Definitely Football Season

At the grocery store today, Vivi starts saying the Pledge of Allegiance, something they've been doing at school every morning. When she got to the final part, this is what she says, "liberty and justice for all. War Eagle!"

I'm not sure why she put the War Eagle at the end, other than I guess it just felt right.

Hope you have a great day!

Triumph!

Ok, well, here's a quick run down of our past couple of weeks:

We went to Destin with my mom, dad, aunt Martha and Uncle Jim. We drove, stopping to see friends in Jacksonville, FL along the way. Kids were great in the car and had a blast with our FL friends.

We got to Destin and spent a couple of days there - then B got yucky sick. We took him to a doc there in Destin - he had a nasty virus - rosieola (no time to spell check that one). We left the beach early and drove back to NC to let him sleep in his own bed and let everyone else in the condo buildings get some sleep. I'll blog more about our trip later - watching my Tigers play as I type. Thank goodness for the Mac and HDTV/DVR in our room.

After we got home, B started to feel much much better. So, we decided to head to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, VA. They let military families in free once each year, and since B was better and Kyle still had another couple of days off, we headed up! Had a great time at the park ....but, it was very much dampened by the dreaded automatic flushing toilet that scared Vivi into hysterics upon first arriving in VA. We first got into downtown/ Colonial Williamsburg and I stayed in the car to feed B and Kyle took V to walk around for a few minutes and go potty after our 3.5 hr car trip. The potty that she sat on started to flush when she was on it...now, this has happened a few times before, but this time she was scared to pieces - I mean hysterically. Anyway, I tried taking her after I was done feeding B, but it was no use. Anyway, long story short, we had to physically hold her on any toilet for the rest of the weekend. We tried bribing her, let her see the potty flush when mama was on it, let her flush it, put Wooly (her trusted night time companion) to use the potty, etc. We said our prayers, everything - still, hysterics. We even told her that it was kind of a game and if the potty flushed while she was on it, then her hiney would get sprinkled with princess water. She didn't buy it. Long weekend with potty trips. Poor little thing tried standing on the side of the potty....sorry little girl, it doesn't work like that for us - no hose attachment. So, since then, she's confirmed that our home potty isn't going to flush by itself, so it's pretty safe. She's gone to the potty fine at preschool and playdate (an hourly drop in play center in town). But strange potties still spook her.

Here's the triumph part:

We went to the Jacksonville Mall today. There was an add for Crystal Coast Parenting Magazine - send in a photo, your kid could be on the cover of the magazine! Anyway, I got a call last week that she was one of the finalists and she would get to meet the judges at the Jacksonville Mall Saturday afternoon. So, we went to the mall... (fyi Jacksonville is about a hour away...but there's a Sam's Club, Babies R Us, and Chuck E Cheese...and Chili's...so it's worth going every so often)...just made a day of it.

Anyway, after the Magazine's walk-on-the-stage-meet-the-judges-thing, I knew she'd need to go potty...so we went to one there in the mall and the hysterics hit her again :-( She was SOOO scared....I held her on the potty - her torso was not bent and legs were locked straight...but she teed and pooed...getting most of it in the potty...some on her dress and pantyhose, etc...Anyway, it's just physically and emotionally draining to have your angel go through that :-( So, I was discouraged.

After leaving the mall, we changed her clothes (yep, naked little girl in the parking lot) and washed her up. Then went to Chili's. She ate a corn dog (she brought up that Granna likes corn dogs at the Tip Top and that she ate a corn dog with Sonny at his new house) and some mandarin oranges. She said that she wanted some ice cream....taking advantage of this, I told her that I would order her some if she would go with Daddy to the potty and use it like a big girl. And she did! They were only gone from the table a couple of minutes and came back all smiles! No tears! I was SOOO excited! Anyone who has gone through this can probably understand the overwhelming sense of relief I had seeing them return after a successful trip! She then enjoyed some chocolate-chip molten cake with ice cream. Well deserved, little girl!

It was a very triumphant experience!!

Oh - and she won the cover contest for the magazine! She'll be on the cover of Crystal Coast Parents Magazine! They had like 50 finalists divided into three age groups - 6 mo-3, 4-9, 10-15. They announced the winners for her age group - I was shocked! I mean, I know she's so adorable, but she's also a naughty little thing at times (especially when she crosses her arms and says, "hrumph!"...well, that's actually pretty cute). Anyway, they had a winner for each age group, and then were going to announce the cover winner - which I thought would be someone other than the semi-finalists...So it was such a shock! She won a couple of gift certificates to places, and was invited to be in a couple of Christmas parades. I don't know that we'll make the parades...Kyle will be in AZ for both of them, and I don't see me lugging V and B onto a parade float when it's freezing outside...we might just pass. But, I think V might like it, so we'll see.

Anyway, I'll be sure and post photos on dropshots soon of our past couple of weeks. I should have some photo software arriving Tuesday, so I'll be able to post beach pics, etc next week. iPhoto and dropshots don't agree about some things, and I can't figure a way around it. SO, hopefully my new photo software will alleviate that problem.

Well, that's all I have time for right now...gotta get going and unpack my prizes (well, diapers and white turtlenecks for B) from Babies R Us.

I'll post more later about our Destin trip, gorgeous Colonial Williamsburg, yummy blueberry bread recipe, and cute snowman fabric I have to make B more outfits!

Lots to Blog About...

Just no time to do it! I'll try this weekend!

Have a great day!