I Shouldn't Have To Say It!

But, alas, at dinner time, it became necessary to say:

"Sylvie-Faye! Quit eating your toes at the dinner table!"

Why? There was a perfectly good meal in front of her. (SIGH)

It's Official!

Our roles have switched around here.

Dads are supposed to potty train their daughters, right?

Hello?

Well...it happened. I have NOT been able to potty train Sylvie-Faye. I have tried on numerous occasions and failed miserably. I had reached my wit's end and decided she would have to figure it out on her own someday. Perhaps she'd realize she was the only kid wearing diapers in the 5th grade and finally be ready to DO something about it!

But Bertrand would not have that. He just decided last Saturday that enough was enough. He removed her diaper, put her in underwear, walked her to the bathroom, pointed to the toilet and said (in his booming, intimidating voice) "This is where you go pee? Do you understand me?"

Sylvie stuck her finger in her mouth and looked up at him, sheepishly nodding.

"Say OK, Sylvie-Faye!" he shouted.

"Okay papa", she muttered quietly.

"I can't hear you!" He shouted again.

"OK PAPA!" Sylvie shouted back.

And that was that. She felt the urge to pee later on and said, "Papa, can I go pee pee?" to which he responded, "Yes. Get in there right now. You go on the toilet, not the floor!" So she ran and went pee pee.

Don't worry. It wasn't THAT easy. She had about two accidents a day the first two days, which Bertrand responded to with shouting and spanking. But that was it. By day three she was having zero accidents and even going to bed with underwear and not having any accidents at night.

Bertrand has always told me that she's very smart and she knows how to go. She was just being defiant with me, but papa put the fear in her and she's doing it on her own now.

YAY! A couple of days ago Bertrand crouched down to Sylvie's level, kissed her on the cheek and said, "Now I'm going to teach you to clean and blow your nose properly".

And then I REALLY felt stupid. He's gonna' teach her EVERYTHING! What am I gonna' do?

I guess she just responds better to her papa. And she's very close with him. So I guess I'll try not to feel too bad that he's taken over the mommy duties.

Okay. This Is Gonna Be A Tough One!

Michele has tagged me and this is a really tough one, but I'm gonna' challenge my brain and do it!

CRAZY 8's

8 TV SHOW I LOVE TO WATCH:

1. American Idol
   
2. So You Think You Can Dance
   
3. The Soup
   
4. The Tudors
   
5. Entertainment Tonight
   
6. The Daily 10
   
7. Dr. Phil (If I'm totally desperate and there's nothing else on! This is rare)
8. Deal Or No Deal
   

8 OF MY FAVORITE RESTAURANTS:

1. Cheesecake Factory
2. Cafe Rio
   
3. Joe's BBQ
4. Gecko Grill
   
5. Abuelo's
6. Joe's Crab Shack
   
7. Panda Express
   
8. Macaroni Grill
   

8 THING THAT HAPPENED TO ME YESTERDAY:

1. Worked.
   
2. Went power walking.
   
3. Did some kick boxing.
   
4. Cleaned up messes all day.
   
5. Cooked pork burritos (Cafe Rio style)
   
6. Read blogs.
   
7. Took a shower (My one shower for the week. I know - TMI. But it's my blog. I can say what I want.)
   
8. Had a HUGE fight with my hubby on the back porch for all the neighbors to hear. YAY!
   

8 THINGS I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO:

1. Thanksgiving
2. Getting my book finished
   
3. Twilight coming out on video
   
4. New Moon coming out in theaters
   
5. Losing 50 pounds
   
6. Getting sealed to my husband and children
   
7. Recording two new songs
   
8. The Tudors new season starting January 2009
   

8 THINGS ON MY WISH LIST:

1. To become a famous writer.
   
2. To become a rock star.
   
3. To raise good kids.
4. Get out of debt.
   
5. Own a home.
   
6. Get my awesome body back.
   
7. Start my charity.
   
8. A MAID (I agree with Michele)
   

8 PEOPLE I'M TAGGING:

I'm tagging whoever wants to do this on their blog. If you're up for the challenge (especially the TV show part. That was hard), GO FOR IT!

When The PDA Gets Out Of Control

Just a few minutes ago my husband and I crossed paths in the hallway. He thought I was going to bed because I was in the room a few minutes getting ready for bed, but I told him I was planning on doing some work for a bit longer instead.

We held each other in an embrace in the dark hallway and kissed for a few seconds. Then he told me I needed to rest and take a break. I nodded.

HIM: Wanna' watch a movie?

I didn't respond. I just nuzzled my nose in his neck and kissed it.

HIM: We have those movies from Netflix we need to watch so I can send them back. Do you wanna' watch one with me?

ME: (A seductive look in my eye) I want something else.

HIM: (Laughing) I knew it.

All of the sudden we hear this voice in the dark saying, "Really guys? Right there?" It was John up in his upper bunk of his bed, looking down over us. We just happened to be standing right outside his bedroom door - a minor detail we overlooked. I just had to laugh. Poor guy. Sorry about that.

It's Flu Season

Have you received your shot yet? I highly recommend you get at least one. I'll be getting five this year - just for safe measure.

Rob Pattinson - you nailed it. You're awesome. And thank you. The heat you created onscreen burned the oncoming sinus infection right out of me. It was well worth the $10.

Random Nonsense

The only way to watch Dora...

..is WITH Dora. (Thank you, Sami. They LOVE this doll)

I totally just need to be a rock star because my sink ALWAYS looks like this.

And these have been sitting on the table like this for nearly a week.

And these pictures are extremely MILD versions of what it typically looks like around here. I just don't like to clean. Never have. Never will. I need a maid. I would much rather spend my time writing - music and stories. Somebody else come clean it, please. I'll pay you.

If my children had long, red hair, this is what they'd look like.

Maybe I could actually braid it then or do SOMETHING with it.

And here's my husband. Oh, yes it is.

Oh yes, IT IS!

Isn't he beautiful?

He lets me brush his long, beautiful red hair while he paints my toenails.

The Prophet Said To Plant A Garden

Bertrand works about 50-60 hours a week cleaning and repairing pools. And then he comes home and cooks sometimes, helps with the cleaning, helps with the kids. And then suddenly he decides he wants to plant a garden - on top of everything else he does. This guy never ceases to amaze me. He studied up on gardening a bit on the Internet and in books and called a friend for advice and then he spent an entire Saturday working on it.



He rented a rototiller from Home depot and then he and John did some extra shoveling. And he started out planting squash, cucumbers, onions, peppers, radishes, carrots and lettuce, and many more. Within a couple of weeks we had sprouts shooting up out of the ground already. It was really exciting.



While the men worked on the garden, I stayed indoors with the girls who were too afraid of the rototiller engine. I decided to take this opportunity to try to potty train Sylvie-Faye. Chloe decided she wanted to join in the fun too. As you can see from the pictures above, they did more riding around on the scooter like a couple of circus monkeys, and those underpants are way too big for Chloe's tiny little bum. I called her "saggy buns" the whole day. That picture on the end cracks me up. And no - the potty training did not work out. They just wanted to wear the Princess underwear. They didn't want to have to actually sit on the potty.



Within a month our garden looked like this: peas,



squash radishes tomatoes


Bertrand decided not to build a drip system just yet, so the garden has to be hand watered three times a day. We decided John would water it in the morning before school, Sylvie, Chloe and I would water it in the afternoon after I picked them up from daycare, and Bertrand would water it at night when he got home.




The girls LOVE watering the garden. I think they actually like playing with the water more. You better believe I was having evil thoughts on that last picture when I turned the water off and Sylvie was looking down the barrel of the hose asking where the water went. Oh, I so badly wanted to turn it on and squirt her in the face, but I restrained myself. She would have freaked out!




Now that the weather is getting colder, Bertrand spent another half a Saturday building a sort of greenhouse around the garden to protect the plants. They're coming along nicely. I'm so grateful for a hard-working husband. We've already plucked a couple of radishes from the ground and they were so much better than the store bought ones. Ever since I married Bertrand, we've become radish eaters. These ones from our garden were so juicy and extra spicy. Yum! I can't wait to partake of the other fruit and veg.

The Dating Diaries

Okay, it's my new side blog for November. It's my dating stories. I hope you enjoy. Check my "SHOUT OUTS" section for the link-up. I'll do my sci-fi romance project next.

Sylvie-Faye Gretchen Marie Coppee

Sylvie-Faye Gretchen Marie Coppee was born September 21, 2005. Her birthday has come and gone. She's now 3. But I really wanted to do a tribute to her for her birthday. She was named after BOTH grandmothers. We didn't know if we'd have another girl, so we made sure we honored both. I love this picture of her. She looks like the newest addition to the Simpson family (that cartoon family on TV). I call these her "Simpson lips".

This little girl was so loved from day 1. I took so many naps with her on me. I just couldn't get enough of my little lady.

Her daddy was thrilled to death! This was exactly what he wanted - a little girl. Ever since he'd seen the movie "I Am Sam" with little Dakota Fanning, he wanted a little blond-haired, blue-eyed girl. And he got it.

Her big brother, John, absolutely adores her. Those two have had a special bond from the beginning.

This little lady had big plans from the beginning. She knew there was a lot she needed to accomplish.

She had battles to fight.


Art to create.

Animals to communicate with.

Work to do.


Fashion trends to start.



Music to compose.


Babies to attend to.

And, most importantly, lots of shoes to try on.

It's a very full, exhausting life she lives.

Sylvie's birthday started with our family tradition - room full of balloons. She had waited a long time for this. She saw John get this for his birthday in July and talked about it for two months.

Grandma and Grandpa Poulsen stopped by bearing gifts for both little ladies and if you thought MY birthday looked more like Christmas, you should have seen what THEY brought. So many fun toys.

And Grandma Marie-Claude from France, whom we have still not had the pleasure of meeting in person, mailed Sylvie a beautiful coloring book and princess card.

Since Sylvie is still so young, we decided just to do a small birthday with friends, so we had the Crandalls over and Erika made this beautiful princess cake for Sylvie-Faye. Sylvie LOVED it!

And decided Erika was her new best friend and insisted on sitting next to her on the couch for the evening.

The cake was so tasty that Sylvie snuck up to the counter and devoured/demolished the rest. I was kind of upset. I wanted to be the one to finish it off. You better believe I grabbed a fork and dug in with her. The Crandalls also gave her the outfit she's wearing in this picture for her birthday.

From mommy and daddy she got a scooter. She had been begging for one for almost an entire year. We actually purchased this two months before her birthday as incentive for her to potty train, but when she would have NOTHING to do with that, we put it away. It was like torture for her. She knew it was in the house, she knew it was hers, but she knew she couldn't touch it until she either potty trained or had a birthday. As you can see, unfortunately, the birthday happened first. She was so sweet to give her little sister rides on it around the house. They were both giggling and having a ball all morning on that thing.

My sweet Sylvie-Faye. I just adore this little lady.

She grows more beautiful every year. She says and does the funniest things. She's a little comedienne with a tender heart who loves babies and animals (especially cats), and her brother and sister...

and also...

Shoes. Glorious shoes.


Not so much pants. Just shoes.

Tell Me What To Do

Okay, Halloween is here (more on that later) and I've run a "haunted stories" blog for this month. But now it's over. (I will keep it up indefinitely, though, if you haven't read it yet and ever get the guts to). And I enjoyed it so much and appreciated the feedback I got, that I've decided to do another side blog. But I'm having a dilemma.

I originally promised a month of crazy dating stories, which, believe me, I have plenty. I've got 7 1/2 years of solid dating - all of Arizona and radiating out into surrounding states - and I've got some real doozies for ya'.

HOWEVER, I'm kind of enjoying writing fiction too. I have this other story I considered writing as a movie script, but then I thought I'd get more enjoyment out of it telling it as a story, so I could put in the details and descriptions I wanted to. Stories are much easier reads than movie scripts.

It's called "The Light Above". It's based on facts. But I took it and ran with it and my imagination went wild with this one. Well -not too wild. Anyway, I have a good friend from Brazil and let me tell ya' - that girl has some BIZARRE stories. She has me captivated every time. But they're true. They're all true. See, there's this phenomenon happening in Brazil. It's a light from the sky. It hovers. It follows people. Some of her relatives have recounted stories of their personal frightening experiences with this light. Their theory - aliens. But I've got my own theory. And I made a story out of it - complete with some good romance, believe it or not.

SO - which appeals to you more? Do you want true horrid and hilarious dating stories or do you want this fictional sci-fi romance I'm concocting? Please give me your good opinion. And thanks for being a supporter of my writing addiction.

Betcha' Didn't Know...

...that plastic ice cube trays can double as grape separators. You know, for when you want to eat them, but you don't want them touching each other. Or if you're on a diet (like me) and you need to keep track of the number of grapes you can have for a snack. Chloe invented this idea. She's a GENIUS!