4 Miles

Today was the day of James' company's annual Family Fun Day. For the second year, it was hosted at a near by park. (Just a quick aside, last year, we had to drive an hour and 15 minutes to get there. This year, it was a 5 minute drive. Last year, we had just Will. This year we had 2 boys. Just amazing how much changed in a year!)  We told will this morning we were going to the park for a picnic. He was very excited, and wanted to know if there would be cake. I’m not sure how picnic became synonymous with cake in his mind. We had the first beautiful day in a long time, and it was a fun time outside. 

They had brought in a variety of entertainment for the kids (a guy with animals—“Safari Steve”, someone to paint faces, a guy to sing and play with the kids and a magician. (You can see a picture to the left of Will pointing to a skunk he brought.)  Will had more fun just running around. He really wanted to go to the swings/slides.  I was going to take him, but we ended up getting distracted with playing on the bridge and the creek.  It was a nice time of throwing rocks in the water, floating leaves, walking along the shore, and racing the dandelions that he’d thrown into the water. It was nice to see Will have fun with the simple things, and not HAVE to be entertained the entire time.  I want to keep encouraging that!  As we were leaving, though, Will was upset. He kept saying “I want to go to the park. I want to swing and slide.”  So, not only does Picnic = Cake, Park must = Swing and Slide, or it is not a park.  (Oh, and they did have cake to celebrate the May birthdays…Will was very happy.)

Here is Alex meeting the lady who painted faces. He got to have a smily face put on his cheek. Will chose to not have that done.

I wish I had a good reason for why we didn’t have updates all week on the web site.  There was nothing THAT exciting going on this week. Yet we were pretty busy and so there was no time to post.  I will say I had a very nice Mother’s Day. I feel my main gift was James watching the boys all day Saturday, so I could scrapbook.  I also got flower for outside. The previous owners left us outside a decorative black hook that is used to hang flowers on. I wanted a basket to hang out front on that hook. James tried to sneak out that morning and hang them for me while I was getting ready for church. Will came running into the bathroom to tell me Daddy was getting Mommy’s flowers. I told him “Don’t you mean Daddy is getting the newspaper?” (I was TRYING to let James surprise me!) The problem was, the beautiful basket was too heavy for the hook and by the time I got to see them, the pole was bent half-way to the ground.  So, this week I repotted the flowers in a large pot and they are sitting on our front stoop.  Once we get back from vacation, I plan on getting some annuls to mix with the plants we already have to add some color to the front flower beds (we have LOTS of hosta—if you’d like some, let me know, I’ll be splitting them next spring), and then I’ll put a picture up of all the beauty.

I'm sure some of you are waiting breathlessly for an update on how the James (TM) Method of training is going. We have successfully moved the potty to the bathroom ("Whew!" says I). Now we're stuck trying to figure out how to get the boy to wear underwear.  Our newest idea is to try a bigger size to see if the underwear being easier to pull up/down will make the next step easier. I am seeing an improvement with him trying to dress/undress himself.  And he was not happy when he was wearing a diaper and got it wet, yesterday.  So, we're still in baby steps.  

I have started giving Will a treat when he goes in the potty, and then another if he wipes himself (otherwise, he’d just run out and tell me he’d gone in the potty and it was treat time).  The other day he was playing and stopped suddenly, saying “I go pee in the potty!”  Then he came out of the bathroom yelling, “I get a treat! I wiped!”  James asked him “Did you not go pee in the potty?” I think he was thinking Will thought he could just wipe, and get a treat. I had a worse thought. “Where DID you go pee Will?” I asked.   “There!” he said, as he led us back to the bathroom, showing us the puddle on the floor—close, but not quite IN the potty.  Needless to say, no treat was rewarded.