Miscellaneous

I found some pictures on my phone that I meant to post but totally forgot about.  This is part of the Mother's Day gift that Audrey brought home from daycare.  I bet y'all didn't know that I was such a good lunch maker AND that I'm smart enough to drive a car!

This is another of my Mother's Day gifts - I have some test shots from it on my computer at home so I will have to post those another time.  I will soon have high quality photos to post on the blog, especially after I find a class so I can learn about all of the features!

Audrey has been really into coloring lately.  This is from school - they had to imagine themselves doing something and draw it.  She imagined herself sitting on the sun.

She colors in rainbows in her Color Wonder coloring book and I think it looks pretty cool!

I forgot to share her beautiful recital portrait:

In Bridget news, she is a ROCK STAR will the potty training.  She went Sunday and Monday with no accidents, so I decided to test her out at daycare in undies on Tuesday.  I filled up her backpack with extra clothes, extra undies and Pull Ups and was a little surprised to find her in her original clothes when I picked her up!  No accidents!!  She even woke up dry the past couple of mornings. 

The great thing about potty training her (besides the fact that she took to it so darn fast) is that she doesn't require rewards.  We used to give Audrey candy when she went, but Bridget is just as happy to get the praise.  In fact, is she has an audience, she will go and sit until she squeezes something out so she can get the hoorays!

She has a hard time getting her pants up and down still, but she is at that age where she wants to try it herself.  If we try to help her, she will yell "No!  I don't need help.  Leave me lone."  After taking about 10 minutes to pull her undies on the other day, she made a point to go over to Andy and say "I don't need help!" and walk away!

Bridget's love of baby dolls has turned into a love of Barbies and the Barbie-sized Disney Princess dolls.  She can usually be found toting 2-4 of them around and makes me play dolls with her all the time.  The conversations usually go "Hi.  What your name?  My name Bahbie.  May I hold you?"  Then I have to place my doll in her doll's arms.  Very exciting after the tenth time!
After being forced to watch The Little Mermaid by big sis, she finally has her own favorite Disney Princess.  She always requests Snow White and walks around the house singing "Oh ho, oh ho" instead of "Hi ho, hi ho."  Whenever we start any Disney movie and she sees Cinderella's castle, she says "Yay!  It Happy Ever After!" 

Recital video

I finally got Audrey's recital video off of Tina's camera!

Playing Catch Up Part 2: Seagrove Beach

The girls and I got up bright and early the day after the recital to head down to Seagrove Beach with Mom and Dad.  I was just bragging to someone about how well they did last summer on the 9 hour drive to St. Louis... well, Bridget must have heard because she decided to make this drive a little more challenging!  To make matters worse, when I got out the portable DVD player to put in her new favorite move, Snow White, I realized that I accidentally brought the Blu Ray instead of the DVD - oops!

I learned that there is no unpacking and getting settled when at the beach with kids.  Audrey was practically ripping her clothes off to get her bathing suit on as soon as we walked in the door.  Papa and I quickly changed into our suits and took them out for Bridget's first beach experience.

After dipping our toes in the ocean and the pool, we went out to dinner and to the grocery store.  On Monday, we spent the morning at the beach but it was a little chilly.  Bridget came out into the ocean with me and boy did Audrey have a fit.  She and Grandma had walked up to the condo so she could go potty and she came back down to see us about waist deep in the water.  I couldn't hear her, but she was screaming "Get out of the waves!  There are sharks in the waves!  There are swordfish in there... there are dragons in the waves!!"  She then proceeded to toss herself off of a beach chair and scream "Mommy, I'm hurt.  Come out of the water!"  Drama queen!

Bridget quickly became known as the Sand Castle Destroyer.  Papa said that it stemmed from her Viking roots on her Daddy's side! :)

On Tuesday morning we took a walk down to a bird sanctuary area and then sat on the beach for a while but it was really windy and chilly.  After lunch, Audrey wanted to stay in the condo but Bridget wanted to go back down to the beach.  About 3 minutes after we got down there, she crawled in my lap and fell fast asleep.

Since the restaurant that we ate at the first night had gourmet mac and cheese that the kids wouldn't touch, we drove into Panama City to find a family friendly place and had dinner at Bayou Bill's, which was exciting because they have live alligators outside.  (Side note about my fashionista: Before we left, Audrey walked up to B and said "You look really cute in that outfit, Bridget!")  The girls enjoyed their dinner much more that night, but neither would pose for a picture in front of the giant alligator, so I had to!

Wednesday was a little chilly again so we went back to Panama City (which has a totally different clientele than where were staying!) and went to the Gulf World aquatic center.  It was small and a tad depressing for me because the tanks were so small, but the girls had a blast.

During the sea lion show, they asked for a volunteer.  Audrey wouldn't raise her hand but Bridget's little hand shot up.  They picked an older girl to sit on the side of the tank to get a kiss from a sea lion.  Poor B just stood there saying "When my turn?  When my turn?"  Sadly, she didn't get picked for the parrot show or the dolphin show - maybe when she is a little bigger!

After the aquatic park, we walked to a 50's themed diner for lunch where Bridget proceeded to fall asleep at the table right before our food came out.

We spent the evening shopping in Seaside and then all day Thursday at the beach and pool.  Audrey met some little girls and was a little braver about the ocean, going in about ankle deep, but she wouldn't go in with me.  She also picked up a little minnow that the girls were catching in buckets, but got a little freaked out when it started moving in her hand.
Although we had a great time, I think Audrey missed her Daddy being there.  On Monday, she went from "Let's stay here forever" to "How are we going to get home?  I miss Daddy."  Every time something scared her, she would cry for Daddy, so we are going to have to drag him away from work on our next trip!

The rest of our beach pictures can be found here:
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Playing Catch Up Part 1: The Recital

Well, I survived Friday the 13th!  I forgot Audrey's ballet bag on the way to rehearsal but luckily I realized it right as we were pulling out of the neighborhood.  We found out that the girls were having their usual class at 10 am on the day of the recital and since there wouldn't be enough time to go home and change, a few of us Moms just brought everything with us and met up at the high school to help each other do hair.

I was happy that we did that because I found out that my curling iron was not hot enough and I didn't have a strong enough product.  Using one mom's curling iron and anothers hair glue, I was finally able to get ringlets in Audrey's ponytail!

As Audrey was getting her hair done, she sighed and said "This is going to be a looong day!"  Luckily one of the mom's thought to bring a portable DVD player to distract the girls while we were doing their hair.  I thought this was so cute!

Backstage, they had blankets set up for each class with some ballerina books and coloring books, so the girls didn't mind at all when we left to go out to the audience.

I may be a little biased, but I think Audrey was the best little wind up doll out there!  Our class had two parts in the play - one where they were wind up ballerinas and one where they were wind up dolls doing tap.   In case you can't tell, Audrey is the ballerina who is towering over all of the other ones!

After their ballet part, the girls started clapping with everyone in the audience - it was precious!  She is third from left here doing the penguin walk.

When the tap part was done, they got to come out and sit and watch the rest of the play.  Audrey loved it!  She watched the whole thing and clapped after each class performed.  She was pretty tired afterward, so she didn't want to pose for pictures with her flowers, plus she had Andy telling her to just stand there and smile before he got mad.  That always makes for a nice photo! ;)

Andy took us out for ice cream afterwards and when we got home, Audrey pulled her ponytail out.  There was so much hair glue in her hair that the curl held and it looked beautiful all night.  I would kill for hair like this:

Unfortunately, all of the summer classes are in the middle of the week so Audrey will have to take the summer off, but I think she really enjoys it so we will be back to ballet and tap in the fall!

The rest of our pictures are here:
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Friday the 13th

I have never thought anything of Friday the 13th, but today has me wondering if it is a cursed day!  Bridget woke up at 3 am and screamed bloody murder until about 7 am when we had to leave for daycare.  I had to go into work today because I will be out all next week, so I dropped Audrey off at daycare, brought B to work with me and made an appointment with the pediatrician.

Poor B has been talking about her right ear bothering her a little, but it's usually at night and she acts fine otherwise, so we thought she was just doing it for attention.  Whenever Audrey had ear infections, she would get a high fever and be miserable, but Bridget didn't have a fever or anything.  I figured I should take her in to get checked just in case since the girls and I are leaving for the beach on Sunday.  I really thought that it was from her two year molars coming in.

The doctor looked in her left ear and said "Oh yeah, this one is bad and this isn't even the one she has been complaining about!"  Her right ear was full of pus and was so bad that the eardrum had burst.  I felt so bad!  She can't get water in her ears until we get them rechecked in 10 days, which sucks because we are going to the beach, which from what I remember has a lot of water. We headed to the pharmacy and found out that the ear drops with the pain meds in them are $100 (that's with my insurance copay) so that wasn't fun to purchase right before vacation. 

We got home and Audrey (who already has a dark purple "hickey" looking mark on her face from sucking a plastic cup around her mouth on Wednesday) decided to smell some orange tiger lilies.  If you know anything about the pollen on those, you know that it is a really dark orange pollen that stains.  She stuck her face in the flower and when I wiped it, it dyed her face a little orange.  She has a dance rehearsal tonight and her recital tomorrow - I want to strangle her for bruising and dying her face this week!  Now that I think about it, that will leave marks too! ;)

And, to top things off, I'm pretty sure I had a half of a blog entry typed up and saved to publish and when I logged on just now, I discovered that it's gone.  Ya'll missed a great story about something - I  just don't remember what right now!

Anywho, I'm done venting for now!  I have to go get Audrey changed for dress rehearsal and keep my fingers crossed that nothing else happens today.  I just heard thunder so I am expecting lightening to strike me or something.  I'm going to need a drink when I get home!!

Last Friday, Audrey had ballet class photos.  They were held at the high school theater where the recital will be and there were some other girls there having a dress rehearsal for their recital.  Audrey was super pissed because she couldn't dance on the stage that night with her friends.  I explained to her that we were just there for pictures and she was not a happy camper.  I haven't seen the proofs yet, but she wouldn't smile very big for the photographer and she cried the whole way home.

I am encouraged by the fact that she was eager to dance on the stage - perhaps she won't just stand there frozen during her recital this coming weekend.

I had a pretty laid back Mother's Day.  Andy learned the value of reading a card before you buy it.  He picked out a card for the girls and just saw butterflies and "From The Both of Us" on front.  When I opened it, it said something about one of us being born into the family and the other being welcomed into the family.  Now I am trying to figure out which kid is not really ours.  ;)

After a breakfast of gourmet doughnuts, we went to Best Buy where I got to pick out a fancy new camera!  Unfortunately the girls and I will be out of town when it arrives so I won't have it for our vacation, but Andy will pick it up for me and I can play with it when I get back.

Yesterday, Charlie the caterpillar became Jacob the moth!  Audrey was so excited to see that he had changed and decided that he needed a name change too.  We put the jar outside with the lid off last night and of this morning, he hadn't flown away yet, so I hope he's ok!

Bridget had her final gymnastics class last night and Grandma Carol came along to take pictures.  I was planning on taking the summer off from that class, but she likes it so much that I just may sign her back up for June.  This picture cracks me up - this is her "Ta Da" pose:

Here are the rest of the pictures from class:
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Audrey continues to crack me up with the stuff she comes up with.  She has stories about the fish in our saltwater tank, stories about our caterpillar cocoon Charlie and stories about stuff that she supposidly did with others.  The other day she was telling this intricate tale of Aunt Tina dropping her off at the petting zoo so she could meet Daddy there.  The other night, she found a (dead) ladybug in the house and named it Sally.  After carrying her around for a while, she set Sally outside of the front door so she could go find her mommy and daddy.  Bridget started crying for the ladybug and Audrey said "That was my ladybug, Bridget.  You will have to find your own.  Sally liked me.  Sally didn't like your hair, Bridget."  Poor Bridget!

Last night, my other little drama queen, Bridget, wanted a toy that Audrey had, so she smacked her on the head.  Audrey starting bawling and screaming "There is a mean woman in the house!  Someone call the police!"  Later, Amos got a little too rough while they were wrestling and she started crying and screaming "Help!  There is a wild animal in the house!" 

Here are a few pictures from playing outside.  While Audrey and I were trying to get her kite to fly...

Bridget was sitting in a sandbox full of water.  If you look closely, you can see the sand around her mouth - she likes to eat it.  It makes for interesting diapers.

Here is my pretty purple butterly:

Roscoe was known for getting onto tables, and on Sunday, I looked out to see this:

Must be a hound dog thing!