I haven't been able to post in a couple of months because our friend who is undergoing chemo has been borrowing my computer so he can work from home, and Rex's computer doesn't have a card reader slot for my camera card... so sorry no pictures still! I have so much to catch up on! Looking at my camera I still have pictures on there from Mother/Daughter camp I haven't shared, Mia's ballet recital, so many big things! This will just be a short catch up while I have a second, and I'll try to go back and fit things together with pictures once I get my computer back.

First of all, Eleanor is potty trained! I still can't believe it. She is not quite 18 months old, and hasn't had an accident in days. I'm sure she will have some, but even at lunch and at other folk's houses she has run up to whoever would listen and said, "potty!" and then we take her and she goes. It is really and truly amazing. One funny but great thing about it is that an 18 month old's toosh is sooooo much cuter in little panties than in a big huge bulky cloth diaper. I seriously have not done a load of diapers in almost 2 weeks! I have been keeping up with how it went day by day and will post it soon. Not like anyone want to read about how my kid poops in the potty, but I would like to keep in on record just for memory sake, and who knows maybe it will inspire someone else to try it with their wee one. I have to say I started the process once for under a week and quit, it was just too stressful. When we started again about a month later I almost quit again at about the 5 day mark. It seems like that is when the newness wears off for her and me, she is still having accidents all of the time, we can't do anything but follow her around and clean up puddles, but then I thought you know, I'll just have to start over again in a week or month or year, so I'm just gonna power through it and keep her in panties and keep taking her potty even if she won't go on it (or sometimes wouldn't even sit on it) and low and behold in one more week's time I really think she is fully potty trained. Like I said I'm sure we'll have lots more accidents before it is all said and done, but I am so proud of my little baby!

She has funny words for everything! A few of my favorites are "TaTum" (thank you), "Dopin" (different), "Dockick" (chocolate), "Petesies" (peaches), "CICI" (sissy, sister), "Bom" (phone). She has dozens more, but these we hear a lot and I think they are really cute. She is obsessed with books and wants to read them over and over and over again and will turn the pages and "read" them babbling her nonsense language. Hilarious!

Mia is getting so big. It is actually kind of bittersweet for me; I want her to get big enough to be a bit more self-sufficient and less tantrum-ish, but I also want her to stay my sweet little girl. She goes for days and days without throwing any fits or doing crazy things now, even with our stopping taking naps, but the days when she throws them (yesterday, yikes!) are still pretty rough. I really also think that she would be content still sleeping in a crib drinking from a bottle and wearing a diaper if I let her. She really doesn't have the desire to get big and independent like I've seen in some of our little friends. She would love it if she could sit in my lap and I would feed her bites and all of that, and it gets kind of tough when I'm trying to do that for both kids. I think if she needed it I would be more patient, but since she doesn't I tend to get frustrated at her lack of even wanting to do things on her own, but then I feel like I'm kicking a little bird out of the nest who isn't ready to fly yet, so I feel pretty torn about it. I try to tend to her baby-ish needs when I can, but if she could just get her own drink of water every so often it would help me out a great deal.
It is sad though to hear her speaking more and more correctly... Rex said I shouldn't correct her English, I should just let her keep saying funny things and now I wish I had listened because I miss the baby talk! It is just little things like she would get the "Nature Center" confused with the "Centatary" (cemetery) and call them both the "Nature Centatary" and wonder if we could go there to look at dinosaur bones. I had to laugh at the idea of her asking to go to a cemetery to look at bones! The other day though we passed one and she said, "Hey that is a cemetery where people get buried when they die!" and it made me proud that she got it all straightened out, but sad because the cuteness was lost.
Here is a funny Mia ism that I'll leave you with for now:

Mom, what does cold or hot make it better or worser?

um does cold or hot make what better or worse?

Does cold make boo boos better or hot make them worser or cold make them worser or hot make them better or worser?

I guess cold makes them better.

why?

Well because cold will make boo boos not bleed so much

Why?

Because cold will restrict the blood vessels, or the little tubes in your body that carry blood everywhere, so that they get little and not so much blood will drip out.

But the cold hurts because the ice is bumping up against it and it makes it hurt.

Well I said cold will make it better, I didn't say stick your finger in your grape slush.

BUT I DON'T HAVE A BOO BOO ON MY FINGER! I JUST STICKING MY FINGER IN MY SLUSH!

um, ok.

After question after question after 100 questions, the last of which was, "mommy, are you driving or is daddy driving?"

I am not going to answer that question because it is silly

But I want to know

Ok, well daddy is sitting in the driver's seat, but I am actually driving the car with my brain.

No you aren't! Daddy is driving!

Ok, well then why did you ask who was driving if you already knew?

BECAUSE I AM A CURIOUS GIRL AND I JUST WANT TO ASK QUESTIONS TO SEE WHAT'S UP WITH YOU GUYS!