Pile it on

Lydia reads stacks of books...
...all at the SAME TIME!!!
This is a group I rounded up recently.

I am highly monogamous when it comes to reading - only ONE at a time. I make exception for non-fiction that can coexist gracefully with fiction. Notice, also, how many books marks are within pages of the end of the book (the top in this picture).

This is completely bewildering to me.

I can put a book down for the first 5 chapters maybe and after that, I'm a goner. I might not finish projects I start, but I sure as heck finish my book! "The point of no return" I call it, when I MUST finish and everything else has to wait. Lydia must not have that. I asked her once and she said that just when it gets exciting, she remembers another book. AUGH!!! I try not to force her into finishing books, but it makes me nuts if I think about it too long.

Carver creates PILES and PILES of laundry.
I do it twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays. This is from a Monday after a warm weekend so it represents 3-4 days worth of clothes. Or, in this case, pretty much all the clothes in his dresser. Saturdays are generally a dirty day around here with lots of outside play, but this was ridiculous!

Grace's pile of fries
I left Grace to finish her happy meal while I started a piano lesson.
She ate and talked and wandered around and finally declared herself "all done."

Then I found her stash:

Mmmmm.... nothing like neatly swept up french fries!
I don't think she ate a single one.

I nearly took a picture of my piles of stinky diapers, but I decided that we could all visualize that with no trouble whatsoever. But believe you me, I have HEAPS of diapers at the end of the day, piled up neatly (or not so neatly) in the garage. Mostly it's Carver's doing, but that is a subject for another post that I'm sure no one needs to read. :)

But Grace's days are numbered - Wednesday we're pulling out the piles of panties!
(And I still haven't settled on my rightful reward...)

My potty training pin

The time has come. Grace needs to be potty trained. I've waited and waited, hoping that by some strange turn of fate she'd do it by herself. I am deeply scarred from potty training Ellie - really and truly. That girl is Stubborn with a capital S and we went head to head about the toilet. In the end, she came around when she thought I wasn't looking. Until then, it was pretty much worse case scenario. So now I'm dragging my feet in a big way.

And the crazy part is that Grace is almost there! She tells me about every wet diaper, we've had success on both fronts on the toilet and she wakes up dry from bedtime and naps on a regular basis. What could she be missing?

Um, me?! We have been so busy with speech and swimming and visiting teaching and errands and playdates and everything else that I always have a good reason not to do it. We're not home long enough to potty train! But somethings got to give. And I have a new plan. Instead of bribing Grace to potty train, I'm going to bribe MYSELF. Kinda like the pin that Eagle Scouts give their mom after their mom does their project for them. But I haven't decided what my great reward is... any ideas?

I love these girls

Lydia comes home most days covered in mud from the soccer field.

This was a particularly exciting game... she slid for the ball.

Ellie spent an afternoon sending us all notes on her stationery.
Her honesty cracks me up.

These two have always been the best of friends.
That means there is more than a little competition at times.
But they stick together when it counts.