We are wrapping up our trip to Ohio. Bob caught a hop back to Andrews AFB on Wednesday (big thanks to Ed for hanging around his office to meet Bob there and bring him back home). Before we left home, we called the passenger terminal, and there were flights to Andrews about every day. After we got here, the flights just sort of dried up! We were thinking that he'd fly home Monday or Tuesday, but there were no flights. It actually was really nice to have Bob stay for so long. We really got to relax! We had our double date, and we also would go hit the local hotspots after the kids went down--you know, Walmart, Meijers, etc. We're wild like that. Bob was also able to play a lot of games with the boys, go on walks to the playground, and do things like that.
We went back over to Amy's one evening, and we also had some playdates here. Tami, who used to live with my parents and was also a friend from high school, came over with her 3 kids on Monday. Her kids line up almost exactly in age with Caleb, Jonathan, and Anna (she has 2 boys and a Hannah!). Amy and Jacob came over on Tuesday, and on Wednesday afternoon, 2 of the Turkish women Mom works with came with their little girls. One girl was about Anna's age, and one girl was born in December. Anna is just not sure what to do with little girls that are her age and walk around! She's got the baby thing figured out--no threat there. But she is quite a bit more taken aback by ones who move around and play with the same toys she likes, LOL. We moms had a good time visiting. They were amazed that I just lay my kids down and don't rock or nurse them to sleep, so we had some discussion about that.
I was amazed at Azra, the girl who is Anna's age--she was playing, and then she came over to her mom and said something. Immediately the mom took her to the bathroom. When she came back, she told us that Azra was potty-training. I was so impressed! She obviously could feel the urge, since she told her mom! My boys were so clueless about potty things until . . . well, until close to 3, LOL. I've heard girls are easier to train. I can only hope! Anna so far has shown no sign that she has any clue what she's doing though. I thought I'd be doing well if she was trained b y 2 1/2!
Last night I met Amy at her mom's house, and we all scrapbooked together. When I lived here, we would do this about once a month. Now you can see why I was so caught up when we left, and why I am so behind now! I worked on pages from the summer of 2005--Nathan's 8th birthday, 4th of July downtown, our medieval feast, a trip to Rose's house on the lake, and our trip to Virginia Beach. Only 2 years behind! It was so fun eating pizza and talking. Grandma and Grandpa watched the kids, and Grace cooperated beautifully again with her bottle. A great way to end a wonderful trip!
The vacation isn't actually over however. Tomorrow we all (Grandma and Granda too) drive to Pennsylvania, to White Sulphur Springs, for the Wright-Patterson AFB OCF retreat. We'll be there until Monday, when we'll drive back to D.C. Bob will drive up tomorrow and meet us there, and then we'll caravan back home. So we'll be having fun riding horses, square dancing, listening to interesting speakers, making smores, and eating good food that I don't have to cook!
4 comments:
What a wonderful, wonderful time, Claire! We have laughed often about little Anna's dilemma with little girls her age.
I had s'mores tonight on our picnic up in the canyon. :) I broke down and had two!!
OK...how about if I leave a REAL comment?! Sounds like you guys are having a great time! Fear not, Claire, you're not the only one 2 years behind in scrapbooking! I just finished Christmas 2005 and was so proud to have finished the whole year...and then I took a look at the massive amount of pictures we have in the 2006 folder and got completely overwhelmed again! I think I'm just going to come up with a family Top 10 list of our 2006 highlights and scrap those. These days, it's a wonder I even scrap at all!!
Re: potty training, in our house Charis ended up teaching Arden long before I expected him to start training, but I don't know that the opposite way would work so much (a boy teaching a girl!)! I've always been amazed at those moms who beam that their kids trained early and "never had a single accident." We obviously don't have that gene in our family, ha!
We were able to teach Mary to sound out 3 letter words before we completed potty training!
Of course, I'd tutored lots of adults and children with phonics but had never potty trained anyone. We'll see how David goes. He was trying for a week, then decided the effort wasn't worth the measly few chocolate chips we were doling out. He loves cookies and knows it's the reward for "bigger things," but no luck yet.
Mary's also been informed that she'll get a cookie, too, if she gets him to go, but no luck with that yet, either.
We start homeschooling tomorrow!
I have some new spelling links up that you might enjoy, with some free online spelling resources. Also, I really like this Spelling Notebook, Tricks of the Trade. We found it for $1 at a sale! I like the way it's laid out, and it also makes it fun for the kids.
http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Spelling/spellingforsucce.html
Caden is very aware of when he is doing something in his diaper, but will not do anything in the potty yet. As a matter of fact the only thing I can count on is -- if I put him in the bath he will pee. I sit him on the potty for at least 5 minutes prior to every bath and nothing. As soon as his feet hit the water -- pee. Who knows.
My mom says that I was potty trained at 15 months. She says she showed me once and then I was obesessed with it -- I can only hope for the next one to be like that.
Sounds like you guys had a great vacation. We will be off to Ohio ourselves for a week at the end of September.
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