Spence is No Bobby Fischer

Spencer: Does anybody wanna play chess?

*silence from the family*

Me (snarkily): Why don't you play against yourself?

Spencer: I've done that.  I've only won once.

This & That

This week's been... a week.  I mean, in the grand scheme of things it wasn't that bad.

But it wasn't what I would call fun, either.

Tess is getting there with the potty training.  In fact no accidents today until right after dinner, and then it was a doozy.  And she's still not dry at night, so we're dealing with that, too.  Tomorrow is the first time we'll take her out in public since we started this whole thing. Let's hope she can at least stay dry at church!  (Please oh please oh please oh.)  She's certainly capable of it, but whether or not she's willing is a whole other matter.

I had really hoped that she'd be one of those kids who just "gets it" right off and everything falls into place easy peasy.  We deserved a child like that.  But no. No no no.  I will give her this, though: she was the first child we didn't have to bribe just to sit on the potty or put on the underpants.  She was much more willing upfront than any of her brothers.  (Which isn't hard.)

Lance goes back to work on Monday.  I'm already dreading it.  Especially that 5pm witching hour, when homework is being done, dinner is being made, and everyone's grouchy and insane. While potty training, without fail, my boys all decided that that was the time of day to have prolific accidents. I don't expect any less from Tess.

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So Valentine's Day is coming up and a few weeks ago I was getting a little stressed about what to do for the kid's school Valentine's.  Pinterest is swarming with charming ideas, and there were many that I liked, but the boys didn't seem to care and I didn't want to make all of these wonderful Valentine's only to have them not like them or - worse - be ambivalent about it.  All sorts of things worried me: what if they turned out to be more expensive than I thought?  What if they don't turn out right?  What if *gasp* someone else in class did the same Valentines?  The horror!

Then I took a deep breath and grew up and realized that the boys didn't care about what Valentine's I made because they don't really care about Valentines.  It was me making everything stressful, not them!  So I decided to buy the cheapo Valentine's (with tattoos!) at Wal-Mart, slap some candy on them, and call it good.  Now everyone's happy.

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Our water heater is functioning once again.  Ed, the guy who has been helping us out and who I like very much, was NOT the one who came to install the new pressure switch the other day.  I don't remember the guy's name, so I've just been calling him NotEd.  Well, NotEd apparently installed it incorrectly.  So after a rather terse phone call yesterday morning Ed came and fixed it and all is well.

I'm so sick of dealing with major appliance issues.  We are good homeowners and we take care of our appliances and we are good people and why do things like this keep happening to us?!  Seriously, I think it's time to have a little break from appliance drama.  Just sayin'.

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So yesterday I discovered that Spencer just totally blew off a rather large school project.  As in, he decided to just not do it.  At all.

He claims he forgot to, but that's a bunch of bologna because I had asked him about it several times and he always claimed they were working on it at school.  It was due last Monday.

@#%##$%!!!!

Seriously, who is this kid?!  Did he think we wouldn't find out?  When I was in school I would have NEVER even dreamed of just not doing a project?  I just don't even know.

Well, the child lost all screen privileges for the rest of the month.  And got a very stern talking to.  And then he had to do the entire project this weekend even though I don't think he can even get credit for it now, but that's not even the point: the point is you do the project regardless.  Sheesh.  Child.

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Tess wanted a new flower for her hair, so I made these this evening.

Perfect for Valentine's Day, right?  I think I might even wear one tomorrow.  I'm not a mom to wear matching outfits with my daughter, but matching accessories?  Sure.

I'm hoping the flower in her hair will distract from any accidents that may occur at church.  Oy.

&&(%&$!!!! Water Heater

The water heater was supposed to be fixed for good last night.

It was not.

My anger burns like the heat of a thousand suns.

This is approximately a thousand suns times hotter than the water in our house.

I'm running away. Suggestions as to where?

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Also, potty training?  Draining.  Trying.  Never-ending.  Frustrating.  And not very successful.  (The same could be said for this dang winter.  Sheesh.)

I'm running away.  Suggestions as to where?

Tess Potty Training

This certainly wasn't the worst day of potty training ever, but it could have gone better.  Tess just doesn't "get it" yet, and I'm not sure how to help her.  Lance and I are both tired and grumpy.  Cole is annoyed because Tess is getting so much attention. Spencer and Josh are sad because they thought I said that we'd get a Wii U no matter who potty trained Tess.

A big ol' snow storm is coming our way, ready to dump more (MORE!) snow on us, followed by more (MORE!) Arctic temperatures.

During bedtime prayers Tess prayed to have her diapers back.

*sigh*

The Best Bed Ever!

Tess was AWESOME last night!  She didn't get out of bed at all!  Well, Lance says her stuffed pink pig wasn't in bed when he put her down but was in there later, but whatever.  And she took quite a while to actually go to sleep.  But she pretty much stayed in bed and behaved herself!

Compared to what we went through with Josh and Cole, this is nothing short of miraculous.  And considering what we went through with Cole and Josh, we totally deserve this.

Tess looooves her bed.  So much, in fact, that she is actually on it taking a nap - on purpose - right now!  We shoulda put her in a bed weeks ago. (Let's just hope this bodes well for the potty training we're beginning tomorrow.)  ((I'm not holding my breath.))

Big Girl Bed!

So on Thursday Lance came home unexpectedly at lunch and nonchalantly told me that he still has a ton of vacation hours he has to use before February 10th and so was taking Friday and the rest of next week off.

Awesomesauce.

Well, if your husband is home for a week you've got to come up with some sort of vacation or project or something.  But I'm feeling poor with all the buying of new beds and mattresses and bedding and repairing dang water heaters and booking hotel rooms for our trip this summer and paying for our house to stay warm now that we apparently live in the Arctic. So no vacations.  And all of my big projects that I want to get done are outside, so no honeydo lists, either.

But then Lance had an awful idea.  A terribly wonderful awful idea.

Why don't we potty train Tess?

I couldn't argue with his logic.  Potty training works so much better if two parents are home during the day.

But.

I felt like it would be silly to try to potty train her if she were still in her crib.  So this morning we moved the daybed out of Spencer's room and into Tess's. (Spencer will be sleeping on the trundle bed for a few weeks until I get up to IKEA and buy the bed I want.)

As you can see, Tess is super excited about this.

She loves her new bedding and that she can get in and out of bed whenever she wants.  She probably likes all the space, too - it was getting pretty cramped in that little crib.

It was a little bittersweet seeing that banged up, chewed on, milk-splashed crib get taken down and out to the garage.  We've had it for just over 10 years, and it's been up since we moved into this house.

I'm a little nervous about tonight.  Will she stay in bed?  (No.)  But will it be a HUGE fight like it was for Josh and Cole. (Please no. PLEASE NO.)

And will this plus potty training be too much change at once?  Hard to say.  Each child is so different, and no matter how well you think you know them, they always seem to surprise.

All I know is, potty training her brothers was a living hell.  Seems to me that if the Potty Training Gods are just at all, things should be a lot easier this time around.  (Please.  PLEASE.)

Guess it's all up to this little cutie.

A Bargain At Any Price

This evening at dinner we told Spencer that we'd buy him a 3DS if he potty trained Tess, and we told Josh we'd buy him a Wii U if he potty trained Tess.

Josh got to work and got Tess to watch most of "Elmo's Potty Time".  And then he got her to sit on the potty with no pants on, something she has NEVER done before.

This could be a very expensive potty training season.

Totally worth every penny, though.