Go, Go, Goers!

Scott and I are struggling with one aspect of potty training Ava...she's got #1 down, no worries there.  And she's certainly aware when she needs to poop - we find her in the corner, hiding behind furniture, doing everything possible so we don't find out that she has to poop (and is pooping.)  In fact, this morning, Scott found Ava in her room, hiding behind her laundry hamper, with the fabric top in her mouth, biting down on it because she was pushing so hard! More often than not, we catch her halfway through, and we may or may not make it to the toilet in time.  I'm tired of cleaning out underwear...we've asked her if she likes the feel of poop in her pants.  We've asked her why she doesn't tell us when she has to go.  We've given her positive reinforcement, we've tried negative reinforcement....and nothing works.  We only get a shrug, and a tiny "I don't know why" as an answer. This morning, she was so happy that she got to put a

No, we haven't disappeared...I just took a much needed break from the blog after the holidays!  I didn't realize it had been three weeks already...wow!  Where does the time go? I took last week off of work, and finally had a chance to relax.  For the first time in maybe FOREVER, I actually did NOT check my work email while I was out!  Not once!  I'm a little scared to see what might be waiting for me, but those 9 days of no-work-contact was pretty fantastic!  Even better, we didn't go anywhere...I stayed around the house, and managed to knock a few things off of the constant to-do list.  Ava was at daycare all week, and it's amazing how much more I can get done without a little princess running under foot.  Our house projects are coming along nicely...we got new carpet installed in our main floor family room this past week.  We have had ceramic tile there for about 10 years, and it's so great to have a comfortable place to sit on the floor and play with Ava.

What a wonderful time of the year!  2011 was a great holiday season for the Goers family.  We flew out to Colorado on 12/23 to celebrate Christmas with my parents, and our little chatterbox talked non-stop on the outbound flight.  Even better, she amused everyone in the gate area with her observations about the plane: Where's our plane? (Sitting right at the end of the jetway, honey.) Our plane is out of gas!!  (No, it's not - it hasn't moved...why do you think it's out of gas?!) The plane has no wheels! (Yes it does - you just can't see them right now...they're on the ground.) Where are the wings?  Our plane has no wings?!  (Sigh.  Yes, it does - see them sticking out from the side of the plane?) Random girl in the gate area, "Our plane seems to be deteriorating." Luckily, all of us (plane included) made it to Colorado, without any issues with lack of fuel, wheels, or wings. We only left the house once over the long weekend, and that was to