Sugar and Spice and Creepy Crawlies

Sugar and spice do not mix with creepy crawlies. At least, not in our household. There was one time over the summer when I was driving the car and the girls screamed like someone was chasing them through a graveyard in the middle of the night because there was a bug on Berlin's seat. Complete panic. All the way to Roseville.

Well, Friday morning Berlin was being a little stinker. She wasn't listening and just being all around ornery, so I placed her in her room and told her she had to play in there by herself for 5 minutes before she could come out, and I shut the door. Tryn and I needed a break from her. She, of course, reacted like she always does, she cried.

As I was busy trying to get ready to leave the house for the weekend, I didn't realize for about two minutes that she hadn't stopped crying yet. Behavior typical for Tryn, but not Berlin. At first I thought, "Man, she must have really needed that time by herself if it is taking her this long to get over it." But she still didn't stop. Just about the time I was thinking I better go check on her I heard her bedroom door fly open and little feet came running as fast as they could to my room.

"Mom! There is a bug in my room!" Big tears on her face.

"Well, sweetie, bugs can't hurt you." Me, thinking it's amazing that a fly is still alive this time of year.

"No, mom, there is a bug in my room. Come see!"

"Berli, I really don't need to see the bug. Why don't you show Tryn?"

Tryn and Berlin go running off to their room. Seconds later they are back, this time Tryn says, "Mom, come see the bug, it's really big!"

Okay, fine.

I go to their room. No bug. Anywhere. I asked Tryn where she saw it and she said on a blanket that was on the floor. I picked up the blanket. Nothing. I asked her what the bug looked like and she said, "It had 8 legs! And it was really long!" Oh no. I was starting to think big huge spider or something, one of my two completely irrational fears.

I look around some more. Nothing. I started cleaning toys off the floor and packing the girls suitcase. I told them that the bug had probably left because he thought their room was too messy.

Suddenly, blood curdling, hair raising scream from Berlin who was standing by the door. Right next to her foot in the middle of the floor was a 3 inch long centipede.

Tryn, standing right behind Berlin, screamed too and they both went running to my room screaming and crying to jump up onto the bed. The sobbing sounded like something out of a horror film. Pure terror.

I, of course, heroically killed the darn thing. But seriously, blech. *Still shuddering*

Sugar + spice + everything nice = not a good day for bugs to be in our house. Or in our lives for that matter.

Potty Training

Although I have brought two kids from diapers to big kid underwear, I am no potty training expert. Thankfully my first child was so easy to potty train it literally took her a day to start going on the potty and she only had maybe two or three accidents after that. She had just turned two and her main problem was that she was scared to poop on the potty, afraid it was going to hurt. So the second part of potty training, the #2, took a little longer. However, even that was easy because she also wouldn't do it in her underwear. She would wait until we put a diaper on her a night and so it was a fairly easy problem and it only lasted until I bribed her with a new Disney movie. Easy peasy.

My second child, I am so very proud to announce, is potty trained. This has been a several month process in which we would try for several days, I would lose my patience, take a break for several days, and repeat the process all over again - we are finally there! At least at the point where I can bring her out in public in underwear without much fear that there will be a problem. I did have to clean up pee off the floor by myself the other day at Victoria's Secret, as the employee looked at me in disbelief and disgust and said, "I'll get you something," when I told her my daughter peed on the floor. That accident was more my fault than Berlin's though, as I had realized that it had been a long time since her last potty trip, but totally spaced taking her to the bathroom. We have had many more accidents with Berlin.

My new dilemma? Berlin is just under two year younger that Tryn and much, much, much closer to being potty trained through the night than Tryn. Several mothers have told me that night potty training can take a really long time, some kids just aren't ready for it until there are 4 or 5 years old. Tryn has never really seemed close to being able to make it through the night in underwear so we have never really tried. A few months ago I got Tryn pull-ups and explained that she could get up anytime during the night if she felt like she needed to go. I even got her up when we went to bed every night to see if that could get her to morning with a dry pull-up, but that was not very successful. The problem is that I now have a child, a two year old, who can start sleeping through the night in underwear at basically any time, and her older sister who can't and I am not sure what to do about that.

Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions? Should I just put Tryn in underwear at night and let her wet her bed several nights in a row - which is going to be very annoying and not fun for any of us? Should I wait longer? Not really sure what to do...Like I said, I am no potty training expert. :)

Fav

Of all the thousands of pictures I have taken in the past year of my little girlies, I am pretty sure this one is my favorite.



Yup. Love it.

Toy Story

One of my girls new favorite movies is Toy Story 3. It might be because it is one of the only movies they have seen in the theater, but, let's be honest, it's just a good movie. I might have been trying to hold back a flood of tears as so not to terrify my kids teared up at the movie theater myself.

Anyway, it came out on DVD yesterday so I went to Target and picked up a Christmas present for the girls :) However, on the way home I had to stop at a Redbox to return a DVD and from the backseat Tryn screamed, "MOM!!! TOY STORY 3!!!! AH! MOM! AH! AH! AH! They have Toy Story 3!!" So, of course I had to rent it for them. Especially since they had a copy, which is pretty rare when new popular movies make their Redbox debuts.

I turned the movie on for the girls last night after dinner and went about my household business. After awhile, from the next room, I hear sobbing. Immediately I think, "Oh great, Berlin is bugging Tryn. It's going to be seconds before I hear little footsteps heading this way. Time to break up a fight."

But nothing.

I figured they must have worked it out and moved on.

A minute later, more sobbing. But this time it didn't stop.

I decided I had better check on the girls, to make sure they weren't killing each other. However, they were both sitting there, with tears in their eyes, mesmerized by the fact that Woody, Buzz, Jessie, and other various friends are about meet their fiery end. Tryn had been sobbing.

Apparently, they didn't actually remember what happened in the movie when we saw it in the theater. I had to hold their hands until that part was over.

Ah, my sensitive girls. :)

Halloween 2010

My kids LOVED Halloween. I think they loved it as much as I don't love it. Well, maybe they like it a little more than I dislike it. We did have ourselves a great time though.

For weeks Berlin has been planning to be an angel and she got this costume that she loved. After I put her in it on Halloween she looked at it and said with disgust, "I don't want to wear this." Like it was a piece of trash (and she looked so darn cute!). Tryn, lo and behold, did not want to be a princess. Instead, she was Jessie, the lovely cowgirl from Toy Story. Only her costume didn't really look like Jessie at all, just a regular old cowgirl. But we won't tell her until she is older. She even had a toy gun and handcuffs, which I am sure Jessie doesn't have.

Then our lovely friend Becky invited us over to trick or treat in her much safer neighborhood. She also made us chili and apple crisp, perfect fall meal. The girls were amazed that all that had to do was knock on a door and they would get a piece of candy or three. It was so funny how excited they were. :)

These pictures were so cute I couldn't decide on just one so I thought I would show them all: