Everything, Nothing, and I'm a Middle Child

Hey, I've got a 16 month old, you knew it had to happen sooner or later.

Liam has been showing vague signs of readiness for toilet training, so I decided to give it a go. Before he gets into his bath, I have him sit on the toilet, as he almost always starts out his bath by peeing in it.

So, I thought, hey we're not traveling anywhere for a few weeks, why not give it a whack. This morning, when we all got up, I set him on his potty. And he used it! I'll spare you the details of how ;-) But he did, so false start or no, it's a start. We'll see where it goes from here, but wow, would it be awesome not to be changing diapers for another two years.

Posted by at 6:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I don't feel like anything stunning has happened lately, just lots of little things.

I'm hemming curtains for the kitchen in between thoughts.

Our kitchen is now full of our kitchen stuff - stuff we'd totally forgotten we owned (it has been 5 years).

Nathan's wedding is coming together. Good thing, as it is in less than a month now!

I miss my mother a lot. Leroy Seivers died on Friday. He may mean nothing to you, but he had a blog, "My Cancer", on NPR.org, my mother was a regular and that is what got her featured on Ted Koppel's show about Leroy and cancer. It just absolutely tickled her that she was a part of that show. It was a rare happy spot in her final years. Really, really happy. She wore purple for every part of the show (3 parts). Leroy dying means something to me. I can't even tell you what. A closing of a chapter? A reopening of a wound? I can't say. I cried. But on the other hand, it was certainly no surprise. Both he and my mother were supposed to be dead years ago.

I realized the other day that I'm not sure that I have the emotional strength to have any more children without my mother around. Anyone know what I'm talking about? (Ironically, I'm pretty sure my mother would.) I don't know who knows this, but I very much had Liam for her. She certainly knew it. Without that impetus.... it's a much scarier proposition.

On a lighter note, Liam is big into wearing shoes right now and is definitely showing signs of potty-readiness. We'll see. I don't have any expectations. He's also really mastering the sign language. I need to look into more baby signs. I could do random signs, but I realized that if there are books out there on "baby sign", they're probably geared toward the things babies are interested in, which in my mind, simply saves time. Why teach him the word for sunrise if he simply doesn't care right now?

Well, I'm going to go finish these curtains. Cheers... or put a crying baby back to sleep...sigh...

Posted by at 5:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Moved! Moved! Moved!

We're finally back in a space all our own, and boy-howdy does it feel good!

Don't get me wrong, there were very real perks to living with others (free/cheap rent, sharing chores, company, etc...), but it is so nice to bring out our artwork again, and choose our own furniture, and let Liam roam into whatever room he wishes because it's all (fairly) childproof (or will be).

Not to mention the fact that we can walk to just about everything. Everything! Okay, Mark has to bike to work, but groceries, pharmacy, hairdresser, bank, dry cleaners, chiropractor, library, coffeehouse, gelateria, pizzeria, post office, park, pool, second-hand kids ship, second-hand furniture shop, ... yeah, see what I mean?

Feels good.

Today we were introduced to some folks in town from Kenya. It was a nice little slice of what it was like to live at the World Centre.

Oh, and Liam? Has taken to mimicking just about every sound he hears. For example, when Mark carries him, as Mark takes steps Liam says, "boom! boom! boom!" Hahahaha!

I was telling a story about how he got up the stairs and I listened to him running across the kitchen floor, pitter patter, pitter patter, and then running back to the stairs. Next thing I know, Liam is saying, "pitter patter, pitter patter" (sounding a lot like, "batter, batter, batter" in baseball).

Hopefully before too long I'll get around to photos of our little slice of half-a-house.

Posted by at 12:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)