The L.A. Dime

Just a few shots of our silly little Sophie-Bophie who has recently started telling us: ”You’re my best friend!”

We both really enjoy the seasons. Having the weather change into a cool, crisp fall where the leaves change colors and you can see your breath. Followed by a real winter with heavy sweaters, a crackling fireplace and sledding. Starting the new year with the first blooms of spring, thunderstorms and then a summer to enjoy the pool and cook-outs with friends.
Living in LA means that we get a lot of sunshine. A lot. And while most people move here (and continue living here) for that sunshine, we tend to really enjoy those few days where it pours rain or is overcast.
Yesterday turned out to be in the 80′s. Yup. While (most of) the rest of the country is burried in snow and can’t get their shovels working fast enough, we put on a sundress, shorts and headed out to the Japanese Gardens to take in the beautiful scenery, stretch our legs a bit and say hello to spring.

With Sophie almost hitting the 2.5 year mark and us wanting to take advantage of an extra day off for this holiday weekend, Brad and I decided to not only talk about the potty and read stories, but to put some Princess Underwear on Sophie’s bottom and see what happens.
Brad printed out a “potty chart” that encourages stickers for the various phases of going to the potty – pulling down one’s pants, sitting on it, flushing it down the toilet, washing hands and of course the big one….actually going on it. Sophie was super excited about the concept and started pilling up the stickers in all the categories….except the one that doesn’t include us getting out the carpet cleaner.
Then, after many many talks about why we wear underwear and what she’s supposed to tell us when she needs to go…….she actually does do it….twice…..for the babysitter!! Brad and I decided to go on a long-overdue-date last night and Sophie decided to impress Julie by going for her.
We made a big deal about it this morning though and am hoping for more stickers today!!

02/18 Update since posting this: She’s been going pretty consistently and gets very excited when Brad & I make a big deal about it. She’s started telling us when she needs to go (rather than us asking every hour or so) and has almost filled up her sticker chart. So far so good…hopefully it’ll last. She’s not yet going at her daycare though but we think the issue there might be is that there’s only a real toilet and not the little potty we have at home and she’s been practicing with.

I did an online interview with Roger Ebert about writing and stuff. Not really Roger Ebert. But I did do an interview.  You can find it here.

Also, I was a judge for the Derby City Film Festival, which is next weekend in… The Derby City. You should go and stuff. The festival movies are, like, really good, and the people are way cool. Our friend Kelly Rouse’s movie is a finalist in the Documentary category, and it’s about her dad’s band, The Nightcrawlers, and their hit song, The Little Black Egg, and it totally rocks. You can buy it on iTunes now. I did. Twice.