Success

We had a big success in our house this morning! Let me give you some background first. I've been contemplating the potty training issue for Reed for some time. I found a great potty on one of the many websites that I like to watch, for a killer deal. It's the Boon Potty Bench. It's actually pretty neat. I made a big deal to Reed about the potty when I brought it home. I even went and got him a flip book about getting a potty and learning to use it. When I first showed him the potty, I had him sit on it and we read the book. Now, almost every day, he will want to get naked, sit on the potty and read the book. I figured that if one time he actually goes, we'll celebrate it and hopefully set ourselves a trend. This is not a scientific way of potty training, it's my half-baked idea until I figured out how to really do it. So for quite some time now, maybe a month, we've been sitting on the potty, reading the book.

This morning, we did the same, except he didn't really want to sit on the potty, he just wanted to run around naked (something he's been wanting to do for a few days now). I let him stay in the bathroom while I went and got his clothes ready for the day. I went back into the bathroom to get him and noticed he had pee'd in the potty! He also had an armful of toilet paper that he wanted to flush down the toilet. I'm glad that the door to the toilet was closed otherwise, I think we would have had an issue! Anyway, I kept telling him how proud I am of him and he is asking me to open the door so he can flush the toilet paper. I was so proud of that little guy! There is a little "boy flap" in the front of the potty and I know he actually sat down to pee because there was some on the boy flap. I dumped it in the toilet and let him flush, cause really, that's the best part!

He was getting proud of himself the more I kept praising him and we called daddy to tell him. He was excited about that too. I told him he was a big boy and then we got him dressed. He told me "big boy, pants on". That meant he wanted to put his pants on, cause that's what big boy's do. I hope this means we are on a path to potty training!

So I was going through my camera the other day and realized that I had a few pictures on there from like a month ago! I guess I haven't taken many pictures lately. Our adoptive grandparents (Reed's third set) - the Branch's - had their son, daughter-in-law and grandson in town mid-February. They invited us up to spend some time and let Travis and Reed play together. Their grand-niece was also there, Savannah Mae. Here is Angela (Travis's mom) overseeing kid dinner time:

I'm not sure what kind of faces Reed and Savannah are making but it's funny cause it seems to be the same face!

And here is Jason (Jim and Dianne's son, Travis's dad) showing Reed and Travis movies on his Ipad. They were watching some Cars clips.

Cheers for now. We've got lots of stuff coming up soon so I'm sure the blog will get busy in the next month or so!

How do you begin...

As you know (unless you live under a rock), Japan suffered a crazy big earthquake and crazier tsunami on Friday. After looking at pictures, one ends up putting themselves in question as to how these people move on. I can't help but wonder how I would physically and emotionally navigate the wreckage of what used to be my life. These people didn't have time to pick up family heirlooms or pictures. They didn't have time to pack an few days worth of clothes, food and water. And when they returned, it must have been hard to determine exactly where your house would have possibly stood. Streets were covered with cars, houses, and what would have seemed like an endless amount of debris and trash. I watched one video where a box truck was floating down the road and the back door opened. Boxes of what looked like mail or a delivery of some sort just spilled out. This would have happened all over the stricken areas. The amount of fear felt by these people would be hard to measure and understand. And now they have the task of not only cleaning it up, but also dealing with the growing nuclear problem that has resulted.

And as my title says - how do you begin? How do you begin to understand the complete destruction? How do you begin to sort through your new life? How do you begin to clean this up? Rebuild? When I look at pictures, I think, is there a body somewhere in this frame that someone must find? How long will it be? Will there be a health issue associated with how long it will take to find everyone? When I look at pictures, I think, how do you go about cleaning this type of thing up? Do you sort good material from bad material and try to rebuild using the good? Where do you put contaminated material on such a small island? How do you even get machinery through these areas when there is no distinction between a road and where a house used to be? How do you come up with the resources to rebuild such a large area? When I look at pictures, I think, how are those people coping with such a huge event? How do they stand not knowing where a family member is for days? As you can see, I have many questions.

I watched a program today. It was very informative and interesting. It was the 20/20 aired on Friday afternoon, mere hours after the disaster struck. There are some captivating images and video. It is worth a watch or listen - you can find it here.

I also have been struck by many images over the past few days. I have copied them and included them below. I believe that the saying "a picture is worth 1000 words" is very true after viewing these. These are the images that spurn my questions above. They are heartbreaking, sad, overwhelming, and some are even full of hope. These are all from msnbc.msn.com. I cannot verify the chronological order here, they were just crazy images.

The tsunami, a mere 30 minutes after the earthquake

Here is some of the aftermath:

This is a before and after shot of the same area.

I thought it interesting how it cracked along the road lines.

That boat doesn't seem to belong there.

A completely intact house floating in the ocean.

How do you move that?

This man was floating on his roof and was rescued 10 miles out to sea days after the tsunami hit.

Oh my.

This was the most amazing image to me. That boat is much larger than that building and it somehow got perched on top of it. It is balanced perfectly as to not tip one way or another. It's like that wave was playing a game with humans. What do you do about this?

I have one more thing to share. My good friend Maggie's brother has his family in Japan. Luckily, they were safe and her brother is on his way to get them and bring them back to the US. The family is looking for donations to help them with travel expenses and helping his wife and children get clothes and other basic supplies. If you are interested in donating, let me know and I'll get your their contact info. Maggie's brother had to go about 24 hours without hearing from them.

Keep this country in your prayers, they need it right now!

Life

Life is really busy. It doesn't matter if you get through the current "busy" time, there is always another one lurking around the corner. Fogg and I also like to fill up every spare moment with something. As if working and raising a toddler aren't time consuming enough, we have second jobs, many enjoyable activities, fulfilling volunteer positions, and commitments with friends. Each Friday, I think, next week, that's the week I'm going to catch up on everything. And every New Year's Day, I say, gosh, I'm going to do really good this year at remembering people's birthdays and sending them cards and gifts. And my house project list grows and grows each day, and without actually accomplishing them, nothing gets checked off. And when it seems you have got a nice schedule and routine going, something gets added to change it.

I say all this cause we have A LOT of stuff coming up in the next few months. We have visitors, birthday's (all three of us!), anniversary, holidays, and general life must still go on. I look forward to March and April when I can do a nice spring clean. Open the windows of the house, dig deep into the grime of the house, cleanse it of all germs and yucky's, make it smell fresh again. Fit that into a full work week, teaching skiing, spending as much quality time with little buddy and the hubby as possible. I'm trying to get ahead on gifts and preparations for trips and visitors.

For those of you that crave the pictures of the little man or current adventures, hang in there for me cause there will be a lot coming up, but until then, I gotta start cleaning!

Cheers~

This morning

I have to share with you about my morning.

After I got myself all ready for work, I went in to see if Reed was awake yet. Most of the time he wakes up before I finish getting ready and he will join me while I dry my hair or put my makeup on. Anyway, this morning, he was quiet as could be in his room. I peeked in to see if he was still sleeping or what. He popped his head up and said "hi mommy!". I went and got him out of his crib, not before he grabbed not one but two dee-dee's (blanky). I sat down in the chair with him to just sit for a minute to allow him to drink some of his milk before I went to dress him. I sat him on my lap facing me. He indicated that he wanted the stuffed moose that was in the stuffed animal basket next to the chair. I handed it to him. He also wanted two doggy's, the buffalo and two reindeer. I put them all up between us. He then took his sippy cup and proceeded to feed each animal, making sure he had the sippy right up to their mouths. He then made a little sucking noise for each one as they drank. Then he would pull the sippy away and say "ahh". On to the next animal. Then we put them all back and said "night-night".

After getting dressed, we went downstairs (after he insisted on closing all of the bedroom doors upstairs) and I told him we needed to put our shoes and jackets on. He grabbed a pair of shoes (not the ones I intended to put on him that day) and ran off. He was trying to put them on by himself. He quickly realized he couldn't so he reached down and put a shoe on each hand. Then he "walked" around with the shoes on the ground. It took him a minute to figure out how to move one hand then the next in front of it, while moving his feet to keep moving forward.

It was a bit sad to drop him off at daycare today, I wanted to keep watching him do things like that all day.

Cheers~

Simple Communication

It's become evident in the past few weeks/months that Reed is getting very good at communicating. He can both tell us what he wants, and follow simple instruction. The tricky part is if either of us obey the command... For example: 'dootie' (cookie) doesn't mean I'll actually give him one or 'don't throw that Reed' doesn't mean he doesn't throw it. But I'm confident that he knows what I'm talking about and what I'm asking of him. And at this point, I think that we understand everything he is trying to tell us (with the exception of a word he uses often that we still haven't figured out, it sounds like 'da-dush?', with an emphasis on the question part of it). Here are some stories of our very intelligent young man.

As I was packing up on Friday morning to drive him to daycare and then myself to work, I asked him to go put London in his room and close the door. I started pouring my coffee and he ran off. He came back and said "doggy. door." I went to check and sure enough, London was in his room with the door closed!

I asked Reed to go get a diaper cause I could smell his poops. He came back to me a few minutes later (I was in the kitchen) and I look over to the living room and the wipes and diaper were so nicely displayed in the middle of the room for me to go change him.

We skyped with Auntie April Sunday morning. Reed was in a very good mood. I asked him to bring over the tractor to show April - he did. I asked him to blow her a kiss, he did. Then several times, he would bend over and give her a kiss on her lips - well her lips on the screen. The communication I got from that was that he really does love her and remember her.

He was sucking his thumb while trying to put his cars down the ramp on his play garage. I told him that he didn't have to suck his thumb all the time, that he could take it out of his mouth to play. The scowl that he gave me was priceless, much like his father's scowl, and pretty easy to understand what he was trying to communicate to me.

Want pancakes for breakfast Reed? Both hands high in the air - "YAY!". Easy one.

Tired after skiing? Couldn't tell by the way he was slumped over on me in about 5 minutes.

Don't want your food? "NO!". Empty plate passed to me "more?" he asks. Read another book "book more".

You get the point. I dressed Reed up to try to get a fun picture of him in an old man look complete with tie. He didn't so much like that. Let's look at the progression of pictures below.

Take the tie off!

No, you will not take my picture, I refuse!

Fine, I'll lounge but I'm not taking my thumb out of my mouth!

Are you done, I want to get up now.

Fine, I'll stand for one, but I'm not going to smile!

Seriously mom?

Now I must resort to tears mom, take it off!

Well, if that isn't communication, I don't know what is!

Cheers~

Baby, you can drive my car

Follow-up to last post: I took Reed out on some errands. We went to Old Navy, I found a few cute clearance items (a sweater, a pair of socks and a baseball hat all for $9). Then we went to Toys'R'Us and played a little. I didn't buy anything, but as you can see above, Reed really enjoyed the red Mustang. He climbed in it, played for a long time, then got out to check something else, but right back to the Mustang. I know his Grandma Fogg will be proud.

We also visited Target and got a potty. He dragged it around when we got home and we practiced sitting on it. I also got him a cute pair of boat shoes. Sure was nice to have a day off to just relax and spend some quality time with my little man.

We had a little superbowl party on Sunday. And by little I mean, our little family plus our friends Matt and Stacy and their two little ones - Luke (5) and Brooke (4 days older than Reed). It was a little crazy with the kiddos running around but Reed sure did love following Luke around and doing everything Luke did.

I wanted to get a picture of Reed and London sporting their Steeler's gear. Reed had his eyes closed, didn't like the flash. And London wasn't looking.

Second try, he decided he would ham it up a little. And London decided to look this time too.

Here is the decorated living room. Pretty sure everything was made by or purchased by my in-laws and sent to us over the years. We had 4 terrible towels (one toddler terrible towel), a homemade blanket, a terrible towel homemade pillow (as seen above), championship hats, superbowl collectible football from 2008, newspapers sent from Pittsburgh and more.

And part of my food spread. I made yellow cupcakes with black frosting (and they were delicious). Also made some sausage, which was a hit, gauc and pizza.

Too bad the Steeler's didn't pull off another win, it's been a little sullen around our house but we are coping. Cupcakes help a broken Steeler heart... Hope my extended family in the 'burgh are doing alright.

Reed chipped a tooth in the tub last night, chalk another injury on the list. It's a really minor chip but I'm going to swing by the dentist this week just to make sure (for my own peace of mind, Reed only cried for 30 seconds and was fine). Sure makes a mommy feel bad.

Reed has a few new words he's learned. Elbow and knee. I love teaching him new words and quizzing him on it. Also if I haven't mentioned it yet, (and this is more for my own records) he calls his blanky's "dee-dee" or "thee-thee". It's sort of a mix between the two of those. He made that up all on his own, we always called it blanky. When he is given something he wants, there is either a "thank you!" or the word for it said in celebratory tone. Pretty funny.

Well, that's all I got for now, cheers~

Stuff about Meg

I remember writing something about not making this blog all about my baby when I was pregnant. Ha! Now the main picture is Reed, the posts are about Reed, the pictures are all of Reed. A coworker of mine asked what the most surprising thing about being a parent has been and my response is that I'm so cliche. I never wanted to be the parent to share insignificant stories about my kid with people who don't really care. I never wanted to be the parent who plasters their personal space with pictures of their kid. I never wanted to be the parent who stares at my kid smiling all the time. I never wanted to be the parent that thinks my kid is the cutest and could do no wrong. Oh, and this is the parent that I am. So much joy comes from my little Reed. So that's why lots of my posts are about him.

So I'll switch it up this post and talk about what's happening for me. Today, I'm tired and burnt out. Actually, I've been tired and burnt out for a about a week, so I'm taking the day off. Well, day off from work at Backcountry.com. Two weeks ago, we were in the middle of Outdoor Retailer. A twice a year trade show held in Salt Lake City where we look at lots of skis, boots, avalanche equipment and stuff like that. Luckily that's close to home so I can sleep in my own bed and still see my family at night. Then two days back in the office and I was headed out of town for SIA (snowsports industry of America) trade show in Denver. I was gone for 4 days and it was hard to be away from the family. I did learn quite a bit and have some good conversations so it wasn't a total bummer. But it sure does make one tired to walk all day, talk all day, then talk all night. I've been tired all week just trying to recuperate. I finished lots of my work for the week and felt like not driving up to Park City again and dropping Reed off again, so I took the day off.

So right now, Reed and I are just chilling in the play room, both of us still in our PJ's and watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I'm trying to decide what to do for the rest of the day. Along with some household stuff I have to do (put laundry away, pay some bills, pick up the kitchen) I'd like to do something fun with Reed. Thinking of running some fun errands like toys r' us, even though I don't have anything to get there, I just know he would enjoy it, and maybe Target for some groceries. Fogg and I were discussing getting a potty for Reed to start him thinking about it. Maybe I'll go find one today and make a big deal about how mommy took him to get a special gift...

The Superbowl is on Sunday, as we all know, and the Pittsburgh Steelers are playing. Fogg is quite excited. We are going to have a few people over, make Pittsburgh foods and let the kids play together. I got a cookbook with Pittsburgh dishes a few years ago, so we are making horseradish guacamole, kielbasi casserole, pierogies and a homemade pizza (that's more for the kids). I gotta think of a dessert to do too. Maybe I'll make Steeler cupcakes or something...

I'm feeling very motivated to get some household projects done soon. Fogg's parents are coming over Reed's birthday time, so that is a good goal time to have some things accomplished. Usually, when Dick and Fran visit, we have a huge list of projects for them to work on, but this time, we are going to take a trip down south to Moab with them. I'm really looking forward to that. So we are going to have some stuff done before they get here. Here is my list for now: paint the master bedroom and bathroom, maybe paint the spare bedroom and upstairs hallway, get the carpets cleaned, get family photos taken, finish the backyard patio area and set up the furniture. Also, I need to figure out the plan for Reed's birthday. I don't think that I'm going to do a big party, just small family thing I think. I'd like to start putting together Reed's next step room. There is no rush to move him to a new room, but I'd like to start putting it together for when he is ready to move to a toddler bed. I'm making it a car themed room. Fran is making a steering wheel pillow and a street window bench cushion for me. I got a car bed sheet set on clearance already with matching lamp. I'm going to repaint the dresser to look like a toolchest, barn red with sleek drawer pulls. I also have some great ideas for wall art. I think he'll like it.

Before all that happens, it's my 30th birthday in April. Crazy. I'm totally ok with it actually, I feel like it makes me a real adult (as if owning a house, having a career, a 7 year marriage and a kid doesn't make it real...). I feel like it doesn't change much for me, it almost feels like - finally. I'm looking forward to building it up though, doing a big thing for it. I think I'd like to have a super nice dinner and maybe a night down in Salt Lake at a hotel. Dress up and everything.

Well, that's what was on my mind this morning. Typical planner personality thoughts - what's coming up next. Now off to get some stuff done. Have a great day!