This Week In Review

Having petite children has some advantages. Most days we start with "bathtubs". In our house, that very loosely translates to eating breakfast and reading scriptures while the kids bathe in the sink. Why not kill three birds with one stone?

My greatest dilemma with having a third: What in the world am I going to do when I have three kids and only two sinks???

Little Bear decided that he wanted his first experience with using the potty. He came to me, repeating "diaper" over and over again, and then asked to take it off. He proceeded to run into the bathroom and use the toilet. Wow! I was more than a little surprised. Afterwords he asked for his diaper back on, which was fine. And THEN about a half hour later he went in to use the potty again! WOW!

Unfortunately, I get another mark on the "bad mommy" list because I think I ruined the experience for him. The next day I was very excited...ok...maybe exuberant about him using the potty. So I went to buy him some big boy underwear. Well, I thought getting Thomas Train underwear would definitely improve the odds of him liking the underwear. After we went to the store, I handed him the underwear and told him about the choo choo train on them. But he misunderstood me (occasionally my vocabulary doesn't compute in his 21 month old mind). He thought that he was actually getting a choo choo train. Hmmm. When he found out it was underwear, he was considerably distressed. Enough to cry for fifteen minutes - which takes a lot of stamina for this little guy. Since then, potty training has been over and done with. No more. Finished. Out of the question.

Ben's been working out in our yard. The front part was recently excavated. Several dead trees and bushes were pulled out, and some mounds were flattened. I think our yard will be a work in progress for a very long time. We're eventually hoping to pull out all of the foliage seperating our yard from Melrose Road and putting a large brick fence around the whole property. Or maybe a rock fence. Something that will be a good sound barrier. Then we want to plant trees around the fence and add some pretty landscaping. However, that probably won't happen for awhile, as we have projects we'll probably want to finish before that.

Anyway, Ben also did some work in the backyard. We're lucky to have a small portion fenced so the kids have an area all to themselves. He added a tire swing to a tree and moved the "baby swing" to a safer and more convenient spot.