Yard Work

Today I pulled weeds from everywhere, gathered them up and stuffed them in garbage bags. I watered my plants. I picked up the yard. I pulled the nasty disintegrating carpet off our front stairs. I sweeped off the patio and sidewalks. We made a run to the dump to get rid of extra garbage. After spending all day working in the yard, I feel I have finally accomplished something outside. However, I still have inside the house to worry about too, and I didn't even get to play this weekend. I can now see the advantage of owning an apartment. Less work to do, more time to play. Until now, I had never thought of any positive aspects of apartment life, but it is suddenly appealing. I even thought of moving into the camping trailer and parking it at my parent's house or something. Has anyone else had similar thoughts?

Potty train in one day! Why is this new to me?

Check out http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/25057426#25057426 for a quick video of Booty Camp, one woman's idea following ideas from this book. This inspired me to try something similar, and it seems to work. I've read the book and believe this is the best method. Check out "Toilet Training in Less Than A Day" by Nathan H. Azrin, PH.D. and Richard M. Foxx, PH.D. Sabian goes potty by himself now, thanks to Grandma's help while we were on vacation. I plan to try out this "new" method with Adora in a few months, and am optimistic. Adora can already use the potty with assistance when prompted, but I would not consider her to be "trained" by any means. This book has been around since 1974, so why am I only hearing about it just now? I've heard some of the techniques discussed on Dr. Phil, but was never told about this book. The author's study involved a range of children from 20 months to 4 years old and all cases were successful, most in less than 5 hours. This book wasn't in my library, but I bought it off ebay for less than $7.

Naomi is a First Grader!

Naomi loves her new school and is very excited. Yes, she already started. School started August 14th, which may be early to some, but it is so worth it cause we get spud harvest off. That's right, 2 weeks at the end of September and first of October, a time when no one else gets a vacation. I went to Disneyland at the end of September once; there were no lines. Imagine a theme park vacation with school age children and not having to wait in lines for more than 5 minutes and not having to make up school work upon getting back home. I know you're all jealous. :) The house next door to me is for sale if anyone is interested. I like first grade because now she can ride the bus both ways to my grandparents house too. Going to school all day makes it easier to find babysitters. I used to think kids learned to read in 1st grade, but now they start in kindergarten and fine tune their skills in first grade. Naomi only wants to learn to read so she can understand and play more video games. Go figure.

Check this out! Pooh bear rap! (I had to give a link cause I can't see how to post from youtube anymore)

Euromotion - Get Serious

For some reason this just makes me laugh. I especially like the kid in the supermarket with a dumbfounded look on his face. Obviously it is his first time being confronted by strange people singing in his face at the supermarket.

We just can't have nice things!

If any of you have listened to Jeff Foxworthy you will understand. My mischievious 2 year old boy first stepped on our laptop computer as a way to reach the things on top of the fridge (which were only put up there so he couldn't reach them). That is how the screen cracked and we can't hardly see through the wooly willy effect, especially the very important upper right corner. That is why we moved the computer downstairs to hook it up to the plasma HDTV we got for Christmas. Unfortunately he discovered he could pluck keys off while no one was watching.

Only 4 letters (AQOL) and 3 numbers (129) remain. Typing is much slower now. I really hate typing in passwords when it shows asterisks in place of what you type because I'm really not sure if I'm getting it right. Although I memorized the placement of the letters, the keys don't feel the same when you are only pushing on rubber nubs.

Siblings

Sabian must not be having a good day. I have heard only two things come out of his mouth, the first being a high pitched annoyed scream, "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" (which grates at my nerves and makes me want to tape his mouth shut). The other choice phrase he has been saying all day is "Naomi did it!" Sabian is merely upset he can't have his way all the time. Such is life. Were it not for the whining, I might actually pity him.
On a funnier note, Adora played a joke on her daddy. Adora is a child who hates to have her nose wiped and always turns her head when she sees a tissue coming and more often than not needs restrained to accomplish the task. Andy said he was surprised the other day when she actually held still and let him wipe her nose. He then looked at her and Adora stuck out her tongue and blew a raspberry at him then smiled as if to say "there, that will show you." Adora is so much fun. She can now walk a few steps between open arms. May 29th she decided to try walking. My parents had fun with her and showed me her new trick as soon as I got home from work. Her enthusiam was funny. I always figured she could walk if she tried, but until now, she had no desire, after all, she could crawl fast enough to get into all sorts of trouble. I think the motivating factor was the warm weather. Now that she was wearing shorts, the carpet felt rough on her knees and crawling was less fun. On the grass she walks like a stink bug on her hands and feet with her butt up in the air. I'll try to get a picture one of these times, it really is quite comical.