Big Girl Panties

So we're potty training. After many sources of advise we have created our own laid back form of potty training.

It began with hours and hours of "Elmo goes Potty"
Our favorite clip was when they discuss the different names people use to refer to their own personal elimination.

We learn that Baby Bear and Curly bear say "wee wee" and "woo woo." Its riveting. Prairie Dawn's chat about underpants is especially disturbing. But effective. It certainly got Lea excited and we know the 3 things after we go potty are to wipe, flush (woosha-wooosha), and wash our hands. Thanks again to Prairie Dawn.

Grandma JoAnn and Grandma Lynn were a help in getting Lea excited about wearing panties, so we went out and got our first set of panties (as shown above) from Old Navy. They had cute ones with flamingos and flip flops. A week later we got Tinkerbell panties also.

While many formulas for potty training were given to us from family, even a DVD sent to us by the maker of pull ups. We discovered we weren't quite the kind of people who make a doll pee in the potty. I'm sure it works wonders as expounded by the likes of Dr. Phil (as well as more reliable sources like Grandma JoAnn), but truly by the time we'd talked about it so long and found a good weekend to do it, Dan and I discovered that Lea could go pee in the potty on her own. She's great at going pee in the potty so long as a) we're home and b) its only pee.

Poop is a whole other matter.

Dr. Phil does not offer a doll that poops! So we're still working on it. But as I was advised by a woman in the office with a girl about to turn 16, "Don't fret potty training, perhaps it will cut down on her dating." She was kidding, of course, but her meaning was clear. Everyone manages to learn to use the potty and we're doing well with our bright girl. I shall stop feeling guilty after reading blog entry after baby post about their anonymous 16 month old who is fully potty trained... even some who have taken the way of the Chinese and potty train from birth. Not for me!

It is said you can get used to anything and we are used to diapers. It seems such a hassle now to find Lea a potty while we're out, but we've managed. We even found a tot size pot in our new Walmart and there is a kiddo size family bathroom at the playground at the mall. Now we just have to have Lea cooperate and have some interest in it when we're out. She wet her jeans while we were at the library, a short outing and a test of sorts. So with catchy jingle fully in my head from the marketing genius who sent me a DVD, my big kid, look what she can do, wow! She wears pull-ups when we're out and about. We visit the potty everywhere we go, but when we're not at home it doesn't seem to phase her. She's almost as proud of her pull-ups as her panties, so it doesn't seem to be the backward step SuperNanny professed it to be. And I don't feel its a good idea to make a big deal out of it, so we don't. It will come in time.

While at home, she roams the house in her fab new panties (that she is very, very proud of) and can go pee without even telling us. She just disappears and comes back and says "I went potty! I get a sticker!" Yes, small stickers for pee and big stickers for poop is our reward system. We've had some close calls that in Dan and my parenting expertise merited a big sticker, but they are few and far between on our giant calendar of potty success.

We expect her to be toilet trained by the time she starts dating, and if not... oh well.

The Month of May Summed Up in ONE post

Well, I apologize to everyone involved  in the fun stuff that I'm about to gloss over (or am not posting about at all), but I'm feeling overwhelmed. I set an unreachable posting high while on vacation. Real life does not allow that level of posting, or at least not posting and having fun, which I've been having a lot of.

Here are picture links to the awesome times we've had over the month of May. Not necessarily in this order. CLICK the event name in blue to go to another page with lots of photos from that event.

Mother's Day: Church with Grandma, making hand print stepping stones and grilled hamburgers in the backyard, which Lea called our Tipsy Picnic because Grandma gave her a plastic wine glass with lemonade that kept tipping... the Tipsy Picnic. Most the photos are from the playground at church.

Cottonwood Art Fest with Becky: Lea painted a tile that then got fired. It turned out kinda pretty with all the colors layered on. We met Mandy there and had a nice day in the sun.

Molly Harris' second birthday party: Pam and Andrew's front yard with tons and tons of kiddo fun. Bubbles, cupcakes and playing with the presents. It was toddlerfest and a whole lot of fun.

Scarborough Renaissance Festival: Fun, hot Sunday with Aunt Teresa. Braided hair that lasted until we got into the car, turkey leg at the parade, Petting Zoo, Teresa got her face painted, Doktor Kaboom and his giant air cannon, riding the elephant, Belly Dancing, Pirate Day (but we didn't know until we were leaving). Lots and lots of fun. Can't wait until next year! It is hard to believe that it was this time last year that Lea could just put a few words together to tell a story. Her first sentence that I remember was "Ride Elephant." She could piece together a story with one word answers to the right questions, like "What was next to the elephant?" "Camel." And we thought she was talkative/verbal then. Seems like just yesterday. Now she'll tell you everything that is going on play by play and throw in some random things she remembers from yesterday or last week. 

Bonny's Birthday: We painted a bird house for Bonny and went to Denton for a wonderful barbque lunch. Fun to see everyone. We forgot to take pictures there, but here are some pictures and video of painting.

We also painted birdhouses for a few other gifts, Grampy's birthday included.

Wii bowling at the Advocate: Boss' birthday. Last Friday of May. We set up two co-worker's wii machines and had a bowling party. I made a bowling ball cake (round cake pan from a co-worker and home made fondant - it sounded easier than it was and it turned out a lot like Fred Flintstone's bowling ball, but it was tasty). Bowling was a blast. Birthday boy won. If we win the lottery, we're buying a wii! Dan and I had so much fun. We went with Lea Thursday night to set up and made mii (avatar characters for the game) for half the office, while Marlena made the other half on her machine at home. Dan and I bowled while Lea kicked balloons around. Her new favorite past time is letting balloons go so they zoom around making the poot noise. It was blow up a balloon, hand it to Lea, bowl, blow up a balloon... 

 

Talk to this little footise

Dan woke one morning to the ninja like silence of our wee one hovering over him at 7am. She said "Daddy, I tried to wake your footsie, but it didn't work." 

Lea has me say good night to her footsies every night. We even do "5 things Footsie can do."

Mr. Footsie can pour tea in the bath... its true I've seen him. Her monkey toes can hold a plastic tea pot. But usually Mr. Footsie just runs, jumps and hides from Mommy. For the most part Mr. & Mr. Footsie are well behaved. Sometimes even better behaved than Lea.

I call them Mr. Footsie. Do you think I'm forever scarring my daughter by implying her feet are male? Oh well... 

Did we have fun in California? Wii! Final California Post

Besides all the great stuff we did and people we saw, one of the best parts of the California trip was playing the Wii. Ron borrowed his son's Wii on the first day so we spent our down time bowling.
What fun, Wii!


We also played a little golf. Dan played some baseball and we boxed once... we were so worn out after 3 rounds of boxing we didn't do it again. Also Ron thought we were going to break the TV we were swinging so hard and we kept inching closer and closer to the screen. Dan won boxing. We all got pretty good at bowling.

We made our own characters:
My Mii

Dan's Mii

We spent much of the day on the computer, Dan checked their machine for updates, I tried to load all my Tree photos to the blog and we saw their China pictures.

Jo Ann took Lea to the park where Lea became "spider girl" crawling all over a rope ladder and climbing on the  monkey bars for ages 5 and up.



On our last night we took Ron and Jo Ann to dinner at an Italian restaurant of their choice. It was very nice and yummy. They offered fruit as you walked out. Of course my clever hubby had to be witty. The girls at the door said "Good bye, oh how funny," and Dan said "What? I can't hear you, I have a banana in my ear."


And eventually we had to go home. Lea did a good job on the plane ride back, but got a bit bored with everything we had just as we started our decent. It was Lea' job to remember that we had to get on a spotted bus (the parking spot). She did very good remembering the sequence: On the way there — Truck, bus, plane, Grandma Jo Ann's Van. On the way home: Grandma's van, plane, bus and truck. We went over that a lot on the ride home.

Here we are with our new luggage (I did not fill up all the pieces! 2 suitcases have other suitcases in them... ok well one is a tiny tote, but still!) One suitcase had rocks and a stuffed penguin. One suitcase has another full size suitcase, a dual pack of NyQuil and a book "Dallas Dog" that barked. When we got home we found a "This bag has been searched for your protection" note in it. I wasn't surprised.


And all were home safely after a great trip!

Through the forest and to the beach, to Grandmother's house we go - Califronia Day 5

On Monday, Day 5 of our California trip we took a fantastic family day trip to the Redwoods and Stinson Beach. It was about an hour an a half to the redwoods and two hours home. Again, Lea was a great traveler and took it all in stride (but she did get to watch Robin Hood on the way home).

We arrived at Muir Woods around 10am and Ron got awesome parking. Here we are at the entrance to the Muir Woods National Monument.

I can't say enough about how beautiful the Redwood forest was. It was an easy hike up and back along a little stream. It was so beautiful and majestic. This video is supposed to show how peaceful and beautiful the running water sounds were, but I think mostly you just hear the shuffle of the camera. But I tried to capture it.

I can let the photos speak for themselves. And boy did I take a lot of them.
The mighty Redwood...

Lea by the stream


Ron, the tree hugger


Lea did get tired less than half way through. Everyone took turns carrying her for a bit. Here its Grandpa Ron's turn.

Grandma Jo Ann and Lea say hi to another baby in the redwoods. Grandma threatens to steal their stroller since we didn't bring one.

Group pic in the Redwoods

Dan strong man in the woods



Lea and Mommy sit on a tree


Around noon we took a rather scary drive down the winding road along the coast to Stinson Beach. Again, great parking, beautiful location. For this Southern girl the beach is somewhere that water meets sand, meets more sand and then road. But in California Water met Sand met Mountains. It was beautiful. This panoramic is a composite of 5 photos

We unloaded the van and the boys hauled our lunch to the beach.

Lea eats her picnic lunch.


Some old fogies didn't wear short.

But that didn't stop Dan. He still got in the water with Lea. The very very very very cold water. They played ankle deep as the waves washed up and Lea laughed and giggled and froze her tootsies.
Lea and Daddy in the water



While we played on the beach Ron got out the kite.


Ron and the *!@#!*!@! Kite


See while Daddy played with Lea in the water Jo Ann and I ran all over the beach trying to get the kite in the air, but to no avail. That silly kite did not want to fly that day. After many tries and much frustration we decided it was time to build sand castles and enjoy the togetherness, not running all over dragging the kite through the wet sand.

Lea and Grandma Jo Ann searched for "shells" on the beach. This beach was rife smooth rocks and drift wood, but no shells, so Grandma Jo Ann brought some shells with her and layed them out for Lea to find. Lea had fun picking them up. Mommy and Lea also collected a lot of rocks and drift woods to bring home.

Grandma Jo Ann and Lea built sand castles.

Mommy and Lea also built sand castles. Well... Mommy built them with the sand molds and Lea played Godzilla and stomped them.


Then around 4 we decided we'd better get going. Mommy wanted one more scenic picture at the pretty gnarled tree. Alas at the same time we walked up to the empty tree so did some very strange beach goes with their minis of Courvoisier. So we got our picture and got the hell out of there. I guess I have to say I'm glad I have the odd balls in the picture, it does make for a much more interesting photo. What characters. As Dan said, in California what is not fruits and nuts are flakes.


But we didn't hit the road home immediately. First we wanted to visit Point Reyes to get a stamp in Grandma Jo Ann's National park passport book. Their visitor's center had a wonderful nature exhibit with animals and some touch and feel bones and fossils. Lea enjoyed this part where you pulled a lever and a log lifted to show the life underneath. Lea just liked to pull the lever. Here are Grandpa Ron and Lea looking at the nature exhibit.

This was my favorite part of the nature exhibit — bird smelling his arm pit.

Then we stopped by a little store and bought cheese. I was very excited about blue cheese made from the region. Grandpa Ron thought it was bizarre that I was so excited about cheese. I do enjoy a good souvenir cheese. We went to a small "Whole Foods" like store where the young teen checking me out groaned as he worked the check out about all the drama in his life. I said "How can you be stressed out in one of the most beautiful places?" and he said, "If only landscape could change the world, we'd solve a lot of problems." It was an interesting and quick exchange. The imprtant thing is that I got cheese.

Continuing our journey home we tried to stop by a creamery that made Brie, but they were closed. Either closed for the season or we missed it by 15 minutes, hard to say, but closed is closed.

And as we made a true effort to make our way home we got held up at a 4 way stop in a small town. Cars were stopped 3 cars deep at a 4 way stop as a blind man with a cane stood at the intersection. No one wanted to run over him, but no one was willing to tell him traffic was stopped. No one that is, except my fantastic husband! Dan jumped out (and as he passed the car in front of us the lady asked him to help the man... real thoughtful lady... like he was just taking a walk since traffic was stopped). Dan said he asked the man if he could help him across and the man said he hated the intersection because he never knew when traffic was stopped. Dan said "well they're all stopped for you now, so lets go." We were all very impressed by Dan's helpfulness. Once a boy scout, always a boy scout.
Dan helping the blind man.

We made it home about 7 pm and had yummy takeout burritos and fell exhausted into bed. It was a really great day.

Happy Birthday Grandpa Ron - California Day 4

We noticed as I was posting that there are no pictures, after 3 full days here, no pictures of Grandpa Ron. So on his birthday, at his party, we made sure to take a picture of Grandpa Ron and Lea.





We started the morning by going out to buy luggage and strawberries (not at the same place.) We have a fantastic new set of 5 pieces to replace my one old "body bag." Will we fill it all to come home? We'll see...


We got strawberries at a real strawberry patch. The strawberry patch let Lea pick her own berries.

Lea had fun picking them and eating them. She ate them as soon as she picked them so we didn't stay too long. We would have had a berry stuffed girl! They were some really fantastic tasting strawberries. So fresh and sweet.





While out shopping Grandma Jo Ann got Lea a beautiful new party dress and pretty yellow flip flops for the big party Sunday afternoon.


There were about 20 guests over the afternoon. It was a joy to meet all of Grandma and Grandpa's friends. We got to meet Ron's two sons and his grand kids (who Lea had met the day before at Emily's first communion). Alex, Emily and Zachary.

When Lea saw Emily on Sunday she walked up to her and just stroked her arm. The only thing I could imagine was because Lea had seen Emily in her Communion dress with veil the day before, Lea thought she was a princess or something.

Or maybe Lea just wanted to play with Emily, because she did take her hand and lead her outside. They played together well and blew bubbles, even though Emily is about 9. Emily had great patients with Lea.
Dan and Emily sharing a laugh over some bubbles.


Also at the party was Dan's grandmother, Vivian Cardoza. She is looking great it was wonderful to see her. She came with Aunt Jeanie and it was good to see her as well.


They got a picture of the 4 generations.


Lea got to help Grandma Jo Ann and Grandpa Ron open a couple presents.


And as tired as everyone was, after all the guests were gone and everything was cleaned up, Mommy made the 5 of us pose for one last picture.


and then it was time to kick back on the bean bag and watch some tv.


video of Grandma Jo Ann blowing bubbles and the garden: