Oh Hey

So yeah, I'm pretty much done blogging, at least for now. I may pick From the Mixed-up Files back up in the future if the muse descends. But I wanted to pop back in quickly to review my goals for 2013 because I actually did pretty well. As a reminder, here are the goals I set for myself on December 31, 2012:

• Celebrate my 30th birthday in New York - DONE! Between that and my actual birthday celebrations, I could not have asked for a better way to ring in my 30s.
• See another Hanson concert (at least one) - DONE, DONE, AND DONE! 
• Finish revising my novel, get a few more eyes on it, and decide what to do with it - Still working on this one. But I have started.
• Participate in NaNoWriMo again in November - DONE!
• Develop and add more structure to the blog - I think I was a lot more style- and outfit-of-the-day-centric in 2013, so we'll consider this done.
• Continue to attend blogger meetups - Sort of? There were bloggers at both those events.
• Get pregnant - DONE!!!! 

So yes, the point of this post was really to announce that my husband and I are very excited to be welcoming another member to the family, coming in September! Since I've now announced it everywhere else, I wanted to make it known on my blog, too. Thanks for reading!

Bridget Goes to the Dentist

On Thursday, I took Bridget to the dentist with me since our dental hygienist recommended I bring her in to see what it was all about before she has her first cleaning at 3 years old. In case anyone's wondering, the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry states that you should bring children to the dentist for the first time once they get their first tooth, or when they turn 1, but our dentist didn't require that early of a visit. And I was OK with that - 1 year old seems really premature to me.

I'm always nervous about going to the dentist because they inevitably find something wrong with my teeth every time; but with Bridget in tow, it felt like a new adventure. As I pulled into the mall parking lot where our dentist is located, Bridget asked, "Is this the dentist?" Then she asked again as we walked into the mall food court and again upon entering the corridor that leads to the office.

From the moment we sat down in the waiting room and Bridget located a teddy bear and a Disney Junior magazine, I knew that this was going to be a positive experience for her. We didn't wait long before the dental hygienist called us back and immediately engaged Bridget in conversation and offered her different things to look at while she explained what she was doing during my cleaning. Bridget was very friendly and well behaved and answered each yes/no question she was asked with "No" or "Um I fink so." Haha. She only got a little rowdy and squealed loudly when she saw the motion light-up aquarium lamp thing with the Nemo fish swimming by.

As far as the dentist part went, the hygienist let Bridget put the suction (or Mr. Thirsty) in my mouth, and she also sprayed water and then put Mr. Thirsty in Bridget's mouth (after changing the tip of course). While she was in there, the hygienist also took a quick look at Bridget's teeth and let me know that she's still missing two molars. I couldn't tell if Mr. Thirsty was Bridget's favorite part or if it was sitting on my lap and taking a ride in the dentist chair, but she definitely didn't mind being there.

After Bridget picked out a couple silly bands from the toy treasure chest, we went back into the waiting room so that I could schedule our next appointments. And Bridget, with some outgoingness she certainly didn't get from me, peeked out into the waiting room and greeted the college-age girl waiting with a "Hi! What's your name?" and then introduced herself with her first and last name. So freakin' cute.

Yup, she'll definitely do fine in January when it's time for her real first dentist appointment. Let's just hope she gets her father's perfectly healthy teeth and not mine.

Potty Training Update

School picture

Hahahahha, yeah. About that. Bridget tends to be really good at something at first and then kind of regresses for awhile. She gets the skills back eventually, but that seems to be the pattern. Like counting. I swear she's been able to count to 12 before, but now she consistently gets stuck on 4. "One, two, three, nine, ah-yedden, sissty-nine." OK, I don't mind the counting thing because it's adorable that she goes from three to nine to eleven to sixty-nine randomly. And when she used to be able to get past five, she would say "chicken" for six and seven. Cute. Anyway. She'll get the counting thing back - we're working on it, as I'm sure they are in school - I'm not worried.

Potty training went about the same. She was all about it at first, and we'd reward her with lots of praise and then later with M&Ms and then later with Pez, trying to find new incentives. At first, she was all excited about her big girl underwear, but now she has no interest in any of it. She did go potty yesterday before her bath, but that was the first time in at least a week. I guess she does it at school sometimes, too, when the other kids are going potty.

The reason this came up again is that Bridget is moving to the 2-1/2-year room on Monday. The teacher came and talked to me yesterday and said that she's pretty hardcore with potty training right off the bat (my words, not hers). She goes with them to the bathroom for the first couple weeks, but then they have to go themselves. So now instead of sending Bridget to school in regular diapers, I have to make sure she has either Pull-ups or plastic training pants. She has one pair of those plastic diaper thingies, but she's never worn it. I think that's the route we're going to go, though. It seems like she would learn faster that way.

Now is definitely the time. Time to get Bridget potty trained. I have to admit, having professionals at daycare helping with the potty training thing does take some of the pressure off. We just have to be sure to reinforce it once she gets home. I'll have to ask her new teacher for tips if things don't go smoothly in the next couple weeks.

From my cousin's graduation party

Six Flags and a Broken Pipe

My husband has been working tirelessly, trying to get our basement finished.* I'll post pictures when it's done, but he expects to finish the drywall part this weekend. Bridget and I had plans to go to Six Flags Great America yesterday, and just as we were about to walk out the door, my husband yelled from downstairs. He had punctured a pipe under some drywall he had just put up in the ceiling and was understandably beyond frustrated. There was nothing I could really do but get in the way, so he said we should still go to Great America.

*I've helped out a little where I can, but mostly I've been entertaining Bridget and making sure the rest of the house doesn't fall into too much disarray.

So off we went. Bridget LOVED it. She's definitely a little thrill seeker. The only part that made her nervous was meeting Scooby Doo and Tweety. Otherwise, she was all about the rides and getting her face painted again.

Up, Up & Away

ZoomJets

Spacely’s Sprocket Rockets

Rocky Road Rescue Service

By the time we got home at 3ish, Hubs had invited a friend over to decompress, and I helped them carry the rest of the drywall downstairs. As for the basement drama, our plumber was able to stop by, and he fixed the problem in about 15 minutes. Hubs is back at it today and hoping to finish so that we can all relax next weekend since I'm off to St. Louis for my friend's 30th birthday celebrations (including seeing Hanson), Bridget is off to my parents' house, and hubs gets a much-needed and much-deserved relaxing weekend at home.

Florida Vacation 2013 Recap

To read some tips on how to pack for a theme-park vacation, you can check out my guest post today on Modly Chic! Here are the outfits I packed for Bridget and me for our Orlando vacation we just returned from:

All of Bridget's Outfits and My Dresses: Target; Green Slytherin Tank: Wizarding World of Harry Potter;
Printed Shorts and Black Tank: Old Navy; White Linen Pants: MICHAEL Michael Kors; Sandals: Aldo

Thursday, we began our Disney fun at Magic Kingdom! Let's see if I can remember everything we did...

1. Watched a parade
2. Dumbo the Flying Elephant ride
3. Daisy and Minnie meet n greet
4. Under the Sea - Journey of The Little Mermaid ride
5. It's a Small World ride
6. Dole Whip

My mom, Bridget, and Minnie

We were amused that one of the poodles was named Brigitte.

It's a small world after all...

Dole Whip!

The lines weren't too long, and we waited less than 25 minutes for every ride. Still, with a two-year-old, we had to be choosy with what we wanted to get on because we knew our time was limited. We made it about 4 - 5 hours that day. Bridget was a champ! She started to melt down while in line for a Dole Whip, but she was better once we got her some ice cream.

We grabbed lunch back in our room, swam in the pool a little bit, and ate dinner at the resort. My mom was excited to go back to Magic Kingdom that night if possible (my parents had already been there 3 days, so they were pretty well rested), but my husband, Bridget, and I were beat.

On Friday, we took a little bit longer to get out the door, but then we headed to Universal Islands of Adventure and put in a few hours there. I was super bummed the Jurassic Park water ride was down for maintenance, but we still found plenty of fun things to do, such as:

1. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish ride
2. The Lorax and Cat in the Hat meet n greet
3. The Cat in the Hat ride
4. Caro-Seuss-el
5. The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train
6. Ate lunch at Three Broomsticks and drank butterbeer
7. The Forbidden Journey (single rider)
8. Flight of the Hippogriff
9. The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man ride (single rider)

Meeting the Lorax - Hubs' shirt is wet from the One Fish Two Fish ride

On the Caro-Seuss-el

She loved having her face painted! Seriously, she did, despite her expression in this picture.

Hagrid's hut in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter

My mom has a bunch more pictures, but she hasn't posted them yet. You can see the rest of mine here. There aren't that many others - I only took about 30 total.

That night for dinner, hubs and I met my friend from high school and her boyfriend at Giordano's for some Chicago style pizza! I didn't even know they had locations outside of Illinois, but apparently they have three of them in Florida.

On our last full day (also the day my parents flew home), we attempted a visit to Animal Kingdom. The day started off a little rocky after the It's Tough to be a Bug attraction scared Bridget, but we soldiered on to stand in line for The Festival of the Lion King show. The show was excellent, and Bridget loved it, but she was also getting hotter and more rundown by the minute. We had to call it a day and get her back to the hotel and into bed.

Later in the afternoon, I drove my parents to the airport and then met my friend and her boyfriend again for dinner while hubs offered to stay back with Bridget. The original plan was for them to come to our hotel to hang out, but we didn't want to keep Bridget awake. Instead, we went out to a restaurant called Brick House, which was right next to their hotel. The food was good, the atmosphere was cool and man cave-themed, but the service left a lot to be desired. I'm going to give the place the benefit of the doubt and assume it was just our waitress and not the establishment in general. (I'll have to steal my friend's picture she took of us when she posts it on Facebook.)

And Sunday, we flew home! Bridget was still feverish, and hubs had come down with some sort of stomach bug, so it wasn't the most pleasant traveling day for them, but we made it.

How to Wear a Graphic T-shirt

...But not in a grunge way. That should be the subtitle of this post. Grunge is cool and all, but it's not really my style. I was a little young to participate fully in the grunge movement the first time around, but that didn't stop me from borrowing a plaid flannel shirt of my dad's and wearing it all the time in the late 90s.

I really like the idea of dressing up a band tee, but I don't often get the opportunity to try it out. When I think of wearing a T-shirt, I default to jeans and sneakers or sandals; this time, I wanted to branch out and funk (funk...I said funk) it up a bit. First, I took to Pinterest to get some inspiration.

With a jacket

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

With a skirt

Sources: 1, 2, 3&4, 5, 6

Upon Googling the topic, I also found great suggestions in an article on CollegeFashion.net. Today, I went with the blazer + band tee look:

Blazer: Gap; T-shirt: Miggs show; Jeans: Kut; Boots: Madden Girl; Necklace: Etsy;
Bracelet: Pandora; Sunglasses: Target

Here's how Bridget styled her Beatles T-shirt. She actually picked this outfit out herself entirely except for the tights, which I helped her with.

Entire Outfit: Gifted by the in-laws; Tights: Target

Happy Easter

Here are some shots from today at my parents' church and then their house:

My mom kept getting pictures with some of my outfit cut off, so I had her take this while I posed, heh. What can I say? I liked my outfit today, and I didn't have to care how matchy matchy it was 'cause it's Easter!

Dress: Anthropologie; Blazer: Gap; Shoes: Kohl's;
Necklace: E-Collectique Runway Boutique

Also, yesterday, we got to meet my friend's new little boy! He's really cute, and Bridget loved him. She's definitely ready for a sibling.

Stolen from Facebook

I'm so not ready to go back to work tomorrow. Can't we just go right on into the next weekend?

Big Girl Bed - How the First Week Went

After I gave her pigtails, she wanted me to give her stuffed animals ponytails, too, and take pictures with them.

We've reached another milestone in our household.

Last Saturday evening (a week and a half ago now), we put Bridget in her crib for a time out*, and a couple minutes later, she walked on out of her bedroom with a pleasant look on her face like nothing had happened. I double-checked with my husband that he actually put her in her crib, which he had. At that moment, we realized it was time for what we had been putting off - converting Bridget's crib to a toddler bed. A few minutes later when Bridget successfully climbed into and back out of her crib, our suspicions were confirmed, and hubs immediately got his tools out and went to work on the bed. Right away, Bridget was a fan. She loved the fact that she could easily climb in and out without help. Things looked optimistic.

* That's not a recommended parenting method since "they say" the child will associate the bed with bad things instead of peaceful slumber, but it worked for us. Each kid is different, etc. etc.

The first few nights, against our better judgment, we let her climb into bed with us when she got up in the middle of the night. Halfway through the week, we started bringing her back to her own bed instead. Here's how her first week went:

Saturday night: Woke up at 4 AM and joined us in bed.
Sunday nap: Came out of her room three times before she actually went to sleep.
Sunday night: Slept in her bed all night.
Monday night: Woke up at 2 AM and joined us in bed.
Tuesday night: Woke up at 11 PM and joined us in bed.
Wednesday night: Slept in her bed all night after taking her back to bed twice in the middle of the night.
Thursday night: Slept in her bed all night without getting up.
Friday night: Woke up at least four times between 11 and 1:30, and we brought her back to her room each time. Then she slept the rest of the night in her bed.

So far, naps seem to be more difficult than bedtime with the exception of the one horrible night when she woke up probably six times. My husband and I have different recollections of what actually went down that night (I thought she got up four times; he insists it was six), but he did get up more often, so he's probably right. All things considered, though, and of course again with the exception of that one night, it's not too bad yet. Knock on wood. I will tentatively call the toddler bed conversion a success.

As far as other milestones go, we've started working a little more on potty training. I've begun using M&Ms as a reward (just one - is that too stingy?) for actually going, and Bridget's much more excited about trying to use the potty more although I think being fully out of diapers is still a while off yet.

Keep or Donate: Sweater #35 - Sequin Vest

Results:

Donate. This was a close one. My husband and probably at least one other guy have said this sweater looks like a Princess Leia getup. Of course now I can't find a picture to represent that because everything is either her in the slave costume or in the white dress with the buns on her ears. So I don't know; I'll either have to take their word for it or rewatch the movies.

Next one:

You've already seen this one in my Valentine's post, but here it is for voting purposes.

Target

The decision's up to you

Keep or Donate: Sweater #5 - Gray Vest/Cardigan & Sweater #6

Results:

Save for Later. This was a close one! You voted to donate, and I understand why. The bulk of this sweater is not the most flattering for my figure although I do like this outfit. I got this ponte knit New York & Company skirt for Christmas; and after originally balking at the size being too small and nearly returning it, I tried it on and ended up loving it. Turns out my mom-in-law is actually very good at shopping for me.

Since the sweater is so roomy, it's a great thing to have on hand when pregnant, so I'm going to move it to my maternity clothes bin.



And for today:

Banana Republic (gift)

Man, I have big bags under my eyes. Moving on...

The decision's up to you

I have a bonus sweater for you today. This one is from New York & Company, and it was a Christmas present this year, so it's not up for voting. Plus, why would anyone want to donate it? It's adorable, comfy, and the sleeves are long enough! Also, here I'm wearing my new Kut from the Kloth skinny jeans from Hot Mama. So far so good as far as the fit of the jeans goes.

And as one last bonus, here's Bridget in her new Baby Gap outfit with Old Navy leggings. She looks distressed because she was in the middle of searching for her stuffed monkey when I snapped this pic.

Two-Year Stats

She just likes the frosting...she definitely didn't get that from me!
(stolen from my mom's facebook)

It's been awhile since I've done one of these. Bridget had her two-year checkup yesterday, which was supposed to include her Hep A (I think) and flu shots. Unfortunately, since she still has a raging ear infection, those have to wait until next week.

Height: 36.5 inches (97th percentile) - Over three feet! She's one tall drink of water.

Weight: 27 pounds (55th percentile) - She's usually higher in the weight percentile, which was a little concerning to us. Because she's been sick, she recently lost a pound and a half. The doctor said not to worry, though.

Head Circumference: 18.5 inches (36th percentile)

Food: Bridget prefers fruits, veggies (carrots, peas, corn), bread, and yogurt. She likes cereal and crackers as a snack. Sometimes she'll eat meat if it's chicken, lunch meat, or hot dogs, but she won't eat ground beef.

Drink: We forgot that at two years of age, she can switch to 1% milk instead of whole, but since she's still a skinny minnie, we'll probably finish up the whole milk we have first anyway. By the way, I can't say "skinny minnie" to her or she'll want to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Learned that the hard way.

Size: 2T in clothes, 5 in diapers, 6 or 7 in shoes. I keep buying her size 7 shoes thinking her feet are going to grow, but I think her one pair of size 6 shoes fit better at the moment.

Teeth: She's still missing some. She's got four to go on the side (two on top, two on bottom) and then some molars, too.

Sleep: Lately since she's been sick, it's not been unusual for Bridget to wake up once during the night and need some comfort. Once she gets over the ear infection, I think we're going to convert to the toddler bed and see how that goes.

Potty Training: Yeah, about that. We're not rushing it. We do have some big girl undies that we'll start using more often especially once she moves into the next daycare room when they start potty training there.

Favorite Things: Lion King, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Sesame Street

Milestones:

• Can put two words together, but still has yet to really form more than two-word sentences.
• Identifies some colors, but mostly green, which is her favorite color.
• Repeats numbers back as someone counts. 
• Repeats nearly everything that she hears, meaning mommy really has to watch her mouth now.
• Uses real silverware like a pro and prefers that to her little plastic forks and spoons.
• Drinks from a cup, but we still mostly use sippy cups so that she doesn't spill when she's moving around.
• Mimics actions in her environment.
• Walks, runs, and climbs stairs with ease.

Comments from Her Daycare Teacher:

Her teacher says that Bridget is one of the most advanced socially, and that she acts more like a three-year-old. She's the leader in the classroom (and also the oldest; she's moving onto the next classroom next week), and is a very good helper. However, Bridget is easily influenced by bad behavior. If someone else climbs up on the table, she'll do it, too, although she knows it's wrong. The skills Bridget needs to work on are naming colors and counting. Otherwise, she's perfect (her words...maybe mine, too).

Happy Birthday, Love Bug!

Today is my daughter, Bridget's, second birthday! The party's not until Sunday, so I'll be sure to share some pictures after that along with milestones after we go to her two-year appointment, but here are some of my favorite shots from her second year of life.

My very favorite picture. Cutest. Dorothy. Ever.

Love you, baby girl!