Who’s got some class?

Much to my amazement, Military Mom has bestowed upon me the Classy Blog Award!

Here is what she had to say about me: “Bluesleepy, because she graces us with pictures of herself and her beautiful family, something I am to afraid to do (pictures of me, anyway). And she is just an all around classy lady, I can tell, though we’ve never met. But I’d put money on it.”

Wow! Whoda thunk?

So now it is my job to bestow said award on three more people. Here goes:

First and foremost, I would like to give this to everyone’s favorite chocolate connoisseur, Chaos the Fearless Javelina Hunter. What makes her so classy? Somehow she manages to just walk away when things get heated, instead of staying and shouting and prolonging the argument. She just won’t stoop to the level of others, and keeps her wits about her at all times.

Secondly, let’s go with the classiest of all hair dressers, our very own Shear-Madnez. She is always trying to do right by people, and to help them as much as she possibly can. So often she tells stories about doing a lady’s hair, a lady who maybe hasn’t had the best of luck lately, and how pleased this lady is to have someone simply do something nice for her. Shear is a giver, without asking for anything in return, which is one of the things I love about her.

And while she’s not a big updater, we’ll have to give this to my “little” big sister, Michele! Since I know her in real life, I can tell you that Michele is always trying to be a classy lady. She looks on the bright side of things, and tries to do her best by people. Don’t let her lack of height fool you — she is not one to be ignored.

There you have it! And if you would like to appropriate this award for your own blog, be my guest. If I read you, I think you are pretty darn classy, so consider yourself duly awarded.

In other news:

Grace is getting potty-trained! We let her run around bottomless last week, but that didn’t seem to help. She would just sort of stop and pee wherever she was at the time. Gross, I know, but that’s a toddler for you. Then my friend had said that someone had potty-trained her child by using M&Ms as a reward. We went with Smarties because the manufacturer of M&Ms isn’t that cautious about keeping the plain M&Ms segregated from the peanut and peanut butter M&Ms. And besides, I loooooooooooove Smarties. Those and SweetTarts are my favorites.

Once Gracie figured out that if she peed in the potty, she would get candy (which she very rarely gets; neither Kurt nor I have a sweet-tooth, so we keep forgetting that maybe Grace would want candy too), she started going all the time. Seriously. If she even gets a twinge of having to go, she races to the bathroom and squeezes out a few drops. It’s pretty funny.

We weren’t sure how to get her to poop in the potty, so we told her she would get a doll if she pooped. We even went to Target and let her pick one out, but we wouldn’t let her have it till she pooped. Then one day she pooped, and she got the doll! What cracks me up is the next time she pooped in the potty, she said, “OK, I get another doll!” She’s a smart one, that Grace.

We’ve been home the last several days, so Grace wears big girl undies all day long with nary an accident. One night we went out to dinner, and she managed to go potty at the restaurant. She comes racing out at full speed and shouts at the top of her lungs, “DADDY! I POOPED!” Everyone in the restaurant heard. Fortunately they all thought it was funny. But on the way home, she did wet her Pull-Up. We’re still working on her telling us she has to go when we’re away from home.

CardioGirl wrote today about trying to keep her daughter dry overnight. I can’t even fathom that. I have no idea how to accomplish that; Grace always wants to sleep with a water bottle, though we usually don’t let her. And I think she pees in her sleep. I’m not looking forward to trying to potty-train her overnight. I’m just going to work on getting her to stay dry during the day. Baby steps, people!

Kurt IMed me a while ago to tell me he’s taking me out driving today. He also mentioned something about a surprise stop, but obviously I have no idea what he’s talking about. It’s cold today, just 32º (which is a heat wave to those of you in Minnesota, but it’s warmer here in Rhode Island), but the sun is shining and it’s really quite lovely out there. I’ll have to take my camera and see if I can get any good shots.