have started her potty training today! I say this because I have been lazy about being consistent, but yesterday we got a care package of Pull-Ups from her T and Poppy, as well as Oma and Opa are stocked on them as well...so what better time to start?! We have her potty chair upstairs because the bathrooms are downstairs. So far it has been an adventure, but she is a great sport. I need to pick up some little 'rewards' for her so she can look forward to sitting on a quacking duck potty seat!

She has also started showing some tendencies to be pushy and not wanting to share, which we are trying to put an end to. The sooner the better. And I'm thankful for the kids and moms at playgroup because we are all the same, understanding that these little ones don't know any better, but at the same time, we don't want to see our kids behaving poorly. So cheers to the great moms we have met out here in Small Town Maine!

On Friday, she and I attended a birthday party for 3 little ones that were turning 2 all within a month of each other, and there were bubbles involved at the lake. Brylee loves bubbles and spent quite a bit of time running around trying to pop them. I was trying to get a picture of one of the little tots, and the sun didn't allow me to see what image I was catching. At the same time, I heard a very loud 'thud', and a little boy started crying. From what I could see he and Brylee bounced off of each other, and he was shocked and/or hurt and started crying while Brylee got up, found the nearest bubble and went on chasing it again. When I got home and looked at the pictures without blaring sun, this is what I found:

Anything else? Hmmm...I'm sure there are tons more, so just watch for updated information...

Take Her Out To The Ballgame

Tuesday brought a big change up for our family in weekly activities. A friend of mine's daughter (Brylee's 'twin' and friend) was sick and had to give up tickets to that evening's Sea Dogs baseball game.

Thinking it would help her family out that they wouldn't lose money on tickets to be able to go again, I asked Cary if he and his parents would be interested in going. And lucky for us, they did!

So that afternoon, Brenda, Gary, Brylee, Cary and I headed off to Portland to check out our first non Texas Ranger baseball game!

Check out these seats! We were the 10th row up from the field, pretty much directly behind the home plate. You couldn't ask for anything better! (it was also still in foul ball territory, as proven when several balls flew behind us!)

Brylee was so excited to see this character and kept waving 'bye bye' after we got the picture and departed.
These characters are part of the Zooperstars, which were incredibly entertaining between innings.
This is Slugger, and we tried to get a picture with him as well, but he was very busy with older kids attaching him for hugs. But we managed to get this shot, though!
This was us leaving for the evening. We left shortly after the 7th Inning Stretch, realizing we had an hour drive ahead of us and a very sleepy little girl.
Thank you Nicole for the opportunity to enjoy a great game (Sea Dogs won 9-2) and it was a great first time experience for Brylee, who loved every bit of the game!