When you need a place to read, you need a place to read

This is what Asher was busy doing while I was in the living room:



But when you need a place to read your book, you gotta do what you gotta do. Yes, that is his bookshelf. I have to admit that it was pretty ingenious.



And yes, we were already exploring toddler sized seating options, but I obviously need to step up the search.

It's potty time

Asher wears cloth diapers so he is very aware of when he pees and poops. He has recently begun telling me right after it happens. *Yes, I am aware that it seems this information is useless after the fact, but those who know better than me say it the first step in potty training.* He has also begun requesting to be put on the potty. Here are the steps he feels necessary for going potty:

1. Run to mama, saying "poo poo, poo poo", holding the potty seat. (Mama gets very excited at this point because she can see a pinprick of light at the end of the Swishing Dirty Diapers Tunnel.)

2. Run to the bathroom door, which has to be locked because I know how to open all doors. (Refer to previous post if you need a refresher about what he likes to do with free access to the toilet.) Keep saying "poo poo" in a pleading tone.

3. Throw up the toilet lid, including the seat, and throw the potty seat on. Mama then has to correctly place the seat on the toilet.

4. Dance impatiently as Mama takes off my pants, cover, and diaper.

5. Crawl up on potty.

6. Immediately say, "book, book". The only "books" in our bathroom are Modern Bride, W, and Vogue. If you've seen any of these "books", they are huge, much taller than me sitting down, so Mama has to balance the "book" for me on my knees.

7. Browse reading material for pictures of cars, trucks, planes, and fish.

8. Have Mama kiss my knees repeatedly.

9. Crawl off potty, no "poo poo" in sight.

10. Have diaper and clothes put back on.

11. Promptly go into a corner and poop in my diaper. (At this point, the small glimmer at the end of Mama's tunnel is promptly extinguished.)

12. Repeat cycle twice a day.

We have a closing date!

We close on our house on August 21st, let the 120 day countdown begin!

But how do you clean it?

I have been watching HGTV pretty frequently since we started building our house. When they remodel these expensive houses, they often include these tubs that you can soak up to your neck. Here is a picture for those who have never seen such a tub:


Okay, from one who loathes cleaning a regular bathtub because it never seems clean enough, how in the heck can you get that crevice clean?!? The water fills to the top of the tub, then overflows and runs into the surrounding trough (I'm sure there are better terms for these things, however, I don't know what they are.) Not to mention, who has time to fill that monster up and just sit in it? All I would think about was the water I was wasting and my never-ending to-do list just sitting there stagnating (and probably multiplying) as I soaked. Maybe people who can afford the $6500 price tag can pay someone to complete their to-do lists.

The other weird thing about this tub is you can get it with "chromotherapy". That's the fancy term for lights in the side that you can change color according to your mood. Is that really therapy, getting in your bathtub and turning on a pink light? I don't know about you, but I'm not sure that would improve my mood in the least.

Cookout, Danville style

We were invited to a cookout last evening at a friend's house who lives out in the country surrounding Danville. The wording of that sentence isn't quite right, because it seems like Danville is a country surrounded by another country, but I'm leaving it because in some ways, it seems true. Sean and Lisa are working to become self-sufficient and so they are building up a farm piece by piece. I was interested to see how Asher would react to the animals because sometimes he's funny about things like that.

He wasn't too sure about the baby chickens, but he really liked Twitchy, a big white one. He tried to pet his (her, I don't think they know the gender yet)head and feed him some cheese. He also liked the goats, he tried to corner them in the pen, but we were afraid the mom would butt him. I thought this would be humorous, but Lisa explained that it would hurt, so I removed him from butting range. He threw cracked corn in the pen to feed the ducks and chickens, and ate loads of cherry tomatoes.






He soon discovered that Sean's next door neighbor, Harold, had a lawnmower (mawnmo), a small motorized Dora the Explorer truck, a scooter, a very mean pit bull, and a myriad of other things to pull me continually away from the party. I wish I had a video of him in that truck, he would mash the pedal to the floor, but he didn't know how to steer. He also thought it was more fun to watch behind than in front. So Logan and I had to run along beside the truck trying to steer Asher from running over the other guests, the grill, etc. We had a fun night, and I'm going to miss the friends we've made here.

New toy

Some of you know about my quest for toys that will not cause brain damage in my toddler, and I'm happy to announce that Toys R Us has started carrying a chemical-free, eco-friendly line called Natural Wood. We bought a trial tonight to see if Asher would be interested, and he loves it! It is a utility truck with two "mans" as he calls them. It was relatively inexpensive at $11.50, especially compared to toys from Europe. Here is a picture from the store, and I will update with him playing tomorrow.

Actions shots (from my crappy camera):



While I'm at it, here are the other new toys I really want, but I'm trying to save money.

Yes, I am a dork...

but I love Survivor! I so look forward to Thursday nights because it means two things, one is that I only have one more day in the Land of Lord of the Flies until the weekend, and two, it's Survivor night. For some reason I'm drawn to people who are willing to be dirty, wet, cold, uncomfortable, and insect-bitten all for a 5% chance at a million dollars. Tonight's episode was particularly heart-stopping during the final vote, where Ozzy, my least favorite player, was unexpectedly given the boot. Go team! I love how his smug little smile slipped slowly from his face as vote after vote was read leading to his demise. Go Parvati and Jason, long live your conniving and deceit!