Potty time

It appears we may have finally had a break-through on the potty training front.  It actually happened at Dee's house this past week.  Dee has another girl there a little older than Ginny, so maybe it was a peer pressure thing, but one day Ginny came home wearing panties.  She still had some accidents in the evening, but this weekend was great.  All day Saturday and Sunday with no accidents.  We even went out for a few hours on Saturday afternoon with her in underwear.  There's a new meaning to living on the edge.  She made it through though, with flying colours.  We made her go at Walmart, and that went off without a hitch I guess.  Julie took her and Jorja to the bathroom and Ginny got to pee on top of Jorja's pee - how exciting!  Whatever works.  Julie made cupcakes in honour of the occasion, and Ginny took some to Dee's today to celebrate with a potty party.  And she came home in the same pants and underwear that she went in.  Finally, there is an end in sight.  Now we just have to conquer the number two and we'll be set.  So far the only time she has done that since the wearing of the panties has been after she is ready for bed and in her pull-up.  Oh well, everything in due time.

I was going through my itunes library the other day and just for kicks, turned on the feature that shows how often each song has been played.  It soon became obvious that in the past five years there has been a definite shift in my music listening.  All of the top songs played were by Sharon, Louis and Bram.  The top song had been played more than twice as many times as the top played adult song.  At least I still have the ride to work.  Later.

Up too early

Why is it that not all three kids can have a good night's sleep on the same day? Well, I guess technically the night was all right, CeCe just decided that she was ready to be awake at 6:00am. So here I sit, eyes half glued shut with her in the exer-saucer beside me. I tried getting her back to sleep, but it wasn't happening. So I decided to cut my losses and just bring her downstairs before she woke up her sisters. If they were both up already, it would make for a very miserable day.

Jorja finished swimming lessons yesterday and she passed her 'sea turtle' level. Next stop, 'salamander'. She did so awesome, we're really proud of her.

Last year, Jorja got a karaoke machine for her birthday. Lately, it has been getting a workout by both her and Ginny. Ginny has been enjoying it this past week while Jorja was at swimming lessons - pretty much an hour of uninterrupted solo time. She has a CD with 30 kids songs on it ranging from 'The wheels on the bus' to 'Down by the bay' to 'The itsy bitsy spider.' On Thursday Julie took Jorja to swimming lessons, and Ginny asked to sing. So I got her all set up and then I had to feed CeCe. I fed CeCe her bottle and came back upstairs to find her laying in the window, relaxing and singing. It was pretty cute. Later.

Ginny sings Cecilia

Out for supper

We just got back from some friends' house for supper. We had a great time, good company, and the girls are wasted. Their kids are a little older than ours (youngest is 6), but they always have a blast out there. We made Ginny have a nap this afternoon so that we could make it through. (On a side note, we have gone without naps for probably a week now, and things have been great - she goes to bed no issues, and usually before 7:00) We were upstairs visiting when our friends' six year old son came up with Ginny close on his heels. He went to a closet and proceeded to get out a pair of real scissors. I noticed this, and made his father inquire about the situation. It turns out Ginny had been styling his hair, and apparently it was time to step it up a notch. Close call.

I was another rainy day today, and the forecast has rain each day for the next week. Julie was able to get a bit more planting done yesterday (some annuals in pots), but we still have some more to do. I got the grass mowed too, which is a good thing as well. We took turns holding CeCe and watching the other two while the other one did some work. The girls were putting on performances again at the top of the play centre. Jorja had apparently gotten over her stage fright from the last time she tried, and was belting out the songs. I always wonder what the neighbours must think. She's all right, but I don't think we'll be seeing any footage of her childhood singing when she's the Canadian idol.

I'm not sure what tomorrow will hold. This is the first week without preschool, and it already seems to be tough to keep track of the days. Maybe a trip to the library. Later.

Step-father

Today was a first - I took all three girls out by myself. Julie is suffering from a bit of a stomach flu and didn't feel like venturing out this morning. So I took the plunge - packed them all up and headed for Walmart. I escaped relatively unscathed, the girls were somewhat well behaved (I only had to threaten them once), and all in all, it was a success. Except that it started to rain quite hard while we were in the store, so we had to run for the car not really dressed for the rain. I don't like getting wet.

The weather got a bit better for a while after lunch, so I took to tackling the dandelions once again. It's amazing how many there are. Jorja and Ginny came out too to keep me company, and were playing there own little game. Well, Jorja was anyway. The two of them were princesses and I was the step-father. She told me exactly what my lines should be and how I should act. "Daddy, just say 'Get back in the house and do your chores!'" It made my part very easy. Eventually I asked her why I was the step-father. She replied, "Because you're mean." I think Disney needs to rethink their evil step-parent philosophy. Apparently all step-parents are getting a bad rap.

Later on today, we got quite a good thunderstorm complete with some hail. Seeing as how the girls have never seen hail before, I called them to the door to check it out. I've always enjoyed watching hail. They didn't seem to share my enthusiasm. They looked, said 'Oh yeah' and went back to what they were doing (Jorja was playing computer games, and Ginny just leaving a path of carnage in her wake).

I think my addiction to Glee is having some detrimental effects on the girls. I have to admit that I usually buy at least one song that they do every week. I've always kind of had a soft spot for Vanilla Ice, so I bought their version of 'Ice Ice Baby'. I know, it's not something I'm proud of. Anyway, the girls have kind of taken a liking to it and Ginny walks around singing it a lot. 'do-do-do-do-do-do-do, Vanilla Ice Ice Baby' What have I done?

I bought a rototiller off Kijiji today, so I'm quite excited to try it out. We're going to attempt a bit of a garden this year, so we'll see how it goes. Hopefully the rain stays away long enough tomorrow to get out there for a bit. And a friend of mine soldered my sprinkler pipe today, so we should be ready to go in the backyard.

Anyhow, I am up much to late after watching my PVRed CSI and The Mentalist. Time for bed. Later.

No naps

The past two days, Ginny has gone without a nap. It all started yesterday afternoon. Julie had to go to a physio appointment right after lunch. So I went to put Ginny down for a nap. She is so independent these days, and if she can't do something herself, it results in huge hysterics. Falling down on the floor kicking and screaming. Going totally limp when you are trying to carry her. Where do kids learn that? Is it instinct? It's very effective at any rate. I forget what set her off, but she was not happy. We always start time by singing a couple of songs, which she picks. She didn't want to pick any, and did not take kindly to any of my suggestions. So finally I had had enough, and just put her into bed. But you can't put her into bed, she has to get in herself. Now she sleeps in a toddler bed, so it's like six inched off the ground. Well, you'd think she was scaling Mount Everest to get in when she doesn't want to. Yet she can climb to the top of the play centre in the backyard with no issues. Funny how that works. Anyway, we were getting nowhere with going to bed, and CeCe was waking up and ready to eat, and I was by myself, so I finally told her that if she wasn't napping to go downstairs. Julie got home about an hour later, and everyone had calmed down by that time. She said she never would have guessed. At least it appeared that I had everything together. So when I took Jorja to soccer, Julie stayed home with the other two, and had Ginny in bed and asleep before 7:00 with no issues.

So we thought we would try it again today, and it went reasonably well. If this does work out (and I know enough not to let two days be enough of a trial), it will be nice to have more of an evening without children back.

The Shaw guy came today, and the internet seems to be better, but I'm still not happy with the TV. I'll have to call again once I calm down.

Anyhow, it's late, and I should be sleeping. Everyone else is. Later.

Soccer shoes

After preschool today, we went to Walmart to get some new runners for Jorja. Soccer starts tomorrow, and she doesn't have any. We had decided that it didn't really pay to buy cleats, so we were just going to get her some regular runners. I tried on some brand name ones that were in the $20 range, but they didn't have velcro or laces, just kind of an elasticized tongue. They were next to impossible to get on over her soccer socks. And I'm not about to get her anything with laces - that's just too much work. So I found a pair of no name velcro ones for $8. I'm not opposed to spending more money - if I really believed the shoes would make any difference in her soccer-playing ability, I would buy them. But the $8 ones fit good, and I asked her if they were good enough. She looked at me, looked at the shoes and said, "Yup, they have pink on them." Enough said.

We also had to pick up some new plastic pails for playing in the dirt in the backyard. On the weekend, we were playing soccer, when I inadvertently stepped on the 'carebear' one. It spent all last summer outside, the winter in the shed, and most of the spring outside. The plastic was so brittle, it basically exploded under my foot. Well, I thought the world was going to end. Jorja cried...and cried...and cried. Even upon my insisting that we would get new pails, she said thinking about the carebear one still made her sad. I even said we would get two pails - one for each of them - to replace this one sacred pail. Finally she agreed. So today we walk into Walmart, and they have lots of summer stuff in a section right by the front doors. I walk down the aisle without pointing anything out, and see some princess pails for $4.93 each. I couldn't believe it was going to cost me ten bucks to replace this brittle, old pail. So we walked to the toy section, and I ended up spotting some for a buck. And they had pink, so all was well.

CeCe had been kind of fussy, so Julie stayed home with her. Lately, when I go somewhere with just the two girls, they insist in driving the red car. We went to get propane for the BBQ on Saturday, and Jorja said, "Yeah, this car is better. It has more power."

Ginny spent the whole car ride today singing 'Cecilia, you're shakin' my heart'. She gets the lyrics a bit mixed up, but she was right into it. She would close her eyes, tilt her head back, and just belt it out.

I went to work this afternoon by myself for coffee. It was great to see everyone and have an outing on my own. I love my kids, but it was a nice break.

I think that was about it for today. Later.

More rain = more crafts

I'm going to start today's post yesterday. We were driving home, and listening to the radio. It's kind of a battle between Julie and I - whenever one of us is out of the vehicle, we switch stations. Anyway, yesterday I had won, and we were listening to the '80's station (satellite radio). Def Leppard came on with 'Pour Some Sugar on Me.' I was trying to educate the girls that this was good music, and maybe they should get into it a bit, you know, bang your head a bit. Jorja replied, "I'm not grooving Dad, because I don't like it." All right then.

I'm amazed at the power of a sticker. We've been having some issues lately with bedtime (and by issues, I mean crying, wailing, tantrums, getting out of bed, general carrying on), so we decided to try a different approach. Ginny's issue is going to bed. Jorja's issue is getting up too many times during the night, and too early in the morning. We got them this big book of stickers and each special book to put their stickers in. All they had to do was stay in bed all night, and not come out till 7:00 am. IT WORKED!! If CeCe hadn't been so snotty and up with that, it would have been my best sleep in years. As it was it was actually pretty good. Jorja got up once in the night to pee, and didn't get out of bed till seven. Then she asked if she could go downstairs by herself and play computer games. I was kind of in shock. She would get up by herself and let me stay in bed?! I was all over that. She cam back up after about half an hour and asked if I would get up. So I went down and dozed on the couch. Ginny came down at 8:00, and I turned on Sesame Street, and dozed on the couch till 9:00 while they watched that. I was in heaven.

It was still raining today - will it ever end? Oh well, at least we didn't get snow. After preschool, Jorja was wanting to do something special again on the rainy day. I knew exactly what she wanted, but I was playing dumb. What would be special I asked. I don't know, she would say. This went on for a while when finally I relented. Would a craft be special? Well, that was apparently the answer. We did a quick internet search, and found some egg carton caterpillars. It went quite well - she is definitely in her element with glitter glue in one hand and sequins in the other. Ginny had fun too, but most of her decorating consisted of stickers. That's just as well too. I didn't take any pictures, so you'll have to use your imaginations, put they are pretty awesome.

Hopefully it's nicer tomorrow - I'm not sure how much more Martha I have in me...