You Spin Me Right Round

I've been having some interesting conversations with Noah lately.  They go something like this:

"Hey Daddy!  Let's go downstairs."
"Why do you want to go downstairs?"
"Because I want to go downstairs."

With that kind of logic I think Noah may have a future in politics.

It Keeps Falling

We had an inch or two of snow yesterday morning.  Fortunately the roads were still warm from the weekend and nothing stuck.  It was still very pretty when I went out jogging in the late morning.  All the trees looked like they had been sprayed with flocking.

I felt badly for Noah though.  He wanted to go out and play in it and the snow melted before he could.  It's just as well though.  I think he would have been disappointed by how little you can do with an inch of snow.

Noah did something new yesterday on the potty front.  He had a little bit of an accident Wednesday night, but still put some poop in the potty.  We got him to go again at lunchtime yesterday and it only took a few minutes.  There were still plenty of tears, but he did what he had to do.  We keep hoping that he is turning a corner, but time will tell.

Photo Day

Today is class photo day for Lily.  Sadly, it was difficult to get her dressed this morning.  I think Lily was a bit fooled by the warm weather we had last weekend.  She wanted to wear a summer dress, but through much convincing we got her to wear a beautiful Laura Ashley dress that she got from a friend.  Thanks to Amanda's ministrations on her hair she looks great.

Overall, things are generally much easier with Lily than they once were.  However, there are still some times when she pushes the boundaries.  I'm sure that some of you want to check back with me in 7 years...

Embracing Two

The twos are getting a little more terrible with Noah. His cheeks are pretty rosy because they are chapped from all the snot he rubs on them. He has a nearly limitless supply of snot because of the cold he had last week and the crying he has been doing lately. A good bit of the crying is over a refusal to put poop in the potty, though he is still doing well with avoiding accidents.

This morning was a good example. He didn't want to get up for Amanda. He did get up for me and went potty, though reluctantly (dry diaper though!). He went downstairs, but just wanted fruit for breakfast. When Amanda told him that he had to have something else with it he freaked out. He ended up in the corner of his room where the crib used to be and just kept screaming.

The good news is that this seems more like a phase than a personality trait. Overall, he is an extremely sweet little boy. Plus, he looks great now that Amanda cut his hair yesterday. He's still two though. Someday we will miss this age.

Beautiful Day

Sunday was a generally lovely day. The weather was great. Lily played outside all afternoon. I finally got the cars vacuumed out. I broke down a ton of boxes in the garage. Noah took a good nap. We ended it with dinner at the McKenzies'.

The only negative was my continued vigil with Noah. It finally happened at the McKenzies' house after another 45 minutes with him in the bathroom. We were all very excited for him and he got to celebrate with a lollipop. Unfortunately, he has to go again today and is still adamant about refusing.

We keep waiting for this to get easier. It's got to eventually, right?

Still Waiting

I'm composing this on my iPod Touch from the bathroom. Why do this? I've run out of other things to do while waiting for Noah to take care of some business. He has not gone since Thursday, so you'd think this would be easy. Plus, he keeps complaining that his belly hurts. I've tried to explain that this will help, but he doesn't seem to persuade him.

I would guess that between today and yesterday Noah an I have spent about 4 years in the bathroom. We have a wastebasket filled with toilet paper after wiping tears and snot.

Better me than Amanda though. She gets this all week.

Child Intensive

Amanda is away at a short retreat with some ladies from church, so it is just the kids and me this weekend.  She left around lunchtime yesterday.  We got off to a little bit of a rough start because Noah didn't nap at all.  I still let him hang out in his room for a couple of hours though.  Once Lily came home we went out to dinner at Five Guys and then visited a friend for his annual Christmas Tree and miscellaneous brush bonfire.  Noah was all excited about it, but got a little scared when the flames were a good 12-15 feet up.  He still had a good time.

This morning was a bit rushed.  I met with two classmates on our directed study course.  I had a breakfast casserole prepared and we had a good time of discussion and fellowship.  I didn't take Lily to dance class because today was a belated Valentine's dance.  I couldn't very well be her partner with Noah around.  Plus, a crew from HGTV was filming this lesson because one of her classmates' has a house that is being featured by them somehow.  It was a lot easier not to go.

The rest of the day was spent breaking down the crib, loading it up for Eric and Nat, and watching Noah cry on the potty.  I've been trying to coax another poop out of him today and so far it hasn't been pretty.  Hopefully he'll go after his nap or at least stay clean through church this afternoon.

Overall, things have been good.  The kids were great while we were meeting.  Then again, Caillou videos will do that.

Pajama Day

Yesterday was a little rough here.  Noah still has the chest cold going on.  Amanda had a sinus headache all day from having a cold as well.  I got Lily off to the bus before I went to work, but there some battles over the lunch and snack I packed for her.  It made for a long day.

The good news is that Lily got some stickers for excellence in math yesterday.  She is getting extra math homework that is a lot more challenging to her than the regular stuff.  Plus, with a little help she is doing well with that too.  Her doing well at math is not such a huge surprise to us.  What does surprise us is her excellence in art.  We'll take it though.

Meanwhile, Noah continues to soak up information like a sponge.  For example, he can spell his name.  Unlike Lily, he loves the fridge phonics that tell him the sounds that the letters make and he likes singing the little songs with each letter too.  He sometimes sings the alphabet as a prayer before meals.  He's not very articulate, but there is a lot going on with him.

Valentine's

We had a nice Valentine's Day, despite being really tired.  Amanda and I went out to dinner and then spent a couple of hours swing dancing.  The music was good and the party was very lively.  I got stepped on a few times, but that's part of the game.  I think we'll probably go back sometime.

Sadly, Noah still woke up a couple of times with that awful cough.  He just doesn't know what to do when he feels like that.  The good news is that he responds well to cough syrup.  We'll have to give him some before bed tonight or else we may be for another long one.  We can't really afford that tomorrow.

Another Long NIght

We had Brenna stay the night last night while Bill and Tiffany went out.  Brenna was great.  She had fun at church, ate a great dinner, and overall was really easy to have here.  The only trouble was when she woke up screaming at 10:30 last night, but even that was not too big of a deal.  It was funny that when I had her lay back down she almost laid down on Lily.  Still, that was very easy.

Noah, on the other hand, didn't do as well.  He woke up with a terrible chest cough.  It was so bad that Amanda thought he was having trouble breathing.  She brought him into bed with us, which is always a disaster for us, but comforting for him.  The cutest part happened when he had a nasty barking cough, sat up in bed, and then said, "Excuse me!"  Amanda put him back to bed after his cough settled down and he did fine for the rest of the night. Unfortunately, he was still up at 7:00 along with the girls.

The good news for us is that Tiffany is due to arrive here at 4:30 so Amanda and I can go to dinner and dancing.  We've been looking forward to this for a while.  It's always nice to get out sans kids.

Winter Wonderland - Redux

Here's a view from the front porch this morning. I moved the Civic before going to bed so that I could get out this morning. I was supposed to have a class, but the other guys thought it more prudent to postpone.

I know that many of our readers are not too sympathetic when I complain about this winter. It really has been the worst we've had since moving here in the spring of 2003. It's really not that cold and it's not any grayer than what we grew up with, but it's been challenging in that we haven't been able to get our running in like we're used to. Fortunately, I've found an alternate exercise that gives me a good workout.

Here are a few bonus pics of the kids.  I took the one of Noah in his PJs this morning.  That's him saying "cheese!"

Big Kids

We went bowling yesterday as a celebration of Noah's historic feat. The good news is that he did it again today, though Amanda said that it took about an hour of getting on and getting off the potty. He's slowly getting the hang of it.

We went to Chick-Fil-A for dinner. Lily and Noah had fun in the indoor playground. The highlight there was that Noah went down the slide three times. He was a little scared, but he did it. He seemed to enjoy it, though he did bump his head on the way down the last time. I hope that doesn't deter him in the future.

The only other bit of news is that Lily got a perfect score on their practice spelling test today, including the bonus. She was having trouble with "come" and "down," but she got them right today. The bonus was "winter." We did a practice of the practice last night and her only problem was spelling "down" as "dawn." Apparently she aced it today. Amanda and I are both very proud as we were good spellers too.

Huge News!

Amanda had the kids tonight while I was in class.  Tonight was bath night and Amanda noticed Noah getting a certain look in his eyes while in the bath.  She seized the opportunity to put him on the potty.  He had to get readjusted a bit since he's been scooting way back to watch himself pee, but once he was centered he put a big ol' poop in the potty.

The plan right now is for us to go bowling in the late afternoon/early evening tomorrow (Wednesday).  We want to make this as big a celebration as possible as quickly as possible.  If anyone has some free time tomorrow it would be great if you could call to congratulate Noah.

Whistling

Noah surprised me yet again today.  I carried him on my shoulders as we took Lily to the bus stop.  It was very faint, but Noah was whistling.  I heard him say something about whistling and then he did it.

He may not be the most eloquent kid in the world, but he is pretty talented.  He can sign better than he can talk.  He can count to 10.  He knows his shapes and colors.  He still needs preschool so he can work on his social skills, but overall he has been pretty remarkable.  It's a good thing too.  Lily is doing math problems in her head now.  She's going to be a tough act to follow.

Celebration

Yesterday was a celebratory one, but not for the big reason we've been waiting for.  Noah took care of that business in his diaper at bedtime last night.  The good news is that he is keeping his diaper dry all night and is keeping his pants dry during the day.  He will get there.

It was celebratory because we had Uncle Eric's birthday party.  We started off with lunch at Z Pizza and finished at their house for ice cream and cake.  Noah spoke glowingly of the event.  Then later I dropped Amanda off at home so she could rest while I took the kids out.  We went to Sam's Club because we were completely out of a staple in our house.  Milk?  Bread?  Butter?  Nothing as trivial as these.  No, we needed ketchup.

Before Sam's I took the kids to the mall at the Streets at Southpoint per their request.  Lily really wanted to go to Crabtree because of the LEGO store, but I had to explain that was too far out of the way.  Noah just wanted to ride up and down the escalators.  The highlight for Lily was browsing at Justice.  She decided that all the knick-knacks at eye level were "tempting."  At least she understands how they are marketing to her.  I feel like that's a win.

More Waiting

I've had a morning with the kids today.  Amanda is at the small group leader summit at our church, so I got to take the kids.  So far it's been OK, though not without some hiccups.  Noah and I shopped at Trader Joe's a bit while Lily was at dance class.  Then we went to my seminary library, the grocery store, a hobby store, and home for lunch.  Lily finds creative ways to get herself into timeout sometimes, but overall things are going well.  We will meet Amanda at church this afternoon.

After lunch I had Noah sit on his potty seat for about 20 minutes while I played Pac-Man.  Still nothing.  He's keeping his pants dry, but not always clean.  We'll keep at it.

Still Waiting

It dawned on Amanda that until she went to church Wednesday night for a meeting she had not been out of the house since the previous Tuesday.  The snowstorm saw to that.  She took Noah out for a little shopping yesterday morning.  One thing she found was a suitable bribe for potty training.  She got valentines that look like a baseball, a basketball, and a hockey puck.  They're the kind of card that when you tilt them you see a different picture.  Kind of like something you'd get out of a Cracker Jack box, only much bigger.  He loves them.

This works well for when he gets up from his nap.  However, he still has yet to put poop in the potty.  He is likely to spend more time pantsless today until this happens.  You can be sure that phone calls will be made when this momentous event occurs.

My Turn

The great storm of 2010 continues to affect us.  Lily is off school today, which means that she has had 3 consecutive days off of school.  I heard about today's closure from a coworker through an email which I read during a break in class last night.  I dropped my Blackberry on the table which made a few people say, "uh-oh, what's up?"  We're all ready for her to go back to school.  She's actually been fairly good, but keeping her busy during the day can get old.

We continue to press on with the potty training.  We got the potty chair out yesterday.  Noah sat on it for about 45 minutes while I played various flavors of Pac-Man.  He smelled pretty bad, but still no poop.  Amanda said that he sat on it for a whole episode of Thomas last night, but still no poop.  He's pretty good about going potty when we tell him to except when he first wakes up in the morning and after a nap.  Today seemed a little better as it only took about 5 minutes to wait him out.

Meanwhile, it is my turn to be sick. I spent some time bowing at the throne last night around midnight.  Fortunately I didn't have the continued dry heaves like the kids.  I feel a little rough today from being generally weak and tired, but I think I'll be able to get through the day while working from home.

We're ready for this week to end.

Long Night

We had a very long night last night.  It started around 11:00 when I went in to see why Noah was crying.  I found him sitting in a puddle of puke.  We got him cleaned up and I put his bedding in the laundry to wash.  We brought him to our bed, but then he threw up in in our bed too.  That of course led to more laundry.

Amanda decided to snuggle with him in his room.  He threw up at least twice more before 1:00 AM and I got involved most of those times too.  Again, more laundry.  Amanda came to bed at 3:00 exhausted because she had not slept at all.

To top it all off, I responded to a poopy diaper at around 5:30.  It's good that he doesn't like to be poopy and in fact encourages me that perhaps Pull-Ups will work for him, but that's something we need to discuss.  At any rate, we had the usual battle for him to pee first-thing in the morning and then I put him back down.  Shortly thereafter he had more dry heaves.

I really hope that he and Amanda can sleep in a little bit.  It's 7:21 and Lily is still in bed as far as I know.  I'm taking today off so we can all recover as a family.

Good times, good times.  This too shall pass.

Dry as a Bone

I think that this blog is going to be dominated with potty-training updates for a while, including a lot of fanfare when Noah finally puts something solid in the potty.  Amanda was laid up yesterday so Lily was my only ally with the Pook.  It took a lot of attention on my part, but he managed to keep his pants dry all day.  In fact, his diaper was dry when I got him up this morning.

Things quickly turned south.  He did not want to go when I put him on the potty first thing.  In fact, I got squirted on my pants for my trouble (I don't think that will be the last time).  It took some fighting, but he did it.  Overall, he's doing pretty well, but there have been two small accidents today.  The good news is that he only let out a little bit instead of making a full puddle.  He still needed new pants, but the mess to clean up wasn't bad.

He didn't eat a very good lunch.  I think he is filling up and eventually will have a bad accident or will finally take care of business.  We're all set to go bowling when he does.  Of course, I'm not sure what will happen for an incentive after that.

Lily is off of school today because of the weather.  The secondary and tertiary roads were legitimately icy this morning because of the sunshine yesterday and low temperatures last night.  Plus, we had no power from about 5:40 - 8:45 this morning.  The good news is that I could work from home.