Potty Training Update- Whoo Hoo!

WARNING: This post contains information about bodily functions. If this offends, disgusts, or doesn't interest you...you should stop reading NOW!

To be read with in a sarcastic tone: I know, I know. Everyone in the world cares about our potty training and wants to know updates. I'm sure you would like regular updates instead of the few, sporadic ones I've made. I'll do better in the future since you care so much. :-)

Moving on... :-)

Luci has been doing pretty awesome with potty training the last couple of days! She has went pee-pee (yes, we have decided on "pee-pee" and "poo-poo"...I just think "pee" and "poop"...or anything else for that matter sounds a little "old" for a little kid. To each his own.) in the potty almost every morning the last 2 weeks. She went poo-poo in the potty at daycare one day this week, and yesterday afternoon, evening, and overnight she never needed a new diaper! She told me every time she needed to go!

We are giving out a "potty sticker" each time she goes and this has really given her some motivation! This girl loooves her stickers!!! We still aren't forcing the potty training issue because a. I don't mind changing diapers (I'm not the type of mother that has ever despised it...it just comes with the territory so get over it, ya know.) b. She's still pretty young (just barely two) and c. I know it will come in due time.

As well as she has done the last few days, I am still not brave enough to whip out the big girl panties. Although I don't mind changing diapers, I do mind scrubbing my couch, floors, and whereever else she decides to be when she has an accident...maybe in a few weeks if she hasn't regressed!

Here are some pics of our girl with her proud "potty stickers"!!!!

Now, if we could just get her to stop taking off her own diaper when she poops...I really hate that trail of poop from where she is at to where I'm at...

1st Day of Summer = Pool Party

Yesterday was the first official day of summer (although here in Arkansas, it has felt like summer for the last month)! Summer is my least favorite season...mainly because I am the busiest at work, and I hate to sweat. I hate heat and I hate humidity...but that is unavoidable in Arkansas, so to help beat the heat, Mitch set up a pool for Luci yesterday, and she. loved. it!!!


Soooo excited!

Helping Daddy fill up the pool!

Play time!!!

Just doing a little sunbathing!!

A Story of a Boy and Girl

I had mentioned previously in Day 3 of my Washington D.C. posts that is was our 4th Wedding Anniversary and that I was going to do a post about us later on...well, here it is!!!

Mitch and I both believe know that we were brought together by God. Mitch was 18 years old, in his last semester of high school and trying to make decisions about college. Mitch was at a college fair at his high school and noticed a "hot" red head at the UA Fort Smith table! He had never heard of UA Fort Smith, but decided he would go over and chat with the "hot" red head. She ended up getting him to complete an information card and the rest is history. (Thank God for the hot red-head!!! lol)

He was offered a full scholarship and ended up being in the same scholarship program as me. He never really had intentions of staying at UA Fort Smith for 4 years. He was just going to use the scholarship for 2 years and then hopefully transfer to OU. We met for the first time at a retreat for our scholarship program in June (right before we started our first fall semester). Neither one of us were interested romantically with one another as we were both in and out of high school relationships. After classes started, I happened to run in to him at Best Buy. He offered up his phone number to me if I had trouble installing the internet router I was buying. Well, by October we were dating. We briefly parted ways in December. After "getting back together" in January, we have been inseparable ever since. By the next October we were engaged. We got married the summer after our junior year in college.

Yes, us being together is a god-thing. Who would have thought that the guy that graduated with 1,000 people in his senior class would go out on a limb to attend a college he had never heard of before and end up marrying the girl that graduated with 74 people in her senior class.

Mitch is everything I could ever want in a husband. We are very different people and somehow, that is what makes us work. I am a very high-strung, schedule oriented, Golden Girl watching, tabloid reading, southern gal. Mitch is a very laid back, go with the flow, techie, gadget-loving, sport fanatic type of mid-western boy. And together, we work, and we work well.

He makes me happy...more happy than I could ever imagine. I didn't think it was possible for me to love him more...that is until he became a Daddy. He is the best Daddy that Luci could ever ask for. We truly are 50/50 parents. There is never any room for resentment because WE do it...and WE do it TOGETHER.

So, after 4 years I love him more than ever...and look forward to us growing old together!

Our Wedding Day

Our 1st Anniversary trip - Hot Springs

Our 2nd Anniversary...we were celebrating the birth of Luci! She was a week old!

Our 3rd Anniversary trip/family vacation - Disney World!!! This pic is at Hollywood Studios!

Our 4th Anniversary trip/business trip/family vacation - Washington D.C.!!! Us eating at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.

Now the question is...what will we do for our 5th Anniversary??? I'm thinking somewhere tropical! :)

Ecclesiastes 4:12 Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

Mother's and Father's Day of Past

I meant to do this earlier, but I forgot. It makes me happy and sad at the same time when I look back at how much she has grown in only 2 years! It's amazing to see how much she has changed.

Around my "first" Mother's Day (2009)- 35 Weeks Preggo! Wow my face was swollen!! I was on bed rest when this pic was taken, but had gotten ready to go to the Doctor. They put me on bed rest, but made me go to the doctor about every other day...how was I supposed to rest!?!? This was taken 2 weeks before Luci was born!

My Official First Mother's Day!!(2010)

My Second Mother's Day!! (2011)

Mitch's First Father's Day (2009) - Not even a month old!!! She was so tiny!

Mitch's Second Father's Day (2010)

Mitch's Third Father's Day (2011)

Looking forward to all of our future Mother's and Father's Days!!

Father's Day Weekend 2011

Father's Day weekend was full, but relaxing. Saturday morning we drove to Paris fairly early because I had a hair appt. After my appt, Mom, Luci,and I hung out while my Dad and Mitch played a few holes of golf. Later that night my mom prepared hamburger steaks and gravy with all the "fixin's" and we had this

for dessert!! I bought a golf cookie cake in honor of the men in my life, Dad, Mitch, and my brother in law, Mark!! It was sooooooo good!!!

After dinner, we watched "The Dilemma" with Vince Vaughn and Kevin James. It was a pretty big let-down. They have had much better work than this.

Sunday we woke up and Mom made a big breakfast (I just love going home to eat!) and we all attended church where my Dad got "Father of the Year"!!! My mom got "Mother of the Year" on Mother's day so were glad when Dad was selected for Father's Day!!! A perfect match!!! Even though they got Mother/Father of the year, they are Mother/Father of forever for me!!! I am blessed to have such wonderful parents!!!

After church we came home to eat a big lunch that had lots of my favorite components...ham, fresh FRIED SQUASH, mac n cheese, pinto beans, rolls, and more cookie cake!!! Have I mentioned I love going home to eat?!?! After lunch, I'm pretty sure we all took afternoon naps!!!

For the 2 years that Mitch has been a Daddy, he has been the best! Luci is his little princess and she knows it too!! Mitch is always there every step of the way...waking up in the night with her, changing diapers, feeding meals and snacks, runnning her to and from school, singing, reading, and praying with her. Luci is blessed!!! We sure do love him!!!!

Luci gave him his Father's Day presents a little earlier in the week since we knew we wouldn't be home on actual Father's Day. Here is what she got him...

A notebook for his office!!

A pencil/pen holder for his desk!!!

Mitch will be celebrating Father's Day with his Dad next weekend...in St.Louis!!! His dad's favorite baseball team is the Cardinal's so Mitch, his Dad, and his brother are driving up to catch a game!!! I know they will have a blast!

I hope all of the Daddy's out there had a great Father's Day!!!!

Swim Lessons- The Good and Bad

I decided a few months ago to sign Luci up for swim lessons at a local gymnastics gym. I was sooooooooo excited. See, I have been a swimmer since I was really young. I. love. swimming. Not just your typical "play around in the water, lay out and splash" type swimming, but actual swimming. So, with my love for swimming and my strong belief that every child should know water life-saving skills, I signed up my now 2 year old for lessons. So, how did they go you ask? Good and bad. Ok, bad is a harsh word...not as expected maybe. I think the problem with the lessons was the length of the program and the fact that we work all day. The actual daily lesson was only 45 minutes, but they were Mon-Thur for 2 weeks. I think that is probably a great plan for a child that is a little bit older and maybe doesn't have to go to daycare all day long and then get rushed off to swim lessons, but for us, it was just a bit too much. I would have been happier with just one week. That being said, we only lasted a total of half the lessons. Luci only went 4 of the 8 sessions. Part of that was that she was tired, cranky, etc., and the other part was that Mom and Dad were so tired from work that the thought of working all day, running home and getting changed, feeding Luci a snack, going to lessons, wrestling a toddler in the pool, getting out of the pool, getting changed, going home, preparing dinner, rushing her in the bath and immediately to bed...did not sound appealing every single day. I know, I know...go ahead and take my Mom of the Year award away now!

Ok, now on to the good things!!!!

Day 1: She did awesome!!!! She learned about moving her arms, kicking, blowing bubbles underwater, and laying on her back!!! I was so proud of her!!! Oh btw, these are Parent + kiddo lessons. They do not go on their own until they are 3 or 4.

Day 2: Apparently a little tired from the day before...and all the other kids were too. There was lots of crying/whining on this day. Luci did great for about 15 minutes and after that, she was just wanting to play around in the pool. She continued to work on her kicking, arms, laying on back, blowing bubbles underwater, and then practiced learning how to "jump" if she hits the bottom of the pool. We practiced this sensation by her bouncing on our legs. This was also the first day that she fully went under water!!

Day 3: This day was a cranky day too. She really was not interested in the lessons...just playing. She did a little of the lesson and went under water some, but then was finished. We left a little early.

Day 4: We skipped.

Day 5: She did awesome on this day!!!...but only for 20 minutes. She went under water quite a bit and was doing a little swimming!!!...with help of course!! After 20 minutes, she was tired and just wanted to play...and then got really cranky.

Day 6: We skipped.

Day 7: We skipped.

Day 8: We skipped.

So, I am going to check and see if we can make-up the 4 lessons we missed later on in the summer. If not, no biggie. I will be able to continue working with her on my own.

So, will I enroll her next year? Without a doubt. Will I try to do one week at a time? Yes!

Some pics of lessons...

Washington D.C - Final Day

Our final morning of our vacation was spent traveling. We flew from D.C. to Dallas and then from Dallas to Little Rock. Luci did exceptionally well on both plane rides. On the last plane ride, she was awake the entire time. She got a little restless so I opened by "bag of tricks". She colored for a little bit, watched a little Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the DVD player, and ate a snack. She was great!!!

Checking out all of the sites from the plane!

Watching a movie on her DVD player!

Once we landed in Little Rock, we were deplaning and we got to the jet bridge, we noticed that our stroller was missing (it was gate checked), but the polka dot bag and sun shade that my mom had made for it was left laying in the floor. After briefly questioning some of the attendants working there, we figured out that this lady had taken our stroller.

Let me back up a bit...when we layed our stroller at the end of the jet bridge for it to be gate checked and were getting ready to board the plane, we noticed that there was an indentical stoller like ours already there. We weren't worried because our stroller had a specially made bag and sunshade that was attached to the stoller...so there were some big differences between the two.

Once we realized ours was missing, I ran walked very fast down to baggage claim where I saw a little girl sitting in our stroller. I spoke to the mom and told her that I believe she had our stroller. She argued with me for a bit. I questioned her about taking our bag off of the stroller. She then had the nerve to say, "you act like I stole it." Well, at that point, I was furious. She demanded to see my claim ticket. I then grabbed the stroller from her, planted Luci's behind in the stroller, shoved my claim ticket at her and walked off. In my opinion, she did steal it. She took two things off the stroller that were not hers and then took our stroller. She just kept raising her voice and getting agitated. Her stroller had not made it out on the jet bridge, so she just took it upon herself to remove our stuff and take our stroller. It was not a great way to end the trip. Oh well. Stroller returned. Case Closed.

We drove to Cracker Barrel to eat before we headed home where I had one of my absolute favorite desserts...Double Fudge Coca-Cola Cake. I could probably eat that every. single. day. It is some serious yum!

After that, we drove home!!!

It was such a fun, memorable trip! I know we will definitely go back when Luci is older and can appreciate what she is seeing and remember it!

To read about our other days in D.C. ...

Day One
Day Two
Day Three
Day Four

Washington D.C 2011 - Day 4

This was probably our busiest day! We woke up EARLY to head out for our tour of the WHITE HOUSE!! My opinion is no matter what your particular feelings may be politically, the White House is soooo full of history, it is a must see! We requested a tour months in advance and found out 2 weeks before we left that we got one! In case you are wondering, they did do background checks on us before we were even notified that we received a tour. The tour was not disappointing by any means, but we were only allowed to see the first floor. (Mitch was disappointed that he didn't get to see the bowling alley...can you picture my eyes rolling right now???! :D)

Waiting for the tour to begin!

Our tour was guided by a uniformed secret service officer and there were secret service EVERYWHERE. I guess I wasn't surprised by this, but it is a little odd to see officers carrying assault rifles while walking up and down the White House lawn!!!! We were not allowed to take anything with us in the White House and our phones had to remain in our pockets. As soon as we stepped outside the doors, we were allowed to take a quick phone picture of us in front of the White House. Oh btw, Luci slept the. entire. time. Not that she would remember doing this, but I would have liked her awake for the pics! Lol!

The WHITE HOUSE!

Outside the White House lawn...why am I the only one paying attention???!!!

After our White House tour, we went back to the hotel and all loaded up on a tour bus to go back through what we saw the day before so Mitch could see it all since he had been conferencing/working most of the trip.

After that we stopped by probably my most favorite thing the entire time: The National Archives. This is where the original Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and many other important documents to our nation are housed. In addition to these documents they have TONS of other fun and interesting things to look at! Mitch and I are pretty nerdy when it comes to history stuff so we loved it! Check out their website to see what all is there!!

For preservation reasons, we could not take pictures inside...so this is our only photo from the Archives!

After this, we headed out for our tour of the Library of Congress! This was such an awesome and beautiful building! Our tour was unfortunately scheduled close to closing time so we did not get to explore much. Check out their website for more info!

Inside

Outside

Helping Luci get up the stairs

After this we walked over to Union Station. Union Station was the hub of transportation for the railroad in D.C. in the early 1900's. Now it functions as a Amtrak station and Metro station. It also has tons of shops and restaurants in it!!

Finally after eating dinner and shopping, we took Metro back for the hotel and started packing to fly out the next day!

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Washington D.C. 2011 - Day 3

Day 3 was an awesome day mainly because it was mine and Mitch's 4th Wedding Anniversary!!!! The down side was that he was in conference most of the day, but we still got to go out for dinner that night while Mom kept Luci at the hotel.

The morning of our Anniversary. *Mitch is in conference gear!

Mom and I started the day by jumping on another tour bus. This time the tour bus took us by the National Cathedral (gorgeous), through Embassy Row, through Georgetown, through Chinatown, and finally by Ford's Theatre.

Ford's Theatre (where Lincoln was assassinated)

Luci napping on the tour bus!

National Cathedral

We stopped and had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe where I picked up a Washington D.C. shot glass! I already had one from when my friend Vic went there several years back, but I wanted one that I got on my own as well! You can read about my Hard Rock Cafe shot collection here. Thanks to my friend Rita and cousin Jocie, I will add the Caymen Islands and Destin to my collection this summer!!

After lunch, Mom, Luci, and I headed over to the Capitol for our tour!! I had made contact with Congressman Womack's office and they set up a tour for us as well as a special tour of where the House was meeting that day! The experience was AWESOME. Our Capitol is gorgeous and the history of it is so rich, you can just feel it when you walk in! Congressman Womack met with us for a few moments and welcomed us to D.C.! We had our picture made with him which I will post at a later date! The House was actually in session that day and we got to sit down for a few moments in the actual room! Soooo neat!!!

After our Captiol Tour, we took a cab back to our hotel where Mitch and I got ready for dinner to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary!! I will do a post a little later about "us"!! We ate dinner that night at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. It was definitely yummy and it was nice to have a kid-free dinner! Thanks Mom!

My Love!

After our dinner, we went back to the hotel for the night because we had to get up REALLY early the next day for our tour of the WHITE HOUSE!!!!

Day 1

Day 2

Washington D.C 2011 - Day 2

Day 2 was a mixture of bad and good. We started the morning by sleeping in and running a couple of errands while Mitch was in conference. When he got to his stopping point for the afternoon, we loaded up and rode the Metro down to the National Mall.

We visited the Smithsonian Castle, Hirshorn Museum (my least fav), & the Air and Space Museum (one of my favs). After we left the Air and Space Museum we decided to head back to our hotel to grab a quick bite and get ready for our open-top night bus tour (in my opinion, everyone should do this if they have the chance while visiting D.C.).

Smithsonian Castle

Smithsonian Castle

Luci flying an "airpane" in the Air and Space Museum!

Mom and I with the Capitol in the background

Mom and I with the Washington Monument in the background. * Note Luci crying in the background...she didn't want her picture made. :-) She really was exceptionally well-behaved the entire trip!!

While we were walking to the nearest Metro station, Mom lost her footing on some broken sidewalk and fell...and landed smack dab on her face. I rushed over to help her up as she was spitting broken pieces of teeth, yes teeth, out of her mouth. She cut her toe pretty badly, blacked up her chin, and had various scrapes on her hands and legs. I immediately wanted to get her to an Emergency Room, but she refused and said she was ok and was in no pain. I bandaged her up as best I could and we went back to our hotel. Mom never went to the doctor, but did call her dentist. (Which by the way, she went to see him yesterday morning and she has to get 4 new teeth/veneers.) We were very fortunate and God was good because she was never really in any pain! Mom was a trooper and did great the rest of the trip, broken teeth and all!!

After going back to the hotel, Mom rested for a bit and then we went down to catch our bus for the open-top night tour. We went all over the place on this tour! It was soooooo amazing to get to see everything while having someone explain everything and the history behind it.

We saw: The Capitol, Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, Iwo Jima Statue, Arlington National Cemetery, and everything along the way!

Jefferson Memorial

The Capitol

We stopped and got to go explore the Lincoln Memorial and the WW II Memorial. The tour was soooooo good! It was long, but we loved it.

Lincoln Memorial

WW II Memorial

In the WW II Memorial with the Washington Monument in the background

We got back to the hotel around 10:45 that night...and we were exhausted!!!

More to come...

In case you didn't get to read Day 1...