The difference a week makes!

Wow! There's no comparing this weekend to last and I'm amazed what a difference a week can make! Last week we went through hell starting the kickoff to Hannah's potty training. This weekend she just wanted to stay home and spend time with us and we had a GREAT weekend - fully potty trained!!!

As I posted yesterday, Friday night we went to meet Baby Reese at the hospital.

Saturday morning, Tony golfed and Hannah and I had breakfast, cleaned the house a bit, played outside and then visited a little when Jerry & Maci came over to get a few things for the baby. Then I took Hannah to the playground. She had been asking to go all week and since she was doing so well on the potty, I just needed to take her. We came home, had lunch and she took a nap. I ended up with a terrible headache that afternoon, so I napped a little as she watched some movies and then the three of us went to dinner. We played a little outside when we got home and then around 9:30, Hannah went to bed. She had a perfect potty day! No accidents, woke up dry and went straight to the potty in the morning and after nap. She even tells us that she has to go! We even dared to go to dinner in regular panties, not a pull up and all was well!!!

Sunday, we woke up and had breakfast and then got ready for church. Hannah was so excited to go. I haven't done a good job in a while in this area, so we're going to try to get back on the schedule and go. She was so excited to wear her dress that she had to run down and put in her Princess and the Pouper video to "dance like the princess in her dress". It was too cute!

At church, she was so good. She went up for children's sharing time, but walked down the aisle so timidly. She kept looking back to check with me. She just stood the whole time in the front and kept peeking back at me. The sermon was about welcoming someone in need with a loving heart and the pastor gave everyone a small bottle of water as a symbol of a way that you could welcome someone that came to your home. After their sharing time was over, Hannah turned around to show me her water - SO proudly - and ran back to me with a huge smile! It was great! We ran to the store and then went home to play in the pool for a while.

She wanted to have her lunch outside on a picnic again.

After lunch she had a nap and I went grocery shopping. I painted her toenails after she woke up. She's been asking me for that too, so as another way to show her that she's been doing great with the potty, we painted them! She loved it! We had dinner and then played outside, took a couple walks around the neighborhood and then took a bath. She had another perfect potty day! I'm so proud of her. She's one great kid!

Welcome Baby Reese!

Last night, we went to visit Baby Reese! She is the new addition to Jerry and Shelly's family. She was born yesterday just before 1:00 in the afternoon. She weighed 5 pounds, 1 ounce and was 17 inches or close to that! Jerry wasn't there by the time we got to Metro, but Shelly was doing pretty good. Here's Reese:

Hannah has really been on this "I want a baby sister" kick lately and this really fueled her fire! She loved the baby!!! I'm not exactly sure how much baby fever I have just yet, but we'll see....(and for those of you wondering right now, NO there's no news to share!!)

"Piracy"

Yes, that's what Hannah asks for when she's going potty - piracy. No, she's not asking to illegally download music, she's requesting to go potty alone - in private!
She had another good day, no accidents and she tells us she needs to go and then goes in willingly and does her business! I'm certainly not expecting that we're not going to have any accidents, but I think Hannah finally got it! Whew, that week was trying, but so glad we did it!
Three cheers for not buying any more diapers!! Hip, hip hooray; hip, hip, hooray; HIP, HIP HOORAY!!!

Adorable from head to ankle!

Not a common phrase, huh? Should be Head to Toe, right? Well in this case, toes are not so adorable!!! Well, maybe in a kinda not-so-cute sort of way!



Of course this little face is sweet, adorable and oh, so loveable

And her eyes...they just make you melt!



But these feet and toes, not so much. (don't you love the sandal tan marks?)

I mean, seriously, should such a cute little girl have such a LARGE big toe??

And the toes curl downward


Now, granted, feet aren't that pretty on anyone, but they're certainly not Hannah's best feature!!

Ok, now that I've picked on her, I've got to brag about the breakthrough she had today!!! Hannah woke up this morning and her first words to me were, "Mommy, I don't like to go on the potty". At least she knew where we were headed!!! Then today at daycare, she started to tinkle in her pants, but stopped it after just a very little bit and then told Val she needed to go potty and then did right away!!! She did that twice!!! No accidents today. When I picked her up and we went to change her back into her shorts, she asked to go again - and did!! We got home and she told me she had to poop...AND DID in the potty!! (this time, in the big toilet - yeah for me for being able to flush and not clean the potty chair out!) Then during her bath tonight, she told me she had to tinkle, so we took her out and put her on the potty - and she did!!!! Then I asked her if she needed to go before going to bed, and she gladly and very willingly said yes, sat on the potty and went!!! I'm so proud of her! She's also preferring to just go on the big potty with no ring. She holds herself up on it and has only almost fallen in once!!! Whew, I think we're over the hump!! Now for the fun of getting to go visit every restroom that exists!!!

She fibs too

Ok, so yesterday's post explained that Hannah is an actress, a whiner and a tattletale. Today, I add "liar" - well fibber sounds less harsh - to her list of attributes.
Today on the way home from work, she told me she had a boo-boo on her knee. I asked how she got it and she told me that she hit it on the door at Kendal and John's house. Since we haven't been to their house since Mother's Day in May (we need to do a better job at visits), I asked her when did she get the boo-boo. Her answer was "this morning". OK, so I thought she was just talking and not making much sense of her story, but she proceeded to tell the same story (fib) three times during the ride home! She's something else!

OK, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to document the potty progress - yes, I did say progress! This morning at home, she pooped in her potty again!! YAY for Hannah!! She didn't have such a good morning at Val's house though. She totally cries when she has to sit on the potty and Val's husband, Graham, convinced Val (the expert in this area) that Hannah was being "tortured" by the process and to just let her get off. Within minutes, there was pee all over the carpet. OK, Graham, you may have won over Hannah, but you both lose from now on!!! She also had a small poop accident at Val's, but it was sort of OK because as soon as she went, she told Val that she needed her diaper changed. Val tried explaining that she wasn't wearing a diaper, etc and Hannah started to cry. When asked why she was crying she said because she needed changed. Val then realized what happened and commended her for telling her, but reminded her that she needed to tell someone she had to go before she went in her pants.
Tonight at home was all success! She went on the potty twice and had no accidents!!!
Val confirmed (very strongly) what we already know about little Miss Hannah - she is Extremely Stubborn!!! Wonder where that comes from?????

Not all Potty-Talk

So I realize that this potty training stuff isn't the most exciting stuff to read about, so I thought I'd share a couple of other things fun about Hannah lately.

Last week she was on her way to daycare with Tony in the morning and she told him that the sky was pretty and blue and her mommy painted it that way!! I loved knowing that in her mind, I'm the one who makes her world go round!!! I'll be sure this is documented to remind her of it when she's about 13!!

Then on Friday we were on our way home from work and she pinched her finger in her sunglasses. She reacted in typical Hannah-fashion and if you wouldn't have known better, you'd have thought she cut her finger off! I promised her that I would get a band-aid for her when we got home in a few minutes (there was no blood by the way). When we got home, she did remember she needed a band-aid, so we went to get one. When I had it out and ready to put on her, I asked where the boo-boo was. She looked at both hands and said, "Ummmmm...." and then pointed to her right knee, "right here". I confirmed with her that her knee needed the band-aid and she agreed, so as I put it on, she winced away "in pain". She even went so far as to limp on her "injured leg" as she walked away!!! I couldn't believe the acting skills....I wish we lived closer to Hollywood!!

Hannah has started to tattle! This past weekend she told on me to Daddy when I did something she didn't like, which was pretty much all weekend. She would tell on me that I turned off her show or took away her stool. As if the whining wasn't annoying enough, now I have a tattletale too!! Thank goodness I love her to pieces!!

Now for the potty update: I woke Hannah up early this morning to allow plenty of time to go potty before we had to leave. She never went. I had to put a pull up on her on the way so she didn't wreck the carseat. She got to Daycare still dry. They put her in panties right away and she only had one accident all day long and Val blamed herself for it. She let Hannah be done after just a wee little bit because she was crying even though she knew better. But other than that, she made it to the potty ALL DAY LONG!! Yeah Hannah. She went twice at home tonight too. She cries pretty much the entire time, but once she stops crying, she goes and then all is well in the world!!! If things keep going this way, I suppose the torture this weekend will be worth it!!

The big weekend is here!

It's here - our big potty training weekend event!




We started as soon as we got home from work Friday night. We switched from a diaper into panties - see above modeling! Each time she sat on the potty, nothing. Just before we were getting ready to eat dinner, she said, "Mommy, I'm wet" We ran up to the potty and she had gone a little in her pants, but nothing on the potty. After dinner, we tried again - nothing. As she was playing, she put her hand down there which I've quickly learned is the high sign for "I'm wet" - we ran up to the potty, but it was too late. She had pretty much gone all the way in her panties.
So Friday's results were completely unsuccessful, but that's OK.

Saturday morning, I went into Hannah's room around 7:45. She was awake and DRY!! We went into the bathroom and had a success!!!! She got to have a piece of candy (a smarty) and then she ate breakfast. After breakfast, we went up again and another success!!!! She got another smarty and by 9:00 we were in the same dry panties and had two times of going on the potty!!! I take that as "going well so far" although Hannah is protesting ALL the way!!!!

Which of course didn't last long. Around 11 I was on the phone and she was in the kitchen with me playing on the step stool. I looked and saw what appeared to be footprints and then saw her puzzled look - we had an accident. I quickly got off the phone and ran her to the potty, but by then, she had pretty much gone all the way. She wanted to have a picnic outside for lunch, so we did that and then she took a nap.

She woke up dry after nap and I got her to go a wee little bit. I knew she would have to go more so I had intended on taking her back up a little while later, but I was too late...she had another accident on the carpet! The rest of the day went pretty much the same - another accident on the couch later in the evening and then during dinner (and a storm starting) she wet her booster chair. I realized then that I would have to just take her and make her try to go a little more often than we had been doing all day. Before bedtime, she did go a little in the potty! No number 2 all day, so not quite sure how that's going to go!! I bought pull ups for bedtime since they go on more like panties and I'm also out of diapers!


Sunday started similar. She woke up dry and went in the potty, but was crying almost the entire time. It's hard to not throw in the towel, but I'm sure in a few more days this won't be so painful (at least I hope!). She had breakfast and then went one more time. I was working harder today to try to take her up at least once or twice an hour to try to get her to go.

I went grocery shopping and Tony took Hannah out to play and she had another accident while playing on her slide. They came back in and had lunch. She was complaining about her tummy hurting - probably has to poop - so tony put a diaper on her to try to allow her to go, but she didn't. While I was out, I bought her a new potty chair. She had been just using the ring that goes on the regular toilet. I'll now have both for her to choose which way she wants to go until we start getting the hang of it.


Hannah woke up from her nap dry again and luckily slept through most of the thunderstorm. I ended up waking her and took her to her new potty chair. She tinkled a little, but I just knew there was more in there! I told her that we could bake cookies, so we were in the kitchen starting to put cookies on the baking sheet and she started peeing. We ran up to try going on the potty with no luck....back to cookies again and then came the release of the entire bladder on the stool in the kitchen. I was completely aggravated and she was upset and crying as I washed her off in the tub. Oh how easy it would be to give up, but that would only mean we go through this again in another month or two or whenever, so I guess we bite the bullet now and deal with it! We felt bad for Hannah too because she really isn't having fun, but again, she'll be fine and we'll get through this rough part soon.


Around 4:30 Hannah asked to watch a video. I had a funny feeling about something, so I brought her potty chair down and asked her to sit on it while she watched her video. Good thing because she POOPED in the potty!!! I was so excited for her and we made a huge fuss and she got TWO smarties!!! It made the last 3 panty changes so worth it!!! I'll call it progress for now.


The rest of Sunday evening was a toss up. She wet a couple pair of panties, but also had 2 more successes in her potty chair as long as we had it downstairs by the TV.

All in all, this pretty much sucks - for all of us I think. Tony got serious cabin fever, Hannah is learning to pretty much hate the potty and I'm just plain old tired (of this process, doing laundry and spending most of my weekend sitting on the bathroom floor reading books and begging her to go tinkle!) I hope things improve as the week goes on and Val gets to do most of the work!!! (gotta love having a babysitter at times like this).

Father's Day Weekend

What a great weekend! Well, it didn't start so great. We had some real good thunderstorms roll through here Friday night and Hannah is TERRIFIED of them! It started during dinner and she completely lost her appetite and clung to one of us like glue. We tried to make light of it and distract her, but she really is so afraid of the thunder and loud rain. Luckily, they all blew over pretty quickly.

Saturday started off kind of typical. Clean up the house sort of stuff. We went to Evan's 1st birthday party at 3. It was so hot out by then. Hannah had a real good time playing with all the kids. We came home and I blew up her pool and let her playin it for a little bit. She was freezing by the time I took her in kicking and screaming.



Sunday morning was Father's Day. Hannah and I made Daddy waffles for breakfast.


Then he opened his presents. I made him an photo album of every picture of the two of them together since Hannah was born. It was fantastic and he really liked it too! (Here's the link to view it: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AZM2jNq1ctWGo&emid=sharpbview&linkid=link2



Then he opened the box with an Indians T-Shirt and tickets to the game today.



(Sorry for the terrible pictures - the sun was way too bright behind them on the couch!)

It was our first attempt to take Hannah. We took Dad and Julia too. We all headed to the ballpark and got our seats. As we were walking in, I realized I'm an idiot!!! I bought an extra ticket! I was so worried about whether or not to buy Hannah a seat when I ordered them that for some stupid reason, I ended up getting 6 tickets - there were only 5 of us that went! You're Welcome, Cleveland Indians, for my donation!!!





When they all went to get lunch, Hannah and I got to see Slider!! She loved him!!



Unfortuantely, Hannah was over the baseball game by the 3rd inning (it was naptime you know), so she tried like heck to snuggle up on my lap for a nap, but it was just too hot and sunny and she couldn't get comfortable. Thank goodness for Grandma's!!! Grandma went to seek shade and ended up at Kidland for the rest of the game. Hannah had a blast and Grandma got a workout! Dad, Tony and I all got a little too much sun, but got to see an Indians win!! It was a great day!

Big Girl Update

We have one week to go until the "official" potty training weekend and I'm happy to report some successes along the way! This morning, Hannah tinkled in the potty. I think I found a new trick - give her a book to read to distract her from the fact she's sitting there "on stage" until she does something. She woke up dry this morning so I knew she would have to go. She protested at first, but then I got her to sit on the potty. I got her a couple of books and then I finished getting ready - not making a huge deal about going potty. As I was brushing my teeth and she was reading her book, I heard tinkle!! After she was finished, I made a huge fuss and she was actually quite proud of herself!

Tonight after work, she and I took a trip to the mall to buy her "big girl panties". I have to say, they've come a long way since I remember training pants. They used to be plain old white as I recall, but Hannah's are quite fancy!

I'm guessing the price has gone up just the same - $7.99 for a 2-pack! YIKES! JC Penney had them buy one, get the second 1/2 off, so we got two packs. Lucky for me, Val has a whole bunch I can borrow during training time, so I think I can get away with only having to buy these two packs. Once she's fully trained, then we can go buy regular panties which are much more reasonably priced.

Hannah is so appreciatiative when I buy her things. It's so sweet! Monday night we had to buy her new sandals. Check out this way too cute pair we got - LOVE them!

On the way home then and also tonight, she was telling me about what I bought her and says (very seriously and sincerely) "Mommy, kank you for my sandal shoes (and for my big girl panties)". She's so darn awesome!!!

Menu Planning Monday

OK, so since I'm fairly new to the whole blog thing, this one is a little adventure for me.

As I was surfing around last week, I stumbled upon another blog, http://orgjunkie.com/ I have the link on my homepage because I think it's fabulous! I read about the "Menu Planning Monday" and since I've been menu planning for years, I thought this was right up my alley to participate.

I can't imagine grocery shopping without a list and how else would you develop a list if you didn't plan out your meals and what you needed to make them? So for years I've started with my white board (to which I also use throughout the week to write down things we need to buy next week) and go through Sunday through Saturday of our meals. (my week starts on Sunday since that's when I go shopping, so I'm a day off for MPM)

This helps not only for shopping, but there were all to many nights Tony and I asked back and forth what do you want for dinner a thousand times before we just ended up out to eat somewhere. I think that was a strategy for him, but now with very busy lives, there just isn't time for that. When it's planned out a week ahead of time, it makes preparing dinner after a busy work day so much easier and less stressful!

So here it is, my first Menu Planning Monday post, I'm just sorry this week isn't more exciting! We've got busy schedules for the evenings, so there is a lot of convenient dinners in here!

Sunday: Steak & Chicken Shish Kabobs, wild rice and corn on the cob

Monday: Hot Dogs, Fries and Baked Beans (Tony's softball night)

Tuesday: Chicken Sandwiches - we used the Tyson breaded chicken patties which are really quite tasty! and corn on the cob again (Tony's cooking - I have a hair appt!)

Wednesday: Pasta in Vodka Sauce. I use Rachel Ray's recipe that she had on Oprah a couple years ago. http://www2.oprah.com/foodhome/food/recipes/food_20060228_pasta.jhtml I use penne pasta and I also add ground italian sausage to it and it's terrific!

Thursday: Waffles - Hannah favorite (Tony's got a concert to go to)

Friday: Pizza, probably a frozen one

Saturday: Our friend's son, Evan's, 1st Birthday Party - so we're having what they're serving!

Here's my whiteboard on my fridge for this week:

Congrats Maggie & Brian!

Maggie and Brian got married this weekend! Their nontraditional approach to the event was great! They got married at the courthouse on Friday with their parents there. Then Saturday night, we celebrated their marriage with the two of them and their closest friends at a bar in Akron. They had the room set up with tons of pictures and lots of "party favors". Karaoke was the entertainment in addition to the tremendous energy Brian and his friends have! There was no white dress, no bouquets or garters to toss, no cake to cut, no bridal dances, although there was an impromptu Chicken Dance!!!

We had a great time and I think this style of celebration suited Maggie and Brian perfectly! Click on the link to Maggie's Blog for more pictures of their wedding ceremony. By the way, if you read down her blog and wonder about the chickens, first of all, you have to know them, but the reason behind the whole thing is they want really fresh eggs....they don't mess around!

Here's some of the party.

Tony even moved from his seat (thanks to the Corona and some major pleading from Maggie), oh and "Rock and Roll all Nite" helped too!

Big Girl in Training

Hannah is well on her way to being "a big girl". I'm excited and sad at the same time. For those of you that don't already know, she tinkled on the potty a handful of times - the first time being April 1st (I should have known that day being April Fools would allude to something!) Anyway, she had a few successes at the beginning and now we're at a roadblock. When I ask her if she has to go potty, her response every time is "no, I just went in my diaper". I love how she uses the correct tense of the verb, but I HATE that answer!!!

So today, we have devised the official training plan. We will be staying home all weekend June 21-22 to do the kick off to Potty Training!!! Val from daycare suggests we go no place that weekend and put her right into underwear and just basically spend the weekend in the bathroom. 5 minutes on, 15 minutes off and then back on again until she goes. Of course there's all sorts of wonderful praises when she goes and we have to be prepared for accidents without any punishment. This ought to be fun. I plan on hyping Hannah up by going to the store for a special shopping trip just for her big girl panties and also picking out a special present she will get if she meets some sort of milestone. Val will continue our efforts that Monday and hopefully within 2 weeks or so we'll be well on our way and then by a month, she should be pretty much set to go. I love the thought of maybe buying my last pack of diapers soon!!! How COOL!!

We've really been telling Hannah about being a big girl. We started by turning her crib into the "big girl bed" about a month ago. So far, she hasn't once yet gotten out of her bed after she goes down until we go get her when she wakes up. She does however, climb into her bed voluntarily quite often because she knows she's allowed to have a lovey in there. So she'll go there just to suck on that silly thing! We let her though because as long as she's in her bed, she can have it. She's funny because she switches which end she sleeps at almost every night. I haven't figured out what that is all about yet?? Here she is in her big girl bed:

Then just this past weekend she graduated to a "big girl cup" at dinner. Tonight was the first spill so far, but we only put a little in at a time, so it's really no big deal. She plays with her milk a lot, but she feels proud to drink out of the new cups.

And even though you've seen pictures of her riding her bike, here she is in action. She does so well peddling and steering. Tonight she went all the way around the cul-de-sac by us and even up the hill/slope all by herself!

Ahh, the weekend

OK, now this type of weekend was right up my alley! Low-key, but eventful!

Friday night, some guys that Tony works with came over to play cards. They used to play at the office, but have been banned from there so our house was the next best place, probably because it's really close to the office. Anyway, Hannah watched Cinderella upstairs while we played cards. She was so good! It was over and everyone was gone around 10, but it was fun!

Saturday morning Tony decided to play golf, so Hannah and I went to the mall. We hung out there for a little while and had lunch then when we got home, she asked if she could go take a nap and headed right upstairs to do that!

Mom and Randy came over in the evening to go to dinner for mom's birthday. Hannah helped open her presents:

Randy wasn't feeling well, so unfortunately, he stayed at our place while the rest of us went to dinner. We tried a new place that we hadn't been to before called Conte's in Middleburg Heights. It's very small inside with limited seating, but was very good. The place belongs down in Little Italy - would fit right in and all dinners were cooked to order. Tony just had spaghetti & meatballs, but it was about the size that I make for dinner at home - HUGE portion! The highlight of dinner was that "Little John" and his family stopped in for dinner. I felt sort of bad that everywhere he goes, someone's always saying "That's Little John" and of course we did just that!

Sunday late morning Dad and Julia came over. They had to go to Petiti's so they stopped by and we all went to lunch. They brought Hannah all sorts of gifts - the most unique were the pair of wooden shoes from Holland, MI, but they were too small for Hannah's fat feet!

Hannah sure made out this weekend by getting a dose of both sets of grandparents!!! And it was nice for us too to see everyone.

I went grocery shopping and Hannah took a nap. When I got home, it was so nice in the sun that I had to do something outside, so I washed my car. I don't think I've ever done that in the over 2 years that I've had it....it really needed it too! I've run it through a car wash a few times and I think Tony may have washed it once, but it got a full cleaning and looks great! I fiddled around in the yard and transplanted some of my iris's and put the ones that Julia brought up to me in the ground. Aren't you proud of me, Julia...I actually got them in the ground. (they filled in the space real well, so thanks!)

I've still got to get a few bags of mulch and then the yardwork will be done! We grilled steaks for dinner and then just hung out. It really was a great weekend!!!