This and That

I have written a bit these last few days but havn't posted pictures so here goes:



Top left (and moving clockwise):

• my great Sunday afternoon idea - Adam ride to Red Wing and meet us at a cool park with a great play gound...only Gerrit didn't want to play on the play ground!
• 'washing' off the potatoes at the farm
• reading the phone book is a new past time
  
• Gerrit had a bit too much fun with the hose washing the veggies. He went home in just a diaper after getting soaked and rolling around on the fresh mowed grass!
• riding bikes with the neighbor's granddaughters
• spending a lot of time lining up the cars on the window sill
• visiting the horses and actually petting one of them after not wanting to get too close!
• biking around the farm
• the fruits of my labor: beets (for Adam), carrots, onions, unique tomatoes, 4 kinds of potatoes - even purple ones!
• potty training getting goofy!
• riding bikes to see the horses
  

On Hold

So I decided today that the potty training is going to be put on hold (I think Adam is relieved). We are more trained to when Gerrit has to go than he is, so its not worth forcing. Plus the thought of dealing with diapers during Adam's race schedule this fall is more appealing to me than finding a bathroom! (Sometimes they are hard to find at parks etc where they have the bike races.) I think next time will be easier as he has the idea of what to do just needs to know how to listen to his body more. I said I'd give it a try before school starts and we did, so now we can go places and not worry about the time or if there will be an accident!

We are off to celebrate our anniversary and Adam's birthday tonight at Axel's (in Lilydale) - a fav. of ours. Gerrit will be in heaven playing at Dahlen's and won't miss us. Tomorrow on Adam's birthday, we had to Dahlen's for dinner with our cycling friends - the friends from France are in town for a bit.

Cool temps and rain makes me think falls on its way...I am not quite sick of the pool yet, summer needs to stick around a little longer - I know Gerrit would like that too, the little fish that he is in the water!

Day 3

We are still working on the potty training and havn't given up. He did fairly well at daycare, more in the potty than out! Now that we know his 'clock' we can plan to sit on the potty accordingly. Thanks to great books by Richard Scary, Gerrit enjoys looking for Goldbug and Lowly Work and doesn't realize how long he'll be sitting on the potty (thanks Aunt Cara for the books!). He still isn't telling us when he has to go, but seeing we are moving in the right direction, I'm hoping we can turn that corner in the near future. He will tell us when and where he just went potty which is thoughtful.

He's become a big fan of getting out of bed lately. Monday he decided to take his nap on the landing instead of his bed. I would think a soft bed and pillow would trump the carpet on the stairs, but I guess not. Tonight he has gotten up a few too many time for our liking that Adam put the baby gate up and gated him in his room. Before the gate was up he would make it to the landing and sit, when Adam would notice him, he'd close his eyes! Too funny. We shall see if he now prefers the hardwood floor of his room to his comfy bed! It's always something and never a dull moment around here.

Update

I think there was as much pee in the potty today as there was on the floor...in case you were wondering. It is a step in the right direction (I'm trying to stay positive, work with me here).

Tomorrow is daycare day, it will be the test if we continue or throw the towel in for a bit and try again later...until then.

"It's Like Training a puppy"

The title quote was spoken out of the mouth of Adam Birr today in regards to potty training Gerrit. I thought about training Gerrit this weekend but didn't want to be confined to the house by myself all weekend without Adam...but seeing today was suppose to be rainy, I thought we'd give it a go, and seeing Gerrit doesn't go back to daycare till Tues., we can give it a whirl for 2 days and then decide if its working...as of today, it's NOT working! 4 pairs of underwear, 2 pull ups, a lot of paper towel and I don't know if he is getting the idea. Adam wanted to go for a walk this afternoon and I said I didn't want to be too far from home with the potty training. At first Adam thought I was weird but by dinner and who knows how many accidents, he was totally on board with me!

I would like a few months of no diapers and even a few weeks of no extra bags with kid stuff in it...we shall see.

I had to laugh at Adam and his comment on the puppy. I have never had to train a puppy and can only imagine the similarities. I havn't given up as Gerrit has shown signs he is ready (so I think) but will throw in the towel if necessary. Stay tuned...

11 and Counting...

It's hard to believe it was 11 years ago that Adam and I were married. Amazing where we started out and what we've done in these years. I don't think I would've thought that we'd be in Minnesota (still), living in a small town with a child and one on the way! But I wouldn't change it for the world.

Adam surprised me by having these clam back chairs refinished as an anniversary gift. 3 years ago when we moved into the house, Adam's dad brought them from MI, they were Adam's grandparents. They needed some serious work and so I spent a good week stripping the paint and getting them ready to be sanded (what else is there for a teacher to do in the summer pre-kids?). Adam was to sand them and then paint them...remember this was 3 years ago. So there they sat, tipped against the garage for 3 years. Finally Adam called a company (down the street from our house) and they said they would sandblast them and paint them for a decent price. While Gerrit and I were in MI, Adam had them taken care of. Our color choices were limited seeing the company actually makes iron railings for homes etc so white was it. I am pretty excited to sit in them now (or someday when Gerrit will play in one spot) and they look great. To think they are over 60 years old!

As I sit here and write this post Adam is in WI for a bike 'race' with a friend from town. Not the most romantic way to spend an anniversary but it was something he really wanted to do and so I said he could go. We'll go out for dinner this week and celebrate his birthday as well and it will all work out. He did call me mid ride to wish me a happy anniversary which was very thoughtful. Gerrit and I spent the morning poolside in Lake City with Team Beat and then Dahlen's had us over for pizza so I didn't have to cook!

Goodhue County Fair

Amongst the chaos of Adam building a new bike before his big weekend, we found some time to go to the fair. Lucky for us, it is just on the edge of town so we don't have far to go. The night we went was the night of the tractor pull. Adam was interested in going seeing it had been years since he last saw one and Gerrit and I had never been. I must say, it was kind of interesting despite the little rain we sat through. Gerrit loved the tractors but did not last through the whole thing so we left and went to see the animals. I think of all the animals he saw, the cows were by far Gerrit's favorite. He had to go back a few times to see them. We spent a little time watching the goat judging while we waited for the rain to stop. Dessert was dip n' dots. Gerrit wasn't so sure about them and preferred to see the cows over the ice cream. So I sat at ate them (my first official bowl of dip n' dots too). Our county fair is small but the perfect size to get a 'taste' of what a fair is like. We did not look in all the buildings seeing it was getting late but made it to the important ones - the animals!