Hello again!

I'm back from my blogging break. I've been up at my parents' for the past couple of days to record my piano cd at Brooke's dad's studio. When he retired from his day-job, he bought a bunch of awesome recording equipment and set up a studio. He'll master the songs now that my part is finished and bring a few cds by my parents' house. I'll get them when my mom and Aunt Ma come for the ultrasound.

Actually, it wasn't much of a "break," because I showed up at 10:00 and didn't finish until 4:30 PM. I just have to say, hearing yourself on a recording is brutal!! I'll go ahead and prepare you to not expect much if you decide to buy the cd! It is so much easier to play live. I think my only real break was the break from my blog.

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I am ecstatic! Precious has tee-teed on the potty three, now four (1:40 PM) times today! I think I can safely recommend the potty training books I bought, since the three paragraphs that I've had time to read have already worked!!! I bought Infant Potty Training by Laurie Boucke and Early-Start Potty Training by Linda Sonna. Something Dr. Sonna says really helped me: It's potty learning, and learning takes time. So, I've learned to not get discouraged by accidents, because she's still learning... :)

What has worked for us so far

• sounds (faucet, sound of water pouring into potty, "tee tee")
• giving her water to drink while she's on the potty
• hand symbol
• demonstration (watch Mommy!)
• touch (pouring warm water where it counts)

It's basically multi-modal learning-- the more ways, the better! I try to do everything at once; make the hand symbol while saying "tee tee" while pouring the water over her. I think she's starting to get it! I'll know she's really got it when she starts making the hand symbol to tell me she needs to go :).

3:30 PM update: She did the hand symbol while she tee-teed!

Public transportation that works
New Daddy took the Xpress bus this morning, and reports that it is awesome!! The station was on his way to work, had very clean facilities, and the bus was a luxury coach! As soon as he got to work *early*, he cancelled his $90-a-month parking! The money that he'll be saving on gas and parking will go towards his new iPod to listen to Bro. Branham during his commute.

We're not the kind of people who will go out of our way to "be part of the solution," but when it's this easy, and you're saving money, it's kind of hard to avoid! It is nice to know we're helping, if only in a small way, to give our city cleaner air.