Potty-Training Update

Elliot has been doing well with the potty training. He has been staying dry at night and has been relatively accident free. We just need to work on getting him using the potty more, and the tree less.

Some Videos

Here are some videos from the past couple weekends.

The first video is Mari riding her bike. She is a little distracted by the camera, I think, and forgets to make the turn at the end, but you get the idea.

Mari Riding a Bike




If you can't see the video, Click Here.



There has also been a lot of hula hooping going on this summer. Here is a video of Mari trying to get things figured out.

Mari Hula Hooping




If you can't see the video, Click Here.



The third video is just a short chat with Elliot. Generally, he is a fairly quiet kid, who would much rather use body language than words.

Elliot Talking




If you can't see the video, Click Here.

No More Diapers?

Is it a possibility? Possibly.

Elliot has not been wearing a diaper for the past couple days and has been doing very well. This morning he even woke up with a dry diaper, which surprised me. We did not really push it, but it just sorta happened. I will be happy if it works out.

One of the coolest things about it is that he invented his own way to pee on a tree. It is a great technique for him and and both Susan and I thought that the other one had taught him.

Cousin Camp

Andrew just got back from the first ever cousin camp, at Aunt Mary's. it sounds like he had a lot of fun and stayed up too late. Mari and Susan went down for one night, and then he stayed down with Ian and his Kansas City cousins, Joe, Luke & Colin.

Activities included berry picking, swimming, Luke's baseball game, a water slide, a petting zoo and a campout.

Big Creek State Park

Today, after we finished painting, we hit Big Creek State Park. We played at the beach for a while and then hit the playground.

80/35

So the 80/35 music festival is going on right now, yesterday and today in fact. This is only the second year and we were not in town last year. Turns out that the festival is in our neighbor's back yard. OK, not exactly, but is sure sounds that way.

The festival is actually about 2 miles from our house, in downtown Des Moines, but the music is still really loud on our front porch. Last night was Public Enemy. Tonight is Ben Harper. Tonight should be extra fun - with fireworks and the music, and then fireworks at the conclusion of the show. I look forward to it.