Gloria, on the other hand, seems to be taking to it well.  She hangs out at home in just a dress so that she has the air on her bum and no pants to worry with.  She goes whenever the urge strikes her, or whenever an M&M sounds good at the moment.  Several times over the past few days I’ve heard, “Mommy, you gotta flush my pee pee so I can make some more.”  For the most part, she’s the one deciding when to go.  I do suggest that she go in certain instances (before leaving the house, right after she wakes up) but I do NOT make it a requirement.  Most of the time she tries anyway, but she’ll tell me if she’s not interested. 

I load her up in the car every morning and set her in her car seat on a towel to take Thomas to school.  She stays as she is in the house (nothing on the bum) for the short car ride.  If we go out anywhere she’d actually have to get out of the car, she goes in loose pants and nothing underneath.  I think she’s only had 3 pee accidents since the first day of potty training and these were all while she was wearing pants.

We’ve been up to church to set up and copy bulletins in loose pants with no incident.  We even managed to make it all the way through Sunday school in loose pants with no issue.  Granted, she did have a little accident in the first pair of pants before we left the house, but she did stop herself and managed to finish in the little potty. 

Speaking of potties, the princess will only go in her own, so it goes with her wherever she goes.  Once she used Daniel’s potty because her potty was in the same room with her sleeping aunt and uncle and she didn’t want to make her cousin cry by waking her up.

She’s doing pretty well with number two as well.  She had one accident with that on the floor in the kitchen while no one was looking.  She was very vocal about it and shooed her little brother and her aunt’s dog away from it until her mother managed to clean it up.  She even redeemed herself that same night by sitting on the potty before bed and producing something a grown man would be proud of!

The thing that has surprised me the most about this experience is that Gloria has woken up twice with a dry diaper and announced that she wanted to use the potty.  She has yet to have a nap accident.

I think I’m just lucky.

Now before you gasp and start thinking that I’m some horrible mother trying to turn her kid into a super reader, realize that I haven’t worked with him on them.  We don’t sit down with flashcards or anything.  I don’t require him to say his ABC’s before he can eat and I’m not shoving letters at him and talking about them all day.  He’s just really interested in them thanks to PBS and his older siblings.

At home he’s been obsessed with the magnet letters on the refrigerator and picks them up and excitedly asks,” What’s dis?”  I really figured that any that he happened to get correct were lucky guesses or were because he recognized that particular magnet, in that particular color, in that particular font. 

Apparently, I was wrong.

After Daniel’s appointment, I went to the church with both toddlers to run off the children’s bulletins.  Gloria was on the floor playing with the Veggie Tales nativity set while Daniel climbed up and examined a wood carving of the word “love” in all capitals.  Then I heard him say “e, y, o, l.”  Say what?  I went over next to him and asked him to identify each one to make sure I hadn’t misheard.  I hadn’t.  He was identifying the letters correctly and consistently.  And in his defense, the V on that carving does look a lot like a Y with a short stem.

At lunch time he gleefully pointed out a “bud-you” (W) on a cup from Manchu Wok. 

At home he began telling me about the letters on the Huggies diaper box in his room.  Did you know that Huggies uses all caps?  At Waffle House, he was looking at the letters on the menu and identifying W, L, E, H, S, O, and U.  Today he has been pointing out D’s.

This is so different than his older siblings.  Thomas was still saying mostly “ack” at this age.  He wasn’t even talking much.  Gloria was talking, but I’m not sure if she knew letters existed outside of the Alphabet Song.  Now we have Daniel who is here to remind us that kids will learn whatever you put under there nose!

We "set sail" from Mobile, AL on Carnival’s Holiday.  I think it’s the smallest one they have.  Here are some pictures from the Mobile docks:

The marine police munched on pizza from the galley while they waited for us to get under way.

The view of the bow with all the interesting winches, pulleys, and lines.

The view down the stairwell through the hanging sculpture.

Thomas’ favorite place on the ship was the big water slide.

Here he is going down it.  He’s the little dark spot at the bottom of the slide.

Gloria liked the pool ok, but really enjoyed the music of our steel drum player:

There was a little play set next to the kiddie pool.  Gloria loved her "house"

and spent a ridiculous amount of time sliding.

She also enjoyed playing by the pool.  She took many showers

and hopped around like a frog.

Meanwhile, Thomas went trolling for little bits of trash using his trusty swim goggles.

He managed to find numerous pieces of paper which looked to be a shredded twenty dollar bill.

He tried to get Gloria into it,

but she preferred to play chase with him in the pool.

Daddy and Daniel catching the wind in their hair:

Down in the shade.

We did so much more, but I am not a shutterbug and prefer dong the action rather than hanging out behind the camera photographing it.

It’s amazing how a camera shy girl can become a super model as soon as candy comes into play!

The day he turned one we snapped a few cute photos of him in his high chair enjoying an Oreo.

Such a sweet face 

This Oreo is pretty good!

Cheese!

Camera ham!

Sunday afternoon/evening we had a family celebration.  Kane and Valerie and DeNiece came over from Georgia to participate.  Michael and Gilah also came.  Thomas was at his father’s and managed to get there after the cake and midway through the presents.

We had a yummy spaghetti dinner that Daniel obviously enjoyed.

The cake.  Makes me think of Pinnochio.

He was a little unsure of how to eat the cake at first.

But decided it tasted pretty good.

And then got down to the business of SQUISHING it.

And stuffing his face.

And trying to figure out how to get it off his fingers.  (Thank goodness he didn’t decide to flap!)

And hamming it up for the camera.

By the time he was done the yellow and blue cake had turned into teal mush.  (Michael has a good picture of this.)

We then spent some time helping him to open his gifts.  (All of these pictures are on Michael’s camera.  Hint, hint, Michael.)

It’s hard to believe my babiest boy is one already.  He takes a few unassisted steps here and there, but prefers the security of a push walker so that he can go, go, go!  He talks a lot and likes to smile at us on purpose.  He whispers "hi" and grins, says "diap’n" for diaper, says "bye" right after we’ve left, and gives some of the best hugs and kisses these days.  He’s night weaned from 11pm-5am.  Sometimes he even makes it longer with minimal fussing.  He has a strong temper and a loud scream to go with it.  He wants to do everything Gloria does, much to her dismay.  I find the urge to buy 2 of everything to minimize the noisy disagreements that happen, but I don’t really think Daniel needs his own Tinkerbell doll and My Little Ponies!

This last year has been amazing to watch Daniel grow and become part of the family.  His older siblings love him to pieces in spite of all their spats.  He and Thomas have special games they play where they fall down together.  Gloria and Daniel go racing around the house with their push walkers hollering and laughing. 

Life in the Blue House is good!

Gloria saw the camera and demanded that I take a picture of her.  Since she rarely cooperates, I took two.

Here’s the mug I got the camera out for.  He’s stinkin’ cute, even if he is ornery.

Daniel hammed it up some, too!

He loves his push walker.  He took a couple of unassisted steps by accident the other day and has refused to do so since, but he sure can make that walker go anywhere he wants to.  He’s a better driver than his mother or sister!

My little speed demon!

My favorite of the walker pictures.

So that was actually what I did LAST week.

Monday I got busy with some red, white and blue plaid.  I decided to modify the pattern (again) so that it had a "top" and "shorts."  And then I took a A-line dress pattern for Gloria and turned it into a matching dress with a bodice and slightly gathered skirt.

Tuesday, I worked on some seersucker type fabric that Thomas picked out for Daniel.  I decided to try some little "tucks" in the front.  I like the end result, but not so much with this particular fabric.  I think this style would have looked better with a simpler fabric.

And this one is my favorite so far.  I started it on late Wednesday afternoon and then finished it Thursday morning.  I did the little bone and brown square appliqué on the front.  I wasn’t aware that my machine could do such a thing!

I am out of the puppy fabric, but I’m thinking Gloria might need a little dress to match.  I still have enough fabric for 9 more outfits for the little ones so I am going to do my best to get that sewn up first before getting any more.

I’ve also decided that I like the snaps set up so that the back "strap" goes UNDER the front.  It makes it look more like overalls and more boyish.  I may crack the snaps off and redo them that way.  I have lots of blue snaps.  I am also considering doing two on each shoulder to keep the corners from flipping up.

So many ideas!  So much fabric!  So little time!  But so much fun!

A close up of one of the pockets that took sooooo long.  Hard to see it on the shorts with this print.