Still potty-training. I thought Skipper " got it " last Friday, but then he reverted. Good thing I have a washer and dryer on the premises! I'm going easier on myself in other areas at this time. This is almost as stressful as having a newborn in that someone needs intense attention every 2-3 hours.

Some good news: I recently found 2 dresses, in one day! It was the 5th store I went to, and there they were, just waiting for me. I dislike dress shopping because I'm short-legged, but the rest of me is normal, so dresses tend to be too long. Or, the top fits, but the bottom's tight. ( Mainly since I had Skipper, as my baby-pouch got even bigger. ) I'd wear more skirts, but that waist-band, along with the underwear, panty-hose and slip waist-bands make me feel like there are 4 big rubberbands around my middle. This causes the following scene: woman comes running into the house from church, up the stairs to her bedroom to undress, shouting, " Aaauuugh! These things are squeezing the life-blood outta me! " Let's just say it's not very lady-like...

One of the reasons I bought the dresses was to wear one out to dinner with the Professor. We had to celebrate Valentine's Day late because he was sick on the 14th. I felt so good having secured 2 nice-looking dresses, I set about getting my very first pair of strappy dress-shoes. They're black and shiny, and I felt very pretty and feminine in them. As I quickly walked for the exit, I was filled with anticipation. I passed the make-up counters, and looked for the fanciest perfume sampler I could. I spotted Eternity, spritzed myself, and was off running again. As I passed a big ad photo of Catherine Zeta-Jones, I thought, " You ain't got nothin' on me, honey! " I think I might have actually said it out loud. ( I wonder if anyone was listening! ) I got home and dressed, and put on make up, then flounced into the family room, as husband, kids, and one of their friends looked on. The Professor was impressed. He gave me flowers, candy, and a pair of earrings. What a guy! I gave him a card and a big Hershey's Almond bar. This always pleases him because he loves those candy bars, and I haven't spent much. I get him the same thing every year. We had a lovely evening, and even stopped in to visit friends afterwards.

one step back. Just when I thought Skipper was getting the hang of it, he snuck upstairs and put on some pull-ups, so that he could relax and pee in them. After all, Mama never showers him when he goes in them - they should be safe. He had been sooo good until then, holding it til he got to the potty, even in the church nursery. So, today, I had to start at square one. We'll see how tomorrow goes. By the way, I hid the pull-ups.

I was in the car a lot today. Taking Young Professor to play practice, lunch with my brother, getting Ginger in for physical therapy, back to pick everyone up. On the way, and while waiting in parking lots, Skipper had a good nap, and I got chats in with Young Mary Ann and my mom. So it wasn't so maddening.

Why is the lovely young Ginger going to physical therapy? She has a very flexible knee cap, and for some reason that causes her pain when she practices for track. An orthopedic Dr ordered the PT to strengthen her quadriceps, the thigh muscles above the knee. She goes three times a week for 4 weeks. It'll cost $240. and that's with insurance. But she really want to be on the track team, so it's worth it.

I'm wiped out. I'm going to slip under the covers with a book I forgot about a year ago: Princess Sultana's Circle. It's about the life of a royal Saudi woman. Very interesting, but also sad. I'm glad I was born into a German-Irish heritage American family! Especially since I'm a girl. It's not been perfect, but at least I was never married off to some old man when I was only 13!

We've had a break-through in potty training! This morning, after the Skipper was up for a few minutes, and in his dry training pants, he decided, all on his own to pee in the potty while I was walking Bamboo. He kept his pants dry! I didn't prompt him at all to use the potty. Yay! ( me jumping up and down ) I know there will be more accidents, and we haven't had a self-directed pooping in the potty yet, but I'm sooooo encouraged! Interestingly, the Skipper will do both in the potty if he running around bare-bottomed. I guess he needs to get over that " safe " feeling of going in his pants. Getting these cold half-showers is making that an unsafe option, LOL!

Denise is graduating from the Starting Over house. I'm so glad for her, but I'll miss her. She was one of my favorites. I was impressed by her last assignment - to clean a very messy house in 2 days. Before being at Starting Over, this would have overwhelmed her, but after 8 weeks in the house, she did it!

The Professor and I watched a really creepy movie last night, and it scared us out of our wits! It was supposed to be a psychological thriller, but it was more of a ghost/gore story. We both decided that such a movie was devilish, and that we shouldn't have watched it. We agreed not to watch any more scary movies, and even prayed together before falling asleep. We asked God to forgive us, and to erase the memory of the movie from our minds.

This breed of dog won Best in Show at the Westminster Dog Show this year. Here's a link all about it: http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050215045609990026  I grew up with one of these lovable, loyal dogs. We called her Heidi. She looked a lot like the dog in the picture. My Uncle gave her to us, when she was three. She truly was a " good dog. " This was a relief after the previous dog we had, a male Australian Shepherd with a fear-biting tendency, and other problems as well. Heidi did have to be watched around young kids; they made her nervous. We always thought that was because my cousin teased her so much when he was little, but I later learned that the breed is just that way with babies and little kids. Shorthairs are much better suited to teens and adults. That was true in our case, as we were all about 11 - 16 when she came to live with us. She fit in nicely.

I had a whirlwind of a day, consisting of chauffering, Dr. appts, entertaining, and of course, potty-training. I'm relishing the quiet right now, waiting for Skipper to fall asleep so that I can check on him, lock his door ( I don't always wake up when he leaves his room in the morning. ), and crawl into bed myself. He's a night owl, so oftentimes, even though he's only had a short nap, he doesn't go to sleep til 11 - 12. Then, he may or may not sleep past 8am. My older kids napped for 2 hours in the afternoon and slept 11-12 hours every night. The Lord must have known I needed them to sleep well at the time. And then came little Mr. Insomniac. Ginger developed insomnia over the last 2 years, so I guess it's in the genes...

Potty training continues, and I've stepped up the pace. After trying stickers and m&m's, and seeing no results, I've gone to my last resort: the cold shower. Basically, every time the Skipper has an accident in his dry training pants, I put him into the tub, and use a shower massage to hose him down with cold water. I wash and rinse him, and he screams the whole time. I do it quickly, but as I wash him, I tell him, very calmly, " I have to do this because you peed your pants. If you don't pee in your pants, you won't get a cold shower. Then, as I dress him, I continue saying the same kinds of things. When I put fresh underpants on him, I have him feel how dry they are, " See, they're dry! Now, don't pee in them and get them wet, or I'll have to shower you again. " I ask him where he should pee. " The potty! " He has the best of intentions, he really does. I also give him one or two m&m's when he goes in the potty. This routine took three days with the older boys. I think Skipper's getting it tonight, on Day 2, but he's still having slip-ups. I wear rubber pants over his training pants for now, but after he's proven to stay dry for a few days, I'll take them off. Traveling and bedtime present problems, but I have solutions: for traveling, I take his potty chair along in the car, and at bedtime, he wears a Pull-Up until he stays dry overnight. A part of me is a wee bit sad to see my little boy officially leaving babyhood through this big step of maturity, but the thought of all the money we'll save in Pull-Ups is helping me to get over that! 

My sweetie and I had planned to go out to a romantic dinner last night, but he came home sick  from work, and had to go right to bed. ( He's been fighting bad cold symptoms for over a week now. ) We both thought it was a sinus infection, so he went to the Dr. today. The Dr. confirmed our suspicions, and put Professor on these huge augmentin pills, 4 a day. We're hoping we can go out to eat on Friday night. He wouldn't even let me give him his card til then.

Bamboo was very naughty today. She ran off and rolled in something nasty. I bathed her while the Professor watched Skipper. I angrily lectured her   while I washed her. I think my words went in one ear and right out the other; she seemed unaffected. I can't believe what a poor choice of dog we made in her. I was expecting Skipper at the time, and didn't do my usual research. The Professor had long liked this breed, the English Springer Spaniel, so I thought, " Why not? " I could answer that now! She's so friendly and pretty, and is a great watch dog. However, she destroys half of Skipper's little plastic toys, chews slippers to bits, piddles when people walk in the door and pet her, scratches at their feet when they don't, and worst of all, enjoys a roll in dead squirrel. I miss our well-behaved boxer dog. There'll never be another like her.

Hot fudge ice-cream cake. Just the name makes my mouth water. I ate many of these at Elby's, the local family restaurant. I ate them as a kid, and then as a teen with my boyfriend, the Professor. Elby's was a permanent fixture, or so I thought. Not long into my adult years, the Elby's sold out, and became " Bob's Big Boy. " Next, it became Eat 'N Park. By then, Slim Jims and Hot Fudge Ice-Cream Cakes were a thing of the past. How I miss them.

So, I'm making my own. As I type, a jelly roll of chocolate cake is cooling, and the ice-cream and hot fudge are waiting. It's just the Professor, Gilligan, Skipper, and me. Young Professor is sleeping over at his grandparents', and Ginger is out at a chorale performance with a " friend " and his parents. At present, we're all watching a show about submarines on the Military Channel. Goody. As soon as I can, I'm going to slip in a murder mystery DVD that I got from the library. But that will have to wait until Skipper's in bed.

Skipper went to the garage with me today. My minivan's tires needed to be rotated. I held Skipper up to watch the process, and he was thrilled!

I think the lift was especially interesting. We both liked watching our big minivan go up and down.

Ginger is home sick again. Sore throat, and overall ill feeling. Poor thing. I hope she bounces back soon. Professor and Young Professor have been sick as well.

I hear birdsong, and it's triggering happy spring feelings within me. It has been warmer than usual, but I can't see the warm-weather birds coming back for one warm week. Maybe the cold-weather birds are singing their warm-weather songs...

                      ~ Song Sparrow ~

                    ~ Tufted Titmouse ~

I'm going to see the Phantom of the Opera for the third time tonight. My friend, Kathy, and the Professor are both seeing it for the first time, at my urging. Afterwards, we're going to stop for coffee and pie. I'm really looking forward to a night out. Ginger and Young Professor will babysit Skipper. After all this intense potty-training, I need the break.

We continue potty-training. I've found that letting the Skipper run around half-nude works best. He has gone through several little plastic-covered training pants, and I keep washing them and putting them back on him. Last night, he seemed to have a break-through: he came to me, rather anxious, and said, " I have to pee in the potty, Mama! " But alas ,he had already wet his pants. Still that was the first time he attempted to even get to the potty while wearing pants. With no pants on, he's as reliable as can be, running to the potty just in time, not a drop on the floor. But I can't exactly let him live half-naked. This has been a warm week, but the weather will turn, and he'll have to wear slacks, letalone underpants. Also, his bare bottom sticks to the plastic high chair seat, much like my bare legs used to stick to fake leather car seats on hot days. I lifted him out too quickly tonight, and heard the peel of his skin. " That huwted, Mama! " Poor kid. 

Young Professor and I just finished watching Titanic. We'd never seen it before. I had to send him out of the room a couple times. Ginger joined us for the first half, but left for the second. She knew what a horrific tale it would become. Still, it was a good movie. It made YP and me understand land-lubbers. I was kinda bummed that the big fancy diamond necklace got the toss into the sea... what a waste. I didn't get that. Maybe she was afraid that if she had given it to her grand-daughter, she's be ruined by the money it would bring her. And she'd had enough of rich snooty folk.

I miss Young Mary Ann. I made arrangements for her to fly home to us over spring break, but that seems so long off. While she's here, we'll celebrate Skipper's 3rd birthday. I hope he's potty-trained by then!

Skipper loves the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. He often reminds me that baby bear's name is " Skipper. " Tonight, after reading it to him, and tucking him in, he told me he was hungry. I brought him back down to the kitchen, and rummaged around for a quick, filling snack. I made him some instant oatmeal. After I set it before him, he looked up at me, pleased, and declared, " Porridge! " And it was just right.

Aunt Flo's been here for 4 days, and by yesterday, my nerves were frayed. I didn't realize how touchy I was until I stopped in at a drugstore, to buy some Cold-eeze for the Professor. As I walked by the checkout counter, the checker, a handsome young man, asked me, in a British accent, how the game was going. I had no idea, but we got into an interesting chat, about teams, and he told me his favorite team was one I'd never heard of. He laughed and told me they were a soccer team. ( Brits call soccer football. ) I found the Cold-eeze, and took them back to him to buy them, and we continued chatting about the different names Brits have for things. I learned that a " lory " was a truck. Then, suddenly, as people got in line behind me, he dropped the British accent. I had made a comment about being able to pick up when a Brit is doing an American accent, and I thought he was doing that to show off, so I told him it was really good. But as I walked away, I felt that I'd been had. By the time I got to my car, I felt really stupid. Later when I went back to get some pix I had dropped off, I heard him speaking just like me, and then I knew I'd been had. I suppose he was bored, and put on the accent for his own entertainment, but it really burned my hiney. I told the Professor about it, and he thought it was funny. Still I felt " had; " really stupid. Now that I think of it, it is funny.

I wonder why I'm so sensitive about looking stupid. I know I've always respected those " gifted " kids that got to leave class for their special " enrichment " class. I remember wishing I was so smart. I know that was a major reason I was attracted to the Professor. I'm really glad that my kids are smart; I feel that they have an advantage in life. I wish I could just accept myself. I'm smart enough. I like to play games, and be active, and be with people. Isn't that enough? Do I have to understand nuclear physics to be acceptable? How did I come to see super-smart folk as superior to me? Hmmm...