Irish Eyes Are Smiling

Hope everyone enjoyed the recent drinking holiday that is St. Patrick's Day.  We did...or shall I say 2 out of 3 of us did...

Sunday morning started off bright and early with a 6:30 a.m. alarm.  Kaci and I were headed for the Shamrock Run!  (Kevin does not believe in leprechauns or fun runs)  Much to my surprise, Kaci was not yet awake.  At 7:15 a.m. I was all ready, had my stroller loaded into my car, coffee brewed, snacks packed, etc. and still Kaci was asleep.  Remember...Kaci's usually up at 5:45 a.m. on the weekend.  It did cross my mind to leave her behind, but she was so excited the night before.  She had her race t-shirt, her race bib with own number, and I had even gotten her some new kicks for the race.  I couldn't leave her home.  BIG MISTAKE!  After many, many tears we finally made it out the door.

Kaci pre-race:

She would not even get out of her stroller to participate in the kid's leprechaun lap.  She also had a minor melt down over her first experience with a porta-potty.  (I honestly considered putting a diaper on her at one point but couldn't bring myself to do it).

As the morning went on, the sunshine came out and Kaci's mood improved greatly!  

Kaci post-race:

She even kept up the smiley face during our 45 minute commute from the 3rd floor of the parking garage to the street level!  

Lunch with friends followed...as well as a bloody mary for me!  Made for a nice Sunday!  

The Spice Of Life (PG 13 for use of Adult Language)

Not variety, not paprika either...I consider obscenities to be the spice of life.  I like to sprinkle my conversations throughout the day with these little treasures.  I have tried to cut this habit back, but so far my attempts have proved unsuccessful.  If one were to walk past my office they may hear a boisterous "Shit Jessica" drift out my doorway.  "What an ass" is another one of my favorites to mutter under my breath after ending a call.

I never rarely use it when yelling at someone, so I really don't feel like it is detrimental to my personal or professional self.  However, I will admit that a recent challenge has risen.  This challenge is named KACI!!!

Pictured here with her new obsession Perrier

Kaci's first cussing event was last summer at the lake.  And no, she just didn't blurt it out....she used it perfectly.  We jump out of the car, strap on her life jacket and she runs to the waters edge.  As she dips her little foot into the frigid water a "holy shit" bursts out of her lips.  My thoughts exactly Kaci.

Other favorites of hers:

• Dammit
• Shut Up (not a curse word no, but entirely appropriate for a 2.5 year old)
• Oh My God (again - inappropriate)

When we hear her utter one of these phrases, we immediately tell her that it is not o.k. to use those words.  She in turn says the phrase again, only in a whisper that I am assuming she thinks our old ears will not be able to detect.  Again we let her know that it is not o.k. to say these things.  She will now silently mouth the word back to us.  She gets sent to her room.  

Guess I need to work a bit harder on cleaning up my language huh?

Other Kaci news - She is 100% potty trained!  We and she are very proud about this feat.  What about her binky obsession you ask?  She gave them away to the binky fairies!!!  She has been binky free for 12 days!

Here she is packaging up every binky in the house for delivery to the fairies.  Please excuse her wild hair.  She was a bit frantic and a comb was the last thing on her mind.

Me

Just some little tidbits about myself:

• My beverage of choice from Starbucks is an iced coffee with half and half - no sweetener.
• My food weakness is Nacho Cheese Doritos - though any chip will do in a pinch.  
• I love reading blogs.
• I have tried and tried to like Portlandia - but just don't find it funny or entertaining.  
• I don't enjoy Monday.
• I put Kaci in front of the t.v. to watch cartoons each morning while I go back to bed.  (Hey - she wakes up at 5:45 a.m.!)
• I like McDonalds.
• I think everyone is lying when they say they hate McDonalds.
• I think people that don't have a t.v. are weird.
• The shower in our master bedroom is usually always dirty.  I hate cleaning showers.
• I have an uncontrollable urge to smell everything.  
• Me and my siblings suffer from laughing attacks.  When we have a laughing attack it is damn near impossible to stop.  Our faces scrunch into a hideous expression, tears stream down our cheeks, we can't breath, we can't talk.  It is oh so fun though.
• I hate all types of melon.
• I feel like a tranny when I wear tall boots over my jeans.

Weekend recap:

I worked on Saturday and then got to hang out with my wildly funny and adorably pregnant friend on Saturday night.  The night was basically one long laughing attack.  Until 10:00 p.m. hit...then I turned comatose.

Sunday we had a ladies day in honor of my sister's 30th birthday!  Lunch at The Radio Room and then manicures and shopping.  

Peek-a-boo!

Mom and the birthday girl!

Pretty girls!

Sunday evening we cooked dinner on the grill and played outside.  Nice end to the weekend!

Art

Riding with Dad!

P.S. ~ Kaci is potty trained!

Operation Tinkle Time

Situation:

"Mommy change me", "I peed bed" and "Eww!  Wet".  Though she does not tell us when she has to go, we are taking these little outbursts as sign that Kaci is ready to begin potty training.

Mission: 

To eradicate Luvs, Pampers and Huggies from the Erickson household.  

Execution:

First up was the creation of a potty chart.  I whipped this bad boy up and presented it to Kaci on Friday night.  She screamed with delight, then tried to rip the paper off the poster board.

Each time she uses the potty she gets to put a sticker on the board.  Once she fills a row, she gets a special prize.  She also gets 2 M&M's each time she goes (one for each hand).  She also gets a round of applause from anyone who happens to be in the house.

Saturday was our official start date.  We basically dropped her on the pot right when she woke up and continued to do so every 45 minutes.  We put her in cloth training pants while we were at home.  It was back to the diaper though when we left the house or when she napped or went to sleep.  

"They left the house on day one of potty training?  Gasp!  What were they thinking?".  We aren't following any strict plan and are just throwing in the training as we continue on with our normal life.  Should this way of thinking prove to be detrimental to Kaci's training, then we will make necessary changes.

The family that watches Kaci during the day is also on board and works with her on it during the day.

Current State of Affairs:
It is now day 5 and things are going very well!  She is excited and pretty proud of herself.  Feedback from daycare has also been good.  Naps and night time are a different story - but we will just focus on the hours she is awake for now.

Prize #1 was a gold fish.  Meet Dorothy Bon-Bon Erickson.

Prize # 2 was a backpack...also known as "my pack-pack".  She insisted upon getting this full size one.  The small one just was not going to work for her.  This girl comes with a lot of stuff - Beary, a small puppy she found recently in her toy box, her Leap Pad, a change of clothes, diapers, wipes, etc.

Prize # 3 was some big girl undies!  She is now working towards her 4th prize - to be determined.

That is it for today!  

Catch Up Please!

Just a post to bring you up to speed on recent uneventful events...

First up - Kaci:

Meet "Beary" her new side kick.  Beary is actually an old bear that she recently found in the depths of her toy box.  She found him shortly after Christmas and now devotes the majority of her time to wrapping him (her?) up in a blanket and putting him to sleep....then waking him up.  Repeat 17 times throughout the day.

Kaci is now in her very own big girl bed.  I scored this little gem for free from a friend.  Once the weather warms up I will be sanding it down and painting it black.  She loves it!  She also loves these pajamas.  Yes, they are boy pajamas.  Hand-me-downs from her cousin Hudson which she insists upon wearing whenever clean.  

Let me also direct you to the bedding.  I thought it would be fun to let her pick out some stuff to go with her new bed.  As much as I tried to direct her attention to the neutral, non-character bed sets, she latched on to the Hello Kitty.  There was nothing I could do to change her mind.  However, since it was not Disney Princess or Tinkerbell, I am going to consider it a success.

I guess they like my cooking!  (note - Kevin is wearing insulated overalls as he just came in from working outside.  He does have normal pants under them.  Please do not assume that he regularly roams about in half zipped overalls.)

Swinging!

Next up - How my Nike Fuel Band let me down

My Mom recently got a Fuel Band as well, which makes mine that much more motivating and fun to wear.  We check in on each other most evenings to make sure that we are at or near our goal.  This forces me to get up and move as I don't want to be the slacker.  

The Fuel Band only tracks the movements of the arm you are wearing it on.  I know this...I mean I have had mine since November.  So you can see how I almost ripped it to shreds when I came home from a 3 mile jog and I did not see the dramatic increase in Fuel points that I had expected.  You see, I was pushing Kaci in her stroller (increasing the difficulty 10 fold by the way).  So instead of swinging, both of my arms were holding the handle of the stroller not moving.  Ugh.

This is the time, not my fuel points.  Since I took this picture at 9:44 a.m. my point value was pretty unimpressive.

Happy Friday!

Magical

My 8:00 - 9:00 a.m. routine Monday through Friday consists of perusing the blogs that I follow.  Generally these blogs motivate me to become a better all around person and really dedicate 100% of myself to my work, my home, my family, myself and my blog (After 9:00 a.m....not a minute before).  Lately though these other blogs have made me envious of their photo quality.  Mine just seemed so boring in comparison....I realized that I needed to make a change.

I decided to join the 21st century and download the Instagram app.  Wow.  So much fun!  Although I really wish I could just use the app and not have to follow/be followed.  Whatever.

Here is a view of the starting line of Sunday's snow shoe race:

Now with the magic of Instagram:

I am confident that this small change will cause the number of followers I have to quadruple.

WHAT???  Did she say snow shoe?  Yes, I went up to Mt. Hood last Sunday.  Great day in the mountain sun with Bonnie!  Hopefully she will email me some pictures so I can show just how cool we looked.  I am a crappy blogger who never takes any pictures and just depends on others to cover my ass.  There...I admitted it.  Moving on.

Ringing in the New Year in PV!!!

Prineville, Oregon that is!  Kevin, Kaci and I headed over the mountain on Sunday morning.  The rest of our extended PV family went over on Friday evening.  I should tell you all how much this bothered me.  I HATE being left out of the fun.  I had high hopes of leaving our house at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday.  It didn't happen.  Instead we left at 10:00...two whole hours late.  I had no part in this.  Needless to say, I was not the most chipper person upon pulling out of the driveway.  However, I did not want to ruin our mini-vacation with my grumpiness before we even got there, so I decided that chugging a Red Bull might improve my mind set.  It worked...for a while.

Kaci is ready!

I can make this trip in 3.5 hours.  My husband can't - even in the best of conditions.  No...this trip ended up taking us 5.5 hours.  How?  What was he thinking?  Both good questions.  How?? - Kevin made 5 stops on the way up there.  Starbucks - of course he needs his latte and warmed butter croissant.  Shell - never would he be proactive and get diesel the night before.  Coastal Farm Supply - even though he was off work on vacation for the 2 full weeks prior, he waited until this trip to decide to pick up some new work boots.  The boat launch in Warm Springs - bathroom break (not a warm bathroom either).  Ray's Food Store in the big city of Prineville for some sweet hot mustard (random I know).  In addition, it took us 1 hour to get from Welches to Government camp due to people driving 4 mph in the snow.  Kevin is not the most patient driver - but that is a story for another day.  What was he thinking?? - I don't know and opt not to spend too much time pondering it so as not to have a heart attack. 

We did eventually make it.  And I am thankful for Kevin driving me over so I wouldn't have to white knuckle it on my own.  The snow had fallen.  Check out the view:

Needless to say it was a cold couple of days.  We came prepared though.  Even Kaci got out to enjoy it and went for a ride on the quad!

Most of her activities were indoors however.  

Hide the Grandma was a favorite:

She also did a little reorganization of the bar ware:

Great weekend overall.  Family; friends; food; Just Dance 4; adult beverages; bonfire in the snow and relaxation were all contributing factors.  

Happy New Years!