September 13, 2006 – Home Steeped Hope

My little stinker of the “In Training” posts, seems to have an issue with being in the “spotlight”.

In the past two days, we’ve been at least equally as successful as not…in the toilet training department. Why? Well, when the Pavlov’s dog routine (goal-incentive) failed to work, I was at a loss. About this same time, toddler disappeared. Found her in the bathroom, having done her thing.

The little pill has gone in there FOUR times today (on the QT) and emerges, beaming, to announce, “I go potty, Mommy!” (Which I knew was the truth because I was outside the bathroom eavesdropping from the hallway!)

Not sure what I think about this. Hygiene aside, is this cool, or is this some streak of independence trying to assert itself?

Hopefully she just has stage fright or something when I’m crouching there acting my part of “toilet coach”! Cause we can sit there and sit there and nothing happens!

Want a good family read that stokes those fires of creativity? Get thee to the nearest library and check out Alphabet House by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace.

It’s an A to Z book like many others with each alphabet letter getting its own page full of corresponding sounds, but the pictures are done in collage and they are amazing! A person could spend an hour enjoying all the details this artist put into her book.

And we couldn’t leave it at just enthusing over the coolness and artistry. Nope, we had to try it for ourselves. It is that engaging! Brown paper bunny families in yellow checked gingham dresses, little bunny girls doing the hula hoop, indoor homey scenes of mama bunny ironing or doing laundry with the twins helping…the mediums were anything from brown paper bags to white paper towels to sandpaper rooflines. (Get the book!)

So the first free afternoon we got (wouldn’t you know, the very next day!) we called our nearest homeschooling friends and asked if we could deluge upon them with scads of paper, glue sticks and scissors. Of course they said, “Of course!” Two hours of fun later, 4 kids had some really neat indoor and outdoor scenes to show off.