What We Did Today

Sundays are days for rest, reading the paper, reflecting on the week to come...

So, what did we do today?

We spent (in shifts) 5 hours and 45 minutes in the bathroom with Isaac, waiting for him to poop. Our efforts, praise God, were NOT in vain. He did the deed at 5:30pm. In the potty.
Over those 5-plus hours we feed him raisins, juice, dried apples, shredded wheat, anything to get things moving. At about 3:00, I (anne) put a pull-up on him with a big hole cut out of the back to allow, well, you know.
All that matters is, albeit 2 hours later, it worked. He's excited about it. We called all the grandparents. He got lots of chocolate chips. We'll see tomorrow whether or not this experience actually made any sort of lasting impression on him.

Maybe he'll get to open his Isaac-pooped-on-the-potty present that's been collecting dust since July.

Colorado is such a beautiful place!

We went camping last week for 3 days, north of Rocky Mountain National Park, about 3 hours from our house. We were at 10,000 feet and I don't think it got above 80 degrees the whole time we were there. It was a little slice of heaven!
a view from our campsite

sun streaming through the trees

my two boys. Notice how Isaac is carrying his back pack.

can you believe this place exists?

a moose. A yearling, however, still huge. She couldn't care less that I was taking pictures of her.

Isaac and his stitches

Isaac is back to normal after smacking his lip on flagstone that we recently put in on the patio. We went to Urgent Care and he got 4 stitches on the inside of his lip, which was a traumatic experience for all involved (Charlie watched TV in the waiting room).

So, here's a picture of him the day after he had the stitches put in:

and here's what he looks like today, 5 1/2 days later.

What happens when you leave sugar on the counter

Isaac came to me today asking if he could have something to eat and he looked as if he was covered in sand... including his face. Then I noticed the ring around his mouth.

"What have you been eating?" I asked. "Brown sugar."

Yeah. I'll be more careful to put the sugar back in the cabinet.

Boundaries

Today we learned how important it is to establish boundaries with 6-year-old boys who can ride a bike. Charlie was going to go move our neighbors' garbage cans up to their houses as an act of service. He said that he was going to ride his bike and I said that I'd be out in about 5 minutes to meet up with him.
Yeah, well, apparently, we had different ideas of what a bike ride meant. I thought he was going to go around the block. You can see the star that's at our house. We picked Charlie up and the other star.
Isaac and I saunter outside to meet up with Charlie. We walked the Cedar loop and saw him not. We returned home, I got the bike, put Isaac in the Burley and we did the loop again. I accepted my neighbor Hilary's help to drive around. Another neighbor, Steve, was sitting outside of his house and I asked him if he had saw Charlie, and he pointed in the direction that he had gone. Later on, Steve drove around in his truck. I called Brian to let him know and he told me to call 911 so then we had 2 patrol cars looking for him. My neighbor Ken drove around, our friend Craig drove around...
Charlie was fine, had no idea he did anything wrong and I was a wreck.
Now would be a great time to talk about specific boundaries with your kids. Use a map.

Oh, I should tell you that when Steve drove up and "found him," Charlie would not get in the truck with him. Good boy.

Brian's Latest Adventure

...and this is the year of the sprinkler system.
before:
during:

Balloon Launch

I thought it might be fun to take Charlie out -- just Charlie -- and watch a balloon launch. I'd never been to one and Charlie and I talk from time to time about going for a ride in a balloon (we're going to wait until he's tall enough to see over the side of the basket).

It was amazing. We had to get up before 6am, but we had a wonderful time. And then we had donuts.