In a house where we play dress-up on a daily basis, selecting a costume for Halloween can get a little tricky. So it was a good thing that we had several different Halloween events–all of which called for costumes–to attend. The first was our MOMS Club Halloween party. For this party, Ana was a purple fairy.

Then the day before Halloween we went to the Pumpkin Fest at Conestoga Rec Center. I let Ana pick a costume in her dress up bin and told her we would dress up in costumes to go along with her. First Ana picked Snow White. She asked Sim to be Prince Charming and wanted me to be the Evil Queen. Then she changed her mind and wanted to be Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty, for those of you not in the princess loop). She decided Sim would be a great Prince Charming and I should be Maleficent. (Notice I was once again cast as the villain.) So I got into my spooky costume but as soon as Ana saw me she stammered, “No. No, no, no. Noooo. NO.” I guess I made a pretty convincing evil witch because she quickly decided I made a much better nice Queen and asked me to be Aurora’s mom instead. We decided based on that Sim should be her dad, the King.

For Halloween night, I am more particular about Ana’s costume. In fact, I have two requirements. #1. Ana has to be able to wear her costume in the car seat. (I don’t want to have to change her outfit each time we climb in and out of the car.) #2. It has to keep her warm enough that I don’t have to cover it up with a coat. (Here in the Pacific Northwest, our Halloweens are always cold and/or rainy.) So we dressed Ana up as a nice cuddly monkey.

All the pictures are over here and here. Enjoy!

So I’m in the midst of potty-training. It’s not pretty and certainly not easy. Ana is just like me: smart, strong-willed, and likes to do things on her own terms. These are not the best of conditions in which to potty train. But here we are. Back when Ana was about 15-months-old she showed her first interest in potty training. I thought I got lucky and not only got a child who potty trained really early, but did it without any pushing from me.




(Back when we started potty training. Look at how TINY she is here!)

Buuuuut after a couple weeks of going in the potty a couple times a day, she lost interest. She got bored and didn’t want to do it anymore. At the time I understood she was still ahead of the curve and figured I would just try again in a couple months.

And that has been my strategy ever since.

Now here I am, 18 months later. Ana is almost three, still not potty trained, and I am ready to be DONE with it all. I have resorted to just about every strategy I could think of. We have done everything from the sticker chart to full out bribery. Things work for a day or two and then is no longer enough to motivate her. I’ve tried really hard not to compare her to other kids, but the more I see kids her age (or younger!) fully potty trained, the more it irritates me. I know Ana can do this. I know she’s smart enough and has the physical ability to do it, but she is simply being stubborn.

My case in point: the other day out of no where, Ana went upstairs to the bathroom, pulled down her princess Pull-Up (thank goodness she won’t wear anything other than dresses these days because she can’t pull her jeans down by herself yet), and peed in the potty. She yelled out to me, “Mama! I went pee-pee in the potty!” I was totally surprised and excited like you cannot believe. I was thinking about how everyone said she would just decide one day that she was ready to use the potty and that would be that. I was so happy she did it on her own! I had no idea it would come so soon!

I should have known…

Caught up in the excitement, I said, “Ana, I am so proud of you! You went potty all by yourself! Do you want to do that all the time now?”
To which she replied, “No. I just wanted to do it that one time.”
I was floored. “What?! Why not?”
And here is the kicker: she says to me, “I don’t want to, Mama. It was just too much work.”

I’d like to say this story has a happy ending, but that’s parenthood for ya and you all know that’s not always the case. We have good days and bad days. And I am still waiting on that day to come when she just realizes that she wants to be potty-trained. And not that it’s too much work…

On Friday, I, along with a group from our MOMS Club, took Ana for her very first horseback ride. We went to Once Upon a Horse down in Wilsonville and it was amazing. I wasn’t sure how Ana was going to react, but she spotted the horses and was instantly excited. After checking out her options, Ana decided she wanted to ride the white horse, Sugar. She is a 24 year old Welsh pony, that simply loves children and they cannot help but love her back. The instructor gave Ana a tiny helmet to wear and I loaded her into the saddle. I hovered for a minute, half expecting Ana to instantly want off, but instead she leaned forward to stroke Sugar’s mane. From then on, I knew Ana was good to go so I stepped back and watched her ride off and do a few laps around the barn. Additionally, there is an outdoor menage installation that you can trust. For more information, you can also read this.

After I snapped a few pictures, I switched the toggle on my iPhone camera over to video and captured this adorable video:

Do you know how much I was kicking myself for not grabbing the HD Flip? Here I was thinking it would be boring watching a toddler ride a horse in a circle around a barn. But no! Did you catch the princess wave? That was totally unprompted! Ana saw me with my camera out and decided to show off and LET GO of the moving horse with one hand so she could wave at her silly mother. You hear my voice totally cracking? Yeah, that’s me trying to keep my shit together as I see my baby girl has totally grown up when I wasn’t paying attention. Talk about one busy day!

After everyone got to ride, they also taught the children a little about caring for the horses. The kids got to brush the horses and feed them a carrot. (Sure, they glossed right over mucking out the stalls!)

Ana had a great time and cannot wait to go again. In fact, I am pretty sure she thinks that Sugar is now her horse, so we will have to go back to visit her very soon! You can see all the pictures from Ana’s first horseback riding outing over here. Enjoy!

The other day I took Ana to pick up her flower girl dress for her Uncle Jesse’s beach wedding in September. Nicole (Ana’s future Auntie) had already picked out the dress, but we needed to try it on to determine which size she needed. We ended up buying the smallest size it came in (2T) and still need to have it taken in. My skinny little princess. But while we were there Ana had the best time dancing around in her dress, trying on various accessories and of course, the shoes! Here are the pictures from Ana’s Ultimate Dress-Up session:

Ana in her beautiful flower girl dress.

Checking out the hair accessories.

Watching herself walk in the mirror.

Blowing kisses.

Trying on gloves.

In some fancy princess shoes.

Last week Ana and I met with a lovely photographer, Meg, who had a photo shoot with Ana. They played with dolls, had a tea party and even did some jumping on the bed. But I have to stop myself. I don’t want describe it, because Meg said it better than I ever could have myself. I will just point you directly to Meg’s site and the article she wrote up about Ana.

Thank you, Meg, for taking some time out of your busy day to remind me that I have the best job on earth. Your photographs are priceless and your words brought tears to my eyes.