Happy Indeed

These Hippo chocolate candies are my new favorite thing. Did I try them? No. But the kids are so enamored with these treats brought all the way from Germany that they will do anything for them!

I already posted about Lincoln's fantastic speech with the promise of a Happy Hippo. NOW it's time for the Jackson is POTTY TRAINED post.

Yes, that's right. We started a week ago today and we have been accident free for 4 days. We are still working on the big business, but little business is UNDER CONTROL! He is doing so great! He doesn't even ask for help... just goes on in and takes care of stuff. I had the little potty in the living room for two days and he did great with that. We had people over and I thought it would be somewhat inappropriate to keep it there, so I moved it into the bathroom while he was asleep. It didn't even phase him. He found it without even mentioning it. The next day, he was cool with moving up to the big boy potty. Awesome.

Am I celebrating too early?

Don't Touch That

Do you ever think that life was easier before we had so many conveniences? I remember thinking that all of the time when Lincoln was in the crawling/walking toddler stages. I thought, man... I sure have a lot of things that he isn't allowed to touch. Some things are too expensive. Some things are too dangerous. Somethings are too precious, somehow. There are so many things to look at and yet he's not allowed to touch most all of them. And there are so many other "things" I would have out if he wasn't there!

I try to imagine myself living in the house built by Charles Ingalls. I would say, "Lincoln, you can't touch the fire, and you can't climb the ladder." Pretty much anything else goes. Hmm, we'll don't knock over the kerosene lamp. And don't spill the water or I'll have to go and fetch more. Be careful while I'm sewing your cloth diapers so that you don't find one of my needles. I guess there would still be plenty of no-no's for little guys on the prairie. At least they could wander around without fear of stranger danger.

No air conditioning or heat. No potty (that's my biggest concern). No internet. I guess I'll stick with what I know (in case you were worried I was going to go all primitive on ya).

I'm So Proud!

Lincoln gave his first talk in primary today! Okay, so I probably already posted about his real first talk on Easter Sunday. He was assigned to talk about resurrection and, well, let's face it... Dad gave a talk and Lincoln stood next to him.

He has "given" another talk since then, during which he lay on the floor while dad again presented some thoughts.

I have to admit that I was less than excited when I found out it was already time to do it all again. But this time, we promised a candy Hippo that Bettina brought him from Germany if he actually did it. I don't know if it was the bribery or the excitement of teaching his peers about the temple, but he actually performed on command this time.

We had rehearsed the fill in the blank style talk with him. I had visuals and gave the promptings and he actually remembered all of the answers. He did beautifully!

I was a proud mama... even if he didn't make it back to his chair without saying, "Can I have my hippo now?"

Poyner Vineyard

Well, at least Poyner Vine.

Jeff just discovered the grapevine on our back fence and said that he couldn't have known about it yet because I hadn't blogged about it.... so here goes.

I am in awe of how this unnoticed, unkept, vine has taken over our back fence. It stretches out about 15 feet across the top of the fence and is SWARMING with grapes. YUM! It has been so fun to watch them progress from tiny beads to something almost edible looking! Hopefully we'll remember to go back there and get a few before the birds eat them all!

Sorry, no deep garden analogies today. Just grapes. : )