The holiday weekend, part 3

We woke up early again on Sunday to take a walk to the Starbucks at Safeway to get coffee for me and milk and diapers for Stasa. 



After Stasa was down for a nap Tom and I hauled 150 10-pound landscaping bricks from around our house so they could be hauled away. Then we sat around waiting for all of the Craigslist people to come pick up their purchases. And we waited and waited and waited and waited some more. Apparently noon really means "any time in the afternoon".





Finally we got ready for our 4th of July festivities and headed out to our family's houses for a quick visit and BBQ. Unfortunately, Stasa's bedtime is waaaaaaaay before it gets dark so we were unable to hang around and see any fireworks, but I did catch a glimpse of some through one of our living room windows last night. Maybe next year we can do the fireworks thing with her.

The holiday weekend, part 2

We woke up early on Saturday and headed out on a walk to the Starbucks at our local Safeway. On our walk, we spotted this amazing sign: "No gimmicks here. with $10.00 purchase". Yeah, no gimmicks. 



After we got back home, we took off for Lowe's to pick up some storage units for the shed. We came home and put Stasa down for an early nap and then spent the rest of our morning and early afternoon organizing and cleaning the shed.


After that, we got cleaned up and went over to James' house for an early 4th of July BBQ. Stasa spent the majority of the time climbing up and down the stairs on the deck and running around James' house with another little boy, Austin.


Once we got home and put Stasa to bed, we spent the night cleaning and reorganizing our utility room and listing a bunch of items on Craigslist for sale (and some for free). 

The holiday weekend, part 1

We kicked off our holiday weekend with a quick trip to the pool and as usual, we had the baby pool to ourselves. Stasa's getting more acquainted with her water wings and walked around trying to blow them up after she saw me do it.





After the pool, we headed home to relax a bit until Tom got home. Stasa's hair gets crazy after the pool and I love fluffing it up to make it even wilder.







I was lazy and didn't feel like eating anything we had in the house, so we went out for sushi at this local place, Hooked, that someone at work told me about. Tom had never tried sushi before and we each chose a few different types to share. And this place had a patio so we got to enjoy the beautiful weather, too.

Happy Independence Day!

Sassy-pants will of course be celebrating with us, though I'm not sure if that will include fireworks and if it does, she'll definitely be asleep before they're started.


I took some portraits for fun the other day, though they didn't go quite as well as I had planned in my head. Stasa preferred running back and forth on my backdrop instead of sitting and giving me smiles. This was the typical face she was giving me:



Then I got lucky and captured this sweetness:



Then a split second later, she was done.

Introducing the potty

Almost all of our friends started introducing the potty to their kids and Stasa was starting to show the signs of being interested in her diaper and the potty so we jumped on the bandwagon and bought her a potty, too. We got her the First Years 4-in-1 potty since it was a no-frills, gender neutral and easy to clean potty.





So far she understands what it is and runs to it if we ask "do you need to go potty?" but she hasn't peed in it yet. She did go #2 in it for the first time the other night, but it wasn't because she alerted us and went. I noticed her poop signs and asked her to go to the potty. And cleaning poop out of the potty that doesn't flush? Pretty gross, but much easier than changing a poopy diaper.


We try to get her to sit on her potty at least once a day, but she's still more interested in putting toilet paper in it than actually using it for its intended purpose. I did take advice from a colleague and put a small stack of books next to her potty to keep her entertained while she sits and that seems to work for about 10-15 minutes, which is plenty of time for her to do her business. I did try running water while she was sitting, but that was a bust because she preferred playing with the water instead of sitting on her potty.


We're going to keep at it, but not force it. For now at least she is getting used to having the potty around.


Update: She peed in the potty first thing Thursday morning!!!

Caged

For some reason Stas really wanted to play in her crib Tuesday afternoon. So I threw her in with her blankets, lovey and bears and she had a blast.





And look at this crazy face she kept giving me:



After about 30 minutes she decided she was done being caged and was ready to come out.



Upon being released she ran over to the glider to practice her daredevil skills. I'm pretty impressed that she's able to climb in and out of the chair without falling and she's even able to climb up on the rocking ottoman, too.







Annnnnnd my new favorite picture of our baby:



After dinner she had a bath since she's been spending time at the pool with Gigi at daycare.





And then she got to play the guitar for a little while with daddy before bedtime. She's actually pretty good at strumming and loves being daddy's capo.

Hairbow

Stasa's hair is finally long enough for the cutest pigtails and side ponytails. Her hair is just starting to get in her eyes, so I pin it back with a clip or put it in a ponytail. Last Friday I added a bow since YiaYia and Grandpops were coming over for dinner.


The little "cheese" monster:



and her tiny little ponytail:



We let her run around for a bit to get rid of some of her endless energy before dinner. She loves that the pear tree has really low branches within her reach.





And she also loves running into all of our neighbor's yards. It's a "fun" game her for now, since she knows we'll chase after her.