Le weekend

My weekend started off with the sad news that Stephie's (one of my BFFs) dad passed away of cancer. He had been battling it for quite awhile and is now at peace and pain-free. His memorial is tomorrow evening, and Brooke, Laura, Kristin, and I are going to go to Rochester after cutting out of work early to be with Stephie.

On Saturday, Kevin, Colin, and I met up with Tony, Leah, and Isaac at Lookout Ridge in Woodbury. It's an indoor playground. Leah summed it up pretty well in her blog post and included some great pictures of our adventure, so I'm going to let her take it from here. Read it. Please excuse Colin's pouty face (he really did have fun) and my husband's appearance. While we were in the car on our way, I noticed he had awful hat hair and he was wearing his work sweatshirt. I pointed it out to him and he all of a sudden he realized it too. He got all embarrassed and, I believe, was thisclose to turning around and changing.

On Sunday I met up with Brooke, Laura, Kristin and Stephie at IKEA for some lunch and shopping. Then we hopped over to the Mall of America. It was fun to hang out with more friends!

On Monday (which I realize isn't technically the weekend), I ran for the first time outside this season. I decided to make it easy and run to the grocery store and back. It's about 2 miles round trip. I walked the first .25 miles (5 minutes), and got back home in 19:09 minutes. I'm not sure how that calculates into min/mile, but it's around 9 or 9:30, which I'm happy with! It was so good to be outside running. No more excuses about not being able to go out. It can only get warmer from here!

Snow Day

It's inevitable. Every March, the snow starts melting and you think spring is right around the corner. Then BAM! Another snowstorm just to bamboozle you right out of your spring jacket. And so it was.

School was canceled today, so Colin and I stayed home. We didn't do much. We played inside and outside. Colin wanted to stalk the plow around the neighborhood in his car stroller thing, but I didn't allow it. I spent a few minutes here and there designing his birthday invitations. I will reveal them once they are distributed in the mail. All I can say is I love them and thank you to Leah for her expertise in deleting backgrounds from pictures and her general designing knowledge :)

After lunch and nap, we played some more. Then we went to Walmart to pick up the invitations, which got tossed at the store because the writing on the top got cut off at printing. Back to the drawing board on that one.

After Walmart, we went to the bank where I deposited a good amount of piano lesson money into our Explorer loan account. I hope on all my hopes that I can continue to use piano lesson money towards the Explorer for the next two months and squeak a few extra hundred dollars in before summer comes along and I don't have students anymore. Being that there's only two months left, it won't be much, but every little bit helps! I just wish I would have thought of doing this sooner. I guess I did, but just didn't commit to it.

Kevin was home when we got home from the bank, so I tweaked the invite and ordered it again. I haven't gotten them yet because Walmart's photo department is closed for the night, but I'm super anxious to see them!

Although it was uber productive, I hate snow days this time of year. I want warm and sunshiney days. Enough of winter.

Developing Memory

This week, I taught Colin how to do the Chicken Dance. I know, I hate that damn song/dance too, but it's so fun for little kids. He loves to do the dance. Today we were at the park and Colin and I were up on the playground equipment. Rocket climbed up onto the equipment too, and he didn't want to go through the tunnel to get to us, so I told Colin that Rocket was being a chicken. So what does Colin do? The chicken dance, of course!

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We checked out 3 books at the library on Tuesday. Two of them are Curious George and the other is a lift-the-flap book about opposites. We have read them at least once a day since Tuesday, and today Colin opened up the Opposites book and started reciting the opposites: clean/dirty, sad/happy, wet/dry, hot/cold, upside down (but not right side up). It was one of those moments where I had to call Kevin to quickly come see.

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Yesterday before we left to pick up our pottery, I told Colin that we were going to pick up the painting he made. Then he started to "tell" me that he had paint on his hand and he put it on the plate.


It just amazes me that all of a sudden, he remembers events that happened days ago. I love to watch him learn and recall what we do, see, and read.

Spring Break Day 5

At 2:20 a.m., Kevin I awoke to Colin saying, "Mama potty." I wearily asked Kevin, "Was that potty or puppy?" (sometimes they sound the same). Kevin said he thought it was potty. We jumped out of bed and I asked Colin if he wanted his puppy. He said, "potty." Away we hurried to the potty, with Colin's teddy bear's head in a choke hold under his armpit. He went potty, we re-diapered him and we put him back to bed. As we climbed back in to our own bed, I said to Kevin, "That was interesting." Mystifying, amazing, all of that.

This morning we went to the pool to swim. Mr. and Mrs. L. said we could use one of their guest passes so we could get in for free. We took swimming lessons last summer, but he was so much more comfortable swimming this time. There weren't many people there aside from a few lap swimmers and a water aerobics class. He liked to pretend he was a fish, and he did a great job of kicking his legs. He really liked just being dragged around the pool and watching people and enjoying the water moving around him most.

Swimming wore him out because he slept for about 2 and a half hours, and then he woke up and slept on my lap for another half hour.

This afternoon we picked up our pottery that we painted on Saturday. Here's the plate I made for Colin to use on his birthdays. The cupcakes are his hand prints (minus the thumb):
And here's Colin's first pottery masterpiece:
Still not sure what I'm going to do with it. I'd like to display it somewhere, somehow.

After picking up the pottery, and Colin and I stopped at Once Upon a Child. I hadn't been in one, so I wanted to see what kind of bargains were there (nothing good enough to buy, although I did consider a pair of rain boots). Then we went to the fabric store. Colin was doing just fine there until he saw a cart and he wanted to push it. The store was not busy at all, so I let him push the cart. Then he ran into a shelf and knocked it down. In an effort to not wreak havoc on the entire store, I said he had to sit in the cart and I put him in it. Enter tantrum. I pushed the cart back to it's spot and we left. On our way out, I told the employees that it was our first store tantrum and there's nobody even there to see it. Disappointing.

This evening after supper we went for a walk. Colin directed us to the school's park, so he went down a few slides.

Two more weekend days and my awesome week will be over. Would it be pathetic if I started counting down to summer now? 11 more weeks (with some days off due to Memorial Day and Easter). Seems so long, but knowing I only have 11 more weeks to make a difference in my students' lives seems like a heavy burden to bear.

Spring Break Day 4

We started off the day with a wet bed. The undies were no match for him. Good thing it was 6:10 and he was ready to be awake anyway.

Kent Hrbek made an appearance at our grocery store to promote the upcoming Twins season, and was all about going. I grabbed a new baseball at the entrance to the store and we stood in line. Kent was parked by the steaks, and we were standing by the Caribou. The lady who came to stand before us had the gall to ask me, "Are you even old enough to remember the ('87 & '91) World Series?" I quickly came back with, "Yes I am!" (The NERVE right?) I wanted to tell her that I may have been young, but I remember Kent Hrbek's 1st base play and Kirby Puckett's home run like it was yesterday, but she started talking about how she and her husband went to Atlanta after the '91 series and the people there were making excuses for not winning. Whatevs, Lady. Luckily the line moved quickly, and Colin was Mr. Content checking out all the baked goods in the bakery along the way. Knowing that our neighbor, Mr. L., is a big baseball fan, I told him about Kent so we saw him there as well. Colin was more starstruck to see him there than Kent. Obviously. We got the baseball signed and came home.

We played outside a lot because it was the nicest day of the week. A lot of snow was melting, which makes me so happy. I love seeing the grass, even though it's pretty nasty.
Being St. Patrick's Day, our town has a parade. There are a lot of full-blooded Irish families here, so I guess it's a big deal. We're not Irish that we know of, but that doesn't stop us from taking part in the festivities! Colin and I walked to the parade. When we got there, it hadn't started yet, and he didn't really want to be there. But then he saw tractors and horses lined up at the beginning and that peeked his interest enough to stay. He loved to look down the road to see what was coming next and tell me about it.
And the candy! he was excited about that too.
Colin chose to wear diapers to bed, which made me much more at ease about night time (read Day 5 to see how that all panned out).

Spring Break Day 3

This morning Colin and I hit the store bright and early to buy some cookie ingredients. I gave Colin a quarter, and he decided he wanted to buy a banana with it, so that he did. He gave the cashier his banana and his quarter like a pro. Then we came home and played outside for awhile. We saw the neighbors again and chatted. We got a ride in Mr. L's golf cart, just a half a block away and back.

After lunch Colin took another decent nap while I baked chocolate chip cookies. It was Kevin's mom's birthday today so I made her a largish chocolate chip cookie. It was the perfect size to fill a paper plate. I practiced my decorating skillz and wrote happy birthday on it.
Once Colin was awake, we went to Kevin's parents' house to hang out with the birthday girl. Colin got to ride on the snowmobile. He loved that, no doubt about it! Every time Kevin's dad would make a circle around the yard and stop up by the house again, Colin would ask for more. He probably rode around for a half hour or so. The boy loves things he can ride on.

We got home around supper time, hung out, and then it was bed time. Colin has been on a night time bath strike (we can get him to take a bath in the mornings, which isn't always convenient!), so we moved on to getting his pajamas on. He was goofing around and not listening, so I started giving him choices as I undressed him (socks off first or shirt off first?). He was not having any of it, and was throwing a huge tantrum. Finally I got him to calm down and he was in a good mood again, but would not get his pajamas on. I don't know who or what possessed me to ask him if he'd rather wear undies or a diaper, but I did. And he chose undies. And then I couldn't take it back. He hasn't been waking up dry recently. Nevertheless, he went potty one more time, I prepped his bed (sheet saver on top, a flat changing pad under his sheet, and the pre-existing mattress cover), and bribed him because that's what good moms do. I told him if he kept his undies dry all night long, we could get him some Curious George pajamas that we saw at Target. Night time potty runs will be a lot easier if we have some 2-piece pajamas. So....here's hoping!!!!!!!!! The worst case scenario is I end up changing sheets and pajamas and putting on a diaper in the middle of the night, right? Good thing it's spring break and I can sleep in a little if I need to!

Spring Break Days 1 & 2

Monday
Bright and early in the morning, I started making some apple coffee cake. After a taste-test, I packaged a few pieces of cake up and Colin and I went next door to our neighbor's house. They're an older couple and adore Colin, so I thought it would be nice of us to stop by with a food offering. Colin loves to see them as much as they love to see him, so it was fun to visit. Colin and I headed across the border to stock up on some Curious George party gear. We got some plates, napkins, and cups with the curious monkey on them. The party store is next to Target, so of course we stopped in. I want to find a Curious George shirt. There were no George shirts to be found. I walked out of Target empty-handed (sacrilege, I know). When we got home, we had lunch, Colin took a nap, and then in the afternoon we played outside for awhile.

Tuesday
This morning, we went to the car dealership to have something fixed on the Explorer. Something with the speed control had been recalled, so we got that remedied. While we were waiting, Colin checked out a Mustang and I checked out the new Escape (those were the days...). We left there and got a car wash, then we went to the library for story time.

I wasn't sure how Colin would do at story time because he tends to be shy. Sandy does circle time every morning, so he gets a taste of sitting in a circle and singing songs and doing activities. Well, there are no stories at story time. It's songs and nursery rhymes and movements with noisemakers and scarves. Which is all great! Colin did pretty well. He just watched the other kids sing songs, but he did participate in the noise maker and scarf activities. He even walked up to the adults and received and returned the props himself. At the end, he walked up to the lady and waited patiently amongst the other kids to get a stamp on his hand. I was quite impressed :)

When we got home, we played outside for awhile, had lunch, and Colin napped. While he was napping, I tried out my cake decorating skillz. I have this grandiose plan that for Colin's birthday I am going to bake a cake (I am good at baking) and draw Curious George's face on it. So I made some frosting, loaded up a decorating bag, and free-handed George onto a circular piece of parchment paper. It turned out okay, but definitely needs to be tweeked. His face isn't wide enough and his ears are too elfish. And, obviously, I would use color and actually finish filling in the face. But I am quite impressed with the writing, seeing as it was my first time EVER.
I think I'm going to enlarge the picture I have of George and make a stencil out of it and draw it on the cake that way. The good thing is, Colin recognized it as George when he saw it.

After I was done putzing with that, I put all of the extra frosting into the refrigerator. No sense of letting all that yummy goodness go to waste, right? ;)

When Colin woke up from his nap, I got an awesome 20 minute snuggle with him, then we played outside until it started drizzling. We hung out inside for a little while, and then later on we went outside again.

I have had so much fun with my little boy these last two days and I have more fun planned for later this week. I love spring break. It is such a privilege.

Painting Pottery

Colin and I met up with my mom, her friends Jen and Noelle, and Noelle's daughter Hailey today. We went to Kiln Kreations to paint pottery. I used Colin's hand prints to make a plate he can use every year on his birthday. My mom used his hand print to make an abstract work of art on a plate.After getting his hands painted and eating his Teddy Grahams, Colin got pretty bored waiting for us to finish painting. My mom found a square tile for him to paint, which he thought was the coolest.

*Finished projects will be photographed and posted after I pick them up in a week or so.

Then we went to Applebee's (or as Colin says, Boppobee's) for lunch. When we got home, Colin and I took a nap on the couch together for an hour which is always a treat.

Thanks for a fun day, Mom!

Life's Little Updates

(poop free)
Debt:
Well, we're not getting back as much money from taxes as we hoped. Still, it's enough to reduce our car debt by 25% so who am I to complain? I've also decided that all piano money from now until forever will go directly to the car payment. I'm teaching 5 weeks of summer school this summer. We were hoping that money could go to Family Means, but it looks like at least the first check, if not also the second, will be going towards the car. After the car is paid off, all extra money will go to Family Means and we can get the ball REALLY rolling.

Piano lessons:
I'm kind of sick and tired of teaching them, to be quite honest. Right now I have 2.5 students! The .5 student takes lessons every other week. What's the point? I mean, IF everyone shows up, that's $125 a month, which isn't a lot, but it goes a long way. However, a lesson or two get canceled every now and then and it's less than that. I wanted to teach until our debt was paid off, but now I'm not sure if I'll be teaching at all next year.

Running:
What running? Good God, the Triathlon is 2 and a half months away! Why would I bother to train for it? Oh yeah...because I'm sick and tired of running on the treadmill. I was thisclose to gearing up to try running outside, but I'm currently sickish AGAIN! I'm beginning to think it's allergy related since it happened in the spring and the fall. I lose my voice and everything. Going to bed by 9:00 is my treatment, and it may be working, because today I had more voice. In all honesty, I can run 2 miles straight off the bat, so that's a big start. I just have to pump up the tires on my bike and hit the pavement. With upper 40s in the forecast, I may be able to try soon.

School:
My classroom is infested with ringworm and lice. YAY! The worst part? The girl, E, who has ringworm has had it for a LONG time and we just found out about today! Her brother has had it for a month. Yesterday, we had spring pictures at school and E said her head itched. With the lice outbreak I'm also dealing with, I decided to lift her hair where she said it itched and noticed a BALD SPOT! I had no idea what it was, but thought maybe it was psoriasis or something. I never thought to think of freakin' ringworm! And I touched it! That stuff is contagious, and she was in school today!

The lice. Oh the lice. R has had lice 4 or 5 times this school year. Her mom is pretty diligent about treating it, but it seems to come back every few months or so. I've completely limited the use of my listening center. Then, yesterday while the students were lined up to get their pictures taken, one of my aides said that C told her her head itched. So I went and looked at the top of her head and I could see the nits. I gave her a VIP pass to get her picture taken first and I scooted her to the office. She went home yesterday and came back today. I sent her straight back to the office to get checked and sure enough, they were still there, so she went home again.

::heebie jeebies::

Other than that, and the political uncomfortableness, school is fine. We got a "contract" to sign today, but it's more like a "you-have-a-job-until-we-decide-you-DON'T-have-a-job" type of deal. We'll find out by June 1st if any lay-offs have to be made.

I hear the kindergarten class coming up to 1st grade next year is a trainwreck. So that will be fun!

Spring break is next week!!! YES! I have no plans. My previous plan (potty training) got canceled :D So my schedule is open to fun times with the little dude. Hopefully the weather will cooperate for us to be outside.

It's almost like hand-me-downs

I've found that since Colin no longer has a bulky diaper butt, the pants he's wearing right now are way too big for him. The butt is saggy and they drag on the ground. My mom said to go back into the clothes stash and see if a smaller size fits better (obviously--why didn't I think of that?). So I dug in the 12-18 month bin and it was a treasure trove of pants and shorts. We had a little try-on session tonight with the "new" clothes. Colin was digging it and picked out what he wanted to try on. I think a lot of it will fit him for at least a few more months, then the pants his wearing right now should fit him perfectly. No more saggy old man jeans!

It's like getting hand-me-downs from himself!

Potty Training Diaries: Days 14 & 15

Yesterday I got a call at work. My caller id said Sandy's name. Two scenarios were about to unfold: puking toddler (again), or potty-pooping toddler (fingers crossed). And the winner is....pooping toddler! Colin's not big on talking on the phone yet, but I did praise him and told him how proud I was of him. When I picked him up that afternoon, Sandy had more good news to share. He didn't have any "real" accidents, just two slightly damp pairs of undies from peeing and then holding it. He also was telling her "potty" when he had to go! :D

Today was great too! No real accidents. He didn't tell her he needed to go, but he still went when she made him go. After daycare, I was brave enough to venture out to the bank and the gas station before hitting the safety of home. We made it dry as a bone.

This evening, he told me "potty" twice.

We're getting there, people, we're getting there! So much so that now that we've cleared that last hurdle (pooping at daycare), I will be sure to blog about other happenings, and just do one final hurrah! post when we've sealed the potty training deal.

Now it's time to get serious about what the heck I do with his worn out bumgeniuses.

Potty Training Diaries: Days 5-13

Well, things in PT Land are going pretty well! Here's a synopsis of strengths and challenges:

Strengths

• Kid's got my teacher's bladder! At times, he doesn't go to the bathroom for 3 hours. Not that I'm encouraging it, it's just the way it is. We went to our chiropractor appointment last Thursday night (hour-long car ride one way), and to church and a quick trip to the store on Sunday and he stayed dry every time. He has also never gone to the bathroom in the car, so I have removed the towel protecting the car seat.
• He has woken up from every nap dry.
• His night time diapers used to be soaked in the morning, but now they're pretty dry, even a half hour after he wakes up.
• We rarely have accidents at home :)
  

Challenges

• Pooping at daycare. He hasn't done it once. In fact, he'll sit on the potty for five minutes, get his pants back on, go in the other room, and immediately poop. Once he gets over the pooping-at-daycare hump, we're golden. And Sandy says she always calls moms when her child goes poop on the potty for the first time. Every time my phone rings at work, I cross my fingers and skedaddle over to see whose name is on my caller id.
  
• Telling us he has to go. For the most part, we coerce him to the bathroom with treats and stickers. For the most part, he goes running in to the bathroom if you say "treat" or "sticker." If he doesn't have to go at all, he'll just say no and we don't push it. BUT...this afternoon he was home sick, and he told me "potty" 4 times! So maybe he's getting it.
• Colin has at least one accident every day at daycare (and it's usually just that poop accident).
  

What we're doing now:

• Still underwear all day, diapers only at night time
• Sticker chart: I made a 5x5 table in Word. I printed it off and taped it to the wall in the bathroom. Pee=1 sticker, poop=2 stickers. 5 stickers=dinosaur toy (thank goodness for Walmarts $1 "section." Although he's starting to care less about dinosaurs and more about filling his sticker chart. He filled one sticker chart today and we started a new one! He also has a separate chart at Sandy's house.
  
• Constantly asking him if he has to go, and every 2 hrs or so giving a good effort to make him sit and go. Coercing with Reeses Pieces and stickers is the key.
• Over the weekend, I got out a bumgenius and stuffed it really full and told him if he keeps peeing his pants, he'll have to wear diapers. He wasn't thrilled about that idea.
  

I guess I can look forward to a diaper-free summer! Here's hoping that he'll keep up the good work :)