Give Him the Chair, Warden!

Our two year old, Wesley, ( or as he would say "doo" year old ) has reached a milestone on his path to manhood - potty training.  I was caring for him and Elise yesterday, and when I arrived in the morning at his house, I found him clothed in his "big boy" Mickey Mouse underpants, no pants, and no diaper.  I figured I was in for a nasty day of cleaning up accidents.  To my complete surprise and pleasure, however, Wes did great!  Three times during the day, he stopped what he was doing, said the magic word "pee", and he and I trotted to the bathroom, where his new potty chair waited in anticipation.  We were not disappointed.  He sat down, did his business, and with great delight emptied the cup into the toilet and flushed ( his favorite part of the whole process).  No crying, no wet underpants, and no cleanup for Grampa!  He then demanded his "potty treat" reward, as negotiated with his mother ( in one case a piece of gum, in the other two a piece of candy corn).  Each time we called his mom and gave her the good news.  He was a very proud little guy. ( I think his success had a lot to do with his babysitter, but his mom probably thinks differently.  Even if it is just good genes, I can still take part of the credit.)  I'm hoping that soon, I will be changing diapers on just one grandchild.  The next step will be to teach Jack and Wes the joys of peeing standing up, so they can begin using urinals and trees.  They can then officially join the Club of Men and be known as "stand up guys".  Way to go Wesley!!!!!!!

NEWS FLASH!!!! GRAMPA'S BELIEVE IT OR NOT!

News services from around the world have been flocking to my door after seeing this historic photo posted on my blog.  Proof positive that superheroes indeed live among us.   Superman and Spiderman are real, and not the same person.  The camera does not lie.  Stay tuned for further  breaking news!

The Littlest One is One

Our girlie girl turned one last Sunday with a party attended by siblings, family and friends.  The theme was chosen by her mom - a ballerina birthday.  The cake was cute, but paled in comparison to Elise's cuteness
( although I still think her mom is pushing the hair just a bit  - my motto is
" there shall be no pigtail before its time" )  Mom and the grandmas liked the cute clothes, Elise's brothers liked the toys, and Elise liked the cake. What great fun!!!!

Maybe someday Elise will follow in her mom's footsteps and join a dance studio.  Those will be some big tap and ballet shoes to fill.  In spite of the complaining I did while driving to and from lessons, competitions, costume fittings, etc, I wouldn't change those memories for anything.  One of these days, I'll dig out some of Beck's old dance movies and show the kids what their mom looked like when she was four years old and dancing on stage to the great classic "Litttle White Duck".