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Today is a holiday on top of a holiday. Not only do the girls have school off for President's Day, but it is also this girls third birthday. (you can take a look at her first birthday party here)


We had the family party last night but we've got more out of control 3-year-old fun planned for today. So I'm off to put make-up on Barbie and play with race cars. Check back tomorrow when I'll have a report on some grown-up fun from this weekend. (Hint - it rhymes with mestate sale)


Until then, may your day be as bright and sunny as our centerpiece was. (three guesses what the theme of the day was)

Happy Monday (she says with a forced smile that comes after a long holiday weekend)! Thanks everyone for the kind words about the CNN feature and my birthday. 'Merica and I had one great birthday celebration. Here is hoping your weekend was filled with summer fun.

I'm going to diverge from design today to give y'all an update on the potty training front and share some successes and some rather stinky failures. If you don't want to hear about the bodily movements of a toddler, I totally understand and I'll talk with you on Wednesday. For the rest of you, let's chat.

As I said before, I changed up my tactics a bit this time around to accommodate for my independent Eve. I read blogs, books, articles, and talked to anyone and everyone to find out what worked for them. And from all of that research the only thing I learned is that there is no magic potion. For every person who said, "Blank worked really well for my child", I had someone else who said, "Don't do blank, it didn't work for my child". Only you know your child - their temperaments and sticking points - so don't follow one theory or method, but instead follow your gut and go with the flow (I couldn't not have a pun).

So with that in mind, I'm not going to give a tutorial or the 10 best tips etc, because I don't think this is something that can be wrapped up that easily. I'm simply sharing what we did. Take it as advice or just a funny antidote. Whichever you choose.


I want to be just like you.
Eve has no interest in following my directions, however she is more than happy to do anything her big sister does. So for several weeks before we officially started training I left the door open while Amelia went to the bathroom (I know, eww). Eve would hang out in there, sometimes watching and sometimes just playing in the sink. But she noticed.

Take your pants off.
We took the standard trip to Target where Eve got to pick out any underwear she wanted (Dora) and any candy she wanted (Peanut Butter M&M's). But for the first few days she had no underwear on at all and she's worn only dresses. This saves valuable seconds between the 'I have to go' and the actual...going. It may not seem like much but that could be the difference in those first days between celebrating success and just almost making it.


Cold turkey.
This goes right along with the whole pants thing - No pull ups. We go all the way in this house. It makes for a messy few days but I think its worth it in the long run. How confusing to put on things that look and feel just like diapers but be told they aren't diapers. We do however do wear the night time pull ups but that's mostly because I'm lazy and don't want to change sheets in the middle of the night. One battle at a time I think.

Clear the decks.
I have a hard time hiding my frustration when my favorite pillow/chair/rug is hurt in any way (mean mommy) and if there is one time when a child's ego is especially delicate it is when they are trying to master a new task. So to decrease the chance of injuring any of mommy's favorites and keeping spirits high, I covered furniture with towels and rolled up any rugs I was concerned about. We also tried to hang out in the yard whenever possible as nature doesn't care about her floors as much as I do.


House arrest.
This goes right with the no pull ups and no underwear thing. Eve and I hunkered down and didn't leave the house until we had a full successful day, (Well, that isn't entirely true but I'll get to that in a minute) which turned out to be about four days. Amelia was at camp every day so Eve and I had the house to ourselves and it was all about her. I didn't let her out of my sight until we had a few successes as I didn't want her failure to be because I wasn't there to help her get on in time. That potty was two carted around everywhere.

Don't ask me again.
The first day I did the 'let's sit down every 10 minutes and see if anything happens' theory but I quickly found that it created more anxiety than necessary. It is a big change to all of a sudden have to sit on this little throne and Eve was confused as to why she was being made to sit in that chair so often. It was starting to become a frustration for her and I wanted that chair to be something positive. So I changed course and backed off the regimented schedule. Instead I'd ask her after snacks, short walks around the yard, a tv show or anytime I went. This kid is far more 'go with the flow' so by making our training more relaxed she felt more comfortable and willing to give it a try.


Pavlov's Dog.
If there is one thing this girl loves, it is candy. Stickers work better for some kids, little figurines, whatever. The point is it is a prize. However, the prize is not given just for sitting on the potty. M&M's are only handed out once there is a success. I know a lot of people give out the treat anytime the kids says they need to sit down, whether they do anything or not. But (again mean mommy) I think this is silly and confusing. If all I had to do to get something I wanted was just do 20% of the job, hell I'd be asking to sit on the potty every 5 minutes. Nope. You give me something to flush and I'll give you some chocolate and peanut butter goodness.

And the oscar goes to. Hand in hand with the M&M's come the theatrics. Accomplishments need to be celebrated much in the same way a Kardashian throws a wedding - over the top. We cheered, we clapped, we danced, we sang, we called people to tell them. In the words of Kool and the Gang - Celebrate good times, come on.

The P word.
Our downfall. Eve got the hang of peeing on the potty pretty quickly (day 2), but the other P word however was not so easy. The first day she didn't have one at all and the second day we had an accident. No biggie. The third day we had one success and one failure. Moving in the right direction. Then we arrived at the fourth day. Ugh, the fourth day. We had been doing so well up until then that she and I got a little cocky and decided to break one of my cardinal rules - Stay HOME. We picked up Amelia and her friend from camp and I decided to treat the girls to McDonald's. Eve had just gone to the bathroom before we left and I even brought the potty in the car, just in case. We waited in line, got our food and found a seat right next to the play place, all without incident. But then Eve walked over to the slide. The horror. I'll spare the specifics but my tiny 2-1/2-year-old managed to  horrify and disgust two 10 year old. Boys that just a few minutes before were enjoying a very creative burping contest. The janitor had to be called over and gave me the look of death as he put up the yellow cones. I had been shamed out of McDonalds. I didn't think it was possible. And all because I broke the 4th rule of fight potty club - stay home.

Happy Wednesday all! How is your week moving along? We are on day three of summer vacation and I'm already worn out. We've been spending a lot of time outside and playing many many games of 'library'. Basically I sit on the floor in their room and pick out books and the girls check them out. It is one of those great games that requires minimal brain power from me and keeps the girls occupied for hours. I am a game creating genius.


The hot item at 'the library' these days is my absolute favorite childhood book. The Fourteen Bears in Summer and Winter. The fourteen bears are kind of like the Duggars of the literary world - 12 sisters and one brother who live with their mom and dad in the forrest. They have great adventures in the summer and winter (duh, as the title implies) but what I would pour over for hours were the pictures.


Each sister had her own tree and each tree was decorated differently. It was like House Beautiful for those under 10. You had traditional, mid century, chippendale, country; you name it they covered it. There is even a feature on how they decorated their front doors. Pure heaven.

My copy is well loved, shall we say, and over 35 years old. So just for fun I did some digging to see if I could get a new copy. And I can, for $641.70.

Excuse me?!

Apparently this book went out of print not long after my sisters and I got it for Christmas and it became quite the collectors item. They started a reprint in 2005 but it went back out of print in 2008 and has been 'a get' ever since. Who knew?

Makes me think twice about playing library with it. But part of what I love about the book is how used it is. One page even has a rug that has been colored in by...someone. I vividly remember doing it oddly enough. I was watching Punky Brewster at the time. Ah, like it was yesterday.

Do you have any items from childhood that were a glimpse into what you wanted to do when you grew up? Any happy memories about an old book? Ever color in a book? Yeah, me neither.

We survived the storm and are on our second snow day. Funny how that term's (snow day) meaning changes so drastically when you are the parent, rather than the child.

We've already gone outside to play in the snow three times and have enjoyed several cups of hot chocolate.


The natives are already getting restless though so we are venturing out today. Wish us luck and have a great weekend!

It was pointed out to me by Amelia (my 5 year old) that we don't have any Valentine's Day decorations. Now unless it is Christmas I've never really gotten into many decorations, but I'm not one to ever deny the wee ones some beauty. And what better excuse for afternoon crafts with the girls than Valentine's Day prep.

I loved the pom pom pillow that Camila created (inspired by the always wonderful Anna Spiro) and thought it would be a great chance to use up the left over pom poms I had from Christmas. But to involve the girls in the project I decided to include some finger painting.

This canvas has been in the basement for quite some time. I can't remember what this project was for but obviously it didn't turn out very well. No sense in letting it go to waste.


The girls were given a choice between blue, pink or yellow.


They chose blue.

As with any good finger painting project, it didn't take long at all to get the canvas covered. My little artists did quite a fine job of creating layers and depth of color I think.


Next we created a heart to cut out


and positioned it on the canvas. I traced the heart with a blue pen so we would have a line to follow


while Amelia laid out the colors in a pattern. (which isn't really a pattern at all but a word she loves to use)

the can kept the paper from moving

Making sure to follow the outline, we put the glue gun to work.


We made ourselves a fine little heart and the girls LOVED bossing telling me which pom pom to put where.




There was the last minute addition of a pink border around the frame after it was decided that there wasn't enough pink. And really, when is there ever enough pink, right?


It is a hit with the girls and has been featured in about every room in the house. I might not be able to limit it to Valentine's Day.


Do you do much decorating for Valentine's Day? Do you even celebrate Valentine's Day? Do you have a babysitter you can send over on Thursday?

Bower Power

Before I jump into a recap of my weekend, let me first say a big 'thank you' for all of your comments on Friday's post. You are good eggs, each and every last one of you. And if I could, I'd hug you all. And I'm a good hugger. Just ask around. I'm kind of a big deal amongst high powered hugging circles. So thank you.

Now the weekend. It was sunny and warm. There was shopping involved and pretty dresses. Not too shabby at all.

I've got a new upholstery project waiting for me.


Had a great day with Client F where we scored many many goodies. I'll have to take proper pictures with a real camera, but here is a ReStore score/project in the making.


Brainstorming some ideas on how to work with this tile combo.


And came home Sunday afternoon to find this masterpiece ON my doorway.


Creativity seeps out of every member of the little black door household. We are unstoppable.

How was your weekend? Enjoy any good food, company or entertainment? What did you think of the Globes? Was Jodie Foster supposed to make sense? She rambles more than I do! And Tommy Lee Jones - lighten up. No one shot your dog. It's a party. Live a little.

I have a very demanding audience. And they are getting antsy.

They are 4 and 1.

We started out the summer with a bang doing a million fun things; zoo, pool, playdates, museums, camps, trips. But we've started to loose our fizzle.

We went from dancing in the streets.
To doing this.
They are starting to turn on me.
How do you deal with the summer slump? How many trips to Target and Michael's can you make in a week? Have you heard of any summer camps for moms? I would be happy to be sent away for a week.

When Amelia started pre-school I loved every stinkin piece of art she brought home. Every piece was incredible. "Obviously my child is an art prodigy", I would think.

Then, she brought home more. And more. At times she'd bring home 3 or 4 things a day. It slowly turned from "what an amazing picture you made" to "another picture...great".

While I love my child, and of course think she's the best at everything she does, it was getting a bit out of control. There were projects everywhere. I think they breed in the night. Like some sort of sick Toy Story movie.

To corral the crafty chaos I put a small out of the way corner to use. This little alcove is off of the kitchen and leads downstairs to the family room, out to the garage thru one door and to a side yard thru the other door. A perfect place to add some craft cheer.

Each month I hang what she brings home on the door(s). Then, at the end of each month I take her picture with that month's display and then we take it all down and throw them away, keeping 1 or maybe 2 to go in her memory box.
 And some months I forget to remove the dog bowl before taking the picture.

We've got two years worth of these pictures so far and it has been really fun to look back at them and see how she's changed and how her art has matured. The paper monster is tamed!

What do you do to keep school projects and information overflow from taking over?