Sidney and potty training

Today Sidney told me he had to go pee. He starts by putting his hands down his pants and says pee, pee. Well today he did that and I was trying to get him to tell me what he needed to do. So he started to walk towards the bathroom and started to take off his clothes. I followed him and helped him take off his pajama bottoms and he tore off his diaper. As always, I check to see if his diaper was wet before he goes and sure enough it was wet. Well anyways I helped him get on the toilet and told him I would be back when he was done. A few minutes later I heard some noise coming out of the bathroom. I went to investigate and the sight I saw had me laughing. There was Sidney standing on his step, that we bought him for the express purpose for getting on and off the toilet, he was naked from the waist down. Sidney was standing at the sink with the water running and sap on his hands. The potty video that stars Elmo talks about the three things you do after you go to the potty. The last one is wash your hands and dry them off. When I came around the corner there I saw Sidney's naked butt and he was trying to tell me that he was washing his hands. All this time Phia was over by the toilet jumping and screaming for joy as she was having a blast. I helped Sidney turn off the water and gave him a towel. After he was done Sidney, Phia and I came out to the living room and we went on about our day.

Stairs

Last night and this morning, Erica and i watched as Sidney gave a show to Sophia. Who knew stairs could be so much fun. Sidney would climb to the top of the first part of our stairs and then slide down them on his stomach. Phia would be sitting there laughing hysterically as Sidney showed off his trick. Last night I had to get some sleep for my shift at eleven last night. I heard laughter from Sidney and Sophia, and did not think anything of it until Erica called for me to watch was taking place. I came to the top part of our stairs and watched Sidney sliding down on his belly to the floor below where Sophia watched. There I saw Phia on the bottom of the stairs laughing her loudest belly laugh. Every time Sidney would look back and exclaim, “Phia, Phia,” as I watched I could not believe that my two children could get along so well. Sidney and Phia, mostly Sidney, fight over toys and anything that comes between them. It was an awesome sight to see his happening and no fighting taking place. I know that as they grow older there will be more of these types of interactions but it is very special to see them interacting like this now. As I watched this Phia’s laughter kept getting louder and louder and her squeals of happiness followed in that direction as well. After about fifteen minutes of this I unfortunately had to go to bed and I had good dreams replaying in my head that my two children had just done together, without fighting!!

Being a master of history, (I received my master’s in March of 2009), I looked into the sky while I was at my parents home in Ephrata and I noticed there were four contrails of planes that had flown overhead. It got me to thinking about World War Two and the pictures of the contrails of the B-17 Flying Fortresses, B-24 Liberators flying over Germany and the B-29 Superfortresses doing the same over the skies of Japan. If you ever noticed you do not think of them as being dangerous. However, back in the early and mid-1940, seeing those contrails overhead meant some where there was going to be death and destruction. How did the people of Japan and Germany cope with that fact everyday? Or did they cope at all? How did the pilots of those planes cope with their missions or did they not think about what was happening below them? It makes me wonder sometimes how people coped with a simple contrail that passed overhead. I know I can not go back and experience what those people experienced but if I could would I want to? It just makes me wonder, and makes me look at contrails in a different light than what you would normally think.

In just the past few days I have seen a new women appear before me. I know I have seen part of her at her mother’s house when we go over, but since Erica has started to make baby food for Phia, and pluck apricots from trees that belong to strangers. She has started down a road that I saw glimpses of and really did not think about before. It is fun to sit down and be able to pit apricots and then the next night to crush their backs so that they can dry faster in a dryer. I still have to get over my strong feelings of my likes and dislikes so tat my son can grow into a large variety of food they he will eat. I have to try new and different things. Erica’s new found talent that she had learned from his mother as a little girl is now starting to come to a new light. I just have to thank her and her mother for the new things tat I have to try and the great things Erica will accomplish.

This past week has been bliss. NO KIDS AND NO WIFE. The only thing is that I missed them dearly. I cannot complain when I got off work at 7 in the morning and did not have to share my bed with my son even though I love laying down with him. I did not have to endure the forty five minutes of playing that he does before he lays down. I was able to sleep for a whole eight hours and I loved it.
If you do not know about little kids you can enjoy the times when they are gone. I had to do dishes TWICE this week. Not the two or three times a day when my kids are home. No nipple to wash, no bottles to make or diapers to change. The garbage pail for the diapers has been empty since Monday afternoon. What a joy to be able to sit down and eat a meal in peace without someone wanting to come over and beg for food. But you know what I miss doing nipples, making bottles, and changing diapers. Sophia and Sidney are a major part of my life and not doing those things for them is unthinkable to not do. It is nice to have a break from time to time. But after a while the house is way to quiet, you do not wake up to a little boy trying to get into bed with you that makes you want to get up with him, some of the times. It is really nice to hear Sophia scream and yell at the top of her lungs because she is happy. The house is too quiet without the noise of toys being dumped out for the fun of it and to see my daughters face smile after she is ground into the ground.
Yes I even miss the constant nagging of my wife. Without her I ate macaroni and cheese and hot dogs all week. At least when she is home I get a good wholesome meal with vegetables. I hate them but I eat them for the good of my son and my health.
I even tried to keep the house semi clean this week. While she was gone away at her mother’s with the kids for a week. I hope the meager effort I did put out is at least ok with her. I know there will be hell to pay when she does get home at the awful state of our home. But I hope she knows that I did try to keep the house clean. The dishes are done and are put away or drying. Anyway I have to get read for my queen, prince and princess to come home to our castle.

Brain fart

For over a year now Erica and I have had a new vacuum cleaner, we thought that we knew how all of the parts of the vacuum worked but that is not true. Today I decided while I was asked to vacuum the living room that I would clean out the track for our new screen sliding door. I took out the extension and started to clean. I was having a grand time as I saw layer upon layer of dirt disappearing before my eyes. The vacuum was doing its’ thing when I stopped and told Erica that I did not need the tool that she was trying to hand me to clean out the rails. That is when Erica and I, especially me, figured out that the head to our cleaning tool with the triangle shaped head and bristles on one side and teeth on the other actually moved. It moved and I looked at Erica and asked, “Did you know that it did that,” her response put me into a fit of laughter as she responded, “me either!” We have had that vacuum for over a year now and we finally fond out that that one of the attachments actually moves to let airflow pull dirt and grime into the hose that is then deposited in a bucket in the vacuum after a long drawn out process that makes vacuums do what they do. I would tell you about the process but I do not want to bore my friends ad family who may actually follow this post that I started about a month ago. Anyway that made me laugh and even though I am kind of shy about telling people about things that I should have known about but I just had to tell anyone who will listen about it. it made me laugh and I hope it makes you too.

P.S.

This will make you think twice about how much you think you know about your household appliances. I found out the hard way and it was quite funny.

Sidney and his trike

today I was watching Sidney playing with his trike he got for his birthday. He took it out the front door and started to go down the sidewalk in front of our apartment. It is a small incline but he likes to take his older four wheeled red flyer push scooter and fly down the sidewalk and stop at the edge. Well this time he was not able to stop and fell over the side. He was not hurt as he had enough momentum to keep him going and his front wheel ran over the edge and the back wheels followed not a second later. However he did not stop there, he and the trike went just a bit further and he hit his head on the neighbors truck that is parked in the first slot. I had to stifle a laugh when he hit but he was so happy to be riding his trike that it did not dampen his spirits..