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!!!