When you spit from the twenty-sixth floor
And if floats on the breeze to the ground
Does it fall upon hats
Or on white persian cats
Or on heads, with a pitty-pat sound?
Oh, I used to think life was a bore
But I don't feel that way any more
As count up the hits,
As I smile as I sit,
As I spit from the twenty-sixth floor.

~ Shel Silverstein
Where the Sidewalk Ends

My favorite poem of all time. Hands down.
Listen to the master read it (and others) himself, here (track 26).

!

The kids went to Pennsylvania this weekend to visit their cousins (2+ hours, we're going to take it in stages next time), SLEPT OVER in Jude's bed (and didn't wet anything!), went on a boat, made s'mores, ate lots of pancakes, played with lots and lots of matchbox cars, had a singalong and got a preview of songs from Uncle Marc's new-CD-in-progress, and saw waterfalls. I have high hopes that this is going to help pave the way for more traveling.

♥ Our photos here
♥ Their cousins' pics here

Remember this and this?

I'm proud to say... the kids are actually toilet-trained. Those of you who think this is no big deal have no idea what it's like to train three kids, all at the same time. It's freaking amazing.

No more diapers.
No more training pants, not even at night.
No more potties (they have to use the regular toilet because I refuse to clean them anymore). We tried to sell them off at our garage sale.

My advice for anyone embarking on this adventure...

Be really consistent; they're pretty confused about the whole thing so doing everything the same way, every time, helps get it through their heads.

Don't be afraid to put your foot down. I just said one day, "Oh, we don't wear diapers in the house during the day anymore." And they said, "Oh, okay!" and it wasn't an issue. Same as, "We're not wearing diapers at school now," and the ever-popular, "When this package of training pants* is gone, we will not buy any more. So if you don't want pee in your bed, you'll get out of it and go to the bathroom. And we'll help you."

Get a potty that is all in one piece. The ones that come apart so you can clean them? Not good. Because that means pee can get into the cracks, leak out, whatever. In addition to the FIVE potty seats we had around the house, we still have two seats that fit over the seat of the toilet (because my kids are on the small side and are still convinced they will fall in). One is one solid piece of plastic. I love it. The other has a puffy seat, handles, comes apart. It almost always has pee between the layers and I'm always cleaning it so the bathroom doesn't smell like a hamster cage; one day when Paul had the power washer out I made him hose it down because I couldn't stand it. Do yourself a favor and don't buy this.

And finally...

Be patient, and pray a lot. It is one full year since we started training with the kids; I pray it doesn't take that long for anyone else. But be patient with them, and especially boys, biologically their bladder is not as developed as girls their same age, so they may not know when it's full (which was the case in our house). Try to praise them as much as you can when they do something right, and try not to make a big deal out of the accidents. In our house, treating nighttime pees and changes of bedding like it's no big deal has really helped the kids be less tense about the whole thing.

And yes, I still want to have a Potty Party for them to celebrate.

* I know I said we wouldn't use training pants; we used them very sparingly, like at night when we were teaching them to get up and use the toilet, because they couldn't handle taking on and off diapers by themselves. I didn't like using them. :)

While I may not have tape on my specs, I am a geek from way back.

For more geeky goodness, don't miss Minimum Wage. Back in my a cappella days I remember them as being some of the nicest and funniest people we shared a stage with.

And according to this test, I am a Modern, Cool, Nerd. Like we didn't already know that.

It's been print central 'round my house. I've been scanning, comparing, and rescanning like mad. Everyone pitched in; Paul manned the printer, and I had the best little assistants you could ever hope to see who walked them over to the post office and placed them on the counter themselves (I had to lift them up, but they insisted on seeing the job through and protested when I suggested handing the packages off to me!) The first batch of orders are in the mail, and can I just say how fun it's been to see what people are choosing! The surprises are my favorites. :)

I think she's some sort of druidical acolyte who worships in an oak grove. Amazing what comes out of a little doodle...

♥ Note to i-fri-ers: this and pretty much every other piece of artwork on this site is now available as a print!