Christmas cheer

We went up to Rockford on Saturday and came back on Tuesday, by way of Ames where we stopped in briefly at a ridiculously-sized gathering at my grandparents' house there.  We had a wonderful time in Rockford, including two fun-filled days with cousins and another day with just my little clan there.  As you can tell by the picasa pictures, it was really, really fun.  It was hard to say goodbye to Jenny's family, knowing that she had to go back to Ames so her girls to go off to Michigan with their dad, but she's been holding up much better than I ever could.  The whole situation is ridiculous, and I just try not to think about it too much because I get so pointlessly angry at her stupid husband, doing such stupid, hurtful things.  He seems to be doing anything he can to hurt Jenny, and it doesn't matter if he hurts himself (stupid) or his kids (heartless) in the process. 

...but anyway, it was a really great Christmas, and it's fun to think we get round two in Barnum during this coming weekend!  The girls got some fun gifts, including a truck for Emily that she can take apart with a little battery-powered driver, a play mailbox for Audrey complete with letters AND stamps (I think I saw every kid except Milo having fun with it), and a ton of puzzles and books and other fun things.  They really enjoyed the thrill of waking up to see what Santa brought them. They weren't up at 5 AM like Julie was; in fact, I thought 7:15 was pretty nice for Christmas morning!  If only we hadn't stayed up until 1:30 getting everything ready, and doing the grown-ups gift exchange!  Ah well, I got a nap the next day, and it was really feeling vacation-like.

But today, Travis went to work, since we were in town and he had stuff he wanted to get done, and he can take the vacation days later in the year instead of today and tomorrow.  That meant it was a pretty normal day for me and the girls.  We actually went to the mall and walked around, which was fun, and when we got home they decided not to come inside but rather to play in the car for about half an hour, which enabled me to unpack purchases, switch out laundry, and start lunch! nice!  Speaking of meals, I know I have described how independent these little girls have become in getting their own plates, cups, etc.  For breakfast this morning, Emily got out her own plate and knife and the bread, and wanted to make a PBJ sandwich.  Audrey picked out her rice krispies and her bowl, and headed to the table.  I called her back to the kitchen to point out that we were out of milk, and as she's standing looking into the fridge, she says to me, plain as day, "Egg nog!"  I said, ohhhh, no, I don't think we can put egg nog on your rice krispies, but she kept insisting.  And I decided, well, how bad could it be, really?  She loved it.  And I loved hearing her sing "Egg nog, egg nog, egg nog" all throughout breakfast.  What a fun way to start the day!

The girls put on a little vocal show for the family at Mommo and Poppo's, although I guess it was mostly Audrey because Emily was quite crabby at the time (which was understandable because she was exhausted from being at Grandma's house and still miffed that we had to leave in the first place).  It was so lovely.  I was most pleased that I think Mommo could actually hear her, because she would start to sing along with Audrey but then not continue singing and just listen.  This is truly notable because 1) her hearing is far worse than she will admit and 2) usually she sings along so loudly that you wonder what the point is of having a child sing for her if all she wants to do is hear herself sing.  But that's one of those things that you just accept from someone who's 92, though, you know?  I think she really was able to enjoy Audrey's spontaneous lullabyes, and Audrey really got a kick out of the applause and general reaction, seeing people so pleased with something she could do.  It'll be a few years before self-consciousness provides her some stage fright, so for now I'm going to enjoy it and make her do her pony tricks for everyone who would appreciate it - haha!  The girl is amazing!  So is Emily, but she obviously is more shy, and I don't want to weird her out about music - I want her to love it in her own way.  She recited a couple of poems for my mom, though, which was amazing in itself.  "Girls and Boys, Come Out To Play" is 10 lines long!  She also recited over half of the Bunk Beds book for mom.  When she did that for Travis the other night, he said to me afterwards, "Is that normal???"  I don't think it is, but it sure is lovely. 

I have a huge to-do list for tomorrow, but I'll probably spend a lot of it getting ready for another weekend trip.  It'll be 2012 before I know it!

Naptime

This is too funny to not write down.

Today, the girls were playing together after lunch, and I heard them go upstairs.  I figured I'd better see what they were up to, so I got to the stairs and Emily shouted down to me, "Mom, I'm putting Audrey down for her nap.  I don't need any help, so you stay down there!"

I laughed and went back to the living room to pick up Audrey's blanket and small pink bear, which she has been really attached to lately, and brought them upstairs.  I told Emily that she'd need those things, so that's the only way she would let me go upstairs.  I found her and Audrey in the bathroom, with Audrey happily sitting on the potty, putting on her pullup.  They came back into their bedroom, and picked out a book, snuggled up with me on Audrey's bed, and we read it together.  Then I asked Audrey if she thought her pillow looked like a nice place to snuggle, and she giggled and crawled over there, snuggled in.  Then Emily pulled up the blankets around her, kissed her on the cheek, and turned off the light.  All I needed to do was kiss Audrey and say goodnight!  three hours later, she called for me, but Emily beat me to it and went upstairs and helped her get her undies back on, and by the time I got there she was almost ready to come back downstairs.

Aren't they nice girls?? :)

We have movement!

Time to post about a new kid. :)  I can feel the baby moving now!!  It's pretty weird, but I've gotta say that I like it.  I'm big enough now that it's more likely that my belly is actually a baby and not just that I had too much lunch.  today, I wore maternity pants to work for the first time, and it's evident that I'm going to need different ones because they're a good 2" too short.  Story of my life with pants, but even harder to fix with maternity pants.  It's really getting real now.

We've made our Christmas plans, and got the presents all wrapped, pretty much.  There are a few things left to get for the girls, and I still need to finish the chocolates for neighbors/friends/babysitters.

There are so many sweet things that the girls do throughout the day, and when I have time to sit and blog, I can't think of specifics.  When one girl is upset, it's not uncommon for the other to come over and give her sister a hug, which is sometimes well-received and other times infuriates the other.  I can't believe how much they love Christmas lights!  They were both disappointed tonight when our neighbors across the street forgot to turn theirs on. 

Audrey was so delighted with herself tonight because she put together a puzzle of a horse.  i remember Emily worked on these same puzzles when she was Audrey's age, almost exactly, because I was tied up nursing my newborn and she would work on them while my hands were busy.  Audrey hadn't ever done them before, and she was so thrilled, taking pieces and seeing what it turned out to be.  She was jumping and clapping and squealing! 

Emily has memorized the Bunk Beds book.  It's been her favorite for at least a week, every night, and now she's gotten to the point where she recites page after page of it.  Then she picks out W's for Willie and M's for Molly, and follows along with words.  It's pretty cool.

And they both have been singing "sweet and low."  It's amazing to hear Audrey keep pitch with Emily.  Audrey loves her lullaby book at bedtime, and sings all kinds of songs along with me.  It's a pretty nice way to tuck them in each night.  No matter how rocky the day gets to be throughout the day, keeping up with owies (running headlong into a shopping cart and smacking one's nose, slipping on the floor and bruising ones head, etc.), I always feel good about hugging and snuggling with them while we sing and read together.

Partied out

Trav and I hosted a gathering of friends last night for a holiday party.  We invited several of our co-workers and friends and neighbors, and while not everybody knew each other all that well, the kids melded just fine and we had a really, really nice evening.  I made cold sandwiches and cranberry/apple salad and hot cheesy potatoes, with bread pudding and pear sauce for dessert.  People brought snacks and wine and Travis served some sort of apple brady / whiskey concoction, to go along with egg nog and apple cider.  It was really, really fun!  Possibly the best part was the gingerbread house decorating.  I had constructed them earlier in the week, and made frosting and put it into ziplock sandwich bags for the kids to use like pastry bags, and stashed gumdrops and candycanes and m&m's onto the kids' table on the porch.  It was really, really fun!  Those kids were SO entertained!  The 2-year-olds on up to Julie, who's almost 10. Audrey was stuffing gummy bears in her mouth as fast as she could, and another 2YO named Sophie picked up the entire gingerbread house and took a bite out of it.  Emily was shaking sprinkles on hers, with no wet frosting for them to stick to, so they just went all over the place, while later I caught her sucking the frosting directly out of the bag. They were on quite the sugar high!   Audrey was able to stay up until almost 9:00, but Emily played with her cousins until nearly 11:00!!! I don't think she has ever stayed up that late before! She did pretty well today, but you could see the sleepiness in her eyes all day, and she was happy to be in her bed at 7:30 tonight. 

I think the reason for hosting and entertaining is that it forces one's home to be less of a private stash-my-stuff hole.  I had piles of things all over the house that I hadn't even realized were there because they weren't imminent to take care of, and the space it was taking up wasn't valuable real-estate like countertops or similar.  Once I looked through my house with hostess's eyes, I realized there was crap everywhere.  Even this morning, with beer bottles and paper plates and gingerbread house decorations scattered all over, it still looks better than before, and probably better than we've ever had it.  Travis and I really worked hard Saturday morning, and throughout the week, getting the house ready.  It's nice to have that payoff last longer than the hangover, metaphorically speaking, of course. :)

Audrey is getting much braver with repeating words to try them out.  Now, in her babbling, I catch a lot more words.  It's funny that her strings of emphatically-spoken nonsense are now containing real words, if you listen closely enough!  She is fully potty-trained now, and is really in charge of her own functions, unless the slime comes back, which it does every 2-3 weeks or so.  It's really devastating to her, and now she's hypervigilant about running to the potty whenever she feels any sort of lower intestinal activity, which is great, but depressing to see a 2YO try to deal with.  I've started a food diary online to help try to narrow down what is making her tummy flip out (candidates include apples, onions, corn, and canned tomatoes), and to take to a doctor once 2012 starts, because our healthcare for 2012 will meet the high deductible and that means it's a good time to make expensive doctor's appointments!  The food diary is kinda funny, because the best free site I could find to help with that is a weight-loss site, so it asked me what the weight goal was, and what her starting weight was.  I guessed that she's probably 27 pounds, and wants to be 32 by next spring? :)  Then the site scolds me each day for the low number of calories, because I always leave that part blank, and says that starvation is not a healthy diet method.  Anyway, last night when I was putting her to bed during the party, she was really distracted by all the noise going on, even though she was super, super tired, and I sang some lullabies with her.  Man, what a good singer she is!  She sang Twinkle Twinkle (of course), Lullaby and Goodnight, Rockabye Baby, and Golden Slumbers, and they were really, really on-pitch!!  It's so fun to sing through our lullaby book together at night, with Emily belting out her current favorites (Sweet and Low and Peace Attend Thee, which is her name for All Through the Night).  It's so fun.  She cracks me up all the time, with her expressiveness.  She loves to jump-dance, and she'll start the little Mozart music cube that plays little 15-second tunes, and jump like crazy, and then as the end of the ditty approaches, she runs back and hits the button again.  She loves to take care of dolls, and she insists on dressing herself every day, which often results in backwards shirts but if she doesn't care, I don't either!  She gets her own fork and glass for meals, and helps herself to cereal in the cupboard whenever she's hungry (which is a bit too independent, if you ask me!).  But, she will even hang up her own coat when we get inside the house!

Emily is such an easy 4-year-old.  She now makes her own peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for breakfast, and all I need to do for her is get the jelly from up high in the fridge, and then cut the sandwich in half when she's done.  I always offer to do it for her in case she's tired of the exercise, but so far, she is having a great time with it!  She even made her own lunch the other day, getting out the ham, cheese, and tortillas from the fridge and putting them together, ready to be microwaved and rolled up!  She is starting to get a little mouthy at times, but it's just whatever her favorite phrase happens to be that she's picked up from whoever.  Lately it's been: Audrey! DO NOT do that...  But most of the time she says things like, "Mom could you get that for me?"  It sounds lovely, and I don't force the "please" because I forget to do it myself when asking her for favors, and it seems like it would be rude of me to reject such a lovely, pleasant request from her.  Anyone would be charmed by her, and never miss the please, I figure!  She still fits nicely on my lap, and we snuggle lots and read book after book after book during Audrey's nap.  She's been bringing home activities from Ms. Teri's that say they're Kindergarten curriculum at the bottom of the page, so, gosh, I sure hope she's ready for that in a year and a half!  We constantly struggle with fingers in her mouth, especially while reading books, and with her personality I am figuring that a nailbiting habit will replace the thumb, whenever that occurs.  Yet another thing I wish wasn't available in my genetic material to be passed along, but, well, like I said, she sure can sing!  I'm sure she gets the enthusiasm with which she sings from Travis, but I'm totally taking credit for her excellent pitch!

They really are getting to be so independent.  I just read an article about how parents tend to hover, over-priase, and offer primarily structured activities, leaving not much free-play time for kids to play and experiment, fail, and try again.  In the article, the author said she was asked what her favorite moments were as a kid, and then to recall if any adults were present.  The general response rate for "adults present" was about 10%!  I feel like my kids are little electrons - my mere presence deteriorates their kid experience!  Well, not right now, of course, and not across-the-board and forever, but it's a good reassurance that if they're in the basement being wild and silly with friends, I don't need to supervise, until I hear a crash or something. :)  And, I'm sure that when the baby comes next spring, I will be again impressed and grateful for the independence they've been developing.  What great kids they are! 

This afternoon, they were both sitting on my lap, under a blanket, kicking each other's feet, wiggling their toes together and giggling like crazy.  I wish I could capture that moment and re-live it when they're off to college and I'm a lonely old lady. *sigh*

On your marks, get set, CHRISTMAS

Thanksgiving went off without a hitch.  We had a great time, and I was most thankful for the end of Audrey's diarrhea with a successful, normal poo yesterday at my parents' place, after a two-day break.  *phew!*  She's also stayed dry for at least 3 days now, and I'm starting to relax about everything.  Seriously, seriously, thankful.  Her last awful episode was Thursday while we were visiting Patrick, and thankfully most of that went in the potty and it was only a small amount to clean up in the prison visitiation room bathroom.  Thank you, Audrey, for yet again helping me to expand my list of life experiences. :)  The girls did great during their visit with Pat, though, and I was really proud of them.  The most special part was that we got a picture of the entire Sullivan clan together, for the first time.

After we got back to Trav's parents' house, we stuffed ourselves with the traditional dinner, and Audrey took a hearty nap during the afternoon.  The rest of us went outside since it was warm and beautiful out, and the guys got out a couple of shotguns.  I got to shoot baskets, and even though it was windy and most of the "court" was grass, I had a great time.  Then I chilled out on the grass chatting with Tilly and Lea, and it's so nice hanging out with them.  Then we ate pie, and the girls were quite confused as to why we were having dessert but no supper, and Travis's explanation didn't seem to quell them so I gave them cheese and bread, too. :)  Then they had a fantastic, relaxing bath,  much to the amusement of their grandparents, and we piled them in the car to go Rockford for part II of our lovely, relaxing, fantastic holiday.

When we got to my parents' place, my siblings and parents were chatting in the living room, having some wine and cookies.  I stayed up waaaaaay too late, but it was our only evening together, since Jenny had to get back to Ames the next day.  It was so very, very fun.  The meal the next morning went really well, and I was impressed that my mom pulled everything off so well.  She had some good sous chefs between my dad, my sister, and myself, but she was in charge and calm and collected by the time we sat down to eat.  Made the whole day just relaxed and easy.

Saturday was an Emily and Grandma day.  It was so fun to have a day with nothing going on, and Emily really took advantage of it by bring book after book after book for my mom to read to her, and they did a bubble activity that she absolutely loved.  It was like her own little private preschool day, which was amazing that she had the energy for that considering this was the end of three wild days of attention and interaction with her favorite people.  We piled them in the car and got home after they'd been asleep about an hour.  When we walked in the door, the house was so clean and empty, but by the time we got everything unloaded, the house was trashed again.  Ahh well.  We got a lot of it put away today, but we also got a Christmas tree, up and half-decorated, and Travis did a TON of work in the garage getting ready for winter.  And the piano tuner came today, so now my piano sounds fabulous again. :)

Happy Holidays, I guess

I can't believe it's Thanksgiving week already!  I am so not ready for Christmas season!!!  Heck, I'm really not even that ready to travel at the end of this week.  I mean, I just did a ton of laundry after we got back from Minneapolis, so I'm not ready to do it all again so I can pack up and move on out.  I suppose it would've made sense to take Tuesday off from work so I could get ready... maybe I still will take the afternoon or something. we'll see.

We had a nice lazy weekend here.  Travis took Friday off from work so he could tailgate all day in anticipation of ISU's football game vs. #2-ranked OSU.  I thought he was crazy - I was sure that it'd be cold and windy and miserable, and then the game would totally suck.  I was wrong about everything except the wind, I guess!!  What a game!!  Lucky for me, Dan and Kerri came over to see the game so I wasn't alone to go berserk as they actually won. 

And then I had about a 180-degree swing the next day as I discovered that Audrey can't have oranges without it triggering a mass release of the entire contents of her lower intestine.  insane.  Poor girl.  We're still holding steady with 1-2 accidents per day, which pretty much occur when we let her take the lead on when she goes potty or not.  I can trick her into going, or I can mandate it (like before naps) and pretty much she will fight me unless I'm very conniving and get her to think that it's her idea in the first place.  it's tiring, but mostly it's annoying since I know how many other incredible things she's capable of doing, and she's proven she's capable of this too.  I just keep telling myself, as long as she's got it figured out by, like, March, well, at least I won't be nursing and potty training... sheesh.

As for those other incredible things, I started the day by Emily requesting that I play the piano while she sings Golden Slumbers.  So Audrey sat on my lap and sang along with Emily's pretty clear voice.  It was soooo cool.  Tonight at bedtime, they were both singing twinkle, twinkle, and it was absolutely the best.  They spent the evening doing puzzles with me and Travis, and it was pretty amazing to see what they could do.  Audrey was putting puzzles together licketysplit that she hadn't ever seen before.  AND, she's getting more words!  We read a book about a frog tonight, which she exclaimed to be "Gog!!!"  And she wanted a cup that she couldn't reach from the bathtub the other night, and she actually said her word for cup.  I'm working on shushing Emily enough to give Audrey a chance, and set the expectation that Audrey needs to use her words and not just rely on big sister or her expressive little face to communicate for her. 

And Emily has been so snuggley and sweet lately, and so beautifully expressive with the way she words things.  Can she just stay 4 forever???

A Big Fat Greek Engagement Party

We went to Minneapolis last weekend to go to Mark and Lea's ("leah", not "lee") engagement party, and we really had a nice 48-hour vacation.  Trav took the afternoon off so we could travel during Audrey's nap on Friday, and Emily did really well in the car.  We made it to the hotel in time to swim for about half an hour before we had to get cleaned up for supper, and Emily screamed most of the time in the water.  She was pretty freaked, but I think she was enjoying it on some level, deep down.  Audrey was more transparent about what she liked and didn't like.  Since the pool was 3' minimum, we had to take them around with us the whole time, and they didn't get to just run and play in the water.  But it was a good experience overall - by the time they swam on Saturday and Sunday mornings, they were both kicking like crazy and using their hands out in front of them as Travis and I floated them arond.  Emily liked to sit on the steps of the pool and practice blowing bubbles.  They'll be fine swimmers once we get them started... I think. 

Anyway, we met up with Minnesota friends who both have newborns, so it was fun to put our kids to bed in the hotel and stay up chatting with them, enjoying their little ones!!  The next morning, after swimming, we took the girls to the sculpture garden and got some great pictures of them running around in the sunshine.  We ate dinner at a cafe that was featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, which is something I've always wanted to do because that show makes food look SOOOO good.  They find places where things are homemade and made out of real ingredients, and this place really was fabulous. And, even though it was the middle of November in Minnesota, we were able to eat outside!  It was a gorgeous day and we sure took advantage of it.  The girls were plenty tired to take solid naps (both of them) on Saturday afternoon, so Trav and I decompressed while they slept and then got ready for the engagement party.

Lea's family is Greek, and their wedding will be in a Greek Orthodox church in Minneapolis.  I absolutely adore Lea - she's so cool!  And her family is wonderful, too.  We really enjoyed meeting all of them, and a lot of their family friends who have known her since she was a tiny girl.  We met her cousins and grandparents and felt a little overwhelmed but definitely welcomed.  Lea has said that her wedding will probably be kind of like the movie Big Fat Greek Wedding, not exactly, but yeah, kinda, and I can totally understand now!  The people we met weren't over-the-top characters, but at one point there were three ladies singing children's songs in Greek to my girls, who just sat and watched in amazement.  They sang "wheels on the bus" and "itsy bitsy spider" to Emily and Audrey first, and they just loved that, so they launched into something in Greek, and then they laughed and said, "oh, they probably don't know that one!"  Yeah, not really!  And then the waitress brought more wine and everybody said "Opa!!!" and the party continued.  This was just a 2-hour informal reception in the back room of a restaurant -- I can only imagine what a full-out wedding will be!!  I'm so excited!!

My girls did really, really well during this party, considering that it was loud and crowded and they didn't know anybody except their Sullivan grandparents and Mark and Lea.  When we walked in, Audrey saw Lea and immediately leaned in for her to hold her, and snuggled up under her chin.  It was SO sweet, and I just love that Lea's family got to see a little genuine taste of how much we all love her.  But after that, everybody kept coming up to me and saying, "Oh! These must be Mark's nieces!  We've heard so much about them!  they're so beautiful!"  And the girls just clung tighter and tighter to me.  They loosened up after a while, about the point where they couldn't contain their wiggles anymore, but they really, really handled things well for being so intimidated.  Then Lea's brother started playing silly games with them, and they thought that was great, too.  Emily is SO excited to be a flower girl for their wedding, and I wonder if Audrey might be invited to be one too, since she'll be 3 1/2 at the time of the wedding, almost as old as Emily is now, and Emily will be FIVE.  yikes!

And the weirdest part - I will have a one-year-old then, too. :)  My due date is May 24, 2012, and their wedding date will be May 26, 2013!  I'm 13 weeks along now, and have heard a heartbeat so I think things are all good there.  I haven't announced on Facebook yet, but people at work know, and of course family and close friends.  so, now my blog knows, too!  I spent weeks 6 - 8 sleeping on the couch in the afternoons, during which time Emily complained that she was lonely because she was the only one in the house who was awake - oops.  The nausea seemed worse this time than with the other 2, but a few weeks away and I'm already thinking it wasn't really that bad in retrospect.  I did manage to throw up a prenatal vitamin on the day of Audrey's birthday party, though, which is a TERRIBLE experience.  I don't recommend it!

So, that's the scoop on the weekend, and things.  All in all, it's good to be me. :) 

raising a stink, apparently

So I should be flying high today, on a beautiful sunny day with my girls at home, happily playing, enjoying the new snow that's sure to disappear soon.  I had my year-end review yesterday with my boss, and he had nothing but glowing, wonderful things to say about me and my performance last year - and a high overall rating, too, which was apparently unanimous when "normalized" with other managers in my group.  Compliments are so good for my ego! :)

But apparently I offended a few people, my husband being one of them, when I asked a group of friends to back me up in supporting my sister, to whatever degree they are comfortable doing.  Travis argued that the intent was fine, but it was poorly worded, such that I expected other people to confront her husband should he show up uninvited to an affair (tailgate, party, bike ride, etc.), even if he brings the girls in a cowardly attempt to shield himself from such confrontation.  I was surprised that I got two email responses - one from someone I've always liked and respected, and one from someone I've not held in as high esteem but never really had a personal reason to dislike either.  It was amazing that the person I was not so crazy about replied with outright support, saying this guy's actions were not cool and he's on board with what I suggested.  The other person told me to "back off" and that i had made it uncomfortable for everyone by bringing up someone else's problems.  I'm having a hard time getting over it, because I was actually called selfish in the email, and my feelings are hurt.  I really know that it's best to let it go, not ruffle any more feathers and just realize that not everyone understands the severity of domestic abuse.  But it still stings, and it's made me grouchy today. Travis and I stayed up last night discussing it - fortunately it didn't cross the line into a real argument, but it was definitely heated - because he could see this person's point.  I just can't understand how telling my friends that my family won't be offended if you don't offer Dave a beer the next time you see him is really asking that much of people, especially considering what all Jenny is tolerating on a daily basis and what Travis and I have done for other friends in this same group over the years.  And I just can't fathom that anyone could tolerate domestic abuse on any scale, at any level.  At very least, you'd think that pointing out that he BEAT UP someone they know and like and who couldn't possibly deserve it (really?? what could a wife do to deserve to get beaten up???) would mean something... but I guess not.  The worst irony is that I've heard so many people talking and posting about how awful the situation at Penn State is, where young boys were abused and people knew and didn't do anything to stop it.  Yet, situations like this can go on in your neighborhood where women and their kids are abused, neglected, berated, and emotionally beaten down for YEARS and everyone can say, well, they're intelligent adults, i'm sure they'll work it out.  Or worse, they actually think she does have it coming.  Yeah, sure.  Until somebody ends up dead, either the guy going on a shooting rampage in a beauty salon or the wife "runs off" with some mysterious guy never to be seen again, or the wife finally kills the husband to stop the abuse, people will never believe it.  "He seemed like the nicest guy!" 

I'm not fooled anymore.  My few dear loyal readers, I hope you aren't fooled either, and will listen with a new ear the next time you hear a girlfriend complain about how her husband abandoned her with the kids for a weekend while he went off playing, or he told her she can't have friends over because the house isn't clean enough, or he spent all their money on himself when it should have been spent on the kids or family, or how she was told she was overreacting when he misused her belongings.  Did he make it up to her? did he apologize? did he understand he was wrong and reacted positively when she gave him the ultimatum to not happen again?  Or, did he bring up something he thinks is really her fault and make the argument about that instead?  It's up to us to help our friends out, because they might be being told at home that they're overreacting if they get their feelings hurt, that they're lonely because their friends don't really like them, that they're not as attractive as when they got married, that they're unreasonable, they're bitchy, they're PMSing, that they HAVE to have sex because a husband is entitled to it, that they're just like their mothers... and so on.  If you were being told those things constantly, would you feel like you deserved help?? 

So, if you're suspicious that a friend needs help, give her access to the Power and Control Wheel and read through it with her.  Each of the sections is as important as the other.  Even though they may seem like little things that everybody puts up with - they're NOT.  Domestic abuse isn't just a black eye or suspicious bruises.

And we have to help each other out, because I've lost all faith in the male gender.

And, please read the comments on this blog.  If that doesn't convince you, I don't know what will!

Audrey is Two!

My sweet baby is two years old today.  What a great day we had!

Since it was the start of daylight savings time, the girls were up and in my room at 6:15, and we had some family snuggles before getting up and having breakfast.  It was good we were up that early, because there was plenty to do before family began arriving for the party at 10.  Mark and Lea were already here, because they came the day before to watch Iowa State win their football game, and then just hang out with us in the evening, which was really fun.  It was especially awesome this morning, because Audrey hung out with Lea while I was straightening up the kitchen and things, and Emily and Mark and Travis worked together to get other things ready.  It was just great.  When 10:00 rolled around, we were all just chilling in the living room, taking a break, since everything was ready.  I love that it's so easy to get this group together.  Not many people look forward to having their in-laws hang out with their family, but I do.  it's a really fun bunch, and I am looking forward to the day that Pat and Tilly join us regularly for these things. 

Unfortunately, Milo got sick right around lunchtime, so Dan and Kerri ate quickly and took him home.  They ended up taking him to urgent care where the doc said he had bronchiolitis, which I think is caused by RSV but the doctor was unclear on that.  Anyway, it's a big bummer that he's so sick, but he's such a good sport!  His mom and dad are so intuitive with him that he hardly has to fuss and they meet his needs, so, of course he's agreeable. What a sweetheart.  Megan also wasn't feeling well, but she was a trooper, too, until the end of the day when she crashed on the couch with a blanket.  It's crazy that my kids' birthdays seem to be full of sick children, but at least they're sweet kids about it -- and this time it wasn't either of my kids!

The food was fantastic, I might add.  I was pretty pleased with the way things turned out, especially since I did a pretty severe degree of recipe wrangling.  I never make things exactly the way the recipe says - I tweak things, or intentionally try something different.  I made pumpkin pancakes by adapting Mommo's recipe for buttermilk pancakes - added whole wheat flour, took out the butter and sugar, added pumpkin and spices.  I made cranberry-strawberry sauce by combining two recipes I found online and adding orange juice, just because it seemed like I should.  I made pecan pie bars, which was also an adaptation but one that I did a while ago so I had made a few times.  I added more pecans and some interesting spices, and lessened the gooey part a bit.  Plus, egg casserole and grapes.  Mmmmm :)  Next year, Audrey can tell me what she would like for a birthday meal, but this year I had a good time deciding on her behalf what she likes (and I was right, too! she ate a ton!).

Audrey got really fun birthday presents, and did a great job opening everything.  She especially likes a singing purple hippo that I bought for her when she and I went to the toy store to shop for her birthday.  I remember doing this for Emily, too, when she turned two.  She picked out the things she wanted for her birthday - a schoolbus, BucklePig, and a few others - and I just put them in the basement and then when it was her birthday, well, what do you know?  Exactly what she wanted!!  This singing hippo plays songs or you can play his teeth like a keyboard, and the notes are labelled in solfeg, which is what convinced the music geek in me that it would be okay to have one more noisy toy. 

And, for me, the best part of the day is that Audrey was DRY ALL DAY!!  She even pooped on the potty after lunch, while everybody was here and the excitement was going on!  She had a bit too much mango for snack yesterday which was just too much fiber for her, so she had a couple of surprise poops later on after people left, but just before bed, without any prompting at all, she actually took herself potty!!!!  It's been a whole week since we re-ditched the diapers, and she finally, finally trusted herself.  She even scolded me for following her to the bathroom, so I just turned on the light in the bathroom and left.  Then a few seconds later I hear, "Yeeaahhhh!"  No kidding, yeah!!  I sure hope this means i have reached the bottom of my double-dip potty training trend, and things are really headed up, but even a plateau at this point would be just fine for a while.  She sure seems happy, so I'm gonna just go with what we've got for now.  it's SO much better than diapers!

Travis and I had a discussion last night, after he got home from his trip, about how I really needed some kind of a noteable success so I could relax about other stuff that may not be optimal.  Because, really, does anybody's life really get more blissful than mine, in general??  I have absolutely everything a person could really want, and yet, i still get grouchy and feel sorry for myself.  But today, and this whole weekend, was absolutely a success, from start to finish.  I woke up this morning hugging my girls, feeling like I hadn't seen them in a week, I was so happy to see them.  They snuggle and wiggle and chatter and I just want to smother them with kisses, I love them so much.  I just marvel at every little thing, from the clever way Emily puts her sentences together, to the way Audrey operates so expressively that words really aren't that necessary.  I can't even put it into words, really.  And then I look at my husband, and I feel just as strongly about him, and how good it feels to be his partner, while allowing each other to still be our own selves.  When I look down the road and wish success and happiness for my girls, I can only hope that it's the level I've got now.

It was a fantastic weekend!

Happy Home

Travis traveled to Florida this week, leaving on Sunday morning and got back Wednesday afternoon.  It was a tough 4 days but the girls and I managed to have a really nice time, in stretches. :)  Now we're on to plan Audrey's birthday party on Sunday.  Can you believe she'll be TWO??

I haven't been updating this blog as much lately because much of my typing effort is being done on the ohcrappottytraining.com forum.  Last Saturday was the first day of our Reset, so we threw out the diapers and she was happy to try pottying again.  Each day had more and more accidents until yesterday, when she had only one success early in the morning and varying styles of poop and pee accidents the rest of the day.  So frustrating!!  I finally looked her square in the eyes and told her she MUST stay dry.  She MUST put it in the potty.  No more accidents - it all goes IN the potty.  And this morning, I got her up onto the potty as we were getting ready to go to ms. Teri's, and she refused.  I reinforced what I told her last night, and then just left her in the bathroom while I went to wake up Emily.  Lo and behold, she took down her pants, climbed up there all on her own, and went!!  I heard her from their bedroom, and then her little shout of delight.  So, something about laying the smack down and setting the expectations did it for her - only one accident today and she was seriously distracted by play-do.  And she was home with her Dad, who hasn't laid the smack down yet ;) and he didn't probably know the last time she had gone at daycare.  But she was even dry after nap!!  Rockstar!  the advice i got on OhCrap was that I've gotta be 100% all-in, because Audrey is sensing my hatred for the process and assumes I will fix it to make that go away.  But I'm stubborn - I'm going to make Audrey fix it. heh heh!!

So I went back over this blog, and found a particularly insane rant of mine from April 2010, when Emily was going through her casual pooping phase.  I essentially did the same thing to her, although I phrased it as "hitting bottom."  I told her I was NOT dealing with that any more, and she was going to put ALL of it in the potty.  I don't know if doing that sooner might have shortened her phase down from 4 months to something more reasonable, but I'm glad to have at least caught on with audrey!

Now, to something less excrement-related.  The girls and I went out and picked up pizza for supper the other night, and they really enjoyed that.  The next night, we ate random leftovers and then went to Coldstone where I spent a coupon to get us all ice cream for super cheap.  It was a lovely evening, and we even ate outside!! In November!

Halloween was really fun, too.  We went down the street on Beggar's night (Sunday night - yup, Travis missed out!)  with our neighbors across the street, who Emily adores.  Okay, I adore them too.  They're an awesome family.  Anyway, we tagged along with them down the hill, but the girls and I came back because half an hour was plenty for them, and their buckets were plenty full by my standards. :)  They were the cutest little bumblebees!!  They also got to be bumblebees at an outing that was sponsored by my workplace, out at Sleepy Hollow Sportspark.  It was really fun, and they had set it up pretty well for young families. It was pretty fun!  A pretty successful Halloween, I must say!

on and on...

I wish I didn't have to title posts.  I never have a point, you know.

It's been a fairly uneventful week at the Sullivan house.  Travis decided not to go to the football game today, which was nice.  It was Homecoming weekend, so it probably would've been fun to go up and socialize, but I just haven't felt up for it this year. So we had a nice Saturday at home, on a beautiful day.  Travis did a bunch of landscaping, and I did some sorting and other things that are hard to do with two children underfoot.  I picked up Indian food for supper tonight, and after the kids were in bed, I made molten lava chocolate cakes for dessert, just the two of us (I only used 1 egg yolk instead of two, and some unsweetened chocolate in place of the semisweet, and it was still plenty rich and sweet!).  The girls were driving us nuts for a good portion of the day so it was especially nice to work in the kitchen without being bothered, and then enjoy a treat without it being such a big deal.

I guess the biggest thing is that Audrey has fully unpottytrained herself.  OhCrap told me to do a reset, so we're doing disposable diapers for two weeks.  Next Saturday will be the new Day 1, and hopefully she's receptive to it and not uberpissed like she was when I gave it up.  She seemed really concerned the first few times she used her diaper, but I just changed her and hugged her and sent her on her way.  Now, I think she really likes how easy it is... so this may be tough.  But she's gotta do it sometime, and it's gotta be soon.  I'm a little worried about setbacks the following weekend at her birthday, but that's a long way off.  I've gotta say that it's been really nice to not have Audrey's bladder on my mind constantly, but I hate diapers.  I really, really hate them.  I think the train went off the rails when Audrey had several accidents in a row, and she decided she was terrible at it and didn't have any idea what she was doing, and didn't want to try.  It wasn't true, but I couldn't convince her.  When I reset, I'll have to be careful of her ego, and make sure that I do my best to help her have a whole string of successes right off the bat, and then make a big deal of accidents or successes, either way, so it's not such a big deal to her if she succeeds or fails.  Easy, right?? Sure...

Wednesday was fun because Grandma Sullivan came to spend the day with us!!  We really made it special by going to Old McDonald's for lunch and then to the spice store, which the girls really enjoy because they have a table set up to color at.  They may have enjoyed that more than the playland at McD's, which was loud and full of obnoxious children.  Then we made rainbow cupcakes, wihch we are still working through.  I should've sent them to daycare on Thursday because I'm sure tired of the whining and fussing for multiple cupcakes every day.  And while they were a superawesome treat when they were fresh, they look particularly unappetizing now and i just keep finding more fingerprints in the frosting.  Gah!!

Emily has been really enjoying her piano books.  We don't do it every day, but probably every other day we sit down together and play things out of both books.  One book has 4-measure exercises that are supposed to sound like the action that the stick-figure that accompanies it is doing, like Walking or Skipping or Rolling or whatever.  Yesterday, Emily played 5 out of the first 6 in the book!  I was SO impressed!!  She was delighted and said, "let's play the other book!!"  so we did a little of that, too, and all in all it's less than 10 minutes of work, but I can tell that's all she's up for.  It's crazy how a short period of intense learning can really make a difference, and really wear her out.  But then after supper yesterday, she sat down with a baby book with me and she worked on reading off her letters.  The book is so simple - a picture of something with the word printed underneath.  She would read off the letters, and then say the word because she knew it from identifying the picture.  Today, I covered up a picture and asked her what the word said, and she looked at me so funny, as though, how could she know without the picture??  So we sounded it out together, and it was so fun then when I uncovered the picture and she was right.  What a great grin that girl has!  And again, we can't do that much of this before she gets squirmy and it's obvious she's at the end of her attention span.  But it's hard for me to hold back when she's picking up so much of what I'm telling her and we're having such a good time!  Oh yeah, she's only 4, and it's ridiculous that she's doing this degree of sitting-still learning. 

And we're still trying to get Audrey to talk, but she's getting a little braver.  She knows, she just won't do it.  I wonder if she practices at Ms. Teri's?  She's gotta practice somewhere!!

Lousy parent

It's been a rough week here.  I spent Wednesday in some kind of frantic state... I can't even say what it was all about but I was seriously annoyed that I couldn't get good behavior out of Emily, and I was freaking mad.  Audrey was driving me nuts because she's decided not to be potty trained anymore.  Guess that was a fun little experiment, honey.  I've gone back to my forum, begging for help.  She totally had it all figured out, and now she's not making ANY effort at all to even tell me when she has to go, and she fights like hell if I tell her she must sit and try.  Then 20 minutes later she comes back to find me with wet or dirty pants.  I am so frustrated, and I'm probably doing everything wrong, but I just don't know how to get past this.  Hopefully OhCrap lady has some ideas.

I finally got some good sleep Thursday night after a late night (upset with myself for the way I parented Wed), and a long day at work and an evening out to celebrate a new product release with some coworkers.  Yesterday, I pretty much operated on the idea that whatever I would have done on Wednesday, I would do the opposite.  We went to the store to buy paint, and Emily worked on a project while Audrey took a fantastic 3-hour nap, which was preceeded by a poop on the potty.  It was all looking up.  Today, pee everywhere.  There never really was anything that wrong with Emily's behavior, in retrospect.  I hope I've turned a corner with that. 

So, I just heard that someone I knew from marching band had a 4-month-old who died of SIDS this week.  Horrifying!  I told Travis about it after lunch today.  Apparently Emily overheard that, even though I didn't say much more than I did in this paragraph, but she got to thinking about it.  This afternoon, she sat on my lap, and said she didn't like dying.  I said i didn't either.  She asked me if I was going to die, and i said not for a very, very long time (I can't lie to her!).  She then started crying really, really hard and said she didn't want to die because she would be all alone!!  Oh my gosh, I wasn't ready for this conversation yet!!  I told her I would always, always be with her because I love her more than anything in the world and she's not getting rid of me!  That seemed to relax her a bit.  It didn't seem like the right time to introduce any kind of religious teachings, since her fear was so very literal.  Instead, I talked to her about how Mommo used to be a little girl, and then she grew up and had a little girl, and that little girl grew up to be Grandma, and it took a long time to tell the story so I hoped that would show her just how long her life will be (hear that, Universe?  WILL be!).  And then she asked something about a birthday, and I said I have a lot of birthdays left, and that Emily has even more.  That seemed to satisfy her all right, and we snuggled and talked for probably an hour after that about just fun random stuff.  What a sweet girl.  and an unexpected way to spend the afternoon!

Trav and I took Emily down to the parking lot near our house to see if Emily could balance on her new bike.  No go.  Not even excited about it, just wanted to walk (or dance, really) most of the way back.  oh well.  She and Audrey spent a good amount of the afternoon outside playing and watching/helping Travis work on the landscaping out front.  Trav is exhausted tonight from the work, so we'll all sleep well tonight.  If I can get past my own conscience...

Lots to catch up on

Travis's uncle died suddenly on Thursday.  I can't seem to find his obituary online, but he was only 63 and it was as sudden as you have ever heard of. One minute he was getting ready to go drive his school bus route, and the next, he was on his way out.  Apparently, a post-mortem x-ray showed a pulmonary embolism; they weren't able to resuscitate him in the ambulance.   His daughter, Travis's cousin, was on her way to fly to Iowa with her 2-year-old daughter to visit Tim and Nancy, and then come to Emily's birthday party on Sunday.  We had visited them in California last spring, and had a great time with them.  When she arrived in Dallas for her layover, she changed her connecting flight when she got the news that her dad had died, and flew to Minneapolis instead.  I feel SO bad for that family.  I really liked Gerry, and I've always had a great time with Travis's cousins.  It's been weird to be planning a joyful birthday weekend in this beautiful weather, knowing the degree of mourning that people I care about are enduring.

So, Nancy drove the 7 hours up to Lake Park, MN (almost to Fargo) the very next day to help her sister, nieces, and nephew plan the funeral, and has been there ever since.  I cannot tell you what an amazing heart that woman has, to drop everything in her life and do that for them.  Travis and Tim drove up today to be there for the wake, and they'll come home late tomorrow after the funeral in the afternoon.  It's been very, very weird.  I would have gone with them and left the girls with my parents, but I was needed here, as you'll see below.

We moved Emily's birthday party to Saturday instead of Sunday, and fortunately that worked for everybody except Nancy.  Everything was going just fine - the cake was ready, lunch was ready, everybody was here and eating, but Emily said it was too loud, too many people, and she wanted to just sit in the living room where it was quiet.  She ended up falling asleep on Travis's lap, and he put her in her bed to sleep for at least an hour.  She had a fever of 102!!  When she woke up, we gave her a full dose of tylenol, and within half an hour she was chipper enough to enjoy the party.  She loved the Frances cake, and the gift that Audrey gave her: a Chompo bar (a snickers bar in a wrapper I made) wrapped in pretty paper with ribbon.  Those of you who know A Birthday for Frances will appreciate that!!  She LOVED it.  She opened all of her presents, and really enjoyed everything she got, especially the umbrella that she had picked out and wrapped for herself.  Very thoughtful and awesome gifts!  She's got some pretty great family.  She was so excited about the gift that Mark and Lea gave her that she marched right over and hugged Lea.  I thought it was hilarious that she already knows that it's the females who are to credit for things like that - ha!! :)

Travis and I thought Emily would be ready for a real bike, with no training wheels and everything, and she was kind of excited when she saw it, but not like I thought she would be.  In her defense, she was still feeling sick, but she was a trooper and climbed up on the seat while Travis held it, and Grandpa took her picture.  We're going to go pick out a helmet tomorrow, on her actual birthday, to round out the gift.  Her head is so big that I wanted to be sure she was a part of the selection so we go something that fits!!

So, I thought I would be up all night with a sick kiddo, and have a lousy day taking care of her fever today, but she has felt fine all day.  However, I was up all night anyway because she had to keep getting drinks, and pooping (? who does that at 2 AM?), and worrying about Audrey, who also took her turn being up crying.  I was up every 20 minutes for a good 2 hours last night.  Travis left at 6:30 AM, so i talked to him for a minute before he left (i don't think i opened my eyes, though!) and then at 7:15 Emily was in my room with a bloody nose, and my day was off to the races.  Needless to say, I will be headed to bed shortly here!!

The girls and I had another nice day enjoying the beautiful weather, and for the most part, we had a lovely day.  But wow, what a weekend.  apparently, my sister-in-law met her biological dad for the first time this weekend, so it'll be interesting to hear how that all went, too!  Life just keeps on happening...

p.s. since i've been posting potty training progress here, I will note that we started Audrey on probiotics that were specially formulated for children, and she is finally, finally not sliming every few hours.  It's been AWESOME.  It was seriously like finding a magic pill - within a few hours of her first dose, it was a whole lot better.  Now she'll actually go a full 24-hours without going, and when she does go it's no problem at all.  YAAAAYYYY!!!  I am so happy for her!! and me, too, of course :)

Weddings are Exhausting!

I am writing this from my sister's house.  All 6 Johannsen grandkids are asleep here (or in bed, at least) and all the other grownups are at the wedding.  I guess I'm on duty, of sorts, but it's actually just that I'm glad to be done with the day.  I probably shouldn't hash over the details again because I'll just get agitated again.  It was full of exasperation, exhaustion, some regret, gratefulness, but mostly just feeling overwhelmed with responsibility on top of a headcold and a short night of sleep.  Since Travis was sick this week, it seemed like he and I had almost no communication about the weekend, and it's just impossible for it to go completely smoothly without that.  There's always the mismatch of expectations that's inevitable, even if most of the time we can correctly assume what the other is thinking.  When we miss, it's sucky.  I guess I'll just let it go and try to get more out of him next time.  Ugh.

Audrey had a frustrating accident today - she sat on the potty to poop, and everything was going great, and when she stood up, it became apparent that she hadn't quite gotten her dress up over her bottom.  Poor girl!  The regret that I mention above was that I didn't figure that out immediately and get excited that she had actually done everything just right - i thought it was an accident.  It wasn't, it was just... misfortune??  The gratefulness that I mention was to Travis's family, for helping me with the girls after the ceremony and through the reception, and to Jenny for providing me with everything I needed after I discovered that all the things the girls needed for overnight had been left at home, carefully packed but left on the porch.  It was a rough weekend, but it would've been impossible without them!

As glad as I am that Audrey is potty trained and doing great for the most part, now we are to that weird phase where she will only use HER potty. I've gotta take it everywhere with me, including to the hotel where the wedding reception was tonight - awkward!  I guess I'll go back to the OhCrap forum and ask how to get out of that.  I'm hoping she'll get so confident that she'll think it's fun to try peeing other places, but so far she's a hard sell on HER potty if it's located in a new place.  It's not as exhausting as the initial step, but still a lot of logistics to manage.

I've started planning Emily's 4th birthday, with a Frances theme, for obvious reasons!  I cannot believe she's going to be FOUR.  That's such a big number!!  I rememer drowning in the terrible two's and Jenny would tell me that the hard work of parenting is up until they're 4, establishing the boundaries, and for a while after that, you just nudge them back into place as needed.  It was so hard to believe her that those days would ever come, but for the most part, I'd say she's right.  Emily is a lovely girl, especially compared to a few (nonfamily) children I was around this weekend - yikes.  She'd be lovely even if she wasn't so well-behaved, but she really, really is.  There's just a few things that exasperate me, like her intention to finish what she's doing no matter how hard I try to verbally direct her otherwise.  Screaming STOP or NO or MOVE or DROPIT or anything like that has no effect whatsoever if she's intent on what she's doing.  She'll finish, and then look up at me like, "okay, now what was it you needed??"  I needed you to move so I don't drop a pot of hot water over your head on my way to drain these noodles because I'm trying to make supper so you'll stop whining at me!!  GAH!  I can physically stop her, and when I do, it's apparent that she did hear me because she freaks out about it.  I guess if I'm left with one major challenge for age 4, I can be glad, because those other kids - yikes.  It wasn't their fault, though; when they were around me, they responded instantly to some of my parenting techniques, and it's obvious that their parents could do the same and save themselves a lot of heartache.  Life's too short to be mad at your kids all the time!

It's also too short to have such a rotten personal day on what should've been (and hopefully was) a fantastic day for two very wonderful people, and their family and friends who love them very much.

Doing great!

Audrey is over the hump - she's really got it now!  We're still looking for a totally accident-free day, but her accidents are really just "awww, so close!" kind of things.  She either gets distracted/busy, or she has trouble with her pants, or she tells me she has to go and I'm too slow hurrying upstairs because I wasn't able to carry her potty down to the basement with us.  I just didn't have room in my arms with her and the basket of laundry I was carrying!!  But she's really understanding the whole process, and for the most part she does a GREAT job.  Poor girl still has trouble predicting whether her backside is going to produce gas or slime, and she got caught by that last night.  But we were at a friend's house, and I was still super proud of her because she did her first pee away from our house!!  Well, besides daycare.  That tells you just how much I've gotten out of the house in the past two weeks. This morning she got 95% of a slimy poop in the potty, with the remainder getting on the outside of her training pants and the floor as she stood up afterwards in celebration.  Now, how can you fault a girl for that??

Travis leaves tomorrow for an overnight in Madison.  I'm not at all mentally prepared for it, since I have spent so much mental energy potty training and helping Emily through her latest sickness.  Poor girl was too sick to be at daycare Thursday, and I just marvel that she can manage to find 1 of the 2 days of the week where I am not able to easily drop everything for her.  Travis stayed with her in the morning, and I took the afternoon off.  Today, I think Audrey has started in with the fever that Emily had early this week, and I hope she doesn't develop the croupy cough that made it so hard for Emily to breathe.  She spent all day Friday in whisper mode, since her voice was totally gone.  It was kind of funny because Audrey would notice Emily whispering and then tell me "shhhhh..." with her adorable finger up against her pouty little lips.  Soooo sweet!  It was a very quiet day, which was nice after all the volume we had while potty training.

Audrey was snuggled on my lap this morning, and as she sat up to go off and play, I said, "I love you." I could swear she answered "I love you too," nodding so emphatically like she does.  I'll take that for a first sentence. :)  But I won't hear it again for ages because she only talks on her terms.  She's got a pretty good vocabulary, but you wouldn't know because she gets by on charm!


I didn't take a video of it, but Emily has added the left-hand to her piano trick, and she can play both hands together.  Awesome!!

Here we go...

Last Saturday morning, Audrey refused to put a diaper on, and I decided to potty train her.  I probably shouldn't have done such a snap decision, but I had been considering it for a while and really thought I could flip the switch on her.  Over the last 10 days, she's come a LONG ways, and today she only had one accident, which we managed to actually get to the potty in time to catch about 1/3 of it.  I'm pretty proud of her!  I've had a lot of help, though, since I have been communicating with a potty training expert who wrote a book that's sold through her website http://ohcrappottytraining.com.  This lady is amazing - no nonsense, and really informative.  It's not just rah-rah, it's really instructive.  And encouraging!  Audrey seems to be having a hard time with the advance notice part of it; she HAS asked me to go before, but for now she is totally reliant on me to remind her.  We're doing pretty well now, though, that I've got a mental schedule down for her, and I have a good idea of when her bladder might be full.  Today, while sitting on my lap, she looked up at me with her "I'm gonna go" face (which is adorable, I might add) and grabbed at her backside, so we hustled to the potty and just as she settled in with a book, she pooped!!  She's doing great, but it is a LOT OF WORK and it's EXHAUSTING.  We've come too far to go back now!  I'm NOT SPENDING A YEAR AT THIS like we did with Emily!  the diaper service is turning out to be a totally awesome thing, because they will provide training pants instead of diapers until she's totally trained!!  YEAH!  No more washing poopie undies!!!

I am still trying to figure out her slimy poops, though.  I bought some soy milk to substitute for a while, and we'll see if eliminating dairy helps.  The real kicker to this is why her slime cleared up when she was at my parents' place for 4 days a couple of weeks ago, and now that she's home, it's back in full force.  ??  Emily and I both had some tummy troubles, so I thought maybe it's a bug that lives... in the bathtub? sanitized.  Refrigerator? scrubbed clean.  Our water supply?  it's the only thing I haven't totally checked out.  If she doesn't do better off of dairy for a couple of days, I'll try limiting her water to only that purchased in a bottle, and see if then it improves.  Because the poor thing just doesn't stand a chance in this condition!

Emily has been doing all kinds or crazy academic gymnastics these days.  She loves to rhyme, and she's really got the hang of it.  Tonight she was making up words to go with objects around, and then it was all nonsense - but all rhyming!  We've been reading Frances books, at least one every day and sometimes I have to cut her off at four!  They're long and detailed, and she's started to memorize them.  She's got the first 4 pages of "Bedtime for Frances" memorized, including where she sings her little alphabet song, and Emily points at each letter on the page and identifies it.  So then after she's on a roll with that, she points to "Father" and "Frances" and we have to talk about how they start with the same letter, and how they sound alike.  At the end, the moth goes "BUMP and THUMP" so she matches up the U, M, and P and we talk about how they not only sound alike, they look alike!  After talking about the sound that TH makes, she's been working on incorporating that into her speech, so I'm afraid I'll lose her celebratory "I'm FREE" before she actually is done being three!  and Fank you, and I Fink, and dis and dat.  It's all slipping away.

Travis took Emily to football games both weekends, just the two of them, while Audrey and I practiced potty (have I mentioned this has been an incredible commitment??).  Trav was looking for things for Emily to do in the car, and I told him about the rhyming game and how that kills time well, and instead he started counting with her.  hold up two fingers on each hand and count - how many do you have?  In "Birthday for Frances," she likes to count the bubblegum balls, talking about how four pennies bought four bubble gum balls; Frances eats two, so how many does she have?  It's so cute to see those little fingers counting!!  Also adorable is seeing them PLAY THE PIANO!!  She puts her little thumb on middle C and playes up through G with her pinky - amazing!!  Video at the picasa site.  The cutest part about that is that she didn't learn that from me or from Grandma, who's actually a piano teacher, but rather from Megan, who just started her own lessons recently, and has the hang of reading a few notes on the page and totally gets how to count beats per measure.  Incredible little girls! 

So Emily and Travis had fantastic trips to Ames for the football games, and had a great time.  It doesn't hurt that Iowa State won both games, especially the one yesterday!  yeahhhh!!  Emily came home from the night game a week ago, and as she was snuggled up in bed falling asleep, she was telling me all about what she did and what she saw, and I knew that one of the most highly-anticipated things was getting to eat a hot dog for supper.  I asked her what she had for supper, and she sat up and said, "I didn't have supper!!"  what?? I asked if she was hungry and she said yes!! She was very worried, so I came downstairs and asked Travis about it and he said, Yeah, of course she had a hot dog.  I gave Emily some milk, and when she burped afterwards, I could even smell the hot dog breath!! She had not sat down at a table to eat a meal, so it didn't register to her that she had actually eaten something at dinnertime. Funny girl!

I have really gotten to know Audrey as we've spent hours sitting in the bathroom together.  A fun game for me is to sing a pitch and she'll sing it back.  I'll put socks on her feet and yank on the toes to get them off, and she giggles like crazy.  She really likes books, we talk about all kinds of things that we read in there.  She's really gotten much faster, though, now that she knows how to do it and I am not guessing as much as to whether she has to go or not.  And she is starting to trust me a little, too. 

Since I've had so much potty training on my brain lately, it was easy to see, in talking with my sister, that her husband is behaving just exactly like a 37-year-old in diapers.  Suddely she (and the court system) won't let him have his way, and he doesn't like it! He knows what he should do, and he's physically capable of appropriate behavior, but he remembers that life was really, really good when somebody else was doing all the work for him. He just wants for things to go back to being easy for him, when he could get his way all the time. In case anybody else out there is helping a loved-one escape an abuser, he's really just a big baby. It's really helping us stay a step ahead of his actions to realize he's just reacting, he's not even capable of plotting, he's just reacting to his selfish desires. Once it's apparent he's just trying to get his way, it's totally possible to outmaneuver him. What a jerk.
Lots of love to all of you.  Hope you're enjoying this beautiful weather!

True Rejuvenation

Travis had to travel to Indianapolis for work this week, and then went to a weekend bachelor party in Minneapolis.  That meant that the girls and I were on our own from Wednesday to Sunday, so we made all kinds of great plans and had a fabulous time!

Trav's mom came to visit us on Wednesday, and I don't think she got both feet in the door before both girls were clamoring all over her.  It was pretty great.  Not only did we have a really nice visit, but I got a lot done while she played with the girls.  I don't think I would've been able to get on the road the next day without that. And, she had recently had a heyday with a clearance rack full of cute little girl clothing, so they immediately redressed themselves in the cute stuff she brought.  It was a great way to just relax and enjoy a beautiful summer day.  That, in and of itself, would've been a sufficient grandparent fix for the girls, but I had more planned. :)

Thursday morning, I picked up Megan in Ames, and brought her with us to Rockford.  It's funny, you might think adding another kid to the mix would make it more complicated, but she actually made my life easier by entertaining Audrey in the car and singing with Emily, and just being a delight in who she is.  Jenny and Julie and Sarah came up on Friday afternoon after school, but they all had to get back to Ames early Saturday morning to get to Julie's soccer game.  We had a great time with them, but it was nice to have some time just me and my girls and my parents.  Their place is SO pretty this time of year.  Their garden is producing like crazy, so every meal is just a creative use of whatever my dad has brought in - green beans, zucchini, grapes, onions, and TOMATOES.  Mmmm!!  The weather was perfect, except for the sweat bees that Emily detested. 

Saturday morning, after Jenny left, I went for a bike ride up through Nora Springs - 28 miles total.  About a mile down the road, I saw a friend of mine who was out for a run, and stopped to chat with her.  That was kinda fun, chatting it up on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere! She lives in the same house she did as a kid, just up the hill from my parents' place, and yet I hadn't really kept up with her.  She'd been working as a nurse, but now she just started teaching in Charles City, with a class of kids who are considered behaviorally difficult, and she's really fired up and excited about that.  Recently she's lost a ton of weight and considers anything less than a 5 mile run to be "short."  It was so nice to catch up with her.  And I am always glad to find out that people I knew from my hometown are doing great things. 

So, I got a bike ride, I got to shoot baskets with my dad on a perfect evening, I got to play my mom's piano for probably hours (which is especially fun when Megan is around because she dances! It's so fun to see her snap into character!).  I told Travis again that I need a piano like my mom's -- someday, I WILL have one.  I mean, my piano is really nice and all, but hers is... well, it's like the one time in my life when I played a $40,000 violin, just to see what it was like.  It plays itself!! Ahh!  My dad gave my girls breakfast each morning and let me sleep late, and I got to stay up late Friday night laughing my head off with my mom and my sister.  I got to see Audrey scooting around outside on her tricycle, feeling very independent as she did laps around the circle.  Emily bonded with her grandparents, who are thoroughly charmed by her abilities and adorable personality. They got to swim, bike, swing, catch kittens, help in the garden, wander through a real watermelon patch, eat popsicles and push-ups and cookies and have tea parties, and play with a gazillion toys (or just spread them in a thin layer throughout the house.  Why do they do that??)  It was perfect weather, with no agenda, and no stress.  It was a FANTASTIC vacation!  I know that Travis got to go out late three nights in a row, schmoozing with Deere people and getting wasted with his best friends, but I think I got the way better deal.  I'm refreshed, happy to get back to my regular routine, and ready to look towards what fall will bring.

The girls and I drove home on Sunday, picked up Travis and went to the airport to get his car.  On the way home, we stopped for supper at "Old McDonald's Restaurant."  Could it get any better than this?

Another beautiful weekend

Today was the last day that Ashby Park was open, so I packed a picnic lunch, and we put the girls in the trailer and biked over there.  I biked there with them earlier this week, and they FINALLY decided it was an awesome place!  I wore my suit, and I think Audrey liked sitting in the water snuggled next to me most of all, so it isn't really about running around crazy for them.  But we all had a really nice time together.  The rest of the weekend was pretty productive too, just getting things done here and there. 

We also took the girls to the state fair last Monday, and we managed to do a TON of stuff in under 4 hours.  Most of it was free, included with the ticket package that my workplace gave me in lieu of a summer party - rockstar!!  Emily had been talking about the giant slide ever since she went down it last year, so she was pretty pumped to walk up every single stair by herself.  She plopped down on my lap at the top, and said, "Mom... we're really up high..."  and down we went!  At the bottom, she was really uncertain, but Audrey went down with Travis and LOVED it.  Then, I noticed that Emily had been actually chewing on her hands.  I've seen her chewing on her knees, and her toes... I am starting to get a little worried about how anxious she seems to be.  I'm trying to figure it all out, and take a more methodical approach to helping her out, without overthinking it and adding more stress.  I mostly feel guilt, since it seems like the things she's battling are all things I had to battle too - having things in her mouth, fidgety, jumpy... poor girl.  It's bad enough that she has my nosebleeds, sideaches, and crazy red face when overheated.

Speaking of stress, the girls started at Ms. Teri's this week.  They seemed to do just fine, but I suppose the stress is manifesting itself in small, seemingly unrelated ways.  Audrey had three freakouts the day after she had been there, even though she seemed to do just fine while she was there.  But yeah, totally ballistic, crying until exhaustion, THREE times in one day.  It was really heartbreaking.  Emily has had some behavior issues that generally are small and totally to be expected from someone her age, but the stress has made them a lot harder to deal with.  But, as far as Ms. Teri goes, I think it'll be a good fit.  She wrote a full page of detailed notes about what the girls did on Thursday, which was great, especially since they were mostly emotive things she noticed, like she was really tuned in to how they were feeling.  I think they'll get used to the dogs being around, and it'll be nice to have them in a house setting instead of a classroom.  Audrey had been spending a lot of time in the 2-year-old room at Tender Heart, and they never talked to me about it or told me what to expect with that, which annoyed me.  And Teri has no problem changing cloth diapers, so we're doing that full-time now.  No more progress on going potty, except that she really likes sitting on it while I'm getting her new diaper ready.  No worries - we'll get through all these stressors first.

Next week, Travis will be in Indianapolis for work for a couple of days, and then going straight to Minneapolis for Seann's bachelor party, so the girls and I are going to hide out in Rockford for the weekend, after a visit from Trav's mom on Wednesday.  I'm even taking a day off from work, which is fun, and a little weird to say since I've got three days off every week. :)  And then, it'll be September, and I just can't believe that summer will be over so soon!!!  We were just getting the hang of this!

Sullivans on Vacation

What an awesome vacation!  Everything went just great, and we had an awesome time on both legs of our trip.  Minneapolis was a ton of fun, even though we didn't get to the Como Park Zoo like we had planned because of a thunderstorm.  I think that was the only hitch in plans, and we went to the Children's Museum in St. Paul instead, and the girls enjoyed that pretty well instead.  They handled the car trip pretty well on the way up, but on the way back it was a rougher trip because we did 4 hours straight instead of splitting it up with a break at a park like we did going up.  I was surprised at how much the girls were NOT into the splash pad in Apple Valley, despite the excitement of putting suits on and heading to a park that sounded like a ton of fun.  Emily at least finally went into the water a little bit, but Audrey wanted nothing to do with it, and preferred the traditional playground nearby.  They thought the hotel pool was all right on Sunday morning, but they were still leery of all the splashing features in the 16" deep wading pool. 

Anyway, the baby shower was awesome, and it was so great to see everybody.  I'm all fired up to plan the next rendezvouz with that crew!  It was like no time had passed, except that for some reason all of the guys ended up measuring each other one night, as in, head, bicep, and calf circumfurences (and their ratios, of course.)  I thought it was akin to a group of dogs all sniffing each other: "I've missed you so much!!  How big is your head these days??" Sidenote: Travis and two others tied for largest head at 24" head circumference;  Audrey's was 20"!  Anyway, I'm hoping to get back up there for yet another baby shower this fall, and then we're going to have to meet this little baby that was the unseen star of the party!  Emily really enjoyed shopping for a gift for the baby, and was so excited when they opened it.  It's fun to see a child's genuine enjoyment of the act of giving.

Then began the second leg of the trip, which was Ragbrai!  Trav and I joined up with the crew in Elk Horn, about 15 miles into the 2nd day.  Within 3 miles, I had already found some of Travis's dad's co-workers, and chatted them up about how I know Tim.  Seriously, out of 20,000 people, and I found the 3 people that Tim mentioned in passing would be on the route?  I mean, they did have the company name on their jerseys, but still, weird!!  And at one point, I was leading a paceline that my co-worker was in (she and I are two of four people in our group), so when I dropped back she recognized me and we biked together.  Awesome!  The second and third days that I biked were flat enough that being in pacelines was totally the way to go, and there's something about the buzz of all the bikes together that I just can't resist, even if it means taking my turn up front. My sister and I said we felt like horses pulling everyone along.  Neigh!

Man, I love biking.  I mean, the atmosphere on Ragbrai is fun and the people are nice, but really, I just like being on my bike.  I like the mental and physical challenge, I like my bike, and when I'm done, it's a satisfying but not overwhelming exhaustion.  I also decided that I prefer to party during the day, and actually sleep at night.  That's probably a product of motherhood: being denied sleep means I don't take it for granted anymore!  I had a great time out on the route, and then just chilled on top of the bus in the evenings for a little while before getting some good sleep in my tent.  The rest of the team got blitzed up there frequently, which led to some slow starts in the mornings, which was unfortunate because then we ended up biking the hardest miles in the worst part of the day.  But I'm a trooper, I survived.  I also made an official suggestion that we try to find hosts that do not live on an address such as HILLCREST drive, since that was the biggest insane hill I've ever had to do to reach a host's house.  She was a lovely person and a fantastic hostess, but that hill was awful.  We had kickass hosts on the next night, too, who fed us dinner and breakfast in their gorgeous house.  Makes me love being an Iowan, meeting other great people like that.

I got Travis involved in a shotgunning contest.  I was leaving the bus in the lunchtown one day, since my brother and I were going to hunt down a water station for refills.  Half a block away, in an alley, this team of bikers shouts out to me an offer of a free beer.  Dan reminded me that team rules are that I have to accept, so I did (it didn't hurt that I was already in for about 3 drinks that morning.  Really, I was buzzed at 11 AM on a Wednesday. What a killer vacation!).  I asked them what their team name was, as I was slamming this beer, thinking I could catch up with Dan, and they said they were undecided, but they wanted to be Team Awesome or Team Whatever or Team Shotgun.  I said, they couldn't be Team Shotgun because they'd have to actually be good at shotgunning beers (like I said, I was feeling sassy), and they roared at how they were really good.  I said, no way, I'll go get my husband and he'll smoke all of you.  Then I chugged the rest of my beer, threw it on the ground, and biked away, much to their uproar at the challenge.  it was so dramatic. :)  I went back and got Travis, and he did it - he won!  there was probably 10 guys in teh first challenge, and 5 in the second, although the results of the second were more contentious since he finished drinking first but another guy threw his can down harder so it hit the ground first.  But it was awesome.  Stuff like that happens all the time on Ragbrai!  These guys also turned out to be some of the same guys who Trav's little brother Mark beat in a shotgunning contest in a beer garden last year. Sullivans rule!

So, as great as the week was, I was ready to be done biking after 3 days, and I was SO happy to see my girls.  They had a fantastic time at Grandma's, but they missed me and Grandma was ready for a break.  I've been on my own for the past 3 days, almost, and now I'm ready for a break of my own!  They were driving me nuts this morning, absolutely crazy.  There've only been a few habits and tendencies that the girls have had to get used to being back home instead of at Grandma's, but I think in the future I won't attempt to tackle that on my own - that is a two person job!  It's not like it's any specific thing, either, it's just that as everybody is getting comfortable with being back home, it's hard to do unless everybody is actually home.  And Travis won't be home until at least 9:30 tonight.  I also had gotten spoiled at being around only adults for a few days, and I realized it was hard to go back to dealing exclusively with people to whom logic and reason play a marginal role in decisionmaking, overshadowed by, "But I WANT to..."   I got the feeling that Trav and a few other young dads thought maybe they shouldn't be doing the entire week if the burden of childcare for their offspring is being placed entirely on their wives.  I mean, there's one level of maturity to enter (and win) a spontaneous shotgunning contest, and then there's the whole I'm-a-Dad maturity level. 

All in all, a good time for the Sullivan family.  I think I'll schedule a massage for sometime in the next week.  I deserve it.  Now, off to hunt down something delicious to snack on, since apparently my stomach hasn't gotten word that I'm no longer burning 3500 extra calories a day on a bike.  :)

Oh - and my tan lines are to die for.  I've got a wicked sunburn on my right shoulder, the expected drastic lines across the tops of my thighs, and a ridiculous racoon look since my face got it really bad the first day.  I was waiting at the pharmacy for my prescription (sunburned lips = cold sore! damn!), and this old guy pointed out how he could tell where my sunglasses had been.  I was still super tired from biking the day before, so I just nodded and smiled a little.  Then he reassured me that it wasn't really that bad, so I said, politely, "Not so bad that anyone would notice, of course."  I'm apparently capable of being sassy when overtired, too.

Planning to plan

I had a good day at work today.  I'm learning a new, specific process that we're further defining for our organization, and today I got to actually use it to create a new layout for a project.  It was pretty satisfying!

We are really looking forward to this next week.  I know they say that you're never supposed to announce that you'll be on vacation, but since this blog is secure and I trust all of you ... well, most of you know we're doing Ragbrai next week.  We're also headed to Minneapolis for the weekend right beforehand, to see our friends from when we lived up there.  It's been two years since we've seen them and I'm really excited!  It's intimidating because we haven't taken a vacation with the girls yet, and I just never like dealing with them when they're tired and off schedule.  But it'll be worth it. we're going to have a great time!

This week has been spent getting ready: doing laundry, sorting stuff to pack for the weekend vs. Ragbrai, buying last minute supplies, and making last-minute plans.  I have it all planned out to be flawless and smooth, so be sure to check for my next blog posting which will document how that all went wrong. :)

I've also confirmed that the girls will be going to a new daycare starting Aug 16.  I'm thinking they'll like it better, but there are pros and cons of course.  We'll see how it goes... although, it's kind of unnerving thinking that if it turns out we don't like it, we would have a hard time going back.  I always like a safety net, but, oh well.

Audrey is getting more words.  Her favorite is "All gone!" but I've heard a lot of others that I'm suspicious of and she won't repeat.  And I convinced her to go potty again a couple of times, so that's nice that she's no longer too creeped out to do that.

Real Life

I've tried to focus this blog on fun things our family does, and the great things my girls do that I like to brag about.  I mean, really, if you're reading my blog, you're not the audience to whom I need to be modest about them.  My girls are the best, and that's all there is!  I do know three pretty nice girls who come quite close, though, in my nieces, and lately I've gotten to spend a lot of time with them.  I'm pretty lucky and I've been enjoying it, although it hasn't come about in the nicest of ways.  This isn't really my news to share, but things are not going well between my sister and her husband, and lately my house has been a refuge for her and her girls, off and on.  Emily has absolutely loved all the "cousin" days, and they've had a great time here together.  I just wish it was that way for everyone when they leave, too, since I know things are stressful at home for them.  It's such a rude awakening, thinking about Travis's brother still in jail, and my other brother-in-law still being so awful to my sister.  When it's just my little family at home, it's as though the world is a perfect place, and it doesn't take much looking around to realize situations that are just unfair and unfixable by any amount of me hoping, or even offering to help. 

A funny story along those lines, though.  First thing Tuesday morning, I was sitting at my desk trying to get my brain in work gear and out of my worry-about-home gear, and my boss came into my team's area and announced that he was certain that his day was worse than any of ours had been to that point.  I realize that I have no poker face, of course, so when I turned around and looked up at him (he's like 6'5", 350 lbs, so yes, looked "up"!), I saw a look flash across his face that was undoubtedly, "Yikes! Perhaps I'm wrong..."  He decided to tell us his story anyway, about how the contract employee that had been told by the hiring company that he hadn't gotten the job in our group after all (most likely due to failed drug test, but we can't know for certain) had decided to show up for what was supposed to be his first day of work, and was sitting in the lobby waiting to begin work.  Oops!  It wasn't my boss's problem, more for HR to deal with, but still, kind of a funny story.  Really, in this economy, if you get a job with John Deere, are you stupid enough to fail a drug test??  But, I guess, there's that Real Life butting in on me again, and I know that it probably isn't about stupid.  It was hard to hear my other team members talk about what a loser decision he made... and I really had some empathy for him because maybe he isn't stupid, and he's just in over his head with a problem he can't figure out.  And I just hope that this will be hitting bottom for him and he can figure things out.  Okay, that's a lot of judgement, considering I only met the guy once!!

I've also discovered that when talking about Real Life, people chime in with all kinds of their own things, and they're pretty hefty.  I figure 95% of my interactions with other people are purely superficial, and that number would be higher if I weren't talking through heavy things with my sister.  But, it doesn't take much allusion to knowing someone with a drug problem before other people chime in with cousins or ex-boyfriends of friends or whatever.  It was ironic a couple of months ago when the conversation at work turned to siblings and siblings-in-law, and my boss volunteered a story about how he and his two similarly-sized brothers instructed their sister's abusive boyfriend to not ever contact her again, and how that seemed to do the trick, much to their amusement.  I wanted to ask him if he might still be in that business, but didn't feel it was fair to make light of such heavy issues when they're still going on.  I guess life just happens, and you laugh and love whenever you can.  I'm lucky to be skirting by in my little naive, perfect cocoon.

Oh, and Audrey hasn't gone potty since the poop incident.  Guess that scared her off for a while!  Funny girl.  She went on the floor before bath tonight, and then immediately sat down on the potty, so she knows.  What a nice little thing she is!  I still wonder when she's going to decide that it's easier to communicate using words instead of all her gesturing and pointing and howling.  She has more words in her songs than she does in trying to talk: how-I-wonder, up-above, have-you-any wool, lullabye.  In talking, she just says bye, yes, no, and I thought I heard her try "yogurt" the other day. I'm sure there are some other things I haven't picked up on yet... hmm, I suppose I should be helping her with that. :)

I'll also try to post a video of her singing golden slumbers with me.  She and Emily sang it together for me the other day when I didn't have a camera, but it wasn't the kind of moment you kill by documenting.  Instead, I have this fantastic memory in my head of their blue, blue eyes staring intently at me while singing the most lovely song, together.  Ahh, they know just how to make me remember that all the cleaning up pee off the floor (A) and bloody noses in the night (E) and piles of food off the floor (both) is all worth it.  All you need is love, love... love is all you need.

More summer fun

I'm so proud of my little Audrey.  She knows how to use a potty!!  She has gone 6-8 times over the past week, and although the first time she was quite concerned with what had just happened, she's pretty proud of herself now.  She even pooped once, which was hilarious because she stood up immediately, with her little eyebrows all furrowed, shouting and pointing at the potty angrily!!  I don't know if it was a freakout over what she had just done or concern with the appearance of something so different-looking in her potty (probably the former) but she was really, really mad!  I, on the other hand, was flipping out with excitement.  She wanted to dump it out right away and so I did, and right about then, Megan wandered by to see what all the whooping and hollering was about.  I told her, "Look at what Audrey did!  isn't it great?!"  And she said "...yeah. it's poop." and reached for the handle to flush.  So funny!  I'm not going to do anything more than let her sit on the potty when she's interested, though, because I don't think she has the language to really take this on full-time.  When she really fights me when it's time to get back in a diaper, we might flip the switch, but for now we'll just practice for entertainment.

We were in Rockford last weekend, with Jenny and her girls, which is why Megan happened to be nearby for Audrey's hilarious potty success.  Jenny took her older two with her to a Mom'n'Me weekend at Camp Tanglefoot in Clear Lake, and then sent Julie to camp by herself on Tuesday for a 4-night stay (Lucky her!!!!).  Jenny had so much fun, and I'd imagine after the stressful spring and summer she's had, it probably did feel really good to be back at "home" at camp.  In the meantime, we spent Sunday - Tuesday in Rockford, with my poor Dad outnumbered by all the ladies!  We had some beautiful weather, and with no agenda, we had a really nice time just hanging out and enjoying each other.  Last fall, my parents started adding on a sunroom to the west side of their house, and it's almost done now.  The room has a 9-ft ceiling and 9 windows!!  It's beautiful, and blends in really nicely with the house on the exterior.  It just needs carpet and trim and then they can move in furniture, but even in its unfinished state it was so great to have the extra room in the house.  It has a complete basement underneath it, so it expanded the playroom downstairs, too.  They're both excited about it, but ready to be done working on the house.  They did so much work on the place that burned that I think they are both still leery of getting emotionally involved in a home improvement project, but really, can you blame them?  Anyway, I was glad to come home with the girls because I didn't see much of Emily at all while we were there, except when she had trouble sleeping.  She is so independent, and so in her element with her cousins.  I was surprised, a little, since we hadn't been to Rockford in several months, but both girls took one look around and made themselves at home.  It was so good to be home!

Tonight was a tough one, since the girls were still exhausted from the trip to Grandma's house and had to go to daycare today.  I had a training class Wed/Thurs this week (which is turning out to be worthless - grr!!), so I am dreading tomorrow morning's dropoff.  Poor Audrey is really not going to like two days in a row!  But, I'm hoping to make a switch to a new daycare here in a few weeks, and I think that will help.  My brother and sister-in-law has given glowing recommendations of the place that they take Milo, so I called the lady just to get some more info.  She chatted with me for nearly an hour, and she sounds really wonderful!  We're going to go over for a playdate some morning, just to try it out, and then probably pull the switch in August.  I hope it'll be a good transition, especially since Milo will be there - and my girls LOVE Milo!  So, fingers crossed on that one.  I remember that when I'd drop Emily off at Ms. Amanda's, I'd get her to the door and she'd take off running, sometimes forgetting to give me a hug because she was so ready to play.  At this daycare, there's a little apprehension from both girls at dropoff, although they're good sports.  But we can do better, so I sure hope this is it!