Happy Thanksgiving!

I’m sitting at my dad’s house writing this and can smell the turkey cooking. I realize how lucky I am to have family so close by. Most everyone in LA isn’t from LA so if they aren’t flying home for the holidays, they are pretty much spending holidays with friends. And I love my friends, but there’s nothing like being with family on the holidays. I was watching my dad pull out casserole dishes and pans from the cabinet and he was talking to himself and in that moment he reminded me of my grandma. And my friends can’t do that for me. 😉

I’m so grateful this year for my job, as I know many people out there have lost theirs. I’m so grateful for my husband, who has been an amazing supporter in helping me train for my half marathon. Just today on the run he ran up ahead and then stopped to pull out water for me so I wouldn’t have to stop running in order to hydrate. He’s AWESOME!! Training is a huge commitment on not just my part, but his also. I’m thankful for my wonderful friends who always know how to make my days better and love me even when I’m not being the easiest person to deal with. I’m thankful for Ava who brings an enourmous amount of joy into every single day. When she doesn’t even have her eyes open in the morning and she’s smiling and says, “I love you, Mama” that just makes my heart melt. I’m thankful for my relationships with my parents…all four of them. It’s been a long road with many bumps but in the end, I feel EXTREMELY blessed to have such an awesome family!

We are heading out for our annual trip to the desert tonight! We’re all really excited and will post when we return! Happy Thanksgiving from my home to yours, may the rest of the year bring more things for us all to be thankful for. God bless!

The Princess and The Frog…

Ava is pretty used to Mike going on business trips. She doesn’t pay it much attention. Well, this Sunday I had to fly up to San Francisco for an overnight business trip. We get her up Sunday morning and tell her mommy is going on a business trip and that she and Daddy will be taking me to the airport. We put her in the car, we put the suitcase in the back seat with her. The following conversation takes place:

Ava: That’s a big suitcase Mama

Me: Yes…it sure is

Ava: I can fit inside Mama?

Me: No…honey…you can’t fit inside.

Ava: Oh

A few minutes goes by she’s singing to herself in the backseat and then:

Ava: I like business trips Mama

Me: Oh really?

Ava: Yep.

At this point I know where she’s going. She’s gonna ask to come. So we get to airport and I’m getting out of the car and she starts howling “I LOVE BUSINESS TRIPS MAMA. I WANNA GO ON A BUSINESS TRIP!!!”

I felt so bad. Mike said she was fine after a few minutes and I know she’s not damaged or anything but I felt bad because she has no idea what or where a business trip is but she just knows that she wants to go with her mama. Bless her heart. So I told her I would bring her back a special present. To which I hear, “Oh I liiiiikkkkkeeee special presents.” Haha…so here she is wearing her new special present…

So right out of bed she’s got the hat on, she’s holding on to the ties and jumping up and and down the hall going “Ribbit, Ribbit…Mama I a frog!” Every time I watch her do stuff like that I think of that Trace Atkins song, “You’re Gonna Miss This” because God knows I am…

Big Steps

Okay…so I know I’m horrible at keeping this blog updated. I’ve kind of been being lazy and doing everything through Facebook, but there’s some seriously funny stuff that I can’t put on there so I think I’m going to give the blog a go again.

I just realized that my last post was in June and I was talking about pottytraining. It can’t be possible that 5 months later we are still pottytraining, can it? Oh yes…it can. She’s got #1 down like a pro. The other # isn’t going as smoothly. She’s been hiding behind her easel and yelling, “I OK MOM!” This roughly translates to, “Leave me alone mom because I know what I’m doing right now and I know I’m supposed to be doing it in the bathroom but if I tell you I’m OK then maybe you won’t find out.”

I’m pretty open with what I share about parenthood. I’ll tell my friends all the gory details. I’m a TMI mom because I so wish someone would have warned me about certain things. Here are a few things I’ve learned about potty training:

1. It’s a process, not an event.
2. Kids are fascinated with watching themselves go. That pee-pee shield should be left on the potty training chair even if you have a girl. TRUST ME!
3. Your child will want to visit every public restroom possible and touch everything in it. Ava now chants 3 times “Don’t touch anything, Don’t touch anything, Don’t touch anything” every time we walk into a public restroom.
4. It takes a minimum of three toilet sheet covers in a public restroom to adequately cover the seat before they get on it. One over the top and one on each side for where they hold on.
5. Sometimes the training panties aren’t worth washing…throw them away and buy a new pair.
6. When kids say they have to “go” it means one of two things 1) They’ve already gone or 2) They are in the process of going

I remember when I couldn’t wait for her to be out of diapers. Now diapers kind of seem easier. Getting out the door is an event…trying to coax her to pee before we get in the car. We recently had to stop at a 7-Eleven bathroom because she had to go and man…I would so much rather have let her pee on the side of the road in traffic. It was that bad. I wanted to dip her in Purel at the end of it.
The other exciting thing going on is that we moved her to a big girl bed. Mike and I are on the fence….hmmm…I’m on the fence on whether or not to have another child. But I have to admit, when we got her bed and took her crib apart and started putting it in the garage I cried. Not just little tears…BIG, FAT tears. I love the age she’s at now. I really do…if I could freeze this age I would. But I also miss the small, squishy age. And putting her crib away was like saying goodbye to my baby. But she LOVES her big girl bed. It was a completely smooth transition. She didn’t wake up at night, she didn’t have trouble going to bed and she hasn’t tried to get out and roam around. It was a non-event to her. But that’s her…she embraces change and just rolls with it.