Not Quite as Easy as One, Two, Pee

We've been taking a rather relaxed approach to potty training, but yesterday, Kristina read a bunch of material on potty training and declared that potty training will begin in earnest the next day.  She arrived home from work with a bunch of underwear and told Nathaniel he'd be wearing them the next day.  He was not thrilled.

This morning, Kristina popped out of bed at 6:45am when she started to hear Nathaniel make noise (just for the record, I was up at 4:50am and out of the house by 5:25am to run 16 miles).  For the rest of the day we tried to get him onto the toilet every 20 minutes or so (he would get a sticker or a piece of candy for his efforts).  Needless to say, we had a lot of ups and downs.

During his "nap" (he didn't really fall asleep).  I went to Sam's Club and bought a big bag of Dum Dum suckers (one of his favorite treats) to bribe...er...encourage him to go in the toilet.  After a few more failures, Kristina declared she was going to use the toilet and had earned herself a red sucker.  Well, not to be outdone, Nathaniel peed on the toilet to get his blue sucker. Not long after that, he returned to the toilet, pooped and got an orange sucker.  Unfortunately, we couldn't get him to pee before bed and put a diaper on him for overnight.

So, our efforts can be summarized by the following statistics: 3 pairs of wet undies, 2 pees in the potty, 2 poops in the potty, 2 rugs in the washing machine, 2 exhausted parents, 1 pair of shorts soaked and 1 long day.

We're hoping tomorrow will go smoother, but we made some headway today.

Christopher

Hello, this is Nathaniel Appelt

This morning while I was trying to get Nathaniel ready to head out for daycare, I noticed he only had five of his six precious fish.  I quickly realized he was missing yellow perch.  I asked him where yellow perch was, and he gave me several suggestions, but none of them panned out.  So, finally, I told him we'd have to look after we got back.

We headed upstairs to brush our teeth.  As soon as Nathaniel was done, he walked over to a shelf in his bedroom and grabbed the telephone his Aunt Stephanie gave him for Christmas.  He grabbed the handset and said, "Hello, this is Nathaniel Appelt."  After a brief pause he followed with, "we're looking for yellow perch."

Fortunately, just before we left, I grabbed my sandals and out popped yellow perch.  Problem solved!

Christopher

Father and Son Fishing Fun!

First of all, if you read the tag line for our blog, you'll note that this is a "haphazard account" of what's happening in our lives.  I'm hoping in the next few days to post several blogs to try to bring folks up to date on some things that have been going on since my last post...Kristina has been doing a much better job than I have.

So, when Kristina's family came to visit in June, Nathaniel's Aunt Laura bought him some realistic-looking freshwater fish toys (you can see him clutching them at the end of that blog post).  Well, he promptly learned their names, and they've been his constant companions ever since then.  You can imagine how excited he was to learn that we have five (yellow perch, largemouth bass, pumpkinseed, bluegill, and crappie) of the six fish in our lake in Minnesota (we don't have the same type of catfish, but we do have bullheads, which is fine with him).

Somehow (trust me, I didn't teach him this) he learned that we catch fish on a hook with a fishing rod.  So he started pretending sticks were fishing rods, and told me he was going to catch fish with his "blue" hook (not sure where that came from).  Needless to say, he was excited when we finally left for the lake last month.  He told me he was "going to catch all the fish in the lake."  He even brought the small fish/minnow net and fishing outfit his Grandma Cynthia gave him for his birthday (sadly the net didn't make it into the blog post showing the outfit).

Nathaniel was super excited to go fishing.  So the first chance we got, we headed down to the dock with one of the children's fishing rods his Grandpa Appelt got for the grandkids use.


After baiting up, we cast the line out and waited for the fish to bite.


We also had to learn how to reel in the line.


Fishing was quite slow that day, but our patience eventually paid off.  Nathaniel got to check one of the fish he wanted to see off his list, Largemouth Bass!


We also had a lesson on properly and carefully holding a largemouth bass.


I think that was the only fish we caught that day, but he was as patient as a 2.5 year old can be and generally stayed on task.  We eventually told him the fish were sleeping and told him we could fish again tomorrow.  So, he grudgingly agreed to go upstairs, but he held me to my word the next day.  While Kristina was in town, Nathaniel asked me to take him fishing again.  Unfortunately, because I didn't have a photographer handy, we didn't get photos of that experience.  However, since we fished for over an hour, we were still at it when Kristina came back, so she was able to get photographic evidence of our much more successful outing (consisting mostly of keepers).  As you can tell, Nathaniel was excited and proud.




Nathaniel got to add a couple more fish to his list.  He actually reeled in some yellow perch by himself while I did most of the heavy lifting with the keeper bluegills and the 1.5 lb bass that was WAY to strong for that rod and reel.  You might also note the net (from Grandma Cynthia) in the photo.  Nathaniel and I had a system down.  I'd take the fish off the hook and put it in his net.  Then, he would walk down the dock to the floating basket, which I would pull out and he'd (with help from me) dump the fish into the basket.   He LOVED it, and catching over a dozen fish in an hour kept us busy.  The next outing we learned more about the difference between "keepers" or "basket fish" and fish we throw back.

I don't think I can find words that adequately express how I felt to be out fishing on my favorite lake with my son, who was as enthusiastic about fishing as I was.  I'm guessing my dad might have some idea what that feels like.

You can find more photos of our fishing experiences together here.

Christopher

Portland

Christopher and I went to Portland for my friend's wedding.  Overall, we had fabulous trip and the wedding was awesome.  Like New Orleans (hope to post those pictures soon), we ate and drank too much, but the cities are polar opposites which meant very different experiences.  I like traveling with Christopher because he is open to new experiences, rolls with the punches, and like me, can make the most out of any place we find ourselves.  Which is why we can equally love places as different as New Orleans and Portland.

We packed our days full, but there was always time for a beer.





Or to smell the roses (or at least to point them out).





And, of course, being with friends. The day was beautiful and Kim looked stunning.






Check out all our Portland Trip pictures.

Where did Nathaniel go?

I love the age when kids think they are "hiding" and want you to find them.  Nathaniel will hide and say, "Where did Nathaniel go?" This means he wants me to wonder out loud,  "Where is Nathaniel?" and then find him.  His favorite place to do this is in the bathtub.  He will scrunch down in the water.  Of course I can see him, and his cute little bottom will be sticking up over the edge of the tub. I love it, and it always makes me laugh.

Yesterday, I was putting away laundry, and Nathaniel was playing on our bed.  I heard the familiar, "Where did Nathaniel go?"  I look over and he is sitting on the bed with the blanket over his head.  It was too cute, so I grabbed the camera and got a short video.  Check it out:

Howard Family Visit- June 2011

We love spending time with family, and summer is the perfect time to visit Chicago.  Laura (my sister), Sheri and Brian (aunt and uncle), and my Dad came to Chicago for a week.  I promised cooler weather than Texas, but I wasn't expecting such cool weather.  We were lucky to get highs in the upper 60s.  So my advice to only pack "one pair of jeans" was a big FAIL.  It was a fun filled week, but we often forgot to bring the camera to document all our enjoyment.

We did get a couple of good shots at the Blues Festival and Zoo.





And we had several cameras the day we went to the Indiana Dunes. It ended up being a gorgeous day (though still cool), and Nathaniel loved the sand, water, and throwing rocks into the water.





But it ended up being the big kids that didn't want to leave.




See all our pictures: Howard Family Visit


Y'all come back now. Ya hear?

Mother's Day 2011

I'll just say it- I love Mother's Day.  Even more than my birthday and Christmas.  I LOVE the craft project from Nathaniel's day care. I LOVE the cards/gifts, sleeping in, being served breakfast, and spending the day with the little boy I love the most (and Christopher deserves a big thank you for making it happen).  Nathaniel even let us get some pictures!

Nathaniel showing off his craft project from day care.



Nathaniel decided that he wanted to keep it and is actually trying to pull it out of my hand in this picture.



My favorite picture- I love his smile.



Hugs from my boy.