Wow, it's been a while since I've been here, between work, the holidays (belated happy Holidays everybody), birthdays, potty-training, seeing family and wishing for snow things have been a little busy.

Our youngest is already potty-training herslef.  She freely makes the announcement and has been successful most of the time.  She has been so good already that we only use a diaper at night when we know tha there's a poop in there somewhere and it's about time for it to come'on out!  Otherwise, she hasn't wet the bed yet.

I can't help to wonder if all of our work with her older brother isn't a factor in it. Kids tend to pick up a lot more of what is going on then you'd ever think.  I think this may be getting combined with our growing emphasis in her occupying herself while we spend more time with her older siblings.  "Ms Jealousy" is slowly learning to deal with it and I hope she figures it out soon before I go DEAF! (she has an ear-splitting scream).

The older kids have been using our home computer more (I'll post more on this later, but it's an Educationally-oriented Linux operating system that includes a number of educational games for kids, is free, does not require powerful hardware (works perfectly fine on my P3 500MHz 7-year old Sony desktop) and was even sent to me for free, called Edubuntu).

Thomas has taken to the computer rather quickly and is amazing me with how far he is getting in the games, but I am going to have to watch him.  My wife walked in one time as he was sitting at the computer and instead of him typing in his username (his first name), he had "daddy"?!   My 4 year old is trying to hack into MY ACCOUNT!?!  Yeah, he's going to be a challenge.

Our oldest is definatly blazing the trails for us.  We are realizing that 1rst grade is where these social circles, clic's and talking about each other is starting up.  It is also our wake-up call regarding bullying.  Luckily it is so far very mild and most likely isn't bullying so much as misunderstanding but still it got our mind thinking about it and learning what to do about it.  The eye-opener was when she began getting things wrong on her tests and foolish things that we know she knows the answer to.

Luckily we found out it is somebody at her table she's having trouble with, talked to the teacher and got their seats re-arranged (so they are at the same table but not next to each other). Scores have returned to normal but there is much more to do to try and empower her.

So things are still moving along and we are still playing "catch-up" but I wouldn't change it for the world.  Hope things are going well in your corner of the world!!

~d

Ok, so it's not fun but I guess it happens sometimes. The other night while trying to do bathtime I found our newly-potty-trained child sitting in his closet looking sheepish and when he walked to the bathroom for his bath he had that certain walk. No doubt about it, he has slipped back some and pooped in his pants.

The only thing to do is go right back to what we were doing before with removing some of his toys (until he poops 3 times now).  He is still going pee on his own which is good, and I am hoping that this is just a one-time slip and he bounces back quickly.

He's been so good for quite some time and it has shown with an increase in his confidence and happiness!

*cross-fingers*

Yipieee!

It's been about 2 weeks now that our 4yr old has been "potty trained" after years of working at it! We've tried rewards, big-boy underwear, the potty-dance, M&Ms and more!

One thing that helped is that he seems to be lactose intollerant, and as we started really looking at the ingredients of food, we realized that milk products and lactose is in so many things!  He may not have been going to the potty because he was getting mixed feelings, false alarms and/or "chinese firedrills"! 

It's been tricky, but we've mostly cut it out of his diet and replaced what we could with lactose-free foods (margarine, soy milk, etc.) and also told him why he could not have one thing while trying to make sure we provide foods he CAN have (and enjoy).  Eventually we will re-introduce things into his deit but first we want him well-entrenched into using the potty.

It also took a lot of firm love. 

Each time we tried a system it would work for a while, but then degrade into a scream-fest. We know we did not want the bathroom to have a negative conotation so we eventually would back-off and relax a little. One thing was definite, he knew WHAT he had to do and could do it, he just wouldn't.

A friend of ours came by our house for maybe a week or more and spent 3-4 hours taking him to the potty every 5-10 minutes. It got to the point that he would be yelling "I don't want to sit on the potty!".  At least 2 times when they left, within 5 minutes he peed his pants.

They repeated to him and asked him "Where does the poopie go?" and "Who is responsible for putting the poopie in the potty?" over and over making sure he fully understands that it is HIS responsibility.  We had long since made him clean himself up when he messed.

When he pooped in his pants, they would take some of his toys (the IMPORTANT ones) with them and say that he has to poop in the potty to get them back! I think they took a couple loads of them, and talked about how her husband was going to have fun playing with them.

He was also told that when he pooped in the potty he was to call them (no matter the time) and let them know and they'll bring his toys right back!  So one night, at 10pm they got a phone call where they were greeted with "I pooped!"  Unfortunately, that night he then pooped in his pants a few hours later, so then the requirement became he had to poop 2 times in a row to get them back.

How much of a factor this was, I don't know, but one night he pooped in his pants and so he was put to bed early. We had decided before then that they were going to be allowed to watch a movie before bed and we stuck with that. He was lying in bed listening to the movie that his sister was watching, but unable to watch.

I think the combination of it all finally got to him but getting "clear" signals I think is a major factor in getting him to go. Yes, he's had a few accidents but we haven't focused on that because each time there was a reason (like while he was sleeping in the car during a 3-4 hour leg of the trip) and it was just pee. Our primary focus was to get poop since he was already doing pretty good with the peeing.

So now it's 2 weeks with no pooping accidents and 99% success rate with peeing.  He's also gets out of bed in the middle of the night and goes, goes to pee when we ask him to (like before going out of the house), announces when he has to go and often just goes without saying anything!

It is such an increadible relief and not only that but his confidence and self-accomplishment has made a huge leap! He's turning into the boy we know he is!

Now we just need to get him to remember to wash his hands afterwards on his own!  One battle at a time...

Yipee! First day of school for our 1rst grader and preschooler (1/2 day)!
Looks at thought they were looking forward to it too Hope that attitude continues through the day, this is the first full day for one, and the other one will have 5 days a week for the first time!

This is a game of tracey's Blog Tag!
Here's how it works- I have compiled a list of 6 questions to be answered by whoever is tagged. ...
Here goes:

1. What's your child's favorite book?   Hmm... Anna is the simplest one... "One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish" from Dr Suess. We have a bath-book which is just the first 4 pages of the whole book and we have memorized it so that if she starts acting up we just start reading from memory and she stops what she's doing and listens (or rushes around to find the book!)
We go through so many books from the library, rotating on a weekly basis that it's hard to pick one for the others! Sarah even won first place in the Library's summer reading program for the most books!
We have some older books on Giants but generally books on Giants, Fairies, Ballet, Knights, Trains, Trucks and Cats keep them occupied.

2. What's your favorite children's book?  "Sox on Fox" by Dr. Suess. It's a challenge and I like seeing how fast I can go thorugh it without messing up (too badly). I like just about anything with a "rhythm" and an opportunity to use as many goofy voices as possible (without getting confused as to who's "talking")!

3. What's your child's favorite thing to eat?  Anna likes whatever we're eating, there's no doubt about it.
Thomas loves P&J sandwiches and even asks for it for breakfast (though we haven't indulged him.. yet).
Sarah I would have to say, are cherries! She will eat an entire jar if we let her and if possible she HAS to have it on her ice cream!

4. What's your favorite thing to eat?  I find seedless grapes are extremely addictive and before I know it I've eaten the entire bunch! The seeded grapes are too much work for a lazy-bones like me!

5. What's your child's favorite game? I'm not sure what it would be called, but Sarah and Thomas play together with stuffed animals, trains, trucks and dolls running all over the place, playing some story and they seem to enjoy it! Anna loves just about anything as long as you're playing with her!

6. What's your favorite game?  I have to admit, I'm a long-time tabletop role playing gamer (Dungeons and Dragons) since I was about 8 or 9. Some parents were surpised that my Mom supported us playing but my parents were happy it was about the only thing my brother and I didn't fight over (at least, physically) and it did work my math skills and imaginiation (I was an avid drawer).
There was also a game I played with a friend of mine we called "Pretend" and we made extremely elaborate stories and settings and acted everything out! We spent HOURS playing it and building stories as it goes (usually hopping all over the furniture, running up and down the stairs and in-and-out of the house)! Hm... now I'm wondering if he's up to a game...
Alright, now on to the next people : I tag rich115, SevenOfNine and matthew

~Drew

I am so glad that I talked to the eye doctor yesterday to get my contacts straightened out.  Each lens is a different color (yellow and red) and I was told to make sure I kept them straight because unlike when I was wearing soft contacts, these lenses are eye-specific.

Finding out they were reversed explained why they were so uncomfortable Tuesday night and I could almost immediately notice the difference when I put them in correctly.  Now I know, Yellow=Left, Red=Right (or R=R).

Last night after getting home I took out the lenses like I usually do and walked around without them.  Since it was a nice night we went ot the beach for a short (< 1hr) swim. On  the way there I noted how I could read the digital [P]ark [R]everse [N]eutral [D]rive indicator on the dashboard from the passenger seat. Before starting this I would not even be able to make out the time on the clock in the middle of the dash, let alone the shift indicator in front of the driver!

After swimming, which my oldest daughter was showing me how fantastic her swimming lessons are doing for her, we decided to go for ice-cream. We were there for probably about 1/2 hour or more and it was getting pretty dark outside.  On the way home, I noted to my wife how I couldn't read the shift indicator in front of her, but could barely see the clock in the middle of the dash.

This gives me a real indicator that the eyes do slowly shift back, and even though I am not seeing as drastic an improvement like the first day there are still improvements going on such as the blurring ghost-image around things are getting tighter.

Impatience makes me want this to be done NOOOW, but a lot can happen in the 6-10 days remaining and hopefully the night of having the contacts in the wrong eyes isn't going to set me back too far.

Today is day 3 of my Corneal Refractive Therapy treatment and anywhere to 7-11+ days to go.

Corneal Refractive Therapy is a treatment to fix eyesight using a gas-permiable contact lense to gently reshape your eye. In the end I'll be wearing it at night while I sleep, take it off during the day and have 20/20 vision all day. At night I'll put them back in to maintain my new eyesight though it can take maybe 72 hours or less for my eyes to return to their original shape.

I like the fact that

• It is not permanent, if it doesn't work out then stop using it an nothing (other than $$$) is lost OR if better, newer technology comes around I can then switch to THAT which may or may not be available with Laser Correction.
  
• Does not require surgery

After the first night of wearing them, I took them out tried to see the effects. It did seem my eyesight was better but not perfect. Objects around the house are still blurry though I could read tihngs much better than before. It was like taking a blurred watercolor painting and superimposing a sharp depiction of the object as well.

I wasn't too sure about it at first and I didn't want to fall into a psychological trap of seeing what isn't there (pun intended), but my proof came when I tried to put on my glasses! I couldn't use them!

If you want futher information you can look at this site which is for the manufacturer of my lenses, but I am sure there are others as well. The site gives some good descriptions and information regarding the process and how it work.

Today we had a babysitter over so that we could concentrate on doing things around the house that is difficult to do while watching the kids. Just a couple hours every few days can make a big difference!

After the babysitter left, we found that one of the kids had taken an orange Sharpie (permanent) marker and marked all over the place.. the door to outside, the siding of the house, the fence, their room's wall, and more!  Naturally, seeing such damage can make you infuriated!

We knew who it was and the culprit was given soap and water (actually  I think it was a brillo pad) to scrub all of the marks. After we calmed down, and the "artist" was actually cleaning, my wife was able to talk to the child and find out why they did it.

Turns out they did it because they were mad that the babysitter was playing with the other child and not them.

So make sure the babysitter splits their attention "equallY", where perception of equal is more important than actual minutes counted.

Also make sure you give the child the understanding that there is a reason behind everything.

So we'll have a talk with the babysitter, but before this she has proven to be very good so I think we'll give her another chance.

It's strange to realize that 10 years ago today I walked in a building single, and walked out of it a married man ! Actually it was a small stone church and thankfully a cloudy, not-so-hot day either. Thankfully I was not the only newly-married person to emerge either!

The only thing I would have changed is I would have made sure we got our hands on some of the food before it was all gone (the problem of trying to talk with everybody!!), although we did hear it was some gooooood food!

A lot has happened in those 10 years (some of which made us grow up a little quicker) and I can honestly say I cannot see going through even half of that with anybody other than my beautiful (and talented, see pictures on my homepage) wife! She has been a support and my best friend through it all.

Both of us can come up with some strange, and on the surface appear controversial, ideas yet we are free to express them to each other without worry of the other judging anything before hearing the behind-the-scenes thinking.  Even then there is a lot of accepting difference of opinion as opposed to right or wrong. 

This is very important when talking about the kids because it means we can freely hash out any and all of our thoughts on what is going on, and wehter to and how to correct any behavior with the kids.  We have our experiences and our histories, each of which are vastly different.  If we are not able to bring up just about everything then that means we are not giving this parenting our own because we're "holding back".

So 10 years down, and now onto the next 10 years (and beyond)

Instead of bringing home one kitten.. we brought home 2!

I am such a sucker!