'Round Here

This is what we've been up to (besides potty training):

Outdoor fun with our friends Emmi & Cecily (don't mind our dry grass...more than 50 triple digit degree days will do that to a yard)!

Celebrating Grampy's birthday. Gracie's new favorite thing is to color cards for birthdays!

Hanging out with cousin Evy...giving her fierce hugs!

Celebrating a new cousin to come with sisters in law Sarah & Brooke (expecting Baby Hollis in October)!

In our dear friend Will's absence (to Tiny Pebble for less than a year now), Gracie has affectionately named her favorite baby doll, "Baby Will." (We say it's short for Willena.) She likes to do most everything with her – including eat her breakfast!

Playing dress up...for some reason this elicited a dance and "Man hat, man hat!"

Fun with friends Elliot and Ruby on a walk to our neighborhood playground!

Girls' Night Out (daddy was dove hunting) at Barn'rds...milkshakes were a must!

Potty Training

The lack of blog posting is due in part to the fact that we've been potty training! Phew, it's hard work!

We started a couple of weeks ago. It went a little something like this: One night after dinner, Grace said, "Go poo poo, Momma?" Why yes, of course, my darling child, I would love to whisk you to the potty even though I'm not quite finished with my dinner. I was skeptical, but joyful about this prospect, since she hadn't ever pooped on her own initiative, so this was exciting! Lo and behold, she did it! And it was thrilling! I never thought I could ever be so excited about poop. The next day after breakfast, she wanted to poop again, so we went for it. Two successful dumps in less than 24 hours, and I felt like we were on a roll!

Pottying got a little boring, what with the timer going off every 30 minutes or so, but M&Ms and stickers made the trips bearable. And we made a big deal about big girl panties (just like Mommy)! There have been accidents, and we are on the lookout for the bathroom nearly every place we go, but I think we're on the right track.