Pink: my new blue

She's a complete mess. Adorable in EVERY way. You know, I thought I would have a hard time adjusting to a little girl, but to be completely honest, she's definitely more my style. Pink is definintely a color I love. This little girl is my new little sidekick. ((Joey still is too.... I just have a new addition to my clan!))

She's about 9 weeks old now. She's beautiful and sweet. Its been quite the adjustment as you can imagine. I've been nothing but overwhelmed.

She's sleeping through the night already for the most part. She smiles all the time, and throws in a giggle or two - just absolutely heart melting. I already don't know what I did with my time without her. Was it really just Joey and me during the day? Shoot....those were the days when I had nothing but "time" on my hands (eye roll...). Now - I have no time on my hands - hence the lack of blog posts in the last 9 weeks, and the urgent request for prayer.

I've been on the brink of losing my mind these last few weeks. I've needed a break. Not that I'm not enjoying every second of my world right now, but sometimes you can have too much of a good thing, right?

The thing that has pushed me over the edge is potty training Joey. About 5 weeks after we had Delaney, he developed a rash on his bottom (don't ever tell him that I mentioned his boo-hiney issues on this blog) and the doc told us that it was time to get him out of the diapers and into cotton underwear. "Oh Lord," I thought.

The reason I didn't attempt potty training before then was because when he was finally ready, I was too prego to get up and down off the floor with him while he sat on his potty. And plus, I heard rumor that most likely he would regress after the baby was born, so I figured I would do it well after Delaney was settled in. I didn't know it was going to come THAT quick.

I had already ordered this program off the internet for the 3-Day Potty Training and was armed and ready with 30 pairs of "big boy" undies, and prepared myself to throw away all the diapers. I did just that and dove head first into the program one weekend. Lucky for Annie-Bo-Nannie, she happened to be gracing us with her appearance, and I graced her with a weekend of poopy pants and peed-on floors. ((Sorry Bo Nannie!! You're an AMAZING SPORT! We always have a new project to attack when you come to visit... I'm sure I'll have another random project for the next time, if you want to come back. haha!))

The 3 Day Potty Training method "worked" for the most part, but Joey was too smart for it, and decided that he would try to get on our nerves by NOT cooperating. To this day, its still a power struggle. He STILL will not tell me WHEN he has to go. I just have to rush him to the bathroom to pee, or catch him before he goes. So needless to say, its been a struggle now that 3 days has turned into 6 weeks. I'm about to go out of my mind. He KNOWS how and when to go, but he's more stubborn than his father.

And his terrible twos have really shown up in the last 2 months. He's a little more defiant that usual because of Delaney's presence, but I honestly think that she doesn't stand in his way that much. We show him more attention than we show her (in his eyes anyway), but his little boyish nature is just exploding. he's a monkey. I've found him on top of just about every piece of furniture that is no more than 4 feet tall. He's figured out how to pull out bottom drawers of dressers for his "step ladder" and it has gotten him on top of about every dresser in the house. And chairs.... his new "thing." They are the step stools to a whole new world.

He's obsessed with washing machines. he has to sit and watch the full cycle of the washing machine every time I use it - so I've been doing most of the laundry post-Joey, while he is sleeping (which these days, he doesn't fall asleep until about 11pm if we are lucky, even if he goes down at 9pm. UGH.

In the midst of kid craziness, its been nothing short of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom here. In the last 9 weeks, we've had everything grace our yard. In one day, we had a 4 ft long snake in the pool, a mouse on our porch (of which Rudy caught), a box turtle on the porch, and a family of geckos and some other kind of funky looking lizard crawling on our porch pillars. Before that we had birds flying around in our screened in porch (snuck in through a torn screen from a storm we had a few days prior), cardinals, dogs, spiders of every kind, skunks, deer, frogs, armadillos, bunnies - you name it.

The worst is the snakes. Three weeks ago, I spotted a 5 ft long rat snake crawling across the drive. Two days later, we discovered a family of cottonmouths living next to the house. Since then, we've had a little bit of yard work done. We no longer have a lot of woods and brush up next to the house. We had it pushed waaaaaaaaay back in order to get rid of the snakes. So far, its worked!

I'm going to try to keep up more with the blog. I want to for sure, especially since I did so much when Joey was a baby. I want to do the same for my little girl. Thanks for all your prayers and patience!!!!