We've Been Remiss

We are sorry for neglecting you! We have so so much to tell you. It's been a pretty crazy month. The low point, no question with putting Mrs. B down. From there it's been GO GO GO with our schedule. Our weekends have been absolutely packed, the past two involving separate cross-country flights. We are beyond exhausted, and beyond happy to be home for the next 3 months. THREE MONTHS! Lucia was on cloud 9 today; so happy to be home.

So, pictures are forthcoming, but here's a few tidbits to look forward to:

• Lucia is talking up a STORM. Her vocabulary is getting quite diverse, and we're impressed. It's fun to be able to ask her, "did you have a good time?" and have her answer, "YES!"
• Miss Thing was a flower girl in a wedding in Gettysburg. She was impossibly, perfectly behaved despite her shoes causing her bloody blisters. She ran so much at the reception she ripped her dress.
  
• Potty training is on hold. We ask her everyday if she wants to go, and remind her that if she does she gets chocolate. No!, she yells. Ok then.
  
• The family wedding in Florida was fun; taking an extra day to go for a boat ride and to the beach was extra fun and truly made the trek worthwhile.
  

Stay tuned for more!

Heading to Florida

Summer Updo and Meatballs

Someday

Language

Lucia's language skills are really developing; she's repeating more and more phrases. Yesterday we got to see Josh's dog Maggie, and when we last saw her in June Lucia pronounced her name May-yi. Last night it was Madge-ee. Progress! 

Fancy Format

Hey, did you know corn comes in this crazy thing? Right! It doesn't come in a bag kept in the freezer! How crazy is that?

Froggy hugs

You've got to love restaurants that have toys. Lucia liked hugging, kissing and feeding the frog bacon. When she tried to "feed" it through its eyes, Pete and I imagined how awesome life would be if you could eat that way. It was an awesome breakfast and a nice surprise planned by Pete.

Mrs. B

We put Mrs B to sleep today. It was predictably heart breaking and horrible but we know it was the right thing to do.

Potty Training and Various Other Big Girl Updates

We have started potty training. We had this book and Pete was psyched. It describes how in just one day, the kid will be able to remove their clothing, sit on the potty, do their biz and clean up after themselves. I suspect he was projecting his excitement in the hopes that he could also train Mrs. B this way, but I digress. 

Nina and I both read the book and were basically horrified. The idea of shaming the kid after she has an accident is not OK with me. The book's prescribed setup, the conditions and terms create too much tension and pressure for her; we want her to think this is FUN!! 

So we are consulting our other books and taking it easy. Yesterday I invited her to sit on the potty and eat chocolate chips. Sitting on the potty is SO FUN!! We let her run around sans diaper afterwards, and she peed her pants pretty quickly. We're trying to show her how that's not the best feeling in the world, peed pants. So we're making progress, though we're not going to utilize the Draconian measures from the 1974 book. 

In other news, and Pete can post a picture, we have progressed to the booster seat. Cia had been wanting to sit in the regular chair for a while, and god knows that monstrosity of a high chair (which has been well loved) was taking up too much precious space in our dining area. Voila. The seat arrived yesterday and she loves it. We love it. She stays in it for the most part and doesn't attempt the Houdini tricks she did with the high chair. I'm happy to clean up the high chair and put it down in our garage. 

Also, we recently removed our box springs from our bed, and placed the fancy mattress right on the wooden slats and bed frame. I haven't slept this well since before I got pregnant, no lie. 

And, we're going to see three places in Rockridge this weekend. One we are *really* hopeful will be great. The others, well we'll just see. 

Lucia update

She has been doing much better today in terms of fever, and I think she will have no fever tomorrow. However, she has also been quite cranky and tired and wanted to be held all the time, so I hope her appetite is back up tomorrow as well. Good news is she has been drinking a lot of water today.