Fishing Hole

This weekend, we're heading to my parent's lake house. I was talking to my sister over the weekend, and she mentioned that Zoey is totally into fishing and they were planning to set her up with the essentials to fish over the weekend.



Well, if Zoey's going to do it, I bet it won't take long for someone else to want to.



So I went on Sunday to Academy and we picked out a Spiderman "fissing hole."



Apparently according to him, "Zoey is gonna be SOOOOOO proud." I hope she at least feigns an interest - is all I can say.



We practiced casting in the pool, and by casting I mean: We put the pole over our shoulder and push the button. Then we release the button and watch the casting practice fish fall to the ground. Then we pick up the little plastic red fish and throw it into the pool. And we watch it go all the way to the bottom. We refuse to lock in our reel by even doing a half turn. But then we decide we're done watching the fish at the bottom of the pool and reel the whole thing in. Lather, Rinse, Repeat. This is going to be a horifyingly hard thing to watch this weekend.

When you're tired you're tired

This isn't the first time they've both fallen asleep on top of me. Our first born dog and our first born person.

Monthly Newsletter #35

Dear Landon,

I'm sorry - did that say 35...as in 1 less than 36? As in I will be a mom of a 3 year old in a month? Huh, interesting.

We've been gearing up this month for your birthday - which is in one month. I'm not sure you were totally aware of the existence of birthdays other than occasionally we went places where someone was having a birthday party and at least twice a bunch of people showed up at your house - what seemed like spontaneously to you - to celebrate you birthdays. This time, we're talking about it more, about how it's coming up, about how we're going to invite your friends from school, etc. Unfortunately we may have started a little too early because every time we get in the car now, you ask if we're going to your birthday.

The temperature finally dipped below 100° again, which also brought your allergies and the ever following sinus infection back on. I wish there was a way I could get rid of those for you, you have all my sympathies, as I am suffering right along side you. in fact your doctor said, to me that since they can't test you for allergies and so far your flare ups have coincided with mine, that when I need to take something, I should also give something to you. Great.

We've been dog-sitting Kane for the last week or so, and while this dog was quite a bit bigger than ours, you have been just fine with him - after a little initial trepidation. Having him in the house - being as big as our two dogs put together has given you some interesting perspectives on size. You are now claiming Scarlett and Fiona are little dogs...which isn't exactly true.

You are beginning to point out letters you see out and about and mostly you even seem to get them right - or at least close (as in similarly shaped letters). You still love being read to, so much in fact that you pretend to read to Scarlett occasionally. I wish I knew what brought that on and I hope it's something I can encourage as you grow - reading has never been my favorite activity.

It's hard to give you a directive for a month when nothing overly bad happened. Keep on being good, still work on standing to pee, try to avoid the sinus infections.

Love,
Mama

I owe you one

I should have a newlsetter here - I actually have it half heartedly written, but I don't have time to proof it or add the pictures, and I'm having an allergic reaction to the horse we have living in our house.

I'll try to get it posted on Monday, I promise.

Animal House

Look what someone left on my front porch!
This is Kane - and he actually wasn't left on my front porch - he was left in my kitchen. He's awesome. Did you know that some dogs actually do what their owner tells them to do when they tell them to do it? I had no idea - our dogs certainly don't.

We're watching Kane for a little over a week while his people go on a road trip.

Dobermans tend to attach to one person, so on the first night he woke up 15 times to look for his person, but he's doing much better now.

Our cats have been pretty absent from the backyard and although the hope that he would chase away the stray that has adopted us - has not actually occurred, the good news is that our two cats are at least still around. Actually Kane was the one who chased Alexander out of our backyard a few years ago and he couldn't find his way back - it took me a week and two rounds of sign postings before he finally turned up just 3 houses away. Alexander had been keeping his distance from the backyard - I hadn't seen him in 3 days, so this morning I opened a can of tuna an walked up and down our street calling out "Alexander, Salamander!" (He doesn't come for "heeeere kitty kitty." That's probably my fault, but you never think about how you'll sound walking up and down your street with an open can of tuna calling your cat when you teach him to come for funny rhymes.)

Anyway - Alexander apparently is hanging out across the street at our neighbors' who are on their annual 6 month trip to the Northwest. Which is fine, that he finally showed up (read: after 10 minutes of me yelling and sing-songing and walking around with a can of fish stinking up my arms because I didn't drain it and instead thought that sloshing it on myself was a better option) tells me that he at least knows how to get back home when Kane leaves next Friday all should be back to normal.

Anyway, back to Kane - nothing makes an 80 lb dog look like a small dog more than a 130lb dog.

Landon wasn't too keen on Kane at the beginning ("I want that big black dog to go home!") But he's adjusting, and if nothing else, it makes him appreciate Scarlett more. This morning while I was cleaning dishes from breakfast, he read Scarlett 2 books. (I'm using the term read very very loosely here). Plus Kane has some quirks that are working to our advantage - he won't go upstairs or into our bathroom, so if Landon feels like he needs to get away from Kane, he has 2 options...he has no such options when it comes to our dogs.

Kane also doesn't horn in on the dishwasher while I'm trying to wash dishes. Or lay down behind me very very quietly so that I turn and trip the next time I move, or whine about a lack of attention, or bark at me for dancing or just flat out ignore me when I say it's time to go inside from the backyard. I'm thinking of sending one of ours back to his house to see if they notice - they sell Doberman costumes, I'm pretty sure.

Well, I'm at least hoping that some of Kane's habits rub off on our two and not the other way around.

And we thought the give away that night was useless...

Fine

Do you know what happens when you stop blogging for a while?

The portion of your brain that tells stories and tells them with half an ounce of funny begins to die. And then you go to pick up where you left off and you can't. Because you're brain dead. And when you finally get time to sit down and blog about something, you can't think of anything. Because you're brain dead.

Also affected is the portion of your brain that thinks about taking pictures, because in lieu of a good story you can always post a funny picture. Except if you don't have any because your camera hasn't left your purse in a week.

So this week I'm going to make a bit more of an effort to take the pictures and think of the funny, and then in turn tell you. But that kind of means that I have this week to come up with the blogable stuff before I can write about it.

I can't post from work, but I could supposedly read from work. I tried reading some blogs at work, and then weird things happen, like I'm reading a post and I try to comment and it's blocked for "p0rn." So that pretty much takes care of not blogging from work. So when I finally get the chance to sit down at home to read the other people's blogs, I see that they are not suffering from my same disease and I am overwhelmed by the shear number of posts I have to read just to catch up. I have even dropped a few from my reader to make it easier (not you, you're awesome, I dropped people who have never been and never will be here) and still - no good.

I'm still working out the kinks, trying to get a new schedule going, one that will allow for at least a little bloggery each day.

In the meantime I will grace you with a few baseball pictures - as we did go to a game last Friday with my family. He loved the game, although the fireworks were loud and he spent most of the fireworks show crying.

We walked within a couple feet of Hunter Pence, and then within a couple feet of his police escort and then by a family who was peeing on themselves about being that close to Hunter Pence. He looks even taller and ganglier in person, if that's even possible, seriously, the man is all arms and legs. I said to Landon, "Hey, did you see that guy? That was Hunter Pence. He's an Astro." And Landon was like "Whatever, you said something about ice cream, when do we get the ice cream?"

Big Bad Bumble Bee

Yesterday we found out that Landon has not inherited my allergic reactions to bug bites. And also his isn't worse than mine either.

We went to my sister's house to cook a brisket and he was walking around outside barefoot. He and a bee got into it, and I actually was close enough that I pulled the bee out of his toe. It was the piggy that got no roast beef. I also happened to be carrying my Benedryl spray, since I had gotten bitten by an ant a little bit earlier, so the Benedryl spray was on it within 5 seconds.

We then spent the next 15 to 20 minutes (or years, depending on who you ask) telling him that we knew he didn't want that bee anymore. And finally, the cure for a bee sting? A tube Popsicle. Thank goodness for Brianna!

The sting is virtually non-existent today. My ant bite is about 4 times the size it was yesterday. Not that anyone cares.

Basketcase

I went to HEB on Saturday armed with a list that contained not only my menu for the week, but my grocery list. I lost my list somewhere between the potatoes and the shrimp. And I nearly cried.

Proof that I don't even know who my parents are anymore

This board game contain approximately 789,367 pieces. It's all about numbers and I'm all about numbers, so they were pieces I habitually begged to haul out so we could play. Pieces that my mother said were a pain in the butt to clean up and NO, no one was willing to play said game with me. Also, don't even think of dragging it out and just playing by yourself, I don't want all those pieces in the living room...last weekend she pulled out this game and played it.

Also they let him put stickers all over the kid rocking chair. An offense, I'm pretty sure would have been punishable by stringing up by the toenails when I was a kid. And the explanation? "Ehh, we're grandparents now."

If anyone sees my parents let me know, I'm pretty sure these people are impostors.

Landonisms

Yesterday when I picked Landon up from school, he told me that "Kaffoleen and Zoey beach not have crab, only YOUR beach have crab."

He also asked if crabs go to sleep in their shells.

Yes, I think they probably do.

"Wif itty bitty pillows?"

Sure, why not.


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Landon is no longer willing to put on a diaper. For any reason. Not even bed. "I not wear diapers, I wear unnerwears." Of course he did. I have about 65 pull-ups left from a package of 80.

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All thing medium are known as "big little."

Do you have a little pillow that goes in your crib?

"No, I have a big little pillow. BIG-LITTLE, MOMMMMMMY!"

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Landon refers to the wet bar as his "backyard." We keep the majority of his downstairs toys in there, and I have no idea when he decided it was his backyard.

Disclaimer

So my new job is great, except I can't post from work anymore - and I'm kind of beginning to remember why I don't like cubicles, well, I could probably do the thing where I email a post, but you wouldn't get any pictures and I know some of you are only here for the pictures.

This week is hectic, getting back into the groove of things, having to work late each day this week to make up for missing Friday...I'm going to try to get back to a regular routine of posting next week. I hope.

I'm also behind on my reading of blogs, so if you read here and I haven't commented on your blog in a week or so, I'm sorry - I will, I promise.

Monthly Newsletter #34

Dear Landon,

This month has been one of the best and one of the worst months. We spent 75% of this month together, I was laid off from work and I decided to keep you home even after I knew that I had an eminent job offer. In some respects it was perfect timing.

You are potty trained. And so proud of it, the ladies at the day care were also so excited to see you were potty trained, although they quickly discovered not to ask what's on your underwear, because you will drop your pants right then and there to show them. You quickly grew tired of the positive reinforcement prizes we put in place. You're perfectly happy to just pee in the potty, because you know it means you won't be sitting around all wet. Now if we could just get you to stand to pee, we'd be in business.

When I found out that I had a job, but just had some time off, I started planning lots and lots of fun things to do. Some ended up being more fun than others. As it turns out, we could have gone to Hermann park and just rode the train all day - it would have been more fun than going to the zoo in 100° weather. And also, the play I took you to at Miller Outdoor Theater was kind of a letdown, but riding and getting on and off the train that day was super awesome. The Blue Bell ice cream factory was probably the least exciting for you, but you did like that it ended with ice cream. I think our best adventure was to the Children's Museum and I can't wait to plan a day to go back again.

We also did a few things that were cheap and free. You have a new found love of the library and your 20 books trophy. Next year if we participate, we're doing 20 hours instead of 20 books. Because you and I can go through 15 books in one sitting, and that doesn't even count that fact that we read each one at least twice.

We probably went to the park one too many times, although on one trip when we fed the ducks we discovered one of the large male ducks had fishing line wrapped around one of his feet. It was so tight he was limping and it was swollen. I called animal control and the guy showed up to look at him. I told you that he was the animal guy and was going to fix that duck. We talked about how when something is wrong, you should do what you can to fix it, and if you can't fix it you should call someone who can, and that's what we did by calling animal control. And thank goodness when we went back about a week later I couldn't even tell which of those ducks had been the hurt one.

We also discovered a few more, better shows on TV instead of only watching Sprout. I have a higher tolerance for Caillou when it's not the same 3 episodes over and over again and we discovered Sid the Science Kid (whose grandmother needs to stop laughing or get a new laugh or something - but otherwise is a neat show) and Super Why (although the concepts and letters and spelling stuff is a bit beyond you, you love this show too.)

I'm not going to lie, you are a handful and my patience was wearing thin, and I was really pretty relieved to hand you back over to the Day Care. But I was also relieved that you wanted to go back. When went to tell them the Thursday before you started back that you were coming on Monday and you pitched a huge fit about not wanting to leave - it was a good sign, but even better was that on Monday morning, you gave me no problems about going back to school. I'm glad we had this month together. You may not remember all the stuff we did later on down the line, but I think it was worth it anyway.

This month is going to be different, not better, not worse, but different. Please have patience with me while I adjust to my new job, oh, and consider standing up to pee - it's all the rage amongst the people who have your similar parts.

Love,
Mama

Checking in

So, my new job is...a new job. There's a new building layout to learn and new procedures to learn and the hardest part for me, which is the meeting of new people and trying to remember their names the next time I see them, which I hardly ever do (and short of using the demonic voice that House Bunny uses, I'm not really sure how to remedy this.) and oh, having to ask for the day off on the Friday of my second week. (Which they actually were really cool about.)

Landon is LOVING being back at school, yesterday it took me 15 minutes to convince him that we had to leave. Everyone was excited to have him back and see that he was potty trained. So much so in fact, that today - I got off earlier and decided to come home and then I'll go pick him up. Next week, I'm considering working out during this time. (Go ahead and laugh, I did.)

Only issue I have right now is that I can't access the website where they have the cameras at his day care from work...which sucks, but it's not like I was looking at him a lot anyway, and also everytime I tried they were mostly somewhere else in the building that I couldn't see anyway.

No other guy

So much for my margarita buzz, Landon came in second in the ultimate toddler fighting challenge cage match that we put him in, and all I got was a bunch of blood to clean up.

Actually I think he has started his journey in life as a true boy. The one all boys go through where they do stupid stuff to impress girls.

We went out to dinner last night to a local Mexican restaurant that has a playground and seating outside, it's one of the best places to go in the area with a toddler for a decent dinner and also not have to listen to the whining and crying.

Landon was a little rambunctious yesterday, but not terribly so. We always let him play on the playground pretty much unsupervised, he can't get out without passing us, and he's never really been a daredevil. We do a visual check on him every couple minutes or so, to make sure he's still there and still ok, but otherwise, we kind of feel like he needs his space and he's entirely comfortable doing everything they have on the playground.

I had just finished eating and was doing a spot check on him, when I realized, all I saw was his shoe. His horizontal shoe. I was not facing the playground, so I asked Clint if he fell. Clint saw a white shirt standing and said no, he's right there. I said, no I think he fell. I got up to go investigate. Fully expecting to find out that he tripped and was just overreacting to the amount of mulch he was covered in.

When I got to him, about a foot to the side of the ladder of the playground equipment, the white shirt Clinton had seen was that of a little girl asking "where is your mommy?" I still didn't know what I was in for until he looked up at me. His face and mouth was covered in blood.

He was already getting up himself, so I knew he was mostly ok. I scooped him him and carried him through the restaurant to the bathroom. I faced him slightly away from me, partly to keep the blood off my shirt, but it served in my favor when the guy sitting at the table closest to the bathroom saw us coming and jumped up to open the door for me. Not to mention the deer in the headlight looks I got from everyone else.

I don't really know how long I was in the bathroom with him, I know that the guy who opened the door's wife came in to to what she could to help. We cleaned him off as best we could, we got his nose to stop bleeding and the blood in his mouth went away (not sure where it came from in the first place, we thought he might have bit his lip or tongue at first, but maybe he just sucked some blood in when he was crying.)

She went at one point to get him some ice, and at that point Clint had already paid the check and was standing outside the bathroom with my purse - I guess ready to drive to the hospital if needed. And she told him that everything was ok and that it looked at lot worse than it actually was. By the time we had come out, Clinton had made friends with the guy who opened the door.

Landon was actually a lot more upset by the fact that I wasn't willing to let him go back out and play on the playground some more in his bloody shirt.

We still don't really know what happened. He says he fell off the ladder. He says he was doing tricks to impress the girls on the playground. He says he hit is face on the ground, he says he hit his leg on the ladder, he says he was doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing. He says his head hurts, and when you ask where, he says it hurts on the playground. Which is NOT helpful information. As I type this, about 30 minutes after the fact, Clinton is still a nervous wreck and Landon is singing and telling stories to his bath toys. His nose is crusty bloody still, and he's going to have a small bruise on his forehead. He's going to be fine.

You should see the other guy!

Surfin' Safari

On Monday I headed down to the Swamp to pick up my mom and then we drove out to Quintana.

Landon really liked the sand, he was not happy about the water trying to get him, or the idea of crabs in general, and also, would rather pee in a potty than on the sand, thank you very much. Which, yay! Except, Boo - the potties are way too far away, why won't you just pee on this dune?

We tried to teach him a little about horseshoes, and he figured out it was just easier to walk over and plop it right down over the stick.

I've been waffling back and forth about putting him back in Day Care this week. I've landed on keeping him home. I don't think I'll get anything done anyway, and I probably won't have another chance like this for a while. One of the things I have been working with him on is talking about his day with his Daddy when he gets home, a kind of day in review. And this was the first day when he volunteered information! I hope he'll tell me about his days at school now.

When I told him we wold be going to the beach he requested that we have a picnic, so here he is eating a (probably sandy) apple - this was a major highlight of the day apparently.

I'm just too tired to stretch this out any longer

So, when last we left off, we were at a baseball game on Wednesday the 8th. I'm going to try to catch up to semi-real time this week, so bear with me if it goes too fast.

That Friday we went down to LJ - or The Swamp as some so lovingly refer to it. We met up with my sister who has every other Friday off and we took advantage of the things that they have to offer that are free (except the Sea Center, because we ran out of time and the kids needed naps.)

Anyway - we played in the fountains, which Landon is STILL referring to as The Mountains.

He acquired someone else's bucket and then tried to also acquire their watering can, and was told he had to give up one or the other and he was lucky they didn't make him give back both, because really neither was his. This has led to the need to announce that every bucket we own is a good bucket to take to The Mountains next time. Got it, I was not prepared, moving on.

We went back to Grandma's to dry off and then headed out to the museum. Because my life has become trying to live up to the life of Caillou. And one time, he went to a museum and there were dinosaurs.

He was actually pretty afraid of the dinosaurs despite the fact they they have the glass case surrounding them so they can't get out (that wasn't always there, but I suspect they got tired of picking up the mulch that the kids would pick up from the display and throw on the floor.)

They had a small kids touch and learn something or other section and Landon and Zoey spent probably 60% of their time there. I don't really blame them.

Astros

Poor Landon. We should have dedicated a single day to his first baseball game. Instead we spent the morning in the time warp that was the zoo and arrived at the ball park with an overly tired toddler and two adults with low blood sugar.

We were in the second level, in the 3rd base outfield area. Right by a guy who thought he was the S$%& and was heckling Jones from the Pirates. Luckily the people on either side were mesmerized by our delicious toddler, and laughed heartily at the heckler guy.

The game was really fast - since the Pirates couldn't seem to even get on base. Which is not a complaint by the way - I prefer a fast game, and even so much better when the Astros win. 5-0.




Despite the full on tiredness of the afternoon, Landon was all happy and giggling, until I made him take a potty break. And also until he found out that we were not going to go down after the game and play baseball ourselves on the field. He told us probably 20 times, "but I wanted to go down and play." We told him we knew and we were sorry that we couldn't, but that if he REALLY wanted to play there he'd have to practice really hard, and be really really good at it and he might get a chance to play there one day.

After the game he was in no mood to stand by a giant baseball, or near Biggio or anything. We were simply the most terrible parents for not allowing him to go down on the field and play.

But if you ask him now, what we did that day, he will tell you we went to a baseball game and caught baseballs and then threw them. Even if that's not entirely true.

Train Ride

I haven't been on this train since I was a kid. It's so much bigger than it used to be. And the ride seemed longer. And I learned a lot about what's in Hermann Park. And it has like stops and stuff.


Apparently there are some Japanese Gardens you can go to for free, there's a splashy water park area and play ground. The new train station is nice and we showed up with no one in line practically and when our ride was over there was quite the crowd.

Landon was a bit confused because we had told him that after the zoo we were going to a baseball game, and since the train makes 3 or 4 stops, at each one he asked "We're at the baseball game?" And then I made him stand by the engine and pose and he was tired and we were CLEARLY not at the baseball game, but back where we started.

Offer made, offer accepted

I will start work on the 27th.

YAY!!

Zoo!

Do you know where to go when you want time to stand still?

As it turns out, when it's 100° outside, and 400% humidity, the Houston Zoo is where time stops.

Clinton took off work on Wednesday so that we could take Landon to the zoo and we also got tickets to a 1:05 Astros game. So the entire time we were sweating our hineys off at the zoo, we kept thinking, man, the game's gonna start in a few minutes and we're going to be really late, and ...oh, nope, it's only been 10 minutes. Well, surely by now it's getting close to lunch time. Oh, just 10:30, you say? Hmmmm. The ENTIRE TIME we were there, felt like that. Only worse.

I didn't get any really good pictures because even the animals were having a terrible day. This bird happens to be in a 8x8 pen and that's the only reason it was close enough for this shot.


This is some kind of piggy...birdie bank.

And here's a kid who is trying really hard to a) not go out to the car yet because he's afraid he might fall asleep if he's still for 10 seconds and b) not go to the potty even though it's been 2 hours and his mother is insisting that it's time for a freaking potty break already - if not for him then for her!

It wasn't a SUPER bad time or anything, but we definitely learned our lesson about when you go to the zoo. As in - not during the summer. Our next Zoo trip will be in the fall or next Spring, because I remember our May 2008 trip being so much more fun than this.

Does anyone know what this plant is?

It was at the Zoo. It was a bush. Clint was intrigued.

The Children's Museum, Part B

So, last Monday I decided, with news of my impending employment, that our time was better spent playing with each other and spending money while we could instead of frugally trying to stay home all day or just go to the park and the library and swim in the back yard.

I have to preface this by saying that the only memory I have of the Houston Children's Museum was a faux grocery store, and so I kind of balked at the fact that it was going to cost me $7 for each of us to get in and $7 to park (assuming I stayed more than 3 hours, which at $7 a head I was going to.)


But holy moly was that place great.

I made the initial mistake of allowing him to turn off at the first exhibit instead of going to the one that reaches capacity first, and in doing so, we never did get into that exhibit - since you can't pull a 2 1/2 year old away from something fun to stand in line. Or, I guess you can, but you and all the other people in line will regret it. So we still have a pretty good section that we didn't even get to see.

One of the first things he found was a maze thing where you use 2 cranks to move a wooden square holding a ping pong ball over holes in a board to drop to deliver the ball to any given hole. Actually I think the goal is NOT to have the ball drop through the holes, but for a 2 year old I think dropping it in the holes is a better goal. Whatever, I'm making up my own rules here, who's gonna call me on it?

We probably could have spent the entire 5 hours there. But we moved on.


The water area was neat - if very wet.



They had this part where they have pipes like the PVC pipes he has at home, except when you make a pipe structure and stick it on the one in the water it will actually spit water out the end of your pipe- which is way cool. Or at least I thought so, he thought the balls that floated and the boats were more interesting.



There were several places set up to give puppet shows, and he did just that at each one.


There were some awesome building blocks that I should have taken a picture of the name of because I totally want some. For him, you know, not that I need a fort or anything, but I know exactly where I...I mean, he could build one in the guest room, you know...for him.




In the invention area we made a rocket, a race car, and a paper airplane. Here he is seriously setting off our rocket.

We stopped for lunch, um who eats their corn dog this way?

And we spent some time in the toddler area, which was pretty boring and we decided to go back to get as wet as we possibly could before we left. Or at least that was his plan, it sure wasn't mine.

Our only issue came when I tried to make him use the potty every 90 minutes. So it might not be the best place to go while potty training, but it was still fun none the less, and the bathrooms had electrical plugs that a person could recharge her camera battery for the 3 or 4 minutes she was in there if that person had forgotten to charge it before leaving the house and if it kept dying on her...if you know anyone like that. Ahem.

All in all, I give the Children's Museum of Houston 2 thumbs up. And I think the $7 entry fee for everyone over 1 is totally worth it. Although - I think a person needs to be 2 1/2 or so to actually enjoy the exhibits just because they do take some fine motor skills, otherwise you might as well go to the mall and play on the indoor playground.

The Children's Museum, Part I

They have a line of these giant children on each post down the side of the museum.

Me: Hey go stand in front of your favorit kid and I'll take a picture of you.

Him: Ok [I'll show her, I'm just going to stand in front of the very first one, because I'm a teenager in a 2 year old's body.]

Me: Raise your hands up like the kid.

Him: No

Me: Please? It'll be a cute picture.

Him: I'll raise my shirt.

Me: No, not your shirt, your arms.

Him: I will give no cute picture moments to you, lady!

Public Toilet Tour 2009

We started our quest to visit every public toilet in he Houston area a couple weeks ago.

So far we've seen 8,534. And we even peed in most of them.

So as not to jinx anything, I don't want to tell you about how great it's going or anything.

The hardest part is breaking away from what we're doing every 90 minutes or so to take a potty break. We're just busy, ok?

I am not confident enough to let him just wait until he has to pee yet, so we do try to pee every hour and a half or so. And while he will generally tell me when he does have to pee, if he's into something interesting he may not mention it until it's, you know, like already coming out!

I may have also created a small monster when we left the rec center on day 2 and he told me he had to pee. So I let him pee in the parking lot. And now, he wants to hold his pee until we're in a parking lot so that he can pee in the parking lot again.

And admittedly, I have allowed him to pee in the parking lot, on the back porch, in the grass, and various other places. Not because I want to create a habit of this, but because he steadfastly refuses to stand in front of the potty to pee. He wants to sit. So I think if he stands to pee enough, he'll discover that standing to pee is awesome and may be ok with doing it in the potty that way.

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Housekeeping notes:

I am still technically unemployed. However, all those good vibes you sent out did work in my favor. The company is in the works of making me an offer, but the president, who approves all offers is travelling, and so their approval process is being greatly slowed by this fact.

My stress level has gotten much lower and I have taken a new approach to being home since I know that an offer is on the way, so where I had shuddered at the idea of spending any extraneous money previously, we have done a lot this week that did actually cost a small chunk of change. I do assume that I will accept this offer.

We went to the Children's Museum on Monday, and the zoo and an Astros game (Landon's first) on Wednesday. (Posts with pictures to come, but I have limited time as, Clifford is only on for so long and then we have to get ready to go to the library)

And now, the dogs need out, so they can bark at the neighbor's roofers.