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Today was dreary and rainy but not last week! Picnic!

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What a wonderful weekend! The weather was fabulous (ok, maybe it was a little too hot this weekend!) Potty training is proceeding and Sienna is doing so great! We are so proud of her. All of our outings this weekend were underwear only. Actually, she’s been wearing just underwear after only about a week! She still hasn’t done number 2 in the potty but I know that takes time. After a week of staying home or close to home, I was anxious to get back out into civilization…

Friday we had another picnic at Owl’s Head park with a bunch of mom’s and kids. Sienna got obsessed with these toy binoculars of Phoenix’s.

Saturday we went up to Norwalk, CT for a Cinco de Mayo lunch hosted by an old friend of Yves’ from Chicago.  They moved from Chicago last summer and have been trying to make plans to get together since but something always happened. It was nice to finally meet Selena, her husband Danny and 2 adorable kids, Gael and Sofia. There were several moms and dads with their kids there as well. They have a beautiful spacious house with a nice big backyard. Sienna had a ball. She especially loved riding the “four wheeler.” They also had a Dora pinata for the kids. Sienna got hold of the string that probably would have opened it all up but she didn’t have the strength to pull it off. After a fun time, Sienna announced that she wanted to stay there forever. HA!

Pull Sienna! Pull!

This older boy got the magic string

Got some goodies!

Gael

Sofia

Sienna kept saying she wanted to go into the ‘pool’ so Sunday was the day for it.

Yes, it was hot!

Sienna took the opportunity to wash her car. LOL

Hot dog number 1

and hot dogs numbers 2 thru 4. LOL

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A couple of weeks ago, before my gluten free quest, we had the luck of having lunch with two of our good friends on two separate days. Yves was finally able to join Pete and I on a weekday lunch outing! Since we can no longer count on Lento’s as our go to thin crust pizza place, we tried Vezzo’s which I’m sure is related somehow to Gruppo’s, which me and Yves have gone to before. We ordered a pizza with carmelized onions, homemade meatballs and olives. It was quite tasty but the olives were a bit salty. The menu said black olives but kalamata olives were on the pizza. It was still good!

The day after, we had lunch with Joy and went to a panini place I’ve been wanting to try, Press 195. I like my steak and avocado sandwich and the frites and the dessert (nutella and banana press with ice cream) we got but I don’t think it was as awesome as I was lead to believe by some reviews I read. But I believe a lot of the reviews were for their Queens location. They did a good job with the kid plates by including sliced apples, which Sienna ate all of! Plue, there are over 40 sandwich combinations! I’m glad I got to check it out!

The frites were ok

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I just wanted to show how my second go around went using the ColorArtz. My first go around can be found here. Before I start, I want to follow up on the ones I made. I haven’t worn them yet but decided to throw 2 of the 3 shirts into the wash. Please note that I purposely washed them right side out. If you know anything about doing laundry, you know that if you want to keep the coloring or a decal on a front of the shirt intact, it’s to turn it inside out. Anyway, they did quite a bit of fading! I don’t think I have to tell you which one was the pre-washed shirt!

So for this turn, I found this blog post of a woman that made her daughter a Peep’s appliqued shirt/dress for Easter. She included the template for it and I promptly downloaded it. For the life of me, I can’t find that blog post!! Big apology for the woman that made this available! If you happen to be reading this, please let me know who you are!

So I decided to do the airbrushing instead of applique. I set up the template and printed it out on freezer paper and cut them out. In my supplies, I found this giant clipboard that I’m not sure where I got it and for what reason but I thought it was perfect for this project. This way I can be looking straight at the shirt instead of down on the shirt.

I was really good this time at masking the surrounding area!

As you can see, I had some trouble printing on the freezer paper because it was too curly but then used the scrap anyway. After taking this shot, I decided to tape a little bit more in between the peeps on the top. You can see exactly where in the final shot!

I did several coats because I wasn’t sure how well the yellow would show up on the pink. I also attempted to do some shading on the bottom. I think it came out cute! I used dimensional fabric paint for the eyes. I was debating writing “My Peeps” on the front but ended up not doing it. You can really see the areas that were open from not being taped down or from the tape not being secure. You really have to tape around the whole area to get it perfect!

So when I washed this shirt, I did turn it inside out and I did not notice any fading. This could also be because I sprayed several coats. That’s good to know! Sienna wore this on Good Friday for the Easter Egg Hunt. Here is another outtake, she has started to give me the sad face whenever I take a photo of her (she’d be all smiley seconds before!)

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What an exhausting week it has been! Aside from discovering I have Hashimoto’s and deciding to go gluten free, we also started some serious potty training for Sienna. Mind you, we got her a portable potty last year or maybe even earlier than that and some underwear soon after. She showed some interest last year for a bit but nothing ever really became of it. Potty training has been something I’ve been dreading since she was born so I didn’t really push it. Truth is, I was just being lazy about it. But I gave myself a deadline that she was definitely going to be trained by the end of the summer. That would make her almost 3.5 years old and there was no way I wanted her still in diapers at that age.

Anyway, last Sunday evening she said she wanted to wear underwear. Ok! I figured it was time to go for it and to go for it full strength. Enough of this already! She had an accident soon after I put them on her. That’s ok, it was the beginning. Monday, we decided to stay home and played in the back area. She had several accidents that morning. By the 3rd underwear change, I decided not to change her out of it so quickly and let her be a little uncomfortable in the wetness. I wasn’t sure how well that was working because after a few minutes, she just went about her business playing. That afternoon, I had my doctor’s appt and Yves said she didn’t have any accidents at all! Woohoo! Ok, maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad after all! Tuesday morning, accident. Right after she said uh-oh, a big stream came down her leg. Oh, bummer. But Tuesday was more successful than Monday. By Wednesday I was pulling my hair out. I wanted to get out (mind you, it was beautiful sunny weather we were having!) and also go shopping to fill up the kitchen with some gluten free options. I decided to go for the gold and venture out with Sienna. I put on her underwear and then also a pull up. I wanted her to wear the underwear so that if it gets wet, she will feel it better than if it was just the pull-up. I also bought a bunch of extra underwear, pants and pull-ups with me. We headed out to Trader Joe’s. Once we got there, we went into Michael’s first to use the rest room. She went on the potty! Went shopping at TJ’s, drove home and no accidents! Woot!

I also have to add that I ended up going the M&M route and only started it on Wednesday. It worked for 2 other moms I know and somehow I ended up doing it. Yves was really resisting doing it and I agreed. We both felt that you shouldn’t have to get a reward for doing something that you’re supposed to be doing but I’m just going to look at it as an incentive. Everyone needs incentives, right? Well, it was working!! So far it has only been pee in the potty although quite a few times she claimed number 2 was coming but nothing ever came. Never came into the potty that is! She had a poop accident at the playground on Thursday. I wasn’t surprised. She was threatening poop all morning. But after that, everything has been really uphill! She did not have any accidents from Friday thru today (except for one minor one and we’re talking really minor!) Her diaper was even dry this morning! We are so proud of her! She didn’t even want to put on a night diaper either. By no means do we know this training is over. And I have to be prepared for some regression. We’ll see!

And to add to the exhaustion of the week, Sienna has been getting up at 5 in the morning! She has done that occasionally every now and again but now it’s been close to 2 weeks! So we thought taking away her afternoon naps would help her sleep in longer. We started that on Wednesday and she is still getting up at 5!! ARGH! I have no choice but to ride it out and hope this phase will end. And to top all that off, I received a consuming freelance job. This week has flown by. I wish I could just sleep…

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So the last weekend in March was a bit chilly so we opted to go to the Staten Island Children’s Museum. Both Yves and Sienna really enjoy that one. We got there around 10:30 only to discover it was closed! They were having a special Easter event out on the front lawn so the museum was closed for that. The event starts at noon and we were told we should come back for that. Well, what a bummer! Sienna was really upset and even started crying. Poor thing! Since we’re not from the area we had no idea how to occupy our time in order to come back for the special event. We were a little upset about this closure, especially since we checked the website right before we left! So since the museum is on a cultural center (Snug Harbor), we walked around that area. Unfortunately Yves wasn’t really dressed for being outside but he toughed it out and we managed to pass an hour by. By the time we walked by the museum, it seems like they started the festivities even tho it was before noon so technically, we could have checked it out. But because we were kind of mad at the museum, we decided not to and just go to lento’s for lunch. Good news for me! Yves realized that their pizza is subpar to the Bay Ridge Lentos (and our own) that he declared we are not to go back there again! Yay! (I always thought it was subpar and I think Yves was still holding onto the memories of the BR Lentos.) Now we need to find another lunchtime place for our future visits to the Children’s museum. Anyone know of any??

Walking into the ‘scary jungle’


Sienna kept saying “Come here duck, I want to pet you.”

Yves kept saying “Come here duck, I want to pet you.”

This tree tunnel will look really pretty when the leaves come in.

A castle!

Hello? Anybody home?

Found a magic stick!

Found a stage!

Snug Harbor from Lisa on Vimeo.

I do want to say that I e-mailed the museum to suggest putting special events and notices on their visit us page. I had checked their calendar when we came back later that day to make sure it wasn’t something we missed. It did say there was a special event but it did not say the museum was closed! They were nice about it and even sent us 5 free passes for another visit.

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Yesterday was Easter Sunday and a beautiful 70 degrees. It’s too bad Sienna had a fever in the morning and threw up twice in the afternoon! My poor baby! ;-( She is better today, thankfully! Friday was the 2nd annual Easter Egg hunt that Starr so graciously organized again. It was a big difference weather wise than last year! And Sienna was pretty good with getting a decent amount of eggs unlike last year!

She’s ready to fill her basket!

On the hunt! She shared her find with Sylvie.

Look at all that she got!

Nico’s loot

Phoenix shows off some bling she got in one of her eggs!

Nico raiding his eggs!

Sienna was asking Nico if she could sit next to him. His only concern was his candy! LOL

Izky shows off a cool dinosaur head egg!

Chocolate face!

Carter stops by and is wearing the shirt I made him!

Sienna’s getting pretty good riding the scooter (Izky’s)

Pizza afterwards. She didn’t get any on her shirt!! Which, btw, is a Peeps shirt I made for her that I will blog about soon!

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Last Sunday was another beautiful day (this past weekend was quite the opposite!) and we spent part of it in Williamsburg. We were meeting Pete, Nate and Mari at Raymund’s and stopped by the playground beforehand. McCarren Park has a nice playground! 2 sets of swings, a bunch of slides and at least 3 different structures to climb. We picked up Joy before we headed out there. Sienna had fun playing with Joy.

Now on to Raymund’s! YUM!

Mari’s borscht

Pete eats white borscht (with a plop of mashed potatoes, ahem!)

Potato Pancakes MMMM!

Apple fritters! MMMM

Joy points to her big pile of goulash (on a pile of potato pancake!), which was pretty good. I might have to deviate from my usual pierogi order next time.

My pierogies!

Yves eats his kielbasa plate

Sienna enjoys some of Yves’ kielbasa and potato pancakes

Sienna and doggie

Pete laughs at Sienna’s rendition of Mana mana (from the Muppets)

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Wednesday I had what I thought would be my final dentist appointment (which turns out to be my second to last). He was putting in my permanent cap for that unexpected root canal I had back in December. He only used temporary cement to test out the cap before I have to go back in and get permanent cement. Anyway, since my parents are in Denver, I didn’t have anyone to watch Sienna so we decided to drop her off at her daddy’s work for a couple of hours. She was really excited about it. My appointment was at 10:15 and we left at 7:30 just to be sure because of the extra train transferring. Everyone at Yves’ work loved her! They gave her all sorts of presents (dolls, balls, backpacks!) and Crusher even came along! Yves had work to do so when I got back from the dentist, we had to go to lunch without him. We got home a little before 2 and Sienna willingly took her nap! Such excitement for the day!

On the way!

On the way home

Train cuteness

Train talking

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We’ve been having some beautiful weather lately and we just had to go to the playground! Here are some recent photos!

Leah’s big smile!

Sienna and Emma play ice cream shop

These were actually from a couple of weeks ago when the weather was just getting warm but not as warm as recently.

Phoenix and Sienna play bounty hunter and wrangle up a runaway Sylvie!

Sorta playing frisbee

Nico and Sienna play the ‘putting rocks and sticks in the cone’ game

Fell asleep on the way home after fun in the park on Friday. More photos on my facebook here.

These are from Sunset Park yesterday where we went to have a picnic with Vietnamese sandwiches.

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