Lately

It's been an eventful month at the Perry house. I already mentioned the mess with our car, which we'll get back early next week -- almost 4 weeks after it was hit. Ridiculous, I tell you. I'm just grateful we get it back at all.

There were some good things that happened, though. . .

With all the rain we've been getting lately, and having only one car, Steve's been taking it to school a lot. (Otherwise he'd drive his scooter.) That means a lot of time going nuts at home. I took advantage of our homebound days and got serious with Sophie about potty training. I have no idea what happened, but she's suddenly doing it. Most of the time. Number One is totally taken care of. Number Two is being a stinker. (Ha) If you noticed my facebook status recently about Sophie going poo in the potty, it was a false alarm. It's a long story, but after reviewing some facts surrounding the incident (I wasn't there when it supposedly happened) and a round of questions, Sophie indeed "put her poo in the potty", but it made a pit stop somewhere else before it got flushed. So technically . . . it didn't happen the way it was supposed to, but I didn't realize that until much later.

The reward for putting poo in the potty around here is ice cream. (Excessive maybe, but I'm getting antsy to get this stuff over with.) So here she is with her celebratory ice cream -- before I realized she hadn't actually done it.

Somehow I missed two chances to take pictures of the girls in their Christmas dresses, so we dressed them up again on Sunday. Luckily they weren't obviously Christmas dresses. It is February now.

Ivy's been eating a lot better (no, not bubble wrap) the last couple of months, but now she either walks around or climbs on stuff every waking moment. So much for those extra calories.

Ivy's started sleeping through the night, (8:30-5 -- I count it), but she's fighting tooth and nail against weaning. I've got her down to once a night (at 4 or 5) and once or twice during the day, but she's not giving those up easily. I don't have the heart to cut her off cold turkey.

She's still a complete momma's girl. She loves to lay/crawl/walk all over me and the couch. I love watching her personality come out, she's such a little tease sometimes.

And I love her "hippo teeth". The first time I heard someone say that I thought it was the funniest thing ever. It still makes me giggle on the inside when I say it.

Some days I wish that her body would divert some of the energy it's expending making eyelashes into growing more hair on her head. I'm just used to Sophie's curly mop. I love her little wisps, though. They make her seem more baby like (that and she's the size of a 9-month-old).

Steve's plugging along in school. He's gotten pretty busy with loads of homework and time spent in the school's clinic. He's learning a lot, though, and trying to figure out how/where we're going to spend the next couple of years when he graduates this summer.

This summer. That freaks me out a little.

Oh, what's that he's looking at? Hmm. . . it looks like a manual for something. Something black and pretty.

Something that did this today. . .

And this, too. . .

Something that I'm totally in love with and have wanted for a very long time. Thank you Craigslist, and thank you kind, generous man, who took very good care of my new friend for the past couple of years.