Birthday Cake!

First Birthday Cake (6/27/09)

Second Birthday Cake (6/27/10)

Yesterday we concluded Nadia's birthday celebration. Paul's parents and grandmother came up after church and had lunch with us while the kids were napping. I made pulled pork for the first time. It was a bit runny. I want to try another recipe since it's something we both like. Paul's mom brought some baked beans and the birthday cake that Millie had made. I also served chips and grapes. Nadia loved the frosting. She ate more cake last year. This year she used a fork instead of her fingers. She had a SUPER hard time falling asleep last night. Paul said he she didn't stay quiet until after 10pm! I think she is very sensitive to sugar. I gave the rest of the cake to the neighbors today so the temptation would be gone. I've noticed she has a hard time falling asleep when she eats sweets, and she had the cake in the late afternoon so it's not like we gave it to her right before she went to bed.

She was VERY cranky this morning. I am not sure if it was from the lack of sleep last night (she only slept about 8 hours) or constipation (because her mood got much  better after she went #2 on the potty in the afternoon), but it was a very long day. Both kids were out of sorts. The good news is that I got lots of snuggling time in with both kids as both of them wanted to be held ALL DAY. The bad news is that it's hard for me to snuggle with both at the same time so most of the day one of them was screaming. It was exhausting. I'm not sure what Ian's problem was - maybe he's teething? He did really well sleeping last night so that wasn't his problem. I think it was his best night ever. He slept almost 11 hours total! WOW! I nursed him from 3:15-3:45am, which was 8 hours after I had put him down (the 2nd time). He was only fed twice over a span of 12 hours, and the first of those two feedings was before I went to bed. I went to bed around 9pm so I slept 6 hours before the 3am feeding. I had a hard time falling back asleep, but I did sleep over 7 hours total. Tonight he didn't go down until 7:15 so I doubt he'll get 11 hours total, but I'm hoping his first stretch will again be at least 8 hours long.

I was hoping today would be day #10 in a row without any accidents, but for whatever bizzare reason she had two #1 accidents right beside the froggy potty on the linolium. I hadn't cleaned up an accident in weeks. I remembered how much I don't enjoy it. The good news was that she went #2 on a regular potty at our house for the first time. She also went #2 on the potty at church yesterday! YAY! She woke up dry again this morning so in the not so distant future I plan to have her start sleeping in underwear. Right now she's wearing underwear for about 13-14 hours straight and then wearing a pull-up overnight. Hopefully tomorrow will be an accident free day, and I'm hoping the next time we can reach double digits. Right now 9 accident free days in a row is her current record.

Nadia got two more birthday presents yesterday - a tricycle (which even has a bell) from Grandma and PopPop and a magnetic play book from Great Gram. She had fun with both new toys today. She wanted to show Gabby and Alexis her new bike. She spent some time playing with Paul outside once he came home from school (around 6pm). I got a coupon code from PictureMe studios for one more free 10x13 (only had to pay $4 for shipping) so I ordered one of a pose I hadn't ordered anything of while we were at the store. I am grateful we had so many good poses to pick between!