Caroline and I hit the grocery store to stock up on essentials before the coming snowstorm (of an inch or two - but they canceled schools at 2pm already, a good 16 or so hours before the snow may start).

I had to get my vehicle tax bill adjusted (for the now-sold Honda) downtown, and it was conveniently three blocks away from Cheryl's office - so we joined her for lunch.

The x-rays did not show any fractures. If Caroline is still limping around on Friday, we have to take her back to the doctor - sometimes the fractures take a while to appear.

Broken foot?

After most of the week back in diapers, Caroline again today asked to wear underwear this afternoon. After twice alerting me that she had to go and running into the bathroom, she decided she didn't want to sit on the toilet. And then she totally soaked her pants and the carpet in her playroom. She's back in diapers.

Caroline spent the last 20 minutes throwing everything she could find into her crib.

This picture is terrible - it looked better on the phone. That's Caroline and Emma in there, enjoying the ride. It was very very cold out, so there wasn't much to do today.

She's went back to the underwear following her nap. This morning, I got tired of fighting with her when she clearly had to go (she was dancing around and whining), so I put her in a diaper to run some errands. After the nap, she got to try out some new Hello Kitty underwear, and shortly after proudly announced that she had made pee pee in her pants. Not there yet...

And we're back in diapers.

So far, so good with the Dora underpants. No accidents yet. I tried to diaper her this morning, but I was thwarted by screams and begging for big-girl Dora pants. Seems she's still committed to this underwear thing. If she starts remembering not to wet her diaper when she wakes up in the morning, I'll be a wee bit more cautiously optimistic.

Caroline joined Shane, Aaron and Emma at Aaron's house this afternoon for some playtime and some piano practice.

Playgroup was at Paige's house to celebrate her third birthday. They had excellent food and fun arts and crafts; and much to my delight, Caroline didn't wet herself.

About a 1/2 hour ago, Caroline suddenly removed her pants and diaper and announced that she didn't want to wear diapers anymore. This was pretty much unprovoked, although we've been working to set the stage for self-training for the past year. We've demystified the toilet, and have had her use it before bathtime every night. I bought her Dora the Explorer underpants a few months back, and talked them up pretty well. She's given them a test run a few times, but then asks for her diapers back. So basically, she doesn't fear the toilet, and she understands that pretty much all non-babies wear underpants and use the loo, and she hasn't had any undue pressure to use the toilet. Still, I was shocked by this turn of events.

After her declaration of independence from diapers, she demanded underpants (a first!), and she's already used the potty quite skillfully once already this evening. I'm cautiously optimistic about having her completely done with training by May. ( I would make the deadline earlier, but I don't want to set us all up to fail on the off-chance that she rebels and demands diapers until she's 5). We're trying to be really casual about it, and we're trying to let her think it's her idea to get rid of the diapers.

In other news, I cannot believe I just posted this message re: someone's bathroom habits on the internets. But considering that far more graphic posts have been made in the past, I'm ok with it.

It snowed a bit. Cheryl's business trip to warmer climates was canceled because of the weather. I went to the dentist today. It was horrible. Caroline had fun with her buddy Aaron when she wasn't whacking her noggin on various pieces of furniture at his house. A bad day for all.

We just returned from another unscheduled trip to the dentist thanks to Caroline cutting up her mouth last night. In what would have otherwise been a red letter day, while I was preparing dinner, Caroline took a spill climbing into her kitchen chair. There was a lot of blood, a bit of swelling, but the dentist didn't think there was any damage to her teeth.

This afternoon, after 10 years of semi-loyal service, we traded in the Accord for a new car to shuttle Caroline around. It played the CD she insisted on listening to all the time in the old car, so she's happy.

We are so bored. It's getting colder by the hour, Caroline is cranky from getting up at 6:30 again, and we still have the dangerous Accord to get us around. Nap time should be soon, if not for all the coffee she had for breakfast.

The Grandparents Zuke came for a visit over the holiday weekend - naturally, Caroline was in heaven. Hopefully we'll see them again soon. Thanks for the everything!

If the first 20 minutes of being awake are any indication, it's going to be a long day. Caroline's eating a banana and drinking gatorade, but I'm not sure how much is staying in her system.

Caroline has come down with some nasty stomach issues. She was lethargic most of the morning, took an early nap, then got sick this afternoon. Although she's refused to eat, we've been getting her to drink some juice and gatorade, so we're not too worried yet. And through it all this afternoon, our little trooper has maintained her energy, good spirits, and destructiveness. We're hoping a for a speedy recovery before her big weekend visit from the grandparents Zuke.

It was 42 degrees out, but Caroline insisted on hitting the park, so we went before running some errands. About 30 seconds after we got there, she declared it was too cold and she wanted to go home. She really needs to understand that I am always right.

Coinciding nicely with our now clean(er) house, we just learned that the Grandparents Zukowski are coming for a visit this weekend. Caroline is celebrating this morning by refusing to wear pants. She's also now walking around downstairs yelling random words to check out the new echo effect in the emptied dining room.

If we're in my car (still the near-dead Accord, we haven't found a new one yet), Caroline gets very agitated unless we listen to "her songs". And by "her songs" she means Prozzak's most recent album "Cruel, Cruel World". Here she's singing and dancing along with one of the songs in our living room.

After a mere 7+ months of living in our new house, we've finally cleared out the dining room thanks to playgroup hosting duties. And we didn't even use it during playgroup, but it's nice to have it ready for some furniture additions (tentatively scheduled for early 2012, once we pay off the car we're getting).

Caroline got a Christmas present in the mail today from her Aunt Trish and Uncle John. It was a few outfits that Caroline loved. She'll be photographed in them very soon. Thanks!

After a week of cleaning, Caroline and I hosted playgroup this morning at our house. It had been warm the last few days, but the weather turned colder this morning, so the backyard was unavailable. The kids had fun playing in her playroom and singing karaoke.

Here's a picture from Christmas Eve featuring the worst Santa ever (me). There's also video, but it won't make it onto the blog. Caroline was scarred for life.

Caroline seemed unconcerned, but it was a very bleak day. Cheryl's car died on Saturday, and was repaired for less than we thought this morning. Unfortunately, I figured it would be a good time to get my car looked at because it was wobbling badly whenever we went above 50, which is pretty much all the time. It turned out the rack and pinion are going bad, and will cost obscene amounts to fix, so it's time to find another car. And my car, with 160,000+ miles on it, was expected to outlast Cheryl's horrible Jetta. And I wanted to give it to Caroline when she got her license in 14 or so years. Oh well.