Can I just say...I LOVE having a little girl!

We felt like it was a "tutu kind" of day...

Sweet Sophia is getting her 8th tooth. This one seems to be bothering her more than any of the others. It is a bottom one. However, she is into EVERYTHING, she is very LOUD, and she is pulling up on WHATEVER she can. She is busy and likes to be in the middle of it all. This can cause some trouble between John and her, since Mr. John loves the center of attention also.

Mr. John wore only underwear today... even though it was snowing and freezing outside. It was like he refused to put on clothes. I finally convinced him at 6:00 pm to put on clothes so we could go to Sam's Club.
He painted his bird house today and did a great job. I didn't get a picture of the finished project yet, but he was very careful to not mix the paints in their containers. He hummed the whole time he painted.

Tonight, John read me his version of this book. It was great and he got all the main points of the story. He even tried to put voices into it. He also called the octopus, a shark. I love that he loves books and really listens to them as I read to him.

John has been bummed that his friend, Brielle, hasn't been at Mrs. Jewell's house these past couple days. He decided he wanted to color her a rubber ducky.

(FYI: Matt drew the rubber ducky and I drew Bert and Ernie. We decided it looked like they were in a swan love boat at an amusement park...not that there is anything wrong with that. :) )

Get well soon Brielle!

Sophia's 1 Year Appointment

Sweet Sophia has turned one, which means we needed to have a 12 month appointment. She weighed in at 22 lbs and 11 oz. (She is the 75th percentile) This is 9oz more than she weighed at 9 months. She measures at 31 inches long. (She is in the 94th percentile) She has grown!

She did well for the doctor and the only thing I had to say that she wasn't doing was giving kisses and walking. We are working on it...more the kisses than walking...I don't know if I am ready to have her walking!

Poor girl got 3 shots and blood drawn from her arm. She screamed and I could barely get her to calm down...poor baby.

This past week, we have seen a different side of Sophia. She is no longer okay with being the quiet, calm one. It seems that if she thinks people are not paying attention to her...she will get yout attention! She has become very loud! It is so funny to see this change because this hasn't been her personality at all until now.

Today while we were in the car, coming home from Houston...the car was SO loud. Between her and John, you would have thought we had 10 kids in the back seat. I can see we have taken a change in our family...we will see how it goes!

Potty Training

The plan has been to do potty training over Spring Break. Now while we have been thinking of doing this, I had not planned on John to quit sucking his thumb. I almost didn't do it because I thought it might be to much...to many life changes all within 2 weeks. However, I thought "Let's give it a try!" I studied up on the 3 day potty training guide because many people had said that it worked. So Friday night, I stayed up late, got everything ready such as a sticker chart, underwear laid out, the bathroom ready for potty training and cleared my schedule for the next 3 days. Miss Sophia got to spend the night with Nana Barb on Saturday since Matt was going to be in town and my mom would be at the house Sunday night to help with her while my attention was devoted to Mr. John.

Below are the Potty Training Bootcamp events and thoughts as I went through it...

Saturday (1st Day) - ACCIDENTS!!! We went through 12 pairs of underwear and I scrubbed the floor constantly! He got to put up 17 stickers because I constantly had him drinking all day long. I stayed by my little man's side the whole day. He seem to pee everywhere; however, he did get through his nap dry. We put stickers up, got little gifts, and ate a lot of candy! By the end of the day, I wasn't sure if I wanted to do this anymore. We were both exhausted. John was in the bath by 6:25 and in bed by 7:20. I was dreading the next day of Bootcamp.

Sunday (Day 2) - NO ACCIDENTS!! John woke up dry and made it to the potty everytime. He didn't poop all day so we still needed to get this part of potty training completed. He did a great job and was excited to go to the potty each time. My mom got here on Sunday night and later said " I don't know who looked more tired....Jodi or John."

Monday (Day 3) - John woke up dry again! He had one accident and it was when he pooped. While I took Sophia to the doctor, he dribbled a little bit on his underwear. He threw up his hands and said " I just want to go to Pop's house!" (This was what he had chosen as his gift when he got potty trained.) My mom said she almost cried. I decided that since he wanted to go so badly, and he had been consistant in making it to the bathroom for peeing...we should get to Houston. We packed up and were on the road. He made it to Houston with no accidents!!

The rest of the week went well. He is a typical little boy...and 2 1/2 years old...he gets busy and waits until the last minute. Most of the time he makes it, but there have been a couple of accidents. One of the harder parts, that I hadn't thought much about, is watching his liquid intake after dinner. We try to have him not drink hardly anything to help with the night time. There have been times that I just wanted to put a pull-up on him, but we have decided to not do pull-ups....so he has been in big boy underpants since Saturday morning.

Good news...he pooped in the potty this morning for the first time! He was very excited. When he came back to the bathroom later to pee, he said "Where's my poop?" I explained to him about how we don't save our poop. He just shrugged his shoulders.

Another point....potty training boys is quite the experience. I think I scrubbed my bathroom floor 10 times in 3 days. You never know where that stream is going to go! I guess we will work on aim next!

John and his friend Ginger!

Funny story about Ginger...

I had heard that a great way to potty train boys is to let them go outside and pee. When I tried this with John, he looked at me and said "Mom, I not a dog."

When we were at the park and the bathrooms were locked, I convinced John to go outside. After he did it, he ran around saying "I peed like my friend Ginger!"

John received his track today for NO MORE THUMB SUCKING!

Life is good in the Turnbough house!

Sweet Sophia is 1!

Today is the day. 1 year ago, Sweet Sophia was born. I remembering being absolutely sure that I was having another little boy. When they announced that we had a little girl...it was such a surprise. I remember looking at Matt and we were so excited. I tell people that I have the best of both worlds. I love having a little boy and little girl. Sophia fits in our family perfectly. It is like she has always been a part of it. She is truly her own person and I love seeing her personality coming out each day.

12 things that I love about Sophia:
1. I LOVE your cheeks.
2. I love the cheesy grins that you give to your dad and me.
3. I love how you say Dada and Mama (even though I think you mean "more" when you say Mama).
4. I love how you stand your ground with John, especially when he tries to take a toy from you.
5. I love how you have been so easy going with the transition of formula to milk and bottle to sippy cup.
6. I love that you are NOT a picky eater at all!
7. I love that you find army crawling easier than regular crawling.
8. I love how you are truly a mommy's girl.
9. I love how you let me put bows in your hair and you keep them in...most of the time.
10. I love how you are the best sleeper in the whole world.
11. I love how if I say "No Sophia" you put on a pouty face.
12. I love how you play with your big brother and you make our family complete.

Happy 1st Birthday Sophia. We love you so much.

John and I went off to the dentist on Friday morning. I was getting a cleaning and I wanted John to just visit the dentist before his first appointment. He was very excited to go! He sat in my lap the whole time and loved watching them clean my teeth.. Then the dentist came in and Dr. Sam saw John sucking his thumb. Dr. Sam said "John, sucking your thumb hurts your teeth. You can't do that anymore." John hung his head and looked so sad. He didn't even want to pick out of the treasure chest.

On the way home, I could tell he was sad. It was like he had lost his best friend. I asked him if there was a present he would like if he stopped sucking his thumb. He said "I like a track." So we made a deal...no sucking thumb and he would get a track for his Chuck truck. He was still sad when we got home. He laid on the floor face down for a while but we got a picture of the track he wanted and he seemed a little better.

I believe from that moment on John decided that he wasn't going to suck his thumb. He taught himself to put his hands behind his head when he goes to sleep so he doesn't suck his thumb. When he would first try to suck his thumb, he would put his hand on his cheek. Night time was hard at the beginning. The first night he asked for pickles as his night time snack. He stated "Pickles help your teeth. Sucking your thumb hurts your teeth."

It has been 4 days since the day at the dentist. I think we have had to tell him "don't suck your thumb" 6 times in those 4 days. Today, we didn't have to say it once. I have even checked on him at night time to make sure and he sleeps with those hands behind his head. It looks like a track is on its way to our house.

I am amazed as a parent at how this little 2 1/2 year old had the will power to give something that was security to him. It was like he had a goal and he went for it. It made me so proud of him. You could tell his little mind was working so hard to stop this habit. I was dreading the day that I would have to get him to stop sucking his thumb...and he totally took care of it on his own. He is an amazing little guy and I am so proud to call him my son.

John...I love you.

Sophia's 1st Birthday

Today we celebrated Sophia's 1st Birthday! She will officially be one on Tuesday but today was the big shin dig. She was the happiest girl through the whole thing. She loved all the company, she LOVED the cake (you'll be able to tell from the pictures) and she loved her presents. She even got into opening the presents. It was a great night but I am very thankful for a jeans day tomorrow!

Enjoy the pictures!

I added in this picture at the end. I can't get it to move down where I want it so...this was her ending of eating the cake...flipping the plate upside down.

Sophia's own special cake!

She loved her crown!


How precious is this picture??

Pre-snack before the family got there.

Yes she does have lepard print leg warmers on!

John was very excited about his sister's birthday party.

At first she was dainty. She would barely touch the icing and then lick her fingers.

Then she got a little more into it. She loved all the cameras clicking as she ate.

Then she got into it a little more...

And this was the end result!

The four cousins on the Turnbough side.

She got an American Doll Bitty Baby...and she loved it! She loved the eyes and how they open and close.

She really did love all her presents. She got lots of amazing gifts which you will get to see in pictures to come.

Thank you to all the famiy that came tonight to make this evening special. We missed the ones that couldn't make it.

Extreme Gymnastics

When we let John know we were going to Gymnastics...he was estatic! He loves going to jump, balance and hang. Sophia got to play for the first time. She has always been to little and hasn't really gotten into it. However, this time she loved it. She crawled every where and she even got in the little pit to play.

John did the balance beam all by himself and he was so proud!

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