Potty Time at the Park

Last night I started to feel super sick. I went to sleep about 7:00p and slept in until 6:30 or 7:00a. I still wasn't feeling great, so poor Jessica had to miss out on our usual Tuesday morning story time at the library. By mid-afternoon we had both been cooped up all day, so I decided that we should take a trip to the park. I had one more place to go afterwards and I really didn't want to have to stop off at home for Jessica to take a potty break. She refuses to use public bathrooms ever since an automatic flusher went off unexpectedly. So we went into the bathroom at the park and in one of the stalls I had her use her sand bucket instead. That's right - she peed in her sand bucket. Being a mom sure changes the way you do things. :) Don't worry - it got rinsed out really good there, and cloroxed out when we got home.

Nursery and Fishies

Today was Jessica's first day of nursery (at our church; 18 months-3 years). When we dropped her off, she just waltzed right in and started playing with the toys. I can't say I was surprised - I kind of expected it to be easy since she's just such a good little thing. But then I'm sitting in Primary (for the older kids at church) trying to keep a 3 year old from freaking out when I hear bawling getting closer and closer. In came a nursery leader with Jessica. Poor thing. I think she just got a little overwhelmed. But I got her calmed down and we headed back to nursery where she was able to stay without incident for the remainder of the time.

Laura and Jessica before church on Jessica's first day in nursery!

It's hard to believe she's such a big girl. This event got Michael and I looking at some old videos of her. Hard to believe it hasn't been too long since she used to look and act like this:

We spent a couple of days this weekend up in LA with Michael's family. We took Jessica to this cool aquarium on the Manhattan Beach Pier. She loved looking at all the "fishies."




She is simply the sweetest little girl I have ever known. I feel so lucky to be her mommy.

She's a funny one

Jessica has started to have a bowl of cereal with her breakfast. She's actually getting pretty good at it. I guess she saw Michael drinking the last of the milk from his cereal, because this morning she decided to give it a try. She wasn't soaking wet when she was done, so I consider it a success.

New Haircut

Jessica just got her first real haircut! We trimmed the back to make it even and not mullet-ish. Then we gave her some bangs. They're mostly straight. :) Hey, I did my best. I'm still so torn about the new look. It's cute, but she just looks so much older. I don't know if I'm ready for my little girl to look not so little anymore.

In other BIG news...wait for it, wait for it... Jessica has officially entered the wonderful world of potty training! I know, I said I was going to wait, but after talking with a few people they all said that if I felt like she was ready, what could it hurt? I am so glad I went for it. We've been going for about 6 days and Jessica never fails to amaze me. Don't get me wrong, we're still struggling in certain areas - she won't tell me when she has to go, etc. But overall she's doing amazing! She caught on so quickly and now if I ask her if she wants to try and go she'll either say "no" or "ok." The best part is that we've gotten to the point where I can trust what she says. This morning she woke up dry! Awesome! We're so proud of her.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I love Valentine's Day! I admit that I used to refer to it as "Singles Awareness Day" like a lot of other people. But now it is one of my favorites. One of the best parts is a tradition Michael and I started while we were still dating. The 13th is our 6 month anniversary (3 years and 6 months this time), so that's the day we really celebrate as a couple. We do a nice dinner and all that. On Valentine's we wanted it to be more of a family thing. So we make heart-shaped pancakes and have sparkling cider in nice glasses. Silly? Yes. But we love it and once our kid(s) are older, I think they'll think it's great too. Since Michael has a night class tonight, we celebrated for lunch. Lots of fun!

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone! Michael, I love you more than I even have words to say. You are my everything. Thank you for loving me so much and treating me in a way that never lets me forget that.

Growing up too Fast

I've decided that I'm trying to make Jessica grow up too fast. Don't get me wrong - I love her being little, but I've noticed that I'm trying to rush some things. Like the fact that she already knows/recognizes all of her capital letters, numbers 1-9 (can count up to 10), and her colors. Obviously that's not a bad thing, I just hope she's doing it because it's fun for her and not because I'm putting pressure.

Also, as I mentioned before, she learned how to climb out of her crib. So I've been toying with the idea of getting her in a big bed. So I took her crib mattress and set it out. We put her to bed in her pack-n-play, then when we went to bed we just transfered her out to the other bed. Here's what it looked like:

We surrounded her with pillows because we were nervous. She did AWESOME! She slept out there the whole night, no problems. So we tried it again last night. About midnight she managed to climb up into our bed and then wouldn't go back to her bed. Eventually I just put her in the pack-n-play. I think maybe she's just not ready.

For a while now, when we get ready to put Jessica in the tub for her bath we sit her on the toilet before and tell her to "go." She actually did the other day and I got SOO excited. So I started looking into potty training and all that. Never mind the fact that we're moving in just a couple months or that she's not even 1 1/2 yet. Michael convinced me that it would be much better to wait until this fall when we're settled into a place and she's a little older. Probably best.

So for the time being she is going to sleep in her crib and do the diaper thing. Maybe we'll try the big kid bed thing again this summer, but unless she all of a sudden shows a lot of interest in the other, we'll be sticking with diapers. She deserves to be allowed to be little for a while longer.

Oh, and a few people have told me they want to see my new dishes that I got from Michael's splurge purchase. They're just cheap plastic ones, but I love them. I think square plates are the best! There are bowls too. I got a couple of a few colors so that they coordinate, but don't all look totally the same.

The "men" in Jessica's life

That cute picture of Jessica and Peterson (previous post) made me want to compile all of the cute pictures I have of Jessica with the two cute little boys she loves - Tanner and Peterson. She is seriously always asking for them. If I mention that one of them is going to be somewhere, she'll ask about the other one too. Part of me almost hopes she runs into one of them down the road in college. :) Silly I know, but they both have super great families. OK, I'm getting way ahead of myself.

Coronado Beach

The weather here has been amazing lately! It's in the mid to high 70s right now. So a group of us headed off to the beach for a couple hours. Thanks to Amberlynn for giving us all a ride in her minivan. Who ever thought I'd have minivan envy? :) We played all morning at a beach on Coronado. The kids had so much fun and I have the start of a tan now - yeah! Here are some fun picts from the day:

Jessica and Laura - how about the awesome hat? :)

Peterson and Julie


Valerie and Amberlynn


Peterson and Jessica - yep, they're kissing. They seriously do it all of the time, without even being prompted. Should I be worried?


This is Jessica's favorite thing to do at the beach - pick sand up and watch it fall.

It was a way fun morning. It's so great to have such amazing friends and such amazing weather! What can I say - I love it here!

Done with Taxes!

I just finished filing our taxes for 2007! Hooray! It feels soo good to be done. Especially since I had to file in both CA and ID. It was extra lame because since I had to do "part-year resident" forms for both states, I couldn't e-file the state forms. Nothing more fun than doing tax forms by hand. Woo-hoo!

Oh, and yes, I got my "Michael spent $50 on a t-shirt" dishes. :)

T-Shirt

Michael is a gung-ho Romney fan. So last night, spur of the moment he goes and buys a way over-priced T-shirt from the Romney website. I get that it's a campaign donation, but I was a little surprised that he would just go and spend that much for a T-shirt. But I'm all about free speech and political activism, so more power to him. Besides, now I have an excuse to go and get these super cute plates I've been eyeing at Target. :)

Michael assures me it'll even be signed by Mitt himself. Mmm... exciting. :)

Super Tuesday

It's "Super Tuesday," so go and vote!