My desire is for a clean and organized home. Reality is that I will never, never achieve this in the present, if ever, no matter how hard I try. I did, however, get the living room quite clean the other night and thought I'd take picture proof in the morning just as Daniel was running through spreading havoc and destroying the picture-perfectness…
I've been trying on and off to potty train Daniel (now pushing 3 in July) with very little success. Believe me I've tried just about everything, but to little success. We've tried potty training in a day. We've tried patience and sticker charts and cleaning up lots of little messes. We've talked and talked and talked about potties and what we do with them and Daniel knows very well by now that poopy and pee pee belong in the potty and can articulate this to me, he can sit for hours on the potty and not do a thing then get up and walk two yards and let loose. I've given up for now on him and have moved onto my next target – Abigail! Yes, she is only 7 months old now, and that's precisely why I'm trying. This is our second day when I've put her on the potty and she has produced something tangible within a minute every time. I had begun to call her miss poop-a-lot as she goes very, very often just little amounts, so when my friend Dhurata said she'd started putting her daughter Ester, who is 9 months old, on the potty for number 2, I thought, why not? She said it would create a reflex, which is exactly what Daniel is missing. I was pretty sure it wouldn't work with Abby, but I tried anyway and we have 4 successes for 4 attempts so far. I'll try to get back in a few weeks and give an update. The long term plan is to have Abby so used to using the potty with help now, that it will be a smooth transition when she can do it on her own later. I don't know how this will work out, but for now, I've done away with changing all of her soiled clothes sometimes even 3 times a day when we have blowouts.
So, we have some picture proof of her seated – we decided to avoid showing you the evidence…
It worked. How about that? So, since this blog is called daily life of a mother in Tirana, I shall share a tidbit. We are sitting at the dining room table sipping pomegranate juice and eating tortillas both special blessings brought to us by our very sweet neighbors. Now Daniel is demanding my glass and Abby is watching us and blowing raspberries, wanting out of her bouncer as she's getting bored. Great, Daniel took the no, it's mommy's… So, like I said, today. We had a really nice banana smelling bubble bath this morning for Daniel during Abby's morning nap. He really enjoyed this. Then we went onto Wii Fit since the weather is not conducive to a walk outside. I got really into the marching activity when I realized that Daniel had left the room so I went in search of him. He'd made it back to the bubble bath and was fishing for his two plastic spoons in the water so I had to change him and finally take care of the water. Now, Daniel has regurgitated all of his tortilla so he can have something to drink. Now that was a disgusting word and a disgusting mess… Well, now he has his milk and hopefully the chewed upon tortilla will disappear or the dog will have it… that will be sad as it was a very yummy tortilla handmade by Josiah and Hannah next door. Well, do you all see why I don't blog??? Life is very full. A blow by blow of a mother's day would take up a whole book I guess – and I only have two and a dog who sort of counts as a half child. Ok, now that I've lost my readership… sorry about the disgustingness. So, all in a day in the life of a mother in Tirana…
Sorry people who read my blog. I haven't really been too organized about anything, least of all blogging lately. Just testing blogging from Word. So, I'll put up a verse I memorized yesterday from Ephesians 1. Let's see if I can remember it and type it without losing the baby off my lap at the same time or Daniel starting to fight with Kanchi… Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with all the spiritual blessings in the heavenly places (wow, that's a lot of blessings!) even as we were chosen in him before the foundation of the world (wow, that's a long time ago) that we should be holy blameless before him. Well, not sure on my memorization skills but that was the gist. Hope you have a good one!! Now to see if this uploads…
