Booty Camp

Claire's been sick with a really bad cough for the past three days. It's been one of those annoying coughs that doesn't really produce anything except a crappy night's sleep. I feel so bad for her b/c since last year's pandemoniom about not giving babies and toddlers cold and cough medicine (which worked pretty damn well btw) we can't give her anything. so we passify her with candy and juice and spoonfuls of honey (i'm not kidding, it's homeopathic). i just feel so bad for her.

last night i was out to dinner with misty. it was lovely, i haven't seen her in ages. we had cheese dip and diet coke and talked for hours. mike calls me like 4 times and i eventually answer, thinking claire-bear must be getting progressively sicker and might need something. she does - apparantly mike "promised" her Gummi Bears. promised her Gummi Bears. So I'm like, let me leave me awesome, fun, mommy-free girl dinner right now to procure said Gummi Bears stat! :) I get home around 9:15pm and he had kept her up b/c she was going kookoo for the Gummi Bears. She had to have them! She was really too tired to chew at this point but I gave her some generic treats I found at Walgreens for $1 b/c I didn't want to run into Schnucks and get sucked in b/c we might need groceries.

Claire is re-starting her potty training. It's like a Grand Re-Opening! She was all set last summer and Grammy was doing awesome helping us out big time. We were set to be diaper-free for our Florida vacation in October. But Claire backslid and we didn't want to push the issue for fear of pairing a negative association to the potty and then the holidays came and we got lazy and 'sometimes' diapers are easier. And so here we are, with Claire turning 3 in April and still pooping in her pants. We're all Sick. Of. It. Except for Princess of course.

Since Monday I've been putting her in training pants, basically panties with extra absorbancy in the crotch area, all day long. Doesn't faze her a bit. She still pees her little heart out right through her panties and jeans and my couch and goes about her day. This morning she was fully dressed. I was putting on her shoes, getting ready to put her coat on and knew she had pooped in her sports-themed underwear (i don't gender stereotype ok?). i had to totally undress her and remove enormous pile of green playdoh from her panties and wash them and ended up having to put a pull-up on her anyway (which she prefers of course) b/c I'd run out of panties. I am getting this kid to go in the potty I tell you. It. Is. Happening.

She's stubborn like me, but I have more practice.

Birthday Twins

So I put "The Constant Princess" on hold b/c mom brought me her copy of "The Six Wives of Henry XIII" by Alison Weir. It's a really easy read and I found out Katherine of Aragon and I were born on the same day - December 16th. We're birthday twins, except she's 492 years older than me.

Katherine of Aragon: Queen of England, King Henry XIII's first wife.

December 16, 1485 - January 7, 1536

Our Little Cupcake

I designed a new Birth Announcement last night while Mike and I were watching a weird movie. We couldn't finish it so I don't recommened it. The design was inspired by my friend Dannette's impending delivery of a baby girl this coming Monday, who will be named Lydia. And someday she will likely enjoy cupcakes.

"no soup for you!"

Last night Mom and Tony came through town on their way to Chicago to see little Leah. I came straight home and started working on something I've been doing a lot of lately. Soup. I started chopping vegetables for cheddar broccoli soup...

...and two hours later we all sat down to a warm bowl of soup, hot hamsteak and piping fresh bread from the oven. Mmmmmmmmm. Claire had Nana ultimately make her a mustard sandwich and seemed to enjoy her only bite of it. (For those of you aware of my severe condiment phobia, you can surely understand how disconcerting this culinary creation was for me).
Then Claire had our regular nightly "Dance Party" to the Dora soundtrack and The Hamster Dance. She twirled and laughed and just basically got jiggy with it. Nana even danced with her but only if we promised to stop the camcorder (we were recording the adorableness...)

disney on ice

We took Claire to see Disney on Ice tonight and it was a treat! I've gotta say, she was having a bad day all day long. Temper tantrums at the playplace at the mall, really fussy all day, took NO nap today, etc. it wasn't cute. i know mike's patience was tested BIGtime (basically b/c he used those exact words with me at some point). after three different costume changes, princess claire finally decided on a pink taffeta number with her 'jewels' and pigtails. then she started to get more psyched. and then she fell asleep in the car. (thank bejeebus)

When we arrived at scottrade center in downtown st. louis, we were greeted by thousands of other little princesses; belles, cinderellas, minnie mice, snow whites and even some spidermen? (this is disney on ice not marvel on ice?) a princess fashion show was promoted for before the show. basically all it was a few booths with mannequins wearing princess dresses and doo-hickies from their respective movie at the end of a looooong hallway preceded by four hundred merchandise stands full of overpriced disney toys. claire's such a good girl though, she never asks for anything...which

just makes us want to buy her something! so here comes her first treat - a box of minnie mouse popcorn ($7). we found our seats and they were pretty good. mike and i get our own snacks - sodas and a pretzel ($16! -that's totally reasonable!) then she show begins!

it was a blast. it started with mickey and the gang and they would announce each act. first off was Cars and it was really cute, they used all the actual actors' voices from the movie, Owen Wilson, Bonnie Hunt, Cheech, the Cable Guy, it was funny. Then it was The Little Mermaid's

turn. They performed "Under the Sea", "Kiss the

Girl" and fatty boombalatty Ursula came skating out on all 8 legs. Then it was Lion King's turn. I felt like i was watching the Broadway musical - it was pretty spectacular. all of the animals looked beautiful; wildebeasts, ostrichs (my favorite), zebras, girrafes, birds, etc. Claire's never seen The Little Mermaid or The Lion King, so she didn't recognize any songs, but she still enjoyed it. She did keep asking where all the princesses were throughout. Can you blame her?!

There was a brief intermission in which everyone was expected to spend more money on overpriced souvenirs and food - we were not immune. In comes cotton candy with a pink flower hat ($12). Claire had never had the stuff before, and she had no idea what it was. Get this - Mike and I had to actually convince her to eat the sugary goodness (or badness). Hey it was $12!! those cavities don't form by themselves!

The second half began and it was entirely Tinkerbell. This was what we were waiting for! This really was beautiful too. Very girly. Full of flowers and fairy dust and rainbows and of course - fairies. Queen Clarion flew high in the sky and there was confetti and streamers and blooming flowers coming out of the floor...pretty flitteriffic!

Claire seemed to be having a religious experience near the finale. Her little arms outstretched, eyes half-closed in pure fairy-bliss. She yelled out "i love you tinkerbell! i'm claire!" she wouldn't stop waving. She was literally dancing in my lap. It was friggin adorable.

She was totally sweet and redeemed herself from her 'bad day' and the huge princess smile on her face at the end of the evening was the perfect thanks! we can't wait to go back!

pretty good day

tonight i'm writing my first blog for 2009. as claire said tonight as we were changing into her jammies "i had a fun day mom!" it was a good day.

i got a whopping 10 hours of sleep last night which was desperately needed. i hadn't been feeling

myself lately and when mike wanted to go to bed at 9:30pm last night, i thought i'd join him or i knew i'd be up on the computer or watching reality tv until midnight and regret it. i woke up at 6am and got tickled when i saw the time on the alarm clock b/c that meant i had another hour of sleep before i had to get up and go to work! sweet :)

i work half days on saturdays at Safe Connections facilitating our social programs. Today was Craft Circle. We were lucky enough to have an Occupational Therapy Professor from SLU and one of her graduate students come to show us how to make mosaic tile trivets. If i can figure out how to upload a picture, i will be showing it here...

I must say I had a really hard time choosing a 'design' b/c the size of the trivets weren't that big and the variety of the tiles was pretty big and we only had an hour and a half to finish the project and oh yeah - i'm a perfectionist - there's always that. it would have taken me FORever to choose a design, much less place and glue it properly. so i opted not to have a design at all and go all abstract. i kinda like the result. i definately like the colors. we had 5 women show up for Craft Circle and that's twice as many as we usually get so i was thankful we had a really special craft prepared for them. they seemed to really enjoy it and i wish i had pictures of their trivets b/c they all turned out beautifully. and the mosaic process was so easy, i think i might try it at home.

claire and i laid down for a nap after I got home from work so mike could have a break. i mostly read the new book i started, The Constant Princess, by Phillipa Gregory. I finally rented "The Other Boleyn Girl" the other day and have since been obsessed with starting the series of books. I'm not reading them in the order they were written though, but their chronogical order b/c my brain needs to work that way. so far, so good. the only way i could have survived during these times would have been if i were a princess. A Constant One. so i can really relate to catherine of aragon.

after naptime, mike took us to steak 'n shake before he had to leave for his gig tonight at Main Street Bistro Claire was very, very good at the restaurant, which doesn't always happen. They gave her a cool, pink '57 chevy to put together and play with lots of decals and she ate most of her dinner. so she got a 'treat'. we had a coupon for a free hot fudge sundae so we were all about that. claire was psyched too. the waitress brings it to the table and claire promptly starts...having a temper tantrum! it didn't look EXACTLY like the sundae on the picture (namely they were out of cherries) and she refused to eat it. she is obviously not my offspring.

claire wanted to make cookies about 30 minutes after we got home b/c she was 'hungry'. of course. i couldn't resist b/c hell - it's fun making cookies with her! she gets into it! she loves the sprinkles! we made sugar cookies b/c she ' likes them'. we decorated them with chocolate chips and leftover halloween sprinkles.

here is a picture of claire concentrating on the sprinkles.









we changed into our jammies while they were baking. she was really freaked out the timer was gonna beep before we could get changed. "hurry mom - they gonna burn!"

As soon as they came out of the over she exclaimed "oooh, yummy in my tummy mama!" i don't know where she gets these expressions i tell you!

"TA-DA!"
Finally, we got comfy on the couch in our jammies with our baked cookies and Claire randomly asked to watch "E.T.", which we have taped on our DVR. she LOVES this movie, but hasn't watched it in a few months. she was totally getting into it, asking tons of questions. then during the scene where eliot says goodbye to E.T. she absolutely bursts into tears! i mean, racking sobs, tears streaming down her face, burying her face in my chest, crying. it was fairly traumatic and i think mike has an identical story when his mom (not dad) took him to see E.T. in the theater back in '82! it was so pitiful, i had to hold her for a while before she calmed down.

all in all she was right though, it was a pretty good day...