Potty Watch

For real...POTTY WATCHES exist!!

And when Jared and I saw one at "The Fresh Market" grocery store yesterday, we just couldn't help ourselves.

The potty-shaped watch face lets you set it at intervals of 30, 60 or 90 minutes. When time is up...it plays a little song, and we rush Maiya to the potty for a visit!

She's still going in her diapers...but she is consistantly getting on the potty every 30 minutes during waking hours...and that is a START!!

We're out hunting BUTTERFLIES!

The Dollar Store really saves my sanity, sometimes. I really should visit more than a few times a year!

On our latest trip, Ella bought a butterfly net and bug cage with her birthday money.
Here are the girls (with their friend, Grace), out hunting butterflies this morning!

Oh Nose!!

Jared and I were downstairs on Saturday, when we heard a big CRASH and Maiya crying upstairs.

We went up, and discovered that Maiya had been playing under one of the kitchen stools, and had managed to topple it over her. She had blood coming out of her nose and mouth, and she had two very frightened parents!

I ran down the street, and found our "neighborhood doctor" who JUST moved here from Colby, Kansas, playing at the park with his family. He came over, took a look at her, and assured us that she was okay. It's probably not a broken nose (and even if it is, doctors just let it heal on its own at this young age), but it should look really pretty for the next week or two! Maiya is so tough, and hasn't complained about her nose hurting, at all. In fact, when asking her what hurts, she would just say "my lip!"

Photo #1 is just after the accident. Photo #2 the next day, and Photo #3 on Day 3 (last night).

Maiya the Blue-Nose Toddler:

Flashback to Mexico

I still wish I had documented more of our stay in Mexico. So, I was looking through some old photos today, and found some that I hadn't blogged about, yet.

This particular trip happened on February 13th of 2009, and started out as just a random Friday drive to Lake Chapala, to get out of the house!

We circle down towards the Pier in Chapala, and briefly passed this funeral procession:

Next, we circle around towards La Parque Cristiania, and kept taking that major road East of Chapala.

Along the way, we saw this:

And beautiful vistas like this:

We drove up the hill into a small village (San Nicolas de Ibarra, I believe), and found some sweet, but humble homes.

The next neighborhood over, Vista del Lago, (not actually connected, although close enough to be) looked more like this, and had gorgeous properties overlooking a local golf course. It's amazing the diversity of wealth (or the lack thereof) that you get in this area.

Next, we continued East to the small town of Mezcala, which is known for offering boat trips to the island of Mezcala. Some day we'll do that boat trip and blog about it, but we didn't do it on this day.

As we were driving into town, nature struck me...and there was no option but to stop IMMEDIATELY! We learned how fast I could ask directions in Spanish to the closest bathroom. Pretty fast--it turns out--although I admit I really relied mostly on charades to direct me to a restaurant where I ran in, gave them some money to use their bathroom, and probably spent a good 5 minutes locked behind the door. When I came out, I found all of these children hovering around the car, asking Jared for money.

We also saw these girls enjoying some jump rope in the street.

Jared (of course) decided he wanted to see how far East the road would go on the North side of the lake. Turns out...it gets pretty rough if you continue on the road East. We drove for awhile on this (what is the random paved mini section in the middle? I have no idea!), until it became more of a 4-wheeling road. I finally convinced Jared to turn around (yes, he DOES require convincing...as he thinks he and this van are invincible).

Here's a view of the Lake...still can't see the furthest-most East end of the lake!

On the way back, we stopped at this FANTASTIC "Italian" Joint on the side of the road. When I say "side of the road," I really mean SIDE of the road. Do you see the yellow traffic line in the road? Cars drive RIGHT alongside this little restaurant!

It had fantastic pizza, scrumptious bruschetta (I'd still like to figure out how to replicate that), and delightful decor! Not the cheapest meal we've had in Mexico, but it was so worth every penny!

The evening ended with a beautiful sunset, and we headed back home to Ajijic.

Trip to Midway

Over Memorial Day weekend, my sister invited our family up to a condo in Midway to enjoy 2 nights together with Lara (who was visiting from GA), and my brother Brian, & his family.

One morning we escaped the condo and went for a looong hike (well, verrrrry long with all of these kids in tow)! Me, my sisters, the kiddos, and Jared. We weren't sure if the trail was EVER going to loop around and head back towards the car, and I was waiting for complete breakdowns from the kids...but suddenly, the trail looped back, and we all survived!



We also enjoyed some pool time. Please escuse the AWFUL photo of me. But I thought this photo was hysterical!
Maiya has an inflatable swim suit that her Grandma sent her. It inflates with air in the front, and back (sort of like a Carebear tummy)...so we had to take a "big belly" photo! Like mother...like daughter!

It took her about 10 minutes to figure out how to balance herself in the pool with the inflatable swimsuit...but once she got the hang of it, she was swimming on her own...leaving me nearly hands free! So cool...thanks Grandma!


And, as usual, a pleasure trip for us always turns into a business trip of some sort. We stopped in at the Park City store that carries the wood watches (and now our flower jewelry)...and I nabbed some photos of some of their displays. Aren't these wood watches gorgeous? Don't you know someone that NEEDS one for Father's Day?!! ;-)

My shameless plug....

:-)

I'm guessing boys won't do this...

Just some summer fun...