Hey Jude

Have you seen this? A must for Beatles fans or Korean toddler fans:

Guess what?

It's photo catch-up time again! So, without further ado...

In the fall, we had French doors put in connecting the living room and the deck. Here's the doors waiting to be put into place.

Cousins decorating cookies: 2 happy cousins and 1 sad cousin.
Now here's a happy cousin! New Dora and babies - what more could a gal want?


Doing the Santa Stomp! (Notice the nice light coming in through the new doors. Don't notice how we haven't yet primed and painted around the doors.)



Ruby's first sleepover with Iris (just kidding).
The blizzard of '08. Witness - you can barely make out the grass!
That's all for now. Stay tuned for a riveting post about how Ruby is ALMOST potty trained for #2!!!

The girls

I just thought this was a sweet picture of our sometimes-peaceable kingdom.

Music

I want to make a post about the music I heard in 2007 and what I think about it. I'm inspired because I'm trying to put together a CD for SIL Cate because she sends us music all the time. The band names are usually links to their myspace page and the album names are You Tube song links. I recommend clicking the record name links and the links in the paragraphs for the Youtubes. There's some great stuff out there!

This is some of the 2007 music I heard:

1. Nicole Atkins & the Sea - Neptune

I really love this record. I think it's her first and I'm not sure where I picked up on her but I didn't see it mentioned on any year-end lists. Says they're from "Brooklyn & Jerz" on the myspace so I'm not sure where we met but I feel like I got really lucky. As I get older it seems very difficult to find a new artist who doesn't sound just like several others who've already mined the genre for the interesting material. Nicole Atkins sounds very fresh to me and this record really stands out. Her Wikipedia page says she describes her music as "pop noir". She is playing Chapel Hill March 22 at 506 for 8 bucks - I love this town!

2. Teddy Thompson - Upfront & Down Low

Teddy is the son of Richard and Linda Thompson. I'd never heard of him before but heard him briefly interviewed on NPR and they played some of his music. His voice is incredible. His music is fairly straight forward country but he sounds very different to me. Reminds me of Dwight Yoakam and Chris Isaak but Thompson has an amazing sound all his own. I also have his 2005 record Separate Ways and I might like that even better. I've never been able to get into Richard Thompson but man, I never knew he had a son like this! Definitely gets my highest recommendation - 5 basketballs!

3. Amy Winehouse - Back to Black

Winehouse is somewhat of a disaster off stage but as far as musical talent she is in an elite class. Definite cognitive dissonance when you hear her sing and then see her picture. She sounds straight from Motown but she's actually a 24-year-old white Jewish chic from England. I've heard her dissed by some critics for mimicking 60's soul singers but she makes great sounding music. Something hard to find today. Back to Black is a supreme record.


4. Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha

I haven't really listened to Andrew Bird much. He's one of those artists that I've heard great things about but never pursued. Maybe you've heard him; he often whistles in his songs but it sounds cool, not Bobby McFerrin-esque. He probably can seem high brow but this nation is returning to a higher brow, right? Andrew Bird stands out in the oceans of music out there.

5. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

This record is on every one's 'best of 2007' list. They're the kind of band critics love - literate, interesting arrangements, from Montreal - and they are great. I LOVED their first record 'Funeral' from 2004. Neon Bible sounds similar but not as fresh to me as when I heard Funeral. I can't describe music very well but I'd put this band in the alternative rock group but they are so much more interesting than anything on the radio under that banner. Great band who I hope to see live one day.

6. Band of Horses - Cease to Begin

Lots of buzz last year on this band from South Carolina. They have a sound that appeals to one of my main music receptors - melancholy, yearning, pensive feel and they combine it with an arena rock ensemble. But in the end it seems a little manufactured and inauthentic, or just not fully matured.

7. Beirut - The Flying Club Cup

Another band that I serendipitously discovered somehow. Their Wiki says the band leader Zach Condon is only 22 which is pretty impressive given the sophistication of this music. I have no idea how to describe them but Wiki says they "combine elements of Eastern European and folk sounds." That's sounds right but I would consider them a rock band of some kind, not folk. The instruments are cello/accordion/guitar/mandolin/ukulele/drums/violin/baritone sax/trumpet/organ/keys/euphonium! Alls I know is it sounds really cool and fresh.

8. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Spoon is a great rock band from Austin, TX and I am very late to the scene here. I didn't hear them until their last record (thanks Marlo!), the outstanding Gimme Fiction, and I wasn't won over upon first listen. Their sound is distinctive (and uniform across cuts) and accessible but they seemed kind of gimmicky/trendy to my ears. But after repeated listens I've seen the light - Spoon is a great band! They remind me of Joe Jackson/Boz Scaggs, plus their groovy beats make for very danceable rock music. I'm embarrassed it took six records for me to finally catch up to these guys (similar story with another great Austin band, The Gourds).

9. Mavis Staples - We'll Never Turn Back

Wow, this record is really good. The songs are about the civil rights movement in the 60's, containing many traditional songs as well as a few originals. So we have a 68-year-old woman signing 1960's protest songs...not terribly exciting to this Gen X'er! But this record totally kicks ass - like, TOTALLY! Mavis Staples made a comeback a couple of years ago with a well-received record and then did this one with Ry Cooder. The arrangements on these songs are really incredible. It's swampy/bluesy/rockin soul music with incredible back beats driving it along. If you have a good speaker system with your desktop or earphones to plug into your laptop you should check out this Youtube video of Eyes on the Prize. It's my favorite song on the record and the footage is a powerful reminder of what a different world it was back then - it's shocking stuff. My current ultimate fantasy is for Obama to win the nomination and have Mavis Staples play the Democratic Convention, bringing down the house with this song. Chills!

Okay, I'm gonna just throw the rest out there with a word or two because I didn't realize I heard this much music this year.

• Lucinda Williams - West: Good. Much like her other stuff but I liked several of her records better.
• My Morning Jacket - Okonokos Double Live Album: My favorite hard rock band. If you like MMJ you'll love this live record. I wish I was Jim James. While they rawk they don't take themselves too seriously.
• Neil Young - Live at Massey Hall: This is a concert from 1971 when Neil was 25. It is amazing how many classics he had written by then. I guess that happens when you're a genius. This is a great record and it has the concert video to go with it.
  
• The National - Boxer: Interesting sorta quite record. The singer has (I think) a baritone voice which is unusual for a rock band but they're much better than Midnight Oil! They made one of my favorite songs last year, Start a War.
• Townes Van Zant: He died January 1 1997 and I never really caught up to him until last week. I knew he was a legendary song writer and one of Lucinda Williams greatest influences (she wrote Drunken Angel about him) but that's all I knew. We watched Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt the other night and it blew me away. I now love him.
• Update! One more I want to mention
  
• Levon Helm - Dirt Farmer: Levon Helm was the drummer for The Band and sang many of their great songs like Up On Cripple Creek. He was stricken with throat cancer in the 1990's and after long and difficult treatment he beat it but his vocal chords were damaged and he couldn't sing anymore. But a few years ago he was able to start singing a little and then last Fall he made Dirt Farmer. It's really really good! I mean really good!
  

Costochondritis

Ever heard of it? I hadn't either. It means "my ribs hurt like heck." (Consider me your personal Web MD). Nothing's broken, nothing dramatic like that. It's simply an inflammation in the space where the bones of your ribs connect to the cartilage, or some such thing. This "itis" began when I coughed too hard back in December. I remember that after a particularly rough coughing fit, I felt a pain in my ribs. Well, that pain continued unabated but not too badly and without much incident til last night, when I felt a "pop" after getting up off the floor. Intense pain followed, followed by a call to the doc, followed by some prescription pain meds. Xrays followed this morning, followed by a visit to the doc who told me it could be 2 months or more til I'm feeling all better. What followed next was a trip to CVS for some Aleve. Now I'm feeling a bit better and anticipating returning to work tomorrow. All's well that ends well.

Here's a cute picture of Ruby in her early days, just for the fun of it. This was her first bath. This picture is actually somewhat related to costochondritis, in that I had a bad coughing-cold right after Ruby was born. In fact, in other bath pictures in this series, you can see the dark chocolate that my dad gave me sitting on the ledge in the kitchen. Supposedly dark chocolate can lessen coughing. I should have thought of that a month ago.


(Look at those cute little fists!)

Happy 2008 Everyguys!

("Everyguys" being the way Ruby likes to address groups of people).

It is a beautiful sunny December afternoon after a good 24 hours of soaking rain, much needed in these parts these days. My version of coq au vin is simmering, ready for a quiet New Year's Eve dinner at home. Ruby is taking a much-needed long nap, after waking up at 5:15 this morning (what the heck Ruby? thanks Daran for getting up with her). Me, I'm in the middle of employment positions, after deciding that Efland maybe was a little far to drive everyday, my new job being a lot closer (1 mile) and oh, there were some other reasons too. I'm enjoying the extra long break afforded by being in job transition.

Ruby is now three; birthday pictures to come. She's in a period of equilibrium, as predicted by the authors of some of my favorite child development books. The books are called "Your One Year Old" or "Your Two Year Old" and so on. They're from the seventies and one of the authors' last names is Ilg. But what really sticks with me from these books is that young kids go through periods of equilibrium and disequilibrium, with the disequilibrium happening around the half-years. Ruby having just turned three is solidly in a period of equilibrium; thank goodness for that. I've read these books from the start and the authors have never made the case for such a bad case of the half-year disequilibrium blues as the 3.5 year old, so we have something to look forward to, I guess!

But for now, Ruby is mostly all sugar and spice. She's good with manners to a fault, excusing herself with every burp and fart. She has apologized to me numerous times for breaking the sugar holder part of her new tea set (her loss, I say) and thanks me at almost every turn. Tantrums, while not non-existent, have subsided greatly and she's overall just a fun companion, even in the wee hours of the morning, which seem to be her norm for waking these days.

Daran is working steadfastly at being able to put some video on our blogs, so stay tuned for that.


Meanwhile, enjoy this photo of Ruby. It's not our most recent (those are still on the camera, and if you haven't noticed by now, we're both a little lazy about the whole photos part of this blog) but in this photo I think she looks a lot like some kid out of a boy band, maybe like Zac Hanson of Hanson.

Smile Train

I have been looking around for a charity that I would feel good about giving money to on a regular basis. I haven't been too organized with my search and I haven't been trying too hard either, which gives me a gnawing feeling of stinginess . But I see and hear many pleas for money, so many that I'm overwhelmed and a little paralyzed. My giant cynical side makes me suspicious of most pleas; and I worry my donation won't be used wisely or it will be wasted.

One piece of mail that keeps catching my eye is the solicitations from the Smile Train. Maybe you've seen them too. It's the organization that (says it) provides free cleft surgeries to poor children around the world. There is always a "before" photo of a young child with a disfigured face, and the same child after cleft surgery. It's heart breaking and heart warming at the same time, and it really hits home with me. I can't seem to throw the flier in the recycle bin but I have also managed to not donate or check them out. Probably because they ask for $250 (for a whole surgery? doubt it!) and probably because it's for kids so far away that it might as well be another world.

Today I stumbled upon a blog post by Steven Levitt, the Freakonomics guy. In it he answers all the questions I've had about Smile Train that have kept me from acting on my better impulses. Turns out Smile Train is probably the model charitable organization. They use 100% of the donation for the surgery, and he tells how they are able to do these surgery so cheaply. It's really an amazing story and you should read it (it's very short). I'm so happy that Smile Train turns out to be truly fantastic!

So if you're like me and have been looking for an organization to which you can contribute without any reservations whatsoever and actually see results, check them out. You don't have to contribute $250 either, any amount is welcomed; I think they publish the 250 number to show how little it takes to provide a life changing surgery. And if you have a charity you already love please tells us about it in comments!

Merry Christmas!

Ruby-Photo-Catch-up

Some shots of Ruby's Halloween party at school:

Bowling, toddler-style

Going somewhere, holding hands with a classmate and looking up at daddy

Circle time

Pin the nose on the clown. Good times!

The ball tunnel


Later that evening, we went trick or treating with a bunch of neighbors. Ruby got tired. Luckily we got her home in time for me to head out to ref my game.

This picture is from tonight. One of Ruby's favorite pastimes lately is to play with her stuffed animals ("aminals") and dolls - all of them. She carries all 47 from one part of the house to the other, sets them up just so, and then sits down amongst them to comfort, chide and love them. Tonight she discovered the joy of simply being in a pile of them.

Double Negative

When Ruby can't do something, she doesn't say "I can't do that" - no, she says "I don't can't do that." Truth be told, we really love this particular construction. Especially when she's desperate: "I don't can't ZIP IT!!!" or "I don't can't REACH IT!!!"

But she's also getting sensitive, very sensitive. Sometimes when she just says something cute or funny we might giggle a bit at her cuteness or funniness but mostly, she doesn't like this so much anymore. She can even be in a good or average mood, and she still doesn't like it. She will pout, crumple, whimper or cry.

Also, being that she's two going on three, we often have to remind her of the rules: "Don't stand on the toilet, that's the rule." Very often her retort will be "That's not the rule, that's the problem!" Huh?

And now to change the subject:

Did you know that when produce is on sale at Harris Teeter as "buy one get one free" you don't actually have to buy 2? They'll give you the half price discount even if you just buy one! Produce only, though! I like this; it's hard to use 2 heads of cauliflower before it goes bad. I've been shopping at HT for 18 years or something and just found this out. Thought you all might like to know.

Success Number Two!

Or perhaps I should have said, Success with Number Two!

For those of you who aren't totally done with my play by play on Ruby's toileting, we had the ultimate and final success of pottydom tonight - the much-sought-after poop in the potty!

Her "number one" training is over - she's there 100%. Ever since my tentative post last week, she hasn't missed a beat. And then tonight, she took the next and final step. Sigh.

There's something about this particular development which really makes me feel differently about Ruby. She really does seem like a big girl now. Even when she screams all the way home from school because I didn't bring apple juice, or she sheds crocodile tears over a routine fall in the hallway, or gets scared of the washing machine, or still needs her pacifier to go to sleep, she now seems like a different kid to me. She's left babyhood and its most smelly trappings behind.

And of course you were right, Hallie.

Tentative Toilet Success

I only say tentative because I don't want to jinx myself, but I'll take the risk. Last night, Ruby initiated and successfully completed a trip to the potty. Tonight she went THREE times. I forgot to ask what she did today at school, peepee-wise, but I'm betting she starts going regularly here and there. She told me tonight she doesn't want to wear diapers anymore. She sounded pretty sure of herself. I'm pretty darn proud of her, my little growing up girl.

School Dayz

Ruby and I are both well into a fresh new school year, so I thought it was time for a little update on how everything is going.

As you may recall, Ruby attends Mi Escuelita Spanish Immersion Preschool. We are still very happy with her school, and she seems to be as well. Now that she's a full time little student, her spanish has really taken off. We mostly witness this in the form of song (a drawback being that I don't recognize a lot of the songs she sings and can't join in) and it's really cute. Also, she likes to tell us "manitos abajos!" frequently at dinnertime, which means "little hands under the table" - something she's told at mealtime when all the little estudiantes are being served but before it's time to eat. Unfortunately, she likes to order around with this edict in the middle of dinner and we have to remind her that it's time for "manitos arribas."

Other spanish utterances include "Que paso?" and "Como estas?" and other random vocabulary.


She's adapted well to the schedule of school, naps and eats well, and sits on the potty. Sits on - not uses - but hey. She rarely comes home and tantrums anymore and is in fact quite chipper, which takes a load of guilt off of me. Fortunately, Daran drops her off in the morning, and they often don't make it in til 9 or so, so she gets in some good daddy time before being shipped out. And I can pick her up on the early side, usually by 4:15 or so. Her full time day isn't too terribly long.

And me? I have started a new job and a new school year as well. Working for Orange County Schools is a lot different than Chapel Hill and I'll leave it at that. In general, I like getting up and out in the morning, and having something different to do than what I've been doing for the past 2.5 years. I'll admit, going back to work has been easier than I predicted, on a number of levels. Of course, no one's gotten sick yet.

I do have to wake up earlier than I used to (especially on Mondays when I have to be at an Efland elementary school at 7:25) but I find I don't mind it too much. Other lifestyle changes: I take my 4 daily vitamins with me to work and often swallow them while driving or teaching, thus multitasking! I have to pick out my outfits the night before and set them in the bathroom so I don't wake anyone up getting dressed. I don't have a daily 2.5 hours of naptime in which to make dinner, straighten up the house, or just veg, so we've been doing more Morningstar Spicy Black Bean Burgers than before and you may notice a little more dust on the furniture than in the recent past. These are the new realities of my new life. But I love not having to tutor in the evenings and on Saturdays and once I'm home, it's all my/our time. And then there's all that MONEY!!!


And now, for a product endorsement: liquid bandage. I've been thinking about posting about this stuff for some time now, but keep forgetting. I get a lot of little cuts on my fingers (don't know why) and I hate wearing bandaids anywhere on my hands because they get wet and nasty. With liquid bandage, you just paint it on and it keeps that little booboo shut and protected. It will peel off after about a day, but just keep painting it on til it's past the bandaid stage. It's great stuff.

Numero tres

Potty training is going very slowly, but I am happy to report that Ruby went for a 3rd time today, at school, hence the spanish title of this post.

Back later with more tales of Ruby's and my schooldays.

Hot Fun in the Summertime

I hate to speak too soon but the hellish days of summer may finally be over. And they have been hellish! August was the hottest NC month on record by a wide margin. Every day but one was 90 degrees or higher - several times it was 100+. It has also been the driest August in recorded NC history - we are in a extreme drought. But then I look up the weather forecast in Baghdad and realize things could be so much worse (if I were hypothetically in the Army or something) - but it's getting hot around here!

We were still able to have a lot of fun this summer. In July we took a short trip to Wrightsville Beach in Wilmington. This was the first time Ruby had been to the beach since she was 5-months-old and she loved it. She played her heart out and still had enough energy to chase all the seagulls off the beach.

We also took a two-week trip to Michigan to see my family. Unfortunately we couldn't see much of my brother's family but it was still a great trip. We had a great time staying with my mother, getting stuffed with good food every night, and highlighted by celebrating her birthday with her. While we were up there we noticed that NC was baking and we were glad we were able to miss the heat wave - but turned out it was just getting started!

A couple weeks after returning, Kirsten started back teaching full time. This is the first time she has taught in a school since November of 2004, so it's been a big change around here. Ruby started attending her pre-school full-time in July in prep for Kirsten's return to full-time work. Ruby is doing well and her teachers report her Spanish language skills have noticeably improved - muy bueno! However, the pee-pee issue has regressed. Ruby is currently not interested in working on her toilet skillz. We still only have one tinkle at home and one at school. Right now we're not pushing it, just offering the opportunity. Looks like it'll go down to the wire (she must be toilet trained by January to continue at Mi Escuelita). Stay tuned!



Today I decided to make a post because we are finally getting some rain and fall weather this weekend. I no longer have to be hunkered down in the basement acting as though it's a nuclear winter outside. With college football season here as well, things are on a definite up tick! But about that Michigan football team...Go Heels!

She did it again!

A mere 9 days later, yesterday, she peed in the potty again (this time at school)! Progress, indeed!

She did it!

Finally, at the ripe old age of 2.75 years old, Ruby has actually, finally, for the first time EVER, gone pee-pee in the potty. (I'll use toddler-friendly terms when discussing this issue. I figure if one is willing to read about these particular trials and tribulations, one won't mind this kind of vocab).

We've had a few transitions this summer since my last post about Potty 101 - a trip to the beach, starting preschool full-time, and another 2 week trip to Michigan (more on that later). So it seemed right to lay off all the potty pressure, while still being encouraging about the whole thing.

But I decided I'd give it another good go before calling in the ole' pediatrician for her advice. I'd read somewhere that you can offer a treat for every time they TRY to sit on the potty. This seemed foolhardy when I first read it, but now it seemed like really useful advice. I did, however, only let her try for a mini-marshmallow every 25 minutes or so; otherwise, she'd be at it every 2 minutes. I also made her sit for a full minute each time she tried (using that timer again).

So, after I picked her up from preschool today, she went diaper-free and I offered the candy. All was well 'til she wanted a diaper, at which time I told her "sure, fine, OK, no problem." After the deed was done, she promptly took the diaper off and we started afresh.

A few tries into it, it happened. I was trying to be nonchalant, hanging out with her in the bathroom but just doing my knee exercises and staring off into space, rather than watching her. It was then that I heard the tinkle. It went like this: "tinkle tinkle tinkle tinkle tinkle tinkle" - about that long. A decent pee! And Hallie, you would've been proud of me. I didn't make a huge deal out of it, though my heart was soaring. I think I gave her the thumbs up and said "Way to go - I heard that!" and I let her yell to her dad that she'd done it.

Daran has to take some of the credit here. A bit of background: Lately, Ruby's loved to announce to us at random times "I'm a big girl." I always just agreed agreeably and we went on our merry way. But Daran, the thinking Daddy, used this to our advantage. His line of reasoning went something like this: "Big girls go peepee in the potty. You'll be a big girl when you go peepee in the potty." (They didn't give him that Master's degree for nothing.) We think this particular logic helped.

Now, I'm sure I'm way more excited than I should be and it'll all stall and I'll be back here all frustrated and so on. Stay tuned to find out!

But first, YEA RUBY!!!

Updates

This blog entry promises to be a hodgepodge of information, so haphazard and random that I'll number my thoughts to force some order upon them:

1. Ruby started fulltime preschool this month. We've paid for the month of July, but summer break for the school was the first week of July (preschool teachers deserve some paid vacation days, too) and we were gone to the beach (more on that later) for 3 days of the following week. So, she's only had 2 full days of school and the month's half over! That's like, $230 a day or something! At least she's learning spanish. Anyway, my fretful thoughts about this have mostly centered around whether she'll nap at school, Ruby not being used to napping on a thin foam mat on the floor surrounded by her playmates without her pacifier and "kitty." And no, her first day there, she didn't nap. If you know Ruby, you know she's a beast if she doesn't nap. (Sometimes she's not far from a beast if she does nap.) But on the second day, she napped! Hooray!

2. Why did Ruby start fulltime preschool? Because I'm going "back to work." I don't go back til August, but a fulltime preschool slot opened in July and in this dog-eat-dog college town, you have to snatch up the good daycare spots when they become available to you. This is actually a bit nice for me, though maybe a little guilt-inducing. It ends up that I get about 3 weeks of free time alone at home while Ruby's in school before my workdays start. I do plan to stain the deck, but I must say I am reminded of the freedom I had as a childless teacher on summer break. Ah, the good ole days. But back to the topic. I accepted a job with the Orange County school system a few months back. I'm looking forward to the cycles of the school year, gossip over the copy machine (ha!) and all that. I thought I'd feel sadder than I do about leaving Ruby for so long each day, and I'm sure there will be some sad days ahead, but I must say I really feel like the timing is right and I am ready to be working again. And as much as I've enjoyed tutoring, I'm ready for that to be over, too.

3. Beach trip 2007. We booked a motel room back in the winter months and have anticipated this trip for some time. We were not let down. As you might expect, Ruby enjoyed the sand and water (and the elevator at the motel). We were happy with our suite, designed perfectly for our purposes, and ate dinner at the same place two nights in a row (King Neptune, for anyone who knows Wrightsville Beach.) Ruby took a 4 hour nap on our one full day which was a nice gift and even slept in the car both ways. All in all, a success.

4. In the Garden. I can't say my garden has been a disappointment this year, no I can't. But I don't feel the same excitement that I felt in years past. There's something lacking about this year's garden. Water? It has been dry. Nutrients? Apparently, turning not-yet-decomposed woodchips into the soil depletes the soil of needed nitrogen, and those areas with the freshest woodchips look the worst. But it's something else. Feng shui? Maybe I didn't put things in the right places. On the bright side, I grew some things I've never grown before - carrots, beets, crazy long cucumbers and a ton of sweet peppers. But, I don't know, I just don't have the same sense of fun and excitement that I remember. Tomatoes haven't come in full-force yet but there are a lot of green ones out there. Maybe that'll turn the tables for me. Can anyone relate? Do I need horticultural therapy?

5. In the Wild. What is it about dogwood trees? Every year they look awful by about mid-July. Daran says they're not native to these parts. I hate to water a mature tree, but I also would hate to lose the big dogwood in front of our kitchen window, so I do water it. But I don't like it.

Hi, girl!

Ruby is not shy. When she goes to the playground, she often walks right up to potential playmates and tries to befriend them. Daran told me how she ingratiated herself into a group of Russian siblings at Umstead Park by following the bunch around and yelling "HI KIDS!" until one of them took pity on the poor, friend-starved thing and included her. She wasn't so lucky today at the Community Center. I watched her go up to a girl (~4 yo) and say "Hi girl." The girl responded "I'm not playing with you right now." This rolled right off Ruby's back, oh naive one that she is. I love that she's so fearless, but I'm confused as to where she got this from. I remember being shy as a child, and I think Daran was, too. Who is this creature Ruby?

Potty 101

And thus begins toilet training.

(Feel free to skip this post if you don't enjoy bathroom topics.)

I've either been waiting for the potty training "readiness signs*" to show themselves, or frankly, picking other battles, but the time has come to give this a concerted effort. Ruby talks enough, walks enough, takes off her clothes enough, knows her own urges enough, and has even begun not to say "NO" to anything-I-suggest-enough, so we gave this a nice, good, first try a few days ago. (Oh sure, we've had the potty seats and panties bought and strewn around the house for about 8 months now, but they've sort of blended into everything else by this point.)

She sure can hold her stuff. 5 plus hours and still no production. I had to hide the diapers and tell her they were all gone. "Washing machine?" she asked (referring to her cloth diapers which we haven't used in a few months.) "Nope, all gone," I repeated.

I've offered marshmallows, new toothbrushes, stickers and even pee-pee parties (complete with the promise of pee-pee hats, pee-pee songs, pee-pee snacks [I know, gross] and pee-pee songs, along with calls to friends and grandparents). None of this proffered bounty could urge her to part with any of her, well, pee-pee.

Usually it all ends in a "I gotta GO" tantrum and I offer her a really old-school (think burpcloth) diaper to pee in and she does and is SO HAPPY afterward that I feel really awful that I put her through so much misery.

Let her just have an accident and she'll learn? you say. Easier said than done. By the time she's on hour 5, she's sweating, clinging to my leg and generally falling apart, but still, no production. If it were as easy as "oh let's just go play with some crayons and if you pee on yourself, well, you'll learn your lesson" I'da done that months ago. The day ends with both of us in tears and I'm getting tired of it!

People, how do you get your little ones to part with their, well, pee-pee?


*email me if you really must know

In the Garden, again!

I keep going into that garden!

Hopefully I won't post an entry every time I eat a cherry tomato. Mostly, I plan to keep track of some "firsts" year by year so I can prove global warming before too long.

Now eating zukes regularly. I've gotten about 2 nice sized zukes every other day or so for the last week, which keeps us in zukes just about the right amount. A lot of my zuke seedlings got nibbled by something right after they popped out their seed leaves, so we're only eating from one hill right now. Within a few weeks, I'm guessing, the seedlings that I was finally able to protect from the nibbling critters will start producing and we'll be overwhelmed with zukes, which is when I start getting really happy. I shredded and froze a bunch last summer and surprisingly, it was the first frozen garden veggie we ran out of.

Now, beans! I'll cook our first batch of *just* beans tonight (haven't had enough at one time yet to make them on their own.) Not much more to say about beans.

Okra. I don't really like okra, but I've planted it the last few years anyway. Because I don't like it, I don't take much care in planting it, but it always does well. I just poke some seeds (10 cents a pack from the dollar store) into the ground and don't bother watering. They always come up and by August, are one of the few crops my garden is still vigorously producing in that intense heat. Best chopped, frozen and put in moderate amounts in soup during the winter. Tried pickling it; pickling water got all slimy and they got tossed. Okra seedlings are currently about 6 inches tall.