progress.

i can't believe my girl. still no potty accidents.

monday i put a diaper on her for her nap rather than the cotton training pants i used over the weekend. the trainers were soaked after a long nap and she hated them, woke her up on sunday, which i guess is the point. but i wanted her to get some rest monday because she had that flu bug, so i caved and put a diaper on her. when i went into her room after she woke, she announced that she needed to pee-pee and that she didn't go in her diaper. sure enough, dry diaper. incredible.

last night while she was taking a bath at grandma's house, she looked up at me and said "need go pee-pee!" so out of the tub and onto the big-girl potty - the actual big-girl potty, not just her potty seat! after a nice long pee, back into the tub she goes. i'm so proud of her, i just can't believe how well she's doing with this. must've been as tired of those diapers as mommy and daddy were.

big girl potty.

it's day 3 of our potty training adventure.

we came home from the little gym on saturday morning and i wasted no time stripping her naked from the waste down. "okay elsie, when you have to go potty, you need to use the big-girl potty now." of course she loved being naked so there was no argument from her. within 20 minutes she was on the back patio with her dad saying, "eldie (elsie) tooting!" dad says, "do you have to go potty?" um, no. i go ahead and lead her to the potty anyway, in time to see a little poop fall to the floor. "that's okay honey, if you just sit in the big-girl potty and put it in there, you can have an m&m." (don't judge me.) with some hesitation, she sat and put the rest in the potty as her dad and i erupted with excitement, cheers and kisses of congrats. you would've thought we won the lottery. her face lit up and something clicked. off we went to wash hands before devouring an m&m as reward for her new skill.

and she got it right away. "need go pee-pee" she'd announce, heading for her potty. all day. she and i even went for a short walk with our woofie and she was able to hold it. so proud of her. at one point she sat down to pee and must've had some stage fright. she looks at me with a sheepish smile and says, "wait for it...." hilarious. now it's a pretty common comment when she's trying to go pee.

after about a dozen successful potties, she looks up at me as she's washing her hands and says, "eldie get big-girl bed now!"

sunday morning, after a night with a diaper, we stripped her again. she went potty right away and kept it up well. she even lead me into my bathroom one time and sat on the big-big potty with no kiddo potty seat. amazing. she was doing so well we put her and the dog in the car and headed to the dog park...with the potty seat in the back of the car, of course.

she didn't have any accidents while we were at the park, but she did tell me she had a tummy ache. oh no. i was thinking maybe she needed to go but was holding it, giving her cramps or something. no. when we got home, she threw up a little. poor kid. then she had runny poos. are you kidding me? of all the times for her to get a tummy bug, it's this weekend? the weekend we're trying to teach her to go in the potty? unbelievable. and this kid never gets sick! confirming it was learning that sophie, elsie's friend next door, had also gotten sick. elsie was amazing though, never once had an accident. she struggled a little to go in the potty when she wasn't feeling well last night, but eventually she did it.

today was her very first day wearing underwear! her little bottom looks so skinny without a diaper. it's been a tough day though. kayley came to take care of her this morning and elsie was already feeling kind of punky. she added to her own misery when she took a header into our kitchen table as kayley and i stood there, helpless. ugh! she's got a giant goose egg on the side of her forehead now, the poor kid. but no accidents. no wet underwear. no poop in her pants. i took her to the park for a little break, potty in tow. she was wonderful. went on the potty while we were at the park and had a great time.

i realize we may run into struggles with this at some point, but i'm so proud of her for how well she's done thus far. it's really amazing. i think she must just be ready to move on.

her bigger reward for this is a big-girl bed, coming in just over a week!

just so you know.

"dance minnis!" means dance music. she asks for it every time we're we're in the car. she means lady gaga, just dance. not madonna, not gwen stefani. lady gaga. just dance. nothing else will do. one day, after playing it over and over, i was done. no more. please, my ears need a rest. elsie says to me, "but aldie (elsie) needs dance minnis so bad right now!" i caved. (and thank you auntie trixie for mixing that great cd for us - and for introducing my girl to the dance minnis.)

another thing: there is a difference between "brown-nose demma" and "pink-nose demma." (in case you don't already know, "demma" is elsie's name for all of her most favorite bunnies, the ones we can't be without ever. we have seven of them.) she prefers pink-nose. when pink-nose isn't available, there are certain brown-nose demmas that trump the others. she'll pick up demma, look at his face and say, "no, not this one." um, okay. how about this one? "ya, this one! thank you mommy." melts my heart.

we're tackling potty training this weekend. ought to be interesting. her incentive for succeeding at this is a big-girl bed. she's very excited about this and lights up when she talks about it but she's not nearly as excited as me. i'm anxious to lay in bed with her to read her stories.

i know. she's growing up way too fast.

Meet our new little one...

Meet our new little boy! His name is Salish and he's about 4 months old. We adopted him on Sunday from Second Chance Dogs.....in Roy, Washington - about an hour and half south. He's believed to be a shepherd/lab mix but perhaps with some Kuvasz (I'd never heard of this breed either, so if you want more information: http://www.akc.org/breeds/kuvasz/index.cfm). He's a wonderful addition to our family, loves Elsie and is settling in nicely. (He's fast asleep on his bed next to my desk as I type.)

Yesterday when Elsie woke up in the morning, Salish and I went into her bedroom. Elsie lit up and exclaimed "Elsie's woofie come in! New woofie Elsie room!" After Salish ("Sooloosh") kissed her hand with an exuberant tail wag, Elsie said to me, "Beeble-ba (her word for Bailey) come back see new woofie?"

Sigh.

Salish has big shoes to fill, I know, but I think he's going to be a wonderful dog. He has a very sweet disposition, seems to like everyone he meets, and is settling in nicely. We took him to my parents' house last night for a visit and Kayla, their 11 year-old Siberian Husky, became a puppy again, running and jumping with him, playing the way she did 10 years ago, playing the way she refuses to do with their little dog, Baxter. They had so much fun together!

We can't wait for you to meet our little guy!

not just any dog will do.

elsie loves kayley's dog, piper. loves her. kayley comes in the morning and says to elsie, "what do you wanna do today?" elsie promptly replies, without any thought, "see woofies?" so off they went yesterday to see kayley's piper and throw the ball for her. she had a great time and even laughed when piper accidentally knocked her down on her way to the ball.

this morning over breakfast, elsie says to me, "see dogs kayley's house." "you saw the doggies yesterday, didn't you?" i reply. she says, "two doggies kayley's house." yes, that's true, kayley's sister also has a dog and both dogs were there. then she says - deep breath - "bailey come back?" and exhale.

if only he could, my sweet girl.

mama's little helper

The vacuum was actually on!

She likes to help me feed kitties, too. Such a good helper.

Spring!

I'm so sorry to those of you who follow our blog and watch for updated pictures and funny stories of our girl. Once again I've fallen behind in posting and sadly I can tell you it won't be the last time. I've been working more, which is a good thing, but it means I feel I should be working while sitting at my computer rather than blogging. Sigh. But there are some fun things to share and cute pictures to post, so here goes.

We've added a family member! This is Josie (JoJo or black kitty-kitty as Elsie calls her). She's about 6 mos old now and is such a love. We adopted her from the humane society before Easter and she's settled in to our home nicely. She's incredibly patient with Elsie, loves to cuddle with us and greets us at the door when we return home. Unfortunately Lola is not impressed....but she's warming up.

We had so much fun this Easter! Elsie's now at an age where she understands the concept of gifts and appreciates the surprise. We started with an Easter egg hunt with eggs full of M&Ms ("emens") and jelly beans. She found every one of them and was pretty serious about the whole thing, which was hysterically funny.

This was her Easter basket. New Demma (her very favorite bunny-rabbit - this makes #8), stickers, candy, gardening tools and best of all --

--the filling! It was everywhere and stuck around for weeks. To be honest, we're still finding pieces of this stuff in random places. Josie loved it, too, attacking it from every angle and carrying it around with her like a victorious huntress. Ferocious kitty.

Seriously, it was the best part.

We had a wonderful dinner at Aunty Kel and Uncle Ed's house, complete with another

fabulous egg hunt and, of course, more candy!

Her new passion is washing daddy's truck. She helped her dad with this one day we had some sun and has not stopped talking about it since. The other day, while it poured rain outside, she begged us to "wash daddy's truck." She absolutely sobbed when we told her we couldn't. But she and I washed my car this weekend and it was great fun. She was drenched 1 minute after filling the bucket. However, she's decided she'd rather sit in the front seat while mom washes. At one point, she pointed to the back of the car where Bailey used to ride, and said "Beeble-Ba go?" (That's her name for her much-missed, four-legged friend.) She's definitely a girl without a dog right now.....often asking "more dog Elsie's house?" Breaks my heart. One day last week she asked "Beeble-Ba come Elsie's house?"

Enjoying some sun and an almond butter sandwich, looking like a rock star.

Our NWCF auction was Saturday night, celebrating its 25th anniversary, and it was a great success! 550 guests at Fremont Studios and approximately $600k raised. Thanks to those who attended and thanks to those who took care of our girl all day and all night while we were off doing our part for the event. We were exhausted yesterday, but we had a lovely Mother's Day. Kicked it all off with a walk to the park in the beautiful sunshine, along with Kayley who returned just Saturday from visiting Charley. Elsie was SO HAPPY to see her! After a much-needed afternoon nap, we played outside and were joined by Elsie's friend (our neighbor) Sophia, who will be 3 in June, and her parents, Peter and Amanda. We had a spontaneous dinner with them to end the day, ordering pizza because we were feeling so lazy. It was an adorable sight to see Elsie and Sophia sitting at our kitchen counter together, after a long day of play, eating pizza and talking like old friends.