Braces and potty-training?

"Brace" yourself, this may be TMI for some of you. haha You read that correctly, I not only have the pleasure of enjoying the beauty and wonder of a toddler, but the loveliness (eh hmmm) of teenagers at the same time. Smile. I have told many of my friends and family that it's not the baby that keeps us up at night....it is definitely the teenagers!

So for the first of two huge milestones at our house this month. The little pink potty-chair has been a fixture in the hall bath for about 6 months - and while she would occasionally sit on it and "act", for the most part she stood on it to brush her teeth and wash her hands. Elise has shown quite a bit of interest in it lately, and then it happened...on 5/6 she told us she had to potty, so away we flew down the hall "running like the wind" as we now call it to peels of laughter from little missy. But, as with so many things, she has her own way of doing them and didn't want to sit on the cute little pink chair. NO! She pointed to the big potty, and thinking "why not", we unlatched the removable seat from the little pink chair, snapped it onto the big potty and voila - there has been no looking back. With the exception of a few minor mishaps, and nap and nighttime, she IS going on the potty. TMI??



And the second huge milestone, I am happy to report - Lane finally got her braces on the morning of 5/11. Yeah! That darned crooked front tooth will be a thing of the past in no time. Lane was trying not to act excited about it, but a few smiles broke through on the drive to the orthodontist. Here is the new look (of course HOT PINK bands):



Here are a few pics of little missy enjoying the great outdoors (in our front yard) and walk around the block with her baby - who, she claimed, made poo-poo in the last picture.







And a few random bits of loveliness - Diablo, the wonderdog (and Elise's best bud) and the cleaning lady. :-)







Please excuse any strange looking, overly small or overly LARGE photo's - I am still playing around with the various features on Photobucket to upload onto the blog....it's a work in progress and I thank you for your patience!

Butterflies and such...

After much research on how to upload multiple photo's to the blog - and having them stay where I want them, I'm finally back in business. Little did I know I needed a programming degree to write a blog and post pictures within it! Enough said, hopefully I will be able to update at least weekly now....I've missed you little blog!

The Mahoney house has a new project going on - this wonderful Butterfly Pavillion that Patrick picked up at a home show several months ago.  As much as little missy loves the outdoors and finding critters in the yard and during our walks around the block, we thought "why not"?


So, we sent away for the caterpillars and started our "experiment". This has been a great learning experience for everyone in the house! Who knew that a caterpillar literally grows overnight and after a week or so morph into a "chrysallis" (NOT a coccoon).  After a week of the chrysallis hanging still from the inside of the pavillion (how they stay attached to this is beyond me) they burst out into this beautiful butterfuly - simply amazing.  While we didn't actually get to SEE a butterfly-burst, we would find a new butterfly in the pavillion every few hours over the course of 2 days. 

The pavillion has a place of honor on Elise's bureau, where she moves her pink stool to peer into it about 10 times a day.




In keeping with the butterfly theme, I decided to enjoy Mother's Day this year at the Butterfly House in Faust Park.  I hadn't been inside the Butterfly House since Lane was in, oh, 3rd grade, and I wonder why we don't go more often.  It is, simply stated, breathtaking!



But, beware, it is as hot and humid inside as it is outdoors in St. Louis on a hot July afternoon - although well worth the frizzy hair and sweaty bra.  Lane commented that she was glad she hadn't bothered to straighten her hair that morning...ME too.


After the fun of walking through the butterfly house, we headed over to the huge playground in the park and then finally, the Carousel.






The Carousel at Faust Park was created and built in the 1920's and has had several homes over the years in various parks around St. Louis - reaching it's current home at Faust Park in 1987 (I had to look that up). While I had fun playing with the camera to try and take pictures, Patrick, Lane and Elise enjoyed a ride.







To close out this great big post - I finally finished the "mama blanket" as Elise refers to it. Her blanket that I made! Now off to work on the "mama blanket" for Lane.