on potty training

I LOVE how quickly Sophie has taken to using the potty. Sure, a number of accidents here and there but she's getting better, and I am so proud of her. Already noticeable is the lack of diaper reek in the bathroom, and a smaller garbage load for the week. Her latest pack of boy short style panties are SO. CUTE.
We're still using pullups at night time obviously. Also having another potty trained kiddo around the house every day is a huge help, as they tend to make bathroom trips together. Good thing I had two potties already. Outings are getting better as well, as Sophie tells me when she feels the need to go, whether she does anything or not. Sometimes I think she's playing games with me.
I have the book "How to potty train in one day!" and I think I only ever got a few pages in. Sophie finally clued in to it all around her 3rd birthday. For a while I was rewarding her with M&M's, and I've slowly been moving away from that.
Mark mentioned he hopes to have them using the toilet in a week, and just keep a little stool in there for them, and get the potties out of the house. (He has a habit of stubbing is toes on the mini land mind of potties, cleaning caddy, and stool that I leave in the bathroom. HAH!) Baby steps I think. Baby steps. Also? THANK GOD that I still have the diaper sprayer attached to the toilet. YouknowwhatImean?
So what am I not digging? Or rather, what is totally grossing Mark out? (HAHA!) It is the "Come and see!" side of it. No one wants to see it kiddo. Not even Grandma. Thanks.

Birthday!

On the first I turned 29. I had a few days off from babysitting so Mark and I took advantage of it. Saturday last week we got a wonderful babysitter for Sophie and had an amazing dinner out, and saw Black Swan.



Awesome movie, equal parts of strange and uncomfortable, and keeps you guessing. It was so nice to be child free for a few hours. Our evening was quiet and pleasant! But you know what would be nice? Having a birthday where I DONT have any kind of health issue. Really. It would be super to feel totally great on a birthday. :P

On the Sunday we had a super yummy breakfast at Tarbell's in Cumberland before driving down to Nanaimo for an hour. I needed to oogle some books and I actually bought 3 and a mag, and a couple things from Micheal's as well. These books are awesome, with some very cute projects in them. I have a TON of fabric I need to start doing something with. The Stuffed mag is SO inspiring! I was looking at the Happiness Project book for a while, finally its in soft cover! I also thrifted 'the no-cry discipline solution' which better be good.



I picked up some glow in the dark bracelets for Sophie since the kids LOVE playing with them, and a little green plastic bucket for my Ponyo Project. I'm kind of determined to make Sophie a little felt Ponyo stuffie for her birthday. I'm almost certain she'll crap herself with joy, HAHAHA!

My folks were up this weekend and surprised me with Journal Bliss and I LOVE IT! Now I just need some alphabet stamps and I think I'll be set for a while.. LOL. They also gave me a little Valentines present, and a few things for Sophie. My mom and I seem to be on the same sort of wave length these days with the things we buy, and think of. Its always oddly funny when that happens. It was great to see them as always, and Sophie loves her grandparents.

It was a great birthday. There's been A LOT of assorted shopping and thrifting, and I've been finding wonderful things! I found some totally cute packaging tape for $0.88 a roll! Three different prints, and I bought two rolls of each, but I may have to go back and buy more.. they're so cute! Right now I'm very much into polka dots! I now have a polka dot shirt, mug, plate, snack bag, ribbons, and fabrics. Sophie is also spoiled, hahaha. She now has 3 different ride on cars. (omg, i know right?!) But then everything gets shared with the other kiddo as well, so.



Here's my cheeky lil' kid. I cant believe she's almost TWO. <3

Wow.

So, this time I have a good excuse for not blogging much. HAHA!
I've taken on babysitting full time. Imehjen is another girl, 2 weeks older than Sophie, her mother and I were in the same prenatal classes and such. I thought it'd be nice to help her out since she was always stuck for a good babysitter, gives Sophie and Im a buddy to hang out with everyday, and keeps me busier, and I get some money too. Its win-win all around. Its been a few days now, and the girls are getting along great, and its so entertaining to watch them, especially when they're really into playing and being silly!

Its funny, because last week I was thinking about how much stuff Sophie has (thanks to me) and how spoiled she was getting, when now that there's another kid in the house, its perfect, now there are enough toys to go around and distract them. I may need another foam chair though.



I have to admit, I do have alot of fun with them too. Last night, I turned my entire living room into a fort, with a few entrances, and I had thrown all the couch cushions on the floor and tossed a quilt over top. So the girls were rolling and falling around and generally enjoying themselves. It was super cute.

Also..

I cut Sophie's bangs the other day. This isnt too bad right? I wonder if this could be a form of child abuse..

LOVE the look on her face here, PRICELESS.




Not my fault she wont sit still, right?

What have I been up to? Not blogging!

I've been trying to do more crafts, to stave off the looming insanity, be creative at least once a day. Sometimes if I'm lucky, I'll do a half dozen different things a day, creativity at its finest! That and taking care of the house work and The Little Miss. Well. You know where I'm going with this right?
I cant be one of those funny blogger moms! Yet.. But I did have this blog post idea all day yesterday, in which I'd write about getting felt up by the kiddo while she nurses. I'm glad we're doing the mama and baby bonding, and all that good stuff. But really? She's got to play around with the other breast too? Is it boredom? She needs some nursing entertainment? My boobs are boring!? Anyway..

Alright. I fail. But look!

Schleppy - from Crafty Mama:
Makes 49 Fast, Fabulous, Foolproof (Baby & Toddler) Projects. Which your child is supposed to instantly love, yadda yadda; Sophie just throws it away from her and couldnt care less. I did stay away from the crazy colors it called for, and used up what I had. Sigh.


Happy - from The Cuter Book by Aranzi Aronzo. Sofar Sophie likes it.


Yeah, I'm knitting a dude toque.


Painting! *lovelovelove*


I altered this boring old denim tote into this!

Sophie's Words

Feeling better, Sick cat, This and That.

I've been taking vitamins as well as Echinacea drops, and Oil of Oregano drops (which is so gross), and I feel like I'm on the mend! Wahoo!

So of course, now my cat has to get sick.

I thought it was just a hairball thing a week or two ago when I noticed it. She was trying to bring one up, but couldnt, and would just bring up spit/foam. So I bought some hairball paste and gave it to her twice a day for a few days and I thought it helped since she stopped. But now she's lost a lot of weight, I can feel her spine and hip bones when I pet her now (she used to be a big fatty), and she's so weak and can barely walk. I dont think she's eating or going to the bathroom. So I'm taking her to the vet in a couple hours, getting my MIL to babysit Sophie while I do. Lets hope its nothing serious and nothing too expensive. She's not that old, she isnt supposed to get sick on me yet!

I'm not doing much project wise, I did finish knitting a dishcloth that has been laying around for the last year. I've started a mans hat in a nice gray color, and its a great pattern.

I spent yesterday cleaning house and doing yard work! So naturally my floors are already dirty.

Oh, the futility.

And because I like to dress Sophie up and take pictures:

Sickly.

While I wasnt feeling too bad the other day, now its a full on cold. I needed kleenex today, STAT. Arent they funky boxes? Mark's worse than I am, he's got an ear ache to deal with as well. Sophie's seems to be doing better than we are, naturally.

I've replaced a picture I didnt like with these, that I mostly put together today. Its a piece of wall behind the couch, Sophie's fort area that she doesnt use much. Yet. I think itlooks much better.



Instead of markers (she's lost the purple one already, OI) today, we played with some play dough.



Also picked her up some clothes at superstore, that were mostly on sale, a pink pair of tights, and sage green colored play suit set, and a red apple pattern shirt with red shorts. Like this:

Sleepy Mornings.

I would love to be up in the early morning hours and get Sophie and myself ready for the day, running off to early toddler groups or the library, or any other bits of excitement. But you know what? I also love sleeping in (read as: getting as much sleep as I can since I'm up at various time through the night) and lounging around with cartoons, waking up nice and easy.

I was looking though etsy last night at crib sheets. CRIB SHEETS. I'm sorry but I dont want to pay more than $20, if that at all, for a crib sheet, I dont care how funky it is! So I may actually go buy some fabric in the near future and make one or two myself. Again, my quest for more colors and patterns!

Here are a couple recent pictures.

I painted her chair, this is the back of it.


The front.


Her decoupaged table.


She loves the rag rugs.