I heart

my visiting teacher.

I love when people randomly do nice things for you and don't expect anything in return.

My visiting teachers stopped by today and I whined to one of them about how Lil' Sis was awake, playing in her crib until 2 am. WHY? I have no clue. I would finally be dozing off when I would hear more squeals of laughter or shrieks and giggles. So then I would be wide awake wondering if there were ghosts in her room talking to her. Yeah my mind likes to freak me out.

Finally she slept. And I slept. Then Diva comes in at 6 am with wet undies. We fix it. Then Lil' Sis is awake for the day at 7 am. Awesome.

Anyway so I'm telling my friend this and she kindly offers to take Diva off my hands while Lil' Sis takes her nap so that I can nap as well. There was no way I was turning that down!

But now I'm blogging. Hmmm....

Good night.

Pete and Repeat

5 things I wish I never had to say again but know I am doomed to repeat over and over:

"Leave her alone!"

"Do you need to go potty?"

"Just relax!" or "Chill out!"

"Ughhhh!!"

"Why don't you listen?!!!"

If anybody has tips on how to make a 3 year-old listen then by all means....TELL ME!! Sometimes I'm sick of hearing my own voice.

Three

3 months



3 years

"How old are you today?"

C.O.R.E.Y the environmentally friendly squirrel stopped by for a visit.

He was well received.

These pics are for you Bree. She immediately put on the dresses you sent. Note her expression of shock about how amazing she looks. Thank you!

Happy Birthday Diva!

A little immodesty and a tutorial

One on one times with Diva prove to be the funniest times. Lil' Sis napped for a long time today so Diva and I read stories, watched a bit of Lion King, played outside and then just "talked."

So here's a nugget of our afternoon:

Me: Honey, you need to button your shirt. See look...it's not buttoned. *reach forward to button it*
Diva: NO! I wanna show my boobies.

_______________________________________________________

I'm lying on the couch and I pretend to suck my thumb. Diva is a thumb sucker but only if she has her blanket. It's kind of odd. She seriously never sucks her thumb without her blanket. Anyway so I'm kind of making fun of her and pretending that I'm sleeping. She says, "Let me cover you." She gives me her blanket and I'm all set to "sleep."

She then starts coaching me on how to caress the blanket. Apparently it has to be done in a very precise manner. I scrunch it and it's incorrect. I pat it, a no go.

"Like this mommy!" she stands over me while she demonstrates. She takes my left- hand thumb out of my mouth, replaces it with my right- hand thumb and shows me out to "knead" the blanket.

Got it. I'm such a novice.

Lazy Sunday

No, I'm not going to rap about Chronicles of Narnia.

We took a trip to the beach today after church to enjoy the gorgeous weather. A lazy bike ride followed by a lazy picnic at the park and it amounted to a wonderful day. A few highlights:


Riding in the trailer. Boy was it exhausting.


How can anyone resist that squinty-eyed grin? Oh how I love it.


Sizing up the waves.


"Hold my pants Papa."


Cutie patooties.


I'm pretty much always behind the camera so I forced hubby to snap a few. I don't want to go through pictures in 20 years and exclaim, "Where the heck am I?!!"

A successful day!

Youtube

What a fabulous invention. If you're anything like me then you're going to LOVE this video. It rocks.

This happened at a train station in Belgium.

Wishes do come true

I kid you not everytime I found an eyelash or drove over train tracks I made the same wish:

I wish Diva would be potty trained before her third birthday.

She turns three in 9 days and as you could see from my last post, the future was looking bleak.

During the past several days she has been wearing her underwear but still wouldn't "perform" on the potty.  Today she came to me and said, "Mommy I need a diaper!"

me: "Oh but sweetie, the diapers are all gone!" I dashed into her room and stashed away the goods to where she couldn't find them. She sauntered in a few minutes later, looked around to make sure it was true and then exclaimed, "I go pee pee on the potty and then I get chocolate ice-cream!" (I have been telling her this for WEEKS)

me: "Yes honey that's right!"

Diva: "Okay let's go!" *runs over to the potty and pees like she has been doing it for years*

WHAT?!!  Is this for real?  Am I dreaming?  

Of course I freaked out and we danced and clapped and she kept shouting, "I GET CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM!"  ha ha.  I held true to my promise.

The rest of the day she has peed on the potty without any hesitation.  HALLELUJAH!

Now you might be saying, "Why didn't you just try hiding the diapers like months ago?"

I did.  Didn't work.  For some reason it did today and I am so grateful.  We are never ever turning back to diapers.  In fact she is asleep, in her bed, in her undies.  

Tomorrow we can hopefully conquer going #2.  And by "we" I mean her.