Happy Birthday Uncle Todd

It's not everyday that your little brother turns 30! So, to celebrate the whole family made the trek to Vancouver for a visit. David was able to stay for only a few days, but that was better than nothing. It was a great visit...not only did Todd turn 30 but he proposed to Dea in Las Vegas. They surprised us with the news as soon as we got to Vancouver. Congratulations, you two! We can't wait for the wedding.

Anyway, Sophia, Jacob and i spent a total of two weeks in Vancouver. We got to visits lots of people, attend a couple of parties, explore a couple of parks, went swimming twice, spent an morning at Science World and just enjoyed our time. We had a combination of really nice hot weather, and some really not so great weather. You know how it goes.

While at Nana and Papa's house, jacob really mastered the hand and knee crawling, so now there really is no stopping him. He is also cruising around furniture at an alarming rate. Sophia continues to use the potty successfully, and I embarked on the adventure of making her new underwear because she fought wearing the store bought stuff. All in all the little ones are doing well. They absolutely had a great time. One new thing that was discovered is Jacob's absolute love of the water. He spends his time laughing, babbling and splashing to beat the band. Too much fun.

Cowboy Jacob stealing a moment on the rocking horse. Yee haw!

Papa's spinning CD rack was a source of much entertainment. J would spin it, and spin it, then take out a CD, scrutinize it, talk to it and drop it to the floor. Kept him happy!

Sophie discovered Nana's stash of rubber gloves. Of course, these new things had to go on her feet!

One of Todd's job as Uncle is to make sure that the kids are exposed to as many things as possible --especially things that mom might not do or think of. Here, Todd continues his tradition of exposing my children to tomatoes.
The exposure was a success. Success defined as Jacob going back for more bites, Jacob actually not gagging too much and most importantly, no gag induced vomiting!

Nice weather means siewalk chalk time!
See Nana, this is what you do!

One day led us to Queen's Park in New Westminster. There they have a wonderful, free petting zoo. This made Sophia happy.
Jacob was less than impressed with the goats that kept trying to eat his stroller. Actually, he was less than impressed with the goats in general. They made him cry. Surprise, surprise!

Jacob sat happily enough with the calf, until the darn calf moved his foot and well, that made Jacob cry.

Sophia on the other hand had no problem with the calf.

This goat caught Sophia and Nana off guard
Then it proceeded to make its need for lunch made known. Very loudly and very closely!

Metropolis Shopping Center had a Dinosaurs of China show on, so we went to check out the action. Sophia spent some time uncovering dinosaur foot prints.
This is the two story Tyrannosaurus Rex that moved and roared. Only caught Sophia off guard once, and then she was okay with it.

The Godfrey Family (Auntie Dea's parents) graciously hosted us for a pizza and pool gathering. We had a great time, despite killer traffic. We tend to forget about that out here in Regina.

Scuba face!
Jacob's expression is worth a thousand words.
Jacob the crazy splash monster. Truly, I had to hold him out a couple of feet otherwise I was going to get drenched and lose an eye.

Todd picked up this onesie for Jacob while he was in Las Vegas. It is from theHouse of Blues and is a replica of the Blues Brothers suit. Well, Todd happened to have this particular black tie shirt from a formal event that he attended earlier in the month (or something like that) and insisted that I dressed Jacob in his new outfit. Together they do make quite a pair. Jacob does look rather spiffy.

Cottage -the last week

So, I know this is late, but oh well, at least I am posting these. Nothing too momentous happened during that last week of cottage time. The bunkie continued to be worked on, David and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary (we went to Kenora for lunch and buying building supplies), it rained, it was windy and finally, the day before we had to leave, the weather turned nice. Sigh.

Anyway, here is that last week in pictures:

Jacob showing his growing appreciation for retro toys. He shows his affection by either trying to take it apart or climbing over it.

Sophia is practicing her supervisory skills by making sure that I am doing an adequate job of putting together the new-old bunk bed.
Pre-schooler stamp of approval given!

And through the table for the 7000th time in four weeks

dreaming of tubing weather!

My little risk taker, trying to throw himself over the side of the hammock. And yet, he still is mysteriously afraid of tents. Go figure.

A blissful mommy moment: cuddling with my relatively non-squirmy loves (at that particular moment) while relaxing on the hammock.

Beaching it with Grandma.

Enjoying the sunshine to the fullest while skipping stones with Daddy

Looking at the trees through the sunroof in Grandpa's car.

Crashed in the best place: grandma and grandpa's bed.

Word clouds

Just found a cool site that makes clouds of words based on how many times you use a word. Here's apparently what is "big" for us recently...

Trained!

Sophia is potty trained.

This is a certified big deal type thing for all of us in the offspring world, in case there are any non-childrened or differently childrened* reading this. It was a surprisingly painless (and damp-less) process as well, considering all of the "how to potty train your child" books and advice columns out there. We had a feeling we were in for a long haul, but everything "went" smoothly, ha ha.

Our strategy seemed to have been "change begets change". A month away at the cottage means sleeping in a different bed, doing different things, and hanging around with different people. Our thinking was that it would be natural to make a change like staring to potty train at this point since it wouldn't feel like such a big deal. Also, we took her soothers away (see a previous post, more gory and disturbing details to come) so change was a significant theme.

Our intention was to make using the potty a standard part of the day. When we arrived at the cottage (and had unloaded everything we owned) we set up the potty in the living room and told her that every time she felt like she needed to pee, she was to tell us and we would help her use the potty.

The first day she did alright, what with the novelty and all, but for a few days after that, we would have the odd accident. She never missed the potty when she knew she had to pee and had made that known to us, but for the first little while a pee could sneak up on her when she was distracted with something else. There is nothing so forlorn as a three-year-old standing in the middle of the room looking sheepish with a wet spot on her pants.

Apart from these few accidents, she took to it well, being interested in the process and in the excitement we displayed when she was successful. Using the potty is also making her bowel movements more regular and easier. She had real trouble for a while there, a few months ago, when a BM would build up inside her and all she wanted to do was to poo in her diaper but there wasn't enough room, so she'd end up holding it in and then it would inevitably end up with us using suppositories and whatever else we could do to help her pass four days of poop**.

So after a few days, she was regularly announcing her need to pee, and after a few days more, she was regularly using the potty without our assistance. She'd be quietly playing and we'd be watching Jacob or doing something else and we'd hear: "Mommy, Daddy, I peed!" and there she'd be, sitting proudly on the pot.

It did help that Uncle Adam and Auntie Kristine gave her a book called "Have you seen my potty?", where a bunch of animals steal a little girl's potty. Pretty insensitive on the part of the animal's part, but it's a fun book and we read it about a million times while she was getting used to the idea. It's by Mij Kelly and Mary McQuillan, and it is the story of "Suzie Sue, who had something very important to do". A great book, truly.

She hasn't had an accident in three weeks, and will even ask to go to the potty when she is in the bath or going swimming, something that I am given to understand can be a tricky lesson, because, hey, who would know?

Diapers are still around for naps and bedtime, and although they remain dry during naps, they are still wet when she wakes up in the morning. And yes, she delays changing as long as she can so she can take the easy way out and pee in the diaper. But once she is changed, she is good for the day and always goes to the potty. She also always announces it, and we always cheer. It's important.

So the long and short of it is that Sophia is now registered for preschool. What does that have to do with potty training, you ask? well, the local preschool which is close to us, french, and in what will be her elementary school, only takes potty-trained kids. So since this was our preschool of choice, it was a requirement that we were willing to accept.

* by this I mean with a pet, like a small dog or a bird, which you think of as a child but for which potty training isn't as much of an issue.

** I never thought I'd ever write something about poo and then broadcast it to the entire world.