Potties, Pappies, and Piercings

So much ado happening in such a quick time frame around here!  This will be quite the Caroline-centric post.  As you know, I'm quickly progressing in my pregnancy, and the idea of having an infant, a toddler, and a Kindergartner sometimes frightens me.  More specifically, it's the combination of needy toddler and innocently helpless infant that keep me awake at night.

However, recently and rather quickly Caroline has eliminated two big daily obstacles. All. On. Her. Own!  The first development is that Caroline is potty trained now!  Yay!  Whoop-Whoop!  As a very important side note, I wanted to potty train C, but I was frozen by lack of direction and motivation.  I kept hearing on Pinterest and from friends how I should basically just put her in panties and let her pee all over herself.  Well, all it took was the magic of Dora panties and she was scared to death of messing them up.  Girlfriend loves, loves Dora!

Meanwhile, Caroline kept playing in my jewelry box.  Specifically with my earrings.  I told her if she would learn how to potty I would get her some of her very own earrings.  I had no idea how easily she would actually figure it out!

Subsequently, Caroline recently had a nasty bout of Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease, a virus which produces a tell-tale blistery rash around a person's mouth.  C was in a lot of pain and she somehow convinced herself that her pappy had created that rash.  So my sweet baby had to sleep without her pappy for a couple of nights.  Then she...wait for it...put her pappy in the trash can!

So long, pappy!  (And, yes, I know my trash needs to be emptied!)

She has only mentioned the pappy twice since then and both times she has been so easily consoled and distracted.

Well, as you can imagine, I had to hold up my end of the bargain now.  If there is one thing I did hear her say over and over it was "I get ea-wings now!"  Caroline knew she was due a reward and she was ready to collect!

I took C today to a local/popular accessories boutique, after making sure there were 2 people on hand to pierce them simultaneously.

Here's a before-and-after of Caroline without and with pierced ears.  See those tears?

Well let me tell you about the tears...I mentioned she has a healing rash around her mouth.  In the picture below you will see she's holding a sucker in her hand.  She didn't really cry about the piercing pain.  She cried because her sucker was hurting her lips.  Crazy girl!

So there you have it.  My sweet baby girl goes potty all by herself, takes no pappy anymore, and has pierced ears.  Life moves quickly around here.

Later,
 

Orange Beach Escape

This week, I got to escape "life" and head down to the beach for a couple of days.  My mom's job took us down to Orange Beach as a vendor to display at a conference.  At first she and I were going to go down there and stay in a hotel and head right back. But once we got the schedule we realized we would have free afternoons each day.  So we decided to bring my girlfriend Lorie as our au pair for the mornings.  Her daughter Whitney (6) and Rob always play so well together.  Then our afternoons would be vacation days.  Here's how it all went...

Day One -- Arrival, Set-Up, Check In

It was so incredibly humid as we were unloading our wares into the exhibition space.  But we didn't think much about it.  Until this happened:

Needless to say, we were so afraid this was going to be the tone for the weekend.  Ugh-uh...

Nah.  We got checked into the condo next, and it wasn't long before the kids were itching to hit the beach.  I love the shore at dusk.  The beach is quiet and the water is usually warmer from the day. The kids loved it too.

Day Two -- Work and Play

Keeping in mind that this was a working vacation for Mom and me, we had to get up the next morning at 5:45 AM!  And let me tell you, that was one early wake up call!  I didn't take any pictures of our set up this time, but I wasn't all that pleased with it, anyway.

While we were working, Lorie took the kids to the Gulf Shores Zoo.  While there, Rob apparently overcame his trepidation of interacting with and feeding live animals!

Soon enough it was time to play, and we had beautiful weather! 

By the way, do you remember my sweet Rob took swimming lessons?  Well they paid off!  He swam like a fish!

That night we had a delicious dinner out at one of my all time favorite haunts in Gulf Shores/Orange Beach. 



Day Three -- More Work, More Play

This was the last day of our conference and of our quick little vacation.  It marked another early wake-up call for mom and me.  It was odd leaving the condo while the others were asleep.  We kind of snuck out each morning.  On this day Rob, Whitney, and Lorie went to an arcade for a few hours until we were through with our responsibilities.

The afternoon marked more pool time for the kids.  Have I mentioned that since Rob discovered his newly acquired skills and love of swimming, he wants nothing to do with the beach?  Yeah, that's not going over very well with this beach-bum mom, but we'll work on that later.  Quiet night in the condo.  The kids watched Dolphin Tale and attempted to watch We Bought a Zoo but they were fast asleep quickly.  All this playing truly wore their little bodies out!

Day Four -- Home, James

It's true what they say, all good things must come to an end.  This almost felt like a marathon of a trip.  We squeezed in both work and play.  We loaded and unloaded the car, we beached, swam, watched movies, ate, and more!  By the time I got home, I felt like I was wearing 10-ton weights around my shoulders and ankles.  But I think the kids enjoyed themselves.  Lucky Lorie and Whitney got to check out of our condo and check into another one with their family for a (much more relaxing) few days.  But I know I will be back to the coast really soon!

Until then, enjoy your summer!