Potty Talk

This past Monday we started hard core potty training The Bear. I admit I was dreading it. Curly basically trained herself. She received one sticker when she went potty as a reward. She was thrilled to get that one sticker and happily told me anytime she had to go. I knew I couldn't be that lucky twice. Monday morning Bear woke up 100% dry. I immediately took her to the potty and she went. Woo Hoo! Maybe this was going to be a breeze. I routinely made her sit on the potty every 20 minutes or so Monday morning. Nothing. She finally went right before her nap. She woke up from her nap 100% dry. Again Woo Hoo! Since then it's all be down hill. Many accidents. No dry diapers after waking up. Only telling me after she's gone in her panties. Boo Hoo! The Bear hates sitting on the potty all the time. She needs incentive just to sit on the potty. So needless to say this week has been frustrating and disgusting. Potty training is not pleasant. Not sure if I should forget about it for a while and start again in a few weeks or stay the course.

On a somewhat separate but still potty related subject, Daddy went to get Curly from the neighbors house for dinner the other day and he found her with her skirt pulled down peeing in their backyard. Great! They have a little boy Curly's age who sometimes pees in the backyard (even though his mommy has told him not too). Apparently he had just peed in the yard so Curly decided she would try too. We had to have a little discussion with Curly about that situation.

Happy Memorial Weekend!

Who We Met...

When you have two little girls, perhaps the major highlight of the Magic Kingdom is the castle. The second biggest highlight is definitely meeting all the beautiful princesses and fairies. Curly's favorite princess is Sleeping Beauty for the sole reason that she wears pink. Curly says almost daily "My favorite color is pink. I'm a pink pink pink girl". The Bear's favorite is Tinkerbell. Unfortunately when it came time to meet Tinker Bell she got upset about something and didn't actually get in the picture. Perhaps she was just so in awe she was really meeting her. Not sure what happened. Both girls were weary of any men dressed up as a character. The Bear did not go near a single man. Well, she got somewhat close to Aladdin but he totally terrified her so she never approached another man. Curly shook all their hands but definitely preferred to stand near the princess instead of the prince. Only one prince captured her heart. Prince Naveen from The Princess and The Frog charmed her. She had never even seen the movie, but he is definitely her favorite prince now.

Sleeping Beauty

Cinderella

Belle

The Fairy Godmother - the only character Curly didn't want to meet

Story time with Belle

Snow White

Notice The Bear is frozen with fear because Aladdin is talking to her

Curly's not afraid, but she is sticking by Jasmine

The Stepmother and Stepsister's were a little weird

Fawn

Tinkerbell

Terrence

Prince Eric and Ariel

Mary Poppins and Bert

Tiana and Prince Naveen

Magic

Daddy told me a few weeks ago that he was going to a work conference down in Orlando. We talked about it and decided to go down a few days prior to his conference starting and take the girls. Two days at the Magic Kingdom was all we were planning on doing. After all with two little girls, the Magic Kingdom is all they really care to see anyway. So we waited until The Bear's real birthday last Thursday to tell them. Their reaction was a bit subdued. The Bear didn't really understand. Curly was in shock and rendered speechless.

When we went a few years ago (thanks to another one of Daddy's conferences) we flew, so Curly kept asking when we were going to get on the airplane. The concept of driving down didn't appeal to her. It didn't appeal to me either. After a childhood spent in the backseat of my parents car on what seemed like never ending long car rides all across this country, I swore I would always do my best to fly if the trip was more than 6 hours. Disney World is a 7 hour drive. Plane tickets were too expensive plus paying to check in bags and parking at the airport. So we drove. It was a looong drive down. The girls didn't exactly travel well and refused to take naps in the car. Daddy and I feared the worst, but once we got to the hotel, they were excited. Something about staying in a hotel really makes Curly happy.

Saturday we hit the Magic Kingdom as soon as the gates opened. The Castle, the princesses, the fairies, Mary Poppins, Dumbo (or Bumbo as our girls like to call him), It's a Small World were just some of the highlights. We stayed until the girls had reached their limits and then left. We came back Sunday for more Disney fun. The weather was hot but tolerable. I personally love Disney World and I love it even more when I get to watch the "magic" and excitement through my girls eyes. They loved every minute of it (well The Bear was not going anywhere near a Prince). The drive back yesterday was not nearly as bad as the drive down because they both napped. I guess they were tired from the exciting weekend.

They weren't happy about stopping to take a picture so I had to just be happy with what I could get

Bumbo!

The Bear and her stickers

Yay! It's time for the carousel!

Watching the show in front castle

Which one is the real Goofy?

I'll share some pictures of the fun characters we met in my next post. The girls unfortunately both came home with strep throat. So they are on antibiotics and resting today.

Our Bear

Our Bear was born on May 13th, 2008 at 6:30 pm. She was 7 lb 8 oz of cuteness and perfect in every way. We were all so excited to have her in our family.

I cannot lie, The Bear's first year was hard. When she was just 10 weeks old, lightening struck our home and it burned down. We lost just about everything. For most of her first year, Daddy and I were under a lot of stress. We spent so much time dealing with insurance and house stuff that I feel like we didn't really enjoy all that the first year of life has to offer.

We tried really hard to enjoy all of her second year. Curly started preschool last September so that allowed me to devout three mornings a week completely to our Bear. She is a pure joy and so much fun. I am so thankful I have the opportunity to stay at home with my girls.

She is still completely insane about milk

She has awesome bed head

She loves putting stickers all over herself

She can swing for hours and hours

She completely adores her big sister

She's our beautiful birthday Bear

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET GIRL WE LOVE YOU!

Every good and perfect gift is from above

James 1:17

Bear's Family Party

Yesterday kicked off a week long celebration of our sweet Bear turning two. We had both sets of grandparents in town and GG from Oklahoma to help celebrate The Bear's birthday. The weather was absolutely perfect and we were so blessed to be able to spend the entire day playing out in the backyard. I believe a great time was had by all. Not sure who was more excited The Bear, Curly or GG. Apparently GG was so excited to spend time with her sweet great-grandbabies that she woke up at 3 am, got ready and made her breakfast. It's obvious the joy she gets from watching the girls play and laugh. We were so glad she was in town. Enjoy the pictures from yesterday. I'll post more after we have her little friend party tomorrow.

The beautiful birthday girl

Blowing out her 2 candles

Dora presents galore! Yipee!

Riding her new Kawasaki

Looking through the magnifying glass

My tea cup runneth over

Today Curly's preschool had a Mother's Day Tea. The kids sang a few songs for us and then served us cookies, mints and tea. It was so sweet. Curly has been singing all the songs for a few weeks now. She LOVES performing in front of people. She is not shy or nervous at all. The kids made us moms crowns and corsages to wear. They also filled out a little questionnaire about their mom. Curly apparently thinks I am 12 years old and have gray hair. I know as we get older our hair turns gray; however, I can honestly say I do not yet have gray hair. I asked Curly why she said I had gray hair and she said "I didn't know what to call the color of your hair". She got all of the other questions about me correct.

Curly singing her heart out front and center

My beautiful crown and corsage

Our family has a busy week ahead of us. On Saturday both sets of grandparents are coming to town to celebrate The Bear's 2nd birthday. Sunday is Mother's Day and we'll be doing dinner out and hanging out with my parents some more. Monday The Bear will have a little birthday party at a park with some of her friends. On Thursday, Bear's actual birthday, we have a big surprise for both girls. A magical surprise ;0). More on that in another post.