Potty talk

Aaron seems to using the potty more regularly these days, both at home and at daycare. Seems in the last few days if his diaper is off, he manages to make it to the potty in time to work it all out. It's kind of like his office....the bathroom step stool is his table, and his kind sister keeps him supplied with a steady supply of reading material! Our potty of choice is this fabulous Baby Bjorn one piece potty. It's lower to the ground than most, has a built-in 'shield' at the front, and no pot to pull out to dump. Read: no pot for Aaron to pull out to dump on the floor!

In addition to using the potty more regularly, he's taken to saying "No Mommy!" more regularly, as was happening here:



I love this one....clear evidence of what hard work potty training is!



Good thing the weather is starting to warm up. Walking around the house with no pants could be chilly mid-winter! Yellow rubber boots clearly make the outfit...

A whole lotta birthday!

Today was the massive family & friends birthday party for Meredith and Aaron that we've been planning for what seems like weeks! Because their birthdays are only six weeks apart, and those weeks fall around Easter and Mother's Day, this year we decided to try celebrating their birthdays together with the extended family and friends. We chose a date that was a little late for Meredith, a little early for Aaron, and gave it a whirl. It was a blast, and I think both kids had a great time. They are both so very fortunate to have such loving aunties, uncles, grandparents and friends.

What I had not bargained for was just how long it would take me to pull together two birthday cakes. I love making the kids' cakes partly because I have such fond memories of the cakes my mom made for me as a child. Meredith was not to be deterred from her desire for an Atomic Betty birthday cake. Atomic Betty is the star of a cartoon Meredith happened upon somehow, which has become her fast favourite. It's a pretty neat cartoon actually, it's Canadian made and Betty lives in "Moose Jaw Heights" when she's not out fighting crime as a galactic guardian.



Meredith stood on a stool at the counter and watched me ice this cake for what seemed like hours yesterday. After a preliminary "But that's not really the colour of Atomic Betty's hair....", her comments were so encouraging and sweet. I felt like a world champion cake decorator by the time it was done, given her heartfelt reaction to it!

Aaron is really into trains right now, so I'd planned to make a Percy cake since he likes green trains the best of all! After the prolonged stint of Betty-making however, I wasn't feeling terribly atomic myself, so the plan for his cake got downgraded a little. Many thanks to Alanna for her loan of the fabulous track/train cake topper!



He was thrilled with the cake, and I've resolved to make his first next year. :) So on to the best part of the day, singing Happy Birthday and blowing out the candles.

Completely charmed with the sounds of 30-some people singing Happy Birthday to him....


And even more pleased with himself once he'd blown the candles out (thankfully without spitting all over the cake.....)



We moved on to sing it all again to big sister and she drew in a big breath to blow...



Can't....fight....the....urge....to....blow....out....her....candles...too....




Summarily returned to his seat by the long arm of the law....



Mission accomplished!

Moooo!

Over the Easter weekend, the kids and I had the chance to visit my friend Sharon and her family on their farm south of Winnipeg. Having grown up on a farm, this seemed like a particularly wonderful thing to do during calving season, and fortunately both kids were gung ho at the prospect! The drive to the farm was a blessed interlude of silence as they napped the whole way there. I considered just continuing to drive....

But then I would have missed the sight of a calf only two hours old, a visit with Sharon and her husband Don, a glimpse of the barn cats, and the nonstop exclamations of "tractor!", "tractor!", "tractor!"



Who knew the inanimate objects would be as big of a thrill as the cows!



Meredith fancied herself quite the farmer, having figured out how to climb the stairs on the combine. Aaron was clearly just in search of something sharp to bump his head on.



Thanks for a great afternoon Sharon!

Book of the Week

I've got lots to catch up on, seems like Easter weekend was a hive of activity!

First, a book from our bookshelves that's seen some extra attention in the past week. This was a favourite of Meredith's when she was smaller, and was a gift from my friend Judy when she was born. It's called Owl Babies, by Martin Waddell.



Owl Babies is a sweet story of three baby owls, Sarah and Percy and Bill. The baby owls wake up in the night and their Owl Mother has gone hunting. The story follows their speculations as to where she's gone and how long she'll be. Most reassuring of all, she does come home in the end, and says "What's all the fuss? You knew I'd come back."

Aaron hasn't paid the book much attention up until now, and it appears the first reading was enough to knock the slipper right off of him!

What waits at home

I had an absolutely, horrifyingly hard day at work today, all wrapped up in trying arrange care for a frail, terminally ill man who is alone in the world. I felt such profound empathy for this sweet man, and his frightening situation.

How blessed I am, at the end of a day like today, to have these beautiful children to come home to, and a husband who came when I called. What waits at home is the best part of life.

A Sniff of Spring!

We went for a walk after work/daycare today to pick up something Meredith had forgotten at Irish Dance yesterday. For the first time in months I was able to get the bike trailer through the back gate. There's been too much snow and ice built up around the base of the gate to open both sections enough to maneuver the width of the trailer out, so I've been lifting it over the front fence instead for what seems like an eternity!
Meredith fell asleep on the walk home. Not sure how this is possible when Aaron was sitting right beside her shrieking words at the top of his lungs. Apparently he's learned the word 'pocket' so this was a prominent feature of our running commentary as he put his water in and out of the pocket in the trailer over and over and over again. The fascination of a new word (and a new pocket) was only interrupted by "air-pane! air-pane!" and "doddie! doddie!" which I'm pretty sure in this context meant doggie, NOT daddy or dirty which sound exactly the same right now.



I guess when a girl is tired, a girl is tired.



And apparently not too happy about waking up!



Fortunately, the sidewalk beside the house is a clear patch of concrete and out came the tricycle and mower. Happiness is!





It did all our spirits good to play today, and bedtime was a piece of cake!

Mr. Naughty

It's a good thing Aaron is so darn cute. Today he seemed to wake up with an extra dose of naughty in his veins. He would have gone to daycare in nothing for a diaper, had it not been for Meredith. Just in the last week he's begun using the word "NO!" with the regularity that most people blink. Or breathe. He adamantly refused to let mommy or daddy help him get dressed, get into his booster seat, or get his breakfast. She got his clothes on. Sloooowwwwwlllly, but she got his clothes on. She got him to sit at the table. She got him to eat some breakast. Thank God for Meredith!
So eventually he got dressed. Ate. Got to daycare. Tried to bite another child.
This is not the first time this has happened. He has an 'incident report' hanging on his little locker a few days a week due to biting. It's frustrating, and mortifying, and sad. The daycare staff are so amazing, and are doing a great job of dealing with Aaron and dealing with me! Today they tried something new. Aaron was sent to the daycare director's office, and had to sit in the chair by her desk. They've tried having him in a highchair in the infant room, in the kitchen area in the infant room, and sitting in the hallway, so they escalated it today. 23 months old and in the principal's office already. :) Hopefully the seriousness of it all will eventually sink into his little red head.
When we got home, he went straight to the wet snow and water on top of the hot tub and splashed it until the front of his clothes was saturated.



Then in classic Aaron fashion, just before I could blow a gasket, he picked up a little scrap of something off the deck and began dancing and playing his "flute" to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell.



It's a good thing he's so darn cute.