Snow!!

I'm not a cold weather person. I'm fine with fall and sweatshirt weather, but when that temp drops, I'm not thrilled. With that said, I DO like snow! (well you know, if I don't have to drive in it) So when it snowed the passed weekend my girl and I had to get out into it. 
Last year she wasn't such a fan but this year she is all about it. I asked her something like 20 times if her hands were cold and she just kept saying no. They HAD to have been cold... we had gloves on but mine were cold, so I think she was too excited to be cold. We had a blast making a snowman and she woke up yesterday morning wanting to make another one :)

I had the husband take pictures of us from inside while he held Wes, so Norah was slightly confused as to where she should be looking :)

Have you gotten any snow yet  this year? Love it? Hate it? Don't care? 
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Red and Yellow, Black and White...

The other day we were wasting some time at the store while waiting for the photo lab to finish our order, we found ourselves in the toy section. Who am I kidding though, we find ourselves in the toy aisles frequently :) As we were going up and down the aisles Norah started pointing very excitedly at something. At first I wasn't sure what it was that got her so excited but then my eyes made their way to a baby doll and I knew that was what she was wanting to see. She has a love for baby dolls, especially now that she has a baby brother.She loves to mimic me with her baby doll. She changes her, she burps her, she has even been known to nurse her after seeing me nurse Wes. She enjoys playing the mommy roll.
I handed her the baby doll that she was so excited to get her hands on. 

It was the first time it even crossed my mind to consider getting her a baby doll of another race. I have zero problems with a white child having a black baby doll or vice versa, it simply had just never crossed my mind. I naturally had just only bought her white baby dolls. 
What a great way to broaden her diversity though right? I mean we live in an area that according to the 2010 census is 99.1% white (which is down from 100% white according to the 2000 census). Needless to say, she doesn't have very many opportunities to be around people of another race. I dislike that quite a bit. I grew up very differently. 
I grew up an army brat living on a military base in Virginia (Fort Eustis to be exact - I also lived at Fort Campbell in TN as well) and I was certainly not in the majority there, and yet I never once thought anything of it. Until my dad retired when I was 8 and we moved to the midwest. Then I was a bit taken back that I looked like everyone else, oh and what is this thing they call sales tax?!
I'm glad she picked out that black baby doll the other day. It was a good reminder to me that she currently does not see color as an issue and I want it to always stay that way. I don't want her to be color blind, because we AREN'T all the same and it is okay to acknowledge that. Instead I want her to appreciate our differences and to appreciate the face that we are all unique and the color of our skin plays into that. I simply want it to be a non-issue for her, which I hope is not hindered by the lack of diversity in our location. 
Do you live in a diverse area? If not how do you teach racial diversity, or do you? 

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Yep, I'm Being THAT Mom

In my every day life I don't usually have chats about my children's bathroom experiences... but we're all friends here right? Okay good! Before having a toddler I used to scoff a bit when parents would publicly talk about potty training, hello! That's private! Okay yes I still think not everyone needs to know the details of your toddler's bathroom trips, we moms (and dads!) need advice sometimes! So yes, I'm being THAT mom. 
When our daughter was about 15 months old we bought her one of those potty chairs. We were feeling very ambitious... well and maybe I was reading one too many stories about child prodigies who potty trained themselves at 9 months old and never looked back. Okay so maybe not 9 months, but seriously I felt like left and right I was reading about kids jumping on the potty train when they were the same age as my daughter and like every other good mom, I don't want my kids getting behind!

Yep, I'm being "That Mom" posting this kind of picture...

Yeah. My kid apparently wasn't a potty training prodigy.  Sure, she sat on it a time or two but that was about it, it ended up being an eyesore a decoration in our bathroom. Honestly though I didn't give it a second thought. She had other ideas as to what this new "toy" was I was fine with that.

Sorry for the cropped Instagram quality photo :)

Fast forward to just after her 2nd birthday and we decided to give it an actual shot. Having two in diapers just isn't all it's cracked up to be for me. She actually did really well right out of the gate and she is now practically 100% in big girl pants at home (aside from when she's sleeping)! Yay!! But we have an issue.
She has a phobia of public toilets. 
Even if we take her seat attachment she knows it's a trick, that there is a public toilet under it. She's on to us. It has nothing to do with the flush, it really is the actual seat (and like I said, even with her seat attachment that she uses perfectly fine at home).
We've taken her out a few times in public without a diaper but I'm honestly a bit scared to. She's stayed dry sometimes and not so much other times. I don't want her to start having accidents in the middle of Kroger and then have a regression but at the same time I feel like every time I throw a diaper on her to go out I am hindering her moving onto the step of being 100% potty trained even in public. 
Was transitioning from inside the home to outside the home easy for your child? For you? How did you get over that hurdle?   ____________________________________________________________________   If you like my blog please click the image below.   There is nothing to sign up for, just click and you are done. Thanks!     Follow my blog with Bloglovin