Updates

For those of you who are having trouble sleeping worrying about the success of B's potty efforts ... here is a picture of our little boy in his team-in-training outfit. (I told Dave that Ben's get-up reminded me of the girls volleyball team at the high school.) I am happy to report that he has become quite successful at peeing on the potty and takes this job very seriously and with a sense of real emergency. The entire household is thrown into high gear when we hear a high-pitched voice yelling, "I'm pooing, I'm pooing." (This denotes a need to pee.) Little B comes running towards the bathroom where he is met by a collision of Mom, Dad and Hannah as we simultaneously attempt to hoist him onto the pot. It's a wonder that he has achieved his goal with such elders in attendance.

And here is little Joe. His climbing has required a removal of the chairs from the table as we await the end of this precarious climbing phase. I recall this chair stage with the twins except that the chairs were constantly on top of the table. I hadn't realised how strange it looked until an older neighbour popped in and couldn't stop laughing. I prefer to think that the kitchen always looks like I am just about to wash the floors. Anyway, this shot is post-dinner last night. We have found that clean-up (especially that of the floor) is far easier with the little boy strapped in. I don't believe that there are any lasting psychological effects...

And this is a memorial to my little girl's thoughtfulness. I arrived at breakfast this morning to find that she had decorated a chair just for me. She had used a birthday card from my mother and a few other crafty items to dress up the chair and its accompanying sign which read, "No one having this chair 'cept Mommy." What a girl!