Ding-Dong Ditching a Baby

This weekend my family comes to town! We are quite sure this is a record--it's been three months. We're getting a cabin about 30 mins away. It should be a good time; I'm sure it will go too quickly but we'll see them soon at Thanksgiving.

I don't know what has gotten into Birdie! She is just letting loose and peeing her pants like crazy. I had stopped carrying a diaper bag or bringing extra clothes when we went somewhere. She was doing great in panties. But last weekend, we had a few accidents and then this weekend, she's peed in her pants/pull-ups more than she's gone to the potty! Birdie's a bit of a nudist anyways but, this morning, I just let her run around naked because I'm tired of washing so many things when she pees. Elmo was on and she wanted to sit in my lap. A few seconds later, she peed all over me! Craziness! Because of Beatle's history with kidney and urinary infections, I've got my eyes on little Birdie.

At church, we have a Christmas Star Craft Bazaar, where members of the church have booths of their work and donate profits to missions. This year, they had children singing songs while people shopped. We had a friend play the guitar for Beatle and she sang "Away in the Manger". She did good in spite of the fact she didn't have much time to practice because of a music misunderstanding and we are SO thankful for our friend to come in and save the day with his guitar. As soon as she was done, she walked off stage, her face became instantly flushed and she buried her head in my chest. As Beatle grows up, I find myself baffled sometimes that things don't come as easy to her as they did to me when I was a kid. I didn't think much about it when she was small, I guess. I just thought that since she was my kid and acts much like me, we would be very similar. My prayer is that I always cherish her for who she is. Yesterday, there was a pair of sisters who did PHENOMENAL with their songs. These little nerdy girls transformed into superstars when they each started singing. I was blown away and I glanced at the mom to see the pride in her face but all I saw was stern coaching. That's their family and I know the mom has a pageant background so she was probably pushed too but as I'm carving out my parenting style, I realized at that moment that I'd rather do it our way. (Of course, a little more practice would have helped...) :)

I had a Scentsy Sip ~n~ See at my house on Saturday morning. While I was doing that, I asked Brent to take the girls somewhere, anywhere! For the last two weeks, we've been seriously considering a potbelly pig as a pet. It's madness, I know. It could be a very divisive issue; we will either make or lose friends over it, I'm sure. Well, Brent decided to take Beatle to look at the particular pig in question. She found it to be much less cuddly than a fluffy puppy and didn't really want to have anything to do with it. So, that answered some questions! If we get one, it won't be for her sake, I suppose. Why a potbelly, you ask? (As does everyone!) We love the fact that they don't shed, don't need a lot of backyard room, smarter than dogs, their tough skin makes them less likely for fleas and ticks, don't require the vet appts and upkeep dogs do and they're downright interesting! We'll see...we're not in a rush about it especially with Beatle not caring too much.

Beatle and I are doing Secret-Keeper Girl's "8 great dates to have with your daughter". We are nearing the end and one of the dates was to encourage sibling relations so Beatle's "assignment" was to ding-dong ditch someone's house with Birdie, leaving behind a plate of cookies. Brent and I recognized this had the potential to be really cute so, with the extra hour we gained on Saturday, we had the girls (Birdie in her footie pajamas) ding-dong ditch some friends, who are also doing this study. Beatle was getting so excited she "was almost about to pee her pants" (this type of excitement happens a lot for her!) They were so cute holding hands walking up to the house, Beatle sat the goodies down, rang the bell, and RAN FOR HER LIFE, leaving poor little Birdie baffled at the top of the stairs. Brent and I were cracking up. The dad opened the door to see a small, confused child on their porch. HAHA! He gave the girls another shot once he found out what they were trying to do. He rolled with it like a champ. Once the mission was successful and all our children were accounted for, Birdie was babbling on emphatically from her car seat...probably trying to wrap her head around what just happened.