How to drve your Mom nuts: Potty training edition.

A bit of advice and how-to for the 15 month-4t crowd.

It's that time in our house. I'm ready to be done with diapers.  Actually, I was ready a while back and actually had a lot of success getting C to sit and even pee on the potty.

That was in the good old days, when I had time before work to nurse for hours and then sit with C while she processed all that into something potty-worthy.

That was before I started working fulltime and entertaining C while Paddy works in the evenings.

Now, omg. How do people with kids and fulltime jobs do it?

I'm lucky if I can drag myself out of bed on time and pack my lunch before running out the door already five minutes late before dealing with traffic.

Luckily, we've developed a routine that seems to be working for us. But fitting potty training into that routine? Well, it's coming, but slowly. Yesterday, I managed to sleep through the wake-up-the-baby-and-bring-her-to-nurse-in-bed alarms. All three of them. (Go me!) Which left little time for nursing or potty sitting. This morning, I managed to wake up nearly on time but still managed to make it out of the house late.

I'm blaming this one on C, however. She got to sit and pee (yay!) on the potty, but that mess takes forEVER.

And then this evening, for the pee-before-bedtime potty-sitting session, she invented a new game.

Let me explain the concept since there don't seem to be any rules: you sit on the potty for just long enough for Mom to think you're going to stay there, then you get up and move the potty. Repeat a few times. Then, just to shake things up a bit, move the potty, then pop a squat right where the potty started out, which (since .5% of my readers have yet been to my house) I'll explain was right over the A/C vent.

Um. So, yeah.

And that, dear potty-training crowd, is how to drive your mom nuts.

And now pictures:
First the neighbors:

That would be a cat and a turkey. The standoff they had going was quite amusing.

 

 

A cuddle before we left for daycare (featuring baby's first bun!).

Drinking and driving, for shame!

I think she enjoyed our trip (with all the cousins!) to Frying Pan Farm Park!

Now I guess I should get back to something actually productive.

Blog FAIL

So I've been writing one of those tl;dr blogs. For like two weeks, and let me tell you guys, I just don't have that kinda time anymore. Working full time and getting our old apartment squared away takes a lot of energy. So here's a cute pic to make up for it.

Sunday morning snuggles

Charlotte speak

As promised, to all zero of  you who read my last entry, I've got a list of words. Charlie's words. It's so cute you might just need a Charlie hug (which she's also gotten good at giving).

In no particular order:
pease    
nose
aye
eye
babababa
waader
YEaah
ayite
no
up
uppidy up
tes
mmmmmuah
yes
bwush
baudit
a but
adtchoo
etts
upps
ledt
wight
wwice
dood

Now, can you tell what she's saying. Bonus points for getting this far without asking for meowlk. And as a treat for those of you who've stuck with me this long. Here's Charlotte checking out our new kitchen cabinets for us:

What have we here?

Open all the doors!

Oh, you're watching me.

 You're welcome.

Radio silence

This is the post you should have had before we made our grand 14ish mile sojourn to our new house. It would have come sooner but the internet service industry just isn't what it used to be any more. And good grief, waiting for internet... NOT FUN.

But while we were away I started tracking all the words Charlie says. I've got a list. Somewhere under the mess in the kitchen. I'll have to drag it out.

So I guess this week's accomplishments include me not being late once for my new starts-at-8 a.m. job, Paddy and me getting our bed set up (last night) and Charlie learning to close doors. Mostly she closes us in the bathroom in between playing with the toilet paper roll and the drawers under the sink. But she's also found she can just as easily close the front door, mostly when I've got the windows open and actually want the breeze. C'est la vie.

And there aren't any pictures today, cause frankly it would be of the unorganized box fort that we're currently calling home.

More later, including that list of Charlie's vocabulary.

You know you're a grown up...

You buy your first car.
You buy your first house.
You buy your first deep freezer. ...
Wait. Whut?

Yep, 19ish months after Paddy started couponing, we finally have the space to put a chest freezer. Paddy picked it out. And I took time I couldn't afford to waste on a trip to Lowe's on a trip to Lowe's to see it in person. They didn't have one. But I saw its little sister, so here's hoping it's not going to go horribly wrong and be completely unexpected when it arrives.

In other news: Hello awesome sales. I can't wait to stock up on meats and be able to freeze bread products. And make freezer jam like my mom used to do. And I certainly can't wait to have a place to put all the fruit I want to buy at the farmers markets this year.

The only kinda weird thing is where we're going to put the freezer. We have a few options, I guess. We could put it in the dining room portion of the kitchen/dining room or we could put it in the butler's pantry (formerly laundry room? but now they've moved the laundry out so what do you call that space) but it'll only fit if we move the fridge out of there (cause seriously, who puts a fridge in a pantry).

That'll be something we think on, I'm sure, until the moment Lowe's delivers our first big, for-the-house purchase.

And because no blog is complete with out a picture:

Here's Charlie reading her bedtime book to Paddy on Sunday. It was really cute, her diligently turning pages and talking the whole time. I just wish he'd been awake.

Give and take

We're in such a give-and-take mode recently. Like the universe is conspiring against me just to see how much stress I can take.

We bought a house, but some jerk totaled Paddy's car. Our house is move-in-ready (gross, old kitchen aside), but I found the back door completely unlocked when I went to clean early in the week. We replace Paddy's car, but mine goes down with a blown engine valve. The valve is reparable, but the shop here wants $3300 (not happening). I get a great job offer, but I have to leave my baby.

See where I'm going here?

And that's not all of it. That's just what came stream of consciousness in the two minutes it took me to write it down.

But life is changing, I guess that's the point. Today, I'm starting our major push to move our things into the new house. Of course, nothing is packed beyond the things that didn't get unpacked when we moved back to VA. And they didn't get unpacked cause I was 8,000 years pregnant when we moved. So that's supposed to make it easier, right?

Wrong, this morning I woke an hour before my alarm. I wanted to hit up a kids consignment sale at one of the local churches before starting to pack. And Charlie decided she wanted to wake up too, just 30 minutes after me. Which of course meant a two-hour nursing session in bed before I managed to escape, leaving Paddy in charge.

And came back to find this:

And I can't really hold it against them. They're just too cute.

Welcome

So, it's about time this happened. With so many things changing right now, I figured you, the super interested public, would like to follow along. Join me, and my family, on a journey of vague productivity. We're glad you're here.