Why is there crab sand in my rocking chair?

Yesterday Lola, Rowan and I had an awesome time in our back yard. I set up a really cool double chair with table and umbrella thing, our big huge pool that I won in the silent auction, and our new little fire pit. I did all this at turbo speed while the kids were napping. In the process I forgot to sunblock the area of skin above my butt that gets exposed to sun when my shirt rides up while I do things like garden, or set up a swimming pool. I fried that area, and it looks especially nice in contrast with my seriously white ass.

But I digress. After nap, we all headed outside and Lola loved playing in her pool. I was afraid she was going to try to drown, but she did great. The pool is about 2 1/2 feet deep, so she can touch. It was also colder than a witch's titties in a brass bra (as my mom would say), but Lola didn't care. As long as she was warm enough to keep her limbs moving and her heart beating, she was happy. After the pool we dried off and packed up a tiny picnic basket and headed back out where I made a pathetic fire in our firepit out of old credit card applications and cardboard boxes. Lola was happy, however, and managed to roast a weenie over my sad little fire. After dinner she got to roast a marshmallow. Highlight of her day, I swear.

We had a very long day today. At 7:30 am we all packed up and left for the mountains. Wil, Rowan, Lola, Great Gramma and I all crammed into my Jeep and drove up to the garnet hunting area in Idaho. We went last year too, and Lola had a great time playing in the mud. She enjoyed it more this time, I think, as she is bigger, stronger, and has more surface area which can be covered in mud and silt. We ended up with 11 oz of pretty garnets. Some might even make nice jewelry! The kids and I were exhausted after digging for 2 hours and then having a picnic in a nice campsite. We piled into the car again, and withing minutes Lola, Rowan and I were snoring in the back seat.
We got home in the early afternoon, and after a nice time frolicking on the floor, Rowan went down for another nap. Lola and Wil and I went outside to build another flower bed. This one is a rock garden and actually looks pretty cool, especially with the dead flowers that Lola "planted" in it. It started to rain about the time Lola decided to pee in the grass and peed all over her shorts in the process. We watered the new plants with Lola in her undies. A bath was seriously in order after that, and Lola's bathwater was actually brown from the dirt caked on her little body. Rowan's bath was not quite as gross, but he cleaned up pretty nice too.

We all sat down for dinner, and poor Rowan sat in his highchair watching us eat. Since he is four months old, I mixed up a little rice cereal and offered it to him. Oh my Lord, he was like "hey stupid, it's about time you fed me!" He opened his mouth wide and kicked his legs and shrieked in between bites. He was so excited! I don't know how a person could get that excited about powdered rice flakes mixed with formula, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

I climbed into my big cozy rocking chair tonight, bottle of beer in hand, when I realized that I had hermit crab sand sticking to my nice clean showered legs. Ick. Lola has got to learn to keep her crabs off the furniture! After cleaning crab sand out of my chair and my nether regions, I was settling down for a nice long blog fest, but for some reason Rowan decided to be awake again. He just went down an hour ago and now he is back up. Weird. I hope it wasn't the cereal. I don't know what it is about being a mom that makes you think that every little change you make in your child's daily routine might end up breaking him, but that is how it is. Maybe it is just me. I should have remembered my lithium this morning. Kidding, but I seriously hope he sleeps tonight or I might be a little less than happy in the morning. We have been spoiled with this sleeping through the night thing and I really don't want to go back to being awake every freakin hour again. Wish me luck!

Mommy, that truck is so big the biggest thing forever!!

I love how little kids make sentences. The way they do it reminds me of one of those chimps who have been taught around 100 different signs, and must use only those signs to tell their trainers what is on their minds. When Lola makes sentences, she throws together various descriptive words and nouns, often forgetting words that make a sentence flow, and very frequently forgetting the period at the end. The truck was indeed very big, and I guess forever is also very big, and in the mind of a two year old, forever seems like a good word to describe a big truck!

Potty training is going very well. We have gone over a week with no accidents. Just in case, however, I pack around a pair of Disney Princess panties and a pair of shorts in my purse. Wil thinks that is a little weird, but not as weird as he felt the other night when he grabbed a spare pair and ended up putting them in his jeans pocket and forgetting about them. Later, he pulled out the panties and decided that he never thought he would be packing toddler panties around in his pocket. Parenting. It really changes a person.

Last time I discussed how Lola feels the need to make me look at her pee. Well, this trend has continued. She is so proud of her pottying that she really wants me to look, and also comment. I have to say that I am having a difficult time coming up with great new comments. I mean, a person can only think of so many things to say about someone else's pee.

"Wow, its so yellow!"

"Ooooh, bubbles this time!"

Seriously, I am going to torment her with this when she is a teenager.

Today Lola got to go horseback riding at the local teaching facility. She rode a very nice but very large horse named Paco, and she really enjoyed herself. In fact, the first thing she said when she woke up from her nap was "can we go see the special horsey again?"

Rowan laughed out loud last night. He has been giggling, but never actually belly laughed until last night. He thought that Lola's table manners were hysterical. I guess she is kind of like watching a zoo animal feed, and it is pretty funny if you aren't her parent. He has also been enjoying the freedom of his exersaucer lately, and really loves to smack the toys around. Rowan has learned to make a fun shriek similar to the one his sister used to do at this age. Love it. He has his four month check up tomorrow, and I am sure he will be lovely to be around after his shots. The good news is that he has been sleeping through the night for four nights in a row. 8:30 pm to 6:30 am. YEAH!!!!!

Finally, Lola announced loudly to the entire coffee shop today "I HAVE CRABS!!!"

Of course, she means her hermit crabs, but wow. Stunned silence, and then hysteria. Wil wonders if it is possible for a little girl to love a crab too much. Luckily they have shells, so careening across the living room and ricocheting off the coffee table can't hurt them. I think anyway. They seem to actually like her....maybe we have some creepy S & M crabs, I don't know, but she loves them.

Mama, come see my pee!

Wow. Those are words I NEVER thought I would hear. I also never thought I would respond with "Oh Honey, I would LOVE to see your pee!"

Yikes.

Anyway, potty training is going ever so well. Only 3 accidents since starting a week ago, and none of those have been number 2, which is awesome for me. Our garbage can in the bathroom is far less stinky (imagine that). Everyone has seen Lola's "big girl panties." This includes Grandma, Great Grandma, the neighbor guy, our pastor, and all the old ladies at church. Whatever, when you are two it is completely ok to show off your Disney princesses to everyone you meet on the street.

Yesterday was our first day of swim lessons. Lola did great. She loved jumping off the side, but she always forgets to wait until I get to three in the countdown! My arms are aching from catching her. She really enjoyed her lessons, and actually, so did I, despite having to appear in a bathing suit in front of everyone.

Today Lola was rewarded for her potty training success with a new bike. Forget the bike though, I also bought her two little hermit crabs. Evidently the expression "I have crabs!' can actually be a good thing! She loves the little critters and has only dropped them once or twice. Luckily I picked a pet with armor. Perfect for a two year old!

Unfortunately, my luck with avoiding fevers has finally ended. Today Lola developed a mysterious fever which has just not quit. Tylenol won't even help the poor little thing. Pathetically she fell asleep on my lap for the first time in ages, and I put her to bed. Poor Rowan kind of got the shaft today. He may not have gotten a bike, but he did receive a giant rainbow hedgehog which Wil thinks might be batting for the other team. Overall a good day, and hopefully poor little Lola will wake up happy in the morning.

I Poop in the Potty!!!

Well, it has finally finally FINALLY happened. Lola woke up yesterday morning, and I asked her, as usual, if she would like to wear her big girl panties instead of diapers. Usually she says, "no shanks" and I put a diaper on her and we go on with our day. Yesterday however, she answered "YEAH!!!" I wasn't going to argue with that.

And so our journey to potty training has begun. I have decided that potty training is as much an ordeal for the parent as the child. All day long I had to monitor the clock. How long had it been since the last potty? Has she pooped today? Should I give her more milk or not? After a few hours we settled into a routine. Every half and hour or so if Lola hadn't asked to potty in awhile, I asked her to go sit on the pot. This works awesomely! I tell you, I almost did a cartwheel when she came running out of the bathroom saying "Mommy, I made a plop!!!" (This means she pooped, long story.) We immediately had a huge potty party. We got out the kiddie roller coaster, had a real pop (Lola never gets real pop, so this was a big deal) and cracked open a popsicle.

I was sooo happy that I almost forgot about how bad the day had been. On top of the constant potty monitoring, the stupid cat ate Lola's spaghetti-o's, the other stupid cat got locked in our bedroom and had diarrhea all over my clean laundry, and then Lola flooded the bathroom. She likes her privacy when she sits on the pot. She strips all of her clothes off, because you see, you must be completely naked to sit on the toilet. Then she grabs her toy catalogue and sits on the pot for awhile. This particular time, I hadn't heard a word out of her in awhile, so I went to check on her. I opened the bathroom door and immediately noticed that the once full toilet paper roll was empty. I had hardly gotten the words "Lola, where's the toilet paper?" out of my mouth when I realized that the entire roll was in the potty, and her hand was on the flusher.

"NOOOOOOOOO!"

But it was too late. The bathroom instantly became a pee water pond, and before I could get the water valve shut off (it was hopelessly stuck) there was two inches of water on the floor. Nine bathtowels and six loads of laundry later, the bathroom was clean. Even this horror was just a bump in my happy road, however, as I feel that finally, we are about to say goodbye to Lola's diapers forever!!!!! Today we even went to a birthday party and all the way to Wal Mart with big girl undies on. Hooray!

Two days down, lots more to go.