Skinny and Pee

A teenage church member recently grew tired of his mandatory science project, a reddish-purple betta fish.
The fish soon found himself riding in the Foisy's van, as the Foisy kids delighted in their new housewarming pet. The fish's name is Skinny Skahwie.
This is the second time today that K has dropped three pellets of fish food into the misshapen bowl (misshapen from when I tried to microwave the germs out of the plastic plants and rocks). He shrugs, and says that our (the kids and my) neglect of poor Skinny is precisely why we will never get a dog.

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Did I ever mention that S is totally potty-trained? I don't think she has had one accident, ever, from the first time she ever peed on the potty. We potty-trained B in October, NINE months ago!

We meant to train all three kids at the same time or soon after each other, but Z kept peeing on the carpet every time he was sent to time out*, and S just never, ever, (no matter how long we had her sit) peed on the potty. Ever. Since October of last year.

Finally, last week, I told her she would wear big girl undies regardless of how many times we had to change them.

We sat her on the potty every two hours. She never peed on it. She peed on the floor BY it. She peed in her pants right after she pulled them up. She peed naked. She peed in the bathtub. But never, ever on the potty.

This went on for three days, I think.

Then, as we were leaving for the beach, she exclaimed, "I need to go pee first before we go!"

She went. On the potty.

My friend said she couldn't describe the look on S's face if she tried...delight, surprise, pride, fear?

And from then on, she has stayed dry. All the time. No diapers during the day. No diapers at night. She goes into the bathroom by herself. She wipes herself. She pulls up her pants. (It took B EIGHT months to go into the bathroom without me. But good job, B, for being potty trained for nine months!)

So, S is "big now, and [she] can ride the bus soon."

And I am happy.

*Z was trained soon after we moved to the new house, in which there is an abundance of TILED time-out locations. When he realized I didn't care if he peed on the tile, he soon gave up that cute, little, floor-wetting game, and decided to just stay dry.
(Edited to add: Z recently had a small spell where he did start peeing again, but I ignored him AND his wet pants...and the problem quickly took care of itself. Thank God for tile floors and a place to play outside!)

Baldwin Beach People

We were the obnoxious people on the beach.

Looking skyward while chasing a low-flying seagull, S fell and kicked great piles of sand onto a nearby sun bather's towel.

Z later threw an empty pop bottle at the same towel. The sand-filled "weapon" blasted the unsuspecting woman smack in the stomach.

Z found a feather, and K and I looked up to see him tickling an elderly man's ear with it. The man was trying to talk on his cell phone.

B threw grapes to ONE seagull, which resulted in a quick "Caw" to all (and i mean ALL) of the nasty bird's buddies. Soon, we (and our not-so-happy beach neighbors) were thoroughly emprisoned by a circle of waiting and greedy seagulls....many standing guard while some thickened the air around us; all yelling and glaring at us with beady eyes.

S peed in a hole we dug for her.

I shook out my towel right in the wind path of our OTHER fellow sun bathers.

Z threw a frisbee at someone's head and missed by a half foot.

S ran around the beach naked.


Then we went home.

Skater Boy

This is "Papa on his skateboard". You captured your Papa perfectly, B! You are an artist, for sure!

I WAS Going to Title This Post "Home, Sweet, Home", but That Would be Dumb and Tacky

After I cried about how nice the home looked, I asked people what they thought would be an appropriate thanks. Some suggested an open house.

The open house is this coming Sunday.

We finally have our furniture, so Keith and I are no longer standing or leaning on the counter to eat dinner. I am sitting on our couch right now.

We have renters for the next two years. They are good renters. They are nice. They are renting, because they recently started a business and want to save money. She is an admitted near obsessive-compulsive. Her friend says she never stops cleaning.

Ever.

Usually, I would empathize with a person with issues, but when the person is renting our house, I feel like saying things like, "Sure, I totally understand your urge to clean the dirt you CAN see, but even more....think of all the nasty things you CAN'T see...the bed bugs, the germs, the ticks and lice and the possible puke particles that were wiped off of your hands and onto the counter top when you came home from shopping. Yup, I totally understand your need to clean. Think of all the dirt that can accumulate in just mere seconds!"

So, now that our house is safely rented, we have moved our furniture here, and I can finally share some Before and Afters. I took seven Before Pics in all, and then my computer crashed, and I lost all but three. If anyone has any Before Pics in an email that I sent to them, will you send them back? Thanks so much.

And again, I say, "Way to go, Guys-That-Worked-On-Our-House! You are awesome!"