It’s been a big day

 

All better now

And to make this silly post worthwhile:  Outdoor bath season!

Potty Mayhem

If you come to our home in the next few weeks and you use the restroom, you may be wondering where all the TP went:

Eli figured out that women like to play with TP and make dresses out of them…she is set for her bridal shower!

Princess Popo

It all began with The Potty Book for Girls, thanks Alyssa Satin Capucilli!  Then one day after reading this book scores of times, Eliana woke up and said, “Mama! I wanna put my popos in the potty!”  If that weren’t enough potty readiness, Eli also began to get progressively grumpy when I tried to change her diaper. So off we went to Target!  And she chose the Elmo potty seat over the Dora seat!

Monday was Day 1 of Potty Week (aka Torture Week aka Spend all day in the bathroom week)

And because I am potty training a princess, make-up played a very important role in the process:

Here is my Eliana makeover!

This was the happy result of our very hard day!  Eliana refused to nap because she had to go potty!!! She also refused to be diapered, which also made the nap impossible. Day 1 was brutal.

Day 2 we got to watch Coco! Eliana began to demonstrate the universal body language for, “I gotta to!”  The girls had fun and as soon as Cora showed up, Eli immediately wanted to potty train her!   Hmmm….maybe she has the teaching gene?  She wanted Coco to sit on the potty and take off her diaper and get stickers!! Poor dears!  My potty training brainwash was complete!

The girls had fun wading in our pink pool but unfortunately Eli decided she didn’t want to wear a diaper or big girl panties or any clothes at all so I can’t post any more pics of their playdate!  Thank goodness Coco doesn’t mind nude playdates Princess Eli the nudist!

Here is Coco looking gorgeous!

Later that day JW came home for lunch so I could get out of the house for a walk! That is the nicest thing he could have ever done for me that day! After wiping up tities all over the house, sitting in the bathroom floor, getting an Eliana makeover and getting yelled, “I have to go!!!”, every time I tried to pull her off the potty, getting outdoors was awesome!   And because God is so funny, Princess Eli became Princess Popos for Dada while I was out!!!!

And because lime sherbet is so not worthy of  a Princess, for her popo reward, the Princess requested blue ice cream with bombones instead! I ♥ food coloring

In a successful effort to maintain my sanity I decided to continue our preschool lessons this week instead of taking a week off.  We spent all week studying our fingers, hands, legs and feet. And what better way to study hands than to use them to play with playdough!  This was Eli’s first time to play with playdough!!! I had been too chicken before. But by this time I had cleaned tities and popos up all over the place so playdough seemed like no big deal!

Friday we had an Easter playdate hosted by the lovely Coco Mama (aka Melissa).  Here she is evangelizing the toddlers with the story of Easter!

And here is Eli loving the Easter egg hunt! I forgot her basket so she had an Easter backpack!

It was so fun for Eli to do her first egg hunt!

And here is Eli loving on Coco!

And Coco loving on Baby Tis (aka Baby Carys, aka Pink Marshamallow)

All the kids were super cute and sweet!

And speaking of sweet, Hattie made the trek to Round Rock for our Easter party!

Here is Eli making footprints on our “Legs and Feet” day. Our verse for this day was, “Wash one another’s feet”, and after making footprints that is just what we did!

Guess who was eating Blue Princess Ice Cream again?? You got it the Popo Princess!

I used ToddlerWise for my PT plan and their chapter on PT is incorrectly called: Potty Training Made Easy!  There is absolutely nothing  easy about it! While I loved their advice, they need to change the name of that chapter!!!

Here is what we have to show for the week!  Thanks for the chart idea Hattie!

And here some of our not-so secret weapons: Minnie soap & bombones!

What I like about “Progressive Potty Training” according to the book is that you train your child to check themselves throughout the day to see if they are wet or dry. If they are dry, you reward them with whatever fun snack you choose. In our case it was bombones (mini marshmallows). And if they actually make their tities or popos inside the potty you give them double the reward!

Halfway through the week I thought Eli was getting too much sugar but we have been giving her less bombones per successful dryness/tities.

Some things I have learned this week:

• Potty training should be renamed to: Patience training for parents
• Eliana is a highly motivated learned, thank you God!
• It’s ok to let Eli sit on the pooper for hours per day
• Eli can climb out of both her naughty spot and crib now
• Eli’s Big Girl panties hold popos and tities very well
• When potty training, prepare to be a prisoner of the bathroom and your home for a whole week!
• Do not attempt to bathe Eli during PT until she asks for a bubble bath!
• Potty training is not for wimps and if you are a wimp like me, be prepared to cry!
• And finally there is nothing wrong with praying to God for tities and popos!

Strawberry Patch 2011

Eliana knows when she is on a stage!

Here are her adoring fans: Peter Wabbit

And Hattie!

After lunch, we are ready to pick!  We were so early we actually waited in line to be the first cars to be let in! That’s a first!

Eli is getting Gardening 101 from Hattie.

Nothing like a dirt-covered “sta-bee”

Getting tickled by a goat!

The loudest and least comfortable ride ever! LOL!! Not for Eli though! I really think Eli’s fave color is blue. I asked her which color she wanted and she chose blue! She always seems to pick blue.  

Next barrel ride, remind me to wear padding!

Abulalos

My parents visited us this Sunday and we took Eli to Lakeline mall.  Much to their surprise, Eli decided to rename them!  They are now called, “Abu-lala” and “Abu-lalo”, respectively.

As usual, Eli found a love in every store! Here she is with Crush #1: big fluffy dog.

Disney store was the most challenging ! We had to call in the Dada Patrol!

Here is Eli waaaay past her nap….

Unfortunately our camera was acting up so I didn’t get a pic with her and Abu-lalo, but here is the evidence that Abu-lalo was definitely around.

Sheer bliss!

Tea for Two!

Eli got her first fully functioning tea set yesterday! All this means is that we can actually pour liquids out of the teapot, not that we will be putting any liquids into her tea set any time soon!! After a good Elmo/Princess/Color bubble bath, Eliana was ready for High Tea!  And who better to teach her proper teatime etiquette than Dada Penningsworth!

Notice her concentration and determination to learn the skill of pouring tea!

Voila! She mastered pouring tea without spilling!  Let her English ancestors rejoice!  I wonder how many tea parties I will attend today…..