Potty training, part the ∞

It's probably no secret that I have been in tears—multiple times—over the difficulties we've had with potty training Benjamin. Sometimes I feel like we're almost over that hurdle and other times I feel like we keep tripping and landing flat on our faces. It's been a long, hard road, but I can honestly say I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Soon I won't have to stress over it anymore, but for now, although things have been pretty great lately, I will continue to sprout grey hairs, worrying about whether he's going to make it to the toilet or not.

He's only four. I know some kids struggle a lot longer than that.

But at the same time he's four. He is three years older than Zoë, who today communicated quite clearly to me that she wished to do her business on the potty. So I took her to the potty and she did her business and we all sang glory hallelujah. Because I will sing glory hallelujah on practically any day that I don't have to change a poopy diaper.

There are exceptions to that rule. For example, if the lack of poopage is due to extreme constipation or if the poopage happens outside of the diaper and outside of the toilet (like on the carpet). I probably wouldn't be singing glory hallelujah then. But otherwise, I probably would be.

My babies have always been excellent poopers. I'm not going to lie. Like, I seriously have friends who tell such outlandish tales as, "My baby doesn't spit up and only poops once a week." Meanwhile, I was always dripping with spit up or runny, golden newborn poop. My kids would poop upwards of five eight times a day, when they were brand new. And before I switched to cloth it would always go straight up the back (or would start dripping through their leg holes).

Every. Single. Time.

Benjamin

This evening Benjamin settled down on a stool and opened his little set of scriptures to participate in family scripture study.

"Is this it?" Benjamin asked, wanting to know if he was at the right spot.

"Yup," Andrew said.

Benjamin closed his book and opened it again, to a different spot.

"Is this it?" Benjamin asked.

"Yup," Andrew said again.

Benjamin closed his book and opened it, yet again to different spot.

"Is this it?" he asked.

"Yup," Andrew said.

"What?! Why is it always it?" Benjamin wondered.

I suppose we've figured that since he can't follow along it isn't necessary for him to be open to the right spot, but now that he's realized every spot is always it he knows that he's never in the right spot. All part of the learning-to-read process, I guess.

We had him say family prayer tonight as well, giving him special instructions to think about what he's saying, to say thank you for three things and then ask for three things. He's in a terrible habit of offering a rote prayer of bless-the-food for everything. So tonight he said, "Thank you for this good day that we could have. Thank you for this nice day. Thank you for....you know..."

Evidently we have a little bit of work to do in that department as well.

Meetings of all sorts

Today we met with one of Andrew's advisors. We brought along Zoë and Benjamin to spend some time on campus as well (because what else was I going to do with them?) so when we went to meet this professor the kids were in tow.

"And how old are you?" she asked Benjamin.

"I'm four," he said. "But I'm almost ten."

"Not for a few years, buddy," I whispered.

"That's okay, that's okay," she said. "Because do you know what? I'm almost 100 years old. It's true. Very soon I will turn 100. Yes, in about fifty-one years."

"Whoa!" gasped Benjamin.

Rocks vs. Clouds

"What one do you like the best?" Miriam asked when she came home from school. "Rocks or clouds?"

"I don't know," I said. "How was your day? Do you have homework?"

*******

"Which is better?" she asked while she ate her after school snack. "Rocks or clouds?"

"I really don't know," I said. "They're both so different."

******

"If you had to choose one," she asked as she put away her ukulele, "Would you choose a rock or a cloud?"

"It depends what for," I said. "If I wanted to break a window I'd probably choose a rock, but if I was hoping for rain I'd probably choose a cloud."

******

This went on the entire afternoon and I really couldn't figure out her fascination with rating these two seemingly arbitrary items. After dinner, however, we went on a family walk and it all became clear.

Toilet Shenanigans

This little girl and toilets! She lives to climb into her own personal whirlpool. She lies in wait outside the bathroom door, waiting for someone to slip up and let her slide in behind them or—even better!—forget to close the door. She's fast—faster than you'd probably believe—and by the time the words "Where's the baby?" have left your lips she's already managed to take the plunge.

First trip to Pelican's, first pig tails, first bee sting

On Saturday morning the three oldest kids woke up around 7:00 and then, after quietly having breakfast together, played school in Rachel's room for three hours. Andrew and I were quite shocked when we woke up and looked at the clock. To reward the children for their kindness (a sleep-in like that is a rare gift, indeed), we decided to head to Pelican's for a snow cone. 

We hadn't been to Pelican's yet this summer, though I think we went when Andrew's parents were out visiting (in March). Or maybe Grandma only took the kids and I stayed home to sleep with Zoë (that sounds highly plausible). At any rate, with some of us not having been in about a year and a few of us not having been at least for a couple of months, we hadn't been to Pelican's in a long while so we decided to go. 

On a whim, I put Zoë's hair up in her first little pig tails:

Rain, plantain, my baby's insane

The skies unleashed a torrential downpour as we were unloading the car this afternoon—backpacks and diaper bags, ukuleles and babies—and by the time we were finished we were pretty well soaked through to our skin. As an added treat, this was not an electrical storm so when the kids asked if they could stay out to play I had no reason to say no. They were already drenched, there was no immediate danger, and so we enjoyed a lovely pre-dinner romp in the warm summer rain.

Harry Potter

In full disclosure, I didn't read Harry Potter until I was expecting Rachel and the seventh book was coming out and Andrew was so incredibly excited about it that he preordered it. So I figured it was time to see what all the fuss was about. The only problem was that I thought the first book was a little bit...boring. I simply hadn't been able to get into it no matter how many times I picked it up. Andrew instructed me to start with the third book, which is one of his favourites: it's much shorter (and less intimidating) than the later books but is a little more captivating than the first book.

So that's what I did. And then I read 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 in rapid succession and was all ready for book 7 when it came out. Or at least, I would have been ready had I not been busy doing other things...like having a baby.

Rachel was born on July 20, 2007. Harry Potter 7 was released on July 21, 2007. 

Andrew and I disagree a little about when the book came, precisely. He claims it came a day early, that the package was delivered to our doorstep, quite literally while I was birthing Rachel, that he went home to get it, and that he read it that first night at the hospital (and that all the nurses were reading it, too). 

I'm pretty sure, however, that he didn't go back to our apartment the night Rachel was born. I think he camped out in the hospital room feeling too shell-shocked to do anything else until the morning, when he decided to run home for a shower, shave, and fresh set of clothes. As evidence, he was wearing his (favourite) orange shirt on the day she was born, and is clearly not wearing it in the picture below. 

Whatever the case, he returned to the hospital with a brand new copy of The Deathly Hallows as giddy as a school boy, snatched Rachel from her bassinet, and settled on the couch in my hospital room, declaring, "This is the best day of my life!"

And all the nurses were reading the book as well.

Grapefruit, buttons, toilets (or: three (more) things I have no control over)

We picked up a bag of gigantic grapefruit at Costco on Saturday. This morning Benjamin, Zoë and I ate two of them, but not before comparing them to the size of our heads. These grapefruit were seriously as big as Zoë's head!

Fixing this, fixing that...

We've been busy around here, which has led to some silence on the blog front. One big change was a new calling for me. Andrew hinted a change was in the works for me a few weeks ago, which I was glad to hear because as much as I enjoyed my compassionate service calling, asking people to do things was starting to feel burdensome.

So not this past Sunday but the Sunday before, Andrew (apparently) texted me at 9:45 AM, asking me to be at church fifteen minutes early. First off, that's an interesting time to text me to ask me to be fifteen minutes early because by that time in the morning I am fully in the throes of getting everyone ready to go. There's breakfast to be eaten, zippers to be zipped, fights about hair to be had!

Second, I didn't even get the text, so it was a bit of a surprise when I arrived to church seven whole minutes early (slow clap!) only to have Brother Wood grab my elbow and escort me right out of the chapel declaring, "There you are!"

I'm in the nursery now! And it's perfect timing because Zoë's to that age where sitting through three hours of grown-up meetings is torture, but where she's still technically too young for nursery. But if Momma's working the nursery where's a baby to go but to nursery with Momma? Huzzah!

This was our second week in there. Zoë seems to love it, though I think it will take her awhile to fully adjust to the culture of nursery (sharing toys and not climbing on the table...what?). I've been enjoying it as well, though probably not quite as much as Zoë.

I was supposed to go to a baby shower last Saturday, but when I woke up in the morning the van was all torn apart. The sliding door broke when we were coming home from the beach; we could only get it to open a few inches and had to do some weird maneuvering to get it to close at all. When we got home we ordered the parts we figured we needed and then they came in the mail and sat in the entry way and, finally, a Saturday rolled around when Andrew had time to work on the car. So when Benjamin came in to wake him up bright and early, that's what Andrew decided to do.

I hurried up to help him as soon as I was up. We watched YouTube videos and figured out how to take the door of the van off...only to have all the bearings crumble and fall off the roller. Evidently those were due to be replaced as well, but unfortunately we didn't have any on hand. So, we reassembled the door and went inside to order more car parts. We figured we'd replace the rollers on both doors, just to be on the safe side.

Those came in the mail this week so we spent about ten (yes, ten) hours fixing our van doors on Saturday. We would never make it as mechanics, but we finally figured things out and even used a soldering iron (first time for both of us)!