I came, I saw, I peed

oh my gosh - i never thought potty training would be so hard, so overwhelming, so fraught with sadness, confusion, tears, m&ms and wet floors. Our Dr told us at her 2 yr checkup, "introduce it at 2, encourage it at 2 1/2, start to force it at 3).

Like most (clueless) moms, when abby turned 2, i bought abby a porta-potty (elmo - the love of her life at the time). She peed in it once and i thought that we were going to have potty training down in a week - I mean, how hard could it be?!? Then - the newness of elmo wore off and she refused to even look at him.

Recently, I bought her 'big girl' princess panties and she loved them...for a while (we even made it out of the house to my parents in panties!!). When friday would come (no school on fri or mon), we would wear the princess panties, set a timer for every 30 min and she would go like clockwork. Then this past week, she stayed home thurs and i wasn't as vigilant with the 30 min as i should have been. she had 2 accidents and has since refused to wear panties. she told me she wanted to pee in her diaper. UGHHH!!! we were so close and yet so very, very far. I know every blogger who has a preschooler has written on this subject - is there any hope for me?? My mom and aunt say the reason why potty training is so hard for all of us is that we never stay home to work on it. It's not something you can fit in on the weekends. I just don't know what to do but wait till summer or pray for a miracle. At abby's new school, you have to be potty trained for the 3 yr old classes. we've got 7 months to go and one stubborn kid to convince! Here I am looking so smug while reading dr seuss.

"I wonder if I'm growing My mom says 'yes, I'm growing' But it's hard for me to see..."

As soon as Libby was blessed, Abby came up to me and Mom and said, "Libby's blessed, her's bigger now". Every day, Abby does a "is Libby bigger yet" check to see if she is ready to play with her. Today she opened up a christmas gift from my in laws and showed it to Libby, let Libby hold it, told her it was from Grandma Ricker, and then let Libby watch as Abby played with the toy. It was the most 'play' that they've done together so far and it was really sweet. Abby knew Libby didn't feel well and she was very sweet to her. When she saw Libby on Sunday she was genuinely excited and you could tell that she had missed her. Abby immediately wanted to hold Libby and give her kisses. Abby is such a sweet girl and I can't wait for Libby to get bigger and bigger so she can play with her big sister - either that or so they can fight it out for ultimate supremacy of the household. Only time will tell, but for now a girl can always dream of peaceful happy siblings who love each other and play together beautifully. (you can tell I am an only child, right?)

What does Disney have against mothers?

I am just saying....think about it. NO princesses have a mother -if anything it's just a stepmother who wants to do them harm. Bambi and Dumbo - separated from their mothers by painfully sad circumstances. It's sad when a 2 yr old notices the no mother thing. Abby has just recently gotten into the Disney movies and when she watched The Little Mermaid, all she kept saying is, "Airel want her Mama". It's just not right - that and the fact they all are supposed to get married off at 16, fall instantly in love, and ride off with their price charming (prince handsome in our house) and live happily ever after. You know me, I change the story to read more like, "Princess X goes to college, gets a degree, a good job, finds out who she is and what she wants to be, gets to know Prince Handsome better, they decide to get married, but only when they are 30 and are really ready. They both love each other and try hard to make things work.

That's my fairy tale. And it came true.

On the other hand, after swallowing back vomit from reading Abby some of those stories, my Aunt told me that there is a child psychology book about how fairy tales are good for kids to read and hear, and my father in law told me something about them helping little girls deal with their own Oedipus Complex. Whatever. All I know is that after learning about these fairy tales, Abby has started calling my dad and Chris 'Prince Handsome' and is so sweet to them you'd think it was a different kid.

For now, we'll take the motherless princess. (who is so starved for a man's affection she'll let any random guy 'save' her - but whatever).

That's me in the corner, that's me in the spotlight, losing my religion...

I wanted to title this post "blessed", but more accurately yesterday was more of me losing my religion (my temper for those of you that don't know what that song is about). I have recently admitted to being a control freak and I try to work on it, but then I see outcomes like this and I think that I need to try to control more things - I try so hard for everything to turn out well and then it all falls apart with one click of the shutter:-) or anything else for that matter. I guess that's what I deserve for letting the kid take the picture who maced the entire chapel when he 'accidentally' sprayed pepper spray during the service! It's ok Chris - I'll get over it eventually. And, if anyone knows how to fix this in photoshop, PLEASE let me know!!

Anyway, the dress got finished in time, the blessing was beautiful, the family was there (thank you again to everyone who came down/over), the dinner was nice, and the by the end of the day I was relaxed and having a nice time. We are very blessed and we love Libby so much and are so grateful that she has come to live with us.

P.S. Congratulations to my cousin Kimberly who just got a job as a Special Education teacher - she'll be teaching at the same elementary school that I attended.