Potty Training Tidbits

• Never brag about how well your daughter is doing potty training because when you get home she will poop in her pants and then while you're trying to take them off poop will fly into your face. 
• Perhaps consider purchasing two identical pottys. Carrying a toddler and a potty down/upstairs at the same time is a recipe for disaster. (having 2 different ones is NOT okay. She will only want the one that is on the other floor of the house.)
• The one potty book you decide to buy will be the only book she refuses to look at. The five you got from the library she will not be able to get enough of and you will have to pay late fees because other people will have inconsiderately requested them.
• One accident free day does not imply success. She will pee on your lap while you're wearing your only clean jeans the very next day.
• Self flushing toilets are both amazing magic and the devil. It all depends on the day of the week.
• Potty etiquette requires that socks, shoes and pants be completely removed, except for when it doesn't. Heaven help you if you get this wrong. 
• She will quickly learn that telling you she needs to poop will get her out of bed no matter the hour. 
• She will quickly learn that telling you she needs to poop will allow her back into the restroom at the restaurant while your food goes cold even though she peed 5 minutes earlier. 
• She will quickly learn that telling you she needs to poop will get her out of the stroller in the middle of class. 
• She will quickly learn that telling you she needs to poop will always attract your full attention and she will use this to her full advantage at all times.
• and you must always comply because the first time you ignore them you will be peed/pooped on. 

But most importantly, always remember not to brag. Flying poop is not your friend. *shudders* I think I may have nightmares/flashbacks for weeks.....

Talky-talk

Amazing the changes one weekend can bring. In the past two days Jessica has used no less than 14 new words. It's been obvious that she's known what a lot of these words have meant for a while but this weekend was the first time she decided to try using them on her own! For that added dose of impressive, these were not repeated words, eg. I didn't say "Hop Jessie, can you say hop?" It was more of- Jessica hops across the living room repeating hop as she goes. Jessica pulls on my pants leg to get my attention while saying "pull pull pull." You get the idea. :)

Sad 

Poop

Nine, Ten

Where

Stop

LeeLOO (this used to only be LeeLee)

DadDEE! (After months of Dada she has finally realized that "Daddy" will make her father weak in the knees)
pull
hop
don't
zip the zipper!
help

and something that sounds like "It's stoflen"  but we've yet to work out what she's referring to!

It looks like it might be time to stop counting her words and just accept that she can "talk" now! I'm excited to see what next week brings!

Butterfly toes

I love pinterest. It shows me all the wonderful crafty and cute things I could be doing while I instead stare at pinterest and do nothing. Granted, I would never know that I wasn't doing all these crafty and cute things if pinterest hadn't told me about them in the first place. It's definitely a love hate relationship. Stop making me feel so optimistic and yet bad about myself at the same time! It's not fair!

Today I decided to take a step in the right direction and actually DO something from my ever-growing collection of pins "to-do."

I'd seen this adorable butterfly a month or so ago and it's something I've been determined to try ever since. [Original source: Kara's Party Ideas]

We warmed up with some light painting.

 Ta Da! It's harder to write in puff paint with a toddler pulling on your leg than I thought it would be. I think next time I'll wait for nap time to do the finishing touches. All in all, I like it. I'd planned to send it off to her Gramma Bo, but I don't know... I think I might just keep it. ;)

ps. She has used "I." While attempting to climb out of the back window of her cosy coupe today she calmly informed me that, "I stuck Momma." which she indeed was. Silly Bear.
pps. Do you need an invite to Pinterest? Let me know and I'll send you one!

23 Months

I can't believe she'll be two in a month.

This past month has been incredible. Jessica's comprehension and speech seem to have exploded.

Today we were playing with a wooden animal alphabet puzzle that we haven't had out in weeks. I asked her to find me letters - she knew C, D, F, K, L, and O without me having to ask twice. She can also identify Lions, Giraffes, and of course Bears. Sometimes I don't stop to think how much she actually understands because she speaks so little, but when you ask her questions she often comes up with the answer and shocks you.

A couple weeks ago while we were visiting family in Kentucky a doll diaper went missing. It was from my cousins' baby alive doll and it only came with two, so we wanted to make sure it wasn't laying around on the floor waiting for a dog to chew it up. Jessica had been playing with the doll earlier so I reckoned there was nothing to lose and asked her if she knew where the diaper was. She headed straight to the kitchen and pointed to the bin. Sure enough, I opened the bin and there it sat. She understood that diapers go in the garbage AND remembered more than an hour later that she had put one there. I was impressed.

Her actual words have increased too.
Her favourite phrases at the moment are: It's stuck, Momma. 
                                                                It's stuck, Dada.
                                   (the other night in the car I was talking to my Mom on the bluetooth and Jessica decided that she needed out of her carseat to come talk to Bo and started repeating "It's stuck Bo! It's stuck BO!" She of course being the IT.)
                                                                 Oh no, bwoken!

She's decided that it's finally time to start repeating what we say. Yesterday we were outside listening to birds.

Jessica - "Who's that?"

Me - "Birds. They're singing. Birds say Tweet!"

Jessica - "Twee twee!"

She thinks Os and circles are the same thing which is kinda cute. I mean they are pretty much the same thing. It might take a bit more explaining.

She's more fascinated with Leeloo everyday and has taken to calling her Leelee. We're working on the Loo bit, but neither my father or my father-in-law can pronounce my cat's name correctly either so I'm not going to hold it against her. ;)

She points out pictures of owls even though I don't remember ever telling her what a owl was and her favourite song is still the Itsy Bitsy Spider. She hasn't tried to say it yet, she just looks at me, repeats Momma twice and then does the hand motion for Itsy until I get the idea. 

She's precious, wonderful, amazing and I don't even mind a bit that I haven't slept through the night in more than 2 years.. (well maybe I mind a tiny bit lol) but we're making progress on that as well.

You can see the rest of the photos from our mini-phoot shoot over at the Picasa album 23 Months. She found a puddle and got her arms wet up to the elbows and since it was in the mid-40s I decided baby pneumonia wouldn't be worth a few more shots. :)

ps. Did I mention this kid can thread cheerios onto yarn with a darning needle? She can. That's some pretty impressive fine motor control for an almost 2 year old!

52 Weeks

Last year I did a 365 day photoblog and while it was a bit of a bother at times, I'm thrilled that I did it. It's amazing seeing our entire year condensed into 365 pictures. Maybe a a year before Jessica it might not have been as interesting but with a toddler in tow we did so many new things and went to new places we never would have before her. I'm so happy I've got a record of it.

This year I'm giving myself a bit of a break (the 365 can become kinda all consuming at times) and instead I'm doing 52 weeks of Jessica. Granted, that could be read that as 7 pictures of Jessica every week, but what I'm aiming for is one GOOD picture of Jessica every week in 2012. 52 pictures.

My Christmas present this year was a super awesome Canon Rebel T3i and I have absolutely no idea how to properly use it! The main purpose of this year's exercise (other than having 52 wonderful photos of my darling daughter growing up) is to learn the ins and outs of my camera. Every week I'm going to learn a setting, a feature, a button, a technique... something, and then practice that skill until I get a "52 Week" worthy photo of my darling.

WEEK 1 - Fully automatic setting. No special lighting, no special anything.

This is the base level folks, in 52 weeks we can hope fore something a bit more professional.

Gone But Always With Us

Mark's Gran passed away this week. She hadn't been doing great but it still took us all by surprise.

She was an amazing woman.  While she never got to see Jessica speak or run around, I'm happy that they did get to spend some time together and that we managed to capture some of that time in pictures.

These photos are from our last visit with her before we left for America.

Now I'll let Mark say a few words.

---

Some of my earliest memories are from when we first moved to the UK. I was about 4 and we were staying with Gran & Grampa until we found our own place.  I would spend hours playing with their tiny white lego bricks, building houses with Gran & Grampa's help.  Gran would always encourage me to see if I could build it another level higher.  These towering creations would be proudly displayed on their mantelpiece until our next visit, when I would tear it down and start all over again. 

She had a really positive outlook on life, telling me that you make your own luck and it's up to you to decide how you want to feel about something - you can either let yourself feel happy or sad about a situation. She also had this amazing, cheeky, sort of mischievous humour, that drew you in and made you feel like you were in on a secret when she told you a joke.

She taught my siblings and I to play card games, like Snap and Trumps, which we delighted in showing Mum when she came to pick us up that day.  She also told us about the importance of family, and of looking after one another.

These are just a few of the fond memories I have of growing up with my Gran.

I'll really miss her and I'm sorry Jessica couldn't get to know her better.

I just have to take comfort in the fact that she's reunited with Grampa now and they'll be watching over us from above.  I know she'd want us to celebrate all the happy times we had with her and not dwell on the sadness of not having her now.  It'll just take some time.

December!

I'm so excited! I adore December. Why you ask? Well I'll tell you.

• Mark will shave this morning! (Technically it's December first because it's past midnight but he's asleep and although I've contemplated sneaking in with a razor and doing away with the ginger mo, I doubt he'd appreciate the assistance.
• I can pull out the Christmas decorations! (They've been boxed up since January 2010 and I think they're ready to see the light of day. I can't even remember what's in the boxes anymore. It'll be like Christmas 25 days early.)
• CHRISTMAS! and my little one is finally old enough to 'get it.' Although it may be another year or two before we can get her to sit still through the story of Jesus' birth while surrounded by shiny boxes waiting to be opened. 
• Snow! It's not snowing yet but by this time last year Raleigh had seen their first snowfall. As long as I'm not pregnant or needing to get out the house with a newborn, then snow is all good in my book. 
• Mark turns 30 this year... I'm excited and a bit panicked. What do I do for his 30th? I can't let it go by without a bash but the unlucky guy shares his birthday with the Big Guy. Lots of planning to be done...
• Family! Mom and Dad are already scheduled to arrive December 23rd. Then we'll be heading off through the mountains to visit my grandparents and extended family in Kentucky. 

Possibly my favourite month of the year. :)

ps. apparently the auto-post feature does not work like it says on the tin. hence it's actually 2 in the afternoon now.