Kate - helping Daddy pack for Haiti

Kate is "little miss helpful".  She is always wanting to help with John, the dishes, cleaning and laundry.  I hope her helpfulness with those things will last until she is out of the house!!

Here is a little video of her helping Justin pack some medical supplies (empty bottles) he was taking to Haiti.

Have you started potty training?

Kate is now 21 months old and cute as can be. She takes this little dance class once a week and another mother in the class asked me if Kate was potty trained. I quickly told her no, but that I had been wanting to start. I would love for her to be out of diapers before our second baby comes (in March).

With all that in mind.. we were snowed in our house last week from Thursday until Tuesday. On Sunday (or it could have been Monday - the days were running together) I decided that we should start potty training. I had done some preparation. My friend Amy has 4 kids and she gave me the potty training 101 low down. I bought everything she told me to, so I was ready (I thought). I read the Babywise Potty Training book and even though Kate did not show signs she was ready.. I thought I would just go ahead and give it a try (big mistake).

I won't go into all the details... like all the times she would sit on the potty, tell us she was done, and then pull her big girl panties up... walk away and start peeing all over our floor. (yes, that happened more than once.) We did have some breakthroughs (she did go pee a few times and even pooped once on the potty). It is amazing what bribing her with M&M's will do. Sorry, I know that is TMI, but this is my exciting life.

Potty training and going stir crazy being cooped up in a house is not a good combination... we (meaning Justin) hit a real low point on Tuesday... a low point that had me laughing so hard I was crying.

It was Tuesday night and we were getting Kate ready for bed. She was sitting on the potty (trying to go) one last time before bedtime. I was doing laundry, so I got up to go to the laundry room and of course Kate followed. Please note, she had just gotten up from the potty, so she did not have any pants on. Justin followed after Kate to try to get her back on the potty and this is what I witnessed...

Kate and Justin were in the Kitchen.. he was trying to talk her into getting back on the potty. I heard Justin yell, "Kate is peeing all over the floor!" He picked her up like he didn't know what to do... so he ran one way... then the other way. I told him to just put her in the sink. He stood her up in the sink, but she wasn't peeing in the direction of the sink.. it was still getting all over him... so he proceeded to hold her in the Superman flying position so her pee would go in the sink. Here is my poor child, crying because she doesn't know what is going on.. and her father is holding her like Superman over the sink... trying not to get any more pee on him... I will tell you... it was quite a hilarious scene. After the whole dramatic episode was over, we gave her a bath and put her to bed.

I was laughing so hard... I seriously couldn't stop laughing... and I am sure that it still funnier to me than it will be to anyone else, but I had to write it down.. so I would never forget. Even later that night when we were laying in bed, I started laughing about it and couldn't stop. BTW - Justin did not think it was as funny as I thought it was.

Needless to say... we are not pushing the potty training for a while. It may have to wait 6-8 months... until after the baby comes and I am somewhat coherent. It was the most stressful thing I have had to do as a parent so far. Don't worry, I'll be watching for the signs... and next time I'll make sure she is ready!

How did Kate do at her first day of preschool (MMO)?

I was so nervous today, I woke up at about 5:30am (which would normally be unheard of from me). I am seriously not a morning person, but I wish I was. I could stay up all night, but no matter what time I go to bed, I do not like getting up in the morning. Today was Kate's first day at preschool. Well, they call it preschool, but I am only sending her one day a week for three hours (three days seemed a little to much for a 16 month old) so it is really more like a mother's morning out for me.

Anyway, I wanted to make sure I had all the paperwork, her little backpack, snacks and supplies ready to go. She is there now, and I am still anxious. This was her before she left this morning...

Ok mom and dad.. I'm ready to go...

Justin dropped her off. The preschool is at a church about 2 minutes from where he works. I also didn't trust myself. I didn't want to be that babbling idiot crying when I dropped her off. I did cry when he pulled out of the driveway with her. At least I was able to experience that by myself.

So the big question... how did she do? I was nervous because she cries almost everytime I take her to the nursery at our church on Sunday mornings. Justin assured me that she had no problem today. She walked right into that class and starting playing with toys. When her daddy proceeded to tell her "bye, bye", he was expecting some crying... running to him... clinging on him, etc. I think he was a little disappointed when she responded with a look up at him, a wave and a nonchalant "bye, bye" out of her mouth.

She is seriously growing up.. and is going to be just fine at her MMO. I just hope she isn't disappointed tomorrow, when she is stuck with me all day again. I am heading to pick her up now and I am hoping she is excited to see me!

What can a 1 year old do at the Magic Kingdom? Disney part 2

I am sure alot of you are thinking.. how much can a 1 year old little girl do at Disney's Magic Kingdom? The answer.. ALOT. This was my first experience taking a little one to the park. I myself was wondering, what can she really do? I asked my friends Mike and Tina (who are seriously Disney experts). They told me that there is tons for her to do. They gave us a schedule and breakdown of where we should go.. what Fast Passes to get.. and how to efficiently see the park. Justin and I were all into their little plan... and it worked PERFECTLY. We didn't wait in line for longer than 15 minutes. The park was somewhat crowded.. so I have to really give them props.. and Justin for running all around collecting the Fast Passes.

I don't have the best memory, but I am going to give you a recap of their plan.. how we executed it and some pictures to show the proof. Wow, this sounds like a real CIA mission. I will have to tell you.. Justin was taking notes when Tina and Mike were telling us what to do.. and I was getting a little stressed thinking.. can we really pull this off... Oh yes, we did.

We did fail to complete their first suggestion.. get to the opening gates in time for their opening celebration. I didn't even know the opening celebration existed until I read this blog. I asked Tina about the opening celebration and she said that she highly recommended it. Tina and Mike have only been to the opening celebration once (they are not morning people). Tina told me that she cried the time she saw it. If something could be so exciting as to bring my friend to tears.. I didn't want to miss it.. but we did. I blame it on Justin's latte.. and he blames it on me taking too long to get ready.. either way.. we missed it by 10 minutes... maybe next time.

Here we are on Main Street.. we just walked into the park..

Kate and my dad. This whole trip was his idea. He has been wanting to take her since she was born..

That one little mishap (missing opening celebration), did not keep us from fulfilling our mission to see the Magic Kingdom in a very efficient manor. We had a one year old for goodness sake.. and were not about to wait in lines for hours.

The first thing on our schedule - Go to Dumbo, have me wait in the line while Justin gets Fast Passes to Peter Pan. We only waited about 10 minutes. Here we are at Dumbo..

Kate decided to sit down and wait. This was probably five minutes into the wait... I knew this was going to be a long day...

Yeah!! Finally on the ride..

Please excuse the pictures of me.. I don't think I took one good picture all day! One reason I write this blog is for Kate.. so I wanted to include a couple pictures of me..
After Dumbo, we were told to head to It's a Small World..they said there is never a line.. there wasn't. We walked right on. It was so nice and cool in there. We were tempted to ride that ride all day. Justin and Kate in It's a Small World...

My dad took Kate on the Tea Cups..

Then we rode on the carousel.. We were getting everything in.. killing time until our Fast Passes to Peter Pan were good. After the Carousel.. Justin went to get Fast Passes for Winnie the Pooh.

Here is Kate and Justin getting on the Peter Pan ride. We walked right on... I LOVE the Fast Pass!After Peter Pan we decided to take a break, get something to drink and rest for a minute until our Fast Pass for Winnie the Pooh was good. Here is Justin and Kate on the Winnie the Pooh Ride.

We walked outside after our ride to see the real Winnie the Pooh. Kate's first character experience. We had no idea how she would react. She did ok with the first picture.

She is checking them out.. still not sure...

Oh.. here comes the hug...

After we left Winnie the Pooh, we headed to Toon Town. Minnie's house was Kate's favorite. I loved to watch her and her curiosity. Here she is in front of Minnie's house.

On Minnie's sewing table.. she is going to be like her great-grandma.

Minnie's fridge.. Kate is checking out what she has.

This was Kate's favorite place in the house.. the green room. It was not easy getting her out of this little space.

After Toon Town.. it was lunch time. We seriously got a lot done in the first few hours. Justin went to the Jungle Cruise and got a Fast Pass for us while we were finishing up eating.

After lunch we went to Pirates of the Caribbean. This was the longest line we waited in. I think we waited about 15-20 min. I had not been on it since they added Johnny Depp's character. We enjoyed it. It was amazing how much the mechanical character looked like Johnny Depp.

Next stop.. the Jungle Cruise. Of course, we had Fast Passes, so there was no wait...

After the Jungle Cruise, we went to the Tiki room to hear the Tiki birds. I used to love the Tiki room, but they redid it... and it was not so enjoyable for me anymore. Kate did manage to fall asleep. She was so tired and our poor little girl did not get her morning nap in.

We heard that the Baby Center in the Magic Kingdom was really nice. After the Tiki room, Justin took Kate to the baby center while my dad and I stopped by the Dole ice cream stand. This was definitely a highlight. They have this pineapple and vanilla ice cream and floats. I had a pineapple float.. it was amazing! A definite must- if you ever go. We got one for Justin and met him at the Baby Center. I was amazed at how clean and nice it was. Of course, Kate woke up as soon as Justin got to the Baby center, but we did take a little rest there.

As we got later in the day my picture taking seriously dropped off... Here is Justin and Kate outside of the Baby center. This is one of my favorite pictures.

Next we headed to the Country Bear Jamboree. I think by this point.. anything in air conditioning sounded good to us. That was not as good I remember it either. Dear Disney people - PLEASE UPDATE the Country Bear Jamboree. Kate was the most difficult at the Jamboree. All she wanted to do was run up and down the isle.. probably a main reason I didn't enjoy it.. Oh, and we were all getting tired.

After the Jamboree, we got a great spot for the Parade. Kate sat in her stroller for the entire parade. I did not think it would keep her attention, but it did.

We were all so tired.. it was about 3:30.. and time for a nap. We headed back to the hotel to lay down. We slept until dinner.

We went to dinner at a The Wave.. it is in the Contemporary Hotel. The restaurant had a cool atmosphere and was so relaxing and quiet.

Then.. back to the Magic Kingdom for fireworks and to see Mickey...

No, I did not take those photos.. but they do a great job of describing the firework show. I was afraid that they would scare Kate, but she did fine. It was a great show!

I really wanted Kate to take a picture with Mickey Mouse. The wait earlier in the day was 45 minutes.. and I didn't want to wait that long. We decided to go after the fireworks, thinking that all the people with kids would have gone home.. we were wrong! We waited about 30 minutes to take this picture... poor Kate.. I hope she likes me when she grows up.. I am sure I am going to drive her crazy!

After we left picture taking.. we walked outside to a monsoon. It was POURING!! At that point, I about lost it.. Justin ran to the nearest gift shop and bought an umbrella and poncho. As soon as he got back to us.. it started drizzling. Justin is sure that Disney turned on some faucet.. to increase poncho and umbrella sales... He was not happy, but now we have a cute Mickey umbrella and poncho.

Just for an FYI.. I highly recommend Tina and Mike's Disney plan. It worked out great for us. I couldn't believe how much Kate could do. It is truly a wonderful place.

What makes Disney so magical? The people, the atmosphere and most of all... this mouse. I can't wait to go back!

Disney.. What makes it so magical?

Our trip to Disney seems like so long ago. Probably because it was.. and I have taken forever to write about it. I love Disney... Everything about it. I grew up about 1.5 hours from Walt Disney World, so I have been more times than I can count. It may be something nostalgic, but I still love to go. This was Justin's third trip to Disney. That seriously blows my mind. He enjoys going, but I don't think he get as excited as I do. This trip included Kate's first time to the Magic Kingdom.. I will post what we did tomorrow. (I actually want to finish this post.. and leave you hanging on for anticipation {please insert sarcastic tone}).

We stayed at one of their moderate resorts, the Caribbean Beach Resort.

Our family hasn't stayed there in a while, but I remember going when I was young. They were running a really great deal on rooms.. so we decided to stay there. I was a little worried about Kate sleeping good, but the room was set up perfectly. We were able to pull over a little curtain they had to separate the room and she had her own little area. We brought a fan to drown out noise and she slept like a champ! That was a huge sigh of relief!

We arrived to our hotel on Tuesday afternoon, right in time for lunch. Kate had her first Mickey ice cream pop... she thoroughly enjoyed it!

After lunch we headed to the pool. The pool at the Caribbean Beach Resort was awesome. They had this cute little kiddie pool that Kate loved.

I think the slide was her favorite.

I am sure Justin will be thrilled that I posted these pictures... Better him than me.. (sorry Justin!) Kate is just so cute and really having fun.. how could I not post them!!

Little Miss Independent.

Later that night.. we headed to the Polynesian Resort for their Luau. Waiting was the most difficult part for Kate.. so we got creative. Here she is playing with her stroller.. I missed getting a photo of when she rammed the stroller into another waiting guest.. Yes, we are that family.. I could hear him saying.. CAN YOU PLEASE GET CONTROL OF YOUR DAUGHTER. Sorry Mister, this is her first time waiting in line for the Luau and I am trying to get some cute pictures.

We finally made it into the Luau and my dad got us perfect seats.. right up front. Kate is enjoying the fresh pineapple. The food was delicious.. Justin and my dad loved it!

Here is Kate and Justin watching the show. She did ok for the first 30 minutes then after that she wanted down. Actually, she wanted to run up on stage and dance with the dancers. Don't worry, we stressfully passed her back and forth.. hoping she wouldn't ruin the show and last sitting down through the show. We made it.. barely..

I thought this guy was the best part of the show.. and of course when Kate was the most fussy. I got one picture in when Justin had her...

Here is the picture of us all before the show...

Tomorrow.. The Magic Kingdom...

Do you "heart" Ikea?

I am soooo behind on my blog posts and updating you on our Florida trip. I had planned on keeping up with it on my trip, but that obviously didn't happen. Things have been crazy since I got back on Saturday, so I wanted to take quick minute to tell you about a highlight on our trip... Ikea. Tampa just recently got an Ikea. I had never been, but I have friends who told me they loved that store. My cousin is in the process of redecorating her room and my aunt wanted to reorganize her kitchen, so we planned a day to go to Ikea. We were at Ikea for SIX hours. Yes, SIX hours. That place is huge and we are about the most indecisive people, so that combination equalled a long time in Ikea.

The style of Ikea is a little more modern what I like, but of course I did manage to pick up some things I could fit in my suitcase. Actually, I asked Justin to bring an empty suitcase so we could fill it with our goodies. Anyway.. here are pictures of my purchases.. and the before and after of my kitchen.

The Spice rack we added:



Before: Cluttered Counter top part One

After.. much better!

Before: Cluttered Counter top.. part 2

After: We actually have more counter space!!

My husband is wonderful, but could care less how cluttered our counter tops are. He has even made several comments to me about the difference and how much he likes it. So now... I "heart" Ikea!