Okay, enough about pooing and peeing. I know I talk about Dottie way too much, but she's such an amusing little human. I have one more anecdote about her before I sign off. Dottie has become a sensitive little creature as of late. Her new favorite word is "scary." She started using it because she was genuinely afraid of something: a dog on Baby Einstein, the balloons from Labor Day, and the fan in her room. She would wake up with nightmares about something "scary." But now, she uses the word as a joke. Her favorite movie is "Mary Poppins." She loves everything about it -- the music, the magic, the fun. Since she's started saying things are scary as a joke, she'll pretend now when she watches Mary Poppins that it's scary. She even calls it "Scary Mary Poppins." Well, you won't believe this, but I found this clip on YouTube of a real Scary Mary Poppins. It's just too funny of a coincidence.
Friday, September 21, 2007
That's not chocolate . . .
I've respectfully removed a picture of Dottie in her poopy state. The more sensitive males in my family thought it was distasteful. They're probably right. But, the story's still here, so read on.
Potty training was going great with Dottie. For two days in a row, she went the day in panties, completely dry. Then, for some reason, she completely reverted yesterday. She didn't make it to the potty once. I put her down for her nap, and she was very quiet for an entire hour, so I thought she must be asleep. I went to go check on her, and this is what I found. Poo everywhere. Everywhere. I won't go into details, because it would probably make you throw up. I almost threw up myself. Suffice it to say it took both Joe and I an hour to clean up her, her room, her bedding, and her toys. The only reason I can think of why she would commit such an act is that she saw monkeys at the zoo on Wednesday eating their own poo. Maybe she thought it would be a good idea.
So today, I decided she wasn't going to take a nap until she went #2 on the potty. She has been very good about going #1, but she usually saves #2 for naptime, as a means of getting out of her nap. But today, it was a gold letter day compared to yesterday. Dottie succeeded on the potty, with #1 and #2. I'm so proud of my little girl.
This is Dottie a couple of days ago when we were having potty success. She's singing along with The Little Mermaid. Let me point out the essentials to beginning potty training (for Dottie anyway):
1. Princess Dress. This is a must for Dottie. She needs the inspiration from Barbie and Mermaid and Belle. Also, it makes it easier for me to get her on and off the potty quickly.
2. Portable DVD player. Wow, what a great invention. She can sit in the bathroom and watch a show, and when she has to go, no problem. Hours of entertainment. And believe me, we've spent hours in the bathroom.
3. Books. Dottie loves books. Especially ones with Tigger or Princesses.
4. Towel. The towel has been our friend. Dottie knows that she needs to sit on the towel. This prevents unneeded clean-up.
5. Sugar-free Koolaid. That's what she sips down all day so she gets to know the feeling of when her bladder's full. It's really worked well.
6. The Bribe. For Dottie, the thing that worked was gummy bears. Gummy bears are a delicacy to Dottie. In fact, I don't think she's ever had them before potty training. She gets three when she makes it to the potty on time.
7. Princess Panties. I think this is the real clincher for Dottie. It makes her feel like a big girl. She knows that when she wears the panties, she's not a baby anymore.
Potty training was going great with Dottie. For two days in a row, she went the day in panties, completely dry. Then, for some reason, she completely reverted yesterday. She didn't make it to the potty once. I put her down for her nap, and she was very quiet for an entire hour, so I thought she must be asleep. I went to go check on her, and this is what I found. Poo everywhere. Everywhere. I won't go into details, because it would probably make you throw up. I almost threw up myself. Suffice it to say it took both Joe and I an hour to clean up her, her room, her bedding, and her toys. The only reason I can think of why she would commit such an act is that she saw monkeys at the zoo on Wednesday eating their own poo. Maybe she thought it would be a good idea.
So today, I decided she wasn't going to take a nap until she went #2 on the potty. She has been very good about going #1, but she usually saves #2 for naptime, as a means of getting out of her nap. But today, it was a gold letter day compared to yesterday. Dottie succeeded on the potty, with #1 and #2. I'm so proud of my little girl.
This is Dottie a couple of days ago when we were having potty success. She's singing along with The Little Mermaid. Let me point out the essentials to beginning potty training (for Dottie anyway):
1. Princess Dress. This is a must for Dottie. She needs the inspiration from Barbie and Mermaid and Belle. Also, it makes it easier for me to get her on and off the potty quickly.
2. Portable DVD player. Wow, what a great invention. She can sit in the bathroom and watch a show, and when she has to go, no problem. Hours of entertainment. And believe me, we've spent hours in the bathroom.
3. Books. Dottie loves books. Especially ones with Tigger or Princesses.
4. Towel. The towel has been our friend. Dottie knows that she needs to sit on the towel. This prevents unneeded clean-up.
5. Sugar-free Koolaid. That's what she sips down all day so she gets to know the feeling of when her bladder's full. It's really worked well.
6. The Bribe. For Dottie, the thing that worked was gummy bears. Gummy bears are a delicacy to Dottie. In fact, I don't think she's ever had them before potty training. She gets three when she makes it to the potty on time.
7. Princess Panties. I think this is the real clincher for Dottie. It makes her feel like a big girl. She knows that when she wears the panties, she's not a baby anymore.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
a birthday, a hairdo, and the Dreaded Purple Stain
This posting has three unrelated sections, because I need to get my family (and friends) caught up with recent items of interest in the Hansen house. After this posting, I should be caught up with the pictures, and future postings should be more coherent and also more frequent. I'm planning on taking A LOT of pictures from now on.
I.Here are some happy memories of Ms. Dottie Jane's birthday, which was in June. Yeah, I'm a little slow in keeping up with pictures, but hey, this blog, it's going to make me better at taking pictures and sharing them with people. This is some of Dottie's second birthday pictures, when my parents came to town at the end of June.
Dottie chatting on her Tinkerbell phone on her new Dora bike.
Is this my child, or is it Chewbacca's?
I.Here are some happy memories of Ms. Dottie Jane's birthday, which was in June. Yeah, I'm a little slow in keeping up with pictures, but hey, this blog, it's going to make me better at taking pictures and sharing them with people. This is some of Dottie's second birthday pictures, when my parents came to town at the end of June.
Is this my child, or is it Chewbacca's?
II. For all of my girlfriends who care, here is my new haircut. Since pregnancy is a time of life when you're not the most physically appealing woman, you sometimes need to change things up. Hair is the best and easiest thing to change when one is not completely satisfied with life. My friends can attest to my need for change at various times during college, when I had several different hairdos in several different colors. You could literally tell how I was feeling about myself just by hair's appearance. My hair's all-time low was directly after I had ended the ruby red hair phase. It was right before my close friend, Becca's, wedding. I got my hair "stripped," which is a way to chemically remove the dye from your hair. But, ruby red is a difficult color to get rid of. The stripping didn't completely work. My hair was florescent orange for Becca's wedding. What a crisis. Soon after that, I met Joe, and I chopped my hair off completely, ready to start anew. I was a new and better Charlotte with my new love. So here is my hair now, a cute short haircut to make up for my rotund physique.
side view.
side view.
front view.
III. The Dreaded Purple Stain. Most of my nightmares as a mother have to do with either something happening to Dottie, or Dottie doing something bad. In this case, it was Dottie doing something bad. We have a new house that we just remodeled. Everything in the house is new: new windows, doors, paint, carpet, appliances, etc. Well, this sad story involves our new carpet. Dottie, my lovely little mischief maker, has been wreaking havoc on our home for some time now. For example, this week, while I was doing the dishes, Dottie found some crayons, and colored four walls in our house. Luckily, crayon does come off with a product called "Bon Ami." Write that down for future reference, because it'll probably happen to you with at least one of your children, unless you're Supermom.
Today, Joe and I were getting ready to go to the store. Joe was getting changed, I was doing my makeup. Dottie was getting into her changing table drawer. We had removed most hazardous items from that drawer, because of Dottie's obsession with mess-making. However, we somehow overlooked something called Gentian Violet. Gentian Violet is a product you can buy over the counter that gets rid of yeast infections. It not only gets rid of yeast infections, it also works as a dye for fabrics. I bought it last summer to help Dottie out with a yeast infection when we were in between health insurances.
So, Dottie found the Gentian Violet . . . and she dumped it on the carpet, our six-month-old, hand-picked carpet. I knew as soon as I saw it that my carpet was destroyed. There is no way to get dye out of carpet, because, hello, it's dye. So I cried, a lot. We went to Walmart, and I shopped by myself. I made Joe take Dottie. I bought chocolate and a Naked juice. Then, I felt a little better, not completely, but a little. I'm still really disturbed about the whole thing, but it can be fixed. Nothing happened to Dottie, just the carpet. And that should make me feel relieved. But sometimes I just wish she understood things so she wouldn't do them, you know?
The Dreaded Purple Stain
The sleeping beauty. She took a nice long nap after her destruction. How can I stay mad at that baby?
Today, Joe and I were getting ready to go to the store. Joe was getting changed, I was doing my makeup. Dottie was getting into her changing table drawer. We had removed most hazardous items from that drawer, because of Dottie's obsession with mess-making. However, we somehow overlooked something called Gentian Violet. Gentian Violet is a product you can buy over the counter that gets rid of yeast infections. It not only gets rid of yeast infections, it also works as a dye for fabrics. I bought it last summer to help Dottie out with a yeast infection when we were in between health insurances.
So, Dottie found the Gentian Violet . . . and she dumped it on the carpet, our six-month-old, hand-picked carpet. I knew as soon as I saw it that my carpet was destroyed. There is no way to get dye out of carpet, because, hello, it's dye. So I cried, a lot. We went to Walmart, and I shopped by myself. I made Joe take Dottie. I bought chocolate and a Naked juice. Then, I felt a little better, not completely, but a little. I'm still really disturbed about the whole thing, but it can be fixed. Nothing happened to Dottie, just the carpet. And that should make me feel relieved. But sometimes I just wish she understood things so she wouldn't do them, you know?
The Dreaded Purple Stain
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
A Bun in the Oven
If you're reading this blog, you know about the baby . . . probably. Well, here are the pictures of the little bun, a.k.a. Mystery Baby. I usually would consider it cheesy to broadcast my ultrasound to the world, but my doctor has the latest technology! It's an ultrasound machine that does 3D images, so as you can see, the image is much more clear than a normal ultrasound. Like there's the little guy's legs! And there's his hands over his face! He was very shy during the ultrasound and covered his face the whole time. Maybe you still think, "what the heck is that?" but the image is better, you have to agree.
Anyway, it's exciting to have another baby. And I don't know about you other parents out there with two or more kids, but isn't pregnancy much easier the second time? Maybe I'm just lucky, or wierd, but it just seems like pregnancy is a natural state of being. I mean, it's not like I enjoy being large with more stretch marks, but I don't obsess over it like I did the first time. I really don't think about being pregnant much at all. Maybe it's just because Dottie is a very consuming little person. Speaking of the little monkey (don't worry, that's a term of affection for her), I'll have pics of her up in the next few days. Still no new camera batteries. Hold on. I'm on my sister's computer, and believe it or not, she has some pictures of the family from Labor Day. We went to the gambling town of Cripple Creek (way over-rated if you're Mormon and don't gamble), and in the morning we saw the hot-air balloon launching at Memorial Park. So here ya go.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)