Category: Family

A few days ago, we decided (based on his pediatrician's recommendation) to go cold turkey on daytime diapers with Sean. After all the resistance he's been giving us over the last couple of months, I expected a disaster. But we told him he was too big for diapers, and that he was responsible for his own potty training at this point. We told him that we weren't going to remind him to go anymore, and that if he had an accident he would have to clean it up himself. And guess what? He's been 4 days now with no daytime diaper, and he hasn't had a single accident. It's been good for him in more ways than one - he's so incredibly proud of himself, and it gives him a new sense of responsibility. I only wish we'd tried this sooner.

Lori and her mom took the kids to the town beach today. As you can see, they didn't have any fun at all. Heh heh. Carter is finally starting to warm up to the water. I am starting to wonder if the only reason she was so hesitant earlier this summer was just due to the temperature of the water.

We spent this morning in North Conway for the "Day Out with Thomas" event. We had high hopes, because Thomas is one of Sean's favorite things right now. But I think it was the combination of not getting enough sleep the night before (sister is sick and kept waking up coughing, which kept us all awake), and being overstimulated by all that was going on. It was more crying and throwing fits that smiles and happiness. We had one brief moment of fun - once we were actually seated on the train and it was moving, Sean was all smiles as he looked out the window and talked about everything he was seeing. But it took a lot of frustration to get us there. Maybe next year we'll have better luck, and plan a bit better for keeping things manageable for him.

For dinner, we headed down to the Saco River with the grill and a few towels. Sean headed straight into the water, and got a huge kick out of wearing his new Lightning McQueen lifejacket. He's been wearing it around the house ever since we bought it, and he finally got a chance to try it out today. And surprising all of us, Carter went in the river too! She's been avoiding the water like the plague all summer, and we thought we'd have to wait until next year before she'd be willing to give it a go. It took half an hour of her throwing rocks into the river to build up enough nerve to actually put her feet in it, but she eventually took the plunge. Grampy made burgers and dogs on the shore, the kids swam, daddy skipped rocks - it was a pretty awesome way to spend dinnertime.

On Friday, the kids arrived up north to join Dad and I. It was the their first time, of what will hopefully be many future visits. First order of business when they arrived was to head over to the playground, to let them burn off their pent-up energy from sitting in the van for three hours.

Last week, Lori got an idea. She dragged the kids' slide over to their little wading pool, and Sean had an afternoon of slippery fun. Carter was still a little bit too afraid of the water to try it herself, but she did climb up on the structure a few times to sneak a peak.

I think back to when Carter will still just a tiny one, and how Sean waffled between showing no interest in his sister, and yelling at her every time she made even the tiniest noise. But over the last year, they have really started to develop an amazing bond - you can hardly separate them. Which I'm sure has at least a little to do with Carter's hero worship of her big brother. He's almost got a shadow. Which is great when he does something right, but not so much when he's misbehaving and his partner in crime follows right along.

We celebrated Lori's birthday last weekend, and sometime during the shindig Lori caught this little gem. Three of my favorite ladies, all in a row. When I see a picture like this, it reminds me of why we moved back to New England. If we were just here visiting, Carter would have been so nervous and shy to be wedged between two "strangers". And I could never be satisfied with my kids thinking of my sisters as strangers, not when they are so important to me.

We got a new sprinkler a week or so ago, and Lori took the kids outside today to give it a whirl. Carter is still a little timid around the sprinkler, but she's warming up. But it didn't matter much, because it eventually turned into a muddle-puddle extravaganza. Carter was content to just pour water on her brother, but Sean got himself pretty muddy. Have you ever seen a kid so happy, I ask you?

Carter has graduated to the big girl swing! She looks so cute, don't you think? She looks like such a big girl on that swing. My little girl is growing up. She'd better not start bringing boys home!