Kaitlin sings the ABCs

Quick stories

1) View from the future:

Scene: dining room table at Kaitlin's snack time. Kaitlin was upset because just since she was done with her snack, that didn't mean she wanted Daddy to finish it. Jimmy was holding Will on his lap. Will started cracking up at Kaitlin's tantrum. Kaitlin turns to Will: "Baby brother! No laugh me! I crying!"

2) Good to know

Scene: rest stop restroom over the weekend. Kaitlin & I were using the handicapped stall - she went first. Kaitlin: "No me pee my pull-up! Yay!" Then it was my turn. Kaitlin: "No mommy pee underwear! Yay, mommy!"

3) This morning, when Will & I went to get Kaitlin up, she got out of bed, said "Hi" to Will, and then told me, "I poopy." I ask, "In your diaper?" She replies, "No, mommy, in the potty!" So we go to the potty, get her overnight diaper & PJs off, and she poops in the potty! Woohoo!

Memorial Day weekend

Memorial Day dinner

We had a great weekend!

Saturday, I made my first big, multi-hour, solo outing with both kids. We went to the Hands-On Museum, just like Kaitlin & I used to every Saturday before Will came along. We timed it so Will wouldn't have to eat while we were there (still haven't quite got the knack of nursing on the move) and had a great time.

Sunday, we drove over the the Laz's in Indiana for a BBQ with the NU crowd - lots of photos on Flickr, including some stolen from other folks that prove I was there :) We loved seeing everyone, watching the NU women's lacrosse team win their fifth championship in a row, and just hanging out.

Today, we were a bit tired, so hung around the house most of the day. Jimmy grilled us up a great dinner and I baked our last apple pie from last season's apple picking trip for dessert. Nom nom nom.

Potty training update

For those who are curious...

Kaitlin wore vinyl covered training pants (essentially underwear plus vinyl cover all in one garment) to day care every day this week. She's still wearing diapers for nap & bedtime. Every day that it's been below 75 degrees, she has not had an accident! There were two days in the 80s, and she had accidents (pees) both days - we think she was so hydrated that she just had to pee a lot more than usual. Hopefully she'll figure that part out before it gets really hot. But three of five days without an accident is wonderful progress - woohoo!

In other news... Will is becoming more and more social, cooing and smiling at people. He also learned how to squeal, which is lovely :)

Save the Date

Aug. 9, 2009. Ann Arbor. Lil' Will's baptism. Details to come.

Fun in lab

In a fit of scientific humor, we in lab have compiled the following list:
(note: for those of you not familiar with science grad school, a rotation student is a grad student trying out your lab for a few months...think basically an internship)

Reasons why E. coli are better than rotation students
1) You can’t bleach rotation students.
2) Rotation students are harder to electroporate…they tend to arc…and scream.
3) They do what they’re told (plasmids) without argument.
4) E. coli like to be shaken hard (aerated) and can be pelleted.
5) Lysing E. coli isn’t a felony.
6) You can put E. coli out in the cold for years and they’ll still work for you.
7) You can ensure that E. coli are competent.
8) E. coli work overnight, on weekends, and on holidays.
9) If you heat shock a rotation student, you have to call an ambulance.
10) E. coli can work without supervision.
11) E. coli won’t set the lab on fire.
12) E. coli work for room and board.
13) E. coli won’t crack under pressure… they just burst.
14) E. coli won’t take up your bench.
15) E. coli don’t become paranoid when examined under the microscope.
16) E. coli are easily cultured.
17) If E. coli misbehave, you just kill them all and start over immediately. You have to wait until the next semester for more rotation students.

What a morning

I'm sure none of you want to read about pee and poop any more, but I just have to write about this crazy morning...

Woke up at 6:30 and nursed Will. As I'm feeding him, I feel something hot and wet on my belly. Start thinking "Please be milk. Please." Sadly, it was not milk. I don't usually change Will right after his morning feeding (I wait until after the morning poop) but since that diaper was useless, I went ahead and changed him & got him dressed for the day.

At 7:30, went to get Kaitlin up. She's sitting in her bed playing with her baby dolls. The room stinks. I ask her, "Do you have a poopy diaper?" She replies, "I poop in my bed. All night." Lovely, I think. Convince her to lay down so I can change her, and notice as I'm pulling off her pajama bottoms that there's poop on them. Which means that a) the diaper leaked and b) the vinyl diaper cover leaked. I don't know how many of you have read Mike Greenberg's book but there's a part in it where he's babysitting an almost potty-trained kid who only poops first thing in the morning... This was the same level of grossness. I was tempted to use Greeny's solution and put Kaitlin in the shower, but the shower scares her. Oh well.

While I was cleaning Kaitlin up, Will was sitting in his bouncy chair next to us. Suddenly I hear him poop (for those of you who have had newborns, you know the sound I mean - for those of you without, yes, you can hear newborns poop). Since obviously I can't drop what I'm doing and change him, I start praying, "Please don't leak. Please don't leak." I finish Kaitlin, get her in a clean diaper, wash my hands, unstrap Will, run him to the changing table, and woohoo! No leaks.

I told Jimmy this whole tale (he was in the shower while this was going on, lucky man) and he said that if yesterday was about celebrating how great motherhood is, then today is about earning that greatness. I'm just hoping I don't have any more "earning" to do tonight. But since we're in the middle of potty training, I'm sure I will!

On the topic of Mother's Day - we had a great day. Jimmy made a wonderful dinner and got me yummy chocolate chip cookies.

Three months old!

Three months old!

I can't believe Will is three months old today. Time is flying by - as Fr. Ken always says, long days and short years.

Anywho, more adorable photos on Flickr.

Potty progress

For those of you keeping tabs on our potty training... If you don't want to read about pee or poop, stop now!

For a while now, Kaitlin has been saying "Me pooping" right when she pees or poops (we're working on differentiating what's actually happening, and giving us more warning). Saturday, we were playing at Jungle Java, and she hadn't said anything about poop in a while, so I figured I'd ask her if she had to go. Jungle Java, being a toddler-friendly place, has a toddler-size potty in one of the bathroom stalls. Kaitlin just loves it - we've gone in there before, she's sat down, nothing. So I wasn't expecting anything this time. Amazingly, we go in the stall, I take off her DRY diaper (woo) and she sits down - and pees (double woo)!

Then, Sunday, we were at Qdoba for lunch after church. Kaitlin stopped eating her taco, looks at me, and says "Me pooping." Darn, I think, and she did so well yesterday. But we go to the bathroom so I can change her diaper, and I figure, what the hey, I'll sit her on the potty again. She had already peed in her diaper, but she pooped in the potty! And this was a "big potty," not toddler-sized. So two days in a row, two unfamiliar potties, two successes!

We're off to the Hands-On museum tonight, where there's another small potty (although not toddler-sized - they had issues with toddlers plugging the drain with too much paper) and we'll give it another try. Hopefully she's figuring this whole potty thing out! I got her a stepstool today to make hand-washing easier at home - she had been stacking two little stools on top of each other, but that was making me a bit nervous.

ETA - D'oh. Member night at the museum is Wednesday. We stood around outside for about 5 minutes before figuring this out. Oh well. Got Teriyaki Time for dinner and enjoyed a nice family walk downtown, at least.