Bambi and Fire

The whole family was watching Bambi for the hundredth-gazillionth time last night (we saw some live dear near our house and I introduced her to Bambi when we got home and she can't get enough).

Near the end of the movie man accidentally sets fire to the forest. We have talked a few times about what this means and she understands how this hurts the animals and such.

The best part was last night while that scene was playing she said:

"Fire is bad." We agree.

"Fire is bad, because it is spicy."

There you have it, fire is just too spicy and so it is bad. Love the world from a three-year-olds eyes!

MLO was sad yesterday

Daddy had to go out to a clients which is over 2 hour drive away so he was gone all day.

MLO kept telling me over and over how sad she was because she missed daddy.

I called him on the phone and she got to talk to him (she took my cell phone and talked for a good chunk of time while I was driving).

She was happy to talk to him, but about half an hour later she missed him again.

All day she kept telling me over how she missed her daddy.

He got home after we went to bed so this morning when he walked out of the bedroom she squealed and ran to him. She gave him several big hugs and insisted on having him play all sorts of games with him.

Never use Celebrate Express aka Birthday Express

The moral of everything I am about to say is don't order from Celebrate Express (also known as Birthday Express, Costume Express and 1st Wishes).

MLO's birthday is coming up (she will be three) and I ordered a bunch of theme stuff from them. I decided to get it all shipped 2 Day because I needed the invites to send out.

Package arrives and it has everything, except the invites and thank you notes are for a VERY different theme (ordered Little Einsteins theme package, got Pokeman invites and thank you notes).

I email them and respond saying they will overnight me the correct ones. I am a little bitter because I paid extra for the shipping, but decide if I get the right ones I will be fine, but probably never use them again.

I get the package today and it is the thank you notes. Well I did want those, but the shipping label says invites and there isn't a single invite present.

Okay, now I am annoyed.

I email again, but since it is almost the end of the business day, I decide to go to the live chat. After I forced the issue they might get me what I want, but come on, shouldn't the customer service be a little bit more about the customer service and not answer me with an "ok ok"?

Following is the chat:

May: Hi, my name is May. How may I help you?
Romie: I have had two successive errors in what I shipped which is causing painful delays
Romie: I ordered and paid for 2 day shipping for my package, got the wrong invitations sent and complained. Said they were sending me the correction overnight and I just got them and they are the thank you notes and not the invtations.
Romie: I should have already passed out invitations and want my shipping cost refunded and the correct invitations sent to me
May: I am sorry for the inconvenience that we have caused. I will be happy to look that up for you. May I please have your order confirmation number?
Romie: The second order was #91305349
Romie: Actually that looks like the first one too
Romie: The correction one says also " [Incident: 080826-000126]"
May: Ok ok
May: I can go ahead and waive your shipping and we will send you a ndw set of invites. Is that ok with you ma'am
Romie: waive the initial shipping on the first stuff sent?
May: ok we can go ahead and to that for your
May: Is there anything else I can assist you with?
Romie: Sorry, one of the lines wasn't clear "ok we can go ahead and to that for your"?
Romie: ?
May: We will waive your shipping on your first order and process a resolve order in replacement of the missing invites
Romie: Great! When should I get those invites?
May: after 2 business days
May: that is on 9/3/08
Romie: Ouch. Fine. Not happy, won't use you again...
May: All orders are processed and shipped on business days only.
May: And monday is an official holiday and we do not ship on that day
Romie: Yeah, but this is your mistake, not mine, so now I am being delayed for your mistakes - TWICE. Really not my problem and you should fix it. If it was shipped out today, overnight on Saturday delivery I could get it. That is what I expect after TWO mistakes from your company.
Romie: You should go out of your way to make this right, not make it worse!!
Romie: Still there? Extra note: I hadn't gotten an answer for a good chunk of time and got the impression May was hoping I went away
May: We can go ahead and do that for your ma'am but still we can not guarantee on that
Romie: Fine

So, I am sure there are other places you can buy theme party stuff from (I am about to walk out the door to some stores I know about to see if I can get the right invites now) and I advise you to use someone else.

Update: Put up a small one here, nothing good

What Do You Work At?

MLO asked me today while driving to daycare what I work at?

At first I told her I work at my office.

She asked again.

I had to think about what she was asking and realized she meant what do I do.

I told her.

She says, "Ah, I am going to do that when I get bigger."

She was so serious it made me laugh. I told her she definitely could if she wanted to.

Getting Agreement

My philosophy has always been to make sure MLO understands what is happening and I have her agreement. I have had people comment and ask me why I spend so much time on this and don't just tell her that it is the way it goes sometimes.

My little girl may be just about three years old, but she is a whole person in her own right. She has feeling, views and deserves to have these recognized. Sure it takes me longer to get something done sometimes, but that is part of what I feel comes with the job.

The thing is, it always happens how it needs to happen, she never totally stops or changes the outcome, she always understands, eventually.

I feel that this method has resulted in one of the calmest and easy to talk to three-year-olds I have ever known.

Just had to throw that up here in response to those people who frown at me when I do this or even saying something.

Potty Trained

So Sunday morning we "ran out of diapers". I told MLO the night before when putting her in a diaper to go to sleep that it was the last one, she said ok.

Morning came and we didn't have anymore, so she could wear her panties. We had Ariel panties and she was excited to put them on.

We had two accidents in the morning (by some miracle they were both in the kitchen).

Then right before nap time I told her if she had an accident again she wouldn't get any more panties. She was unhappy and said ok.

She took a nap on a towel with her panties on. She woke up and about ten minutes after being awake yelled at me across the house that she had to go pee.

We ran to the potty and she was successful. We haven't had an accident since!! She even woke up in the middle of the night to go pee (she is wearing a pull-up to bed, though I am calling them her night time panties).

Such a relief! She is potty trained!!

Chutes & Ladders

MLO got introduced to Chutes & Ladders while we were in Tahoe. One of my aunts decide she would have fun with it and went out and bought the board game so they could play (game is for 3+ and she will be 3 the end of September).

They played it one of the times I needed to do some work and needed someone to distract her. So I didn't get to watch her first time, but everyone says she had a great time.

To get her not to try and play with the wheel after it was spun, my sister came up with the idea of everyone throwing their hands up in the air while it is spinning.

She loves slides in real life so having her characters go down the slide makes her giggle, so apparently the entire game was spent laughing.

The best part of it all was MLO actually won (and they weren't letting her).

I know she had a great time, because the board game came home with us and she has made me play it with her several times. We don't get to the end of the game, because it is much funner with more than two players, but she laughs the whole time.

Tubbing in Tahoe

We just got back from almost a full week in Tahoe with my extended family (my grandma, her four daughters, including my mom, and all their spouses and kids).

It was great timing for me, I needed some time away to enjoy myself and really get back up to battery.

We did a lot of activities, including river rafting, jet skiing (my favorite), tubbing/water skiing. We were going to go parasailing too, but the wind kicked up too much so that got cancelled.

MLO LOVED going out on the boat. All my cousins went out and we went tubbing and water skiing (I had never done either before and it was great fun).

MLO sat in the boat with different people holding her secure (depending on who was out) and enjoyed yelling over the edge of the boat "you ok" every time someone wiped out.

The whole time I was out she was yelling to me good job, go mommy, with lots of clapping and cheering. Watching her enjoy watching me was as fun as actually doing the activity.

Daddy saves the day (or night)

Twice now MLO has woken up around 4am and refused to go back to sleep.

Both times daddy has come to my rescue and either played with her, put on a movie so she would fall asleep on the couch or just been the daddy and insisted she is okay sleeping alone in her room (to her) and gotten her back to sleep.

Daddy is my hero!!