Confessions of a Zumba Mama (PSA: Pee before you Zumba)

Tonight may have included my most embarrassing moment in quite some time, and frankly I'm not sure anyone but me even knew what happened...does it still count as a most embarrassing moment if no one even saw?  In case it doesn't I figured I might as well, so of course why not bare it all on the internet, right? Well, the title probably says all you need know, but I'll carry on and enlighten you anyway (if you'd prefer not to hear the details feel free to sit this one out).

It's the second week of summer session for Zumba. It's been in the 90s both weeks, (tomorrow's forecasted high is 104...bloody hell) and class is held in an old school building without A/C.   I am in a different building this summer, with new keys, security entrance codes, light keys, blah blah blah. I show up 5 min before class tonight after busting through traffic to get there, and at least half the students are already there waiting outside, looking super duper thrilled.  I can't get the exterior keypad to unlock the door, my hands are shaking and I'm feeling guiltier and more inadequate as the seconds tick by and all my paying students just want is to go inside and take a damn Zumba class. I finally get it unlocked (ummm can we say user error, doy) and we head inside. I then can't figure out how to turn on the lights, and the wood floors were revarnished two weeks ago and the gym still smells like toxic ass. Super.

I finally get the lights on, the doors open for a breeze, and music ready to go. We start warming up (in case people weren't already sweating from waiting outside in the 90 degree heat for my lame ass to show up and let them in). The third song has quite a spunky beat and includes some scissor jumps. WELP FOLKS IT TURNS OUT THAT AFTER HAVING A BABY YOU SHOULD DEFINITELY PEE BEFORE DOING ANY SORT OF JUMPING. I found that one out...the hard way. Yes. I peed my pants in front of 30 Red & Ed Zumba students. I just kept on going, hoping if it actually went down my legs people might just think it was a lot of sweat. Oh my gawd.  It actually crossed my mind during class that maybe I should look into getting a pack of those super light adult liners for people with incontinence for my Zumba nights, because really wouldn't it be more dignified to just wear a damn diaper than actually pee your pants and worry about whether people would notice it running down your legs?  Or maybe I could just not be running late every week, and actually pee before class.  Now there's a thought.

And, before I go on in my recently sleep-deprived state (Norah's had Roseola this week, sleep is a thing of the past, and hopefully the near future) and say anything more embarrassing than that, I believe I shall call it a night. :)

Do the Potty Dance

Well, I know it's been too long since I've posted any updates on Miss Norah, but I felt compelled to post tonight because she accomplished a major milestone this evening. Last weekend we bought her a little potty seat to play with and get used to, with no expectations or pressure that she would actually use it for months. But, as soon as I take off her diaper at certain times (before/after nap, bath) I know that if I let her run nakey she will usually take off and pee somewhere (usually on the carpet, go figure) within a minute or two. Why not see if she will sit on the potty then, at those key times, when I can anticipate that she might actually go there? Well, that's just what she did tonight! I asked her if she wanted to sit on her potty, and not 15 seconds later she peed in the potty for the very first time! I wanted to clap and sing, but I didn't want to freak her out so much that it will be the last time too, so I somewhat calmly told her Great Job and High Five! and she smiled and truly seemed proud of herself. My mama heart swooned and probably grew a size or two. Who knew that celebrating putting some pee in a plastic bucket would elicit such a tender response?  I also know that I will not be that mama who posts Facebook updates regarding potty training trials and errors...but I had to post somewhere and this is it! So you, my lucky readers whoever you are, get to hear a proud mama brag on about her awesome child who awesomely did what no other almost-14-month-old child has ever done before! I kid, I kid. But I am proud of her anyway :)

As long as I'm doing a little update, I will also just say that she is starting to be more verbal, which is really helpful for all of us, because she is getting really frustrated when she knows what she wants but WE don't understand...resulting in lots of whining, meltdowns, some pinching/scratching/biting, and general crankiness had by all.  Her vocabulary now includes: mama, daddy, puppy, baby, hi, up, kitty, "uh huh", ball, woof, sit, hot, hat, and she uses baby signs for "more", "all done", and "eat".  We are trying to get her to use the signs for "help" and "please" but those haven't quite taken off yet. She does know and respond when we sign "sit down", "no", and "stop"  (well, that is if she wants to respond appropriately!).  And, see - she is learning to spell already, too!

Running after Lainey at Mill Pond Park in Saline

Sampling homemade watermelon blueberry popsicles

I've been getting back into sewing again, and of course my current obsession is thinking of sweet things to sew for her. I found a super easy tutorial for pillowcase dresses here, and modified it based on the fabric I had on hand. I had some scraps left from the project we did for Molly's shower, so I spent probably $4 on this dress total. In about an hour and a half, I had a dress! I didn't take step by step photos, but maybe next time I will since I know more what I'm doing now.  I think it turned out pretty cute, but I do have a pretty good lookin' model.

Finally figured out wearing her own sunglasses is pretty cool 

Check it. 

Wearing her dress

I know, I still have a backlog of posts to type up, but it's not happening tonight. Hope you're all getting through the early summer heat wave!

Father's Day Projects

I'm working on a few projects for Matt for Father's Day this year, and hopefully I will have enough time tomorrow with Norah to get the second one finished. It's been a long time since I've posted anything here, but rest assured I have been busy! I do have some posts to update and projects to share, so perhaps this weekend I'll take some time to get them together.

Until then, here's a quick sneak preview of project #1 - Norah was a peach and totally participated in this better than I thought she would! I think I might redo this shoot every year, and layer the photos over the last year's in the frame, just to have a cool record of how she changes year by year.

I just got one letter D and one letter A from the wooden craft section at Michael's, and let her play with them while I snapped some shots. I picked some of my faves, and put them in a triple matted frame.  I printed them on our home inkjet printer, so they aren't the best quality...I will have to order better prints this summer.

I'll post our other project this weekend once it's complete, and let you know how I feel about the #1 Daddy in this house later this weekend! Hope everyone is set to have a fabulous one!