Grass, Poop and Stitches

A strange title perhaps, but these three seemingly unrelated things have dominated my life for the past two weeks.

First, Grass. WE HAVE GRASS! We finally have a yard that can actually be used! We have grass that the boys can play on! We have a patio that we can place the patio furniture (that we bought 4 years ago!) on! We have a fence that is not falling down. It has taken a year of waiting and a few weeks of work and it is done finally. I am so glad!

Here's a couple of pics...Grayson "driving" the bobcat, and that lush green instant-yard sod being laid.

Second, POOP. We have been potty training Grayson for what seems to be an eternity (about 4 months in reality). Nothing we tried seemed to work and we'd take one step forward and several steps back. He was getting pretty good at going pee, but never wanted to poop on the potty. After chatting with my friend Wendy who was going through the same thing with her son Sean, I decided enough was enough. So, I took a cue from Wendy and resorted to bribery! Here's the deal: Grayson got to pick a fabulous toy of his choice that was to be his reward for going poop on the potty. Once he went, he got the toy. If he didn't keep going on the potty after that, the toy was taken away. The toy was dubbed "the poop toy". I know, I know, but wait, it gets better...

Also, we decided that it was very important to celebrate this new found skill, so we had to make a cake (AKA the "Poop Cake") and we had to sing (you guessed it) the "Happy Poop-Day" song(sung to the tune of "happy birthday"!). For all it's inanity, it was effective... he has been going in the potty consistently for over a week now with only only one accident. And each time he goes, Grayson tells me "Happy Poop-day mom!" Yay Grayson!

Here we are with the Poop Cake (it was only fitting that it was a chocolate cake!)

Third, STITCHES. My boy keeps me in stitches all right, but not always the laughing kind. Yup, Grayson had to get stitches this week. I don't know how he managed it, but he fell and cracked his head against a vase/planter at his dayhome on Monday. Poor Mel (our lovely careiver) called me and said "Your son needs stitches!" We both rushed to meet at the Alberta Children's Hospital where after being triaged and getting freezing put on his head, he got his 5 stitches. He screamed blue-bloody murder while it was being done, but he was a trooper and afterwards got his much-promised yellow popsicle. Since then he has complained that his "stitch" hurts and "I no like my stitch mommy". Poor guy...I'm sure it's itchy and sore, and it's hard to explain to a three year old why you can't touch it or scratch it. His "stitch" will come out on Tuesday, so hopefully he will feel much better then. Here he is at the hospital...bandaged up "before" and with the stitches "after". Poor little guy!

But with all these crazy things going on,we're still trucking along. Sam is getting fatter and cuter each day (and sleeping 9 hours a night now!!!!!!)

...and all my boys are smiling. Lucky lucky me!

I didn't get a lot of scrapping done in August, but I am looking forward to September with Stacy J.'s challenge of scrapping your everyday momets everyday! Yup, we're making a "30 Days Hath September" Album with a layout for every day. I'll try to post as many as I can, but if I just get them done I will be happy! It's the final project in our Have More Fun class. I would definitely recommend taking a class from BPS...it has been a great learning experience as well as a wonderful opportunity to meet great scrapbookers from all over the world online. Love it!

Happy Scrapping

Noreen