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To celebrate Henry's general success with the potty he and I went to JoAnn Fabrics today to buy patterns and fabrics to make some new clothes! For me!

What? Potty training's been rough on me too!

When Henry found out I was getting Leo a pillow and making him a pillowcase just like the one I made him, he decided he was in dire need of a new pillowcase as well. This is the fabric he picked out. The boy is very secure in his masculinity.

Meanwhile, on Friday night we took Henry to his very first professional fireworks display. He was warned repeatedly and by many different people that the fireworks, although very cool, would also be very loud. He was fine until Megan brought it up, then he just looked really nervous, which either proves he'd heard it enough times to believe it, or he doesn't listen at all to anything either Dave or I say. I don't think he was disappointed after all of the buildup. When we came home he pulled out a book that has a drawing of fireworks and after staring at it for ten minutes pointed out all of the colors he'd seen earlier that evening, the most popular being green.

He's been talking about them nonstop ever since.

Posted by Jenn at 09:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This week Henry embarked upon the journey that is commonly known as "potty training". Armed with only toddler-sized underpants and a very large bag of M&M's, I laid out the ground rules for basic bathroom etiquette (his dad can flesh out the rest since I don't know exactly what-all men do in the bathroom, being a lady and all) and soon we were on our way. I'm not going to expound upon the particulars because once a kid is old enough to both sit on the potty *and* sincerely ask his mom for a little privacy, I figure I should respect that request all the way to Moveable Type's "Create New Entry" screen. Plus I don't want to jinx our amazing progress. Let's just say he's doing so well you can practically hear the M&M's rattling around in his tummy. Let's also say he's doing so well he got an extra special treat in the form of a magnetic fishing pole complete with little wind-up fish to catch. It's going to be a fun time in the bathtub tonight.

And just for the record, there's nothing like potty-training to make you feel like everything in your house reeks of urine, regardless of whether it actually does or not. One should really not have to focus so much time and attention to another persons, ummm, "outputs".

Posted by Jenn at 03:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We went to a pow-wow today. We followed some signs that started in the middle of a small town that's about twenty minutes away. After making a bunch of left turns that brought us further and further into seemingly nowhere, we finally took a right that landed us in a Sports Club parking lot. The sound of drums drifted over hamburger tents, buildings, and cars and landed itself smack in the middle of Henry's brain, who stopped in his tracks as soon as it registered exactly what that sound was. We watched some of the dancing, then wandered around the vendor booths, then settled down with some food to watch more dancing and to let Henry have a chance to play with his new calfskin/coffee tin drum, which will hopefully hold up better than the two other drums he's managed to completely destroy since last November.

If we had remembered to bring our camera, you might be regaled with pictures of yours truly stomping around the dance arena. Fortunately we forgot it. I did break my shoe right at the beginning so I ended up doing most of the dancing barefoot, which forced me to have at least some connection with the earth, which is only fitting for that type of dance.

Posted by Jenn at 04:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

...but since Megan's getting punchy, I guess I should go ahead and update.

The weekend in Boston was amazing, fun, and exhausting. We're all still recovering from it, trying to catch up on sleep. At one point on Sunday, while attending Riverfest, Henry decided to just lay down on Memorial Drive and think about catching a little shut-eye. Yes, that's how good the weekend was.

Friday was the day we overlapped with my Grandmother who was up visiting from the Deep South. The only one of us who seemed to have a desire to vocalize what he would most like to do was Henry, who declared he wanted to ride a train. So we took the T out to Aquarium to see the seals since no other destination jumped out and grabbed us, and upon ascending out of the train station, we saw the harbor cruise kiosk abuzz with activity. Turned out an inner harbor tour boat was going to set sail (or I should say "turn on the motor and go") in ten minutes. When I was in high school I used to love taking the harbor tours or taking the boat out to George's Island, so I've been waiting for a chance to be able to take Henry on one with me. You know, reclaiming lost youth and all of that. Henry had a fine time, although he didn't leave his Grandpa's lap for one second, especially not after the boat tooted its horn at the Charlestown Navy Yard halfway through the tour. When that happened, he pulled his hat over his face and really settled down into Grandpa's lap.

After the boat tour we checked out the seals, then met up with Dave and headed over to Faneuil Hall for some lunch. There was a "one-man band" set up outside, complete with a banjo, that everyone was enthralled enough with that I managed to run around and do a little shopping.

After stumbling home and getting a little rest in, my parents, my grandma, and myself stumbled back onto the train and headed over to the Regattabar to see the Puppini Sisters. It was one of the best shows I've seen. They were absolutely fantastic. Their act pays homage to the Andrews Sisters, so they sing a lot of their popular songs, like "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" and "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen", but they also do some original songs, as well as some pretty amazing covers, the most impressive of which (I thought) was "Crazy in Love". "Walk Like an Egypytian" was pretty darned good too. We all happily floated home on a cloud of rum and coke, gin and tonic, and lemonade. It was a fantastic evening.

And that was only Friday!

Posted by Jenn at 09:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We're hitting the road today and heading up to Boston. My Grandma is there visiting with my parents so we're going to crash their party since we don't often get a chance to see her, what with her living the life of a Southern Belle and all.

I'm looking forward to the drive and the change of scenery and being jostled by the fifty million people who crowd the streets of the big city. Perhaps Dave and I will get a chance to sneak in a game of mini-golf, something that was high on our list of things to do at the beach until Dave came down with his cold.

In the meantime, I hope you all have a relaxing weekend!

Posted by Jenn at 08:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

You know it's hot out when you look out your living room window and you see this:

Posted by Jenn at 04:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

1. Rolling around in grass after four humid days of 90+ degrees is not recommended because when you get up you'll carry around the stench of death, doom, and decaying vegetable matter. This is not an attractive scent.

2. Last night I saw the first lightning bug of the season blinking around our yard. Yay!

Posted by Jenn at 02:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So. That yard sale we had where we made a little cash. It's now going to help pay for two new rear tires and new rear brakes. Glad we took some of it to the Fence before we found out about all of the car stuff we'd soon be paying for.

Also, because I'm an idiot, the two days I spent hauling stuff around for the yard sale took a toll on my back. Yesterday I could barely move, and if I rested for more than ten minutes between (low-level) activities, the muscles in my lower back would scream bloody murder when I finally attempted to stand up again. I went to physical therapy for this last summer but it didn't help. Belly dancing helped improve the day-to-day pain a lot, reducing it to next to nothing, possibly due to improving my posture and increasing my all-over strength, including the all-important abdominal area. I have an appointment with a friend who's massage therapist on the 23rd. After telling her my history the other day, she thought that working both with her and a physical therapist would help. I'm looking forward to hearing what she has to say at the end of our session.

Today is a day of air conditioning and rest, and possibly a trip to the pool after dinner since Henry's been such a trooper about hanging around and doing nothing with his injured mom.

Posted by Jenn at 01:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We had a yard sale at Megan's house and came away from it with money we didn't have when we woke up in the morning. After we had packed up the stuff that didn't sell and split the money, we celebrated with lunch at the Fence. Between the milkshakes, fried fish/scallops, and hot dogs, Dave and I managed to blow through 1/4 of the money we made.

It was a very hot morning and early afternoon, and after installing an air conditioner in Henry's room, the three of us went our separate ways: Henry went down for a nap, Dave puttered in the garage, and I slept face down on the couch in the living room. A couple of hours later, we peeled ourselves away from our various activities, Henry got some dinner, Dave got dropped off at work, and Henry and I went to the pool. It was in the 90's yesterday and the only way to cool off with any kind of lasting effect definitely involves total immersion in a community pool. It was our first trip this year and Henry was beyond excited. Then we got there and he was terrified of going into the water. So twice I picked him up and brought him all the way in with me, much to his (very vocal) chagrin. The second time did the trick. He played with the water spouts at the shallow end then went back and forth into the water, going a little deeper each time. He did this for the last twenty minutes we were there. By the time we left he was getting about halfway down the length of the pool. The whole exercise offered great insight into my kid's personality.

After picking Dave up from work we headed to our backyard with some M&M ice cream cones. We all hung out and chatted and played until it was time for Henry's bath.

It was an excellent day. I hope the summer is full of others just like it.

Posted by Jenn at 04:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Spring seems to have come to an abrupt end. Now it's hot, humid, and hazy and I'm starting to be miserable. Summer is not my season. When it's cold you can at least bundle up, but when it's hot, there's a finite number of things you can do before resigning yourself to sitting in front of an air conditioner until September.

On the flip side, summer also happens to be watermelon season (with the bad comes the good?). When I was growing up in Louisiana it seemed like every couple of miles we'd drive past a pickup truck parked on the side of road that had a guy selling watermelons off the back. My mom and I used to sit on our front porch with big half-moons in our hands, making a big, sticky mess of things. It's a bit of a toss-up over which is better: watermelon that's been chilled in the fridge, or warm watermelon that's spent the morning basking in the sun on the back of a truck. If I can find some sun-warmed watermelons around here, I'll have to revisit that question with a taste test.

Posted by Jenn at 03:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Flash is doing much better. There's no more blood and certain areas of her life are...solidifying...if you catch my drift. The day after we took her to the vet I accidentally locked her in the garage for two and a half hours. She was sunning herself on the patio while Henry ran around and played and I tried to get some yardwork done. When we came back into the house, I assumed Flash made it in with us. Dave worked on fixing our leaky kitchen sink when he got home from work and after opening the door that leads to the garage he asked me where Flash was. I told him I didn't know, that probably she was in on her dog bed in the back room. He told me to guess again. Apparently she was standing in the garage madly wagging her tail. As if things couldn't get worse, 24 hours after receiving into our hot little hands an anti-inflammatory for her sad, inflated colon, Dave and I had one of those "Have you been giving Flash her pill?", "No, I thought you were..." conversations.

So, despite us, she's doing a lot better. In addition to her diet of brown rice and boiled hamburger, which has sent her over the proverbial moon every morning and evening since she's been getting it, we've also been giving her plain yogurt once a day. Our vet said the benefits of probiotics are a myth, but Dave and I disagree so we're doing it anyway. Her appetite is back in leaps and bounds, considering the amount of salivating she did over the pork Dave smoked for dinner last night. He took great pleasure in telling her she couldn't have any because she's on a bland diet. I'm glad she's hopeful again.

Posted by Jenn at 09:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)