2009 has begun!

We had a great Christmas. Caitlin loved every minute of the holiday season. Each day she got to open the next window of the advent calendar and eat the chocolate. That was special treat because mommy doesn't really let Caitlin have sweets like that. As soon as we walked in from school/work she would say "piece of chocolate" over and over again.

Shawn and I hosted our first holiday on Christmas Eve. I don't have a lot of family here in NC, and none of Shawn's family lives here so we had a nice dinner with my grandmother, parents, brother, uncle, aunt and 2 of their 3 kids. She enjoyed opening presents and actually liked the presents and not the paper or boxes.

Christmas morning I went into her room and she said "Santa here." She was one lucky girl with the amount of presents Santa brought her. Took her a while to open them, Shawn and I just enjoyed the moment. We had a nice family day at home to play with all our new toys. Mommy got a new ipod nano that I absolutely LOVE!

The day after Christmas Shawn's parents came to visit and we got to do Christmas all over again and it was great! She is so lucky to have so many people who love her so much. She was so funny opening her presents because when given a wrapped shirtbox to open she knew it was clothes and wanted nothing to do with opening it. How does a 2 year old know a wrapped box has clothes it in?

A couple of weeks before Christmas Caitlin started using the potty regularly but we didn't push it. She was starting to go in school also so the day after Christmas we started to work with her and alternate between diapers, pull-ups and panties and she was doing great. On Tuesday, January 6th, it was raining out and I figured her class couldn't go out to play so lets try panties. I was so happy when Ms. Ebony told me she stayed dry all day!!!! So we kept at it, no more diapers or pull-ups during the day and she just got it. It's been 2 1/2 weeks now that she's been in panties and we have only had 1 pee accident (it was at home the day after we started and I was vacuuming so she could have told me she had to go and I didn't hear her). The #2 took about a week longer and each day Ms. Kari would tell me she did that in her panties. I knew that would take more time so I went out and bought "Everybody Poops". I am still amazed at the book but she seemed to understand and literally the next day went at school and has been doing it every since. I am going to work on the nap this weekend and we'll tackle nighttime soon. My goal was to have her trained by the spring so we could be out and about with no worries. It has been perfect timing since it's so cold we don't go out too much on the weekends. Shawn and I are both so proud of her!