Oh happy day! Today, I finally bribed Olivia to poop on the potty instead of her diaper. I promised to take her to the movies (she LOVES the movies) to see Shrek 3. She dutifully marched right in to the bathroom and pooped. Then, she wanted to know when we were going so I went to call the movie theater only to realize that it isn’t playing yet. AHHHHH! Luckily, I talked her into watching Shrek 2 at our house if (Olivia only agreed on these terms) I promised to also buy Skittles and green pop (some 7up knock off that she is only allowed to drink on special occasions and with her poppop AKA grandpa).
Anyhow, she pooped on the potty three times today and I have to say it is awesome. It is much easier to help her wipe than to do the whole diaper bit! I can’t believe how much she has grown up. She just weaned in Feb., turned 3 in Apr. and now she is potty trained! Of course, she still wears a diaper at night but I still count that as potty trained. I don’t want to wake up covered in urine so I don’t know when we will start that…….It just seems like lately, things are happening so fast. So many huge milestones all at once.
Anyway, Olivia got a monster water slide from her pop pop (AKA grandpa). It is 21 feet long and drops 72 inches at a time. The back side is a rock-climbing wall so she should have a fantastic summer. It only took her 1 day and Riley (the 5 year-old little girl next door) before she was going down it and doing all kinds of interesting tricks. I have a feeling we are going to have all the neighborhood kids over all summer long!
I have been busy gardening which makes me very happy. Some friends were throwing away a ton of dianthus and I rescued them from them and my mom gave me a ton of salvia and vinca. I also splurged and got an herb garden and some perennials for the front yard. Olivia and I planted some Basil and today we planted some Sunflowers. I am glad we got this house because it has nothing. So I can do anything I want with it and not feel guilty for tearing up something that was perfectly fine (like nice grass).
So, I have big plans. I am going to plant a beautiful butterfly garden for the girls next year with a little arbor. It is going to be a big square with a hedge all around it so it will be their little secret garden and we can have tea parties out there when they get older. There will be lots of plants that they can eat (nasturtium and herbs) and plants with texture (lambs ear) and color for the butterflies and maybe even some strawberries or maybe grapes? We will see. Luckily, I have this whole year to plan and then I will wintersow the seeds this winter. Hopefully I will be far enough along on the house that I will have more time to garden next summer!
We did plant blueberries. They aren’t doing so well though. They are supposed to have good drainage……Olivia has been hearing the "Baby Olivia Story" about the raspberries and blackberries from our house in Manhattan and how she used to go back there and pick them right off the vine so much that she really wanted those again. Unfortunately, I could only find blueberries. They will likely die though and I can order some blackberries mailorder…..
