My little handful..I mean two year old

Sometimes its really tricky living in a new home with children. It's really hard to keep things nice when you have little ones around ya know? Its the reason why we don't have many nice things within their reach, but when it's a brand new house and you want everything to stay brand new for at least a month or so...I guess that's asking a lot when you have a two year old. My little Aivree is such a curious girl and she just loves to explore and see what things can do. She's already found the nail polish (luckily it was clear, but my end table will never be the same) and I don't know why its so hard for her to understand that her skin is not paper...she just loves to draw all over it (and her clothes and the walls and the tables).

See how proud she shows it off?
She also found out that chapstick is really fun and she decided she could put it on herself and look very beautiful...

and her hands and her clothes.
I just had to stick this in...she really wanted to clap with the song in the car, but didn't know what to do with her ice cream cone...haha
She's also going through this somewhat annoying but cute at the same time phase where she ALWAYS has to wear a dress. Everyday she says she wants to wear a dress. She has a lot of cute clothes that are not dresses so I do my best to dress her otherwise when I can, but she is sure to let me know that she's not happy about it. One night I put her pajamas on and she screamed at me that she wanted a dress, so this was our compromise.

She also likes to take her shirt off when she gets the chance because she figured out that she can. Here was an unsuccessful, but extremely funny, attempt.

She loves to be nakey (if she's not in a dress)

Unfortunately with our new house we've encountered some invaders. Ants!! Little black ants everywhere! They drive me crazy! At first it was just a couple in the kitchen, but then they just seemed to multiply and are everywhere. Gross. The girls used to hate them too, but then they found a fun little game to play with them and they actually enjoy the ants in the house. First Anitsen finds an ant and points it out to Aivree (there's no way Ani's touching them). Then Aivree picks it up with her fingers (usually cutting them in half) and then both girls run to the bathroom and put the ant in the toilet. They do this over and over until I say enough (hey it helps get rid of some of the ants and they enjoy it..I just make sure Aivree washes her hands after).

Here's Aivree putting an ant in the toilet

They loved looking at them in there and watching them try to swim

Here are the ants...there's actually like 10 or so in there.

and then on to the big one...Potty Training!!!! Aaahhhhh! Aivree always talks about wanting to go potty just like Anisten and she loves to sit on the potty wherever we go (yes even public restrooms - yuck) and even successfully went one time, so I thought now was the time to train her. I'm very thrilled to be rid of diapers after buying them for the past four and a half years. I started out with a potty party where we train the doll and then its Aivree's turn to be like the doll. Well, it worked for Anisten (although she was about six months older).

Blowing bubbles on the potty

Ani loved this part too

Having a tea party (to make sure she drinks lots) Isn't potty training fun??

NO!

To say that Aivree had no interest in going on the potty would be an understatement. During the whole week I tried to train her, she went pee on the potty THREE times, and I'm pretty sure those were accidents (although I much prefer those kinds of accidents!). She just didn't seem to understand how to make it happen. She would sit and sit and sit and sit on the potty and nothing would happen until two minutes after she put her pants back on. And then, instead of trying to run to the potty to get some of it in there, she would watch it go down her and pants and onto my carpet/tile. I guess I didn't make it fun enough for her, I don't know. She seemed to want to go at the beginning of the week, but just didn't know how. Towards the end of the week, it was a sore spot for her and anytime the potty was mentioned she would yell "NO!" I don't want to make it a negative thing so I didn't feel good pushing her into something that maybe she just isn't ready for. I'll still mention it here and there, but we'll have to go back to diapers/pull ups for awhile until she shows more interest or ability. :( I really had higher hopes for that.

Well, despite her two year old antics and keeping me on my toes, she sure does know how to make me smile and those big blue eyes are always hard to resist.