Lil Prep

This photo is especially for Kappa Prep, who I was thinking of when I dressed JillyBean in her purple and pink plaid pants to attend the Santa parade and tree lighting ceremony Friday night.

'Tis (Almost) the Season

I have to give a big thanks to Amanda Soule for her wonderful blog Soule Mama. Not only does she provide great ideas for living a back-to-basics life and how to inspire creativity at home with kids, she is responsible for turning me on to two of JillyBean's Christmas gifts.


Jilly loves to color and draw, so when I came across the post about these crayon rocks, I knew that they would make a great stocking stuffer. (this site does not have them available now, but they are available through other sites). They're made of soy wax and tinted with natural mineral powders, so you don't have to worry about washing out your child's mouth if they end up there. They also come in a cute little pouch so it will be somewhat easy to keep up with them over time.

The other gift that comes thanks to SouleMama are these adorable slippers from Satch & Sol. I don't think that I'm going to dress Jilly in footie PJs this year because she gets so dad-gum hot as it is at night. However, it can be a bit chilly in the mornings and she really loves wearing slippers and I thought that these were just too cute.

As for the rest of her Christmas, we're all over the place. I know that she'll get a couple of puzzles and I got her this from Melissa & Doug at Nature's Child here in C'ville. I can't wait for Christmas this year because I know that she'll be so excited to see everything, though I know that she won't really "get" it until maybe next year.

Imagine

JillyBean's affection for Winnie the Pooh has grown the past couple of months. It's a love affair that couldn't make me any happier.

Pooh was my favorite fairy tale character when I was a kid. I wore clothes that had him on them, had stuffed bears, read the books. My dad's nickname for me was Pooh, and he calls me that from time to time today.

Me and Pooh on my fourth birthday

I recorded Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin on Monday for me and JillyBean to watch. It's a fairly new movie that loosely touches on the final chapter of A. A. Milne's fabulous tale of a young boy and his adventures with his stuffed bear. It brought tears to my eyes thinking about how the story of Pooh and Christoper Robin ends with The House at Pooh Corner. Even as I type this my eyes are welling up with tears. It basically boils down to the fact that Christopher Robing grew up and was told that there were more pressing things to do with his time than to play make believe. He was simply too old to play with Pooh and friends.

It's very sad to think about life getting to the point where such "nonsense" is unacceptable. I watch Jilly and see her imagination grow daily and it's those little things that make me so happy that we brought her into this world. I have watched her set her stuffed animals in a row so that she can sit down and "read" to them. She lies in bed when she's not exactly ready to fall asleep or when she first wakes up and sings to the half dozen animals who sleep with her. She feels the need to share her snacks with her Lilly frog. Elmo must always be by her side when she watches Elmo's World. And today she pulled out her stuffed monkeys to play the drum while I read Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumbs.

The magic of childhood is an amazing thing and something that will break my heart when it goes away.

"Pooh, promise you won't forget  about  me,  ever.  Not
even when I'm a hundred."
-Christopher Robin

The Chair

This training potty has been in our home for about two months. JillyBean has been introduced to the concept of going "wet" in a big-girl potty for a little while and we made the decision to start potty training her at 18 months. Well, we missed that mark by a month and are doing it for real this month. Actually, we're going to start in two weeks - the week of Thanksgiving because we have no outside activities planned (no Mother Goose Time, no Kindermusik, and no Little Gym). We're going to stay home and do a potty training boot camp and see how it goes.

We have made the decision not to use Pull Ups because I really want JillyBean to know that she's wet. I understand that the Pull Ups get cold when they're wet, but it can't be the same thing. So, after doing a lot of research I ordered Potty Patty training pants. They arrived on Friday making this whole exercise very real. Up until now Bean goes potty at bath time and each morning after she gets out of bed. We have made this a routine and I have noticed that every now and again she'll ask to go on her own. She has been letting us know that she's wet for some time so now we need to get her figure out how to let us know ahead of time.

I never really realized what a commitment potty training is but, like everything else with kids, consistency is the key. I have learned from other moms that the best way to do it is to stay home and really reinforce using the "big" potty. My Grandmother potty trained me when I was 12 months old and I'm sure it's because she was so focused on it. I believe that the parent has to be in the right frame of mind just like the child. If I'm not ready then she'll never be ready. But she's been giving us signals that she is ready to make this next step so I have got to prepare myself.

There are books on how to train in a day or three days but I don't want to be that hard core. We're going to work on it for the week and if it works then great and if not, we'll try it again another time.

Pass It On

We did pretty well with the Here Wee Grow Again consignment sale last month but not all of JillyBean's clothes got gobbled up. Thankfully there is a new service that looks very promising for moms who either want to make a few bucks by selling their stuff or for moms looking for a deal.

Handmedowns.com is a new site to list baby and kids gently used products and services - everything from gear to nanny services. It apparently also pulls relevant ads from other online services such as eBay and Craigslist. Unfortunately it won't help unless you live in one of these regions: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle or Washington, D.C.

Gymbo Sale

Gymboree's Circle of Friends Sale starts tomorrow and goes through Sunday. Use the code CFFRIEND or CFCIRCLE and get 30 percent off of your entire order.

JillyBean needs some new PJs. These are pretty cute with Christmas around the corner:

Sweet Ending

Even if your candidate didn't win yesterday, there will always be cupcakes. At least I don't recall Obama campaigning against such sweet delights.
JillyBean and I went to Cappellino's Crazy Cakes this afternoon, a new bakery at the Downtown Mall. It helped melt away our disappointment.

Happy Election Day

Rock the Vote

Don't forget to cast your ballot on Tuesday. And if you're still undecided, follow JillyBean's suggestion.