A skill you use for the rest of your life.

So, my dear friends, the day has come. We will start potty training Spencer tomorrow. This is a rather exciting time around here. We have made the necessary preparations. Spencer has big boy underwear. They make lots of great choices so that I think Spencer is excited about it. We got some with Lightning McQueen and Mater, also superheros and a variety of Disney/Pixar characters. We also got Spencer a special stool so he can reach the sink and sit where he needs to (of course it is "Cars" too.) So now Spencer has all this great stuff that he is excited about.



I have cleared my schedule for 3 days. Here is the plan:

1. Lots and Lots of special drinks. . . Capri Suns, Chocolate Milk, soda, Bob the Builder Juice. . . All the most exciting things we can think of for him to guzzle down.



2. Tomorrow morning we wake up and get dressed, first thing we go to the potty. Then he gets to wear the big boy underwear.

3. Starting out every 15 minutes we try to go potty. I have a timer that automatically reset to the last time you entered.

4. We stay on the kitchen and play, read, do play dough lots of activities. Then off to the loo when the timer goes.

5. We will adjust the time between tries as seems appropriate.

6. Encourage him to drink, drink, drink.

7. Have lots of spare clothes on hand and be prepared to do lots laundry.

That is the plan. My neighbor used this system to train all 5 of her children. She has a little girl Spencer's age who she just trained and it seems to have worked well. She said it takes about 3 days. After that there is the occasional accident, but they are good to go.

Wish us luck :)

New Video

I had to file a claim with YouTube saying the music I used was "fair use." I didn't end up with the songs I wanted, but this is close enough. My grandparents are getting the full video on DVD.

Video of our Trip to Idado

I had some problems with YouTube on this one. They muted the entire sound track (all audio from the video and music.) The entire video is silent, so bummed. Apparently one of the songs I added in the background is not "pre-licensed" on YouTube.

I burned it to a DVD for my grandparents, so maybe they will be the only ones who can see it . . . Oh well, so much for the wonders of technology. I might see if I can work something out.

Trip to Grandma's

Well, it has been a couple of weeks since our trip to Grandma's house in Idaho. Things have been so busy around here I haven't had time to update all y'all.

We left very early on Wednesday. Spencer was so excited when we moved him to the car from his bed at 4:50 AM that he couldn't go back to sleep. He kept saying "Aunt Betty and Uncle Don?" then "Grandma & Grandpa V, V, Veselka?" (At first he said "Ba-selka" then we said it was "V. . V. . Veselka" now he says the "v" sound a couple of times before he says Veselka.)

We arrived in Boise about noon and dropped in on Aunt Betty, Uncle Don and Carol (my mom's cousin.) It was great. We got to see their home. It was perfect and charming. They are close to everything (great shopping) and it is on one level. We had a great visit. Spencer was entranced by the box of toys they had. He sang a couple of songs and was in heaven playing with cars after sitting the car for 6 hours. Aunt Betty even let him take a car home. It was Luigi (from the Cars movie.) Spencer loves it and still plays with it everyday. Carol also gave him some books that were (and are) a big hit!

Eventually it was time to say goodbye and head to Grandma & Grandpa's house a couple hours away, but it was a perfect way to stop and re-charge after our hours in the car. Here are a couple of photos.




We made it to Grandma & Grandpa's house in the afternoon. It was great to see them. This was out first visit with Spencer and it was great to see him play in the same living room that I played in when I was his age. (Some of the toys were the same too! It brought back lots of memories to see a polymer neon green Pinocchio and wooden blocks.)

We had lots of time to chat and reminisce. My Grandparents were in good health and it made me happy to see them doing so well. My grandma made this wonderful Apple Spice Cake. It was to. . . die. . . for. I normally do not go for baked apple anything. . . but this was soooo good. I had two pieces and refused to leave without the recipe. As memory served. . I had two more pieces the next day too. I plan to make it next fall and try them as cupcakes/muffins with caramel frosting.

I got some great footage on the flip video camera. I still need to put together a video montage of the trip. As soon as I have that done I will post it here. Until then, enjoy some photos.

New-do

Well, I finally had enough. I was feeling so oppressed by my hair, I mean who's the boss anyway? I am the boss of me, and my hair so I just chopped it off.

This morning my hair was especially relentless in it non-compliance with my will. My hair is just too stringy when it's long and because I have to color those ridiculously pre-mature grays, I can feel my hair is dry almost, fuzzy. . . (I hate fuzzy.)

So this morning I woke up and called a couple neighbors to see if I could find a pinch hitter to watch Spencer while I went to get my hair cut. Thankfully my neighbor just up the street was able to. . . bless you Stephanie!

Now my long and stringy (and occasionally fuzzy) hair is replaced with short and sassy. Ahh it's good to be back! This is not the best shot, but it will give you an idea. I am sure that I will get some better shots when we go to Idaho to visit my Grandma next week.

Before:


After: