Two big accomplishments

We've had two big accomplishments in our family lately. The first one is that Claire is officially potty trained! We are so excited. I was dreading doing this with her because the experience with Andrew was not so good.

We had been trying on and off since the first of the year to do potty training. She was not interested at all.

In conjunction with Natalie we decided to make a valiant effort to try at the end of June. Claire caught right on. When she saw the new princess underwear it was a done deal. She has even cried out in the middle of the night that she needs to go potty. I'm not sure I like this, but what ever it takes to make it stick. She tells us when she needs to go whether we are at home or out. It will be a nice reprieve from buying diapers for two months.

The second big accomplishment is that Andrew can officially ride a bike without training wheels.

We got him a new bike back in May for his birthday -without training wheels. He was leery about riding it as he had fallen when we had tried on his old bike. Motivated by the shiny blue bike and new helmet we kept trying a little at a time.

He got some encouragement from bike expert Uncle Pete. Pete came over one day and asked Andrew if he wanted to try to ride his bike and he said yes.

And all of a sudden it clicked! He did it! He asks if he can practice every day now. He still has a bit of trouble stopping, but he is doing great.