can i make a confession?

alright. i have a confession. and i am totally waving my brat flag with this one, but it's my blog and if i want to whine about something, i'll whine. sorry. anyway, here it is. i.hate.potty training. not the actual practice of teaching them to go on the toilet. the actual part when they use the toilet instead of diapers and pull-ups. i think it sucks. i know, i know. most people are thrilled to bits once their kids are trained. me...not so much (i warned you that i was being a brat here, didn't i?).
wanna know what's worse. cara trained herself. with no encouragement from her parents. in fact, when i think about it, it was kind of with discouragement from her parents. you know...all five kids are in target with you because you just had to buy milk before you go home and cara, who is wearing a pull-up, decides she has to go to the bathroom. imagine yourself and five kids in a bathroom stall (not even the handicap stalls hold that many people). now imagine trying to convince all five kids not to touch anything. see...discouragement. sadly, caroline's will prevailed and she is trained.
what i hate is the whole not-able-to-do-it-by-herself thing. every time she has to go to the bathroom means i, too, have to go to the bathroom. if we're out somewhere, it means everyone who is with me also has to go to the bathroom. it also means that every time we are out somewhere, we have to go to a bathroom. when was the last time you had to go to the bathroom in a place that doesn't necessarily provide public bathrooms? let me tell ya something...it ain't pretty. the way i see it, it's kind of a big hassle. i know, i know. listen to me "waaaaah! my life is so hard. my kid is potty trained. waah!" but. like i said, it's my blog. i can whine if i want to.
looks like i gotta run now. apparently, cara has to go to the bathroom. again.

shameless plug for some etsy that i love

so, the tutus...

i received a couple of comments about the tutus that my girls are wearing at their birthday party, and i've been meaning to do a post about an etsy shop that i am a HUGE fan of, and as the tutus came from the etsy girl, it seemed like a good time to do this.

so, one of my best friends in the world (i'm talking first day of third grade - go to her house and tell all about the first time i kissed a boy - 10ish new kids on the block concerts - get dressed for high school dances at her house because her parents are at the mountains and we are not supposed to be wearing dresses that short or that tight to the dance at the boys' high school - go on a million vacations her family even though i am the only person there that does not understand italian - bridesmaid in each other's wedding kind of best friend) has opened her own etsy shop called bellina bowtique (i wasn't kidding about the italian language) where she is currently selling hairbows and eventually branch out into other girly accessories, such as the fabulous tutus that my girls wore to their birthday party.

i don't know if you all caught it, but the tutus and hairbows were coordinated to the paper products for the party (i don't play around when it comes to themes). most pictures of my girls include hairbows that stephanie has made and while i prefer the over the top, bigger is better type of bow, she does make some bows that are much more appropriately scaled to little girls' heads, too. stephanie makes bows that coordinate with gymboree's clothing lines as well as special holiday themed bows. i've even been known to take a picture of an outfit that my girls are going to wear and email it to her so she can do a bow to match that outfit specifically (what?!?! like you wouldn't?). like i said, a little over the top.

we have recently had two baby girls born into the family (shout outs to erin and maggie and lisa and keira, woo!) and i gave them killer new baby gifts from my dear friend's shop...crocheted beanie hats with big huge flowers on them and hair bows that coordinate and can be switched for the flower, pretty little pink polka dot bows and cute little purple clippies. so fun (i mean really, you're never too young to develop a passion for great accessories)!

go check out stephanie's shop, bellina bowtique. i know you will love it as much as i do!

ps - the pictures all include things (pink and purple tutus for their 2nd birthday, easter hair bow, bow on the hats for st. patty's day, tutus and coordinated hairbows for their 3rd birthday, etc.) that i have gotten from stephanie!

september

i'm back, bitches! haha...you thought i was gone, didn't you? tricked ya! i was really just buried under a pile of life. i am starting to see the light, though and hopefully will be my happy (haha) blog-posting, blog-commenting self soon.

anywho...september was a month of firsts and since i was a bad blogger and didn't post about the first day of pre-k, the first day of kindergarten, ah hell...the first day of fourth grade, too, the first day of dance class, the kickass pirates and princesses party, the third birthday, etc., etc., etc., i figure i will make this a big, fat picture post and just show you what our month looked like. you can thank me later.

if anyone is wondering...tommy is still unemployed, but doing lots of side work, so we are still hanging in there (it helps to have really super parents, too, by the way) and i am totes schooling all those silly little college kids in my classes. i'm so the girl ruining the curve for them and i love it. haha, fools! srsly, though...school is going pretty well. we are having some adhd/crappy teacher issues with thomas that we are working on and i have been spending a lot of time researching new schools and talking to therapists to get an iep and all kinds of good stuff like that. all in all, it has been a crazy busy couple of weeks for us, but hopefully, i will develop a better schedule soon. i miss you my bloggy friends!

ps - the pictures are terrible. i am using disposable cameras these days and when i got these discs back, they were so fuzzy! sorry!