Potty Training!

Well, we have entered the land of potty training again! Katherine has been showing signs of being ready for a while but I wanted to wait until we were more adjusted to Joseph’s schedule. Plus I really hate potty training! So much work and mess and tears! Does anyone out there potty train professionally? Can I hire you?!?

Okay, back to reality. Yesterday was day one. I got out the little cotton training pants and stocked up on some m&ms, donned Katherine in potty pants and a t-shirt for the day and sat her on the potty.

She took to it pretty well. She’s not afraid of the toilet. That is a first for us and really wonderful! Plus she has wiping down which was a surprise to me but then again she’s followed her sisters to the bathroom enough to know how to do it!  In fact she really had fun with that part. “More toilet paper mommy!” wipe, toss it in the toilet, and again “More!” I had to learn to hide the t.p. and distract her.

So, no toilet fear and wiping already learned I’m thinking my job is not going to be too difficult this time.

Well…haha! Getting her thinking turned around may be. She doesn’t understand “Before”. As in tell me you have to go potty “BEFORE” you wet your pants. She did not use the toilet once yesterday (was I really expecting her to?). In fact she proved to have “AFTER” down pat. …Sigh, well it was only the first day after all! So we have many wet and soiled pants still in our future. Oh well.

At least this time I have a couple willing and eager helpers! As a reward to Katherine for at least sitting on the potty (I’m not punishing soiled pants – yet) she gets a few m&ms. If her sisters help her, take her to the potty with them, show her the ropes etc. they also get m&ms. Gabby and Samantha are really excited at this chance to earn m&ms and so they have been taking her often! I’m hoping these repeated trips to the potty will make it click and she decides to just do it on her own! (is that wishful thinking?)

Well, wish us luck! May this pass quickly!! (No pun intended…or was it? o.O)

Running Again!

Last year Alan and I trained for and ran our first race in June 2008. We really enjoyed it and it was a lot of fun to do together. But then we dropped running for the most part after that race. I think not having a new goal did us in.

Lately I have been itching for some good exercise and decided to set a new running goal. There is a 5k in Moorestown toward the end of October and so Alan and I decided we would run it.

I was nervous about how much progress I’d lost since that race having not run more than a handful of times since then and the last time being months ago. But I remember being told about this program online called “Couch to 5k” which will have a couch potato running a 5k in about 9 weeks. So I looked it up. The timing is really perfect and the program looks great.

The “C25K” program is based on running/walking intervals that become more challenging as the weeks go on until you are able to run at least 30 minutes at a time and can run a 5k at the end of 9 weeks. There are also a number of pod-casts that you can put on your mp3 player that will play music timed to the different intervals and have a transition in place so you know when to run and when to walk. I really love this because I didn’t know how I was going to handle looking at the watch constantly instead of the road.

So this past week I gave it a go. I set up my mp3 player and laced up my running shoes and went out the door. This was hard for me. For some reason I was afraid to even get started. In fact we’d set the goal to run this race before I’d remembered the c25k program. It took me a while to emotionally prepare for running again and it wasn’t until I’d sat down to find a running program online before I was finally motivated enough to start.

My first run, months and a baby after my last run, I was really excited to find that I hadn’t lost everything – I could still run some, at least for 60 seconds at a time (probably a little more even but I’m doing the program outright and didn’t test myself). This time was much better than where I’d been January of 2008 when running was so foreign to me and I could barely trot to the block. Yay, I’m not completely starting over!

I’ve completed week 1 and look forward to week 2 and really am looking forward to the race. We WILL set goals to run other races after this one and keep going.

I do like to call myself a runner. It’s fun to think that way! I have goals to step up my running and complete 8k, 10k, 1/2 marathon. And yes, someday I think I might even run a marathon.

And while I’m thinking big, hey why not, I even think that someday I might like to do a triathalon. Could I be a triathlete? I think I have it in me.

But, lets get the running down first!

I Can’t Wait!

Magic…

is sitting at water’s edge with a good friend or a good book while the sea breeze tickles your face, the sun warms your head and the ocean licks at your toes!

Joseph’s first bath

 Here is video of Joseph and his first bath taken last Saturday, July 18th. I was by myself so I am multi-tasking here – giving him his bath and recording it for posterity! :) But here he is! He does like the water.

New Additions

We have two other new additions to our home. Jessie and Zurg. They are two very adorable cats we have taken in from friends, the Naylors, who had to move to Germany and couldn’t take them along. They are brother and sister. Zurg is the big lovable black teddy bear and Jessie is the playful and explorative tortoise hair.

Here is Zurg enjoying a favorite perch doing his favorite thing. Napping. Or at least trying to but I interrupted his slumber to take his picture.

This is a funny thing Jessie did the other day when we’d left a trash bag on the floor while cleaning. She took immediate advantage of our leaving the bag unattended. She hopped right in! Silly cat!

 

We tried to pick her up by the bag handles but the bottom broke out probably from her clawing it. But I think if it hadn’t broken she would have just let us carry her around in it! She is a goof-ball!

Summer Camp – Theater

Last year Gabby took the theater class at summer camp and enjoyed it so much that she wanted to do it again. This year they did two plays: Cat in the Hat and Peter Pan. The kids spent the 3 weeks planning the plays, making their back drops and practicing their parts.

In Cat in the Hat Gabby was Thing One. (I think it so fitting – Thing 1 and Thing 2 made such a mess in the story. In real life I have my very own Thing 1, 2, and 3! But anyway…)

Here she is as Thing 1:

Things 1 and 2 had the best action in this skit – they got to run around and cause some chaos. Everyone else just pretty much sat there or stood there reading their parts.

In Peter Pan Gabby was Samantha, one of the kids who went with Tinkerbell to help Peter Pan. Samantha was a “made-up” name for this part. Because of the ratio of boys/girls in the class they needed another girl part.

Gabby had one of the clearest voices of the group. Sorry the sound is so bad. Bad mike on the camera and soft voices of the kids.

 

 

 

Summer Camp – Arts and Crafts

Gabby took a couple classes at the school district’s summer camp this year – Arts and Crafts and Theater. At the last day of camp they got to show off what they did. Here we are at the Art show. The teacher had craft tables set up so that family members and the students themselves had fun things to do while the parents milled about.

Samantha making a bead necklace.

 

Katherine playing with playdough.

Gabby making a pom-pom caterpillar.

Here are a couple of Gabby’s creations, A maraca and a crab collage:

They made lots of fun things in the 3 weeks of camp: bead necklaces, lots of paintings and drawings, fish mural (which was pretty impressive but I didn’t get a picture of), a canvas bag to carry their things in, dream catchers, patriotic windsocks, and tie dye. Gabby really enjoyed it!