Potty Training and Pregnancy Woes

So Madeline is finally going pee in the potty pretty well. So the other morning, I really felt sick and I was waiting for her to get off the potty so I could puke. So she gets off and I throw up. She gets hysterical and I can't figure out why so I tell her to go talk to Daddy b/c I didn't feel like interpretting her at that moment. So she went into our bedroom and started screaming at Jason "Mommy puked on my pee." Jason was like "So what, who cares?" which just made her more upset. So after hearing her complain about it all day, we have learned that for whatever reason, to her, pee isn't just a waste product but some sort of wonderful thing that should never be contaminated with other waste products, especially from other people.

Elizabeth is so funny

She asked Kerrie today: "If the baby is only the size of a lime, why is
your belly the size of a watermelon?"

Visting Kansas

We'll be leaving here around June 29th and staying until July 12th.
We're going to drive again. Just got the girls a new DVD player thing
for the car to keep them quiet.

Swimming Lessons

Kerrie went to sign Elizabeth up for swimming lessons. She apparently was a month too old for the class, and they wanted her to go with the older group. To be in the older group, you have to be able to stand in the 4ft deep section of the pool, which there is no way she could do.

Kerrie told the person at the parks place that our daughter was a little person and wouldn't be able to stand in the 4ft section.

So the lady called someone else for approval and said: "She's a little too old, but is it ok? I think she is a dwarf."

I don't think that's what Kerrie meant by "little person."

Either way, she can take the class now.

Italy Day 3 - Florence

Day 3 - Florence
In the evening of Day 2, we visited the central train station in Rome to by our tickets to travel to Florence by train. The train left in the morning around 9:45.

It turns out that there are actually a lot of trains there that go to Florence. Some are fast (1.5 hours) and some are slow (3.5 hours). Luckily, we bought a ticket for one of the fast/direct trains, which is a little more expensive.

Unluckily, we actually got on one of the slow trains. Our train was not on the "board", and then one appeared with a time a few minutes before the time on our tickets. They didn't seem to give you much time between when your train first appeared on the board and to get to your train (and this is a large, large station). So we rushed to the right platform as soon as we saw that, thinking that maybe our train was a little early or something because surely they couldn't have two trains just a few minutes apart.

Well we got on and apparently we were wrong -- this was the slow train. When the guy finally came around to collect tickets he laughed at us a little bit, but it was no big deal. We actually realized before it got going that it was the wrong train, and as we decided to get off -- the doors closed.

Once we got to Florence, it was a much nicer place than Rome overall -- much cleaner and prettier. It was a short walk from the train station there to our hotel, which was nicer than the one in Rome. (And although all of the hotels said they had air conditioning, none actually did).

I think we first visited the art gallery -- Galleria dell'Accademia -- where the statue of David satnds. (No pictures allowed). We were surprised at how tall the statue actually was, and how lifelike and detailed it was. There were lots of art-student-looking types sitting around it trying to sketch it on paper.

Then we went walking, and we first visited the Duomo and the Baptistry. The
Baptistry is a small building outside the main cathedral with an amazing mosaic ceiling and detailed bronze doors.



The Duomo has a very ornate facade and large dome that we walked to the top of on the next day, I think.


At one point it started raining, and we stood on the steps of the Duomo to protect ourselves from the rain, which is when I took these pictures.


After that, we walked to a square where they have another statue of David and down to the river in front of the Ponte Vecchio, over the Arno river -- the only bridge in Florence not destroyed by the Nazis when they left in 1944.



I think this was also the day we discovered the joy of Italian Gelato (ice cream) and from that day on had to get it at least once a day.

Did an angel just come down from heaven?

Reason #7 why you should always make sure your roof is in good repair…

Bicycle Fun

We got Elizabeth a bicycle for her birthday -- she had outgrown the 12-inch one she had, and so we bought her a new 16-inch one. I spent about 2 hours putting it together on Saturday only to find out that I couldn't get the pedals on. Apparently when they made the bike they forgot to thread the holes that you screw the pedals into -- so it couldn't be assembled.

We took it back to Toys R Us and they said they hadn't seen one like that before. Of course, the one we got was the last one they had. Luckily, we were able to get them to give us the floor model and without charging us for the assembly of it. So in the end it turned out ok, but it was a waste of time.

Birthday Party

Elizabeth had per birthday party on Friday afternoon at "Pump it Up." Her and another kid in her class both have the same birthday, so we had a joint party. It was crazy to have 30 kids there all together running around -- I definitely could not be an elementary school teacher. I was just watching the clock waiting for it to be over. Elizabeth kept wanting to play with her sister more than the other kindergartners, so I had to try to separate them a little bit so she could be a better party hostess.

Presents!

Elizabeth opened her birthday presents yesterday. We especially had a
lot of fun with the "magic box". Basically it's a box with a mirror in
it that allows you to "hide" things in the box and then make them
reappear.

It even came with a book describing the various tricks you could play.
Like make the rabbit disappear. Or make the ball disappear. Come to
think of it, all the tricks had to do with something disappearing and
then reappearing.

Actually it was fun, and I think Elizabeth enjoys being an entertainer.
However, the funniest part was when I was demonstrating the "tricks",
Maddie already had them figured out. She would say: "It's not gone --
open the door on the top!" So despite the coolness of the magic box,
it's magic tricks don't fool a 2 year old. (Maybe I just wasn't doing
them right).

I guess I have to assemble her new bicycle this weekend.. I'm sure it
came in about 10,000 separate parts.

Tomorrow afternoon we've got a birthday with her entire Kindergarten
class (all 30) at "Pump it Up", a place with a bunch of slides and
inflatable stuff for kids to play on. Actually it's a "co-birthday"
party, because another kid in her class shares her birthday -- so at
least we have help.