You’ve heard of a Jack in the Box, here we have an CootieGirl in a Box.

First, a picture from CootieGirl’s winter recital and two shots taken at this past Friday’s International Mother’s Day recital.

For many months when CootieBoy was an infant I participated in an online beta program that allowed me to track CootieBoy’s sleep, bottle and diaper habits on a daily basis. Eventually the beta added measurement tracking, medicine tracking, solid food, pumping (for breastfeeding moms) and various other daily events that parents like to keep track of.

The program was awesome and for over a year the creator, Ben, continued to work hard to make a valuable product for any parent raising a baby.

Well, after all this time the product has finally gone live, and I must recommend it to ANY AND ALL parents of newborns or infants. You have the ability to see the trends in your child’s sleep, the trends in your babies eating habits, the trends in your milk pumping, and not just see the trends but chart the trends and share them with family and friends.

It’s a great website, and the price to use the program is pretty cheap considering all the things you can do with it. So please visit Trixie Tracker and sign up now. I can personally vouch for it and tell you that it’s an amazing program to use.

CootieGirl and CootieBoy sharing some cereal in the morning.

Mommy braided CootieGirl’s hair so she could be the princess she is.

And CootieGirl discovered the joy of Pac Man. Too early at her age. I put it away.

This afternoon CootieGirl discovered CootieDad’ retro video game module that we keep in the TV cabinet. CootieDad plugged it in for her, and a videogame addict was born. Since she’s only ~3 years old she doesn’t get the concept of how to move the joystick and how it relates to the little Pac Man on the screen, but that didn’t lessen her enjoyment or enthusiasm whatsoever.

Before we put her to bed she pulled it out again and was even more animated as she played, this time expressing frustration when her man died or laughing when the strawberry came marching across the screen.

We’re going to put it away in a different place tomorrow so that she can’t find it so easily. I have always said I’ll never allow videogames in my house, so you know I absolutely don’t want my three year old getting the all-time high score by the time she reaches kindergarten.

Last night upon arriving home I saw a box for CootieGirl from Marmie. I opened it and then waited for CootieGirl to arrive home to see what was inside.

“Hey CootieGirl, Marmie sent you something – do you want to see it?”

“MARMIE?” she cried, running after me into the kitchen.

“Yep. Marmie wanted to make sure that when your Princess nightgown was being washed you had another one to wear.”

With a flourish I pulled out the new bubblegum pink Princess nightgown. CootieGirl’s eyes went wide as saucers and she gasped out loud as she took it from my hands.

She held it against her body and said, “I love it, Mama! A Princess nightgown!”

“Do you want to call Marmie and say thank you?”

“Yes! Marmie!”

So I dialed the number on my cellphone, and as I waited for Marmie to answer on the other end, CootieGirl began talking into the phone, not knowing that it was only ringing at this point.

“I love it, Marmie! Thank you! Nightgown!”

At that point, Marmie picked up the phone. She and CootieGirl spoke for a moment but it was scattered because by then CootieGirl just wanted to strip down to her skivvies and put on the nightgown.

With no prompting, she said, “I love you, Marmie. I love you!” then took off to put it on.

She spent the evening admiring herself and again this morning when she woke up she stood on our bed and looked into our large mirror, posing and smiling in her Princess nightgown. She loved it so much she wanted to wear it to school, and cried great big tears when we made her take it off to put on real clothes.