Brave Adventurers, July 2010

fter a few timorous moments at the prospect of not sleeping in their own beds, the kids certainly warmed up to the idea of spending a few days at the coast with my folks. I only wish their daddy had been able to join us. Next time. Next time.

And a 1, and a 2...

hen you are potty training a little one it's pretty ridiculous how much of your time revolves around being in the bathroom, or thinking about how long it's been since you've taken the little person to the bathroom, or trying to remember if a certain someone had evacuated his bowels yet today, or plotting out all the stops you need to make and where the nearest bathroom is in each location while you're out and about, just in case nature calls.

And in the case of Noah, nature seems to call frequently. I haven't quite figured out how to get him to understand that even though he thinks he's done peeing after a few little drips, there is likely more to be expelled. I mean, with Hannah I could explain what the sensation of a full bladder might feel like. I knew the signals to describe to her. But Noah and I don't share the same equipment. I'm at a loss for accurate descriptive phrases. And frankly, many times I just want to throw up my hands, shake my head and declare like Elaine does to Jerry and George, "I don't see how you guys walk around with those things!"

All in all, though, he had a great first week getting used to the whole deal. Then we went to the beach for several days and his whole game got thrown off, which is understandable. Be honest, we all like home court advantage. But this week, with renewed vigor, finding it way more effective to just bypass the pull-ups and go straight to big-boy training undies, we've had pretty good success. An accident here and there, including, ironically, one while I was in the process of typing this. (Apparently, the answer was no, a certain little someone had NOT evacuated his bowels yet today. And the washing machine churns...)

But as I was saying, we've been actively back at it for 3 days with more success than failure. I'm glad my kiddo is treat driven. All hail the power of the gummy worm!

Making cookies!

Last year, Hannah and I baked and decorated Christmas cookies together for the first time. This year, Noah was big enough to join in and Grandma came down to help too. Here's how it went:

Of course, Grandma made them special Christmas cookie aprons. (Those are some cute kids!)

The rolling out and cutting was surprisingly not that messy.

Grandma helped Hannah with the decorations and I helped Noah. The kids were amazingly good at not tasting everything as they worked.

The finished product!
Hannah savored her hard work, one little nibble at a time.
Of course, Noah had already devoured his cookie by the time I grabbed the camera! Thanks for all the help, Grandma!

Noah's manners

Overall the kids are pretty good at using their manners. Of course, sometimes they need to be reminded-- but then again, so do many adults these days. Noah is so good at it though, that he has taken to covering all of his bases for proper polite questioning structure. As you can see in this video, a standard Noah request is, "Please may could I have..." And he reeeeeaaaaallly wanted one of the muffins I had just taken out of the oven.