Little China Doll

Aunt Kate's twin J.J. got this for Mimi from China. Since we brought it home on Sunday, it has been wore almost non-stop! 

Thanks J.J. :)

Poop and Princesses

Something big and wonderful is happening at our house (I hope, I'm still too cautious to count my chickens before they've hatched...) And this is besides having a baby boy, getting Mimi in a big girl bed and going on a trip.

During our trip Mimi decided to start taking herself to the potty to poop! I was hesitant to blog about poop, but if the purpose of this blog is to write about what's important to me, than poop is what I will write about!!! POOP POOP POOP! (it's just fun to type..;)

Potty training has not been easy. It seems like lately all I hear are stories of moms who said it just took one week or one day and their kids got it. I read all the same books, tried all of the same things, but it continues to be a sloooow road to diaper-free. (Well, actually I should say "pee on the floor" free, we've been diaper free for sometime now).

So imagine the thrill when on the first morning of our road trip, in  Gallup NM, Mimi told me that she had to go. I asked if she wanted to sit on the potty and she said "sure!" Without any fight, any bribes, etc..! AMAZING! She had gone the day before at home, but usually we have a shinning moment of victory, then everything seems to backslide. I took her to her little pink potty that we brought along (thank GOD!) and she sat for a moment and went!!!! YIPPEE HOORAY! (That was #2 of going #2 in the last couple of days!!!)

The trend just continued. She just kept telling us when she had to go (and a few times, didn't even tell us!) It's been amazing. She even went on the road in a Pizza Hut bathroom where her little pink potty followed us in). Today she went inside and came out to tell me that she went "pee AND POOP" You go girl! I shower her with kisses, hugs and words of affirmation like none other that are 100% purely authentic! I am hopeful that maybe this is a turning point. I'm realizing that potty training for us is a lot like a Paula Abdul song "Two steps forward, two steps back" but it's nice that we're moving forward at a greater speed. Hope with me that the trend continues!!!!

*****

And now for the Princesses!!!!

On Sunday Nana bought Mimi and I tickets to go see "Princesses on Ice!" What a treat! We didn't tell Mimi until that morning when we got to Nana's house. As you can imagine, it was pretty amazing and right up Mim's alley!

 Before we left:

The best part of the show for me and Mom was watching Mimi...

Snowcones, popcorn and light up toys..OH MY!

THANKS NANA!!!! 

We've been playing the pictures from the day on a continuous slideshow and dancing around to Disney music. It will be talked about for months to come!!!

(sorry your head got cut off! ;)

Our Family Getaway!

We had a fun trip in AZ. The point was just some low-key time together and it was just perfect. We didn't plan much and found a good balance of not doing much, and having things to do in the evening. Lots of pool time, sun, walking and eating; Our favorite things!

The trip down was great. I really didn't know what to expect out of Mimi, but thanks to multiple electronic devices, she was AMAZING! We made a few stops at playgrounds and parks and trucked on through to Gallup NM for our first night. We had a little dinner, then swam in the little indoor pool. The next morning we got up bright and early and headed into Phoenix. Sadly, it was raining and 52 degrees! We had a little lunch of In-n-Out (Mimi chowed TWO burger patties and literally had to physically be removed from the straw of a chocolate shake), then drove around the area, waiting to check into our hotel.

Road trip pics:

Hopscotch in Las Vegas, NM

Dinner in Gallup

In-N-Out!!!

(and Mimi's photographic talents...)

I've realized that there's a cost to letting her have my ipod and play games on the computer. She touches buttons and functions that I didn't even know existed and messes things up!!! On the way back she got the ipod screen so dark that it was almost impossible to even know how to fix it!!! I couldn't see anything!!!! But with nothing but time on our hands in the car, we figured it out! Sheesh!

Right now she likes to turn pictures into "Tangled" pics!

We stayed at a really great Comfort Suites in Tempe. We read that it had been newly remodeled. It was pretty much perfect for us:

(as you can tell by the millions of pictures I took :)

Right by the pool!

We didn't waste any time getting into the water!

On Tuesday morning we walked the campus of ASU..

our favorite part were the palm trees!!!

Mimi loved the palm trees so much that she ran from tree to tree hugging each one...(that's our little Boulder Tree Hugger! ;) We even had to stop her when she started hugging a light pole!

Our daily schedule went as follows:

-eat at our hotel

- go swim

-lunch in our room

-a PBS show

-nap

-dinner out!

It was pretty simple and pretty wonderful.

Getting ready to go the baseball game...

...with plenty of "two year old attitude"

Mexican food at TeePee's

How we spent our afternoons...

Baby kicked so much on the trip and is becoming more and more part of our family. It's so helpful knowing he's a he! It just helps to think of him as our newest addition!

Dinner at Applebee's with cousin Heidi

So many people ended up being in the Phoenix area the same time we were...it is definitely a destination at this time of year! We were able to have dinner our last night with the Carluccis!!!

(but we missed Armando and Reid... :(

 We loved getting Isla time...especially Mimi. She was super into her (But we had to watch her too... At one point she was about to feed Isla a chip! She was a fascination for sure...)

cute, well-behaved girls!

(we met up at Ben's friend Ryan's bar...)

 We were sad to leave!!! (Ben would've stayed for weeks longer in a heartbeat). We pushed through and did the whole drive back in a day...it was brutal, but worth it to have the extra day to recoop back at home. I am thankful for our little last trip with our family of three...

xoxo