+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Potty Training, Xmas Preparations, and Other Things
This weekend, Kari and I decided that we were going to try and step up the potty training a bit. We decided that we were going to go sort of cold turkey on the diapers. I wish I could say that it has gone perfectly, but there have been a few accidents. I know though that these things are to be expected, and will take time. Yesterday, Alex had a particulary bad accident during his nap, that involved getting poop everywhere, but other than that, he managed to go pretty much the rest of the day without accidents. Today, we had a few pee accidents (one involving when I was giving him a ride on my back), but (cue choir of angels) this evening, he decided on his own that he was going to go poo in the potty, and he did! This was after about 15 minutes of me having him sit on the potty, telling him to go (because I knew that he had to). I gave up, and had him run around half naked, and when I came back in the room, Kari said that he got the potty out on his own, and went all by himself!
We went out to get Alex some underwear this morning. He picked out some Thomas and some Lightning McQueen underoos. While we were out, he was such a good boy, going pee in the restrooms while we were out. We stopped for lunch at Panera Bread, and he said that he had to go potty. Kari got up to take him to the bathroom, started getting things ready, and when she was ready to walk with Alex, she turned and saw that he had already dropped his pants to his ankles, and was prepared to walk through the restaurant that way. We about fell over laughing.
Alex and I went out yesterday to play in the snow. We managed to get a dusting, say 1/16 of an inch. He had it in his mind that we were going to make a snow man. So, despite the minimal layer of snow, we took his toy dump truck, and gathered up snow from whereever we could find it, his slide, the sidewalk, the grass. After much labor, we gathered together about 2 cups of snow, and made a very small snow man. Very cute.
We all went out this afternoon to pick up a Christmas tree. We picked out a nice one that wasn't too tall, but it is rather fat. Alex helped decorate the tree, especially the John Deere tractor orniments. He put them on, and off, and on, and off, and hung them on each other, and ....... The boy likes wheels.
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Thanksgiving, family, Jack's Baptism, and more fish
Thanksgiving was a bunch of fun last week. My parents came up, and we had a big dinner and Abby and Bills. We deep fried the turkey, and had a lot of pie. A good time was had by all, and much kabitzing was done. Alex got to take his nap in a foreign place (Abby's basement). We didn't have his blanket, so I found a little frilly pink pillow, and told him that it was a "special" pillow. He was very happy with it, and went right to sleep. Jack and Kari caught Alex's case of pink eye. We got that treated really quickly, having worked out the kinks of the treatment on Alex.Jack was baptized on Sunday. We had even more people come up for that. Family came up from New Jersey and Pennsylvania. We had a big party afterwards with pizza and cake. We're always glad to see everyone, and seeing so many people in such a short time was even better.
We've got pictures of the event at http://thenortonzoo.com/gallery
Our fish tank has undergone some population changes. Our Arowana died, so we decided to replace it with some other fish. At the fish store, we found a really beautiful fish labeled as a Royal Regulatus, and a Water Cow. When we brought home the Royal Regulatus, we learned that it was a Aequidens rivulatus, also known as a Green Terror. Apparently, Green Terrors are known for killing their tankmates, both big and small. Luckily, it seems pretty friendly. The Water Cow, it turns out, is a Eleotris picta, a Spotted Sleeper Goby. They're pretty voracious fish with big mouths. They seem to fit well with my taste in fish.
There are pictures of the fish at the gallery as well.