Girls with their dolls - Take 7

And rounding out the trifecta in Fall traditions, we celebrated being back-to-school at American Girl Restaurant.   I am pretty certain that this is something that has probably started to shift from originally being done for our daughters to now leaning towards more enjoyment for the moms.  We really get a kick out of our tradition and don't see it stopping even when the youngest of the girls heads off to college.  It is such a special thing we do each September.

Sam's very BIG milkshake - cotton candy flavored

The girls decided to see how many things they can balance on their dolls' heads.

Our wonderful group!

Girls with their dolls - Take 6

My friends and I have a plan!  We now know what we will do once our daughters have gotten older and no longer be available to go to the American Girl Store Restaurant for our annual back-to-school lunch.   We will go anyway!  We will take our daughter's dolls and show up at the restaurant ready to celebrate -- most likely it will be celebrating our friendship and not back-to-school, but it will occur at the American Girl Store nonetheless.  

We love this time of the year...kids going back to school, getting our routines in place, starting new activities, continuing some of our favorites and having a delicious, frilly, completely girly lunch at the American Girl Store.  We have a formula that works. This is our 6th year and we don't plan to stop.  It's simply awesome.  

It was getting pretty wild today at our table!  Even the dolls were drinking!

3 moms, 5 girls, 5 dolls = 1 fantastic group!

This picture of the girls looks like it should be in their catalog!

Girls with their dolls - Take 5

The American Girl Store and its bistro seems to be popping up everywhere.  They even opened a location in Orlando this past year.  It's pretty neat how they seem to be taking over and giving girls a special experience.


 Each year my friends and I, along with our daughters go to the Tyson's location for a back to school tradition.  We've now celebrated 5 years in a row, taking along our favorite American Girl dolls with us.  We always have such a good time and enjoy celebrating the kids are back in school.  As long as American Girl Store is open in our area, I see us still celebrating each September, long after our girls are no longer into their dolls.

Our fun and festive group.

Sam and Caroline in matching outfits.

Sam took this picture of Caroline at the table.

Girls with their dolls - Take 4

Back to school means one thing.... a visit to the American Girl store in Tyson's Corner.  It's time for our annual lunch with our friends and the dolls.   This is our fourth year in a row.  Gosh, I love a good tradition.  And it is still as much fun for us as it was the first year. I am not sure who looks forward to this afternoon more; Sam or me. 

Each year we wonder out loud if our girls are ever going to stop wanting to do this.  At some point, they will outgrow the American Girl store, right?  And I am sure it will not be cool to be hanging with your mom. Or they will be too busy with other things and not have time for us.  When that time comes, my mommy friends and I plan to still come here for lunch.  We will just show up without them. :)

 

 

 

Caroline got to join us for lunch this year.

Sam and her signature shake. 

Girls with their dolls - Take 3

Our tradition of going to the American Girl Doll Store with our friends to celebrate the return of school is alive and kicking.  Sam's behavior this year was the best yet.  She earned her new outfit for McKenna and was very happy going shopping before sitting down to lunch.  And in a move that shows how smart Sam really is, she prepped me far in advance that she wanted a strawberry milkshake with lunch (just like she got last year).  The sun was shinning, the birds were singing, and I was happy Sam was in a great mood.  How could I say no?

I love our tradition.  I love traditions in general.  This was our third year in a row to go with our friends.  And there are no signs of stopping.  I am sure at some point the girls will be too old to want to do this and of course, do it with us, but I hope that's a long way off in the future.

All whining stopped when we got out of the car.

School is back in session = one happy group!

Sam and her milkshake!

Potty Progress

We are not out of the woods yet.  But Jeff and I find it very important to celebrate the small victories.  It's been such a long, painful road.  A journey that I was sure I wouldn't survive.  I already had visions that we would be getting an IEP for Sam when she entered kindergarten next year.  Yes, it was really that bad.  And I could easily see a future where Sam was wearing a pull-up to her prom.  Although, come to think of it, any 'action' that her date was planning on, would surely come to a halt when he reached her princess pull-up.  Maybe not such a bad thing. 

I am delighted to report that Sam has gone one month without any accidents!!  All peeing and pooping has been successfully completed in the toilet.  This is HUGE, people!!  Sam has pooped on average 2 to 3 times a day (big ones at that!!), each and every day.  Let me repeat, ALL SUCCESSFUL ON THE TOILET!!   No stripes, no little tidbits, no chunks of bigger things about to come in her panties.  This bears repeating!!  We have not thrown away one pair of underwear all month!!!

We all needed a moment to reflect and go absolutely crazy, over-the-top excited about the past month and celebrate how well Sam is doing.  So that there would be no pressure on her, Jeff & I came up with a surprise for our little pooper.  We would wake up this past Sunday and tell her she was going to the American Girl Doll Store and could pick out a doll.  Not another Bitty Baby, but the big leagues baby, an American Girl Doll!

Ever since we came back from our annual trip to the American Girl Doll Store for lunch, Sam has been looking at her catalogs and picking out the doll and outfits she wants.  She had no idea as she was looking at this catalog (multiple times a day, every day) that we had this plan in the works.

And so that Ian didn't feel completely left out of the surprise, we told him he could pick out where we went to lunch beforehand.  Of course, Jeff indirectly got Ian to pick where he wanted to go...Olive Garden.  But as long as Ian thinks it was his choice, that would work for us.

Jeff doesn't do well keeping surprises and it was very hard for us to keep the plan under wraps.  I have to admit, I even wanted to tell Sam what we had up our sleeves, but I knew it was important to not put pressure on her to not have an accident.  (Believe me, I know there is going to be times when she does have accidents.  I am so okay with that.)

Here is a picture of us telling Sam about her surprise:

Sam being told what is about to happen after we are done eating.

Picking out the McKenna doll.

Ok, so in the interest of full disclosure, Sam is still on 2 pieces of Ex-lax each and every night. I am not sure what will happen when she comes off of it, but until then I am most excited with the progress we've made. Our next appt. with the GI dr is on October 11th. We will find out next steps because Sam being on ex-lax for an extended amount of time is not a good thing. 

I keep feeling like we take 2 steps forward and 3 steps back.  For some reason Sam went to the bathroom first thing in the morning and didn't go again the rest of the day.  We have no idea why.  We kept insisting she try to go and she kept saying she didn't have to.  Even when we were getting her ready for bed, we pretty much forced her to try to pee.  I have no idea what that is about.  Oy!

But since we were only celebrating NO ACCIDENTS FOR ONE ENTIRE MONTH!, everything about today still applied.  We are so proud of her.  Let's hope the progress continues.

Girls with their dolls - Take 2

It's back-to-school!   And with that our tradition continues celebrating at the American Girl Doll store.  Lunch with our friends and all the dolls happened this past Sunday.

I hit a small bump in the road with Sam, upon entering the store.  I had never dreamed that she would be expecting to purchase another Bitty Baby.  We got her one last year, right before we met for lunch, and she hadn't been back in the American Girl Doll store since.  So of course, she is under the impression that every time we go in there, she can pick out a new American Girl Doll.  Uh-oh!  This came as a surprise to me and I hadn't set her expectations before we walked in to meet our friends.  It should be noted, however, that when I explained the situation to Jeff as to why our outing wasn't 100% perfect, he said he thought the same thing.  Jeff also expected Sam would be getting another Bitty Baby.  Who are these people I am related too!?!?!   I thought quickly on my feet and explained to Sam that we would need to tell Daddy that she wants to get a new Bitty Baby.  I said that Daddy would want to be with her when she picks out the next one.  That sounded believable, right?   When that didn't seem to make her happy, I then told her she could get a Strawberry Milkshake with her lunch.  Once the milkshake arrived, talk of the new Bitty Baby quickly went by the wayside.

Oh what fun we had!   We will most definitely be back next September for a return visit.

Yes, she still managed to eat lunch, despite the gigantic milkshake.

All the girls with their dolls.

Sam giving her Bitty Baby a drink.

Ladies who lunch (with their dolls)

The week the American Girl Doll store opened in April at the Tyson's Corner Mall, I got an email from one of my mommy friends asking if Sam and I would like to join her and another mommy friend with their daughters for lunch.  Heck ya!  You can most definitely count us in.  Sam is finally getting to the age where we can do special things like this.

Our reservations were made for Sunday, August 28th at 12:30pm. Fortunately Hurricane Irene and the ensuing power outage didn't stop us from our American Girl lunch experience.  I knew going into this, we'd have to get to the store early and let Sam pick out a Bitty Baby for her to have.

We got through the store having only bought a bitty baby and a swing for bitty baby to hang out in.  It took a lot of will power to not also get matching outfits for the baby and Sam.  Also, Sam wanted the crib, but I had us show even more self-control and make her choose which she wanted more; the swing or the crib.

Now it was time for lunch!  We made our way upstairs and after about a 10 minute wait, we were shown our table.  Our table was back in the deluxe party room and it was very nice having our own, private little space.  Each Bitty Baby or American Girl Doll was given its own little chair that attached to the table.  It was very cute!

Right away the maternal instincts kicked in and
Sam fed her baby.

To my delight, they had a gluten-free menu.  The chef came out with the official allergy book and went over what the dishes were.  The food was delicious and we were all pleased with what we ordered.

We decided this was too much fun not to plan an annual trip.  Every August we will be back and celebrate the return to school.  I hope Sam enjoys it as much 15 years from now (when she goes to College)  as I enjoyed it today.



Home Sweet Home with our new Bitty Baby and swing