Photostory Friday: Too Big

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Remember the face you got when Miss Peanut Butter was on the carousel?
This is the face you get when you tell Miss Peanut Butter she is not big enough for the swings that spin around really fast while on the carousel.

Peanut Butter was very upset she could not go on the swings. She kept pointing at them and we had to tell her she was not big enough. This turned in to the swings being "too big."

She was partially appeased at the Ferris Wheel ride and looked down upon the swings and muttered "too big, too big." She did enjoy the ride and we got her on this kid sized drop thing and that made her day.

She was back to her old self on the carousel.

She still had to say "too big" every time she had a glimpse of those swings. She even said it when I brought up the page to link it and she saw the picture of the swings.

And just a side story, because I couldn't choose between the two, the Field Museum in Chicago has a pirate exhibit going on right now and it is pretty neat. We ended up going through it a lot faster than I had hoped, but with a toddler, things don't always go as you hope. Anyway, PB has a thing for pirates and at one point in the exhibit there is a doctor sawing a pirates leg off and this for some reason was the coolest thing. She did not stop talking about it. She kept running back to the mannequins and yelling "Doctor, Doctor!" All day it was about the doctor, when ever we passed the museum after that, it was the doctor. You would thing that a doctor sawing a guy's leg off was scare a toddler, but not this one. I think I'm in trouble.

The Wheel and an Update

Miss Peanut Butter wanted to ride the Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier as soon as she saw it on the bus tour we went on. "Wheel, Wheel!" she kept shouting. J and The Boy aren't big on heights, so I figured they would not go on the ride. Peanut Butter and I went on the Wheel ourselves, it was a fantastic view of the city and PB was not afraid in the least. She even crept up to the side windows and looked down. We were on at the perfect time, the sun was setting and the city was starting to light up.

It is officially 2 weeks since we went diaper free. PB has been doing very well. She still has issues with #2 and letting us know when she has to go, but #1 seems to be good to go. She has been letting us know when she has to go, the only problem is when she lets us know it means now. She was accident free the whole time we were out and about in Chicago which was a huge worry of mine. She saved the accidents for when we were in the hotel room.

Note to Self: Pack the Camera First

Thirty minutes into the drive to Chicago, I realized I forgot my camera. As much as I say I'd like a new camera, I do like mine and I don't know how ready I am to upgrade to a d-slr. J asked if he wanted me to turn around, and he pulled into a gas station, for gas. He was kidding about turning around. He said just buy some disposables. Perish the thought. I couldn't go back to not knowing if a photo turned out or not. I got up early Friday morning and went on a quest. I wish I would have known Target was 6 blocks away, since that is where I would've gone, but I found a Radio Shack and bought the 2nd cheapest camera they had, which wasn't real cheap. I should've read some of the book too, because it took me 'til the last day to somewhat get the hang of the thing. Figuring in how many photos I took, 347 which I have pared down to 234, I could not have done that with a disposable or taken a couple movies. I am probably going to sell the camera on ebay and try to get some of my money back.

So....Here are a couple we went to The Field Museum:



The Shedd Aquarium:

And Navy Pier:
Peanut Butter wasn't technically tall enough for this ride but we got her on and she had a blast. J and The Boy were surprised, they must not know the dare devil very well. It somewhat made up for the swings she definitely wasn't tall enough for.

I wasn't really happy with the photos I took, but a lot of it was user error. I missed my Cannon Powershot A630.

More to come.

Ice Pops and the Potty

Miss Peanut Butter has been doing pretty good on the potty front. We had a bad day Sunday, but since then we seem to be getting better. Today after our unfortunate accident in the check out lane at Wally World, she started asking to go to the potty. She stayed accident free the whole evening at the baseball fields and asked to go twice. She even asked twice when we got home and she went both times, one being a poop. I had heard horror stories about getting a child to poop on the potty, but she doesn't seem to mind. Daycare even sent home all her pull ups, but she has been staying dry there consistently for quite a while. We are even pull up free at night with no accidents as of yet and it has been a week. We are going to Chicago for the weekend so hopefully she will keep up the great work.
I swear by the end of the summer she will have eaten her weight in Ice Pops. I think she has 3 or 4 a night when we are down at the fields which is Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Since that seems the only way to get any Daddy time right now. She likes it though, she runs around an plays with the kids down there. The ladies who work the concession stand are pretty good with her. They sneak her a free ice pop every now and then. Green seems to be her favorite.

Photostory Friday: A Kick in the Hinder

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

In my desperation to get Peanut Butter potty trained I had her pick out a pack of underwear she would like hoping this would be some needed motivation. She picked out Diego, these happen to be boy underwear, but at this point I do not care. The thing about Diego underwear is the cool pictures are on the back. She was upset she could not see Diego and the monkey.

She decided she wasn't going to wear them the way they were supposed to go if she couldn't see the picture.

Apparently this is much better.

My friend and I were discussing our potty training woes and she practically has her boy all set. I have been, to be honest, a push over here. I was giving in to wearing pull ups and not "forcing" issue. I'm glad we had our chat, I put Peanut Butter in underwear this evening and she has been dry since 4:30pm. We even went to her brother's baseball game without an accident. I normally would have put her in a pull up just to avoid the accident, but I brought a change of clothes and all went well. I explained to PB at bath time that we were not going to wear diapers during the day anymore. She moaned a little and I said now lets get on the potty she pulled the step over and got on the potty and went. Why the heck didn't I do this sooner? I'm glad my friend kicked me in my hinder.

A Jaunt Around Town

One of the things that I enjoy about where we live is we are pretty centrally located in the city and can walk about anywhere if need be. Another thing is, we have a lot of parks, no pool, but a lot of parks. Today at one of the parks they had their summer kick off and had Scooby and Sponge Bob. They had the firetruck out and little things for the kids to do like balloon animals and face painting. They were also having a concert, but we didn't stay for that. From there we walked to one of the ballfields where I thought J would be and then walk/ran to the field he was at. Peanut Butter played with The Boy's cousin it was fun to watch them chase each other around. She has no problem playing or trying to play with kids that are older than her as long as it doesn't get too rough. It got to be time for us to go and my legs were pretty tired at this point, but Peanut Butter insisted, "run Mama." So I did what I could on the way home. All told Peanut Butter and I put in 4 miles tooling around town. While I'd like one of those nice new houses in the 'burbs, I like the convience and accessability of living smack dab in the middle of the city.

Third Shift

Had to post another photo of the carousel.

I have started kicking around the idea of going to third shift. J has expressed the fact that he would like to work first shift instead of his fluctuating hours on 2nd. This would be all fine if we didn't have to work weekends. Right now J does not work weekends which is nice because finding child care on the weekends is possibly pure hell, especially when one has to be at work at 5:45 am. We have started to discuss what is going to work the best. A job on third shift just opened up that is pure cake, just about as easy as one can get. This is what made me think maybe if I went to 3rd, J could go to 1st and I'd adjust sleep on the weekends. The only thing that makes me leery is having time together. But essentially we would have the same amount of time except for the sleeping part. I am also at the point on first shift where I rarely ever get forced to work a double shift, whereas on 3rd it could be a possibility on some days. It is something we'll have to discuss more, but it is tempting me right now.

PhotoStory Friday: The Carousel

Last Saturday while in Madison for The Boy's baseball game, we stopped at Ella's Deli for lunch before heading home. Peanut Butter was all over the place, because they have all these mechanized toys and she could not wait to go for a ride on the carousel. I must need to order something from the sandwich section someday since I haven't eaten anything really good here except for the ice cream, yet it has all these awards. We rushed through our meal and out to the carousel.

Peanut Butter waits in eager anticipation for her turn on the carousel. I was beginning to think she was going to break the gate down.

I think Daddy was just as excited for the ride as the girl was.

How's that for a face? Could she be more happy or excited?

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Run, Run Away

I have somewhat figured out the whole mind over matter thing with the running. I finally broke my mile crutch. For a long time I told myself just make it a mile and you are good. The last couple times out, I told myself a little further. Last night I made it the whole 1.4 miles to the baseball field, only stopping to cross roads. Yes, it is only 1.4 miles, but it was big for me, I did have to walk more on the way home, huge hill. Last Thursday I put in 3.5 miles with a break between the miles at the games and errand, but I logged them none the less. It was on the last leg of this when I got the epiphany that yes this is mind over "pain" and I felt I could run a lot farther. I don't see a marathon in the future, but maybe a 5k. Truly, the best part now is when Peanut Butter gets in the stroller and says, "Run Mama, Run!"

Speech Therapy

I went to one of the local grade schools yesterday to get the results of Miss Peanut Butter's speech evaluation. This was to see if she qualified for the 3 year old program which is run through the school district. Apparently she more than qualifies. She only ranked in the 23 percentile for word recognition, which was them pointing at something and her telling them what it was. The therapist said she had a really hard time understanding what she was saying. It was a little frustrating since I think she seems to be talking much better, maybe I just am able to understand her better. J seems to think this is all a waste of time. He doesn't think the home visits that we have right now are helping at all. Then I start to wonder if it is working. I don't always understand some of the exercises that she does and how they relate to having PB speak better. I told him the school program was free and he said why don't we stop the one we are doing now and just wait until school starts. He then asked who had been paying for the speech we are doing right now and I said me. He said no wonder you are out of money. I hate that this has become a money issue, I'd like to say the 75 dollars a month I pay right now was not a problem, but things are a little tight here. I had a bunch of things go wrong all at the same time. I'm going to continue through June and see how it goes.

*We just got done with another at home session and it went fairly well, even if she was on the brink from not having a nap. The therapist seemed to work on some sounds more today.