Nesting 3.0

The kinds of things one does when overdue by more than a week, regardless of 30 degree heat:

-remove oneself from the public eye by having an awesome friend drive one's eldest child to and from Vacation Bible Camp (thanks, Jen!)
-mend a younger daughter's favourite dress
-vacuum up the sandy evidence of playground outings
-wash the front porch windows and sweep the porch in anticipation of eventual visitors; consider and reject cleaning the front door 
-scrub sinks and toilets, particularly after a potty training #2 accident... gross
-dust the ceiling(?!)
-attempt to keep up with the laundry
-attempt to keep the house tidy
-jump at anything that could be a contraction
-gear up for further appointments and ultrasounds
-knit
-remind oneself that this was to be expected, and that's it's just an extended period of calm before the storm

Garage sale mission accomplished

Our kitchen chairs have been unsightly ever since we first strapped a booster seat to one of them, about four years ago. Up until then, they had served us well, and we've had them for almost nine years now. They were the cheapest ones we could find at Ikea, and not well-finished, and they got unbelievably sticky and dirty over time. On a couple of occasions, Hubby or I took steel wool to them in an attempt to clean them up a bit, but that would last all of two or three days. Then one of them broke a few weeks ago, and as it coincided with the start of garage sale season, I determined it was time to replace them. I was prepared to be on the lookout all summer.

This picture does not adequately convey the grossness

Happily, it didn't take quite that long. This past Saturday was my second morning of solo garage saling, and after a fruitless morning, I happened upon these beauties. The price was right: 20$ for a set of four.

Now that is a properly finished chair!

On Kijiji and at most other garage sales, people want to sell you a kitchen table and chairs as a set, and I don't blame them. But I love our kitchen table, and I'm not in the market for a new one. Also, good solid wood chairs tend to be expensive, so I am quite pleased with these. I do wish there were six chairs instead of four, but we really only need four at the moment (we can keep one of the rubbish chairs for the booster seat, or use the old wooden high chair). I gave them a good scrub today, so that any food stains I find from here on in will be guaranteed to be ours. All they need now are new felt pads, as the old ones were falling off and gross-looking. Reactions from the fam: Hubby was pleased, D was disappointed that they don't match the table, and M thought we stole them from Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Potty training 2.0

The timing on this couldn't be helped. After the horrible, drawn-out process of potty training D, I always said I'd start with M when she asked me in her own words, and here we are, weeks away from my due date, and she's interested. It's going okay so far. We were up at the cottage on the weekend, and I brought along a potty because the other alternatives are a composting toilet or an outhouse, neither of which I wanted her using on her own. At home she's been using the toilet along with a step-stool to help her get up, so having something more at her level was a delight. She did pretty well, using the potty successfully two or three times each day. Poor D had more pee accidents than her sister! Most of the time M was in a bathing suit with a swim diaper, and the rest of the time she was in a disposable diaper.

Her cottage uniform: a swimsuit and a smile

Now that we're back home, it's either cloth diapers or underwear. Up until the past few days, anytime M had undies on, she would wet them without telling me. If she had a bare bum, she would remember to run to the bathroom. Yesterday we had the first big success: dry undies all morning! Today she's had two accidents, but both were in the kitchen, so it was easy to clean up. I'm finding it much less frustrating now that we have hardwood floors on the main level. I'm also trying to be more relaxed about accidents, but consistent about wearing undies (now that it's summer and we're around the house more). We are also not providing stickers or candy for successful toilet use this time, although we do sing her a little song to say good job. (If you're interested, it's "Good job Maevey/good job Maevey/good job Maevey/you've done a very good job" to the tune of Good Night Ladies. Super creative, I know.)