What We've Been Up To

I realize this blog has basically become a place for me to publish my weekly pregnancy posts and not much else. Honestly, I really miss the days of posting back-to-back trip reports from all the amazing places we were visiting. Life is a little bit different these days, but we still manage to keep busy. Here are a few things we've been up to lately:

Dim Sum:

It's a weird quirk of mine, but I love when there are lots of little components that make up a larger whole--especially in food. For example, I'll usually choose candy that comes in many pieces (Cadbury mini eggs) vs. a whole bar (Cadbury milk chocolate bar). I love tasting menus with many small courses vs. just having one huge dish. I love salads with a million different veggies in it. That's why I love the idea of dim sum. You order lots of little dishes to make up your main meal.

I haven't had a real dim sum experience that I can remember, mainly because it's not the most vegetarian-friendly cuisine. There are a few good dim sum places around here though, so we decided try our luck. 

The verdict is that it was fun, but definitely would be better if we ate all the options. We were full by the end, and happy with our choices (especially the steamed buns!), but we only sampled maybe a 10th of the offerings. Most items had pork or shellfish in them. 

Potty Training:

I'll keep this very high-level so as not to completely freak out my non-parent readers, but it's a big deal around here. We are finally getting around to potty training. Z has been capable of this for a while now, but has been completely uninterested/unwilling. Dan and I realized that if we don't bite the bullet and do this now, we will miss our window. Tons of people told us that potty training too close to when the baby comes will only lead to regressions and lots of accidents. So, it was a now or never (or at least late September) situation. 

Amazingly (knock-on-wood), it's going really well! We did a boot-camp weekend where we did nothing but watch TV, eat fun foods, and drink lots and lots of juice. We set a timer for every 15 minutes and put Z on the potty. She got it right away. She's still wearing pull-ups at daycare since they don't want her in underwear until she's fully trained, but I think she'll be full-time in underwear (except at night) in the next week. She's such a big girl!

Basket of treats for potty training

Sticker chart after first day! (She drank a lot of juice!)

Preparing for Passover:
As you know, Passover is my favorite holiday, and it starts tomorrow! My family is coming in town today and I couldn't be more excited. This will be the last Passover where Z is the youngest. In fact, my cousin just had a baby last night, so technically Z already isn't the youngest, but new baby girl is a little young to participate in the Seder.

Last weekend the Jewish Community Center hosted a sensory mini-Seder for kids. It was really cute. There were different stations set up where kids could find figurines in the sand; flip plastic frogs into buckets of water; build pyramids out of plastic cups; experience the plague of darkness by donning sunglasses; and more. Zahara loved making her own Seder plate out of plastic plates and tissue paper. I can't wait to use it on Saturday.

Being Cute:
It's been a month filled with extreme highs and lows. I mentioned before that we're dealing with a lot of tantrums and difficult behavior. At the same time, Z has been the cutest she's ever been. I am really loving how funny and chatty she is. She makes up songs and stories and loves talking to strangers. She wants everyone in on whatever she's doing. So at the playground she'll announce what she's doing by shouting: "Guys, look at me," followed by whatever she needs them to know. At stores she talks to the clerks. In Ubers she makes friends with the drivers. People are constantly commenting on how smart and articulate she is. It's awesome.