Growing Like A Weed

Yesterday, these sandals fit just fine. I promise. Now her little toes are practically hanging over the edge. When we got home from errands today, she was saying "Owie! I have an owie!" I took off the sandals and found a little spot on the top of her foot where the too-small sandal was rubbing the skin away.

Hope the second-hand store has some sandals this late in the season. Looks like we have our errand planned for tomorrow.

Day 2: A HUGE Success

Day Two of potty training went REALLY REALLY well. You can read all about it:

www.thepumpkinpiepatch.blogspot.com

Or you can avoid the gory details and just know that sooner than I dared to dream, I will have a potty-trained little girl.

Day One of the Potty Training Saga

I'm too pooped to write about here too. I blogged about it on my other blog. Check if out if you want.

WARNING: Graphic language used (words such as "poop" and "pee")

www.thepumpkinpiepatch.blogspot.com

The Case of the Missing Shoes

Last night I was sitting on the couch with my feet up, trying to keep Alaina from crawling all over me. So I set her to work, putting away things. Her favorite chore right now is putting things in the trash. Her second favorite is putting away MY stuff. So I asked her to put my sandals in my closet.

These are the black flip-flop type sandals I wear every day. They are dear to me. And this morning I couldn't find them. They were not in my closet.

Once I asked her to put away my shoes and found them in my clothes hamper. So that was the first place I looked...not there.

So I went to get her out of her room this morning, and thought maybe she put them with HER sandals. She's very good about putting her shoes where they belong when I ask her to. But alas, my sandals were not with her sandals.

She does have two hiding spots that I always seem to forget about. Checked them both, both were empty.

Now, our apartment is not that big, and is relatively clean (for the most part.) I have my piles and stashes, but they are all up on counters that Alaina can't reach, so I knew they had to be somewhere low to the ground. I grunted my way onto all fours and looked under beds and dressers to no avail. So I decided to look in the closet again.

I admit it...I have a shoe organizer that I don't really use. Scratch that; I use it only for the shoes I am not currently wearing. The shoes that I wear most frequently are in a pile in front of the shoe organizer so I can just slip them on without having to get them out of their little cubby hole. Anyway, my sandals just weren't in the pile. I dug through it several times. So I crouched down and began to look in each of the cubbies...

...and lo and behold, there were my sandals! Both of them! In the same cubby! Not only had she taken my shoes to the closet like I asked, but she put them AWAY away, where they belonged.

She puts things away....I put things in piles. I might have to have her do all the picking up around here from now on.

Cow Appreciation Day 2010

Moo!

We don't go out to eat much. In fact, we usually don't go out to eat unless we have a gift card. And even then, we'll hold onto it until we find a coupon to use WITH the gift card. I know, I know...our frugality goes to depths that you probably didn't even know about. Hopefully it's not unhealthy.

In the spirit of not paying for food when we go out to eat, we dressed up as cows on July 9, 2010 to participate in Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-a. Chick-fil-a had been advertising that if you came dressed as a cow, head to toe, on July 9 you would get a free meal. At first I didn't want to because free food usually equals BIG crowds. I have a strong dislike for big crowds. It's why I don't make more of an effort to go to things like Rockies games, even though I really enjoy them. But Lee and I decided that we should dress up and go for an early dinner, around 4:30 or so, and maybe we'd beat the dinner rush.

So I came up with cow costumes for all of us, using a combination of the cow kit provided on Chick-fil-a's website and stuff I had at home. And we did it. We decked ourselves out. I felt silly getting in and out of the car, but as soon as we stepped foot in the Chick-fil-a, I felt at home. There were cows EVERYWHERE. It was busy, but not line-out-the-door-around-the-building-down-the-block busy. (We've participated in something like that once, just to get free burritos from Chipotle. Still not sure it was worth it.) In fact, we only had to wait in line like you normally would when you go to Chick-fil-a. We stepped up to the counter and the kid smiled at us. I asked "What do we get?" because if you weren't dressed up enough you'd just get a free sandwich. But all three of us were wearing black and white only, with contrasting spots. We had on ears and Lee and I sported the noses found on the website. The kid said "Anything you want." So we had full meals, all for free.

Chick-fil-a is amazing. Free Chick-fil-a is MORE amazing. We're already looking forward to Cow Appreciation Day 2011.

*This post is dedicated to my old, dear, long-lost friend, Erin (Green) Bradley, who was the founding member of the Heiferette Club. Every moo in my heart belongs to her.

Big Girl Bed Adventures

Well, we've made the switch. Last night we put Alaina in her big girl bed for the first time. We set up the bed on Monday and put her new bedspread on it, which she loved. It's covered in flowers and butterflies, and she calls it "beautiful." Then on Wednesday we put up the bed rail, so Wednesday night was the first night for the new bed.

She did great. I'm pretty sure she has no idea that she could get out of bed if she wanted to. She stayed in it all night and I got her out of it when she woke up this morning. She is currently napping in the bed and has made no moves to get up either. I am okay with this.

I know this is a big milestone, and I can't believe how ready she was for it. Does this mean she'll be as ready when we start potty training in the next couple of weeks? (That is, if I can work up the courage.) She has surprised me about a lot of things in her little life. Time will tell.