Thursday, March 03, 2011

Roses, Potty Training and other Randomness

I realized today that I am not an ordinary mother. Or rather, compared to most of the other mothers I know, I am not normal. I think I can count on one hand the number of outings I have had with my daughters on my own. This is not how I pictured my life but it's how it is. When we first moved out here, before we had really met anyone, Ralph stared doing the grocery shopping every other Friday on his own as his way to get out of the house without the girls. The pattern was set and that's usually how we do things. I end up feeling pretty home-body-ish on my days off. So if there are any errands to run, Ralph runs them and I stay home with the girls. See a pattern here? Occasionally, we make family outings and we go to church together. Again, see the pattern? Never me, on my own, with the girls. Not typical.

Today, Ralph had a phone meeting and Zita had a doctor's appointment, or nurse practitioner actually, but it takes so much longer to type that. I decided to take the opportunity for a girl's day out. We went to the appointment, picked up a prescription, picked up a Craigslist item, and went to lunch.

 As this was a novelty for us, I splurged and we went to the Maltby Cafe. Can I just tell you we had the most amazing service? The waitress came right over, asked me if I wanted to order immediately to keep the natives from being restless. When I wasn't quite ready, she assured me that was fine whatever I needed was okay. After I ordered, the girls' food was done first so she brought it right out so I could get them started. My food came shortly after. I had put in a to-go order for Ralph, so she checked with me when she brought my food if I wanted to go ahead and have his packaged up and brought out. She brought that and the check "just in case you just have to go." I'm telling you, I felt so supported, not rushed, not tolerated or criticized for having two small children with me. One of the other waitresses, checked in frequently too. I had a super relaxing lunch with a 2 year old and a 10 month old at a sit down restaurant. Can you believe it?

To add to the potential stress of the day, we are attempting to potty train Nugget this week. We have had more failure than success, to be honest. However, she stayed dry all day while we were out and went on the toilet when we got home! I gave her several opportunities but the toilets in the public restrooms scared her (too big without her seat). Today proved to me she gets the concept, we just need to be consistent and keep working with her. Yay! Due to her love of all things Toy Story, we are stealing an idea from my brother. She saw a Jessie doll in the store the other day and really wanted it. We told her when she learns to go potty in the toilet she can have one. She talks about this doll quite often so hopefully it will be motivating.

Can you believe we are having these conversations?!! I can't! Not ready!!! Whew. Okay. Just had to get that out there. First birthday coming up for the little one, potty training for the big one. What next?

Oh, I'll tell you what comes next. Nugget got her first flower from a boy who's not her daddy. If he wasn't about 30 years her senior and practically (basically a technicality) engaged to another woman who accompanied said flower (a rose, no less), I'd be concerned. She was thrilled and carried it around sniffing it, commenting on how "bewtifwul" it looked and smelled. Pretty darn cute.
*Sigh* Just too cute. 
On another topic of randomness, Ralph and I are thinking about starting a food blog together. Any preferences to where we host it? He votes Tumblr. I was thinking WordPress. Anybody have any thoughts? Our friend, Emily, planted the thought in my head and we're still working through the details in our brains. Name would be a big thing as he has his Helm's Deep blog and I have the Hobbit Door here. Open to any thoughts you all have. I'll leave you with this yummy lunch I found here. So simple yet so yummy! We used this garlic bread seasoning instead of the Parmesan cheese. This is a new staple at our house.

2 comments:

  1. Connie6:14 AM

    We did something similar with Ralph when we were potty training him. It was a ride on airplane. He absolutely love that toy and would ride up and down the sidewalk on it. He earned it by using the potty and then regressed after we got it, so we would take it away from him and that worked great.

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  2. Glad you had a day with the girls! And I'm excited about the food blog, although I have no suggestions for names :(

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