Girl... you'll be a woman soon.....

No, this is not a reprise of Katie Holmes now infamous quote "[Suri] is such a strong woman..."

Not even close.

However, in recent pictures I have been taking of Jaina, I have been noticing, that she looks, well, like a little girl. She is not my round face, baby-ish toddler I have been looking at for well over a year. Her face rounded out, her hair got REALLY long, and she got taller. She looks much less like my cuddly baby, and more like she is ready to start algebra. GULP. This is going way to fast.

It seems like overnight, her hands aren't so pudgy, she doesn't have to run twice as faxt to keep up with her classmates, and she, she speaks like she is running for office.

"You see, mom, what we need to do first is I eat my treat, and then we will try to go on the potty. Does that sound like a deal?"

"Wait a minute Mom, I just have to get myself situated."

"You see, Mom, in the bathroom, boys have an option. They can go standing up, or they can go sitting down. Girls, only have the option to sit down."

And today..... in church...... We were going to hear a lovely rendition of Amazing Grace......

Pastor announces "Now Denise will sing Amazing Grace...."

And Jaina! "Hey, we watch that on TV?"

Confused mom: "Huh?"

Jaina: "You know, Mom! Amazing Race!"

Ahh right, reality TV strikes again.....

Now, I have to remind myself to not blink for a second....

Bath Time = Poopapalooza

Okay, my frustration comes out..........





My daughter will be 3 1/2 in one month.........





And for the life of us, we cannot get her fully potty trained........





Number 1 (pee-pee for all you non-toddler readers out there) is NO problem. We had an issue at first, mainly because she is stubborn. But once we got her to go No. 1 once, we had no further issues. (Maybe it had something to do with the cupcakes, helium tank*, presents - who knows?)





Number 2, however, has been more elusive. Pooping, Bowel Movements, Poo-poo, or woo-woo, whatever you call it, is a stubborn foe. And I am not sure how much more fight I have in me.....





She refuses to put the poo in the pot. And then she waits, until bathtime.





I think if I could sit her in the tub for 24 hours a day, we would have NO problems pooping. Usually within 5 minutes of entering her nice warm bath....."Mommy! I have to go potty!" And sure enough, I put her on her toilet seat, and the poo just zooms out......





WTF?!?





So, here's looking at you kid. This pooper is on me....



*NO, I did not let my daughter suck helium. She got to blow up a balloon. :) And then mom sucked on the helium.***

***SOOOO Just kidding! Seriously, I lose enough brain cells every day, I don't need to willingly kill more!

Last picture of 2007...

Here is my last picture of 2007. It is great. My favorite part, is I get to compare with my first picture from 2007.

See how much she has changed?

Happy New Year!

More Pictures

The year is almost over! I need to get these done! Here are some more of my favorites of our child from 2007!

This entry is from the Birthday Party shoot that Jaina & I did in August. I wanted to make some super cool birthday invitations, and really wanted to use the TUTU.

A little backstory. At one of my frequent Internet haunts "Two peas in a bucket" there are frequently little girls dressed up in Tutu's. And one day, one of my pea commrades posted instructions on how to make a Tutu. It was fantastic. And fantasically easy. A LOT of tulle. But I six sigma'd the process, so it went really fast. And, fortunately for me, Jaina also thought that the TUTU was REALLY COOL. So out we went, looking for the "perfect" picture.

She was fairly cooperative, at least as cooperative as a three year old can be. We got some decent shots, and the grass was still green, which was unusual for August. I posted some of my favorite shots.

More Tulip Time Pics - but, these are better

So, you may be sick of Tulip Time, but frankly, I don't care. The above pictures represent some of the best pictures of the year. Period. One is a close up of her. Primarily, I like it, because it shows that I am gaining some skill in this crazy thing called photography. And the second, it's a historical matter, okay? Anyone who has a dutch costume probably has a picture of themselves sniffing a tulip. I know my mother has one of me, and therefore, I have to have one of Jaina. It is a weird genetic thing, that I can only hope gets broken if Jaina marries a red-headed, green-eyed, Irish-Catholic Fireman.....

In the meantime, she gets to smell tulips......

Tulip Time

No blog would be complete with a little Dutch girl's first Tulip Time.

Now, I admit, I beat myself up quite regularly for the fact that I waited three years before taking Jaina to a Tulip Time. But honestly, things kept coming up (Primarily, some relative of Mike's got married for the last three years, to be exact), and this year, I said "Who care? We are GOING TO PELLA for TULIP TIME!" And lucky for us, no one got married. Lucky for us? More accurately, lucky for Grandma and Mom. Dad (Mike) had to sit through the bloody thing, and Jaina had to wear a horribly uncomfortable dress. But I feel accomplished. I have walked my baby through the Baby parade. And now wonder what particular brand of crack I was smoking......

Gramma and Me

I love this picture. I am not sure why. Maybe it reminds me of what a professional photographer would do. Maybe because I love my mom, and I love my daughter. It's hard to tell, but seeing the two of them together, watching the mass of geese come in, (which turned out to be the ending point of this poignant pic), or the fact that some form of water is involved, I don't know, but I think it is great.