Luke's Birthday and Dinner with The Wright's

What a weekend! Sunday was definitely catch up day around the Booker's. On Saturday, Brent went to Shamrock Fest to see one of his college roomate's band play, Overdrive Superthruster. Brent was fortunate enough to receive a VIP ticket, which at the end of the day meant free beer. I was happy when he made it home safely!
Allison and I ventured out to Luke's birthday party. It was a Thomas the Train theme. Perfect for a little boy--his actual birthday is on St. Pat's! He'll love that when he's older! :) It was a lot of fun to see everyone and Allison enjoyed playing in the sandbox, with the balloons and most importantly poking fun at Papa Nick. She looks at him, sticks out her belly and then rubs and pats it. Much in the same way that he does! Hilarious!
By far the best part of the party was the cake. It was super yummy!! Luke wasn't at all interested in his cake and was quite satisified to play with this Thomas train. Allison's favorite part was the face painting. That's all she talked about on the way home.......we weren't allowed to wash it off or touch it and when it goes away they will have another party so she can have more hearts. Too precious! On a potty note, no accidents at the party and she went potty twice. Awesome......
Once we got home I was fortunate enough to squeeze a nap out of her and then it was off to dinner. We were out with the Wright's celebrating Stepahnie's birthday. She is our god-daughter, super cute and such a good helper with Allison. Allison was quite hungry by the time dinner rolled around and made no mistake when she just grabbed a cheese stick, stuck in the dressing and was ready to go. As Alex pointed out, she don't play! It definitely made us all laugh. We had a great dinner, Allison was quite the entertainer and then the waiters came and sang happy birthday to Stephanie. Second potty note, she went twice at the restaurant as well.....for all of you keeping track at home, that's an accident free day! Yippee!

Happy St. Pat's from the Bookers and Oprah and HIllary too!

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Spring Fever

It's hard to believe that a week ago we were digging out of 7 inches of snow.......today it's beautiful here! Windows open, birds singing, Allison napping......perfection! ((I mean that with the utmost amount of love!))
Allison recently began being able to ride her tricycle on her own. By that I mean she can keep her feet on the pedals. Quite an accomplishment. We have been riding around our new neighborhood exploring and also spending some time outside. What a difference a little warm weather and sunshine can make!

SNOW, at last

We got some snow Sunday into Monday and it was so much for fun for us! Well, actually me not so much Allison--she didn't particularly enjoy being bundled up so she couldn't move ((after I was done I was just waiting for her to tell me she had to go potty!)) and the wind, didn't like the wind! But we went out and attempted to make a "snowfriend" (she's so PC and she's only two!)
Brent came home early to shovel--awesome and he and Allison were back outside. She definitely enjoyed this more than the first trip! She helped Daddy shovel the driveway, the front walk and then they made their snowfriend and rode around in her car. Too cute. I'm glad I got some use out of her snow suit! :)

Potty Update

I have spent all day trying to think of a catchy title for this post--you see what I decided on! I was thinking "talk from the toilet trenches", PeePee, BM, TMI, the potty papers...and then I figured most folks aren't as obsessed with toileting as much as I am at this point in my life!!
All in all Allison is doing VERY WELL!! She had her first full day of potty without Mommy on Tuesday and they called me at work to let me know that she had gone three times, stayed dry all morning and then was dry after her nap. What a rockstar. She did end up having some accidents at the the end of the day, but what a fantastic start. It helped my mommy guilt that she did okay without me there too, I was a hurtin' when I dropped her off......
And today she did well as well, she went for me twice and had three accidents. She is really starting to make the connection for potty time and then getting to the potty. She almost always comes up to me running and holding her bottom and sure enough it's time to go.
As far as my iPhone goes (this for you JEN!!)......here's the scoop. On Saturday, Allison would not sit on the potty for any length of time. I tried singing songs, reading books and nothing worked. I had just talked to my sister in law, Jen and she was sharing with me some of her stories with her kids and she said it would be easier now if they could just sit and play their DS's on the potty. That got me thinking.....the App store, they have an App for everything so it's worth a shot! Sure enough there it was toddler trivia. She was mesmerized, played it and played it. Sat on the potty, did her business, all was well. It never even dawned on me that it could and eventually would fall in the toilet. I was with her when it happened, I just calmly looked at her and said, "oh dear, that's not good". I took a deep breath, gently removed her from the potty and without hesitation stuck my hand in the toilet. Gross, yes but I did just clean them on Monday.......and it was Monday, so not so bad. And it was dead. Brent was able to call me on it later in the day, what a tease! We think it was it's last effort. It's still unresponsive.
So having kids is expensive we all know this, but who says potty training would cost you $400!! Oh, and I had the service plan for the iPhone, but guess what?? It doesn't cover water damage. This wasn't damage, it was a drowning..........
I am including a picture from Saturday with Brent, Allison and Buddy. Buddy is also learning to go to the potty. He is doing well also! ;)

Potty Training is not for wimps!

Brent and I have decided to start potty training Allison this weekend. I have NEVER spent so much time in the bathroom, even as a teenager. It's an interesting experience. I found myself totally second guessing our decision to try and potty train her this afternoon. She has yet to go to the potty. We have had two accidents. She is definitely holding her peepee. Which worries me since I don't want her to get a bladder or urinary tract infection. Right now, we are using the potty training doll (her favorite teddy bear, Buddy) and lots of rewards--cupcakes, M&M's--the works. I even gift wrapped "potty presents" for her. She knows we have these things and she tries so hard to go and nothing. It's sad. I keep going through the checklist reminding myself that she has ALL the signs of readiness. This is awful. I just held her on the potty today and gave her big hugs. She isn't resisting or crying. She actually runs to the potty to say she needs to go! I even went as far as downloaded a toddler game for my iPhone. I wanted to try anything or everything for her sucess. Fingers crossed we are going to keep moving forward with our current plan.

Valentine's Day in LA

I knew I would be late in blogging about the end of our chilly trip to So Cal! Typical. Anyways, we headed off to LA for Valentine's Day. We were hoping traffic wouldn't be so bad on the weekend, we were wrong. It took FOREVER to get there. We ended up catching lunch at this restaurant called the "Backwoods Inn". It was. It was the type of dive that you could put the peanut shells on the floor. No questions asked. That's classy. And there were all sorts of dead, stuffed animals proudly displayed on the walls and overhangs at the bar. Whoo-hoo. Not to mention there were naked women on the walls--the curvacious Victorian ones with the nipple area whited (? sp) out as if not to offend anyone. Sweet.
It was an adventure. It was nice to just pull off the highway and see where it lead us. It's a real challenge to do that with Allison in the car.
We drove all around LA. Took some great pictures of the Hills, I will post those later. ((Brent is using my laptop to do taxes, I'm hiding out, I don't want to know the outcome!)) I got to go shopping on Rodeo Drive, gush. So fun to pretend I was "pretty woman"--Big mistake, big, huge!! To top off our day, we had dinner at In and Out Burger. I am not a big Valentine's Day person--I would much rather get flowers and candy on any other day than that one. It's just not as special if everyone else is getting some too! Brent kept saying he was soo happy to be able to get away with no flowers, no candy and fast food for dinner. I was happy, I was with him!
All in all we had a wonderful trip in LA. I miss Allison with every cell in my body, but it's nice to spend time alone with my hubby! ;)