My 31st

Josie and I slept in, lazily worked our way to the Y, she played, I built a calorie deficit (ya, right) for all the cake I planned on eating, came home, watched smurfs, played grocery store, took a nap, met with my brothers (minus one) at my parents house with E and J of course, home cooked food by my amazing mom... and cake to top off the night. Oh, and ran a mile on the treadmill before dinner - hoping it gets my 32nd year off on the right foot!

Once Upon a Potty

As if a normal day isn't busy enough, on top of painting trim - I decided to give potty training a go around today.

About a month ago, I bought a used copy of Once Upon and Potty (for her) and we've been watching it faithfully. If you haven't seen it, it's a hysterical, certainly retro, video about a little girl named Prudence that gets a potty and learns how to use it. Josie just adores Prudence and wouldn't ya know, watching that video Josie sits on her potty and does a pretty good job of going wee wee (as they say in the video...).


It's been hit or miss whether or not we have success at other times to get her to go, and to even interest her to sit on the froggy potty. She certainly isn't telling us when she has to go, nor having anyyyyyy annoyance over wet diapers.


But I went ahead anyway and planned on a day of accidents. On went the cutie bum undies, we ran around and played, set the timer to try to pee every 45 minutes. Who knew, maybe she'd be a potty super star and get it within the first hour? Or so I'd secretly hoped. Well, suffice to say, accident #2 of #2 did me in and on went the diaper. She was quite stubborn today and would not sit on the potty, not even for m&m bribes. I didn't even make it to lunch time! What a failure... but to be honest, I'm not ready nor do I really think she is. So we'll keep watching Prudence and talking about how great the potty is and give it another try in a few months.

Weekend Warrior

Let me just say, if anyone's thinking of adding crown molding to their house - take a hard look at your patience and frustration tolerance levels. Especially if there's a toddler in the mix too. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, and after only an hour or two in we were both ready to call in the professionals.


We had been warned it was no small task, but surely a my hydrogen engineer super whiz husband could figure it out, or so I thought! After all, we practically built this house from ground up, surely no trim was going to take us down. It definitely took two brains, immeasurable amounts of patience and a little pep talk from my dad to keep us motivated and not to quit after the first 3 hours of failed attempts. Fast forward to Sunday, we were buzzing along and things are definitely looking up. Most valuable tool of the weekend - post it notes! #1 to keep track of wall studs, and #2 amazing entertainment factor for previously mentioned toddler.



We went to bed Saturday night frustrated and feeling defeated by crown molding, but Sunday gave us renewed hope and I'm beyond pleased with the results thus far. It's no small task, but we're well on our way and one more thing we can check off our life experience list: Survive and master crown molding!

Well, crap...

she can climb out of her crib! I majorly jinxed myself by buying a new big girl bed. It was an incredible end of year clearance from Room and Board. I was really hoping for a good 6 more months of confinement!!!!

But on the up side, this super duper cute bed is arriving tomorrow... I'm in the mood for painting and redecorating so the fun has begun. I'm still planning on giving her a few more months in the crib, unless the climbing out becomes a problem. I'm sort of hoping it's a fluke that she figured it out once ;)

and then this happened yesterday...

They got the green light to go ahead and move on in!




Mimi and Pops now live right next door :) Moving in on a day 8" of snow is forecasted!

I'm hiding out on my side of the cul de sac while they catch their bearings and settle in. I remember our first night in our new home... oh the heartache of saying goodbye to what was and being excited for what is. I'm so happy for them!

Potato Head Family

Have you guys seen the cool accessories Mr. and Mrs. Potato head have these days? Santa went a little nuts with Potato Head outfits and we now have a wardrobe for 10 potato families, at least. They've been a big hit around these parts, with mom and dad even :) And probably the best gift ever, from Costco they sell a giant potato head that comes with BABY potato heads and tons of feet, hats and the whole schebang!

Endless hours of fun.

New Neighbors

A big change for us in 2011 is going to be having Mimi and Pops as our next door neighbors. In two weeks time they'll have moved everything over and officially I'll have a fully stocked backup pantry, on demand meals, and babysitting service. Simply can't wait!

I've been sorely negligent in taking photos of their building process, so today on a boring Sunday we took a walk over to snap a few photos and to check in on Pops.

This is actually the view from our house, which come summer time when the trees fill in it will be like they're not even there!



There's still a lot to be done, but I'm hoping there's nothing like a deadline to get these small details wrapped up, for my parents sake, of course :) Not that I'm dying for my mom's chicken saltimbocca dinner!

Happy 2011!

It's a happy 2011 at our house today! Nate and his mom spent the night with us last night and waking up to fun kids in the morning + pancakes = happy parents. And I'm realllly happy because I took down all Christmas decorations yesterday and feel a wonderful air of clean in the house going into the new year!

The scene this morning... Nate brought his trains and we had lots of fun building tracks in the living room...


and then blackberry/blueberry pancakes :)


Tradition every new year's day for my entire life is going to family's house for soup, games and football. Off we go pretty soon, but not before trying to get a quick nap in for everyone!