It's been a while since I've posted. I think my life has just been in a little bit of a funk.

A couple of weeks ago Dave's dad passed away. While it was expected it's not always easy to say good-bye to someone you love. That week we spent mostly at Dave's mom's house. The reason all the family was getting together was a little sad, but it was fun to hear memories of growing up and of Ken's personality. I had only known him since shortly before Dave and I were married, and he had progressed pretty far down the MS road by that time that it was difficult to even carry on a conversation with him. Dave spoke at his funeral and did a lovely job. I personally am glad that Ken was such a wonderful man because he passed much of who he was on to my dear husband, for which I am truly grateful. I marvel daily that I was blessed to be married to such a man as Dave.

Potty Training: Day 1

Really this is potty training day 1 1/2, and I need to insert that it is 100% Sabrina's doing. Yesterday, Sabrina said that she wanted to go pee-pees on the potty so I took her and sat her on the toilet. Lo and behold, she went. It was amazing. So I asked her if she wanted to wear panties. I am well stocked with all sorts of character underwear, all in preparation for the big day. She wanted to wear panties, but it didn't last so long. Less than an hour later she wanted her diaper back on. I think she lacked confidence in her ability to go to the bathroom.

Today it went much better. She stayed in her diaper, and only her diaper, which is currently her preferred outfit, until she got dressed...and I'm going to digress for a moment to tell a story. This morning Sabrina was watching a video while I was taking care of some stuff. Ruby woke up and Sabrina went up there to greet her into the new day by climbing in her crib and jumping up and down. Ruby had a messy diaper, so I was changing her. Sabrina had left and was off in another room. She came back in swinging her diaper over her head announcing that she had a poopie diaper. Luckily, there was no serious spillage...so back to my original topic. Now that the diaper was off. I asked if she wanted to go sit on the potty. She went there immediately and hopped on, took a minute and then went. I can honestly say that I didn't expect her to go. There have been so many hope inducing incidents in the past that didn't come to fruition that to save my morale I didn't expect anything to come of it. Never has there been a more joyful sound than a two-year-old's tinkle hitting the toilet water.

But wait. The story doesn't end there. She actually wore underwear, real big-girl underwear, for the rest of the morning with out an accident. Hallelujah! We even went out to do a quick errand and she stayed dry. Funny thing about that errand is that she was talking to me from the back seat and two-blocks later I took a peek at her and she looked like she had been asleep for hours. When we got home I carried her up to bed and she was out! She woke up just enough as I was laying her into bed to tell me that she wanted a diaper on. Maybe wearing underwear is stressful for her.

When she woke up she put the underwear back on, a new pair of course, with a new character on it. I got a little daring this evening and even took her out to Wendy's and to the little carnival the city has going on for Steel Days. No accidents! I am so proud of her!

A word on excursions. Lately, Sabrina has had this thing for public restrooms. I don't know how she knows where they are, but when it comes to community toilets she has a gift for spotting them, likely to come in handy some day when she is pregnant. Whenever she sees one she declares that she needs to go. Of course that plies to my innermost desires for a potty-trained child and we venture in. Naturally, she has to do everything by herself, including hanging onto the toiletseat for dear life (just the thought of it makes me want to barf, but if it is in the name of potty-training I'll endure), and we sit, and sit, waiting even for one drop. Never has that come to pass while in a public restroom. Yesterday it was the toilet in the park, today it was Wendy's.

I hope all this potty-training, staying dry routine isn't just Sabrina way of messing with my mind.

I don't want to leave Ruby out of all this either. She's had her own set of discoveries lately. Yesterday, we put her in Sabrina's room out of site from where Sabrina and I stationed ourselves on the top stair. For just learning how to crawl, that little girl has amazing speed.

She has also learned that reaching up means "Pick me up," but she also loves being on her own on the floor (always has since day one. She likes being held, but that child definitely needs time to herself). This created quite the little game for her today. I would put her down on the floor and she would reach up for me and I would pick her up. She would squeal, hug me, get that enormous smile of her's on her face, then dive back down to the floor, sometimes with so much force that I almost dropped her a couple of times. I say a couple of times because this game went on for probably an hour today while Sabrina was sleeping. I would pick her up, squeal, hug, jump, pick up, squeal, hug, jump and on and on. The funny thing about it was that as soon as I put her down it was like she couldn't resist putting her little arms up in the air, even if her eyes were looking longingly at her toys. But when I would pick her up there was that amazement in her face of "It worked, it really worked!" It was precious. She is a sweetheart that one. I think as soon as she starts walking she is going to be everywhere all at once.

We had family pictures on the 4th. This is a picture (L-R) of four grandchildren born in the same year Ruby, Courtney, Collin, Tyler. Aren't they adorable. I love this picture.

All the family together. That doesn't happen very often.

And our own little family picture.

Howdy! I am officially welcoming myself to the world of blogspot, because I have nothing better to do with my time, haha.  I figure it is a good place to reflect and remember.  Writing has always been therapeutic for me, maybe I can even pretend I am talking to a grown up. I am not the most enjoyable writer to read hopefully my skills will improve and people will find some humor or learn from my usually obvious mistakes in my day-to-day life of motherhood.