Oh Hey We Spent The Last Few Days Doing All This Stuff

We had an eventful three day weekend. I even took a nap on Saturday!

(Let's all pause to reflect on the fact that my ability to take a nap (1) was noteworthy enough to get mentioned in the opening paragraph (2) evidently merited use of an exclamation mark (3) probably won't happen again until 2020.)

We drove to my parents' on Friday. The day started out not-so-great. I had to work on Friday and didn't get out of there as early as I'd hoped (story of my life). Coco woke up Friday morning with eye gunk and I just KNEW she had another ear infection even though she had no other symptoms (same story as two months ago). I scheduled her an appointment for Friday afternoon and David offered to take her while I finished packing.

Of course packing for three people at the last minute is not easy, and even though I tried to plan ahead, I actually under-packed for the girls, forgot my tennis shoes, and packed Coco's size 9-months pink leggings for Zuzu to wear. Oops.

Anyway, after the doctor appointment and my frantic packing process, Coco got her meds, we got the car loaded, and we finally hit the road.

Oh--but we had one other factor to consider.

Zuzu potty-trained herself on Thursday.

I really can take no credit for this. After my frustrating attempts at 3-Day Potty Training, David and I decided we would just scale back. Basically, we put diapers on her when convenient, and let her wear big girl panties at home, encouraging her to go to the potty and cleaning up a LOT of messes. It was so aggravating because I had all these awesome prizes for her and she didn't even have ONE success so she could get a taste for bribery.

But I decided to just chill out about it and pretend that inconsistent parenting was actually the pathway to potty-trained.

So Thursday morning was a stay-at-home day for me, and when Zuzu got up in the morning, I asked if she wanted to wear big girl panties. She did.

But she also wanted to wear this:

So I told her she could wear her Elsa dress, but she'd have to keep it dry. Because if she peed in her big girl panties, the dress would have to be washed and she wouldn't be able to wear it anymore.

Little did I know, I actually had landed on the ONE THING she cared about not peeing on.

That kid peed in the potty every single time on Thursday, even when I would forget to prompt her. (Which was every time. Because I was in the practice of being inconsistent.)

She told me when she had to go, we hustled to the potty, and I busted out the Peepee Prize Box in all of its glory (in case you're wondering, Peepee Prizes include character figurines from Frozen, Minnie Mouse stickers, applesauce pouches, princess glubs, a tiara, a personalized canvas bag, crayons, and a notepad sent by Crafty Cousin Amanda as an Easter present but confiscated by me for potty training purposes, a hand-me-down purse from my friend Erin, packets of fruit snacks, and Skittles).

She loved the personalized bag so much, she slept with it. In our bed, because of course.

I was SO happy that things went well on Thursday. Gleeful. I sent her to school in big girl panties on Friday and she only had one accident on her way to the potty, and ACTUALLY CARED. Her teacher texted me, "She almost made it and she was really sad, so I told her that accidents happen and gave her a sticker for trying."

I texted back, "OMG I am so happy that she is sad!"

And then had to explain, "I mean, I'm just really happy that she cares she didn't make it and she wants to TRY!" But I still kind of sounded like a monster.

We haven't had a perfect record since then (to be pefectly honest, three out of five Duckworths pooped or peed on Grammy's carpet over the weekend--and Cooper was the most ashamed) but we are not buying any more diapers!

Anyway, we put Zuzu in a pull-up for the car ride because we are not crazy. But she kept it dry and actually peed in the big potty at Taco Bell (!). We ended up with an hour delay at Taco Bell because we walked in right after a team of softball players had already ordered but not yet received their food so we placed our order without realizing we'd be there FOREVER. Or at least long enough for Zuzu to peepee on the potty and get comfortable enough there to try to run circles around the restaurant shouting, "I peepee on the potty!"

We finally made it to my parents at 11:00pm. Zuzu was so excited she had actually managed to stay awake until 9:50pm in the car, and then she rallied to hang out with my parents for an hour before we headed up to bed.

Coco showed off her crawling and pulling up skills as I was changing her diaper right after we arrived. She pulled herself to standing at the love seat with a bare little baby butt and then tinkled all over the carpet. (Just making up for what they are missing since Little "I Pee Wherever I Want" Mac is no longer with us.)

At 8 months old, she stands around all the time now.

Coco also spent the weekend forgetting all her good sleeping habits and has now regressed from sleeping all night or waking once to wanting to nurse three times a night. You can guess how much I love this.

Saturday morning we went to a pancake breakfast at the Catholic school. We knew it was time to leave when I caught Zuzu trying to shimmy up a large cross in the dining hall. At least Jesus wasn't hanging on it.

After breakfast we took the girls out to get their photos taken for the annual Little Cutie contest. Two years ago, Zuzu got an Honorable Mention, which obviously means we got robbed. Last year we didn't make it to Nevada at the right time to get them taken, so this year I wanted to have both girls.

The photographer had an adorable tea party table set up and Coco was doing such a good job of sitting in the chair.

Until she face-planted off of it onto the hard floor.

I was RIGHT BEHIND her and ready to catch her, but she'd also broken a tea cup right before she dived off the chair and I'd picked up the broken pieces so I had them in one hand and when she tipped forward, I just couldn't move fast enough to grab her. I slowed her fall, but couldn't keep her from bonking her head on the floor.

She had a big red spot on her forehead and I felt terrible, even though she didn't actually cry that much.

Zuzu was reasonably cooperative, and Coco did quite well even with interrupted morning nap time and a head injury. #MOTY

With a little luck, I think the pictures are going to be really cute. And of course that's all that matters, child welfare aside.

After that debacle, I needed my nap. It was blissful.

Coco slept while I slept and Zuzu made Moon Clay/Kinetic Sand with my mom and also dumped a bunch of gold glitter on the carpet. Cooper ate a bunch of the sand outside, so he had fun, too. Because glitter really is the herpes of the craft world, we're still finding gold glitter in unexpected places, included a very sparkly deposit Cooper made last night on our walk.

That evening we attended Dancing With Our Stars, Nevada, which is a charity event in which local couples compete in a dance competition. It was so much fun to watch. My high school boyfriend's little sister was in it, and his other sister has a baby boy who is just a month younger than Coco (but taller!) so I got to see both of them and their kiddos, which was great. I'm trying to convince David that we should see if non-residents can compete next year because I want to enter the dance contest! Not that we are great dancers. I just think it looks like fun.

Zuzu was really into the dancing but had no patience for the talking in between each performance. And when dancers came up from the crowd to join the couple performing "YMCA," Zuzu thought that the audience got to go up on stage whenever they wanted and she was DETERMINED to get up there. So the second half of the show was a little more challenging in terms of keeping her corralled in our seats. But she ran off a lot of steam "dancing" at intermission and enjoyed the high school swing choir's performance at the end.

We took the girls to church on Sunday which means that I barely got to listen to the sermon and Zuzu peed twice and "tried" to pee three times while we were there.

After church we went to the White Grill, where Zuzu rejected suzy q's but ate some of her grilled cheese and part of the bun of Grammy's burger (the kid loves bread but not potatoes). We also saw my BFF Monica's mom there, which was a fun surprise. Also I had a coke, which was an awesome treat since I never drink pop and it is SO delicious. And somehow tastes better in a styrofoam cup with crushed ice.

David and I caught a community theatre matinee show that afternoon, and then we hung out with my cousin Brandi and her daughter Mesa and had dinner with them and Brandi's parents and my Papa. It was a really nice afternoon, and we were sad to load up in the car after dinner to head home.

We'd decided to head back to St. Louis Sunday night because we had tickets to the Cardinals home opener, so we thought it would be easiest for the girls to sleep in the car, then get up and go to school as usual the next day while David and I played hooky from work and had another "day date."

Zuzu told me her tummy hurt as we were leaving and I asked if she had to poop (because all we talk about is pee and poop). She said, "No,

I sad." I said, "Do you mean your chest hurts because you miss Grammy and Bop?"

She nodded, "Yes. I miss Grammy and Bop."

I said, "I miss them, too. So we need to remember that they are coming to see us soon! They're going to come to our house in St. Louis."

She smiled and said, "That make me happy!"

So sweet.

The ride home was uneventful (lots of sleeping in the backseat, no stopping!) and David and I had a great time at the ballgame, although we underestimated the traffic, ended up making a crazy left turn across two lanes in bumper-to-bumper traffic under an overpass, and parked so far away that we had to climb a chain-link fence to get to the brewery where we had a beer before walking the rest of the way to the stadium. It was a fun date!

We left the game early to make it back to daycare before it closed for the day, so we missed the sad end to the game but had a great time in the crazy atmosphere even though we missed seeing the Clydesdales because the lines to get in through the metal detectors were SO long and slow.

We took the girls to the park last night and then to Ted Drewes because it didn't feel like a Monday, it felt like a VACATION day! 

She likes swinging, in case that wasn't obvious.

Except really we went to Ted Drewes for us because Coco's not eating ice cream and when I offered it to Zuzu, she said, "I no like ice cream."

I said, "You don't like ice cream? What kind of kid are you?"

She looked at me like she was kind of hurt and said, "Zuzu."

Now it's back to real life. I came into campus to meet with students and get organized and David has a lot of late nights this week which means I'm on my own for dinner which is the worst. But! Only four weeks until my semester is over! And plenty to keep me busy in the meantime. Like grocery shopping by myself with both of them. (Actually they did great--but man it's hard to get organized after bring out of town for a weekend.)