Farewell Firebird

A chapter of our life came to a close at the end of August. We traded in the ol' Firebird for a more family friendly vehicle. Although it was slightly a good riddance feeling I was experiencing, I couldn't help but reminisce as we left it at the dealership. Here are some pictures of it's happy (or not so happy) life with us depending on which years we are talking about.

Robby bought the Firebird brand new in 2000.

The car is special because it is what he drove when I met him. We drove it on all our dates, except the first one when Steve his brother let us take his Mustang. I have always called it the race car even though I have been informed that it is not really cut out for racing : )

Robby drove this car all over Texas. On one trip, a rider in the passenger seat unlatched the lock for the T-top & it flew off & landed on the side of the highway when they were going quite fast. They returned to it & put it back on the car....unharmed (the T-top & any other cars on the road).

He drove it when he moved back to Dallas one summer packing just about everything he owned in it. The story goes that the only place for his goldfish to ride was in a milk jug between his knees for 6 hours.

He drove it from Rowlett to Lubbock with our two little puppies in it (when they still fit in a car that size). The size of our dogs greatly contributed to the purchase of the F-150.

Once Rob moved to Australia in Fall 2003, I did a lot of visiting at his parents house. This picture was taken to send to Rob to let him know we were both doing alright. I didn't feel the urge to jump on the roof. We left our wedding in the Firebird. Steve got it super cleaned up & it was great minus the Armor All on the interior that left black streaks all over the right side of my wedding gown.

My mom took this picture as we were crossing over the Lubbock city limit sign headed back to school as The Valentine's. Right after this picture was taken my Dad got pulled over for speeding up so my mom could take the picture. Haha! So glad we have it though!

When we got married, Robby brought the Firebird & I brought my Mazda 626. My car was a bit older than his so when we purchased the truck, we sold the Mazda...tear : ( I then became the primary driver of the Firebird. At this point it was still in great shape. From this point on is when it's little life began to go down to tubes....at a fairly fast pace.

First of all, Robby says I drove this car like it was a tank. Within the first 2 weeks of being the primary driver, I made my first mistake. I was leaving my friend Brooke's house who lived in an older part of Richardson where the driveways were really narrow & had a large curb on either side. I apparently was not paying too much attention when I heard the big crack. I had backed onto the curb & once the wheel hit the road, the ground effect on the front of the car cracked...very loudly. I still remember Brooke's face. I told Robby later & he kindly said I needed to pay more attention : )

Over the next year of driving the ground effect would dangle & make a rattling sound until I stopped the car, got out & put it back in the right spot. Robby was driving it from Downtown Dallas to Rockwall in a torrential rainstorm headed out to a rehearsal dinner for my cousins wedding. He went through lots of puddles & when he arrived, the ground effect was no longer there.

We talked about getting a new one then we decided we didn't care so this is what it looked like for the rest of it's life with us....

Following my careless driving off the curb, I really shaped up & paid much more attention. One afternoon I was getting home from work before Robby. I opened the garage, had the window down, the music off, & I was NOT talking on my phone. I pulled in as slow as humanly possible in a race car & right as I got all the way pulled in I heard an awful sound. I turned the car off, jumped out & saw that a camping chair was wedged around the low light. How on earth that happened I do not know but, I tried to pull it out. It was wedged SO tight there was no hope in covering up my mistake before the hubby got home. I heard him pulling in so I ran as fast as I could to catch him before he saw it but when I opened the door to the garage he was stepping over the chair towards me. It still makes me laugh to think about how long it took for him to get it unwedged. He was pretty impressed with my expert aim at the camping chair.

The driver side window starting giving me trouble a few months before we moved to Orlando. I would unroll it to badge into the garage at work & then it would roll up really slowly. Sometimes I would have to turn the car off & back on to get it to go up. I failed to ever mention this to Robby.

Fast forward to the day we packed up the moving truck in May 2008. Steve & Jenny had helped us that evening. Robby unrolled the window as he pulled the car up onto the car carrier behind the moving truck so he could here Steve direct him. We then took the picture below...such a happy moment.
The next moment, not so happy. Robby pushed the button to roll the window up & nothing happened. I opened my big mouth & said "oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that I have been having trouble with that window for 3 months." You can imagine how the rest of that conversation went : ) End of that story, it rolled up eventually that evening.

Once we moved to Orlando, it struggled to roll up for about 6 more months before completely dying. I started to become deathly afraid of being pulled over by a police officer for this very
reason. At this point I was pregnant with Charlotte. I pictured getting pulled over. The officer would say "Ma'am could you unroll your window please?" I would say, "it doesn't unroll sir." Then he would make me get out & lay face down on the concrete with my pregnant belly while he searched my race car with tinted windows for drugs or something. I know this is far fetched but I was really scared. Rob along with my brothers found this hilarious. Just for the record, this might be the most uncomfortable car to drive with a 9 month pregnant belly.

Soon after Charlotte was born, a good friend of mine was coming to visit & she & her husband were going to use the car while they were in town. I was being a good hostess & took it to the Mobil station to fill it up with gas. I then thought it would be nice to get the outside washed. As I was pulling in, I remember thinking "I can't remember the last time I took this car to the car wash!" I was QUICKLY reminded why when the water started pouring in the crack at the top of the driver side window from it not rolling up all the way. I ended up with my shirt off holding it against the window praying that no one was looking. I along with the driver seat & dashboard was soaking wet by the end of the ordeal. Chalk that one up to sleep deprivation with a newborn.
A couple other quirks- it had a funny stench because of the water that would sneak in when it rained (everyday in Florida), the gas gauge didn't work so I would fill it up all the way then set the mile counter & know I could go to 300 before filling up again, the defroster was worthless- I kept a pile of towels in the back seat to wipe down the exterior windows & interior front window for every trip to work.

I can't even count how many times I would be at a light and the teenage boy next to me would be revving his engine like he wanted to race me. I should have taken at least one of them on before trading the ol' race car in!

So, we have debated on when to replace it & the day finally came. Here is Charlotte & Rob outside of the Firebird before taking it in!

Char enjoying one last imaginary race

The new ride, a 2008 Ford Expedition with lots of growing room

I didn't notice when I took the picture but you can see the reflection of the Firebird in the Expedition....kind of neat!

Farewell Firebird, you served us well (when we took good care of you). We are enjoying your replacement & hope you find someone who will race you against teenage boys at street lights. You might enjoy the rush in your old age ; ) Someday the girls will ask about that ol' race car I used to drive around & I will show them this blog post.

Potty Training Success!

I will begin by exclaiming "POTTY TRAINING IS OFFICIALLY OVER WAHOOOOO!" It was quite an exciting 3 days for us and it is now complete. I am glad Eloise is only 3 months old because it will take me quite some time to regain the amount of energy needed to potty train another child : )

Potty Training in the Valentine Nest

First order of business, stocking up-

M & M's, check!
Lot's of undies, check!
A super cool potty, check!
3 extra exciting prizes, check!

I really wanted to wait until November to potty train Charlotte. In October, I will be flying to Texas alone with both girls & didn't want the added stress of using the potty but little Miss Charlotte had her own plan! About 3 weeks ago, Charlotte started freaking out everytime I would put a diaper on her. She would scream & say "owww! tight!" So, I thought maybe we needed to bump up a size which put us a size away from adult diapers : ) I brought home the size 6 diapers, put one on her & she went to bed. Problem solved, or so I thought! The next morning her diaper was off when she woke up & the bed was wet. Who new? Our child prefers to sleep in the nude! This was a developing trend with Char so after a few days of relentless screaming while the diaper was on or finding her naked with you know what everywhere we decided we were done with diapers. I cancelled anything that was on our schedule for 3 days in a row & planned to abide by the "rules" in my ebook.

About a year ago I heard about a friend from college who used the 3 Day Potty Training method with her 18 month old & had complete success. I figured that I would just check it out & see if it sounded like something I might be interested in. I definitely was interested after reading the reviews! Up until day 1 of potty training, Charlotte had never even sat on a potty. This is one of the many reasons I am still so surprised at our results. She was completely obsessed with wearing panties over her diaper though & at any given time she may have been found with up to 9 pairs on at a time. All that to say, I was as prepared as I could be when we began.

Here is how our 3 days went....

Day 1: We eat breakfast then take Charlotte's diaper off & make a big deal about it being thrown in the trash as the last diaper. She excitedly selects her first pair of panties to wear for the day. I show her the new potty & tell her to keep her panties dry & tell mommy when she needs to go potty. This method requires that you are pretty much within arms length of your child every moment they are awake for 72 hours so we begin playing with a puzzle together. I remind her frequently to let me know when she needs to go potty. I fill her sippy cup up with juice & keep it topped off through the day so there is lots that needs to come out : ) Within 20 minutes she starts to go which really surprises her. I scoop her up, carry her to the potty to finish the last little bit. We make a big deal out of the 3 drops that made it in. M & M & sticker are awarded to the beaming 2 year old. She then proceeds to run full speed into the living room & do 5 somersaults in a row. We just about died laughing, we had never even seen her do one somersault! Over the next 8 hours, we had about 40 false alarms & went through about 20 pairs of panties due to the not realizing what was happening. She skipped her nap on this day which made for a very grumpy & non compliant child. All day long I continued to scoop her up & get her to the potty to finish. We spent every moment together & at the end of the day she was saying "Go away Mommy." It kind of made me laugh. I am sure she was tired of me : ) We put her to bed in panties for the night. I was up late steam cleaning urine off of the floors & washing all the panties in preparation for another day.

Day 1 - one of the many false alarmsDay 2- She has one accident overnight which really upsets her & makes it difficult to go back to sleep therefore we enter day 2 a little sleep deprived. Day 2 is a repeat of day 1 at least for the first half. One thing that is frustrating throughout the morning is she lets her bladder get so full it hurts but won't sit down & let it empty all the way. After lunch was the very first time she recognized when she needed to go & ran as fast as she could to make it to her potty. She almost made it but emptied her bladder completely once she was there so it was a success. She gets a couple M &M's, a sticker & a Wonder Woman mini race car. She takes a nap for 3 hours & stays dry. She still has some accidents in the evening. By the end of this day, I am EXHAUSTED! I became ridiculously emotional after Charlotte was in bed. I did some crying & then some laughing at myself for being so out of control about potty training....all of this while steam cleaning the floors again.

Day 3- Charlotte wakes up dry after 11 hours of continuous sleep! The rest of the day starts with a bang when she lets her bladder get so full once again refusing to sit down on the pottty for more than 3 seconds. She is screaming, I am frustrated, Robby bursts out of his office. He tells me loudly that this is ridiculous, I have now gone from torturing my child to torturing him. (hahahaha) He says to move the potty to another bathroom so he can get some work done without a screaming 2 year old (and a crying 2 year olds' mother.) The conversation is tense. I tell him that I am so mad at him that I didn't want to talk to him or see him & to let me take care of Charlotte & the potty training. We laugh hysterically about the entire interaction later in the day but in that moment....there are no smiles : ) Shortly after this conversation I try to quit. I feel like I can't clean up one more accident on the floor. I ask Charlotte if she wants to wear a diaper. She starts screaming "nooooooooooo!" Within 10 minutes she says"tee-tee mommy" runs straight to the potty, sits down & goes! Dry panties for the rest of the day!

Day 3- adding a sticker to her Good Job Char poster next to the potty Some of the things I want to remember about potty training this funny girl:

How she says the names of the characters on her panties. "doh-wa"-Dora, "pin-cess"- princess, "be-ow"-Hello Kitty, "mee-ee"- Minnie Mouse.

Everytime she would sit down on the potty she would look up at the Good Job Char sign & say the letters outloud followed by the animal sounds of the stickers she had previously chosen.

She would lean over & read the letters (that were upside down) on her potty outloud "B-a-b-y B-j-o-r-n."

She had been such a stinker & would never count past 3 with me. While she was sitting on her potty & I was sitting in front of her she grabbed my toes & counted all the way to 10 without any help! She then smiled at me as if to say "Ha! Bet you didn't know I could do that!"

After going on the potty she would come out & report to the dogs. For example "Bee (Bennett) or Bah (Bella), I tee-tee paw-ee, ema- em (m&m) kee-ka (sticker), yes? big girl!"

How she remembered the exact 2 pairs that she had a poopie accident in & REFUSES to wear them saying "poopie mommy poopie!" even though I tell her I washed them & show her how clean they are.

Since being potty trained she wants to wear just panties & a shirt all day every day & it is a fight to get shorts on her

She was so proud of herself & we were proud of her too. Here she is next to her sign on Day 3. We are currently weaning her off "ema-ems" so the sign is now covered in stickers.

Here is my adorable little potty trained girl....How did you get so big Charlotte? She loves making silly faces at me when I am trying to take her picture.Overall, it was intense but the outcome is just unbelievable so I would have to recommend it. One tip, if you have a 3 month old baby, get someone else at your house to help! We are close to 2 weeks post potty training with zero daytime accidents & a few night time accidents. My favorite part, seeing her run around in her undies : )

Grandma's Galore

A week of fun with Char & Elo's Grandma & Great Gran has ended. They weren't the only ones who were sad to see them go! I so enjoyed spending time with these lovely women plus, I kind of got used to having an extra set of hands around the house again! We spent a lot of time at home with short outings during the day. I worked one day so they could have 14 whole hours of Charlotte & Eloise by themselves....they loved it.

Great Gran & Charlotte spent some time coloring & playing with stickers (a new obsession).

A trip out the back door to enjoy a little sun.

One thing I love about Great Gran is that she can carry on a really long conversation with a baby. She is a pro at coaxing out the sweetest coos & can get more grins than anyone else. Eloise spent quite a bit of time chatting with Great Gran.

Eloise during the climax of the story Great Gran was telling her....

Phew! That was intense....glad we are on to the happier part of the story!

We took one day & drove out to Lakeland to meet two of my mom's cousins. We stopped by a couple fabric stores downtown before heading over to the park. Here are the happy Grandma's with the girls.

We enjoyed a couple hours outside under a gigantic oak tree while Charlotte played. She loved the playground & swing but we could not keep her away from the Splash Pad! Yes, we forgot her swimsuit so she got to play in her panties! This picture cracks me up....she spent a lot of time standing on this gators' tail.

After a long day out, we cooked dinner at home & relaxed for their last evening at The Valentine Hotel.

This was the first picture Robby snapped of all 5 of us, couldn't believe we were all smiling!

Charlotte was in a silly mood, as usual so it was hard to get her to look at the camera. Eloise on the other hand couldn't take her eyes off of it : )

One final picture of the five of us.....

Sadly enough, visits always go too fast & the countdown restarts for the next time we will see each other. I loved getting to see Great Gran meet Eloise & enjoy lively Charlotte. She is a wonderful mother herself to 4 girls & has plenty of wisdom to share. I am thankful to have these two women in my life to share in the joy of raising my girls.

Eloise at 3 months

Baby Eloise is 3 months old & cute as can be! She has become quite giggly this past month which is absolutely precious. I am fairly confident in saying that we have settled in to the new normal of life with 2 kids & I think Eloise likes having us as her family : ) She usually looks like this.
She is fattening up real nice as I like to say & tipped the scales at 13lb 4oz around the 2.5 month mark. Just for the record, Charlotte only weighed a few ounces over that at 5 months of age! She is most comfortable in 3-6 month clothes & size 2 diapers. She can already wear the shoes that Charlotte got around 5-6 months old! So I guess we could say that she is living up to her name's meaning "healthy & wide!" I love every single roll on her thighs & can't help but squeeze them...it makes her smile real big. We call her "cheeks" quite often, it seems to fit!

My brother Kyle came to visit for nearly a week & we had SO much fun together! The girls love him, especially Charlotte. He is hilarious & keeps us both laughing. He got some quality snuggle time in with his newest niece. I should post a baby picture of him because every now & then I think my girls resemble him. Here is Kyle & little Miss Elo.

She is great at holding her head steady for a long period of time now & is still working hard to enjoy tummy time. She may not like it because her big sissy likes to do her tummy time directly in front of her face. Eloise is really starting to enjoy being around Charlotte. Many times even with a lovingly overbearing big sister only millimeters away from her face, she still manages a grin much to Charlotte's delight. I can't wait until Charlotte can get her to laugh!

This girl lights up when her Daddy is in the room. He lights up too when he is around his girlie pies! He starts the day with us helping in the kitchen while I nurse Elo then he jumps right into the action when he is done working. Char & Elo know that they are loved by their Daddy!
Her typical day includes eating at or close to 7:30, 10, 1, 4, 6:30 & 8 before going down for the night. During week 11 she started sleeping 11-12 hour stretches every night! She has been consistently doing that now for about 10 nights. IT IS AMAZING & I am beginning to feel rested again. We are a big fan of the Babywise method & have had great outcomes with Charlotte & so far with Eloise! She has been waking up around 7 & will just coo to herself until I come to get her. She is a breastmilk only baby thus far & has finally gotten the hang of taking a bottle. This is a good thing because Mommy went back to work a week ago! She likes her naps & is usually ready for them about an hour & 15 minutes after waking up. She decided to ditch the full swaddle around week 11 & now sleeps like she is about to be arrested, arms straight up over her head. I am swaddling her from the chest down to keep her warm & cozy.

She loves being the the sling on me when I am busy chasing around Charlotte or we are out & about but she doesn't mind spending some time in her crib with the mobile on or in the Bumbo chair. In fact, sometimes she gets so comfortable that she just falls asleep....

She is reaching for toys & following us with her eyes really well. When you say "Elo" her eyes get really big which in turn makes us laugh really hard! And yes, her tongue is ALWAYS sticking out just a little bit.

Over all, this might be the happiest easy going baby I have ever been around. Is that typical for a second child? I hope that is typical for a 3rd or 4th as our family grows in the coming years because life with Elo is a breeze!
Just wondering what is in store for us with this sweet girl over the next month! I sure whatever it is will be accompanied by lots of smiles & giggles!

Beach Trip!

While my brother Kyle was visiting, we decided on a whim to head over to Clearwater Beach to enjoy an afternoon of sunshine. I think I must of forgotten how not fun it is to be at the beach with a teeny baby in the middle of the afternoon....in August : ) We ended up only staying for about an hour before heading over to Tampa Bay for dinner. The time we spent was a blast though! Charlotte ran as fast as she could to the edge of the water, stopped & threw her hands in the air.

Charlotte commanding the ocean

Her own personal life guard

Me & Eloise

my little old lady ; )

Sometimes when Charlotte says "Eloise" it sounds like "Elvis." Maybe she says it on purpose....

Elo's toes in the ocean for the first time

Charlotte didn't take long to warm up to the ocean. She played with a little boy her age for a bit. They ran back & forth many times from the edge of the water to the soft sand. Since our day at the beach she has been saying "boy" alot....yikes!

It didn't bother her at all when she would fall into the waves & get her head wet. I was shocked because she is usually very cautious.

Here she is with a big grin on her face...

I am looking forward to another beach trip when it cools off a little bit....like in November ; ) I do enjoy living in Central Florida & having the choice of 2 coastlines for an afternoon trip!

First Haircut!

I cannot believe I am writing this post but it's true, Charlotte got a HAIRCUT! We never thought she would have enough hair to cut but somehow, it turned into this........

lovely curls, from where I do not know

Eloise got to spend some time with Aunt Jenny while we took Charlotte by herself for the exciting first haircut. We had a recommendation for Sharkey's Cuts for Kids in Avalon Park & were very pleased with their service.

Charlotte got to sit in a pink & purple Barbie Jeep

She flipped out when Frankie the stylist tried to put the drape on so we went without!

Her face looked like this most of the time. No smiling but no screaming, we were good with that!

Here is a sweet baby curl that fell on her arm : )

The hair dryer was a bit intimidating so she held on tight to mommy...I loved it!

She got a butterfly clippie for being such a good girl

Walking out with Daddy

The new do!

It looks so nice & fresh & actually curls a little more tightly than before. So sweet!