Beach Baby

Just in case I'm letting you forget that I have two delightful children, not just the one who gives me lots of material, I thought Lilli should have a post of her own. She is a young lady of 15 months and gets bigger and smarter (she said "star" for the first time today) and possibly cuter every day. So here she is today at the Lighthouse Beach on Sanibel.

With Mama. She's a Mama's girl, I'm proud to say:



Contemplating the stuff she just walked through. Today was the first day she was willing to touch the sand, so that's pretty exciting.

My oh my, the beach is lovely today. Coolish and partly cloudy. That's how we like it.

Trying out a "Faux-hawk":
Personally I think she rocks it.

Progress

I was afraid that if I put the word "potty" in the title of another post, I'd scare you all off. But you know, it'll only be my first time potty training someone once so I feel the need to share.

Elizabeth has been doing reeeeally well. Last weekend she even went for several hours while we were out and about without a pull-up. And she used a public restroom (something she had initially resisted) 4 times that day. She is being super consistent, staying dry during naps, using the potty without being reminded, the whole nine yards. What a good girl. *sniff*

So, today we were heading to Sanibel Island where we planned to meet our visiting friends. Elizabeth had used the potty before we left, but asked to wear a pull-up. It's not a short drive, I was all for it. We had gone maaaaybe a quarter mile when suddenly a little voice said "I need to use the potty!" We have learned that doesn't mean in 20 minutes. Or even 10. We don't carry a portable potty, although apparently we are going to have to change that.

David: Just pee in your pull-up, it will be a long time until we can find a potty.
Elizabeth: I can't! I need to pee on the ground!

A pause here. She got this idea based on one of the first times she went out and about wearing undies. It was a Wednesday library night and we always get a bite to eat before we go, and she made it through dinner just fine and then said she had to go. She even went and sat (uncharacteristically at that point), but nothing happened. We got in the car and 30 seconds later in a voice of utter desperation she told us that she had to go and that she thought her car seat was a perfectly fine place to do it. Let me tell you, we have never pulled into a Wal-Mart parking lot so quickly. Since we didn't have a portable potty then either (to be honest, we don't even own one. Yes, yes, we will get one.), I told her to pee on the ground.

So this:
is my fault.

To the car who drove by while the action was happening- Sorry about that.

But look at how pleased she is!

My little potty champion is so dedicated to her training that she refused to pee in a perfectly good pull-up and did the equivalent of her first pee-in-the-woods.

Which is no fun task.

And she didn't even pee on her shoes.

Woohoo!

Choices

I've been getting a bunch of e-mails lately. Apparently my blog lacks some things. I would have said that it lacks fancy technology and a coherent theme and sometimes basic grammatical structures, but this is what I've been asked for instead:

More pictures of me (*sigh* There really aren't very many. This would totally make me work)
The good pictures from the girls photo session, as opposed to the outtakes that you got to see.
Full disclosure on how much of a geek I am.
Lilli's birth story
To explain why I never talk about my cats.
An explanation of why I only want to travel in a tour group (and considering that it would devolve into a post on my fears in general, I'm iffy about this)

It's not that long a list, but I thought I'd take a vote to see if there really is any interest in reading about this stuff (For example, only one person asked me to come out of the nerd closet. You know who you are), or seeing associated pictures, before I hop to it. I have plenty of other things to ramble about so I thought I would check. As usual, if you have an opinion you can comment to this post, or those of you who've told me that its hard to post a comment on this site or prefer to remain anonymous can feel free to e-mail me.

Thanks!

I'm It!

Ok, I was only indirectly and generally tagged, but I'm entertained by the concept of revealing specific information in a post instead of whatever pops out of me based on what photos are lurking in my camera.



Places I go over and over:

1. Work- it can't be helped.

2. Target- I could live there.

3. Il Primo- a brief story about this one. This is a pizza place. Well, technically pizza and wings, but they have a limited menu. Somehow we started going there once a weekend, and eventually a habit was formed and now Elizabeth expects to go there, my dad relies on leftover pizza as a component of her weekday lunches, the employees treat us like family, and we can't easily get out of it. And I'm so sick of pizza I could cry. And I have tried every other item on the menu and I'm out of options. Blech. And this is a tragedy because it's really good pizza.

4. McDonald's- When they stop adding crack to the Egg McMuffin I will stop going there.

5. Panera Bread- One finally opened by my work and C and I aren't over our infatuation yet.

6. The local library- Every Wednesday. That's where you'll find my family.


What Happened Yesterday:

1. I woke up- it couldn't be avoided.

2. I had an Egg McMuffin

3. C and I went to Macy's at lunch and got our girls more clothes. Shhhhh.

4. Our weekend was too busy to include grocery shopping, so I went to Publix. I maaaaay have found a new variety of HagenDaz. Something to do with caramel and salt. It may have looked yummy, and I may have purchased it. But that's all we need to say about that.

5. Lilli came down with something, poor baby. So we left the girls with Grandma and Papa and...

6...as our friends are still in town we went to Bahama Breeze for a childless dinner. It was very restful to not have to juggle goldfish crackers and sippy cups.


Looking Forward To:

1. Having two days off this week

2. Independent Wealth? Unlikely, but I'd like to look forward to it.

3. The theater version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang coming to Barbara Mann. Don't mock me, just go watch the movie and try not to love it. Ahhhh.

4. Hmmm. A lot of initials in this one. The birthday parties of my friend C's daughter S and my friend L's son (aka Lilli's betrothed), D.

5. Halloween- I have a fairy and a pirate to escort on the great Candy Snatch of 2008.

6. Black Friday


I love about Fall:

1. It finally starts to cool down around here. High 70s, low 80s anybody?

2. Halloween

3. Thanksgiving

4. Black Friday

5. Finally getting decent apples down here

6. The local fall festival.


On my wish list:

1. To check out the United Kingdom safely escorted by a tour group and transported by a big bus.

2. Ditto Lichenstein

3. To go back to Disney World ASAP

4. To finally clear off my bureau.

5. To teach my pet rat Cocoa how to clean her own cage.

6. The obvious wish: to raise happy, healthy daughters who have success the way they want it, and then have them give me some grandbabies to cuddle.


Feel free to be tagged if you wanna. But if not, no biggie, this was my fun for today.

Only in Florida

We have friends in town, and when we have friends in town we do the fun touristy stuff we never get to do in real life. So, Thomas Edison had a second home in this part of the world, and eventually his buddy Henry Ford moved in next door, and now you can tour the grounds where they lived and see parts of their houses. A big part of the guided tour (we did the self guided one this time, but I've been on the other more than once) is the botanical gardens. And they are pretty impressive. But how many places do you see signs like these?

It's like there's been construction. Only instead of falling beams or nails you're watching out for rogue fruit. I get a big kick out this.

The Ham and the Grump

Today was picture day for the girls. A long overdue one let me tell you. Poor neglected little Lilli didn't get 1 year old pictures. I sort of blame her for that though, she has the shy/cranky/clingy thing happening, and our last three pictures sessions have been a little stressful for mama. I keep punishing myself though. Still though, its been a good six months since I last put myself through this, and it was a solo Lilli session involving a soup pot and a lot of fake vegetables. It's a long story. It was enough of an exciting experience that I decided to give her some time to get over her issues. Hah. Ahahahahahahaha.

So, it was an hour of sheer misery, but I was pleased with the results. Oh, and since I'm a rule follower (ask just about anybody and they'll tell you that), yes, I legally own the below pictures. Sears suckered me into buying the CD version of the event for the first time ever. In my defense, the girl who was our photographer was a master of manipulating the "enhancements" and "vignettes" and was creating them left and right and they all get transferred to the CD. And then I can load them to Snapfish and go nuts making things. So I got pretty close to my money's worth out of them.

But as usual I digress.

Elizabeth spent most of the time as seen below. Hamming it up. Not sure why she was hyper, but there was lots of leaping, hiding behind backdrops, shrieking. and similar behavior. We did get several beautiful shots of her, but a lot were like this:



And this:

Let's see how thoroughly we can strangle our sister, shall we?

Lilli spent most of her time like this:

Although we got a few like this:


Note the disheveled appearance and the reddened eyes? I still think she's a pretty little thing though.

So yeah. It was a crazy morning. Not a good time. At all.

Did I learn my lesson? Not so much...


Our family Christmas portrait is scheduled for November 8th.

Mmmmmmmmmm

So, if you want to be my best friend (for at least a solid 24 hours, possibly longer), just go somewhere (anywhere, really) and bring me back something sweet or chocolaty (both is even better) that I haven't had before. That's what my lovely cubicle mate E did, she brought me a candy bar back from her trip to the Czech Republic. That being where she's from, I assume she had an edge on what was particularly yummy.

Side note- She also brought me back a little calendar featuring happy little drawings/paintings by a Czech children's illustrator. His work looks very familiar to me, although I can't mentally place it into a book. Anyway, while on the surface the calendar seems a purely altruistic gift, I suspect it has a lot to do with her dislike of the M.C. Escher calendar I'm using at work this year. I can't really blame her, some of the months are pretty creepy. Try googling "MC Escher Rind 1955" for an example. No offense to Mr. Escher of course.

Back to the candy bar!

Of course I was immediately intrigued by all the unfamiliar Czech words on the wrapper. Despite this being a Nestle product, there was nothing in English. Apparently there is a reference to chestnuts, although I didn't get a translation on the ingredients, so I am not 100% sure there were any in there.

Do you see any chestnuts? I just see some niiiice dark chocolate waiting for me to bite it....

Don't worry little chocolate bar, I won't make you wait any longer...

Oh yes, that was nice.

Very, very nice.

Thank you E! You're the best cubicle buddy ever!