What *IS* that stuff, mom?

Connor has been potty training for awhile now. We're in big boy undies, he stays dry all night, and we've only had 3 accidents in the last month where we haven't made it to the potty in time. I consider all that pretty good. He's still sketchy on telling me when he has to go, but we're working on that. Everyone says it will come once everything else is in place.

But lately, we've hit a little snag in his training. Connor has become very fascinated in the process of peeing. So fascinated, that he wants to see it coming out......and therein lies the problem. Connor isn't great at holding himself down so he doesn't spray everywhere when he's peeing sitting down. But now we have him trying to see the pee coming out, which means a massive mess everywhere. I realize it's just natural curiosity, but I also know I need to nip it in the bud or it's just going to cause problems in the long run. I have no idea how to do that, so if anyone has tips, I'd be happy to hear them!

Sleep? What's that?

To say I've forgotten what a good night's sleep is like would be an understatement.

In the last couple of weeks, if I've gotten 4 hours a night, that's been a good night.

As much as I love my husband, I am just about ready to strangle him with my bare hands. He has always been a snorer, but lately, his snoring has gotten to levels that surely would register on the Richter Scale. Usually, if I'm already asleep, his snoring won't wake me. Falling asleep listening to it is another story. But lately, even if I am asleep, the snoring wakes me up. Combine that with his flipping, flopping and plopping around in bed------all while he's still happily sound asleep----and it makes for a very rough sleeping environment for me. I'm a light sleeper, so it admittedly doesn't take much to wake me. But I think his latest routine would wake up a person in a coma.

There are times when my cat and my child also conspire to keep me awake. Last night was no exception. I had made the mistake of drinking caffeine (which I rarely do) after dinner in an effort to stay awake for praise team practice at 8 p.m. When I came home at 9:45, I was buzzed. By 11 p.m., I felt like I could go to bed. So I did. Finally started to fall asleep around midnight, when my cat decides to pull his "this is my house, get off my porch" routine with our outdoor kitty. This involves scratching the carpet in front of the patio door to shreds, clawing the glass and making some sort of weird gutteral sound. This went on for 15 minutes before I had to get up and put a stop to it. Go back to bed. It is now 12:20 a.m. Takes me 20 minutes to even think of falling back to sleep. I'm no sooner back in happy land when I hear Connor, screaming "mommy, I can't find you? Where are you?" Usually, when he does this, he's not even awake. Not so this time. He was up, blanky in hand, tears in eyes, genuinely upset he couldn't find me. Getting him back to bed required 17 glasses of water and sitting in his rocking chair, staring at him until he fell asleep. Back to bed. It is now 2:15 a.m. And guess what? I can't sleep. So I've technically gotten about 45 minutes of sleep in the last 24 hours. I'm not sure if I plan to be Sleepy Dwarf or Grumpy Dwarf today, but if you happen to have the misfortune of running into me today, I apologize in advance. :)

A bit of joy in an otherwise crappy day.....

Well, it's no secret we're not in the financial situation to spend tons of money on our cars right now. But tell our cars that. Both of them have been having issues, one right after the other.

Isaak's car has been a particular pain in the posterior. The same O2 sensor has been repeatedly going bad in it for the last year. I think we've replaced it a grand total of 4 times now....at $200 a pop. The last time was in October, when he had it inspected. Less than a month later, his check engine light was coming on and the folks at the car place were saying it was the O2 sensor again. We didnt' doubt them, we just couldn't figure out why it kept going bad. Well, they decided instead of putting a standard O2 sensor on it, they'd order a factory part from Saturn this time. The downside was it cost $150 more than the off brand. We agreed to eat the extra cost and scheduled the work to be done.

Well, that work was today. When Isaak came home he had a huge smile on his face, which stumped me. When we spend money we don't have, a smile is not usually the response we show. Then he told me why he was smiling.....the guys at Midas hadn't charged him one penny for the work they did today. When they were all done, they couldn't find the invoice, which they are required to file with all the paperwork at the end of the day. So they decided to eat the cost. This is not the first time the guys at Midas have cut us a huge break like that. They have looked at my car in the past and not charged me a penny. They cut me a huge break on parts during my inspection when I told them we were both out of work. They have been great. Needless to say, they will continue to get our business and our praise for being honest, hard working and decent people. Thanks guys! You were a ray of sunshine in an otherwise crappy day! :)

Kids are amazing....

I already knew that kids in general were amazing creatures, but this past week, I've really taken stock in just how incredible my own child is.

We're working on mastering our bike, as you can see from the photo. He finally has the pedaling part down pat, but still needs a little help with steering.

He's starting to recognize words. He's long been fascinated with the alphabet and spelling words, but now, when we're reading, if I ask him to find a particular word, he can point it out. I don't think I knew how to do that until I was at least 6. I'm shocked.

And the best part of all came on Monday, when we were headed to Cranberry to help some friends get packed up for their move back to Ohio. Connor sang the words to the songs "Indescribable" and "Holy is the Lord" while in the car. I almost drove off the road. I'm used to hearing him sing simple kids' songs, but nothing like this. Have you ever heard the words to Indescribable? Some of them are quite a mouthful!

Children truly are one of God's most wonderful creations. :)

Operation Tame Cat Continues.....

Well, I haven't annoyed all of you with a Zorro story for awhile, so I guess I can tell one now.

As you all know, the feral kitty showed up on my porch last July, skinny and starving and scared to death of anyone and anything. He would sit in the yard while I put food out, then only come eat it after I left and went back inside. Slowly, he started getting more comfortable, coming onto the porch while I was there, but still not letting me get close. Around November last year, he started letting me sit right next to him, but never touch.....if I tried, I usually got the warning hiss and then the warning bat with the paw. When we had to take him to get help for his injured paw in December, we had to resort to trapping him in a humane trap because he would not let us handle him. It was a pain. That was when I began phase two Operation Tame Zorro.

I am happy to report (as you can see from the photo) that Zorro now lets me pet him. At first, it was just letting me touch him. Then he'd pull away. But slowly, I started touching him more, and two weeks ago, I went for broke and just started petting him down his back. He tolerated it, but didn't seem to like it. Two weeks later, and the little furball is now purring when I pet him and he will come to the patio door just to be petted. He still is leery of Isaak, but Isaak can be pretty scary since he's so tall and big. Hopefully if I need to get him to the vet again, it will be as simple as just reaching down and picking him up. That is my next goal....to work on getting him to let me pick him up without getting my arms or eyes scratched out. :)

Music with old friends.....

Yesterday I had the privilege of playing music at the Mother-Son Banquet at Mars Alliance Church. Myself, along with my old friends Gordon Ovenshine and Heidi Burford put together a little trio and performed about 8 songs for the 35-40 people there. It was the first time I've played/sung with Gordon and Heidi since I left Mars Alliance, and that's been nearly 3 years ago. We always had a great time making music together, and yesterday was no exception. It was a great honor to be able to play for the mothers and sons who were in attendance. And what a wonderful idea for the banquet!

Making cupcakes with mommy.....

We got a book from the library the other day called If You Give A Cat A Cupcake, by author Laura Numeroff. This woman has written other books, including my favorite, If You Give A Moose A Muffin. In the cat book, a girl gives her cat a cupcake, then he wants to add sprinkles. Hilarity then ensues. After reading it, Connor wanted to make cupcakes. So we did, complete with sprinkles, just like in the book. I think he liked licking the bowl the best, though! And who doesn't? :)