Poops

String Bean sat on the potty yesterday and tried to "push out the poopies" and was thrilled when some came out. Yes, I know this is a discussion only a mother of a toddler could love. Please note the name of this blog.

Upon finishing her business in the potty, she decided to call her family and friends and share her success. As always, Pop was the first on the list. Luckily, Nana was with him. Next it was Ama and Grandpa. Auntie Carolyn soon followed. Then Rob and Connie. After that, she wanted to call Lucy, so we did. After she hung up with Lucy's voice mail, she wanted to call Snoopy and Charlie Brown. (Which leads me to believe that the Lucy we called wasn't THE Lucy she was intending, but oh, well.) She finished the night of calling by calling Cashew, who is 2 1/2. Cashew simply said, "Hi, String Bean!" the entire conversation long.

Other than the call to Cashew, all other calls went like this:

String Bean (SB): Hi!
Mom or Dad (M/D): Tell them what you did.
SB: Poopies!
M/D: Where did you do the poopies?
SB: Potty!
M/D: What did you get for doing poopies on the potty?
SB: Chock (translation: chocolate)
M/D: Tell them your name.
SB now spells her name instead of saying her name.
M/D: Do you want to count?
SB: One, Two, Free, Four, Five, Six, Eye!
M/D: Say "Bye-bye!"
SB: Bye-bye! (long pause) Insert name of who you are calling.
Abruptly hang up.

A Perfect Party

As you know, String Bean turned two this week. Today she had her birthday party. Had we invited all her friends and fans our house never would have held everyone, so we had to limit it to family and babysitters.

The morning started out with String Bean taking Pop (grandpa) to her favorite park. With the two distractions gone, Mr. Bean, my mom (Nana) and I were able to set up for the party and cook lunch for everyone. Mr. Bean assembled his famous homemade lasagna the evening before and prepared most of the green bean casserole. Mr. Bean also put together an awesome slide show of String Bean's Second Year. He got the garlic bread ready while my mom and I spot cleaned, moved furniture, set the table, laid out the buffet, and decorated with photos of String Bean.

String Bean and Pop arrived home from the park and while Pop took a bath, String Bean took a (very brief) nap. When she awoke, Nana gave her a bath while Mr. Bean and I took care of last minute details.

Auntie Carolyn showed up early to the party since today was String Bean's fitting for her flower girl dress for the wedding. My mom made the dress and had to do some last minute hemming, but wanted to be sure the length was correct first.

Guests began to arrive at 11:30 and lunch was served at noon. Just prior to eating and saying the blessing, String Bean lead the group in singing the "Choo-Choo Song" which introduces everyone in the room. String Bean was the perfect hostess.

Following lunch, we watched the slide show Mr. Bean had made. It was a hit. By demand of the cousins, presents were opened immediately following. Ama and Grandpa tuned in for the present opening via Skype and enjoyed seeing everyone and everything String Bean got. String Bean enjoyed opening the gifts and loved everything she got (which was evidenced by her playing with every toy this afternoon).

We ate ice cream and cupcakes while String Bean made a mess.

It was the perfect party and we are happy that String Bean is loved by so many!

Easter Egg Hunt

We spent most of the day on Friday practicing for today's Easter egg hunt. Ama, String Bean's grandmother, had given her a hard boiled egg to "decorate" with stickers and I hid it around our living room and encouraged her to find it and put it in her basket. With glee, she found it every time and put it in her basket the proceeded to applaud herself for a job well done.

The egg hunt we visited was great. There was a 5 egg limit per child. Ama went with us so Mr. Bean could videotape, I could photograph, and Ama could elbow out all the other rugrats trying to pick up my precious child's eggs.

String Bean found a pile of 5 eggs, patiently put each one in her basket and then signed "all done." Yes, my 17 month old knows how to count to 5 and obey the 5 egg limit. Gifted. The entire hunt with the hundreds of kids there lasted about 30 seconds.

The eggs were empty, which is fine by me since String Bean has no idea that there is supposed to be candy in them anyway. The brochure said, "each child will get a goody bag." When we got to the goody bag table, String Bean put her little hand out for her bag and took it from the nice high school volunteer. She promptly put in her basket and put her hand out for another one. Clearly she knew there were Smarties inside. High School Girl gave her a second bag, but when that greedy little hand popped out for a third one, String Bean was denied. Can't blame a girl for trying.

The rest of the day we spent at the park. String Bean did not enjoy the temporary tattoo. It was a bit too permanent for her. She kept trying to pull it off like a sticker. She gives us the "stink face" every time she fails to pull it off her arm. We then got the obligitary photo with the Easter Bunny. They gave out free polariods and allowed us to take our own photos, too. The Polaroid photo turned out great. Nostalgia swept over me. Looks like a photo you might find in my baby book. Finally, we walked the gardens of the park and String Bean repeatedly threw her eggs out of her basket and found them all again with glee.

All in all, it was a good day and a great hunt! All we had to pay for was the cost of parking. Scratch that. My in-laws gave us a parking pass, so all was free!

Happy Easter!