Shake Shake Your Booty and a Weekend Recap

We were driving around running errands late last week when Grace asked me to turn the radio to a "Shake Shake Your Booty song." Maybe she had a premonition of how crazy busy the next few days were going to get and was trying to keep me pumped up. You can bet that for the rest of the day, I did my best to please my backseat DJ by making sure the play list included plenty of 'shake shake your booty' songs.

That night, my parents called to let me know they would be on their way to Jacksonville to whisk me and Grace away to Virginia Beach as soon as Mike left for a month long underway. True to their word, they arrived Friday morning, just in time to say goodbye to Mike.

The rest of my day was spent packing and laughing at my parents and their crazy ways. And I mean that in the best and most loving way. You see, not only did they drive through the night to get to us, but they filled up their rental van with restaurant sized pans of food, 2 huge boxes of various snacks, and at least three dozen bottles of drinks. All for a ten hour, overnight trip.

Saturday morning, we set out on our little road trip to Virginia Beach, with a nice little two hour stop in Savannah, Georgia to eat lunch, look around and do a little sightseeing. The rest of the drive went by pretty quickly, even with all of Grace's requests for potty breaks. I realized there are definite advantages to a non-potty trained child during a long road trip.

By the time we got to Virginia Beach, it was past midnight, raining, with a packed car to unload and a little girl who insisted, "I'm NOT tired. I don't want to go to sleep!" She was completely wired and I was completely exhausted. Not the ideal combination. Thankfully, Grace was just all talk because a minute after the lights were turned off, the girl was fast asleep and snoring.

The first half of Sunday was spent recovering from the trip. Grace didn't sleep in- the child NEVER does, no matter how late she stays up the night before. But she did take an early nap that lasted several hours. The rest of the day was spent going to a late Mass with Lolo and Lola and catching up with the Augustine grandparents.

A few of my favorite pictures from the past few days...

It has inadvertently become our little tradition to go out for an ice cream treat the evening before Mike has to leave for an extended period of time.


A little daddy and daughter time.

We tried to take a family picture but couldn't seem to get a great shot because I kept messing up the timer. Although it's not the best, this one makes me laugh.

This is a picture of a girl who is not tired and doesn't need to go to sleep. Taken about 30 seconds after she told me so.



A very tired Grace and all her grandmas- Grandma, Lola, and Great Grandma.

Mike and my replacements during bedtime story time.

Potty Regression

Enjoying some lipgloss she received from her Ninang Glenda that I had been hiding until she is a little older because I feared exactly this situation. Of course, my little detective found it and went to town spreading it all over her face, neck, shirt, hair, and even her bug bites for good measure.

Grace had a potty regression today and it's completely my fault. Last night after our guests went home, Mike called me to the bathroom when he found Grace washing her hands. In the toilet. I found it amusing, but before I could grab the camera, she put her wet hands to her face and started to 'wash' it. Yes, with toilet water. That's when I started yelling, "Stop! Stop! Stoooooop!" Of course, it was too late and I didn't accomplish anything but scaring the poor child.

Then this morning, I stood in shock when Grace went to flush the toilet and innocently watched the water swirl around the bowl before sticking her finger in the swirling water and blessed herself with it, complete with an "In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen."

At the entrance of our church, there is a fountain of holy water where you can dip your fingers in and bless yourself by doing the sign of the cross. Doing this is Grace's second favorite thing to do in church, next to praying to Baby Jesus.

In all fairness to the child, the swirling toilet water DOES resemble the swirling water in the holy water fountain, so I see where she would make the connection.

When I finally came out of my shock, I shrieked, "Oh my G*d! Don't DO that!!" (Yes, I realize it's ironic that I'm taking the Lord's name in vain as my child is doing the sign of the cross. I am truly sorry, but it was the first thing out of my mouth.)

Again, all I did was startle the poor child. And scared her so much that she started crying and apologizing, "I'm sorry, Mama! I'm sorry!" Geez, talk about feeling incredibly guilty. After reassuring her that it was okay and doing some apologizing of my own for overreacting, I thought we were all good again.

But from that point on, she would have accidents in her underwear instead of using the potty. After the fourth straight 'accident' and her reluctance to use the potty when she has been doing so perfectly the past week, it finally dawned on me that I was probably the one to blame. Who wouldn't be a little traumatized when a crazy lady shrieks at you while you're just being naturally curious?

So after her nap, I resolved to make the bathroom a happy place once again. I bribed her in there with a reminder of treats- M&M's and lollipops- she could earn if she used the potty again. And when she finally went, I did the potty song and dance for her like I used to do.

Thankfully, it worked because we are back on track. Now I just have to consciously remind myself to keep calm about these kinds of things. It's just water after all. And instances like these are what baths and antibacterial soap is for.

We spent a good 2 hours playing with play dough this afternoon. Her favorite game we played was "Ice Cream Showers". Basically I roll up the dough into balls and stick them onto popsicle sticks so it looks like an ice cream cone. I admire her ice cream cone by saying, "Mmmmmmm, ice cream tower!" Then she drops it on the floor while I yell out, "Ooops! Ice cream shower!" She thinks it's hilarious.

A Farewell Dinner and a Little Immodesty

We had our first little get together at our home this evening to say farewell to the Stricklands, who are sadly leaving us to start their new adventure in Germany. It felt good to entertain again and the two families we had over are such great people that they didn't mind the cozy space.

Grace, my party girl, had an incredibly good time. When she wasn't spilling water all over the place (we went through two rolls of paper towels sopping up her messes!), she was walking out of the bathroom without her pants on. One of those times, she headed straight to her bedroom where the kids were playing and climbed right onto her rocking horse like it was no big deal to be playing amongst friends without your panties on. What happened to my modest girl who demands privacy during potty time?

A Lovely Morning and an Evening of Lumpia

After such a perfect weekend together, I was not looking forward to a duty day for Mike. The thing that made it all better was visiting with a friend. Kathy and I met in Japan and she now lives just 40 minutes away from Jacksonville. It was a lovely morning spent catching up with each other. And the bonus was that her granddaughter was visiting for the day so Grace had a sweet little playmate.

We didn't take any pictures together today, so this one will have to do. This was taken the last time we saw each other on my last night in Japan.

In the afternoon, while Grace napped for an unheard of three hours, I was busy in the kitchen. We are having a couple of families over for dinner tomorrow night. And while my worry should be how in the world we're going to fit all of them in our cozy home, instead I'm worried about pancit and lumpia. I was going to just order it, but after shamelessly bragging a few posts back about how I can now make it myself, I can't bring myself to take the easy way out. As much as I enjoy cooking, it can be a little difficult if Grace has a demanding, pay-attention-to-ME kind of day.

So as soon as I can get the girl to bed, it's going to be lumpia wrapping central up in here.

Alanna was such a little sweetheart and tolerated all of Grace's bossy commands of "Come here, Alanna!"

Spoil Me Sunday

I was completely spoiled today, and it was fabulous.

My husband woke up and made breakfast with Grace while I slept in. At church, he dealt with all of Grace's shenanigans and potty breaks. He treated us to a Filipino lunch. In the afternoon, he and Grace hit up the park and the pool while I napped away. So I wouldn't have to cook, he took us out to dinner. And then so I wouldn't have to worry about filling up the gas tank tomorrow morning, he went and took care of it after we got home from dinner. To top it all off, the house is picked up and the kitchen is clean and I didn't even have to lift a finger.

I can definitely get used to this kind of treatment.

Hoppity Hop

Grace has been dying to see the Easter Bunny movie, Hop, so it was an afternoon at the movies for us. She did great for most of the movie. She was antsy the last 20 minutes, which I don't think is too bad considering it was a two hour movie. And getting a two year old to sit still for that long is a success in my book.

I think it was mostly due to the large buttered popcorn that Grace devoured almost single handedly. That and the four bathroom breaks she had to take. Gotta love that potty training.

I Need Some Privacy

Sharing her lollipop with Fred the Bunny.

Just yesterday Grace was still hiding behind the couch to go number 2 because although she's been doing great with peeing in the potty, she still refused to do anything else.

We had a breakthrough today.

This morning she told me she had to use the potty so off we went. I normally stand there and wait for her to do her thing, but today she told me, "Mama, I need some privacy please."

Amused at her modesty, I turned around and stepped outside the doorway. A minute later she told me she was done and had gone poop in the potty. I thought to myself, yeah right. Happy April Fool's Day to me because there's no way she would have gone after such resistance the past month and a half.

But sure enough, the evidence was there, and she was so proud of herself that she immediately wanted to call her daddy at work to tell him about her accomplishment.

I'm pretty proud of her, too, because today was the first day that she didn't have a single accident.

Even when we went out for pizza tonight, she told me she had to go and she used a public bathroom for the first time. She also narrated every single step in the process for the rest of the ladies in there. Apparently Grace needs privacy from her own mother in her own home, but when she's out in public, it's all good to let everyone else in on her business.