What I learned over a year of potty training

That's right. ONE YEAR. We started potty-training Jane about two months before Hank was born, thinking that if we got it done, we'd only have one kid in diapers. Jane was doing really great right up until he was born. She wasn't having any accidents, but I mainly took her to the bathroom. She very rarely told me when she had to go.

Welp, when Hank was born, she spent a few days with Grandma and Grandpa without Mommy, and her routine got interrupted, and she started having accidents. And... she ended up back in diapers, and about once a month I would try again only to decide that it was so much easier to just change her diaper rather than deal with gross-ness all over the house. We went back and forth like this for, I'm not even kidding, a year! Until one day my mom said she would take Jane to Disneyland if she would be potty-trained. That girl potty-trained herself overnight. Are you kidding me?

We leave tomorrow for Disneyland.

Here's what I learned.

• I never thought it was possible, but sometimes kids just don't care if their pants are wet or poopy. 
• The nice little "incentive" that Huggies puts on their Pull-Ups doesn't work if you've got a stubborn one. No amount of "Don't make the butterfly fly away" will convince her.
• Even brand new underwear with Elsa and Anna on it won't get a strong-willed child to keep her pants clean.
• My Jane will always do exactly as she wants
• We should have bribed her with Disneyland a lot sooner...

She's ready!!

Ummm... An update?

We lived in Missouri for 2 1/2 years. Jane was born there.

We moved to Oregon and lived with Cory's parents for about a year. Cory did an internship at Wildlife Safari. Hank was born. 

We bought a house in McMinnville. We love it and all its quirks and charm. 

We love McMinnville. It's such a unique little town and we already have such wonderful friends here. 

Cory works with monkeys (mostly macaques) and Kristen takes care of their monkeys (mostly humans).

Some pictures...