Potty Training

Abby is FINALLY potty trained and it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. For the last couple of months I have been wanting to get going on potty training and everytime I tried Abby just wasn't interested in doing it. So, after Christmas I bought two little princess dolls that she did not have and set them up on the shelf in the bathroom for her to see. I told her that when she was ready to get potty trained and go in the potty all day I would let her have the princess dolls. For almost 2 months they sat there. Occasionally she would take one down and look at it but then she would put it back on the shelf. I thought for sure my daughter could be bribed with little princess dolls. Afterall, they are her FAVORITE things to play with and she gets a little sensitive when Emma takes them from her. So Plan A was not working out well until one day I noticed how much Abby was fussing with her diapers. She seemed to be so bothered by them. That seemed like the perfect time to introduce the nice, soft princess underwear that I had been saving for her. I knew I was in for some hard work but it had to be done and she was showing all the signs of being ready. I laid all of the underwear on her bed and let her choose one. It was no surprise that she choose the Snow White ones. She loved wearing underwear all day long. I spent the entire day in paranoia asking her if she needed to go potty and if she was dry. She probably thought I was a little crazy for asking so many times. My saving grace was having the little potty downstairs in the middle of where we were playing. So Day 1 was not that bad with only 3 accidents. Day 2 was a little better with only 2 accidents. I told her that if she could go all day with no accidents she could have both of her princess dolls. By Day 3 we were down to 0 accidents and Abby was finally able to those princess dolls. It was funny watching her play on Day 3 as she sat in her cute little shirt and underwear. At one point during the day I was in the office while she was watching a movie and I glanced through the door to see what she was up to. She was standing there watching Cinderella with Pete's swimming goggles on holding on to her little mice from the Cinderella movie. It was so funny. Since then she has done really well and will even tell me before she has to go so I can help her on the big toilet. We don't even use the little potty anymore...YEAH!! I guess it is true what they say about potty training...WAIT UNTIL THEY ARE READY!

Kanazawa Shizen Park

We went to this amazing park this afternoon called Kanazawa park. It not only had roller slides but cool climbing toys. Part of the park was under construction so we will have to come back when everything is back to normal. The kids had fun going on the roller slides but they equally enjoyed the big block structure. Even Abby learned how to climb inside and get up to the top with Andrew's help. We can always count on Andrew to help out with Abby. He is so good with her. We didn't spend a great deal of time there as it got pretty chilly as the sun was setting. Mike and I loved seeing the beautiful grove of cherry blossom trees that were just starting to blossom. It will be fun to come back in a couple of weeks to see how they have changed. There is so much more to see at this park which will make for a great adventure next time we visit!

(It was hard to get this one in focus hand holding my camera but I wanted to remember what it looked like up close)

Blue and Gold

It was nice to not have to plan for the Blue and Gold this year. The only thing I had to do beforehand was pay for the dinner and I ended up not having to do that either. It just happened to be around the time I was sick so my friend went and paid for me. The boys were free with their registration but it cost us $20 total for Mike and I to attend the dinner. That is one nice thing about church scouts...it is all paid for.

We decided not to bring the girls this year and had our good friend watch them at her house. The girls had so much fun with Myisha. She played games with them and did art projects. It was a good thing the girls did not come with us as the seating arrangments were a bit crowded. Mike sat next to Peter and some of his den and I sat next to Andrew and some of his den. The boys were silly as usual which is to be expected when you get lots of silly boys together. Andrew earned his Readyman badge and Peter earned his Wolf badge. We are so proud of both of our boys. They have worked hard and have been consistent in attending all of their den meetings. I really couldn't ask for better leaders too. After the awards were over we watched all of the skits which were pretty hilarious. I was glad to see that the boys had such a great time at their Blue and Gold dinner.

(Alex, Andrew, Thomas)

(Elliot, Peter)

No Surprise

With two parents with bad eyes it was only a matter of time until we got the news that one of our children would need glasses. Andrew seems to have inherited many of my genes both good and bad. At the beginning of this year we got a notice from school saying that Andrew needed to have a more in depth eye exam done. The result--Andrew in fact needed glasses. His prescription is -0.75 on both eyes which isn't extremely bad but enough that he hasn't been able to see the board clearly. Andrew and I went to a few stores in the area to look at glasses but didn't see anything and finally we decided to just try the NEX on base. With their small selection we weren't holding our breath but what do you know, we found the perfect pair. The only problem was that they wanted to charge us $240 for frames and poly carbonate lenses. No way. So we did the next best thing and took the measurments of the glasses and went online to find the same pair for a much cheaper price. We found his glasses at LensesRX.com and the total including shipping and extended warrantly came to $86. That was something I could live with. The glasses finally came today and Andrew was so excited to try them on and see clearly. I am sure he is already tired of hearing me tell him not to wear them at recess and to put them back in his case when he is not wearing them but I am a worrier and he knows that. I love this kid and he looks as handsome as ever in his new glasses. Indeed he looks like a Kelsch and I must say he looks A LOT like his Uncle Greg.

Hiking past Takatori Mountain

I love the fact that we live less than 5 minutes away from great hiking. We love going hiking up to Takatori Mountain. There are two ways to get to the top and we have been up both ways. We have made the Buddha route a couple of times now and wanted to try and explore past the top of the mountain down towards the other trails. Today we headed on a new trail that took us all the way towards Zushi. Before heading on the new trail we stopped at the top of Takatori Mountain to watch the rock climbers. There are so many great rocks to climb up there and we can't wait to get our own gear and get trained to climb so we can take the kids climbing with us. We are hoping to be good climbers by the time we leave here. It would be a shame to not take advantage of all the great climbing especially because it is pretty much in our backyard.

The first part of the trail took us down a steep cliff and then another steep section with chains. The kids thought that was pretty neat to have to hold onto the chains in order to get down safely. The kids told us that they felt like they were in the Indiana Jones movie. From there we wound up and down and around the most beautiful trail until we came to a man-made stone staircase that led us down to Jinmuji Temple and a monastery. We stopped and rested there as the kids were entertained by the donation box in front of the temple. Appartently the money had fallen out of the back of the box and they were just trying to "put the money back" into the box. We walked down yet more stairs to a row of Jizo statues wearing red hats and bibs. Just down the way we found a really neat bell which sat at the top of a small hill from where the monastery was. The view looking down towards the monastery was spectacular. I really wanted to go and take a closer look but it was blocked off to visitors.

The rest of our hike consisted of hiking down a trail that ran along a creek. There was no one around except us and it was such a peaceful hike all the way down. I stopped a few times to take some pictures and found myself quite alone in the woods which was really nice. At the end of the trail we headed towards the main road to Jinmuji station which is only one stop from one of the stations by our house. We even saw a few trees that were showing signs of spring with some beautiful white cherry blossoms. We are really looking forward to cherry blossom season this year. Now if it can only warm up a bit for March that would be great!

The pink highlighted line was the hike we took today!