The Potty Diaries - pt 2

Yeah, finally some success with regards to potty training. Isabella has been using the potty like a pro, but the automatic flush feature on the bathrooms in most restaurants and at the mall still scares her!

Apparently (like her parents) Isabella needs to do things on her own time table, and that includes going to the bathroom when she wants to, not when she is being nagged to do so. As a matter of fact, our secret weapon was not candy or cake or even m&m's, but new Dora underwear and Dora sheets. She is determined to be a big girl like Dora. :)


We have had accidents, but overall our average is improving! She is so much better at it, and I think she's going to be ready for school in less than a month's time... so the end -- or should I say beginning -- is in sight.

Under the weather :(

Our family has made the acqaintance of the Adenovirus, which if you have never had it, is a nasty, very adaptable little bugger. Between the four of us, we have every permutation of the virus known to man: Ben has the conjunctivitius and rash, Bella the congestion and cough, Matt the achy head and sore throat and me, well, I have bronchitis!

In a way, it's good that it's happening now, because, you know, we don't have anything else going on right now. HA!

So, not surprisingly, we are not a lively bunch, and the kids are being quite good considering that we know they feel awful. We are keeping away from people with kids because we would feel very bad if they got it as well, and in general because of all of the work on our house we are keeping out of trouble :). I promise to write more later once I make yet another run to the pharmacy for more good drugs; for now, things in our household has settled down. Bella is happy with ice cream and Finding Nemo, and Matt and Ben are taking a nap.

When I get a chance, I'll write more.

~~~~~ Heat Wave ~~~~~~

It is unbelievably hot here today, and I remember hearing some people say, 'This is Africa hot!"

News flash people - I have lived, worked and played in Africa, and it gets hot there, but not steamy and uncomfortable like this. It's so hot here in Richmond today that the temp reading in my car reads 105 -- in the shade! I long for winter, not autumn, winter with lots and lots of snow and if you get cold, you can pile on more blankets, another sweater or have some gluwein (that's German mulled wine for those who don't know what that is. It's very good and goes down smoothly and before you realise it, you don't feel cold anymore, just toasty (LOL)).

On a more serious note, I was reading Yahoo! news a couple of weeks ago, and I saw an article about people who forget their children in the car. It was an awful article and my heart was breaking for those parents who have gone through it. It brought about the question of what one should do should you happen to see someone do that; I have often waited to run errands with Matt or the babysitter, so that they can wait with the kids in the car, because sometimes you can accomplish things much faster that way. I prefer to not have to drag them around when it's so hot or cold that it makes the trip unpleasant for everyone.

So, what do you do if you see this happening? Do you call the police? Do you say something to the parents? What about parents who leave their kids alone at night (when the kids are asleep) and go over to the neighbors for a drink? Is that legal? Should we say something? I would be interested in hearing what people have to say about this and if there is a law about this somewhere out there?

Breastfeeding advice

Uh oh, I'm about to jump on my soap box again. RANT ALERT! RANT ALERT! :)

Picture this: Bella, Ben and I are all in the midst of a nasty virus that makes your throat feel like it is on fire and has you thinking if you swallowed anything, your head would explode from the pain! So, I elected to sleep on the couch last night downstairs while everyone else slept upstairs; post nasal drip can be a bear sometimes.

So, I was awake, and I was watching the local news, because in case you don't live (or should I say roast) on the East Coast, you might have heard we are having this little heat wave. Needless to say, as I was watching the weather, an advertisement came on where there was a kid standing there with his back pack on and the little caption says, "No earaches, no drippy nose, guess who's going to school today?" Then his TV mom walks up and hands him his lunch bag. So, you're wondering why I object to this? Well, the next caption says, "Breastfeeding helps with your child's immunity and enables them to fight infections better," and then there are a couple more commercials with beautiful children, with the clear implication that it's all due to breastfeeding!


(THAT'S RIGHT, SPORTS FANS, HERE COMES THE RANT...)


As a mother who had the flu when I delivered my first baby and pneumonia the second, I OBJECT to those statements about the supposed superiority of breastfeeding over formula. Due to circumstances beyond my control, my babies did not breastfeed beyond the first couple of days, and as far as I can tell, my kids don't have half a head. Additionally, every child I know, whether they were breastfed or not, gets ear infections. As a matter of fact, one kid I know who was breastfed for 9 months has chronic ear infections and gets the same, if not more, colds than my daughter, who's a smart, strong, beautiful formula fed baby.

So take that, breast feeding Nazis! Yes, it's not a term I use lightly, but that's how strongly I feel about it!

A mother with a newborn baby should make decisions that work for her and her child/children, and we should not be treated like bad parents because we did not breastfeed. If you can breastfeed your children, good for everyone involved; but if you can't or choose not to, you should not be ostracized by others for making that decision. When I was in the hospital after having Isabella, I had a breast feeding counselor tell me that if I did not breastfeed Isabella, then I would not bond with my daughter -- what utter nonsense!

Along that same line of thought, one can say that parents of adopted children can never bond with their children. I happen to know that that is bullshit (pardon my language), as my husband and his brother are adopted, and their parents are wonderful and love them as much as any other parents would.

So, I say to anyone out there watching these commercials - like most things in life, you need to take it with a pinch of salt and slug the shot of... oops, old habits showing up there - you should listen to what people say and then make the decision that best suits you and your family.

Bella, Ben & Basic Anatomy 101

Isabella and Ben were getting ready to take a bath, and Ben lay on the bath mat naked, enjoying being without a diaper. I have a feeling he will be taking after his sister, who is always willing to shed her clothes and take a bath. I hear her talking to him, and she said, "Don't worry, it will be OK!" Hmmm... I wondered what she was talking about, and I walked into the bathroom where Isabella was patting Ben's arm. She looked up and said "Mom, we have to take him to the doctor!" Since I did not see anything wrong with him and he is not one to suffer in silence, I asked her what was wrong with him? "He's sad!" she said. Okay, I thought, and asked her, "Why is he sad, Isabella?" Without missing a beat, she said,"'cause he has a broken bagina and he wants it to work!" she said, gesturing to his little penis. When I could not contain my laughter and burst out laughing, she looked and me and scowled. I laughingly explained to her that boys don't have vaginas, they have penises; she looked and him shrugged. Later on she commented that it was a 'nice bum' even if it was broken.

The tale of two teeth, and then another two, and then...

In the midst of all the stuff we have going on, Benjamin finally cut his first two teeth! With the top two looking like they might grace us with their presence at any moment -- PLEASE PLEASE -- the prospect of these teeth joining us in the real world also suggests he might start sleeping through the night once again.

He's got this really cute toothless grin going, where he scrunches up his nose & eyes and pushes out his little lower jaw so you can see these two little rice grains poking up through the gum. Make no mistake, one of Matt's ancestors was a piranha, because those little teeth are sharp! He's been biting everything in sight, including fingers, chins, noses, and his sister's hair -- oh, yeah, she loves that. Whenever he tries that, she pulls away and says, "You're not nice, you're a bad BOOOY, you need a time out!" To which he replies with the aforementioned goofy toothless grin. She protests at that, but this is the same girl who will lean in and offer him her hair to pull on if he's upset about something and she doesn't know what to do to help him out. They're really beginning to become devoted to each other, and it's really sweet to see.

Code Orange Day

Code orange?!? As in a Motrin day, lots and lots of Motrin.

Why you ask? Great question...

We had a water pipe burst open at 1:30 am on Tuesday morning. Yeah, for those of you who have had that happen, it was the whole schlemiel. :(

Matt & I woke to Isabella yelling, "It's raining in here!!!!" Matt and I sprang into action when we realised that a water pipe in our new bathroom burst and it was raining over most of our house. Within the first five minutes, we got the kids into the living room where it was dry, shut off the water, and started to use every towel or container that can hold any water whatsoever to try and contain the damage.

From about 2-4am, we started to clear up stuff so we could at least get the kids back to sleep while we work, and I then called the insurance company (the reason I have time to write this is because I am waiting for them to get back to me -- the usual story, right? You pay your premiums on time, but you have to wait for them to get back to you for everything else). In the course of the action-filled night, we managed to get loads and loads of laundry started and get stuff out of the wet bedrooms.

Eventually, the service master guy got here around 10am and told us that we need to clear out the rooms because the ceilings need to come down! Yikes!! We work at a frantic pace, and eventually with the help of our Superbabysitter Katie, we manage to get the most of the furniture out of the bedrooms and into the living room. The second bunch of service master guys arrived in the early afternoon, and then began to demolish the house -- three plaster ceilings partially busted out, with insulation, splinters & all kinds of crap everywhere.

We are trying to find stuff to pack up and move out to a hotel for the duration of this unplanned "renovation," which I was told can be anywhere from 3 days to 6 months. :( This morning, we ventured back to the house to see how the rafters are drying, and to work toward our goal of finishing up our piles of laundry, so we don't have wet clothes sitting around in piles.

Thank heavens Matt's work load is light enough for the moment that we can take the time to do this, not what we had orignally planned on doing mind you. We were in the midst of planning a trip to Disneyworld, the happiest place on earth; I guess we missed the left turn at Albuquerque and ended up in "Renovation Hell-O-Rama," currently occupation 4. I'm sorry if this is sounding like a "Boo hoo is us," thing; "Grrrr" is more like it, because, as frustrating as it is, Matt & I refuse to let this complete pain-in-the-ass be anything more than an inconvenience. We're OK, the kids are OK, and the house will be OK once we get it back into fighting shape. Who knows, maybe we'll do a few minor upgrades we've been discussing while we've got the place under construction

More to follow, tune in next time when you'll hear Ushan say, "F*** this, let's head out to the Outer Banks!"