Jay and I had a healthy debate going on since Mara was born. I was wanting her to have earrings from a very early age, he thought it should be a right of passage. I consistently pointed out babies with earrings. He listened, shook his head, and we moved on. As is our nature, if one of us is opposed it just doesn’t happen, so there were no pierced ears…except…

I was relentless this weekend. I even struck up a conversation with this gorgeous family sitting next to us at dinner at Sticky Fingers Friday night. Dad had been against the earrings, mom just went ahead and did it.

On the way home from Chattanooga, we called for an unbiased opinion, Mary Beth. I was certain she would be in his court because she got her ears pierced at 13 but what she said struck a chord.

It was a mother daughter thing and the memories I wanted were all the times shopping for earrings or matching earrings with outfits or whatever, not some 13th birthday event.

So off to get ears pierced we went! I was not going to give him time to change his mind.

We did decide to make it a family affair. Mara got her ears pierced for the first time, while Mary Beth got her second holes done and I had my second piercing repierced (they had closed up).

Mara fretted when she had people gawking over her as we put purple dot after purple dot on her to make sure they were straight. When they finally were, we had them done, at the same time. She wailed. And wailed. And wailed. Mary Beth whisked her away to stop the screaming while I learned the proper care techniques.

We got her settled down in just a couple of minutes and they have not seemed to bother her since.

I am actually glad I got mine done at the same time because now I can feel what she feels, know when they need care, etc.

Jay said afterwards that she looked really pretty with her new earrings.

Oh and what did big brother do while we were getting our ears pierced? Well try on the latest fashions, of course!

Long weekends are meant for roadtrips. In the nature of this new trend, “the staycation,” Jay and I packed up the car and headed down to the Tennessee Aquarium, with 50,000 of our closest friends.

We thought this would be a great day trip, perfect for kids Thane’s age and Daddy’s age. Getting out of the house proved difficult. I remember looking at the clock and it was 8 am, thinking, not bad, going well, and then getting on the road after 10 (it is a 2 hour drive with a 1 hour time change).

When we arrived, Daddy and Mara got in line to buy tickets while Thane and I checked out the water exhibit they had. It was this HUGE water playground, with fountains, rocks, and blocks. Thane got soaked (I did not bring his bathing suit) but since I brought several changes of clothes, I figured who cares? It was boiling hot so the cool water was very refreshing.

When Jay met up with us tickets in hand, he found one very wet child. I told Jay that if we were to turn around and drive home now, Thane would think it was a well done trip. We dried him off, got him dressed and went into the exhibit. We were really impressed with the aquarium and Chattanooga as a whole. Thane loved the seahorses and otters. He got to touch a sturgeon…and as you can tell from the picture is not sure if he liked it!

Off to the IMAX next and Thane saw his first “movie” and it was 3D at that! He was great about keeping on his glasses. Mara sat in my lap, sans glasses, the entire time but I think liked looking at the (fuzzy) pictures for the Under the Sea movie.

After the IMAX we headed to dinner at Sticky Fingers (thanks for the recommendation Ian) and then back to play in the water again before heading home. This time, daddy got to jump in and play with him.

We have pics galore. Have we mentioned how much we love the new camera?

And, when we were recounting the trip on the ride home and asked him what his favorite part of the day was we were reminded of the Visa commercial…

Aquarium + IMAX tickets: $60; Dinner: $40; Water Play: $0. Guess which one Thane was raving about? That’s right…priceless.

10 days later….I am happy to report….(drumroll please!)…THANE IS POTTY TRAINED!

Oh, I am sorry, I mean TOILET TRAINED. That’s what Montessori says. We now have to add words like toilet, BM, and urinate to our vocabulary.

(Some of this is a repeat but hey, it’s background!) So two weekends ago I stayed home all weekend. Not kidding. All weekend. I bought $100 worth of underwear of various kinds (Elmo, Thomas, white cotton padded) and every size 2T pair of shorts I could find. I was ready to go.

We got home Friday night and I set the stove timer to 15 minutes. When it dinged, I took him to the toilet. Most of the times he went. Then I reset the timer and we started again. We had 4 accidents that first afternoon and he slept in a diaper that night.

Saturday we had 2 BM accidents and to urinate accidents.

Sunday we had no accidents until 3:30 pm. Then mommy went to the craft fair and we had 3 accidents in 3 hours. Not a shining success.

I went to KC the next day and stayed for 3 days. Thane did great (oh, yeah, daddy did too!)! Accidents were maybe 1-2 per day.

On Thursday night we decided to ditch the night time diaper. We have now donated all diapers to school and there are now no diapers for Thane at home. For the last 4 days at school (and at home longer) he has not had a single accident.

I think we have already saved more than $50 on diapers. Thane is so proud of himself. He definitely feels like a big kid at school and loves going to new restrooms at restaurants and when we are out shopping. Going out has not been that challenging either, although our first car trip should be interesting. He does know to hold it and tells us for the most part, so we might fare okay.

He has also started taking one of his three teddy bears to sit on the potty with him. Too cute.

Mara got 2 teeth this week and they are mighty sharp! She is getting more and more interested in food and tries to grab for ours on numerous occasions. Yesterday I caught Thane feeding her peanut butter (yes, I said peanut butter) and I just about had a heart attack. She apparently did not swallow any and there were no allergic reactions but I watched her like a hawk the rest of the afternoon.

The teething is not so bad but she has definitely been crankier and gassier (I don’t know if those are related or if it is just her eating more baby food). I also think she is getting a slew of teeth in all at once. Who knows, by her first birthday she may have more teeth than her big brother!

Mara is also getting closer to being mobile. She is scooting backwards and rolling all around. I am still at the stage where I am encouraging her on to move but the day she starts actually moving, I know I will be faced with a whole new set of challenges.

We bought a new camera last week, a Nikon D300, hopefully we will see some great new pics from it.

Thane is still having the “night terrors” and is sleeping with us many nights. We went to the doctor today for some advice and will see how that helps.