Leif loves sitting on laps and eating. I don't let him do it that often, so this was a real treat - Grandmom even let him eat loads of the crab she was picking!
This face makes me laugh every time I see it. What a goober!
Leif stabs a piece of crab while Grandmom picks him some more good stuff.
Last week, just in time for the "A" wedding (see below for photos of that lovely event!), Grandmom and Granddad came down to visit us for a week. They watched Leify while Jason and I attended the wedding. Unfortunately, the first day they were here was the only day of sunshine that they had the whole time they were here. A big fat Nor'Easter blew through here the entire week (and thensome) they were here...nasty nasty weather. Heavy winds, pelting rains, and gloomy dark skies were all they saw while they were here. So, because of the weather, all of the plans we had (kayaking, hiking - anything that required leaving the house) were cancelled. We spent the entire week in the house!
Depsite the weather, we had a nice visit. It was good for Leif to spend time with his grandparents and he defintely enjoyed having them here. He got to torment poor Sammy, the weiner dog, and feed him. Sammy may not have enjoyed it so much, but Leif certainly did!
Of course, Grandmom and Granddad pulled off tremedous feats while they were here, I can't even list everything they did, but here are a few highlights:
Put a new floor in and braced the kitchen counters.
Fixed the pantry door.
Cleaned out the Garage.
Grandmom and I refinished an armoire.
Grandmom fixed countless chairs and toys.
Made and put up two adorable birdhouses outside our backdoor (with Leif's help!)
Attached the headboard to the bedframe in the guestroom (the headboard I purchased in '04, which has never been attached).
Put up pictures in the guest room.
Hung a big mirror in the Living Room/Library.
Put together the bedframe for our bed, and finished the bedroom so we are no longer sleeping on a mattress on the floor in the middle of the room with our dressers all caddywompous around. Whoo-hoo!
And perhaps the biggest thing of all, Granddad washed every single window (he took out the windows and washed between the panes, too) and so now all 24 windows (which is half the house, two full walls of windows) are gleaming like they haven't gleamed since they were brand new! I wish I had taken the side by side photos of a freshly cleaned window and an old non-cleaned one, but alas, I did not, so I can only try to convey in words (and poorly) how the windows went from "Oh, nice view" to not being able to stop staring out the windows because the "fog" on them was gone, so the colors outside are bright and crisp and the view, where it was once pretty, is now astounding, because Granddad cleaned the windows. Absolutely amazing. Thank you, Granddad!
. . .
So, this week, I am working on different projects around the house - getting my picture wall up and going (pictures of that later!), getting the armoire into the house and loaded up with my craft stuff (the thought of the craft armoire alone makes me giddy!)(photos of that later, too) and various other projects and plans. I've taken everything from the pantry (which was a disaster zone!), sorted through it, and have reorganized the pantry (yes, pictures later!) so that now it is lovely to behold, and much easier to make a shopping list.
Leif has been making huge strides, too. His, though, come in the form of potty-training. Before he went in to the hospital, we had started potty training with him, but the whole diarhhea thing totally threw a monkey wrench into the works. For a week or more after we came back from the hospital, he was still in diapers (or in nothing for a long time) to help his hiney heal from the rash.
So, when we finally tried to start potty-training again, it simply didn't work. He refused to go on the potty, and instead went all over the house. It became a nasty situation, a battle of wills, and it was a long, very not fun process. I was cleaning up mess after mess after mess (thank goodness for rugs that you don't have to worry about getting dirty since they're already a wreck, eh?) because Leif was going potty every three minutes or so in a different spot in the house. My blood pressure hit the roof - I was so frazzled and stressed out. I wondered if potty training had been ruined for him by the hospital interruption, until he was 3 or 4. The thought of changing that many more diapers made me want to cry. Besides, after all of the diapers he went through right before, in, and right after the hospital, we'd run out of diapers, so we HAD to potty train, right?
But then Jason swooped in (cue angels singing, glowy soft light, and halo around his head!) and everything started going right. Where I was a frazzled mess, Jason was patient and forgiving. He began talking to Leif calmly, showing him how boys go potty (really, something I know nothing about), and reacting calmly if there was an accident. Soon, Leif was going in the potty, and in just two days, he was going in the potty more than he was having accidents. They continued to work through it, and by the third day, he was nearly accident-free and going potty in the potty on a regular basis. Learning to poopoo in the toilet took a few more days, and by the time Grandmom and Granddad arrived, we were doing really well - he had gone days, I think, without an accident.
The only things he still had trouble with at that point were at other people's houses, nighttime, and travelling in the car.
But with the excitement of Grandmom and Granddad's arrival, everything fell to pieces. Again. The first few days, he hardly used the toilet at all. Toward the end of the visit, he was getting better, but it was still questionable whether he'd use the toilet (successfully) or not.
But after they left on Saturday, he was back to his old mode of using the potty each and every time. Since then, he has learned to tell us when in the car that he has to go. He now goes potty in stores, restaurants, or at the side of the road if need be.
The funny thing about Leif and potty-training is that he is VERY independent about it. He won't go if I ask him if he needs to go. He won't go if I suggest it. But if I don't mention it, then he'll take off to the bathroom when he needs to, and go. If he needs help, he calls me, but otherwise, he like to be left alone, on his own. Knowing Leif, Mr. Independent himself, I should have known, but it took me over a week to catch on. That is, perhaps, why I was having trouble getting him to go in the beginning - I was trying to get him to do something he wanted to do completely on his own.
We have yet to see how he'll do now at someone else's house, but the nighttime pottying, I think, can be cured with a big boy bed. Right now, he can't get out of his crib to go to the toilet, so he goes in his crib if he can't hold it any longer (sometimes we can't get to him in time because we don't hear him.)
Other than that, though, it seems as if he is finally fairly well pottying on the toilet like a big boy. There are a few details yet to be worked completely through (like wiping and remembering to put undies and pants back on afterwards), but other than that, we are flying high in the potty department (which is all due to Jason and Leif).
Speaking of flying high, I nearly caused a scene during Grandmom and Granddad's visit, when I saw a strange bird flying overhead. I ran outside, hoping it was a certain type of bird that I've been wanting to see my whole life. It was a dark bird, huge, with great thin wings and a strange long split tail. Is it an albatross? I kept asking my mom who had come outside, too. Silly me, I had muddled up the name of the bird I was trying to say - couldn't think of the one I meant - cloudybrained - and she kept saying, no, no. After a good look, (and the bird flying off) she ran inside, grabbed the birdbook, and found it, a Magnificent Frigatebird!!
Silly me, that is what I was trying to say, and what I was hoping it was! I've wanted to see both an Albatross and a Magnificent Frigatebird since I was little (yes, dorky me used to read encyclopedias as a child) hence the the blurting out of albatross instead of M. frigatebird (or Man-o-War as they're sometimes called).
So exciting.
Then, on Memorial Day, Jason and I were driving downtown, along the water's edge, first near the airport, and we spotted a pair of M. Frigatebirds. We followed them round to the airport and watched them for a while. Then, we drove downtown, stopped the car and got out in the middle of the street (occasional annoyed cars went around us) and stared up at the sky. There, soaring on the breeze were at least a dozen Magnificent Frigatebirds. It was fantastic - they are so beautiful in flight - one or two flaps of those wings and they just glide on forever...beautiful! It was truly an experience! I didn't have my camera, so no pictures, but it will live on in my memory at least until the end of the week! :)
