So to catch you up on a couple of things....

The reason I am posting a picture of Katie riding a new bike is because it's her reward for being potty trained. We are now full time in big girl panties and she can do the whole process by herself. Very exciting! We've been telling her for months that as soon as she was going peepee and poop in the potty that she would get a big girl bike. So there she is, riding it. She doesn't quite have the braking part down yet. But I know she'll get it. As soon as this tropical system named Faye leaves us alone sometime by the end of the week, we'll be heading to the park to get some real practicing in. :) She can steer and pedal with the best of them, but the whole she needs to stop before crashing into the car thing needs the most practice.

A picture from Katie's 1st day of school and a couple of bonus pictures.

So Katie is enjoying school. I didn't get to take hardly any pictures on the first day because we woke up late and it was rushed, etc. She likes it there, which is good. The only heartbreaking thing she has said is "Mommy, you leave me at school and you go home with Daddy?". It's the way she says "you leave me", it's so pitiful. But otherwise she's doing well with, no screaming, no fits. And she says she has fun. We're also doing great on the potty training front. No accidents yesterday, although she is still wearing a diaper to school, because...well.. we won't go into that right now. Anyway, I'm excited for her. It's been a big week. I'm hoping by the time we go to the beach in 3 weeks, she'll be pretty much accident free. As much as possible anyway. I took some pics at bath time last night. I love this one of Katie. She actually enjoys taking a bath now. I think she is finally over the screaming fits that we had to endure every time we gave her a bath/shower. And then one of Sam, because he's just so cute. He is still taking a bath in the infant bath while Katie plays in her bath, but I think it is time to transition him into the big tub with a bath seat. He splashes so much in the tub, he gets me soaked every time. Katie was never a very big splasher until she was older, Sam on the other hand thinks it's hilarious.

Dollhouses and their potties

So on Thursday I gave Katie my old dollhouse from when I was a kid. Complete with living room, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, a Mommy, Daddy, Grandma, Grandpa, big sister, baby brother, and one headless middle brother. :) She is enamored with it. Everyone who comes into the house must play with it. So there was an interesting thing that happened. We had to make each doll go to the potty. This was Friday morning. On Friday night, I walk into the living room(who are we kidding, let's just call it the play room, lol) and Katie runs up to me and says, "Mommy, I went to the potty!". And she did, and she did everything by herself too. I didn't ask her if she needed to go or anything. Since then she's only worn panties. No diapers. She still hasn't gone poopie yet. So we'll see what we're going to do about that. But maybe, just maybe, this time is for real. We have had way too many false starts. I think it has more to do with her school starting on Tuesday. We've been telling her forever to get into the big girl class she had to go potty. So we'll see. I'll let ya'll know in a couple of days if this really the end of diapers for Katie. Fingers crossed!

So here's one for the adventures in potty training....

See this look, this is how I feel Katie feels about potty training. So we are still trying to potty train. Yes...it may be easy for some, but not with my daughter. We are getting close now though. At least now she tries to hold it and asks to go to the potty. And probably only those of you who have little kids or have potty trained will find this story amusing. The problem we are having is unless I tickle the pee out of her, she tells me, "It's too hard to get Mrs. Pee Pee in the potty.". But I digress, this post is about poop. So we have the same problem with Mr. Poo Poo. So yesterday she comes to me and says, "Mommy, I need to go poopy!". So I tell her to go on her little potty and walk away to give her some privacy. She needs it for poopy. She can do the whole take down her clothes and sit on the potty by herself. So a few minutes later she comes to get me and tells me she did it. So I go to check and sure enough there's poopy in the potty. Yay!!! I'm totally excited, we are doing the happy dance. Can you see where I am going with this? So anyway, we go to flush it down the big potty, and on further inspection of the poopy, I notice it's rather compact. More like it would be in her diaper. So I ask Katie, "Katie, did you poopy in your diaper and then put the poopy in the potty?". To which she nods and says, "Yeah, I did it!". Oh, I was so disappointed. I really thought she had actually poopied on the potty. But as I said we're getting close, just no cigars yet. I don't know if she thought that's what I meant for her to do or if she's just so smart that she figured she could trick her old Mom. I guess I am going to make sure I take down her diaper and clothes from now on.

A Playdate and a Conversation and an Accomplishment

I enjoyed our playdate today. I got to see Sara's newest little girl, Zoe, although she was fast asleep. :) It was beautiful out today and it was nice to stand outside without being too warm or too cold. In the second picture, you can see from Katie's face how determined she is to get higher. Katie insisted on going higher every time the swing slowed down. Which is weird because Katie is afraid of heights. Katie and Avery swung most of the time. Which was nice that they both liked to do the same thing. It's not very often Katie gets to play with a friend who likes to do the same as she does. :) Avery swung in the red swing chair and was looking very cute and cool in her sunglasses today. And I am throwing in this last one because I just love it. Katie is concentrating on digging in the sand box. But it's such a sweet peaceful concentration. I just love my little girl.
This next little blurb is about potty training. On the way home, Katie and I had the conversation about pooping on the potty and going to school. I guess she had over heard Sara and I talking about it at the park. She asked me if Avery was going to go poopie in the potty so she could go to school, and I told her yes, Avery has to go poopie in the potty. So we started naming different people who have to go poopie in the potty. LOL I know wonderful conversation to be having. :) But she started getting excited and said, "So I NEED to go poopie in the potty?". And I told her yup, to go to school she would have to go poopie in the potty. So guess what happens when get home? Katie starts to go poopie in her pull up, but comes to tell me she needs potty and finishes up in the potty!!!!! For all you potty training moms who have problems getting them to go potty, you all know how excited I was! So I guess it's a trip to the store for the M&Ms and a toy I promised her if she went poopie in the potty! Now to see if the trend continues and to see if I can get to go pee in the potty on a regular basis.
And I just wanted to add this video in. Katie all of a sudden this afternoon wanted to do a puzzle. So I was able to just get the end of her working on a small puzzle and then my camera died. But you can see her working on it. She's very organized about it. She starts with one piece and pretty much goes all the way around until she's to the last corner. Oh and we also played Hi Ho Cheerio! which is a counting game Katie loves right now. And she pretty much gets it for the most part. Except she always wants it to be her turn. ;0)