A Much Needed Day Out

Yesterday the four of us went to the Memphis Zoo. I'm about to tell you how excited Eden was, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't just as excited as her. I was in MAJOR NEED of a day out. I needed fresh air, walking, and something to look at besides the walls of my house. Eden, of course, was ecstatic about the animals.

We had the best time. The weather was great; the kids were well-behaved, and the Memphis Zoo is awesome. I got a little picture-happy. On previous trips to the zoo, I've lugged around my big camera, and constantly fought with myself over whether it was worth it to get it out of its case at each exhibit. Now that I have an iPhone, my friends, the fight is over. Pictures won.

I have stop to tell you about my favorite part of the whole day. Eden and I got to ride on a camel! For Eden to actually get up there and do that was a HUGE deal. I was floored. When we first saw the camel-riding station, I said I thought it would be fun, but we didn't think there was any way Eden would actually do it. She is terrified of most anything that requires riding. In fact she's terrified of lots of things. But as we passed by, she kept insisting she wanted to ride. So we went back, paid our money, and asked if we could have it back if our girl chickened out...

She didn't back out. She climbed up on that camel like she'd been waiting her whole life to do it. And she laughed and smiled through the whole 3-minute ride.

It was awesome.

We ended the day with a delicious dinner at Central Barbecue. The whole day was thanks to gift certificates from my mom who gave them to Tyler for his birthday (but secretly knew that I really needed a day out). Ha. Thanks Mom!

Epic Fail

For months I have been wanting to find an open day or two that I could fully devote to potty training. I've told y'all how Eden has been totally uninterested, but devoting a whole day to potty training... that would be the key, I thought. Then my friend posted a video on Facebook about a method called "Potty Training 1,2,3," and I decided this would be perfect to implement during my potty training weekend.

FINALLY I decided on a day. I scheduled someone to watch Selah. And the night before, Eden and I went shopping for all the supplies we would need. A baby doll, new panties, Squeeze-its and lots of junk food.

The girl was pumped.

The night before, I laid out all of our goodies on the bar and made notes of exactly what we would do on the Big Day. I might have been as excited as she was.

As soon as Eden woke up the next morning, we would check the baby (Suzie's) panties, then wildly celebrate the fact that she was "dry." Then we'd put Eden in "big girl panties," check them periodically, and equally celebrate each time they were confirmed "dry." According to the plan, she was to get a treat (i.e. junk food) each time her panties were dry and each time she followed up with a tee tee on the potteee.

Problem was:

That never happened.

You see, Eden was very excited that Suzie stayed dry. We clapped and cheered and gave her a treat. She She was also very excited to put on her brand new Minnie Mouse panties!

But after breakfast, when it was time to sit on the potty, I could tell this wasn't quite what she had in mind.....

Though watching iPhone videos got her to sit there for a while, she started getting frustrated and saying her famous line... "No, I don't like the potty! I don't like the potty!"

The instruction video said not to let the kids get frustrated, so finally, I let her get up. And sure enough, not five minutes later, we had our first "accident."

"Ok, that's the key," I thought. "Now that she knows how it feels to be wet, she'll never want to do that again."

Wrong-O.

She peed in her panties again, and again, and again, and again. (And more agains, but I'll just stop there.)

It was ridiculous. The whole point of "Potty Training 1, 2, 3 is to reward the kids for "staying dry," but this girl was never dry! Thank goodness I started the day with four packages of panties because we were running through them like they were going out of style. And never, at any point, did she do even a droplet on the potty.

By noon, I was done.

I know that may sound like I gave up too early. Maybe you think I should've given it the full day. But it was obvious to me that we weren't getting anywhere. The two wires in her toddler brain that need to connect to make the "Oh I should tee tee in the potty not my panties" light bulb come on just weren't connecting. Which is so frustrating considering how smart this kid is.

Alas, I put her in a diaper. And I think we both did a sigh of relief (temporarily)... but now, I'm more discouraged than ever. Bribery isn't the key. Letting her train her baby isn't the key. Big girl panties aren't the key. Letting her pee on herself isn't the key.

What in the world is???

Hanging Out with the Arkansas Women Bloggers

Last Saturday, I got the privilege of attending the Arkansas Women Bloggers Spring Meetup, held at the Historic Arkansas Museum.

Have you heard of AWB? If you meet those three criteria, you really need to jump on board! It's an Arkansas-based blogger community whose mission is to "grow women by gathering them into a common space with common objectives and by connecting and empowering them for the greater good."

Blair, Lindsay, Tracy

Lindsay and me

This is the second event hosted by the group that I've attended, and I always love the women that I meet. Some, like me, are moms who blog about diapers and sleepless nights. Others blog about everything from fashion to food to crafting and more.

At the Spring Meetup, we got the special treat of hearing from Natalie Ghidotti, owner of Ghidotti Communications, as she discussed the relationship between bloggers and PR companies. (Natalie is also the former editor of Little Rock Family so I feel a little connection!)

The best part, though, is always meeting other women who enjoy sharing their stories in their own corners of the web. And getting to know their blogs! Here are those who attended the meetup.

Peggy Bayer - PorkChopTuesday.com

Lisa Mullis - ArkansasOutside.com and FreneticFitness.com

Tracy Knight - iheart-TKnight.Blogspot.com

Gina Knuppenburg - ISOGina.Blogspot.com

Lindsay Irvin - ArkansasBride.com

Blair Tidwell - LittleRockFamily.com

Anne Weaver - Crafty.LittleRockMamas.com and Sewing.CraftGossip.com

Natalie Ghidotti - GhiodottiCommunications.com

and the three lovely ladies that make up the AWB Leadership Team.....

Stephanie Buckley - TheParkWife.Blogspot.com

Julie Kohl - EggsandHerbs.com

Fawn Rechkemmer - InsteadoftheDishes.com

There were some conflicts on this day or there would have been more ladies in attendance! Click around and check out some of their blogs. You'll be glad you did.

Furnished and Filled With Love

A couple weeks ago, two of my sweet friends threw us a housewarming party! That meant two things.

1.) We got an armload of AMAZING gift cards!!

2.) My house was finally CLEAN enough for us to take "furnished and decorated" photos to show you!

Here are the photos of our house and of the event.

Our Kitchen

The lovely food table, which made me want to incorporate some yellow into our kitchen!

The Hubs and me

Kids' Bathroom

My favorite part of the house! :)

Selah's Bedroom

Master Bedroom

Master Bathroom

Living Room, which still needs some pictures hung!

Candace, one of my friends who threw the party, also made this nifty board with all our Before and After pics!

Eden's Bedroom

And finally, the outside! Still more to do, but it's been painted and has new posts

You remember what this used to look like, right?

Thanks again to Candace Skarda Photography who organized our Housewarming and took the photos! She did, however, want me to disclose that her big, fancy, professional camera was in the shop, and these were taken with her backup ;-)