At the risk of embarrassing my daughter...

I have to share this funny story. Tonight, after she got out of the bath and brushed her teeth, I noticed Brooke had some, ahem, audible signals that she might have to go potty. So I suggested it, and she agreed. There was, as usual, a lot of dilly-dallying around, she hopped off the potty to grab tub toys (pants around ankles) and I told her to get back on the potty and concentrate on going #2 so we could get on with the bedtime routine. I left the room for a second and when I came back, she was sitting on the toilet with her legs crossed. I said "Brooke, you might want to uncross your legs if you want to get the job done," to which she replied, "but Mommy, I'm pooping like a lady."

How can a mom argue with that?!

My muses

Just a few shots taken today and yesterday that came out cute.

This is what happens when I scold Brooke for putting her feet on the table. Monkey see, monkey do!

Ah, sibling love!

Counting!

This boy continues to amaze me.

Look whose birthday was today!

Our fearless puppy, Leo, turned ONE today!
He celebrated with some new toys, a large serving of german pancake this morning from the kids, a long walk through the woods from Justin, and a small dose of humiliation during a photo shoot with me. He took it like a real man.


The kids gave him some love - though not at the same moment, shucks says the photographer...

And Brooke had some fun trying on Leo's party hat (which we made at the kitchen table).

Potty? At 19 months?

Jack has been showing some interest in using the potty. What the heck? Brooke didn't get potty trained until a few days after her THIRD birthday. Don't get me wrong, I'd be thrilled beyond measure to be done with diapers sooner rather than later. I'm just shocked. The other day we were at the grocery store and he started saying "poop! potty!" repeatedly. I was completely taken aback. So twice now I've put him on the potty when he says he wants to... he's all talk and no action but it's awfully cute to see his little chubby legs dangling there.



And for good measure, a pic of my girl. All geared up with her best friend Ellie in her backpack. I took the kids to Applebees for lunch yesterday and they came home with balloons, always a treat in our house. We are getting ready to sign Brooke up for next year's pre-school. We're very happy with her current school, so we're going to stay with it - again, three days of class, but it's longer (3 hours instead of 2.5) and we're adding a fourth day which is an "enrichment class" that goes on a field trip every week. I have friends whose kids have done this class in past years and have raved about it - they take the kids to places like the back room at the grocery store where they see how food comes off the trucks and is unloaded and stocked on the shelves. I'm excited for her, it will be a lot of fun and new experiences.

Friday Misc.

I'm a little grumpy this morning because after having a very good week (or so I thought) on weight watchers, I weighed myself for Biggest Loser this morning and have only lost 1.8 lbs.! I mean, it's a loss, so I'm happy about that - and if I continued to lose 1.8 lbs. each week, I'd eventually get to my goal, but it's still not "wowing" me. I guess after watching The Biggest Loser on TV I have a distorted perspective of what a reasonable weekly loss should be. Those people manage to lose anywhere from 8-20 pounds per week, it's so awesome. Obviously I am not working out every day, all day, like they are so I have to remind myself of that. Hopefully next week will be better, I'm going to keep the faith and keep doing what I'm doing.

I'm also grumpy because at 10pm last night, while I was reading in bed, my phone beeped so I ran down to see who was texting me so late at night and it was my babysitter, who is sick and can't come today. BLAH! I had a whole morning of working out and reading and who-knows-what else planned while Brooke was at school. Now it will be me and Jack... which means no working out, reading, etc. The last time I took Jack to the daycare at my gym he wailed so hard they paged me back after 5 minutes, so I'm nervous to try it again. It's worse than not going at all to get there and get dressed and get started only to stop after 5 minutes. So today I will either try that again or just bag it and take Jack to the Children's Museum for a couple hours while Brooke is in school. I happen to have a half-off coupon right now, so it would be really cheap.

How's that for a morning cup 'o pessimism? I need to get back in a positive frame of mind. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Inauguration Day

Justin came home after midnight last night (delayed, late flight from Denver) so lights were not out for me until after 1am. Needless to say I was not thrilled to hear Jack awake at 6:50am. But the promise of watching inauguration festivities pulled me out of bed (oh, and a cup of coffee...)

Now it's 7:30 and both kids are up early (thanks, Mr. Garbage Man!) and we are watching the festivities in DC. I can't help but think about what a wonderful thing it is that when my kids become aware of the president of our country and all that the position stands for, Barack Obama will be their point of reference. They are too young to have any concept of race, and I love that their perspectives will be shaped from the foundation of a person of color in the White House.