Potty?

Parker, Parker, Parker, you are obsessed with the potty these days. I know that as a mom I'm supposed to be thrilled, and I do love the idea of no more diapers in the house. BUT, I am not sure about this whole thing. I think it's more of a game to you than a reality. This morning I sat you on the potty chair fist thing, and you practically filled that puppy. We all did the happy dance for you and you loved the praise. A while later Payton announce that you had a poopy diaper and I changed it. Maybe 3 minutes later you were telling me "potty, potty" again. I didn't really believe you, but being a Saturday morning and not in a big rush I plopped you on the potty chair and my self on the floor in front of you. To my surprise you started pushing and POOPING in the potty. I was shocked, and secretly groaning. See, as a mom, we get the dirty work of this transition. Each time you poop in the potty chair I get to spend the next 10 minutes cleaning the darned thing. Yuck. So, after another happy dance party, off I go to clean the dreaded potty chair. Move on another 10 minutes, and I find you sitting next to Payton on the sofa without a diaper. Crud, where is it, AND where did you pee? I find the diaper in the garbage can of course and put it back on you. This happens two more times over the next 45 minutes. So far I've found a small wet spot on the rug, and a HUGE puddle in the laundry room. My point in all of this is that I'm still not convince you don't just take off the diaper for the attention. Do you know you're about to pee, or do you just take it off and let nature take it's course whenever it may come? I guess we'll find out in the coming weeks...

Estero High

This morning we were leaving the neigborhood to take Payton to school at Allie Gator, and as we do EVERY time we leave our house, we passed the high school which also happens to be the place that the county gave the H1N1 shots this past fall.

PAYTON (voice quivering): Is that were we got shots?

ME: Yes, that's the high school. Someday you will go to school there!

PAYTON (almost in tears): I don't wanna go there, I don't wanna get shots!!

ME: Honey, it's okay. It's a school! That's where Leslie and Karl went to school. It will be fun! They don't give shots every day.

PAYTON: I don't wanna go there. And neither does Parker. Me and Parker aren't gonna go there.

ME: I promise there won't be shots there, it will be fun and you will want to go. But we can figure that out later, it's gonna be a long time before we need to worry about it.

PAYTON: Are there toys there?

ME: I don't know, but you'll like it. Leslie and Karl liked it. You can ask Leslie about it.

PAYTON: Or I can ask Karl. I don't wanna go there.

ME: OK

Memorable Moments from Disney 2010

This is as we arrived for our first day at Magic Kingdom

Since we came home from a two day trip to Disney last year Payton has been asking when we're going to see the princesses again. So this year when the stars aligned pointing us there, we had to take the opportunity. First off, we've been looking for somewhere we could go with Grandma Jackie as a little mini vacation forever. Then Dad's annual conference was scheduled in Orlando, and then the Disney god's themselves sealed the deal offering 4 day $99 tickets to Florida residents. What else was a mom to do, but book a house and pack the car! And that's what I did. I found a great 4 bedroom house with a pool about 15 minutes from the parks. I convinced Mom that she should fly in with Dad for his conference, and convinced Jackie that it would be FUN to ride in the car and push the girls hours on end around the parks. I won't offer a play by play of the whole 5 day trip, but I will say we had an awesome time, and it's a trip the girls will cherish for a long time (as will the rest of us). I will post a few of my favorite highlights of the trip. This gets really random from here on, but I went crazy adding photos!

Parker was trying to have a cup of tea at Minnie's house, not sure why she can't get this cup off the table.

Payton sitting at Minnie's sewing machine.


Thursday before we left Payton was very concerned about leaving Oliver. I tried explaining that cats don't like to take trips and that Collin and Laura would take good care of him. Her idea was that we could take him, and then bring him back home at night. Nope, not happening! All weekend she kept telling me that she wanted me to send pictures to him. So sweet how much she loves her kitty.

Friday morning at 6 a.m. as I was waking Payton up to get into the car
ME: Honey, it's time to get up and go to see the Princesses (in a sweet motherly whisper)
PAYTON: NOOOOO, I wanna see GRANDMA AND GRANDPAAAAA!!!

About 4 hours into the car ride, Parker's getting a little fussy and I'm trying to convince her we're about to be there
ME: Parker, are you happy? (This is one of her favorite words to say)
PARKER: No happy mommy, no happy


Daddy and Parker on the Teacups
Waiting in line for the Teacup ride, our first ride of the visit I kept asking Parker if she wanted to ride, and I'd point over to the people getting into the cups and spinning round and round. She'd just grin, point, shake her head and say "es, es!"


Riding the ferry boat
As we're taking the ferry boat back to the parking lot after a day at Magic Kingdom, we're all sitting on the floor watching the water with the vibrations rattling our brains
PAYTON: It tickles where I go poop!

Pulling into, away from, anytime we're coming or going from the parks
PARKER: Hi Mickey Mouse, Bye-Bye Mickey Mouse in the most adorable almost two year old voice imaginable with a big grin and outstretched hands


Payton got to see Mickey and Minnie while Parker was napping
Every time we'd leave any charater, or as we'd see a character on a parade or even walking down the street
PAYTON: I LOVE YOU MICKEY or PRINCESS or FROG (aka Jimine Cricket) or MINNIE

Parker spent the weekend shocking me with new words, such as "Mickey Mouse" & "cheese balls". I know there were tons more, I just can't think of them.

The girls were so well behaved (for the most part). I have discovered that Payton has a serious streak of me in her. Each day as we were rushing trying to get out of the car and into the parks she was a bear a beast and a monster all rolled into one. I could totally relate, and I felt terrible for giving her these genes! But once I figured out that either ignoring her and using sugar instead of threats to get her going worked WAY better we were good to go. They spent a lot of time in their strollers, and when we did let them out to run around, they never took off running as I assumed Parker would do.


watching the Dreams Come True show at the castle
I think that their very favorite part of the parks is the show at the Magic Kingdom with the whole crew, Mickey,Minnie, Donald, pricesses and all. We watched it once as we were arriving, once we waited for front row seats, and once more for good measure. Each time their eyes were glued to the stage, I can still hear Payton screaming "DREAMS COME TRUE, DREAMS COME TRUE, DREAMS COME TRUE!!"


This was our rainy day that we spent at Animal Kingdom, and did I mention it was cold too? At one point in the day we could see our breath, but it greatly improved and Jason had a blast getting everyone on this roller coaster!


Payton loving life with TWO grandmas on a ride, I think this was at Epcot.


Payton posed for this photo all on her own. She was so proud of herself for coming up with this!