Football season is here!

Today the Gators play their first game of the year. We're all excited for the 2008 season and have our orange and blue ready to go.

Go Gators!

It's my potty and I'll poop if I want to

Preface
Once upon a time there was a very wise woman named Ern. When faced with repeated questions about when certain twin girls would reach certain milestones, Ern responded that they would do whatever it was when they were ready. You'd think that, being one of those twin girls, I might have learned that lesson. But I have been worrying and worrying that Resli, in spite of being 100% potty trained in every other way, still refused to poop in the potty.
Lo and behold, Resli came home from school on Tuesday with a story about how she had in fact pooped in the potty, but without confirmation from a teacher, we were skeptical. Then on Wednesday there was a note from the teacher that she had in fact done so that day, and we later found out that it was true on Tuesday too. And this morning, of her own free will, she did it again at home. Apparently, she is finally ready. Thank you, Ern, for always being right, and I'm sorry I couldn't take your words to heart before.

I got the most wonderful present for pooping in the potty this morning - a whole set of pretty hair clips with butterflies on them!

I look very cute with my hair like this, don't you think?

But more importantly, don't you think I look like a very grown up girl who is just about fully potty trained, at long last? I'm so excited!

Welcome, Fay!

Tropical Storm Fay has made her presence felt in Gainesville. It's been raining a ton lately, and my school has been closed for two days. Luckily, Mami and Daddy's work is closed today too, so we're all home together.
Every now and then we peek out at the storm.

Yep, still wet and windy! Looks like it'll be like this for a while...

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I have no comments or captions for this. . .

It was just too great a picture not to share with you - after all, everyone needs a good laugh every now and then! :)

Back to school

It's hard to believe that summer is officially over, at least in terms of the school calendar. (By the regular calendar we've got another month or so, and by the weather itself, well, in Florida it's pretty much always summer.)
Yesterday my school hosted a little "Meet the teacher" party for us to come and see our new classrooms and, of course, meet the teachers.
My teacher is Ms. Jenifer again -- I already know her, and I'm so excited that she'll be with me again this year! But I have two new teachers too, Ms. Caitlin and Mr. Joe, and it was nice to meet them. My classroom is where I was in camp this summer, so it's not like it was brand new or anything, but I still had fun exploring the new set-up.
There's a great loft area with a fun place to play underneath.

And you can climb up top, too. That's me with my friend Jake, exploring the loft. There are books and chairs, so it's a prefect little reading nook.

Lela came too, even though she won't be starting school there until January. She looked at her classroom also, but had more fun playing in my classroom with Daddy.

And of course with me!

(Check out the shoes Ms. Jenifer got for our classroom dress-up area... Oh yea, you KNOW I love those!)
I'm looking forward to another great school year of fun and learning!

The good, the bad and the ugly

Today was a very interesting day in our house. My daycare is closed, so I'm home all week - and thank goodness I am or else I would have missed out on all the excitement.

THE GOOD
The good excitement is that we have new furniture in our living room. See?

The chairs are super comfy and the couch folds out to a bed so that Nana will have somewhere nice to sleep when she comes to visit. We're hoping this means she'll come more often. (We're working on getting the kinks out of our teleportation system so that the 9-hour drive won't be necessary.)

THE BAD
The bad news is that starting last night, we heard this odd sound coming from behind the wall in the bathroom. It kind of freaked me out, and I think it freaked Daddy and Mami out too because they seemed very upset by it. Turns out, it was pretty bad news - a pipe back there was leaking water!

Which leads us to...

THE UGLY
The plumbers came right away and found the leak, but had to do some serious work to get there.

We're waiting for the insurance adjuster to come and tell us how much they'll cover, but the nice plumber men predict that we'll need to redo the entire bathroom since there will undoubtedly be tile damage everywhere. (And it's getting worse, they said they're going to have to demo the whole room to dry it out - yes, they used the word 'demo'!)

So, thank goodness we have a nice place to sit for the next few weeks, I guess?
(And why is it that financial stuff like this leak always happen right after you've spent a lot of money on other stuff like furniture??)

Lela's doctor visit (and my surprise exam)

Today Lela had to go to the doctor for her 9-month check-up. She's also been feeling a little under the weather lately, so we wanted to make sure she was ok. (Check her blog for details.) I came along too because Mami and Daddy told me they wanted me to be there to make sure Lela didn't get too scared.
So I was happy to be there, I ran right in to play in the cool castle house thing in the waiting room.

I love peeking out the window, and I especially like climbing up to the top and sticking my face against that window.

(We try not to think about how many germs hover around in there!)
Then in the examining room I helped Lela stay calm and not freak out.

Then, though, the tables turned and suddenly I was on the examining table! You see, Mami and Daddy had asked Dr. Grooms to check me out too, since I've had a bad cold and and on and off fever for a while. It turns out I'm ok, just a virus, but I certainly didn't enjoy my exam. I do a lot better at playing big sister than at playing the patient! Hopefully Lela and I will both be feeling better soon.

A Picasso in the making

Hannah is a friend of mine from school. I decided to draw a picture of her the other day.

Mami and Daddy were very impressed that I drew a head with eyes and a mouth, hair, and a dress. (I was impressed that they finally learned to interpret my drawings.)

Please pass the aspirin...

It can sure get noisy when Lela and I both decide to sing, squeal and scream at the same time.

(Believe me, the round before Mami turned the camera on was even better!)

Splish splash we're taking a bath

Lela and I have lots of fun in the bath together.

FYI, the song I started singing is from The Little Mermaid, and I always pretend to be a mermaid in the bath.

Twirling and dancing

Twirling and dancing and singing... It's what I do. Especially if I'm wearing a pretty dress and fancy dress-up earrings.












(And for those of you who knew I was sick yesterday, there are no signs of that 103 degree fever now!)

Mami jungle gym

One of my preferred activities lately is to play on what I like to call Mami Jungle Gym. This involves Mami on the floor, and me crawling all over her. If we're lucky, Lela joins in too!

I have a blast doing this. I think Mami likes it too, don't you?

I know Lela loves it!