Potty Training Update

So a few months ago I posted that Emma decided to Potty Train. Well that first attempt didn't go so well after a week. I was still working which caused a big problem for the logistics of a babysitter at the time. Not that she wasn't capable of helping Emma, it was just I felt bad for the girl!

I was also a nervous wreck about the whole process. I was too nervous to just put her in big girl underwear and ended up using the Pull-Ups. Those just made the whole process worse. Now don't get me wrong. They're good for some people and that's great! But for Emma it just resembled a diaper that she could pull up.

So I gave up.

Until this last Monday (Oct 12).

We've had her potty chair out in a visible corner of the living room for about a month now, as kind of a subconcious reminder for her. 

Then we ran out of diapers. I figured that it was now or never. So I plunged right in.

And ... SUCESS! She's been in big girl underwear for 6 days with only 4 minor accidents.

It's so funny to hear her. If she goes she says "Mama, I did it! I did!"

She's even gone #2 twice in the potty and has initiated going to sit on the potty two or three times all on he own! (i've reminded her about every 15 - 30 minutes to go and sometimes I have to make her stay there for several minutes).

And part of this potty training is making her take the potty chair bucket, dump it out in the big toilet and wash it and her hands.

We were even able to go out and not have any accidents! Next step is making sure that the bathroom is not a playroom!  Good luck with that right?

This kid is SO smart and I'm SO proud of her!

Another Man's Trash ...

Last night (Aug. 4) I hosted a baby shower for a really good friend of mine. She's having a little boy, and his daddy is very much into baseball.

A couple of months ago was our city's semi-annual Clean Up day. Basically, people get the stuff they don't want anymore, set it out on the curb outside their house and the city picks it up. Usually a few days leading up to this, one could go for a walk and ...

"Another man's trash is another man's treasure"

I found a dresser on the morning of the trash pick-up day. I had Matt give it a once over. He said it looked decent to him - which was the second opinion I wanted to hear - so I had him haul it inside. I knew it would be the perfect gift for a first time mom.

I sanded it down, primed and painted it the week before the shower, in my living room on a tarp.

And voila! I replaced the top drawer knobs with wood ones painted to look like baseballs, and the bottom four drawers pulls were replaced with ribbon ... an idea that I saw in another friends house for her girls' dresser.

I'm pretty dang proud of that dresser and best of all my friend and her husband LOVED it! The other party guests were pretty impressed too! I might think about making this a business... :o)

I'm also proud of the cakes I made for her. Little baseballs... SO CUTE! There was a small cake for just the mama-to-be and cupcakes for the party guests.

Emma Milestone

For those of you who have not heard...

Emma has started POTTY TRAINING!!!! YAY!

I was sure she was going to go to kindergarten in diapers.

Wednesday (June 24) right after lunch as I was changing yet another diaper, Emma said to me, "I potty train." I was unsure at first that she actually had said that without coaching.

(Every time I would change her diaper, I would tell her that she was a big girl, and big girls don't wear diapers, they sit on the potty and wear panties.)

I asked her what she had just said and she said it again, "I wear pannies...I potty train."

I about did a jig right then! But seeing as she was about to go down for a nap, I put her in a diaper and said that right after her nap, we would start.

True to my word, right after her nap, I ushered her in to my bathroom and placed her on "the throne."

I was brushing my hair and after a few minutes I heard a sound that I thought I'd never hear ... the tinkling of ... well you know!

I was so proud of her ... I kept saying how proud I was of her and how she was such a big girl! And her response to all of that was, "Thanks...I know!"

I put her in a pair of big girl underwear, and every ten minutes or so would ask her if she needed to go. We had a little accident, but it was just a little wet. Later that afternoon, I went shopping with a friend and had to take Emma with me, but we put her in a Pull-Up and she stayed dry the whole two hours we were gone from home! (Once again...could have done the jig!)

We're still working on the timing, but we've at least made the first step. The next step is to by more underwear for her! I'll probably let her pick them out this time.

The princess in all her glory!

New Outfit

As promised ... my new outfit from Dots.

(Please excuse the fat girl in the picture!)

Complete with shoes!

(completely painful, but SOOOO worth it!)

Aren't they just so scandalously sexy?!

Easter Festivities and More

Corless Family Easter 2009


Not happy about pictures being taken
(But aren't those bows pretty? mama made those!)


The MUCH needed nap


After Naptime
(thank you Mimi for the dress!)


Much happier!


Easter Egg Hunt at the Hannah's house.


Easter Egg Hunt at the Sam Noble
Museum of Natural History.
(Three Egg Limit Per Child = what a JOKE!)



Shirt says "You're looking at One
Cute Cougar" -Thanks Aunt Julie!
Complete with football bows that
mama made...


Can't believe she posed this way.

Pretending to cook!

Baking Apple Peanut Butter Dipper Cookies with

mama on a rainy day. First time helping with

baking and she did very well. She even knew

to turn the bowl while mama used the hand mixer.


Not in the mood for a picture -

Once again, Thanks Aunt Julie for

the outfit!

I must echo my sisters sentiments on being sick...

germs = BAD

antibiotics = SO GOOD!

Strep throat is horrible, the flu is horrible. Being sick in general is horrible.

I noticed a funny thing this morning. The last time we had nasty icy weather, I slipped and fell and broke my wrist. This time around with rain and snow falling, I get strep throat!

I came down with strep throat Friday night or Saturday morning. And while at work, Saturday morning, I got progressively worse. I couldn't stand for more that a minute or two at a time, I couldn't keep warm my vision was fuzzy and I started to get really dizzy by the time I was able to go home. I stayed longer than I probably should have, but my two other coworkers needed to take their lunches...(aren't I nice?) :o)

I somehow drove myself home and passed out on the couch...shivering the whole time. I lightly slept for about an hour and a half and decided I needed to go to urgent care. I painfully got shoes on and two coats on and Matt packed us all in the car for urgent care.

Vitals were taken and fared better than I thought. Although I had a 102.9 fever my blood pressure and blood oxygen were normal.

The nurse also took a throat culture (hate those!) and within minutes I had a positive diagnosis of strep throat, a doctors note for work and a precription for meds.

Over the last few days, I couldn't talk very well, due to an almost closed off throat, but I came to appreciate my husband SO much. (He probably appreciated my forced silence too though!) His weekend and days off turned into a second job having to take care of a two and a half year old and a very sick wife. He pretty much waited on me hand and foot, made sure I was taking my precscibed meds on time as well as keeping me on a rotating schedule of Tylenol and Motrin, all the while dealing with Emma, making sure she was fed and safe.

I am not a fun person when I'm sick. Lots of women like to say that they're husbands/boyfriends are complete babies when they're sick. Well, I am like that when I'm sick. I don't do so well with the continuing on as normal routine when I'm not well. And knowing that I have a husband who still wants to be around me after all that makes me appreciate him so much more.

I must also say that I am VERY grateful to live in a time where I can go to the doctor, find out almost instnatly what the problem is and get the right treatment for it and start feeling better within hours or days depending on the problem.

Are you pregnant yet?

Okay...just as a warning...this is going to be a venting, griping, fuming session.

Continue on if you dare!

So what IS it about people that make them think they can ask me when I'm having another child? Who made it their business to tell me that #1 is getting older and I need to get cracking and give her a sibling? And who in their right mind thinks that it's okay to ask me this and then look (very obviously I might add) at my stomach?

No joke. That really happened to me. Two weeks ago. At work.

Really? Honestly? Are you freaking kidding me right now? I don't know why I'm so suprised, but I am!

People...WAKE UP! It is NOT polite to ask that of ANY WOMAN!

Her husband either for that matter. They may be just fine with only one child.

Or what if they might be having health issues in that particular area (which I am by the way, thank you very much!) and by asking that you're opening up the wounds and throwing it in their face!

I have a friend who has had two miscarriages and people have asked her when she's going to have children because she's "not getting any younger." Same principle applies! Don't ask if you don't know the situation.

It's rude.
It's mean.
It's thoughtless.
It's NOT a small talk topic.
Period.
End of Story.

I will make an exception for those who DO know the situation and the trial the couple is going through. And if you do know the situation, ask with kindness and love IF and ONLY IF the topic comes up. DO NOT bring it up!

Until next time...

Hug a family member who might be having this or any trial in their life at the moment!

In my world

When I create a world ...

There will be no such thing as HEMORRHOIDS!

No If's, And's or BUTTS about it!

Organization Update

Well, guess what? No update to give other than the fact that I can't do a whole lot of anything right now.

I broke my wrist about two weeks ago (January 29) when I slipped and fell on a patch of deceivingly safe looking sidewalk...covered in ice! All the while, my brain was screaming NO! Don't step there you'll ... fall. And as I am thinking "fall," I'm on my tooshie on the ground, with my wrist underneath me somehow.

When it first happened, I thought I'd be okay, I'd shake it off and all would be well. Kind of like when you twist an ankle or something and if you give it a few moments the normal feeling will no doubt return. I was on my way to a doctor's office anyway, and I figured that I'd just have a nurse there look at it, and I'd be fine.

Sadly, this was not the case.

I got in the car, luckily with Emma already buckled in, and headed towards the doc's office. About two minutes into the trip, I realized the pain was sticking around a little too long, so I looked down and I freaked! My wrist was already swollen and I had a large, about a dollar-coin sized, bump right over the radius bone end in the wrist - the syloid process of radius. In other words, the bumpy part of the bone close to the thumb.

I call Matt, put him on speaker and through the pain and tears, I tell him what happened and that I'm on my way to urgent care. I also had him call his brother Mike to see if either he or his wife could come pick Emma up at the urgent care. I also heard Emma asking me "Mama booboo? Kiss it better?" (awwww what a sweetheart!)

After hanging up, I started flipping out again because a fresh wave of pain had taken over. At that point I started getting mad, because the cars in front of me were not going fast enough nor were they paying attention to green lights and stopping instead of going through them! I started yelling at them telling them to move it...GO!

And then I heard a little sniffle come from the back seat. I looked back through the rearview mirror in time to see Emma hang her head and pout. I immediately knew that in my yelling at the vehicles in front of me, she thought I was yelling at her. Poor thing! I told her I wasn't mad at her and that everything would be okay.

Her uncle was able to pick her up at urgent care, I had x-rays taken. And I was told what I already knew. My wrist was broken. They splinted me up, and sent me of with an orthopedic specialist referral, a copy of my x-rays (on a cd-rom!) and a precription for pain medication.

I went to Wal-Mart to fill the pain med prescription, and they gave it to me in a child-proof cap! I'm right-handed; the casted arm is my right arm...think about this a minute. Just imagine what I had to do to get that sucker open! I started out the typical way, trying to push and turn the lid at the same time. Well, with only one good hand that could grip and twist it didn't work out, I tried using my teeth...I even handed the thing to Emma and told her to open it! I seriously considered pulling out the hammer and breaking it open that way. After about 10 minutes of wrestling this thing with my broken splinted wrist I FINALLY got it open and by then I was sweating and REALLY needed the stuff!

The next monday, I was told that I had a couple of hairline fractures in my wrist. The casted me in hot pink and sent me on my way with a doctor's note with a 1 pound weight restriction - I'm not supposed to lift, twist, pull or push anything heavier than one pound - and an appointment for three weeks in the future to be re-x-rayed (if that's a word). Hopefully all will be okay and I won't have to wear a cast for any longer than three weeks, but I'm not holding my breath!

I know, I know...

I'm not very religious about updating this, but I'm at least trying!

I'm in the process of trying to sell some little pieces of furniture that are just taking up space in our house, organize and get shelves and other organizational items built and/or purchased so I can have some semblance of order in a few of the rooms in our house that are just randomly thrown together. Our entertainment room and a front bedroom are the main focus this year.

I have yet to make it to Sam's Club and buy a home storage magazine that has been recommended to me, but I plan to get that soon!

Our entertainment room is a room that used to be a garage, so it's a fairly nice-sized room, but like I said...its just kind of thrown together. And I have a baby grand piano that has become more of a dumping ground for things that need to be put back in the attic. I have a lot of sweing itmes and a desk that need to be put together somehow, along with all of Matt's tools and home improvement items that will hopefully get put together in a tool armoire of some kind. We also have lots of Emma's toys scattered around everywhere, which takes me to the front bedroom. We're going to try and make it a play room. The room is almost twice as big as Emma's room now and it would allow for some bigger toy items, like a play kitchen. She's recently started pretending that she's making pizza in "her kitchen." The playroom idea would also allow for naptime and bedtime to be distraction free from toys!

We'll see. Maybe I need to start with a list of things to do per day per room and start small. I just hope I don't get frustrated and give up before I start, because I'm not seeing the drastic changes that could be seen if I had some TV show at my house...!

Wish me luck!