Time Flies

The three of us at a wedding where I was the photographer.

Photography class practice...and experimenting with Photoshop!

Practicing my "portrait photography" and experimenting with Photoshop!

I can't believe that summer vacation is almost over for school kids! It seems that they just got out yesterday...

Our anniversary is this weekend. Last year for our tenth anniversary, Brian completely took my by surprise. He called me from work to tell me to dress somewhat nice for our dinner. He picked me up and took me to a nice restaraunt I had never seen before in our area. It had a little balcony. When we walked in, the server practically jumped to seat us. He took us all the way upstairs and out onto the deck, where there was one tiny table with a dozen red roses on it. All the servers were beaming. They all knew what was going on because the flowers were delivered earlier that day. We started to have a really nice dinner...until it started to rain. We ended up having to move inside after being on the balcony for only a few minutes.

This year won't be so romantic, but it will still be special. Brian is going to an AC/DC concert tonight. On Saturday morning, we will drive to my in-laws. Their community is having like a Family Fun Fest. We will spend the afternoon there or in their pool. We will then leave Grace with Nanna and Pappa (and Monique and Kiyana, her cousins) to go out to eat. On Sunday after church we will go see my mom before heading home.

Grace's potty training continues to do well. We had a little trouble last week when she had a few days of accidents all day, but we are back on track, and we added pooping on the potty! She took me completely by surprise yesterday. She said she had to go potty, and I assumed it was pee. She sat for a few minutes, and I wandered away because sometimes she like "privacy". Well, after a minute or so she started to whine and-there it was! She calmed down once she saw I was excited that she went on the potty. She got two MnM's. Today, she did the same. However, about a half hour after she went the first time, she said she had to go potty, but it was too late, she had already gone in her pull-up. I wasn't mad or upset, but I just told her to tell mommy next time she had to make poo. I guess that the fact she went twice willingly is a huge step forward. Everyone is telling me that training for poo takes a long time after they master pee, but she's starting now. Horray for that!

Cute Pics

Since this summer has been cool, I've decided to potty train Grace. It took her a good three weeks to really get the hang of it. The first week, she really did not want to sit on the potty, and when she did "go" on the potty, she acted all freaked out, like "wait, this isn't supposed to happen!". I made the error of taking her away from home for a stay at the in-laws. Up to that point in the week, she had been used to sitting on the potty and even going once in a while. However, she now had a new place (the same potty) and more audience (her grandparents and cousins). This means that she absolutely refused to go on the potty. She would sit for a long time and not go. Needless to say, we were there for about three days, and she ended up going in her diaper the whole time....a major setback.

That Sunday, I resolved to continue on as if we had been home the whole weekend. She did an awesome job of "going" on the potty that day. That next week, beginning Monday, I resolved to stay home and really work on it. By that Wednesday, she had very few accidents. I again had to go to the in-laws for a few days, but this time when I took the potty, she actually used it! I still had to keep her in pull-ups while we were there because my MIL would have been furious if Grace had peed on the floor. However, she didn't go through many pull-ups because she remained dry the whole time.

By the third week, she was peeing like a champ. Again, only about one or two accidents for the week. I must say, however, that this involves pee. She has not yet mastered pooping on the potty. I know when she is supposed to go during the day, and I try to catch her, but she either holds it in until she's wearing her diaper (or underwear) or she goes on the floor if I'm letting her go in the buff.

Last night I let her wear training underwear to bed for the first time. We had to have her wear a pull-up during church, but she came home dry as a bone. She wore the training underwear the rest of the day. This is the first time we've really let her go without a pull-up for the majority of the day. This week, we will be exploring outside the home. Any time I ran an errand in the last few weeks, she'd been mostly dry. Now, I want to try a longer outing and see how she does using public toilets.

I plan on taking her to the zoo this week. The bathrooms usually have "tot potties"...toilets that are smaller and lower to the ground for toddlers to use.

Otherwise, she is doing well. Her language skills improve daily. She is now using two-and three-word phrases. She can communicate her needs to us either verbally or with simple sign language, although speech is becoming more common and sign language rare, which is fine...the sign language was used to jump-start her learning of English and a way for her to communicate her needs to us. It really worked, but now that her language has progressed, she doesn't feel the need to use sign.

Sadly, Kiddie Land, which is just a few blocks away from us, is closing at the end of this season. I am hoping to take her there even though she's too young to really enjoy too much of it. I am hoping to have my nieces go along, so that they can go on the rides with her. I am sad to see this amusement park go. It has been there for many years.