Back and Gone... and Back again...

And a lot of gone.  :-)  Since returning from Watercolor and having the picture file fiasco, we've been in a computer confused state.  My dear brother Robert was able to recover a good number of the lost pictures, although I don't know exactly how many.  Because as I was going thru the almost 7 gigs of picture files, the computer started blipping on me again.  We realized that we were likely getting to close to a hard drive crash, or at least some serious problems.  SO, first, I'm not sure how many pictures were recovered and how many were corrupted beyond saving.  I'll find out as soon as I have time to get thru all of them.  Second, we went ahead and bit the bullet and got a new laptop for me so as not to deal with what we suspected was coming.  We visited the Apple store on Friday, and I am now figuring out my new Macbook.  I had an iBook years ago, but it was long enough ago that I'm still trying to remember how to do some things.  Well, still trying to remember how to do a LOT of things.

Anyway, we had some pictures on the "purse camera" (i.e. the small Canon digital camera) that weren't on the other laptop when it chewed up the other pictures.  I thought I'd share a couple.  

I love this one of my and Poodle's feet.  First, we had on matching toenail polish.  :-)  Second, the water is above her knees...  that's how clear this water is!  Incredible.

This idea was totally stolen - big, floppy beach hat tip to Kristen Kern for this.  When in a cool place (like a beautiful beach), take a picture over your feet.  Then, you can do neato things like make it your desktop on your computer so you can "go back" to that place as often as you want.

I love this idea - I love being around creative people who think of things like this.  Thanks Kristen!

Oh, and the very first picture was taken on Saturday while we were piddling on the tennis courts.  And being buzzed by butterflies.  Seriously.  Disney movie.  The place is ridiculously gorgeous.

So, I'll have more pictures up later on as I work out the corrupted vs. usable pictures from Robert's recovery of the old hard drive.  But, I now have a computer that will write CD/DVD's, so we won't be doing a whole lot of photo storage on the hard drive any more.  I don't need the heartburn.  :-)

Watercolor, Florida

Let me just say - WOW.  We had a graciously free place to stay this past weekend in Watercolor, Florida.  And even though we couldn't stay but just over 36 hours, we went anyway.  And it was so incredible.  The cold front had just passed through, so the weather was cool and sunny and so beautiful.  There were butterflies EVERYwhere.  We spent a couple of hours on the tennis court on Saturday morning, and it felt like a Disney movie.  Lepidoptera would have been in love.  Every couple of minutes, we'd have a "bluhbluhbly" (as Tooter says) fly past our heads.


It's a quiet, family oriented resort area and thanks to Jennifer and David, we were given a beautiful place to stay.  Lots of "natural Florida" landscaping to enjoy, as my friend Patty called it - and she was right.  Even though the houses are up close to each other, you still feel like you have a ton of room.  It adjoins Seaside, Florida but has a completely different feel - not that there's anything wrong with Seaside, mind you.  But Watercolor had a homey feel that was sooooo relaxing to us.  Believe it or not, I didn't check my email a single time.  Didn't think about politics one single time.  (until I saw a stupid commercial on t.v. accidentally on Saturday night while the baseball game was on).  I was so relaxed.  We rode bikes all over the place.  Riding bikes in the middle of the day thru a gravel lined, tree bordered pathway on your way to the beach will make you feel like a kid again.  I guarantee you.  Even if you're pulling a trailer with your 2 year old in the back, you will feel like an absolute kid again!  You felt so safe, even though you didn't actually see security anywhere.  The landscaping was pristine, even though you didn't actually see anyone working on it.


I would post pictures, but unfortunately, we've had a computer catastrophe.  For some unknown reason, EVERY SINGLE PICTURE in the "My Pictures" folder has simply disappeared.  Because I have unwisely not backed up since May, I have lost months of pictures.  Including every picture that was taken during the photo session on the beach on Saturday afternoon.  I have no idea what happened, and right now, no one else does either.  I'm absolutely sick about it.  My brother David tried to talk me thru some things, but he wasn't familiar with this.  My other brother Darrell (kidding - it's Robert) is going to try some recovery things tomorrow, but the weirdness of all this doesn't make me very hopeful.  They aren't deleted.  They weren't accidentally moved.  They aren't hidden files of some sort.  It's as though they were abducted by aliens.  I dunno......  Robert will do his best.  He can do as much, if not more, than Geek Squad, so if he recovers these things, we will owe him BIG time.  And if he can't, I'll know that they aren't recoverable.  I'm just sick about it.

I'm trying to keep perspective - because I'm sure if I walked into a children's hospital right now, I'd be reminded that I have what's important.  And the pictures aren't it.  But all of Poodle's bday pictures are gone too.  All of June thru now.  ::exhale::  My stomach is literally in knots.


Anyway - being at Watercolor during the off season was so nice.  I mean, I've not been during the "on season", but I can say that it seemed very uncrowded and soooo unhurried.  I think, though, that the unhurried thing is all year round.  I would say that being able to be there for a week would be better.  Spend a day getting lost on your bike.  Spend a day getting lost walking around.  Spend a day on a boat fishing.  Spend parts of every day enjoying the soft white beaches that are the stopping point of clear turquoise waters.  It was extraordinary.  God's beauty and creativity abundant.  And a reminder that man is nothing compared to HIM.

I hope the picture thing works out.  I won't put any of the pictures that are still on the small digital camera on the computer until something is worked out.  Until then, I'll just assure you that we were pampered this past weekend.  And I sure did enjoy it!!

And if anyone knows anything about Windows XP causing files to disappear, we'll take all advice.

I've Been Tagged

Thanks to dear Lepidoptera at Foothills Valley, I have been forced completely against my will ::ahem:: to participate in a tagging thing.  (kidding Lepi!)  Here you go.

1.  I still have the same mechanical pencil I used all the way thru college.  I bought it in the campus bookstore, I think.  (I was a math major).

2.  When Jmk was living in Hawaii, I was doing a state project on Hawaii for school.  I can't remember now what grade I was in, but it was 6th or 7th grade or something like that.  I got an "A".  :-)

3.  I actually like making homemade pasta.  It's a lot of work, but it's calming if you have an afternoon to spare.  Which I don't right now.  So, obviously, my pasta maker is gathering dust.

4.  I never wanted to do Junior Miss.  My mom talked me into it by dangling the "possible scholarship money" carrot in front of me.  It worked.

5.  When I read (and reread.  and reread.... etc) the whole Anne of Green Gables series, I read my mother's books from when she was a girl.  That was cool.

6.  I *never* thought I would *ever* homeschool.  Ever.

7.  The second toe on both my feet had started to be longer than my big toe.  (Like my mom's feet).  But then I got put en pointe in ballet, and for some reason that second toe quit growing and actually got a tad shorter.  Weird, huh?  I dunno.  Maybe my big toes just grew.  :-D

You know, this tagging thing is like email forwards........  but I couldn't resist this time!  :-)  So, to the people who are getting tagged:
Do this or there will be an offensive browning of a significant portion of a square foot of your yard.  Don't say I didn't warn you.  Except for Robert Chapman.  I'm tagging you on your professional blog.  You're not so much obliged to play by the rules.  Okay, technically, everyone else is a mommy with small children (some pregnant!) and a really busy freshman at MSU.  I can see how y'all might not have just a TON of time to do this either.  ::grin::

Intelligent Afterthought

The Fidget Files

4 Forts

Mandolin Moon

Hey Guy, The Blog

God's World and Me

Expectant Legacy

SueSue Pecans

I just finished putting a batch of SueSue Pecans in the crockpot for our trip this weekend.  Pardon?  What are SueSue Pecans, you ask?  Ah -- they are super easy, stupid good spicy pecans that SueSue first shared with us.  I'm sure she told us at that time where she got the recipe....  but I don't remember now what she said, and neither does she, and quite frankly, I'm going to call them SueSue Pecans anyway.

Ah, what does stupid good mean?  Well, they are so good, that it becomes extremely easy to be really stupid and eat WAY too much without even realizing it.

The recipe, you ask?  Well, of course!  Here it is:

SUESUE PECANS
Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 tsp. worchestershire sauce
1 tbsp. Tobasco sauce
1 tsp. garlic salt 
4 cups pecans

Directions:
Mix together the butter, worchestershire sauce, Tobasco sauce, and garlic salt.  Pour over the pecans and stir to coat well.
Put into a crockpot.  Cook on low for 2 hours, then cook on high for 30 minutes.
Drain on paper towels.

Don't say I didn't warn you!  :-)

Go Forth, Make Money, Hold Your Head Up

“This chronic cycle will not end until businessmen accept that their production of profit is neither immoral nor amoral--it is the capstone of moral virtue. Once they shrug off the role of scapegoat, businessmen can demand with moral certitude that government punish fraud and enforce contracts but refrain from interfering with voluntary trades among consenting adults.
“When America’s markets are finally free of all coercion--in other words, when laissez-faire is achieved--financial crises such as the one we’re experiencing will never happen again.”

For more, go see this from AynRand.org.  I need to read Atlas Shrugged.  One of my siblings has it.....  someone 'fess up so I can borrow it!  :-)

Grandparent (et al) Gravy

No one else need feel obligated to watch these!

I'm trying Motionbox.  I haven't figured out how to embed them yet - it's not as painless as doing a YouTube video.  My brother would have no problem.  I, on the other hand, don't know html to save my popo  :-)

Poodle's Ten Commandments:

Tooter's ABC's:

XOXO!

The Ten Commandments

Poodle has memorized the Ten Commandments!  King James Version, of course.  Along with the Book and chapter from which they come.  (Exodus 20).

Now, lest you think that I'm casually bragging on my child - that is NOT why I'm posting this good news.  I actually have two different good reasons to post this.

One:  To share this method of bible verse memorization.
Two:  To give proper credit where credit is due.

Alrighty, let's begin with number one.  We know that as parents, it is our duty and responsibility to get God's word into our children's heads.  It is the work of the Holy Spirit to get it into their hearts.  So, with the head in mind, I decided to start with The Rules.  What we did was to have her repeat each commandment (one at a time) at breakfast, lunch, and supper.  For example, start on Monday.  Repeat Comm. 1 at breakfast, lunch, supper.  Tuesday, continue with Comm. 1 for breakfast, lunch, supper.  Wednesday, realize that she's got Comm. 1, and add Comm. 2 at lunch.  Continue this pattern, moving slowly forward, until child can repeat all 10, in a row, with the book, chapter, and verse at the end.  Regular Bible verses?  Same thing.  Just start a verse on Monday morning.  By the end of the week, the child should know the verse and its Biblical location by the end of the week!
It took several weeks for the commandments.  Don't remember how long exactly because I really wasn't worried about the timing of it.

Now.  Number two.  I don't know if she came up with this idea or not, but regardless, she is a GEM of a person for sharing the idea with me.  And it's why I want to pass the idea forward.  Mrs. Kathleen Savage Foster, please take a bow!!!  Thank you for always being so generous with your ideas and your support.  You are truly a wealth of creativity and ideas for me - especially with my in-the-box personality.

It's so funny how things work in God's world.  Kathleen dated my youngest brother eons ago.  She was why my other brother met his wife, because Kat and Jaime were friends.  And now Kat and I find ourselves in a similar place in life now and have built a friendship through circumstances.  It's just neat how it all happens.

Anyway, thank you Kat for the wonderful idea.  And I hope the sharing of this idea helps someone else who wants this to be part of their family's development!  And, for those who were wondering....  Yes, Jmk and I now can recite the 10 commandments as well.  For the first time in our lives.  But, who's counting?  :-)

Huntsville Fun

We returned late Sunday afternoon from a long weekend in Huntsville to celebrate a cousin's marriage, see college friends of Jmk's, and generally get away for some fun.

Friday was Jmk's birthday (!), and we spent the early part of the day at the Early Works Children's Museum. We spent most of our time in the Biscuit's Backyard area, but did skim thru the rest of it. GaGa came with us, and we see him and the kids in front of the talking/story-telling tree.

Then Friday night, we went to the Schlichter's house for some good fellowship with two of Jmk's college roommates and for a little mini-surprise party for Jmk.

Complete with ice cream cake! Jmk is not a regular cake person, you see. And, in true "good daddy" fashion, he let the boy blow out his candle. :-)

We had a wonderful time and enjoyed some top notch hospitality. Jmk has some really great friends, and they have created some beautiful families.




Then, on Saturday, we went to an outdoor mall called Bridge Street. High dollar stores/restaurants and high dollar landscaping. You know the kind. But, we didn't go to shop. We went to entertain the kids. And we did so by letting them ride the carousel, play in the outdoor fountain (one of those that you can walk thru because it's flush with the ground), and take a gondola ride. Seriously! They have a real, made-in-Italy, wooden gondola. The ride was about 15'ish minutes which is just right for two small kids. We were told that, to date, 49 couples had gotten engaged on the gondola. :-) I thought that was sweet.

MooMoo was back at the hotel with some distant family who had come to see Granny. But GaGa got a yard pass to come with us. ;-)





Then Saturday night was The Event. Rebecca and Bryan got hitched in a lovely outdoor ceremony at her parents' house. The Very Cool Thing was that my entire immediate family was able to be there, and that was very nice to be able to see both Leslie and David at the same time. Plus, we got to get all fancied up AND I got to dance a little bit with David, which hardly ever happens. My arms were sore the next day from just 3 itty bitty swings. So sad!

JAZZ HANDS!

It does appear that the Tooter Man has developed a taste for the hardwood as well. He and Audrey cut a rug with each other - although they did it before the bride and groom had their first dance. ::gasp:: I tried to explain the utter wrong-ness of this, but the explanation seemed to get lost on this 18 month old and 34 month old.

It wasn't the last time they were out on the floor, and Poodle had a BIG time dancing with the bridesmaids and the bride! Mom and Dad won the Longest Married Couple dance contest - 44 years and counting!


We got up Sunday morning, packed up, visited some more with family, and then headed home. The drive there and back was pleasantly uneventful, as it should be, and the weather was GORgeous. The only hiccup was that we all brought home some kind of cold-thing. Joy. But it's not a bad one, thankfully, and we will soldier thru it without too much of an ordeal. Lord willing.

Congratulations Bryan and Rebecca!!!

The mess that vacation brings

I'm in the process of getting the family packed up for a trip to north Alabama for a cousin's wedding this weekend.  We leave tomorrow.  And while I'll freely admit that the house was certainly not in pristine condition before I got started, it's in significantly worse condition now.  The kids get away with sheer murder when I'm completely distracted.

Pffllbbbtt.

Okay.  Venting over.  Back to gathering clothes and things and things and things.

Lighten up.

I've been sort of heavy with the past couple of posts. Time to lighten things up.

With Supergirl!!!

Seriously. She designed the outfit. It's too fabulous, isn't it? We have two different swimsuits in play along with my winter time black boots. And some bracelets for wrist bands...... you know - it was awhile ago that I took this picture. I'm starting to wonder if she did this right after I showed her pictures of Wonder Woman.

hmmmm.......

Things to think about;

From the pulpit this morning:
Trust NOT in Washington DC, or that green dollar bill in your wallet, or in your state legislature, or in any man or woman.  Trust in GOD.  Only God.

From my mom's newspaper column this past week:
"Always remember that a government that is big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything that you have".

++++++++++++++++++
I'm really not setting out to make huge political statements with this blog.  I'm not.  I just had to put these out there to the universe at large.
 

Housing Market Mess

Here's a good YouTube Video regarding the current mess caused by the upside down housing market mess.  Hat tip to my brother, David, for this one.

A head's up to my more left-leaning friends:  this video is critical of some on the left, including Senator Obama.  It is a good video in terms of bringing all the confusing information regarding the situation to a less-complicated perspective.  (i.e. it doesn't use advanced econo-speak).  It moves quickly from point to point, and you'll likely find yourself needing to pause the video from time to time.  And it is just under 10 minutes.  But, if you do not want to hear Sen. Obama (and others) criticized, then this may not be for you.  In my opinion, the love of money was the root of this evil along with some well-meaning, but misguided, ideas about who should own a home.  But, mostly, it was greed.  Simple, nasty, greed.  On the part of a LOT of people.


The music is pretty cool....  except for the last song.  lol.....  It's a little too Rocky-wins-the-day for me, but it did make me laugh.

Afternoon Play

I still have yet to organize Poodle's bday party pics, but these have been sitting in the "post them to the blog" folder for a couple of months now.  Guess now is as good of a time as any.

PopPop came over one afternoon and ended up getting roped into playing in the backyard for awhile.  With Jmk and PopPop handling man-on-man coverage with the kids, I was able to play with Robert's camera a little bit.  I got so tickled with the way she was palming the soccer ball.  I'm not 100% sure I can palm a soccer ball.  Seriously.

Obviously, she wasn't playing "soccer" so much as playing "Daddy throw the ball to me".

Then we have PopPop tossing a princess ball to Tooter.  Yes, I realize I'm gonna catch it later in life when the little man realizes we let him play "baseball" with a Disney princess ball.  I suspect he'll get past it after he gives me a good eye-rolling.  ;-)

I'm pretty sure he made contact with this one, but I can't remember if anyone caught it in the head or not.

 

And, then, nothing terribly dramatic about this one.  I just liked what the camera did with it.  That's all.

And that's all folks!
:-D

September Art Co-Op

As I'm getting all the birthday pictures together, I'm going to post some pictures from the last art co-op that we had with our homeschool group.  We have at least one event a week, it seems like, to give the kids a chance to get together.  Of course, this is in addition to church and other extra-curricular activities.  (Everyone always wonders about how HS kids have the opportunity to develop friendships, so I added that little bit in there for info's sake).  ANYway, our get-togethers can't always be "just" for fun - sometimes these kids have to learn something!  So, our small group instituted a monthly art co-op so that the kids get a chance to learn an art technique that they may not necessarily get the chance to learn at home.

In September, they created sun prints.  It really looked like they were using blueprint paper, but I'm not positive that that's what it was.  Jmk will have to bring us an old piece from his office to see if we can recreate it.  Anyway, I didn't get a picture of Poodle and Tooter actually making their prints, because I sort of had to help the little man with his.  Thus, I couldn't take any pictures.  But, here's a picture of the other group (the older kids) making theirs.

While the younger ones were waiting on their turns, the teacher/hostess for this event had a great time-killer/ice breaker for the little ones to have fun with.


You can see Poodle in the middle of the shot here.

And Tooter is the wee one in the red shirt and brown'ish shorts.  I think they were taking turns running under the sheet thingy during this waiting period.


It was a good session and I'm looking forward to seeing what else is waiting for us during the school year!

No School Today!

When you were in school, did you wish that there was a rule that you could miss school on your birthday, and there would be no consequences of doing so?  Heck, for that matter, have you ever thought that companies ought to issue a vacation day on a person's birthday?  :-)  (Admittedly, I've always said that I would if I ever "ran" a company).

Well, Poodle, no school for you today my dear.  We are going to do whatEVER you want to do today and it's going to be a wonderful day to celebrate our special birthday girl!  I think we're going to begin the day by going out to the tennis court at the park to let you play, like you suggested last night.  It's going to be a great day and we love you so much!!!

Happy Birthday!!!
(pictures to follow later from our family party on Saturday)  :-)

The Journey of a Haircut

Ladies and Gentlemen........

My new haircut!
:-)

Now, before you get to thinking that I intend to share my new lipstick with you next, have no fear. I merely show you the haircut, because that way, I get to show you all the pictures that are to follow. I just had 9 inches cut for the Pantene Beautiful Lengths program. Around early 2007, there was a perfect storm of events that led to this. It started that I was about 6 weeks late on a haircut. And I had a friend who was sneaking up on a 5 year remission date that coming September from breast cancer. (She was diagnosed with breast cancer at 29). A friend from church had just had her hair cut for this program. And a local meteorologist who has done this twice now was on the air encouraging all us chicks to give it a try. I mentioned to Jmk that "maybe I should just grow my hair for the Pantene thing". And, then, two days later, I found out that my pastor's sister had been diagnosed with breast cancer. One of the healthiest, most positive people I know.

Bam. That was it. I quit getting haircuts and let it get long enough so that having 8 inches to donate wouldn't require me to end up looking like an 18 year old boy going to Boot Camp.

So! Here you go:



The ubiquitous before shot.


Also known as the "Get-that-girl-some-lipstick-and-a-stylist-please" shot.


















My.... um.... hair guy getting my hair into rubber bands. I don't want to call him a barber, but I feel weird calling him a "stylist". He's a dude, ya know?

























And, the ponytails.......


























And, the always important shot of holding the ponytails that will be sent off to be used in real-hair wigs for women going thru cancer treatments.




















Here's an extra shot of the cut from the back. This is the shortest my hair has been since the first grade! Seriously!

And a side by side before and after. Now, please know that I'm not posting this to say "oh, look at me. I'm giving away hair. Yay me. Woohoo and all that". To the contrary. I know that I wouldn't have decided to do this on my own. It took a lot of different things working together to get me to the place to do it. So, maybe you are thinking about it. Or, maybe you're a month late for a haircut also......... maybe maybe? Yes, the hair feels really weird this morning. But it's good. And I love the shorter hair. And I'm grateful to have been given the opportunity to do it. It's worth it, in case you're trying to decide! :-)

I'm a Tennis Mom! (with lipstick) ::wink::

No, seriously, for the next 6 weeks, I get to be a tennis mom! Thanks to MooMoo and GaGa and their birthday gift to Poodle.

And, oh, how excited is she to be able to do this. She started yesterday and had a blast! It was so cute and so fun to watch her - and that was just me. I don't play tennis. I mean, no, I will play tennis. Believe me, I wish I was better at it. I just never really pursued it. But, Jmk, however, got really into tennis in college, and he was really pumped for Poodle to be able to do this. He must have taken 50 pictures of her during the 45 minute lesson. No exaggeration. And he left work early so he could watch her. It was cool.


Tooter occupied himself by playing with a stray ball in the grass for awhile. Then, he decided to come toddle after me, and fell down, subsequently scraping his knees up. Thusly requiring a Mommy intervention to take him away from the courts so as not to distract the 3 classes going at the same time.

I wished I could have been a fly on the wall of Mom's mind for just a minute to see what she was thinking. All the years of sitting and watching/waiting during swimming lessons and ballet lessons and music lessons and soccer lessons and on and on and all the games, meets, performances, et al that go along with that...... And here she was doing it all over again with her grandaughter. It was neat.





So, of course, I know you're ready to see some action shots! (Especially SueSue - who is quite the tennis player herself.)

We have a forehand demonstration here.
:-)


What style..... what grace..... what a cute outfit.
lol.... actually, the outfit was something that Jmk and I got her for her birthday last year. Who would have thought!





Now, we see a good backhand with nice contact. As you can see, the two other little boys in her class are astounded and amazed at her natural tennis'ness.
;-)

And then, of course, a power backhand shot showing just how much she was putting into her game yesterday.  Click on the picture and look at the face of the little boy in the blue shirt.  lol.....

:-D

In all seriousness, she did a great job - but mostly, she had a great time. And that is all I'm concerned about at 4-almost-5 years old.

And, what did she do after each good shot that she made? (And even some of the ones that landed squarely into the net?

Why - Big Thumbs Up To Daddy! Each and every time. :-)

You just go, you little tennis girl.

Bye Bye Claire!

Tooter has been officially discharged from speech therapy!

He went from significantly below his age range for expressive and receptive language in March and 6 months later is now estimated to be at a 38-41 months level for his language skills.  :-)  Yay!  I still maintain that he processes language in a unique way, and maybe he always will.  But, then, I'm sort of hyper-aware of learning styles right now, so I admit that I may be imagining things that aren't there.

Anyway, we are going to miss Claire.  She connected well with Tooter from the beginning.  And now, when I say "Claire's here", he (and Poodle too, for that matter) come running to the door yelling "Miss Claire's here!  Miss Claire's here!"  She has been wonderful, and we are grateful that we were able to work with such a sweet, smart person.  On one hand, it is nice to be able to remove something from the calendar.  But, I'm going to miss visiting with her.  Watching Toot interact with someone else.  Getting verbal confirmation from an expert about his progress.  Getting new ideas about things I can do to help him continue to progress.
 
But, like she said, he was probably able to be discharged about a month ago.  But she didn't want to quit coming.  And I didn't want her to quit coming.  However, she has gotten a new position with a local children's hospital, and this was going to be her last week with us anyway.  It was a good time for us to move on and be grateful for this time in our lives.  We had a "discharge party" today and the kids both made her some presents.

Thanks Claire - we loved seeing you every week!!!  You've made a difference - you really have.  :-)

Today was Potty Day!!! Don't ask how it went......

Okay, I'll tell you anyway.

Wait.  Let me back up.  Tooter, our dear boy, is pushing 3 years old.  (Turns 3 in November).  He has shown almost zero signs of being ready to potty train.  Seriously - if you look at one of those lists on the various generic parental information sites regarding "signs for potty training readiness", Tooter really only exhibits one, maybe two, of them.  I mean, considering he only recently started saying "diaper", I shouldn't be terribly surprised.  I really think there has to be a link between an ability to process language on a higher level and being ready to climb up onto a toilet and take care of things.  No one has actually TOLD me that, but think about it - the process of realizing that hearing Mommy say "let's use the potty" and realizing that it means that we're going to go to the potty and practice sitting on it doesn't always come quickly to a little person who is "delayed" in his receptive (not to mention expressive) language skills.

Well, regardless of whether or not that's true, Tooter's language skills have gotten better.  So much better, in fact, that this coming Monday will be his last speech therapy session.  He is being discharged after Monday!  (Yay!)  And, he can say diaper.  He can handle pants and shorts.  And climbing up onto and down from the potty.  Heck, I realized today that he can even take the potty seat on and off by himself.  This is one of those "click-in" seats that I couldn't even work without frustration, and HE showed me how to do it.  (MAN, did I feel dumb at that point).  Here's the thing.  Being wet doesn't bother him.  Heck, most of the time, being dirty doesn't bother him.  I'm not kidding.  It doesn't bode well for his "readiness" to train, but I had to see if we could jump start him.

So, today was Potty Day.  This morning, when he got up and got his pj's changed, we put him in big boy shorts.  Not pull ups.  Big boy shorts.  Before anyone thinks that I think that he was going to immediately use the potty right away, I didn't.  Pull-ups can be more comfortable than you think.  I needed him to be in something that would be totally uncomfortable when he had an accident.

::exhale::  Well.....  he did.  All day.  Here's the thing - we could get him to cooperate with us to sit on the potty, but not for more than 3-5 minutes.  (Up to this point, I was doing great to get him to sit still for more than 2 minutes.  He just does not like being on the potty for some reason).  He didn't WANT to go sit on the potty, but was cooperating with us at first.  He wasn't using the potty - no way, Jose.  But, he'd sit up there.  Then, he'd get down, put his shorts back on, and 5 minutes later, have an accident.  First, he didn't notice the accident.  Then, he'd acknowledge he'd had one if you asked him.  Later in the morning, he'd tell Jmk right after it happened.  (We are putting him on the potty every 20-3o minutes, in case you were wondering).  By just after lunch, we caught him grabbing himself, and we both said - "let's go to the potty!"  And, we rushed him to the potty.  And he melted down.  We startled him..., he didn't want to use the potty..., he was crying..., asking for a diaper..., I was trying to hold ou...t, I tried to hold HIM to call him down..., he was holding himself and leaking on my legs..., he was screaming-crying......  it got worse.  It was absolutely pitiful and I think I broke every rule in the potty-training book.  Poor Jmk was just trying to do what I needed him to do even though I had NO idea what that was.  I finally gave in, brought a diaper to the dear little boy, held him until he quit sobbing, rocked him, and put him down for a nap.  That was the end of Potty Day.


It was the longest morning........  we hyper focused on him all morning trying to see if we could flip a switch in his head only to find out that the switch isn't ready to be flipped.  It just isn't.  You have to understand that we were spoiled with Poodle.  She practically trained herself, and I'm really not kidding.  She told me she wanted to go potty.  She was always wanting to practice on the potty.  She took her dolls and stuffed animals to go potty.  She helped me go potty.  ::groan::  I didn't try to get her to do any of it.  She was out of diapers before she was two, regressed just before Toot was born, and I had her retrained in a couple of days.  (Of course, that was after getting some advice from Leigh Ann, and it was 3 or 4 months later, but please - I had a newborn to deal with first).  So, to have this little man who is so vehemently opposed to the idea of it all is new to us.

So, now, we'll back up and punt.  Go at this little by little - more gently.  Slowly.  I'm really not worried that he's so late in training, but I was really hoping that today would be a magic starting point.  It was one of the last weekends for awhile that both Jmk and I would be home for an entire Saturday without anything else to do.  And I just had these grandiose ideas that today would be the top of the proverbial hill - and that we would be traversing downward from here.  And, I'll be honest, my ability to think about potty training him and schooling Poodle at the same time isn't the strongest in the world.  And school wins out. 


Ehhh.  It'll come.  My little guy is just starting to really talk for the first time.  Words, wonderful words, have just started to really come from him.  The rest of it will come too.  Like I tell my kids, time to press the patient button.

The Zoo Goes To The Circus

As a birthday present to GaGa, MooMoo got tickets for the whole group of us yahoo's to go to see the Ringling Bros/Barnum and Bailey Circus! Unfortuntely, Robert, Jaime, and Audrey couldn't be there.... but, that meant that we had an extra ticket for SueSue to go also. Bonus!


David was also able to come, and he was so sweet to the kids. Bought them cotton candy, hats, and cool snowcones - one in an elephant and one in a white tiger. (the animals featured during the show).

We arrived about an hour early, and were able to participate in pre-show activities with the performers. Tooter swung on the trapeeze, and even though I didn't get a shot of the grin on his face while he was swinging.....

This shows just how pleased he was with the whole experience. ;-)

Poodle hung out around the center ring and watched all sorts of performers - I think her favorite was watching the "ballet dancer" who climbed up the single rope and did Cirque du Soleil-type manuevers. Poodle's mouth dropped to her knees as the lady pulled herself up the rope, and she continued to stay amazed until the acrobat finished. However, Poodle got to actually participate with the acrobats who did the jump-rope tricks. She loved it!
And she got out there just in time - right after she finished, they sent everyone to their seats so they could get the show started. (I think SueSue encouraged her to get out there - thank you for that!)

We had a GREAT time. It had been years and years since either Jmk or I had been to the circus, and honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect. I had visions of 14 clowns riding in cars and that kind of thing (and let's face it, clowns can be creepy sometimes). But it wasn't that at all. It was so great! The kids loved it and they spent the whole time bouncing from one grandparent to another (with a little time spent on Mom and Dad's laps as well).

But, you know, even as exciting as the circus is, if you're 2 1/2 and you're used to taking naps, and you don't GET a nap that day, and it's dark and there's music playing.......... well, poor Tooter got a little sleepy just before the intermission. He asked for his passie which was our first sign that he couldn't fight the heavy eyes any more. And I just didn't want to fight the power, as it were. BUT, then they trotted out three huge elephants, and they saved the Tooter!!! Oooohhhh - the elephants. Once he saw the elephants, he was all over staying awake at that point. He crawled out of my lap, into SueSue's, checked to make sure MooMoo and GaGa saw that there were ::gasp:: ELEPHANTS out there, and he was wide awake! lol...... it was so cute.


Oh, it was a good time. MooMoo - thank you so much for arranging all that for us. Seriously, that was really wonderful and a really special time. I'm so glad that we got to go!!!


We got about 10 minutes from the Coliseum and this is what the kids looked like. :-) It had been a long, exciting day.

From the Zoo to MooMoo and GaGa - here's a happy dance to say thank you!!!