The Potty Trained Princess

Lately, Grace’s whole world has revolved around princesses.

In her world, princesses are the ultimate super hero. They dance and twirl and fly, always help those in need. Oh, and the best thing about being a princess? The clothes.

A few months ago, I found a cache of princess dresses and they became out potty training prizes. You peed in the potty? Pick a prize! What will it be? A dress, a wand, some sparkly shoes??

I don’t know if the dresses have really had anything to do with it (she had announced to me that she would no longer need diapers when she went to her new school ages ago), but Grace has been potty-trained for 2 full weeks now.

The feat required one more dress, the one dress that is missing from her extensive collection. The Princess and the Frog Tiana costume. And through the wonder that is the internet, we were gifted* a dress for her final reward from Wholesale Halloween Costumes.

It fit the bill perfectly. Twirly, girly and sparkly. It was everything I had hoped for and more than what Grace expected. She celebrated by watching the movie while wearing the costume.

And then, sly as a fox, edged over to ask what else she could to do earn more princess costumes.

Just keep smiling like this kiddo.

* Wholesalehalloweencostumes.com sent us the Princess and The Frog Tiana dress in exchange for the inclusion of the links you see above. Thank you!

Warm Heart

This past Christmas my Aunt Jean sent Gracie a gift in the mail.

I was overwhelmed by the kind gesture, but groaned at the dubious on the inside.

She sent a movie sized box of Raisinete’s and a gift card. The candy worked out well for me because Gracie lost interest in them after they got stuck in her teeth. Mmmm... well I like chocolate covered fruit. But gift cards are a pain in the ass to someplace where you can’t use the remaining $2.46 towards diapers.

So say hello to Gracie's Build-A-Bear gift card. Matt and I broke and took her to the mall last weekend.

And you know what? It was great. She loved it. LOVED IT. She painstakingly examined every. Single. Animal. And settled on the frog.

~She warmed a little plush heart to put in her creature between her palms and gently placed it in its chest.
~She thanked and hugged after the stuffing process was over.
~She took great pride in giving her newborn a ‘bath’ in the compressed air tub.
~She squealed in delight over the house box it was packaged into.
~She has slept with it every night since it became hers.

So what does all this mean?

That apparently I know nothing about how my child will react in certain situations. I presumed chaos would ensue instead of delight. I was correct; however, about the remaining balance on the card. She wanted her frog sans clothing, so now we have $9.21 left of the card.

I guess it won’t be so bad to go back and pay the difference for a Build-A-Bear cohort sometime in the future though. Thank you Aunt Jean!

Clink

In yesterday's post, I whined about how tired I was. To exemplify this Matt pointed out a bright spot to our weekend, a good thing that I so quickly forgot about in the comments.

When they first opened, Iron Bridge Wine Company was one of our favorite restaurants. Now, they are constantly crowded and thus overpriced, but they still remain one of our favorite wine shops. And boy do they know how to do a wine tasting.

Walking through the door you are greeting with boisterous salutations, instructions about discount deals, a tasting glass, and platters of crudité. Oh, and there is usually a raffle or two too.

It's an idea place to bring a cranky two year old ;), but whatever; she likes the atmosphere. And snacks. You just need to pay special attention to where her sticky little hands are going.

During the hub-a-baloo of 9am drinking, cheese eating and wine selections, Matt forgot all about the raffle drawing. I got a phone call minutes after he left the tasting from the same owner that was hugging customers as they walked through the door.

For moment I felt like I had been there.

Tell Matt to come back, he shouted over the phone in a game show voice, he's won two bee-you-tee-ful wine glasses!

And you know what? They are beautiful. They fall into the same category and good kitchen knives and out shine my collection of Waterford by a mile.

Burgundy Grand Cru Wine Glass

You should hear the sound these glasses make when they clink together! And the two of them together can hold an entire bottle of wine! Thank you Iron Bridge for the bright spot in our weekend.

The Face of Punk

Now that the process is over I can write about it.

I sold a gift. A Christmas gift from Matt to me.

And I feel guilty about it.

Matt bought me tickets to go see the Dropkick Murphy’s for Christmas. Their … quirky. Their …. a little out there for me. Their …. fun. How do you not love a band that comes up with a drinking, carousing song titled, Kiss Me I’m Shit Faced? It has everything – a thick Irish accent, bagpipes, vulgarity and humor. What’s not to like??

They are a punk band though, and I am suburban white bread. As much as I love the idea of rocking out to a CD in my SUV, the thought of getting caught up in a mosh pit filled with unwashed masses sporting piercings and tattoos gave me the cold sweats.

Plus, being completely honest, from the get go the idea of being out late on a Thursday night also gave me the cold sweats. Listen people, I go to bed at 9:30. The opening act wasn’t even going to start until 8pm. Not conducive for getting up at 5am.

When our tried-and-true babysitter backed out on us, it was a fairly easy decision. Let’s just sell the tickets.

Our friend Craig’s List gave us a buyer within a day, and in fact I just handed over the tickets to the lucky *ehem* lady an hour ago.

After talking to the buyer a few times on the phone, I started to have my doubts about the sale. She was SO nice. I kept thinking to myself, maybe I could show up in my cable knit sweater and pink Puma’s and not look like a fool. Maybe everyone will just be wandering around with pints and clinking with random strangers like a big transplanted pub. MAYBE I might even be able to dance and not feel like a fool.

If this girl can do it, why not me???

Then I met her. Whooo Nelly.

Crazy black eye makeup, without the flawless skin and bone structure that makes it work. Three piercings on her tongue. Yeah you read that right. Three. A stud in the middle and little hoops to the left and right. Completed by enough skull wear to open up her own punk boutique.

Ahhh. Me and my pink Puma’s will be staying home and enjoying a fine Zinfandel. Or maybe a glass of Guinness, sans mosh pit. Unless Grace decides to start one….