Potty in the USA

 In case of Potty Miracle, Pixie Hollow will be unmanned.

In other words...SHE DID IT! HAS DONE IT ALL WEEK!

We have a POTTY POOPER*! I even waited a while to make sure it wasn't a fluke.

She also got a princess wand, a Snow White crown, and a new train set. Someone went a little overboard.  Actually I'll go ahead and out him-- it was Lee. I think he was extra psyched because he's the one who actually cracked the code. We were too excited to consider whether we'd be spoiling her, anyway.

I often wondered what it would feel like to wake up in the morning and not have a giant mess to clean up. Answer: AMAZING.

We now have a mess of fairies everywhere, but that's ok with me. I did superglue all their shoes on, though, which was as close as I'll ever come to the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.

This is our shoe shelf in the kitchen. As I was gathering up the last of the tiny fairy shoes to glue onto the appropriate feet, I realized I had lost track of Marina's shoes. I sort of panic about these things, especially since I routinely have to rescue small parts from the back of Bo's throat.

I asked Mary Bullock where Marina's shoes were, and she said on the shelf! And there they were.

Had to laugh!
Have a great weekend, everyone! MB had the stomach bug yesterday, so I'm hoping if I have to get it, I'll get it before our family pictures on Sunday. Wish me luck. :)


*I have considered that perhaps MB will one day be very embarrassed by my public coverage of her potty milestones, but I've already let you in on the frustration, so I might as well share the good news, right? On the upside, hopefully ALL potty talk can now cease for at least another couple of years. That's reason to celebrate!

Halloween's in the Bag!

I'll be honest: this morning when the streets were wet and it looked rainy and dark, I was sort of hoping for all day thunderstorms. Something-- anything, really-- to make Halloween go away. I'm a total Halloween Scrooge, as we have previously discussed.  But of course, the day ended up beautiful and warm, perfect for trick-or-treating [or, in MB's new slang, tricker].

MB ended up with several costumes, but their real costumes were Max & Ruby [Ruby! And her Little Brother Max!] My mom contributed significantly to their costumes. I made Bo's shirt and whined through most of it. Did you not believe me when I said I was a Halloween Scrooge? Because I was not really exaggerating.

This was the last time Bo wore his ears. I think he thought they were his dinner. Why my dinna on my head? he must have thought to himself.

Mary Bullock was serious about tricker this year. She didn't really understand what the deal was with the candy at first, but she figured it out very quickly while swindling four candies out of the nice mommy at the first house we visited.

As it got dark, MB just had to take a little bweak. A bweak from walking, that is. Not from candy. Oh no. That would have been ridiculous.

And then Ruby & Superman walked home.  I bet Superman's parents even pilfered his candy. [Not that Ruby's parents would ever ever ever ever do that.**]

And that was that. We didn't even carve pumpkins this year. Oh well.

On a side note, though: I took Bo to a playdate for MOPs this morning dressed like this:

It was a costume party, so I claimed that he was dressed as his Daddy. But really these were just the first clothes that I grabbed out of the drawer and wrangled him into on our way out the door.

Then Daddy showed up to our pre-tricker festivities at Meg's house dressed like...drumroll please?

And though I may be the biggest Halloween Scrooge ever, that was definitely a Birthday Thing.

**TELL ME THE TRUTH: YOU EAT THEIR CANDY, TOO, RIGHT?

Birthday Recap

This post is mostly for our family flung far and wide, so bear with me through the gazillion pictures I'm about to lay on you.

We celebrated Mary Bullock's birthday early this year with Pretty & Dadu [Lee's parents]. Pretty made a delicious dinner of Spaghetti and Meatballs a la Molly Wizenberg-- SO GOOD. Easily the best I've ever had. [And if you haven't read A Homemade Life yet, and you enjoy cooking or reading about the cooking you will probably never do, you should read it!]

My contribution to the meal was MB's birthday cake a la Betty Crocker. And by that, I mean the box. Not the cookbook. I didn't even decorate it myself-- I had help with that too.

MB sprinkled the top with confetti between shoving handfuls in her mouth. Quality control specialist in the making.

Of course, the Molly Wizenberg meatballs were entirely lost on the birthday girl. She saved herself for dessert, then took a big old fake nap on her new sleeping bag from Uncle Derbs. I think she likes it. :)

On Thursday she celebrated her birthday again with her class at playschool. I sent owl cupcakes [thanks Pinterest!] and was thoroughly amazed when I picked her up and she had not one speck of cupcake on her hands, face, or clothing. Her teachers amaze me daily.

On Saturday she woke up [very, very early] to gifts and a special breakfast from Daddy. 

I thought Bo would be satisfied playing with the balloons, but actually he digs the dollhouse, too. [Which isn't such great news to Mary Bullock.]

After breakfast we loaded up and drove out to Connor's Amaizing Acres. MB and I went last year, but Daddy missed out, so we re-visited.

It was fun, if a little crowded. I asked Mary Bullock on the way out what her favorite part had been, and she said Mommy. But she was also exhausted and probably delirious. Both babies fell asleep in the backseat within 10 minutes of leaving.

After marathon car naps, we came home and put Bo to bed while Lee prepared a tent under the stars, a fire in the fire pit, and a special dinner [burgers on the grill for us, cheetohs and apple slices for her-- this only passes as dinner on special occasions]. Then we all lounged on blankets and watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! 

And there was also an outdoor tea party. 

It was such a great, relaxed birthday. Just what we needed. We're so proud of our big girl, and she continues to amaze us every day. Some days we're just amazed we don't pull our own hair out, but mostly we're amazed at what a sweet, smart, and capable little person she's becoming.

Now we're just going to sit back and see what the year has in store. Dear Lord, let it involve a certain something in the potty. Amen.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl!

Happy Birthday to our special-special! Have patience with us while we learn to be parents of a three year old. From what we've seen so far, you teach a rigorous course.
But all the good ones do.

It's the Great Pumpkin 2011

[Catch It's the Great Pumpkin 2010 and 2009 here and here. Mary Bullock has different colored eyes every year! Wonder what next year will be?]

Our annual October obsession with the pumpkin patch is well under way around here. We were temporarily derailed last week of course, so we're a little behind. We've only had three patch trips so far, but I'm sure there will be several more before November.

It has come to my attention [via Jill] that what we call a pumpkin "patch" in Florida is kind of laughable to the rest of the world. There are no pumpkins growing here. It's just a place for us fall-starved folks to go and pretend for a minute that it's not still in the upper 80s straight on through December.

But we'll take whatever we can get!

Speaking of Heroes

Lee is [of course] not a Marine, but he did run the Marine Corps Half Marathon last weekend! And he is definitely a hero to a certain girl in our house.

Sorry to have just posted a picture of Lee's backside, but I love how MB stwetches with Daddy. She is a little Lee in the making.  She barely left his side once the race was over. Next year, we'll just enter her as a runner.

MB also got to sit in the...tank-y...type...thing? [Don't be jealous of my superior Marine equipment knowledge. You could be this smart if you really put your mind to it.]  That picture is especially for my newest reader in Afghanistan.

So proud of you!

Santa Claus is coming to town

Let's just skip Halloween and Thanksgiving and move right along to Christmas, shall we?

I'm kidding. We'll get back to those holidays [and MB's Halloween costume, which I'm so excited about]. But MB has already started on her Christmas list, and it's actually very short. Want to know what's on it? I'll show you.

MB's Christmas List

Everything in the catalogue

See? She's making it so easy on us. Just buy everything.

Last night after carefully showing me every picture, she snuggled up with Lee to review.
I want dat and dat and dat and dat and dat, she said.
What are those? he asked.
I don't know. 

I think we might be in for an interesting Christmas.


Unfortunately, I haven't seen any Santa toothpaste yet. Will someone alert me when it's available? We might need to have a chat.

I have a confession

I call Cinderella.

Like-- a lot. Based on phone calls alone, she rates as my best girlfriend. Sometimes, in desperate potty bribery situations, she can mysteriously be reached on my sister's cell phone.

But most of the time I call her on a toothpaste tube.

I can't even remember how this started, or why in the world Mary Bullock actually believes I am communicating with a princess in this manner, but she does not question this.

We go into the bathroom to brush teeth, and MB says Mommy, can you call Cinderella?

Then the [one-sided] convo goes thusly:

Hi? Cinderella?
Yes, this is Mary Bullock's mommy.
Yep.
Uh-huh.
Mmm-hmmm.
I know, I told her!!
The back teeth?
Oh, okay.
I see.
Well you have a good night, Cinderella! See you soon.

And then I hang up the toothpaste tube princess phone and MB miraculously opens up and lets me brush all up in there.

Listen, Cinderella and I? We have our differences. Like, that choker necklace that she wears? Is not doing her any favors. However, since her power over my child's hygiene habits is getting harder to withstand by the week, I now consider us at a truce.

Now, if you'll excuse me, my toothpaste is ringing.

From Yesterday

Mary Bullock has this new thing where she starts stories by saying, Once, when I was a baby... And this always makes me smile [and sometimes cry] because I can't imagine a time in the future when she will not still be my baby.

I try to remember how we got from her being Bobo's age to now, and I swear I can't. She was about Bo's age when I started blogging, and now she has real hair [that she let me BRAID!] and wears big girl panties! And we have real conversations!

Last night, for instance, she had a pink bear sippy cup full of milk.
Mommy! The beaw is cwying!
Huh? I said. Distracted. As usual.

She's cwying!
Aw! She is crying. What do you think is wrong?
She lost her baby! She was very sad about this. MB is nothing if not sympathetic.
Well where do you think she went?

She picked up Bo's hand-me-down pink sippy, which had been tumped from his tray in a fit of gimme my cheesy poofs rage.

I found her, mommy. No worries.

Oh, how I love that baby.

First Position

I have to be honest: I am not one of those mothers who, upon getting the girl news from the ultrasound, starts imagining her little girl in tutus. To me, that kind of thing teeters too closely to the whole Princess circus that SO makes me cringe. But that's just me. I decorated MB's nursery in blue. I am contrary. I get this from my father.

Even when people started mentioning the possibility of Mary Bullock one day taking dance, I got kind of prickly. Really? With the recitals? And the outfits? And the make-up all over their faces? No, thanks.

But then of course, I have a real child, not a hypothetical one, a child who is starting to have real interests [insofar as a not-quite-three-year-old can have an interest, which basically means she talks about it a lot and squeals when she sees Angelina Ballerina].

And then there's the leotard. If anything will make the mother of a baby girl's heart melt, it is the sight of her in a leotard, tights, and ballet shoes.

Today at lunch she sidled up to me [she's always sidling up for something at lunch, because she hates to sit in her chair] and whispered in my ear: Mama, you want to see my first position? And then she stared at her feet, which were not really in first position, but I could see where she was going with it.

I'm sold.  Ballet here we come. 

But don't worry. There will be no tutus.
Unless she wants to wear a tutu.
Then we'll talk about it.
But there will probably be no tutus.
Unless she turns out to be a dancing prodigy and her teacher says we have to wear a tutu.
But I'd prefer no tutus.

And definitely no make-up.

Another thing I do...

When it's way too early for wine, but my patience has run out. I watch videos of MB being cute*.

Y'all, I love my baby. But I am so sick of poop. Thinking about it, waiting for it to happen [in the potty], bargaining, bribing, trying to act like it's no big deal [IT IS A BIG DEAL! IT IS! IT IS!].

I even bought MB some new Tinkerbell BGPs yesterday, and y'all know I am wary of anything coming close to the big P[rincess]. So far today the result has been...nothing.

Keep us in your prayers. I know poop might be a silly thing to pray about, but I've got nothing else up my sleeve.

*She's saying Aurora Borealis. She's not a genius [except maybe the evil kind], she just watches too much TV and learns ridiculous words that make me giggle. That, and the nose picking. It's wrong to giggle about that, though right? It won't be funny in a few weeks. Dear Lord, while you're solving my poop problem, could you also not make my baby the class nose picker? Amen.

ABC Book

At this point, I should probably edit MB's ABC book to make P stand for PROCRASTINATE. First I procrastinated on finding the pictures [Q and I were hard for me, and I didn't want to pose any pictures just for the book.]. Then I procrastinated on getting prints made. And then, just when I was admitting to myself that this project might go the way of my wedding scrapbook, sad and neglected, I realized I could do the whole thing very handily on Shutterfly. And I realized I already had Q and I pictures-- I just had to search back through the blog to find them.  Within one nap time, it was done! [We won't talk about the laundry and dishes that certainly did not get done.]

And then I got it in the mail, did a little dance, and procrastinated on writing this post.

Better late than never?

It only took...18 months to complete. At this rate, I guess I better go ahead and get started on LDWIV's ABC book. He'll still need this when he's five, right?


[Edit: I wish I could take credit for this idea, but I got it from here-- so so long ago!]