Potty Update

Oh, Internet, you have failed me. I was hoping someone would tell me something such as: Feed the kid mangos, she'll be potty trained in 13 minutes.*

Thanks for the comments and stories and encouragment. I have decided that Hazel is pretty danged trained and after we use up this giant Costco box** o' diapers she will probably be trained at night. And if she isn't I will (gasp!) go buy more diapers. But at a regular store that sells in less giant quantities.

Now, read my fab update on Nashville. And leave me comments. Because I love comments. It makes me feel like I have friends. Friends who read my blog, even when I am lame.

*Or something magically like this, you get the idea. To get this kind of kid-rearin' secret, I probably need to go to Wal-Mart.***

**We had already opened and started using the box when she decided she wanted to use the potty, or I would have returned it.

***Because once, I was at the WM and some "lady" told me she "teethed all her kids on jerky."

I really need to study. I am ejecting the wireless card.

Nashville - now with pictures

Here is my giant post about Nashville. In categories, but not separate posts. Give me a break. I have been busy.

Our Hotel
Geoff and Hazel by the General Lee. Or A General Lee. We never did find out for sure. This museum was just across the street from our hotel. Except that the hotel was giant with giant grounds, so across the street was still like a mile-and-a-half from our room.

Awesome horse statues in our hotel.
Our hotel (the Gaylord Opryland) was giant. I mean GIANT! It was a .25 miles from our room to my conference area. Sometimes, on the way to visit me, Hazel had to stop and take a nap.

The Adventure Science Center
Big astronaut. Little astronaut.
Train at the Adventure Science Center.
The ambulance at the Adventure Science Center. This was Hazel's favorite part. She could drive that ambulance for hours. Which will come in handy the next time we go visit Grandma Marilyn in Wyoming. Except that we don't have an ambulance.

Testing out her mad doctorin' skillz. Between this and the ambulance, she has a great future in medicine. She did tell me that she wants to be a doctor. For monsters.

Nashville Zoo at Grassmere
So, we went the Nashville Zoo. Hazel was our navigator. We should go thatta way.
Hazel. Brushing a goat.

Baby camels at the petting zoo. BABY CAMELS! And you can pet them!!
Alligator Cove! A cove. Of alligators. Wait, did I just do that on the baby camels? I am telling you between a cove full of alligators and baby camels you can pet, this zoo was awesome. Except that it is BLAZING hot in Nashville. And humid. Haven't they heard of the desert??
Hazel and the alligator sized each other up. Both decided that neither one could take the other and they best not fight.

Hazel rode the carousel twice. Once with mom and once with dad. It was far more shocking with mom.
The best picture I could find of Hazel and Geoff on the carousel.
A tunnel at the zoo. Hazel refused to go through it. I think it travels through time, as well as space. So, it was probably wise not to enter.

Aacck. Hazel only has one leg. She probably ate the other one.

Misc.
Hazel and Geoff go to White Castle.
And then Meadow made this awesome flower out of White Castle boxes. We actually ate 10 burgers between the three of us. Which (a) sounds like a lot except (b) it isn't too bad until (c) you consider one of us only ate one burger but (d) they are little and (e) delicious.
Mmmmm...the giant ice cream ever. Hazel was only pretendin' to eat it. Trying to see the mighty Cumberland River.
We ate at the Aquarium restuarant. As expected, it was no Market Street. However, it did have an aquarium. We saw lots of fish, but no mermaids. Bummer. And we got to hug a shark. Which is cool until you remember that we got to pet baby camels. And they were REAL!
On the way back to the hotel from the Aquarium restuarant, Hazel decided she didn't need to wear a shirt. Also, when we landed in SLC, she whipped her shirt off and said, "We're home! Mom, take your shirt off." I did not, however, take my shirt off.
**Alternate caption: My name is Hazel! I like to dance!"**

Geoff likes to take pictures of flowers. I thought this one was very nice.

Awesome shot. Good job!

The end.

I will have Geoff update with our rafting trip from the weekend.

The Potty

Oh wise Internet, I come to you for advice. Hazel has been using the potty fairly consistently for about a month and a half now. Which is fabulous. She is still completely in diapers at night, although she woke up dry this morning.

Here is my problem. Sometimes, she just pees. Like five minutes ago she just lifted up her dress and peed on the floor. A lot. ON THE FLOOR!! Yesterday, she peed on the porch. Saturday she peed in the closet (although, she did come out and tell me that she peed in the closet and when I asked why she said, “Mom, sometimes I need attention.” And then I felt like a bad mom for working all weekend.)

WHY DOES SHE DO THAT?!?!! Except for the closet incident, where she was looking for attention. Why doesn’t she just go to the bathroom?? And how do I stop it?

Also, how do you go about training a kid at night? She is asleep. I am asleep. How does a sleeping person train another sleeping person? Or should I call it good and just keep her in diapers at night? Plus, I had just purchased a case of diapers at Costco like 3 days before she decided she was going to wear panties during the day. And that is a lot of diapers when you are only using one per day (night, really).

Nashville Ramblin'

Okay, I am going to keep my Nashville stories, that don't have pictures, here

1. Hazel and Meadow spent a good hour in the pool yesterday playing with "kitties". They were not real kitties, but we had a great time. We fed them and let them swim and named them "Charlie" and "Charlie 2". After the Charlie Daniel's Band. Because it is hard to think of names. When we went into the bathroom to dry our swimsuits she made sure to put the "kitties" on the ground and then scoop them up when we were done. She is still very concerned about them today. Apparently, she is keeping them in one of the drawers under the sink.
2. The napping/sleeping situation is less than ideal. We are all in one room, instead of Hazel having her own room. This makes for an overly-tired baby. She has actually been okay but gets a little nuts and starts saying crazy things, such as, "Bingo-bango ate my baby." It started as just "bingo-bango" but then Geoff kept thinking it was, "dingo" and that it ate her baby, and it has evolved from there.
3. Monday night, we walked to the mall to eat at the Aquarium restaurant. Not surprisingly, it was not so delicious. But, there was a giant aquarium, and that was pretty cool. The weather is NOT at all cool. It is blazing hot in Nashville. Even at 9:30pm. On the way back to the hotel, Hazel was quite tired and hot. She decided that she no longer needed to wear a shirt. (#57 in the list of things Hazel has in common with a frat boy, she doesn't like to wear shirts) So, we walked home a good part of the way with Hazel wearing no shirt. We told her that a maintenance truck was looking for girls without shirts (some sort of shirt-police), and she got super-worried and put on her shirt.
4. Then we got into the hotel and she decided to somersault the entire way to the room. It is a quarter of a mile from the convention center to our room, this is not an easy distance to somersault. At other times she has decided to walk "like a dinosaur" (hands on the ground, butt in the air) and to walk backwards down the long, long hallway. We do not move quickly.
5. Wednesday we went to the Adventure Science Center (a children's museum). Hazel seems to have inherited Aunt Jenni's fear and loathing of see-through floors. A good portion of the museum has the floors with holes (like in a factory). She did not love those parts and need to be carried.
6. At the ASC, they had a body exhibit (not Bodies, with the plasticized people). In it there was an ambulance you could drive. Hazel LOVED this and would have happily driven the ambulance all day. All the while chanting, "I am driving! I am driving!"
7. Then there is the swimming. A lot of swimming. A couple of the pools are only 18-inches deep and perfect for the Hazel. Hazel and Geoff swam for about two hours this evening while Meadow went to meetings. This brings the total swimming hours to approximately 1,500.
8. Everything is fried down here. And the only vegetable is corn. No point. I am just sayin'.

A Tennesee Breakfast

City Search rated this place rather highly, so we went. They stuck us all by ourselves at a big table then proceeded to bring us lots and lots of food. We ate way more than we probably should have. A lot of it was really delicious, some of it was seasoned differently than our preference. Seems salty is in around here.

Meadow and Hazel kicking it outside the restaurant. They had a nice garden area including koi pond on the grounds.

Outfits-a-go-go.

Hazel has been opininated for quite some time, especially when it comes to clothes. Well, now she is getting older, but not necessarily wiser, in the ways of dressing. My point, yesterday as I was getting her dressed she repeatedly said she wanted to wear her "pirate shirt", I was not sure what the pirate shirt was, and so just kept offering her options. Finally, I let her just dig through the drawers and this is the outfit she came up with:

How, in the name of all that is pirate, is this a pirate outfit? Later, she switched to purple shorts, which were also "pirate". Who am I to argue? **When I was uploading pictures she pointed to this one and said, "I'm a pirate!" So, it seems it wasn't a passing thing. She really was a pirate.**

It seems the car on blocks and engine on a table is finally getting to her, because today she come up with this hillbilly outfit. And then she wanted to tussle. Luckily, I am wearing the tussle-repellant (proof?) bracelet today. In Your Face, Tussle Baby!
Not really clothing related, but Monday night (man, my days are all outta wack, wickity-wack), I was in the dungeon studying and everything was quiet upstairs so I went to investigate. Here is the cuteness I encountered:

Reading! Together! On the window seat! Notice how the Hazel is a haze. Ha!
Also, a tea set I bought in Chinatown. I was a little disappointed when I opened the box and there were no space aliens. Number One Tea Set!

Some Recent Pics

Danger Baby at it again. After seeing her method of getting to her pants and shirt drawers, I've been demonstrating the safer results she can get by using a chair.
I played soccer on May 17th. My leg 6 days later. Bruised from heel to within inches of my knee. Still swollen too. Looks worse than it feels (I guess). I'm having it checked out just to be safe. Might as well use the insurance since I have it right?

For a few days, Hazel would only nap if she could sleep in Triscuits bed. On this particular day, she needed it to also be a tent. Unfortunately she woke up and yanked the blanket down before I could fire off the camera. Oh well, in this pic you get to see her.


Dressed as a pirate. Need I say more?
Fine, I guess I do. How about some bad pirate jokes:
Hazel's favorite letter? ARRRRR
Favorite body part? Arrrrrrrmpit
Most disliked MegaChain store? WalmARRRRRRRRT
Favorite attribute about herself? Being Smarrrrrrrrt


The end.