Julia's arrival & waiting for the baby

We were lucky enough to have my cousin Julia come in town the middle of June. It was fun to spend more time with her and she was super helpful with the girls. The couple weeks before I had Anders, we tried to get out a little bit. We went to Koln, Aachen, to the market each week, to the park, and lots of ice cream trips. I tried to stay as active as I could to have this baby come somewhat on time! The week of my due date, we even went on a bike ride with the girls! The girls (and Abe & I) loved having Julia around. She became another little part of our family for a month. Meika was particularly attached to her and called her "Gia". So sweet!







A couple weeks before Julia got here, we finally got Meika potty trained. It was NOT an easy task. I felt like my others girls were at least somewhat interested, but Meika just didn't care. Not only did she not care, but she couldn't figure out how to tell she needed to go to the bathroom. So it was a long while of putting her on the potty that she finally figured out how to actually make herself go! She refused to wear underwear for awhile too. I think that helped her figure it out, because she seemed to always have her accidents when she was wearing something. Eventually, she had interest in wearing panties. She was lucky enough to get a package from Roni and my mom with new underwear. She was SO proud of herself and had to show everyone her underwear. Every time she went to the bathroom for several weeks, she had to come back and announce it to everyone in the room. She is such a cute little thing!



Of course after the baby was born, she did have several accidents and was peeing on her floor quite often. It was really annoying! I would come upstairs and she would proudly tell me, "I pee peed on my floor!" and then she would continue to laugh. She did this with poop a couple of times too. I'm happy to say that since about 3 weeks ago, she has grown out of those little episodes!