Potty Training Bootcamp Day #3

Uneventful.

In a good way.

I barely had to remind Edie today and she took herself to the potty chair a few different times without saying anything to me, pulled her own underwear down (albeit with some difficulty) and peed. She seems to be annoyed with me when I question/remind her now, I suppose because she doesn't really need much reminding. 3 days with only one accident has me feeling really encouraged about this whole thing - no turning back now.

Tomorrow she's headed to my parents' house for the weekend (Jeff and I are off to frolic in Portland for his birthday and New Years) so hopefully she'll keep up the strong work with them and head back to daycare next week with confidence. Thankfully, one of the other 2 year olds at daycare (Jen's son, in fact) was going to do some potty training this week as well, so she'll be in good company next week.

It seems odd to have potty training transpire with such little drama (knocking on wood). I'm sure there will be accidents in the future, but for the most part, we are saying goodbye to diapers and it feels GREAT. No sense of nostalgia over this milestone, that's for certain.

Potty Training Bootcamp Day #2

Today was objectively speaking a success, but personally I found it confusing. Things started a little rocky with Edie not showing an interest in sitting on the potty. I had to push the issue more than I thought I would, but she did use the potty seat successfully (if less frequently than yesterday). She wore underwear today and around midday tried to do her hiding-in-the-curtain-pooping-routine. I wasn't paying close attention until she said from behind the curtain, "Mamma, you leave me alone for a minute now?" at which point I panicked and raced her to the bathroom (thankfully in time for a successful donation to the toilet gods). She wore a diaper to nap, but was PISSED when I removed it upon waking. I mean PISSED. I almost caved and put it back on her, and in hindsight I maybe should have waited a few more minutes for her to fully wake up before pantsing my kid.

At that point, I started to worry that it was only working because I was doing so much reminding and asking. I wanted to see what would happen if I stopped the frequent bathroom reminders and sure enough, about an hour later, I saw her RACE to the bathroom, pull soaking wet underwear off and try to sit on the potty chair in time for one last drop to make it in. I felt discouraged, but relieved too. After her accident, she really wanted to show me where some of the pee had dripped on the floor so I could clean it up. She said in a really grossed out voice, "The pee ran down my leg Mom." I had to stifle a giggle and say very seriously, "Hmm, did you like that, or not?" and she replied, "Not, Mom, not." I think she kind of needed that accident to remind her that ultimately, she needs to stay more in tune with her body. After that she didn't seem to mind my reminders as much.

I felt nervous because we had long standing plans to have dinner on Mercer Island with Jeff's business partner and his family tonight, but we decided to just go for it. I briefly toyed with slapping a diaper on to be safe, but she wanted to wear her underwear, so we left immediately after a bathroom trip and put a towel down under her rump in the carseat. She made it all the way there and peed in their toilet 3 different times, happily going with me to the bathroom each time I suggested it. We stayed much later than anticipated, so we ended up having a 3.5 hour outing - totally diaper free. I must say it felt really great; definitely a glimpse into the future. She even made it all the way home before we put her diaper on with pjs for bed.

Potty Training Bootcamp Day #1

So, I write this with a mix of confusion, pride and hesitancy but our first day of potty training equaled ZERO accidents from Edie.

At the start of the day, I took her diaper off and she spent the entire day with a bare rump (combined with socks=HOT LOOK). We made a sticker chart and drank lots of fluids and ate popsicles to increase the opportunities for success. I'd have to head into the kitchen for an exact count, but I think she peed in the toilet attachment (that sits on top of our regular toilet) or her potty chair about 9 times, pooping once (just cringed while typing that word - officially a mommy blogger). I could tell she needed to poop after lunch and that was the only time she asked me for a diaper, but I held strong and talked her into heading back to the potty for a try and she eventually, out of desperation I think, sat and pooped. She was very proud and entitled afterwards though, so I think it was worth the struggle. She wore a diaper for nap time, and when she woke after 2 hours, she had peed once in her nap diaper while sleeping. She peed once before bed in the potty and is obviously sleeping in a diaper, which I assume will be the case for some time (she drinks water in the night (we keep a straw cup of water in her crib). We'll see I guess.

Anyways, it seems a bit too good to be true that we had such a cinchy day. Tomorrow I plan to have her in big girl underwear all day instead of completely nude from the waist down, so perhaps that's when we'll have an accident (or two, or three).

Wish us luck. And to those non-parents out there, I promise that further updates will not include updates on my child's BMs, just a success vs failure rate for the day.

Quote of the day

While sucking down a big glass of milk just now:

"That's a wonderful milk you got from the grocery store Mom."

And she totally said "wonderful" like a 50 year old woman - "WONderful"

Happy Merry

Belated happy holidays to all of you. We had a great (and busy) double Christmas in Bellingham, first with my family and then with Jeff's. We got back last night, tucked Edie in her crib, unpacked all our lovely gifts (at least all the ones we could fit in our car - there's a whole other load waiting back at the Culver house for us to pick up next week - time for a bigger car?!) and slept in our own bed for the first time since Thursday.

Edie slept until 8am this morning and since daycare is closed this week, we are POTTY TRAINING. It's 8:39 and we are one for one but the day is verrrrrry young. Currently watching Cat in the Hat while sitting on the potty (Edie, not me). Wish us luck!

1st World Problems

I ordered what I thought were going to be fancy pants Christmas cards from Pinhole Press but am cursing Joanna Goddard for all her sales pitches because they came today and are very disappointing. I'm especially disappointed because this is the first time EVER that we are sending Christmas cards out, despite having lived together for 12 years, been married for over 7 and a family of 3 for over 2 of those years. I had (perhaps too) high expectations. They arrived this afternoon and are at least 3 shades darker than the actual photos we submitted, so dark in fact that they look like they were taken at night instead of midday. The color contrast is all muted and print quality seems really mediocre for the price we paid. And possibly in unspoken compensation, they sent us like 20 more than we ordered? Which I guess is nice? Except giving someone twice as many crappy Christmas cards doesn't really=half as many NICE cards.

Also? I ordered a Christmas present online (not from pinhole press) for a family member and it arrived today looking a totally different color than I expected.

Sigh. Why does my life have to be so hard?

#firstworldproblems

Quote of the day

If I had the time and memory to do it, I'd start a daily post called Quote of the Day. Because Edie is very funny these days.

Today:

While changing a dirty diaper and talking about potty training (which we are going to tackle the week after Christmas when daycare closes) I said, "Yes, after Christmas you're only going to poop in the potty."

Edie: "Mmmhmm. Like a big kid."

Me: "Yes, like a big kid."

Edie: "Mom, you poop on the big toilet?"

Me: "Yes, because I'm a big kid and that's what they do."

Edie: "No, yours not a big kid Mom."

Me: "What am I then?"

Edie" Yours a Big Mom."

Another reason I love daycare

Edie just started picking up all her shoes and putting them in her shoe drawer, singing to herself, "Clean up, clean up, everybody do their share!"

Santa

Edie met Santa yesterday. When he asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she replied with confidence, "I want presents!"

Antibiotics

The Antibiotics are working! Edie woke up much improved today, I only had to wipe her nose a handful of times and the cough is much better. Hooray for Augmentin!

Update

Edie is on her second round of antibiotics in under 2 months. I am profoundly bored with her cold.

It started with a round of daycare coughing fits and ended (or so we thought) 2 weeks later with a sleepless night caused by the predictable ear infection. One round of Amoxacillin later I thought we were in the clear. But oddly, while sleep returned, her cold persisted. Everyone at daycare mended but I was still donating boxes of Kleenex to Jen's house as an apology for the amount of nose wiping she was doing for my kid. We had a weekend of relative health over Thanksgiving, but then the cold to end all colds rallied for one last fight and as of Friday I'm fairly certain we're dealing with a repeat of last year's chest infection. Swampy cough + another hellish night = Round 2 of antibiotics. This time we're rocking the fruit flavored Augmentin. Fun! Thankfully, Edie's spirits are unaffected by the germs, sleep is back (except for the occasions when she decides she's "all done sleeping"and feels it important to tell me so) and in the short three days we've been on the Augmentin her nose is decidedly less disgusting so I'm hopeful more healing will occur in the night.

On a more serious note:

For those who have asked, I thought I'd share the good news that baby Hank is improving little by little. Things are looking positive as he seems to be recovering well from the surgery. We're told that they are beginning the long, slow process of weaning him from all the machinery currently helping him breath, eat and generally keep fighting. The particular (rare) condition he suffers from gave him only a 50% survival rate, so he's already shattered so many of the statistics. Thanks to all who passed on messages and are keeping him in your thoughts - I really think it makes a difference.

Advent Calendar

In college I lived in a house for two years with seven roommates. All eight of us shared an 8 bedroom, 3 bathroom, 2 kitchen house called The Misty Mint (it was mint green). The first year I lived on the top story of the house and shared the upstairs bathroom with Heidi and Maggie. Maggie and I had been roommates in the dorms the year prior so we were well acquainted with one another's vices. Heidi and I were childhood besties and she had just moved up from California to live with us. We were all 3 fast friends. When Christmas rolled around, Heidi enthusiastically purchased an advent calendar and posted it in our communal hallway on the top floor, right outside my bedroom door. It was a cheap paper advent calendar from the grocery store, the kind with little paper "doors" that you tear open for your daily treat. I'm sure Heidi's mother, who is a domestic wizard had elaborate and fun advent calendars growing up, and this was our 19 year old recreation on a student budget. Inside each little window was a small, mediocre chocolate. A week or so into December, I had mostly forgotten about the advent calendar when Heidi went to pop open her daily countdown window and made a surprised sound. Maggie and I were each in our respective rooms, pretending to study.

Heidi: "Did someone open my advent window already?!"

Me: "No."

Maggie: silence

More silence, punctuated only by the noise of Heidi flipping open advent calendar window after advent calendar window.

Heidi: "Maggie?"

Maggie: silence

Me: coming out of my room to get the scoop

Maggie: indiscernible noise admitting guilt

Heidi: "Maaaaagie!"

Comes to pass that one desperate night, Maggie needed a treat and one cheap Bartell's chocolate was not enough. She had discreetly opened each one of the windows from then until Christmas and eaten all the tiny, mediocre chocolates.... and then re-closed each of the windows to make them appear untouched.

I still think of that as one of the funnier moments in that house. Tied maybe with the morning of our Christmas gift exchange, in which we had drawn names for gift purchasing. We had planned to open presents in the morning, but as is appropriate for people of college age, "morning" for most of us was closer to noon than 7am. But Faye and Amanda (two of the basement dwellers) had different ideas. They bum rushed each of our bedrooms at some ungodly hour wearing weird santa hats and full holiday gear. They had stayed up all night filling the main floor of the house with more ugly Christmas decor than I knew existed. Including a working train that ran on tracks looping through the entire living room. It was literally like 100 elves had been set loose in our house and barfed all over it. I think there were some roommates who were still pissed about having been woken up before 11am by deranged Santas jumping on their heads, but I remember being hilariously pumped. I mean, who does that?!

Maggie drew my name that year for presents and she wrapped my present (a lovely wallet I'd been coveting at The Gap (it was the 90's!) in a box of Blueberry Morning cereal with a toilet paper bow. I thought that was even funnier than the miniature train running through our house.

Oh college.

While we're still - kind of - on the topic of Advent Calendars, I would proudly like to announce that I MADE AN ADVENT CALENDAR FOR EDIE. As in, with my own two hands.

Full discloser: I made Heidi come over and help me with the sewing part, paying her in black licorice and white wine. But I *did* end up using such things as:

A seam ripper

A real life sewing machine. MY sewing machine in fact. Supervised and Unsupervised.

A dowel

embroidery thread

An oversized needle

Felt

And lots and lots of a crazy strong glue called E-6000

Anyways, it's super cute. A little home-madey but still very cute. I visited Archie McPhees and with a little supplementing from Target's dollar bin, filled her little pouches with assorted treats and candies last night.

She got her "First Day of Christmas" gift today: a funny plastic monkey finger puppet. She named him "Kasky" (don't ask, I have no idea) and fed him her peanut butter toast.

Tomorrow she gets some tiny princess magnets. I'm so excited for Christmas this year!

First Haircut

Edie rocked her first haircut like a pro. As fate would have it, we happened to be along for the ride when her friend Chloe got her first real haircut a few months ago, so when I told her she was going to get her haircut, she said, "Uh huh, like Chloe!"

We went to Beachcombers - a kids only place in the Greenwood Phinny neighborhood. We brought Minnie Mouse, because Minnie goes EVERYWHERE these days and together they watched a children's DVD (genius) while riding a giant tortoise. With all the cool stuff around, she was thrilled with the entire experience. They had a "first haircut" package and we took home a lock of her hair carefully tacked to a cute little card with the date. The haircut isn't as dramatic as I'd originally intended, and to be honest, while I loved Jennifer, who cut her hair, I didn't love the blow dried, "fancy" do that she left with (although the glitter spray was kind of cute - Edie exclaimed, "Mom! I'm like a fairy!". When we got home, I promptly wet it and had a less poofy, do over. The haircut itself is adorable, and I think next time we may go even a bit shorter. Edie rocks a bob with her little moon-face.

Her long, "before" locks (a little mullety)"

Christmas Time

Edie is psyched for "Christmas Time" and is loving loving loving all the lights going up in the neighborhood. Jeff is prepping this very moment for light installation on our porch and it's possible Edie's mind might get blown. I have plans to go big for Christmas this year - decor, traditions, early tree shopping, lights, baked goods... the whole nine yards.

We'll see how much actually gets done.

Our friend's son rallied over the weekend and was well enough to receive a much needed surgery this afternoon (that he was previously not well enough to qualify for). His recovery looks decidedly rocky, so please do keep your positive thoughts headed his way. I received many thoughtful emails from friends and family after my Thanksgiving post - I really think there's something to the power of positive thinking and prayer, be it by strangers or not. The wider we can throw the net, the better, right?

Edie+Halloween=True Love

I wrote this post a day or two after Halloween put was waiting to add photo... then we waited a month to upload photos and I completely forgot about this post. SO, a very late post about Edie Trick or Treating:

There really aren't very many words I can use that capture the love Edie had for Trick or Treating. And we're almost certain it had nothing to do with the candy. She was just SO PUMPED to run from house to house, yell "trick or treat!", exclaim "FANK YOU!" and then run down the stairs to show me or Jeff her loot bucket. Sometimes she was so excited she'd yell thank you at the door before anyone even opened it.

Our neighborhood was packed to the gills with traditional trick or treaters - parental escorts (many dressed up themselves), adorable little kids and a surprisingly high number of polite pre-teens in actual costumes. One house had a little fire pit in their front yard on the corner and collected an impromptu party of kids and parents interested in warming themselves up before heading out for another round, another had flashing lights, and one street had a smoke machine running on the parking strip between the sidewalk and street. It felt very nostalgic and it made me grateful for our neighborhood.

We thought we'd just hit up a few key neighbors, but Edie had stamina and had no intention of stopping after 3 houses. Before we knew it, it had been over an hour, we were 3 blocks from home and Edie wasn't fading. That night was one of my biggest highlights so far as a parent. Edie was SO cute and kept saying the most hilarious stuff.

Me: "Do you like trick or treating?"

Edie: "YES I do. I love this." (said while running away from us, up another walk-way)

Jeff and I both went with Edie, and somehow I managed to only take mediocre photos of the event. That said, they're still worth posting for posterity's sake.

Preparing to go out:

SO excited. This is towards the end of the night and her nose had turned red from the cold by then.
Disrobing down to her skeleton pj's post-trick or treat and enjoying a lollipop before bed.

Thanksgiving

I hope you all are enjoying the last few hours of your Thanksgiving. We are on Orcas with family enjoying the end of a terrifically stormy day.

This might be inappropriate, but we have friends with a 5-day old baby boy in the NICU on life support. Their fight has been on my mind all week. I feel like I'm always reading about studies proving that prayers and thoughts by the masses really do have an impact on the fate of others in need. I'm not really the praying kind, but if you are, please say one for baby Hank. And if you aren't? Send a hopeful thought his way tonight. Perhaps the universe can will him to health.

If ever I needed a more painful reminder for all I have to be thankful for, this is it. I hope this time next year our friends are celebrating their second Thanksgiving as a family of 3.

Kerry and Terry

Edie has amped up her "creative play" in the last few weeks and it's SO EFFING FUNNY. Her favorite game right now?

She needs me to wrap her green blanket around her waist like an apron and tie it in the back and then she goes to the pet store (i.e.: the kitchen) to buy tickets for me. She invented this entire concept and I have no idea how she even learned what a pet shop was.

She'll say things like, "Mom? Please tie my blanket on, I go to the pet store for you?" After she's sufficiently "dressed" for the pet store, she will march into the kitchen and say to herself "Tickets please" like she's purchasing tickets from someone. Then she'll come out to me on the couch holding imaginary tickets and hand them to me. Last night I asked her if I could turn my tickets in for a pet at the pet store and she said, "Yes, I will buy you a mouse." She then marched back into the kitchen, returning with said mouse that she carefully handed to me. I asked her the mouse's name and she thought hard, finally deciding it was Terry. When I asked for a mouse friend for Terry, she proceeded to bring me Kerry.

Later in the night she asked me to "Please turn your tickets in Mom?" So I handed her my (invisible) tickets. She took them and then looked at me with disdain and said, "That's only ONE ticket Mom." as if to say, 'I know you're holding out on me - where are all the other tickets I brought you?"

It's that time

Time to make these again:

Pumpkin chocolate chip squares

I'm doing it RIGHT NOW.

Friday Night Movie Night

A month or two ago, we instituted "Friday Night Movie Night". Movies as a family were a part of my growing up that I remember fondly. My Dad would make awesome snack platters and we'd watch laser discs (bigger than records) that we checked out from the grocery store (along with the player). I must have watched The Never Ending Story like 5 billion times as a kid. I also remember thinking that the people "in" the TV could see me. We had a hot tub on the deck off the TV room and when I'd come in to change out of my swimsuit I'd turn the TV on, but stand behind it while changing into my pajamas so the people on TV couldn't see me naked.

We started movie night with episodes of The Muppet Show. Our neighborhood video store has all the original episodes from Season 1, so we watch an episode each Friday night. Technically speaking, these are not movies, but each episode is 22 minutes long, which is about Edie's attention span right now. The muppets are perfect - Edie loves Kermit and Gonzo, and we are able to enjoy the content and reminisce as well.

We've missed a few weeks because of being on Orcas or having other plans, but in general the routine is the same. Edie gets into her PJs early on Fridays, we enjoy a "treat" - in this particular photo (from our first ever "movie night") Edie is having Annie's gummy bunnies, tonight was popcorn. Edie and Jeff snuggle in the little chair, while I take over the entire couch. Tonight we watched the second 30 minutes of Peter Pan (having watched the first 30 last weekend). There are so many movies I look forward to enjoying as a family in the coming years: Mary Poppins, The Muppets Take Manhattan, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Annie... and then there are the newer movies that we've saved for watching with Edie - Harry Potter (after reading them of course!), Fantastic Mr. Fox, Toy Story.... it (re)opens a whole new category of nostalgic movies, and it's so fun to watch them through the eyes of a 2 year old.

Any suggestions for future viewings?

Applesauce

So, I'm not usually an applesauce fan. I like it okay, but I'd never go out of my way to buy it. It's typically a little too mushy and the consistency is so repetitive. But a while back I bought Trader Joe's "Big and Chunky Applesauce", thinking maybe Edie would be into it. She wasn't.

BUT I WAS. I want to marry this applesauce and have babies with it. And then I would eat them.

My favorite ways to enjoy this delicious apple sauce:

1. Spooned on top of my oatmeal instead of brown sugar.

2. I made pancakes today but after mixing the milk in, realized I'd used my last egg yesterday. I stirred a few big spoons of the applesauce instead and thought, "what the hell!" and YUM. They are a little flatter for missing the eggs, but I spooned more applesauce on top and sprinkled them with cinnamon and sugar (which we keep premixed in a spice far for sprinkling on toast) and these are my new favorite pancakes. Next time I will add the cinnamon and sugar right in to the pancake mix before cooking.

3. I haven't tried this, but I think it would be delicious on vanilla ice cream.

You're welcome.

Thinking of You

My Grandmother is going to have a long day at the doctor's office tomorrow.

Hi Grandma,

Just thought I'd let you know that we will be thinking of you.

Love,

Us

Haircut

I just scheduled Edie's first haircut for Thursday evening. I'm thinking a longish bob.

The Island

We are at the cabin on Orcas. Just the three of us. The weather is amazing, Edie took her clothes off and walked into the ocean this afternoon. Then she took a 2 hour nap (and if we're being honest, I slept for half of that in the next room with my book on my chest). Now I'm making a pot pie while Jeff and Edie make videos of each other on the Flip and read Golden Books from the 1950s. The water is flat calm and pink.

I hope you are all having as lovely a weekend as we are.

Potties

Edie was playing with her kitty cat crayons the other night while I was making dinner. Eventually we heard her say something to herself about the kitties going potty and when we looked closer, found this:

She's turned two square legos upside down and put the kitties centered on top over the holes in the middle, like they are potties.

Wench

I wrote this post exactly a week ago but forgot to post it.

***************************************************

When I started high school I was mostly friendless. I had lots of friends in middle school, but my best friend had sort of moved on to other, more herbal and adult beverage type endeavors over the summer whereas I was still a giant square who liked to wear baby doll dresses with wacky tights and chinese slippers (which sounds weird now that I read that - but they were just black mary janes from Chinatown that cost like $2 and probably ruined my arches forever). I was also very into french braids and Princess Leah buns.

When freshman year started it didn't take long for me to find "my people" and for the most part they were drama dorks. And older than me. By 3 years. Yes, I made friends my own age as well, (and grew closer with them sophomore year when most of my older friends abandoned me for college) but I was really enamored with my older friends. They were so clever! We could skip school and drive around town in their cars! And I could hang out in the Senior Hall! And get rides home from school! And meet older boys!

Best of all, we formed an imaginary band. It was 1993, we were 90 minutes from Seattle and everyone who was anyone was climbing on board the garage band train. In an effort to mock all the high school guys who were in a band and therefore thought they were SO COOL, we decided to start our own, all girl band. We called it WENCH. An obsession was born. Pink was our theme color and we had official Wench Parties with name tags and invitations. Since we never actually played instruments, I only remember that Darrah was going to be our interpretive dancer. Man, we were dorks.

In the summer of 1994, when most of my friends had graduated high school, my older friends banded together and rented the house of our drama teacher while she performed at a summer festival in another city. We dubbed it The Wench House. In hindsight my parents were supremely cool because they essentially let me sleep over there every night that summer. And to illustrate my point about being a giant square, I will tell you with complete honesty that I don't think we had a single party there that summer. And for certain I never consumed a single adult beverage. But every night felt like a party.

We would make "supreme beds" on the floor, using every blanket and pillow in the house, and watch Reality Bites over and over. And over. Like, until we had the entire script memorized and said the words along with the actors. It was "our movie".

This is going to sound corny, but I really think back on that summer as one of the best summers of my life. It was also the summer after I started dating Jeff so that certainly adds a golden haze to those months. But (sorry Jeff) it was mostly my Wench friends. I was only 15, so it was the last summer I wasn't required to have a job and I had no responsibilities. I was permitted to hang out with my friends and eat Rice Krispy Treats for dinner all the time. Chris worked at Baskin and Robbins and would bring home (pink) peppermint ice-cream when finished with her late night shifts. I was totally in love and I knew it was my last summer with all of these amazing friends before everything changed so I was determined to live it up. I have so many memories from that summer - the morning after a distant friend stayed over with her boyfriend and Katherine wandered into their room to clean up and exclaimed with total disgust "It smells like SEX in here!!! GROSS!" (following which, we all rushed into the room sniffing deeply and acting grossed out), listening to Sarah McLachlan at top volume with Erianna and Heidi after Heidi suffered a break up, laughing til I cried watching Kristin and Darrah do the "Punchy dance", playing truth or dare at 5am and running through the front yard with Chris in our underwear on a busy street, making batch after batch of Rice Krispy Treats with Heidi. But mostly I just remember that my life that summer felt like one long party.

You can imagine the let down going back to high school was for me in the Fall.

So.

This weekend, most of the Wench girls will be in Seattle. For a reunion of sorts. Heidi's bridal shower is Saturday and we're all pulling together to help. Erianna flew in from New York yesterday where she's been living since forever. As I type this, Katherine is flying up from LA, and Kristin is driving down from Bellingham tomorrow. Edie is being farmed out to my parents for the weekend and I am free to stay up late, make a supreme bed, eat a pan full of RKTs, spend the night with my friends, and sleep in. For 2 nights!! Aside from the fact that I no longer wear baby doll dresses or remember how to french braid my hair, it's going to be like 1994 all over again! Except with more gray hairs and wrinkles. And earlier bed times.

The perfect ending to this post would include a photo of Wench from 1994 and I can picture the exact one I want (picture a group of girls with really big hair wearing vintage pink dresses and party hats sitting on the front stoop of The Wench House). But alas, I think it's at Darrah's house in a frame and I'm certain that no one has it digitally.

Yaaargh!

I hadn't planned a Halloween costume for Edie yet. With all the dress-up clothes she got for her birthday, I figured it would be a game day decision between skeleton (from last year - it still fits), mermaid, snow white and maybe Tinkerbell (she has the makings to pull any of these off).

Yesterday I learned at daycare that Jen was planning a "Halloween Day" today for the kids. I'm assuming because most of her kids are part time and Wednesday was her best chance to catch as many of the kids on the same day. Jen wrote me an email last night to confirm. Part of her email said, "I thought it would be great for the kids to dress up and as Edie would say "have some spooky activities". "

For some reason it really cracked me and Jeff up that Edie apparently likes to "have some spooky activities". Where did she get that phrase? These days she says all sorts of stuff that cracks us up though. She was pretending to make us pie tonight and when I asked for a milkshake to go with mine, she said, "YES, yes" in a tone that implied, 'why didn't *I* think of that??' then brought me an invisible shake. I took a "sip" and asked her what flavor it was. She thought for a second and then looked kind of sneaky and replied, "Salt".

ANYWAYS!!! My point is to say that this morning at 8am (drop off is at 8:30-8:45 and it's 10 minutes away) I asked Edie "What do you want to be for Halloween Day at Jen's house today?" And she immediately replied with, "PIRATE!!" After a quick "oh shit" moment on my part, I improvised. I pulled an old pair of too small black leggings out and shredded the bottom, pulled her red socks up to her knees, put a blouse on over her skeleton shirt, added her only non-pink cardigan for warmth, tied a weird sash from one of my H&M work shirts around her waist, and added a random necklace for "treasure". Basically I relied heavily on the legit pirate hat we already had in the dress up box. And hoped that she'd sing the pirates of the Caribbean song for extra effect.

But seriously guys, these photos KILL ME. I want to eat her up right now she's so hilarious and squeezable.


I had a brief moment of panic when I dropped her off because one of the other girls was arriving in full princess gear at the same time - what if Edie changed her mind and wanted to be girl-tastic?! But relief, she didn't. She positively rocked the pirate look all day. I only wish I could have talked her into an eye patch (don't think I didn't brainstorm possible methods this morning - I eyed her Baby's headband very carefully, wondering if it would fit around E's head and if I could use double sided tape to fasten a sharpie colored piece of paper to it for the patch).

Wanderlust: Belize

Seriously. This was the dock where we waited each night for the water taxi to take us to town for dinner. We would mix drinks, and drink them on the dock while waiting. EVERY NIGHT.

I'm fairly certain that we have not both simultaneously looked this relaxed since this
photo was taken.and then we took a "chartered" boat captained by a dude who's name I think was Steve? And he took us to exotic reefs that were so much cooler than anything I'd seen before. "Steve" had a large chunk out of his leg in the same shape as a shark's mouth, so when he told us it was perfectly safe to swim with these sharks, I politely watched from inside the boat. I mean, I like exotic, but I'm not an IDIOT.But I can't judge Steve too harshly because he fulfilled my lifelong goal of swimming with a manatee and it was so much more amazing than this photo of me drunkenly holding "fins" with a cement manatee.

But maybe my favorite thing about Belize were the amazingly fast boat rides in the pitch black. Each night we would usually take the last boat back to our hotel from town - I think at midnight? Despite Jeff extolling the dangers of the driver's speed, I couldn't bring myself to be nervous. It was the most bizarre sensation - it was about 90 degrees but when we were zooming through the shallow tropical water it felt about 78 (one of all my all time favorite temperatures). And the insanity of speeding full throttle with no vision 10 feet in front of you was like getting the exhilaration of Space Mountain but without all the nauseating twists and turns. I remember on our last night closing my eyes and memorizing the sensation so that I could keep it with me when we got home. Then I made our friends take a picture (with the flash) so I could have it documented.

If ever I should forget why I love Jeff, I think this picture would help me remember.

I'll never need reminding that I love rum based cocktails, but that doesn't mean I don't want a picture of me enjoying one.

Tadaaaa! When I tried to wear this bikini this summer it gave me 4 boobs.

Wanderlust: Guatemala

I've been ITCHING lately for an exotic trip. Ideally, I picture Edie there just enough to have a taste of culture, a quick snuggle, and maybe a day to play on a beach somewhere as a family. But then someone else magically cares for her the remainder of the time so that Jeff and I can pretend that we are footloose and fancy free. Free to make friends with tiny Guatemalan men, hold hands and reflect together on our day.
But for reals. Remember that time we went to Guatemala? I'm ready for another round. So, since that's not happening, let's instead look back at how exotic life used to be. Humor me and please look at my photos from 2008.



I've spared you the photo of me pretending to ride this tiny horse in the dark after having had a few drinks one night. Or maybe it was this horse (plus cart)? Let's be honest - it was probably both.





Gah! I'm so ready to eat somewhere magical like this again! Or at least travel to a place where every meal includes a serving of guacamole approximately the same size as your entree.
Or where the view from our room looks like this at sunrise:
And go to a crazy country where apparently no one ever gets sued for anything because they let you climb perilously high and rickety staircases and then hang out on top of a ruin with no guardrails whatsoever despite being higher than the tallest trees in the entire world.

Oh and monkeys as big as my 2 year old daughter roam loose.

And the only other tourists are smoking a joint while enjoying the view because apparently the "parks employees" that aimlessly wander the park with giant machetes could care less. That's us. Not the doobie smoking tourists. And this was our view:





Oh, and when we go on this fantastic vacation, I would also like to magically reverse the aging process by 3.5 years and 1 baby. Because look at me all 29 and fresh out of the shower looking all young and dewy with no wrinkles or bags under the eyes.

Stay tuned for Belize photos where I reminisce about drinking tropical (adult) beverages, being skinny, swimming with manatees, and hammocks.