Labor Day/Birthday Weekend

Today is Labor Day, and it's also my husband's birthday. We're not too terribly big about birthdays, and really, neither one of is a real "gifty" person. On the Love Language tests, we both score lowest on gifts, which is a good thing. Not only is it cheaper that way, neither one of us feels slighted when there's not a huge gift waiting on the special day, whatever it is. Besides, like most guys, if there's something he wants, he'll go get it for himself and it's pretty hard to buy something for him that he actually appreciates. If it weren't for Amazon.com's wishlists, I would be completely in the dark for Christmas, which is really the only time we do gifts for each other. (We do make big deals of the kids' birthdays. They're still young enough to care about that sort of thing.)

In our understated way, we're celebrating with his mother and grandmother, grilling burgers and having cake (to be decorated later by the children). It will be a good day.

Yesterday we had my parents over for lunch after church. We usually go to their house, so it was nice to finally be able to return the favor, and to show off the table for the first time. It was very satisfying to have my mother walk through the kitchen after everything had been cleaned up and hear her say that the kitchen looked nice.

I finally feel like a full-fledged grown up. I think Big Girl's being in real school has a lot to do with that. Yesterday too, with me doing all the stuff my mother usually does. I've also been keeping my kitchen clean all week, which is vastly out of character for me. But I really care about it for the first time in... (I was going to say, "a long time," but that's not even right...) my whole life. And that makes me feel like a grown up.

This weekend we're realizing that we really have to tackle the potty training of Little Girl. She's graduated to a Sunday School class where there are no diaper changing facilities. They have a bathroom, with a teeny, little, kid-sized potty, but no changing pad. When she was dirty, a wonderfully sweet lady working in her class and I changed the poopy diaper with Little Girl standing there as we tried to wipe her behind. She really gave me a rough time yesterday with every little possible thing, and we know that her lack of potty prowess is entirely her choice. So now Hubby and I are really making things less pleasant for her so long as this is the choice she's making. We're not letting her wear her diaper (or anything else on her bottom) and we're not letting her on the carpeted areas of the house until after she makes in the potty. Currently she's crying about her confinement. But it's really her choice. So far, it's been a couple hours of naked bottom, and no accidents. She's in control. She's waiting for her nap-time when the diaper will be put back on. That's what she did yesterday too. I'm trying to be more mean about it, and less patient to see if that makes a difference. I'm also trying to be no fun during diaper changes. I don't want there to be a payoff for that at all. We've got to do something...

So today is mostly a relaxing day, except for the parenting. Nap-time is just around the corner. And by the sound of it, they need it as much as we do!

"Pink Panther" is in my head. The movie is on in the other room.