Becoming a Big Girl

I've had a great time the last week and half with the Princess while the boy's been on vacation with his grandparents. One of my favorite outings with the Princess was when we went to the Botanical Gardens for some pictures with her new kitty cat fascinator (we found it at Claire's) and her Marie dress.

She's a fun one but don't let the cuteness fool you, she's a handful. We've made some big steps to getting her ready to be a big sister. Some of those big steps have come with growing pains. Potty training was attempted and abandoned-we'll try again in a couple months. Her big girl bed has been set up and she's accepted it...for the most part. Every once in a while she'll still try to insist on sleeping in the crib but buying her new Minnie Mouse bedding went a long way to convincing her that the big bed is the way to go. Lastly, time outs are now a regular thing...it probably sounds odd to throw that in with potty training and a real bed but in our house, discipline is viewed as a good thing. She's old enough to be corrected, to be held accountable and to grow as a person. It's not easy or fun for any of us...today a two minute time out for putting clothes from the hamper into the toilet turned into a 20 minute time out because until she sat on the step for two minutes without getting up or playing, her time kept resarting. But in the end, she did it and more importantly, she apologized. The icing on the cake was when I asked if she would make good choices, her answer was a loud "yes, ma'am" instead of the quiet mouthing of the words she's tried to get away with in the past. She's independent and bold and I wouldn't change that for anything but she's also going to be respectful and kind even if it takes us 20 minutes to do a two minute time out. Meanwhile, I'm hoping the blue dye we have in the toilet water comes out of the clothes she dumped.