Disney Live!

I bought tickets yesterday to take Bella to the Disney Live Rockin' Road Show in April! She is so in love with Mickey Mouse, Minnie, Donald Duck, etc. right now, and she is going to love seeing them on stage. She was singing and clapping along with the video on the website when I showed her yesterday. I can't wait!

http://www.disney.go.com/disneylive/rockinroadshow/#/video/

What's For Lunch?

Our conversation today, figuring out what to have for lunch:

Me: "Would you like to eat... pillows?
Bella: "Nawwww!"
Me: "Would you like to eat... a shirt?"
Bella: "Nawwww! I eat... chairs!"
Me: "Nawwwww!"
Bella: "I eat... park!"
Me: "Nawwww!"
Bella: (looks out the window) "I eat... birdie!"
Me: "Nawwww!"
Bella: "No, I not bite birdie. Biting gives birdie owies."
Me: "Yes, biting does give owies."
Bella: "Birdie lives inna tree. I not eat trees."
Me: "Uh huh."
Bella: "I not bite trees. They too cwonshee."
Me: (chuckles) "Yes, trees are very crunchy."
Bella: "Trees cwonshee like carrots. I eat carrots ever day."
Me: "You do like carrots, don't you."
Bella: "Uh huh. I not eat carrots for lunch though. I eat... jelly sammich!"
Me: "How about if we put some peanut butter on that jelly sandwich?"
Bella: "Ohhhh, ohhhhkay! I luff penah budder!"
Me: "Would you like some carrots with your sandwich, too?"
Bella: "Ummm, okay! I luff cwonshee carrots!"

I just want to squeeze her every time she says the word 'crunchy.' It is probably one of her top 10 cutest words of all time. LOL

Adventures in Potty Training

So, we have ventured into the messy territory of Potty Training.

I had been putting it off for a good while, because every time I tried to encourage Bella to use the potty she would have a major meltdown, so I assumed she wasn't ready. Not to mention that every time I attempted the "Naked" approach, it ended up with a puddle on the floor (or on the bed, or the couch...) and a diaper promptly being put back on her butt. :-P

But, one day when she looked at me and said, "I go pee now," and walked away to pee in her diaper in private, I decided enough was enough. She obviously had the capability, we just had to somehow get her over this Fear of The Potty. So, I filled her up with liquids, shut the two of us in the bathroom with some books and toys and her little potty, and waited.

After one hour, several drawings on the Magna-Doodle, a handful of books read, and a small amount of tears, SUCCESS! She peed on the potty! AND, she seemed really proud of herself afterward, which I took to be a good sign.

We repeated this for several days in a row, until she seemed to be reasonably over the Potty Fear, then started attempting whole mornings running around with no diaper. I was nervous, but it went amazingly well- she had no accidents at all!

The same could not be said for the next step- which was underwear and/or pants with no diaper- she would have an accident every. single. time. she wore them. No biggie though, just cleaned up the mess and tried again. And again. And again. *sigh* After reading the suggestion of a fellow Mommy, I took Bella to the store and let her pick out whatever kind of character underwear she liked (she picked Sesame Street, but Tinkerbell was a close second), and when I put them on her the next morning I told her to try not to pee on Zoe (the 'monster' on that particular pair of undies) because she doesn't like to get peed on. And what do you know, Bella made it to the potty almost all day (!!!)- until dinnertime, when she forgot she had no diaper on and peed all over the chair. As I picked her up to put her in a bath, she said to me, "Oh no, Zoe mad at me, Mommy!" At first I didn't hear the word 'Zoe', so I thought she thought I was mad at her! I said, "No, of course I'm not mad at you! It was an accident, and accidents happen sometimes," and she said, "No Mommy, Zoe mad at me!" She thought that Zoe was mad that she peed on her! :-( I assured her that Zoe was not mad, and that she knew it was an accident. So, maybe the whole "Don't Pee On [Character]" approach wasn't the best way to go about it, but there were no hard feelings in the end, AND we had a day with only one accident, so I'll call it a success.

Today was Day 2 in underwear, and it was definitely a success! She had no accidents all morning, so I decided to just dive right in and brave naptime. Her sheets are in the dryer right now, so obviously that didn't work out so well- but the rest of the day was accident free, which is AWESOME. Bella was really proud of herself for remembering to use the potty (almost) all weekend long, and even happier when she got to share some of Daddy's cherry-limeade as a reward. :)

Our next step is to conquer naptime and short outings, but I think we'll give her some more time to get used to pottying at home first to build up her confidence. ;-) My goal is to be completely daytime-diaper free by her 3rd birthday, which gives us around 3 months. Given the success of the past couple weeks, I am thinking (knock on wood) it should be a breeze!

So... it's been almost a year... (Part 2)

Alrighty, I seem to have figured out the issue with the pictures. So, here is the rest of 2009...

We took advantage of T's time off work after the surgery, and went on a little family vacation to visit his sister, do a little sight-seeing and, of course, hit up the zoo. :) We met our newest great-niece, who was only 2 weeks old! <3

Next up was Halloween. Pumpkin painting, Mumfest, carving Jack O' Lanterns, and the cherry on top: Trick or Treating! Bella still asks on a regular basis if we can go for a walk in the dark for candy. Haha!


We had Thanksgiving at our house, with the Neumans. I cooked my very first Thanksgiving dinner! It was no gourmet meal, but most definitely palatable.


We spent Christmas here this year, since we took the trip to MN in June. It was quiet and we missed being with our families a lot, but it was nice in it's own way. We stayed home on Christmas Eve and opened presents (Santa came a day early!), and on Christmas Day we went over to the Neumans' for dinner and poker!


And last but not least, we went bowling on New Year's Eve. Bella had an absolute blast!


So, there is the monstrocity of (two) posts that is our 2009.

My New Year's resolution this year is to keep up with this on a regular basis, so I can actually write things rather than just do a general review in pictures.

We'll see.

So... it's been almost a year...

Well, crap. Apparently I suck at this whole blogging thing... :-P

So, I'll just go ahead and play catch-up with a monstrous post of some of the major events of 2009:

Snow in ENC!


Bella's first wall masterpiece:


Easter/First easter egg hunt:



Bella went to the circus for the first time (it was my first time at one, too!):

Bella turned TWO! T had to miss her actual birthday, but we had a party for her a couple weeks before. Her present from us was a new slide!






We went home for LeAnna and Song's graduations:


Bella got to ride a horse (which she LOVED):


We went to Como Zoo and she rode the Teacup ride for the first time:


We took Bella to her very first Twins game:


And we hung out with family and friends before having to go back to NC:




Our house on base was scheduled to be demolished, so they moved us to a new one! Our last day at Bella's very first house:


We went out to Tryon's Palace in New Bern, NC on the 4th of July:


T had surgery for a herniated disc in his back:



Aaaand, apparently Blogger is having problems, because it won't let me add any more pictures. :-/

To be continued...