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Thursday, August 27, 2009

Potty Training or Cruel & Unusual Punishment?

Jack is 4. Over 4. He turned 4 in June. And he is still not potty trained. We haven't even tried to train him. He has been so resistant to underwear, the toilet, or anything related to potty training that we figured it was useless to try. And by resistant, I mean that he's cried, screamed, and trashed when we've tried to put underwear on him.

When you research potty training techniques, one requirement you see over and over again is that the child needs to have an interest in the potty and potty training. Does this look like enthusiastic interest to you?




So, despite the HUGE red flag that he's extremely against the idea of underwear, I put him in underwear this morning. I am tired of changing a 4-year old's pull up. It's just not right. There is a huge difference between the poop of a 2 year old and the poop of a 4 year old. Not so much a difference phyically, but mentally. For the person wiping the poop. And I just can't handle it anymore.

So far so good. I'm pretty sure this training will involve kidney infection, severe constipation, and urinary tract infections. And possibly some borderline child abuse. But gosh darn it, we're going to get him trained!

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Soccer

We're at cade's first soccer practice. Hysterical. And hot


-- Posted from my iPhone -- ain't technology grand?

Moving MawMaw

The big move is done. And we are pooped! Loading the trucks went fine. The dive didn't go so well; the 26' truck that Chad drove blew a front tire. Thankfully no one was hurt and it delayed one truck by an hour.

Unloading the trucks went well. But I was almost sick to my stomach when we unloaded the first truck. There was no way al the stuff in the second truck was going to fit into the storage units. Until Lisa, Drew, and Jon took charge. Those 3, thanks to Lisa's bold direction, made Mom's stuff Tetris pieces and managed to squeeze every inch of space out of the units by rotating stuff and deftly placing boxes and furniture.






-- Posted from my iPhone -- ain't technology grand?

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Two-a-days

Football teams, marching bands, cheerleaders, volleyball teams and Cade. What do they all have in common this time of year?

Two-a-days.

I caught Cade in the backyard running laps in the heat of the day. With sunglasses. Unfortunately no shirt. Apparently he needs to exercise more, according to him. Don't we all, buddy. Don't we all.








-- Posted from my iPhone -- ain't technology grand?

Friday, August 14, 2009

Donations, anyone?

A friend of a friend's son (Gavin) has just battled brain cancer (he's only 4 years old!) His scans for cancer are clear after his final rounds of chemo & radiation. Praise God for this!

A while back, through the wonderful group Make a Wish, Gavin and his family were treated to a first class trip to Disney World. I know the Smith family had a great time; just getting away from the hospitals and doctors was a treat! I'm going to work on a scrapbook for them to commemorate their trip, and I could use a little help.

If you have any Disney scrapbook materials (or any other scrapbook materials) that you're not using and would like to donate toward the project, please let me know!

Lots of Spare Time

Because I have lots of spare time (read that with heavy sarcasm), I've decided to try my hand, or rather my mom's super duper sewing machine, at making some clothes for claire. First I'm going to try a simple dress, then I'll try a top and capris. Here are some of the fabrics I chose, for better or worse:



I'll keep you posted on my progress. Look for an update in about 6 months.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Sweet Moments

Cade is taking a mini-sports camp this week and is loving it! He's learning basketball, baseball (t-ball), and soccer. I never thought he'd actually enjoy the camp. I was just wanting him to be a little active and be introduced to sports. He hasn't shown much interest before in athletics, but since I love sports (both playing and watching), I want my kids to enjoy them as well!

A little bonus to the camp is that there is a ginormous hill outside the rec center. And it is perfect for rolling and running down. So that's what all 3 kids did yesterday after we picked up Cade.





Bonus #2 is a great climbing tree outside the Rec. Cade climbed up and it was a picture perfect moment.


Monday, August 10, 2009

Contact the CDC

Apparently this coniption thing is contagious.






-- Posted from my iPhone -- ain't technology grand?

Friday, August 07, 2009

Wow

I just watched my oldest son execute a perfect 3-point turn. Impressive.






-- Posted from my iPhone -- ain't technology grand?

RSS Feeds

This won't be an exceptionally sexy post. But it may be helpful for either of you (because I assume only two people read this blog).

Sometimes I can go a week or more without posting. And then sometimes I post every day. So how do you know when I've posted? Well, you can travel each day to Frantlings (and all the other blogs that you like to visit) to check out what may or may not be new.

Or you can download the feeds into your reader and see the updates that way!

Huh? Download what and look at them in my what?

From Wikipedia:
RSS (most commonly translated as "Really Simple Syndication" but sometimes "Rich Site Summary") is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.[2] An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed",[3] or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader", or "aggregator", which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based. A standardized XML file format allows the information to be published once and viewed by many different programs. The user subscribes to a feed by entering into the reader the feed's URI – often referred to informally as a "URL" (uniform resource locator), although technically the two terms are not exactly synonymous – or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. The RSS reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new work, downloads any updates that it finds, and provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds.
Basically, when you subscribe to RSS feeds of your favorite websites, you can read all the updated information, as it gets updated, in one place. You don't have to go to each individual website you want to keep up with to read the new updates. You can read them all, for instance, in your email client (Thunderbird, Outlook, etc). Or in your browser (Firefox, IE, etc). Or in special RSS feed readers (Google Reader, etc). So much better than having to go to each website!

In order to do this, you first have to make sure that your favorite websites have RSS feed capapbility. Look for a link, either at the top of the page or at the very bottom, that says something like RSS feed or Atom.

Next, you have to figure out where you want to get your feeds. Do you want to get them through your email client (if your client can read RSS feeds)? Or your browser? Or through a dedicated reader? It doesn't matter where you view the feeds; it just needs to be somewhere easily accessible to you.

Now that you've chosen the avenue for reading the feeds, find out how to add "subscriptions" for feeds. Once you know how to do that, for each website that you want to follow, click on the "RSS Feed" or "Atom" link on the page. You will then be taken to a page where you can either add this feed directly to your reader (if it's listed there) or you can copy the url address from that page and enter it into your reader.

If you have any problems, just Google the name of your reader (whether it's your email client or browser or whatever) and RSS feeds, and you should be able to find plenty of instructions and help for getting set up.

What a better way to keep up with all your favorite websites!

And for a little something different....

Introducing the new and improved Elton John!


Thursday, August 06, 2009

Update from Bellville

I'm in Bellville with the kids, trying to help Mom pack up the garage. Whew. There is a lot of, er, junk in there. I spent all morning out there and most of the afternoon, and there's still a ton of lumber, large wooden structures (aka cabinets) that are well past their prime that I need to take apart, tons of yard tools, and other miscellaneous stuff that is hard to put into a box.

I did get a lot down, however, and that is huge. Mom moves in just 2 weeks up to where we are. And oh boy there's a lot to do. Thankfully we have amazing, amazing, amazing friends who are helping on both ends of the move. Chad & Lisa and their kids are actually coming HERE to Bellville to help load the trucks (yes, that was meant to be plural) and watch our kids. OH. MY. GOODNESS. Now that's friendship.

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Need a giggle at someone else's expense?

Cade having a coniption in the car:


-- Posted from my iPhone -- ain't technology grand?

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Jack Jack

Thanks for all the comments and emails! Jack had his first summertime speech appt yesterday, and it went well. I like his therapist; she talked about some techniques that she will introduce to him tomorrow that will hopefully let Jack feel like he's in control of his speech & stuttering rather than it sneaking up on him and controlling him.

Our whole family is supposed to speak slower (not incredibly, painfully slow. just not so fast). Even Cade is trying to encourage Jack to use his sloooow, streeeeeeetchy speeeeeeeech. And Jack's doing a little better. Not so close to tears anymore. But when he's straining to get some words out, he raises his voice and gets louder; it sounds like he's about to start wailing on somebody! From the other room, it's hard to tell if he's about to get in a rumble with his sister or if he's just trying to tell her something.

But I guess that is better, Becky, than your poor little Jack Jack who screams, "I not talking to you!", and then walks away. Poor little man! He's just so cute to be that frustrated!