Change Has Already Come

Friends, fear not! I am not about to use this blog as a political sounding board in any way, though I do prefer Obama as the next potential President.

Instead, I am posting because I am in awe of the history that is being made, right before our eyes. Though there is a long campaign ahead, we are standing on the brink of seeing the first ever African-American President of the United States. Not to mention the fact that he fought for his nomination against one of the most politically powerful women that this country has ever seen. AMAZING!

I am making a point to reiterate the key points of black history to my oldest, as the campaign unfolds. Though racism is still present in this country, many of our children do not realize the plight of African-Americans in this country and so not understand what a huge, historical event this election is.

There is still a lot that needs to be done in this country to completely eliminate racism and prejudice, but this is a monumental step in the right direction. These are the moments when I am the most proud of our country and the ability of its people to see what is right and accept change.

No matter your own political affiliation, make sure that in November, you participate in the election. Even if you do not like the outcome, you only have the right to complain about the choice if you make a stand, yourself.

Kids and Electronics Don't Mix

Ok, so it wasn't wine, it was actually iced tea, but you get the picture.

While the baby was distracting me, the two year old decided to climb up in my chair and knock over half a glass of tea. of course most of it went straight onto the keyboard. Lovely.

Thankfully, hubby was able to clean it up and dry it out. It actually is in better shape now than it was before the tea incident. I had no clue how much ick could collect inside a keyboard. Who knew...

However, this wasn't our only child/computer fiasco of the day. The baby decided to shove my printer off its shelf and onto the floor. I'm hoping its ok, but am a bit nervous of checking it out. Keep your fingers crossed that he didn't do any major damage.

As I just posted on my other blog, I am finally out from under a huge pile of work and deadlines, so I can get back to doing some things for me and not just things that pay. I still have plenty of paying work, but should have some time to blog and get to work on my professional website.

This week I'll be coming up with a plan for the baby's birthday. He's turning one on the 29th. I'm thinking we'll wait until the weekend after to have a small party. Weeknights aren't good for anyone around here. Anyone have any clue if they still sell Toy Story party supplies? He's really into Buzz, for some reason.

Image: Flickr - Siobhan Curran

We're Off And Running...Sort of...

My littlest has been working his way up to toddlerhood over the past few weeks. He's been cruising the furniture for awhile now and finally decided it's time to let go. He's still takes the occasional spill, but would rather walk than crawl now!

He seemed to get really brave, very quickly and has even figured out how to climb up onto the smaller pieces of furniture. I'm starting to see the baby slip away and the curious toddler emerging.


He'll be turning one on April 29th...where has the last year gone...

Potty Training Update

A couple weeks back I was asked for an update on the potty training situation.

The truth of the matter is things are not quite going as planned. Stomach bugs and not so nice reactions to apple juice have stalled our progress. However, we keep trying...

We have had one single success in peeing in the potty and well, several messes on the floor to clean up.

It seems he'd rather be naked than wear underwear or even a diaper these days and that leaves mommy with a bit of a dilemma. Do I succumb to the pleas to let him go to the potty (which doesn't actually happen) or do I keep him in diapers awhile longer?

Stay tuned to find out!

Peek-A-Boo!

Well, its been an insane week or so around here and between clients and my real life, I haven't had a minute to update things around here.

I have been quite busy trying to keep up with my ever-growing writing business. That has been on the front burner lately and keeping me up nights.

Also, this past week my oldest finally hit thirteen! My baby is all grown up...or so he thinks. Like it or not though, mama still knows best!

We also had a death in the family last week, followed by another yesterday. Two of my great aunts passed away, both from pneumonia. These were the oldest and youngest of 5 sisters, one in her 90's, the other her 80's, and the first of the sisters to pass on. Keep my grandma and her remaining sisters in your prayers, as it has been a very rough couple of weeks for them.

To round out the fun over here, the middle baby had some kind of viral thing going on, which started Saturday and finally finished Tuesday night. Fluctuating fevers, a little bit of stomach stuff, all around good times. Of course, he shared with mommy, but luckily we were the only ones hit, as of right now.

Here's to a better week for us and I hope all of you are having a better beginning of Spring than we are!

It's Potty Time! Part One

We are about to take the plunge, so to speak, and get down to business with potty training our toddler. His 2nd birthday is next Saturday, so I think it is high time the "big boy" gets down to business. We have casually introduced him to the potty, but really haven't worked on it to date. I've been searching around for advice and here are the techniques that I am planning to try:

• Skipping Pull-ups at home - Knowing this child, he might be a lazy potty trainer. I can see him being too engrossed in what he's doing and treating the pull-up as a diaper. I think we'll jump right in with regular underwear. We will use pull-ups or diapers when we go out and at night, in the beginning stages.

• Character Underwear - We're picking him up a few packs of underwear in some of his favorite characters. Thomas the Tank Engine, Diego, and Toy Story, if we can find them. I'm hoping this will get him interested enough to not want to wear diapers anymore.

• Sticker Charts- This kid loves stickers and also loves to show off what he's done. I think he'll love the idea of having a chart to show daddy, when he gets home at night. I even found a potty training chart with his favorite thing: trains!
  

• Sitting First - Even though it isn't what daddy does, we plan on training him to sit on the potty first, before we have to deal with aiming. I have the rest of my life to clean up the off-target sprays from the bathroom floor and wall.

I'm pretty sure he's ready, as he's showing interest, tells me when he needs changing, can take off his clothes, and follows simple instructions. If I'm wrong, no big deal, we can try again in a few months. Wish us luck when we start next week and I'll keep you posted on our progress and any further tips and tricks I come across.