Ch Ch Ch Changes

Wow. Where to begin. As usual I have absolutely no time to be sitting here typing away and even less to upload the hundreds of photos from my camera onto the computer so I can share some of what we've been doing.

Three weeks and 20 hours after we started, we finally finished stripping the garage door in preparation for painting it. It was starting to crack with an aligator-type scaling pattern and I knew if we just painted over it, it would happen over and over again. I borrowed a heat stripper from a neighbour 2 doors down and worked for about an hour a day during nap time or after the kids went to bed. Craig worked, too, and we were able to finish it on Monday this week. Then today I repainted the whole thing. It looks so much better than it did and I'm so proud that we were able to start something so tedious and completely finish it.

Now that I have the painting bug I went out and bought more paint for the front door and the exterior trim and pillar. The front door had this one spot that was bubbled and split, exposing the galvanized metal underneath; plus it was the same colour as the garage which I know is a decorating No-No (ahh, what do I know, it was my Mum who told me that). So this afternoon I sanded the front door and washed it all down before painting it black. Yep, black. I've always wanted a black front door. I remember one house in the neighbourhood where I grew up had a black front door. I walked past that house every single day on the way to and from school from age 7 to 19 and promised myself that, one day, I'd have a black front door, too. Our house will be the envy of all the teenie-boppers who walk past on their way to the junior highschool down the street.

We went to Craig's uncle's cottage last weekend with Craig's parents and sisters, along with their families. It was generally uneventful aside from being put to work by Craig's uncle. It seems whenever we go up there we're assigned whatever job he's chosen for us. In the past it's been laying stone for the massive driveway, running pipe for in-ground sprinklers, laying sod, weeding the endless planting beds; this time it was putting down interlocking bricks on the staircase that winds down the side of the ridge to get to the beach. It was hard, heavy, dirty work and everyone worked like dogs. I appreciate that we're given the opportunity to stay at the cottage without charge but it feels like he's using us as free labor. I think I'd rather go to my family's cottage - which is far more humble than Craig's uncle's - and actually relax instead of favoring my sore hamstrings for 4 days.

The biggest news of all: Ian's potty trained! We started last week on Monday by taking away diapers during the day completely. There were a lot of pee accidents those first couple of days but he slowly learned to hold his pee for longer periods of time and by the time we drove to the cottage on Friday, Ian was holding his pee for over an hour. We stopped once on the 2 hour drive for him to pee and he remained dry through the whole weekend expect from one pee in his undies when he didn't quite make it to the potty on time. He's also been using the potty on his own a few times (so far it's nearly always us reminding him it's time to go). Pretty exciting stuff for a little guy who isn't quite even 2 years old yet. I'm so proud of him.

The most interesting thing is watching how much he's adapted to wearing underwear. Early last week he'd walk to the diaper basket in the playroom and pull one out and ask for it.

"Diaper on, Mumma, please. Right now."

It was hard to say no when he'd ask so nicely. He'd lay down on the carpet when I'd change Kyle's bum and ask for a diaper too. I've never seen him lay so still for a diaper change... ever. But we never gave in and Ian stayed in underwear during the day. Through pee accidents and poop explosions we consistenly wiped his bum and dug another pair of underwear out of the basket. Yesterday he got really mad when bedtime came and I tried to put a diaper on him.

"No diaper, Mumma! Unnies, these ones," as he pointed to a new pair of blue underwear plastered with little green tree frogs. I had to put the underwear over his diaper go get him to agree to wear it. He's still not able to stay dry through the night but staying dry all day has been a big step. Soon. Nighttime will come soon.