Emma's Birthday Party (also potty training update)

Emma doesn't actually turn 2 until next Monday. However, starting Thursday Les is supposed to be gone for 6 days for conferences on his research. That means he won't be here for Emma's birthday or the weekend before. Also, I am due the weekend after Emma's birthday and I really didn't want to be hauled to the hospital right before or even in the middle of her party. So for those reasons we decided that we needed to throw her party before Les leaves. Yesterday was the day. The weather was great and we had a lot of people come to support us. We would like to thank all of those people for coming.

The party went great as far as I could tell. We ate dinner, opened presents, had dessert, and Les made crafts with the kids. Also because the weather was great the kids got to go outside and run around. There of course was still snow so they got into this big snow ball fight. Here are some pictures from the big day.

Here is Emma's cake!

I think I did a pretty good job on the decorating for my first real attempt.

Les' family

Melanie's family

Blowing out the candle!

Emma in her Cinderella Dress!

Potty Training Update: It is day 8 and I think we have made a lot of progress. Emma is going #1 in the potty more often than not. Even when we went to the store! We are working on #2 now. One tip I would give to parents yet to experience this "joyful" time is to find something that your child really likes or enjoys and then use it to help modivate your child. For Emma it is certain dresses. I was pulling out her 24 month clothing and she saw this cute dress with butterflies. From the moment her eyes spotted it she wanted it on and had no intention of taking it off. However, when she had an accident in it we had to take it off to clean it. She cried for over an hour. It did teach her that if she wants to wear the dress she needs to make sure she does not have an accident in it.