Superwife's Adventures

Thursday, December 02, 2010

Train Day

Mads and I love a spontaneous adventure, so today we joined up with a couple friends and hit the tracks around San Jose for a day out on VTA Light Rail.

Morning snack while waiting for the train.

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On the train platform.

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Her "cheese" face. It's inching closer and closer to her real smile.

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On the train.

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Watching the airplanes when we got to the CDM platform and were waiting for Alia and Tanner.

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Walkin' with friends!

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Sand table at CDM.

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Painting! It's a good thing we got her an easel for Christmas, because she didn't want to leave this!

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Not too long after arriving at the museum, the 4 of us headed out on a nice walk to an early lunch. We stopped off at Specialty's for a delicious meal and my first taste of a Specialty's cookie! Ah-mazing, btw.

Tanner and Maddie decided to do a little dizzy dancing at the table.

After filling up, we took a nice stroll around Christmas in the Park and looked at all of the decorated trees.

Peek-a-boo!

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Unfortunately, it was time for Tanner's nap, so we saw them off at the train station with lots of waving.

I was about to leave when Maddie saw these skateboarders doing tricks and asked to watch for a while. We did and it was definitely entertaining! I don't think they landed a single move, but it was like a highlight reel of rough landings.

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When I was able to pry her away from the 'boarders (after, I'm sure, she stored up a few ideas for later), we walked over to the Guadalupe River Park. We saw some SJPD mounted officers who were super nice to Maddie as they trotted by.

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Pause for photos along the path.

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Kisses!

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And Eskimo Kisses!

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I was hoping to let Mads ride the carousel in the park, but it was closed. Maybe it's a seasonal thing? Good thing I didn't mention it to her earlier in the day. Instead, she had fun playing on the park equipment.

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Eventually we got back on the Light Rail and headed toward Campbell. We sat next to a young guy playing music on his phone. Madison was dancing, head-banging, and generally rocking out. It was too funny and the guy was really sweet to her. He kept saying how cool she was and how she made him want kids. :)

After a pit stop in Tiny Tots for a pee brake for Miss Madison, it was definitely nap time. She eventually fell asleep in the stroller and I found a bench in front of the Ainsley House to rest on while she snoozed.

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By the time she woke up, it was getting pretty dark, so we headed into the library to read some books while waiting for Jase to get off work.

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At 6:30, we met up with the hubs at Aqui for dinner (and a margarita swirl!) He looked through our photos from the day with her and shared his photos from his phone.

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We had such a great time and I can't wait to do it again!

Monday, November 22, 2010

Potty Training

Well, Maddie is 22 months and potty trained!! *knock furiously on wood*

WARNING: The following is a pretty detailed account of our potty training weekend and is, of course, TMI. If you're not interested, I won't be offended if you skip this blog entry entirely. :) You've been warned.

A friend forwarded me the 3 Day Potty Training E-book (thanks, Ashley!) I read through it and really felt like it meshed well with our parenting ways, so a few months ago we set aside the weekend of Nov 19th-21st since the author claims 22 months is an optimal age. Jason even got Friday off to give me backup.

Friday
Madison helped us "throw away" (okay, bag up and hide) all of her diapers and we explained to her what is going on. She tossed the diaper that was on her and we put on the Yo Gabba Gabba underwear she picked out from Target.

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We then proceeded to remind her to let us know when she had to go potty. Over and over. I'll spare all the logistic details that are in the eBook (shoot me an email if you want it), but we pretty much followed it exactly. She had a pee accident at 11 and then a few very small pee accidents as well as many false alarms where she would say, "Pee", we'd run her to the potty, and then nothing.

At 1:30, she started to pee a tiny bit in her undies, then said "Pee" and stopped. We rushed her to the potty and she went!! Her reward was a Hershey Kiss and WOW did she go crazy over that! We also put a sticker on her potty chart. A half hour later, another small pee accident. I figure when she was wearing diapers, she went super often just because it didn't make a difference.

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Based on input/advice from friends and family, we decided to go with Pull-Ups for nap and nightime. So at nap she pooped in her Pull-Up right as she woke up. That evening she peed in the potty and had completely dry undies!!

Saturday
Started with a pee accident around 11AM again. None of it made it into the potty. At 1:30PM : Peed in potty w/ dry undies! 4:00P Woke with mildly wet Pull-Up. 6:30P : Full pee accident. 8:30P : Peed in potty w/ dry undies.

We were facing a 50% success rate, but it was already obvious that she was waiting to pee until she actually needed to instead of the multiple tiny accidents from Friday. I was actually feeling slightly discouraged and wondering what I had gotten myself into... There were also a LOT of false alarms now that she knew she would get a chocolate if she peed. There were even a couple tantrums when I wouldn't give her the chocolate after an unsuccessful try or accident.

Sunday
Mads woke with a full Pull-Up and didn't pee again until 2:10P, but did it in the potty!! She peed once more in the potty later that day and was accident free!

That night, Jason and I decided to go ahead and keep her in the underwear since she did well on Sunday. Two big concerns: 1) OMG what if she has an accident in public?! Like at her gymnastics class?! 2) Um... She still hasn't pooped in the potty! My weird kid is a rare pooper and it's been since Friday and she did that in the Pull-Up.

The hardest part for all of us about this weekend (by far!) was being cooped up in the house for 3 solid days. We are really an on-the-go family and all of us get grumpy and develop cabin fever quite quickly.

Monday
We started out the morning at a friend's house and Maddie happily peed in the potty there when I offered it before leaving for a class. Accident free for the rest of the day. Then right before bedtime, she said "Pee" and ran off to the potty. She went pee and poo! SCORE! I feel so silly for being so excited about someone else pooping, but there it is... I am so proud of my little girl who has handled this all like a pro.

I know accidents are bound to happen, but I also know I'm glad we went for it and Maddie is really happy about her new "Big Girl" status!

Random "Staying Entertained" Photos from the Weekend
This is a fraction of the stuff we did to try to keep the cabin fever at bay.

Put those naughty stuffed animals in Time Out.

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Ride the Mama

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Make Weird Food

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Link here.

Crafting!

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Dragging her father around the house.

Friday, November 05, 2010

San Francisco Giants Ticker Tape Parade

THE GIANTS ARE WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS!!!

We were so excited to be a part of history and celebrate with the giants (and the other 999,999 fans who found a way into the city)!

So the 3 of us spent Tuesday planning/prepping and left the house nice and early (for us) to get to the Santa Clara Caltrain station at around 8:30.

We had to wake Mads up and she was SOUND asleep.

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We were lucky enough to get a parking spot and made our way to the train platform. The line to pay for parking and tickets was MASSIVE. After standing there for over 15 minutes, a Caltrain employee announces that the ride and parking will be free! Sucks for the people who already paid, but a big score for us!

Shortly after, a train pulled up and we made our way on. We went to one of the last cars and were lucky enough to grab 2 seats facing each other on the upper deck.

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We were all decked out and in the spirit!

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Almost everyone on the train was parade-bound.

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So Madison? How many stops left?

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The ride took 2 solid hours to get from San Jose to San Francisco (right in front of AT&T park), but it was fun and Mads was fantastic.

Unloading time! All these people were on just this one train.

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Our friends came in on the next train and we met up to make the walk to the parade route!

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By the time we got there, it was about 11, so the crowd was intense and we were quite far from the route, but the atmosphere was electric and we were pumped!