Getting Ready to Leave

I had so much fun having my cousins here. Things that were said or facial expressions would bring random memories to the surface. For (literally) a fraction of a second I thought I should call my mom and tell her what we were doing. That's happened before when I was pregnant with Clay.

Danny, Keith, Emily and Monica (Keith and Monica are not cousins, but were along for the ride) got here Wednesday evening driving in from Vienna without directions! Through a process of asking all the right questions to the right people they got directions to our landlord's house and they brought them here.

They left yesterday morning and I was so sad to see them pull out of the driveway. The Schwartz cousins have always been close so whenever we get to see each other it's a big deal.

Now I need to catch laundry up, make some notes for Ivana for the time we're gone, finish wrapping presents and pack. We'll be gone two and a half weeks and I don't know if I'll blog again before we get back. I should try I guess, so that we have a "journal" of our trip.

Potty Training?

We were in Graz, Austria for another Bible school weekend. This time the subject was healing and deliverance; very good teaching. I was with Clay most of the time so will have to catch the parts I missed when we get the MP3's.

On Friday evening Clay assumed the position and started to grunt. I didn't know if I'd have enough diapers and I had just changed him so I told him to wait and rushed him to the bathroom. I got him undressed, stood behind him and straddled the toilet so he wouldn't feel insecure about the large hole beneath him. He went in the potty (saving me a diaper!) and was very happy to wash his hands with soap and make bubbles. When we got home Sunday night I reminded him that he had gone poopy in the potty and told him that he could have some stickers to put on his chart. I had gotten a free toilet training kit from Charmin a long time ago. He liked putting the stickers on.

Yesterday morning he once again assumed the position and grunted. I asked him this time if he wanted to go in the potty and he said, with a very red face, "Hu-uh." I told him I'd like him to try and I stood behind him again. He did it and got more stickers for his chart. This time it dawned on him why he was getting the stickers.

Last night, once again... This time I asked him if he had to go poopy. "Poopy." "Do you want to go in the potty?" "I go potty." This time I didn't have his special seat so he watched things fall in amazement and laughed at it all. Afterwards he got a cookie and marched upstairs as if was hot stuff. He held his cookie proudly with one hand and pretended to be nonchalant while he put the stickers on with the other hand. Stickers are his thing!

I decided not to push him yet. I think he's still a little young to be potty training, but if he's willing we're going to do what we can.

My cousins, Danny and Emily, come tomorrow with a couple other young people from their church. They've been in Moldova on a missions trip and decided it made sense to visit here for a few days. I'm excited.

Peace & Quiet

All of a sudden our house is quiet. Matjaz, Magdalena and their two girls were here since Sunday afternoon. It's now Wednesday morning. They left about two hours ago. The girls and Clay have had a blast and an injury or two. Zarja is so in love with Thadeus.

Yesterday morning Naza was decided to throw some blocks and unfortunately Clay's head stopped it's flight plan. The corner of the blocks got him right behind the ear and left a good mark. After Clay was calmed down we saw him pick the blocks up and start walking towards Naza. I yelled at him to stop just before he raised him arm. He looked at me and looked at her and said something and pointed to his head and told her "ouchy!" He left the girls and walked across the room to his stuffed lion. He lectured the lion for a moment then applied the blocks to the lions head and threw them both. Then he repeated, "Ouchy!"

This is when it dawned on me what he was trying to communicate. It wasn't his intention to take revenge on Naza. He just wanted her to understand that what she did hurt him. When Clay bites or hits us in the face we'll do it back and explain that it doesn't feel good. This is what he wanted to do.

This morning Matjaz came into the kitchen and said that they would be heading home after breakfast. He was joking at how relieved I would be and then commented from the guest's point of view life just goes on and it's no big deal. I was thinking about this later and that for the host life sort of comes to a stand still when there's company in the house. These stand stills have always annoyed me, but maybe they're a good thing. Perhaps we need these interruptions to make us stop and look at priorities and what's really important to us. That's my one serious, deep thought for the day. I can go to bed now.

Imagination

Yesterday morning Clay decided to dust. He got out his bath slippers, put them on his hands, and was wiping down doors and furniture. What a great helper!

It was a little after that I could hear him saying, "I'm Daddy. I'm Daddy." He came around the corner with one of Timothy's neck ties that had been left out. He had it draped around his neck and kept repeating, "I'm Daddy."

"Oh, hi Daddy. Are you going to work now?"
"Bye!" and he waved and left the kitchen.