Ali singing ABC

Our little one has been really "talkative" in the past three months.  I have tried hard to tape her singing, but every time I started to film her, she would rush over to take the camera out of my hand.  We went over to my in-law's house for dinner a few nights ago and our little princess seemed to be in a good mood and willing to sing for me while I was holding the camera.  

Potty training is damn difficult

This is really a note to remind myself what we went through for potty training.  Just a warning, it's super long!!

Potty training is rough. There are lots of ups and downs.  The very first day, there were so many accidents.  I was hoping to use stickers as a reward and not a bribe, and since she didn't even go in her potty once, I couldn't even bring it out.  The second half of the second day was much better.  And also we realized that she thought her training pants were her diapers because it was so thick.  Once we took it off and let her wear just the underwear, she almost got it right away.  The third day was quite good, just two/three accidents.  Ali likes to poop when standing up, so she had a really hard time pooping in the potty.  In fact, she didn't poop until the third day and when she was going, she was literally crying and we all felt so awful watching her go.  Day 4-7 was kind of the same thing.  Sometimes, she would say she wanted to go pee pee, but then nothing comes out.  Sometimes, there were accidents.  Often than not, she would do a little pee dance and became really clingy to me and that's the sign that she needed to go potty.  She doesn't tell us too many times, maybe we pressured her too much?  I do ask her every hour (or half an hour if it gets close to her pee time).  We are letting her use pull-ups when we go out and during sleep times.  We figure we will fight one battle at a time.  

#2 is definitely not going well.  She still hasn't been able to poop in the potty yet.  But #1 is going not too bad.  Sometimes, she would pee a little and took a look at her pee and I asked if she could sit down and go a little bit more and she would be able to pee more.  Anders and I found that incredible.  I mean, it is pretty difficult to pee a little and then hold the rest in, right?  Crazy Ali!!  So, I would say she knows when she has to go, but sometimes unwilling to go because she just doesn't want to.  For her, it is more like a battle of wills.  She is a stubborn little girl and we noticed this trait when she was still a little baby.  *sigh*  Watch out for those teenage years!!!

Ali is back to daycare.  Hubby and I had a discussion as to when to give up.  We are thinking of switching back to diapers the following week if she is not able to tell her daycare she needs to go (they required the little ones to wear pull ups until they know how to tell them they need to go to bathroom).  And when we were driving home one night from grocery shopping, all in a sudden, she asked for her blue potty (I told her I am bringing her blue potty when we go out while we leave the pink potty at home) and when I asked her to go pee pee, she said yes.  So we pulled into a parking lot and off she went in her portable potty!  Seriously, every time we are about to give up, she teases us with a carrot.  At the end of the week, she was able to pee in the toilet at daycare a few times.  When she was at home, there were not too many accidents.  Actually, she is getting a lot better these days.  Even when we were out, she would ask for her blue potty or that she would go if we asked her.  It has been two weeks now and I almost want to say she got it for #1, but still a long way to go for #2.  Ali, mommy and daddy are very proud of you!!

I have been doing some quick research for potty training and every one of them suggested not going out during the potty training week.  Ali and I were getting a bit of cabin fever.  So we took her out to the yard and played with rocks.  Look how happy she is when she is outside.  Poor thing!

Once she got a hang of potty training, we started to bring her out to a nearby park as a treat.  Ali had so much fun with her por-por.

Having a terrific time with por-por.  And thanks Maddie for letting Ali play in your swing set.  Ever since Ali played at Maddie's house, she started to really like the swings!

Checking out the slides, again with her beloved por-por:

"Look mommy!!!  I am on the big-girl slide!!"

Having fun hitting the bells with a tree branch:

"Look what I can do, mommy!!"  Sitting on the chair on by myself!"

In the evenings, we just hung out in the front yard, playing with chalk.

And of course, bubbles!!  Ali loves playing with bubbles, but she is not very good at it.  It just so happened that we saw this bubble gun on sale at Superstore and it is just perfect for her.  No need to blow, just press the button and there are tons of bubbles coming out!!  So cool!!  Ali loves her bubble gun!  

PNE

This is Ali's very first time going to the PNE.  We wanted to bring her last year, but we figured she probably wouldn't really enjoy it since she was so little.  She is really into barn animals so that's the first place we took her.

Ali, dada and the horses:

More llama llama, red pajamas.

Then we moved on to see the moo-moos.  At first, we thought there were something wrong with these cows. And then we realized that they were all pregnant!!  One of them is due in November, just like me!

And of course I had to take picture with this mooternity sign!!!

Cute little chicks:

Hubby and I had never ever spent that much time in the barnyard before.  I mean, why would we?  Now that we had Ali, that's the place to be!  They had these cute activities for the little ones to do.  Here is a picture of Ali dress up as a farmer.  I love the little red apron!  She had a really good time learning about planting vegetables and fruits, milking a cow, catching fishes, making burgers, shaving sheep for wool, etc.  Totally fun and educational!

Time to take a break and play with the toy tractors:

One of the things that impressed me the most is the Parents' room.  They have diapers, wipes, water and a diaper changing station and washrooms for parents.  So AWESOME!!!  Seriously, we gotta learn from the States.  They had way better mother's room than us.

After we visited the barn, we took a walk around the Playland side.  Ali was so intrigued with all the rides and the number of people around her that she forgot to eat her crackers.  We went for a quick dinner and then off we go to see the Superdogs.

Ali was soooo into the show!  She was dancing and giggling and asking for more doggies!

We had so much fun.  We wanted to go back to PNE one more time before school starts, but unfortunately, her dada has hurt his back.  Oh well, we will definitely go to PNE next year!

Random pics

We have taken a few pictures here and there and I don't really know how group them in one post, hence the title, "random pics".

This one is taken at the mall.  I thought it was really cute.

A few of my coworkers wanted to go to the race track.  This was the first time for our family to be at a race track.  Ali had a lot of fun tho.  She really enjoyed looking at the horses!

We asked Ali to pick out a few horses from the programme and her dad placed bets on those she picked out.  Surprising both horses won!  Only for the first race tho.  We lost in the second race.  Here is a picture of one the winning horses.

My hardcore gambling coworkers (hahhaa...just joking!!!) 

We went to another mall and saw this really cool pyramid display.

From the side:

If you look closely, you can see that the entire image is made with M&M!!  Gosh, I couldn't even imagine how much time it took time to do this!!  Insane!!