Enjoying the Weather and Potty Training Successes

Sorry for the lack of writing these past couple of days. We have spent most of them around the house and community for two reasons. First Dustin has needed the driver most of the day the past two days for off site meetings. Secondly, we have been working on the potty training with Danny. It has come to an all time necessity in the fact that I am unable to find pull-ups in his size. When I went to the store on Monday, I could not even locate the cheap Chinese kind that are similar to a kids depends. Monday and Tuesday were consumed with this effort and our breakthrough came on Tuesday night. Thanks to some fatherly pressure from Dustin and some great advice from grandparents. I am over joyed (this is no exageration--anyone who has tried to potty train knows what I mean) to report that we finally have true success.

Part of our breakthrough was simply a misunderstanding cleared up. We had been mentioning to Danny that kids would make fun of him is they knew that he still pooped in his pull ups. It turns out that Danny took this saying literally (as many young children do) and believed that kids were going to have fun and that he would have a lot of friends because he still pooped in his pull ups. Once Danny had the true understanding on this phrase and we implemented our new attempt on encouragement (i.e.--a chart which he gets to put stickers on for each success time making it to the toilet and a good old fashion carrot at the end of the stick--a large fire truck for when the chart is completely filled with stickers) he is truly excited and doing great. So, thankfully with this success I feel like I am truly going to get to the end of this long path of trying to potty train.

Besides hanging around the house, we have also had two new experiences--not really new just new in the sense of being firsts in China. Josh got his first cold, followed by Danny who got the croup yesterday after nap. Both boys seem to be weathering these colds well. I had taken Josh into the clinic--our first visit-- to check his ears, as he was extremely fussy. Turns out the waking from naptime with unconsoleable crying has nothing to due with his ears, and can just be chalked up to general fussiness. Danny has had croup numerous times since he was about Josh's age, and thankfully as he gets older, the symptoms are getting better. He in the past has had to go to the hospital for his breathing. We are grateful that the boy's doctors set us up well to treat this and I was able to give Danny the medicine immediately yesterday and while he sounded aweful, he was doing fine.

Our second new experience here was haircuts for the boys. Josh's hair seems to be more like mine, and is therefore wavy and curly by nature. It was getting so long that it was curling in the back. As I did not want him confused for a girl, I knew we had to get their hair cut sooner than later. There is a hair salon right in our community (like I said in a previous blog--one would not ever need to leave the community if they did not want to do so). I made an appointment and took the boys yesterday. It went well and I was pretty happy with the result. It was a little different than what the boys have done in the US--but the end result looks the same, so that is good. The barber or stylist used thining sheers for most of the cutting rather than just straight siccors. This leaves me a little concerned for my own hair cut (I still have to schedule this) as I have extremely thick hair. It does require thinning, but not to the extent that he did Danny. (Danny has extremely thick hair and at times has trouble laying flat) I was a little worried at one point that the man was going to thin it to the point where Danny was going to look like he was balding or losing his hair. Yet, in the end all was fine.

The weather has been fantastic here since the cold snap we experienced this weekend. The boys and I have had a nice time walking to the shops just outside our community. The first time we did this alone was on Tuesday, and quite frankly we came close to getting killed by the crazy traffic here. However, we braved it again today and we had much more success. It is a little hard here crossing the street, as you are not guaranteed that anyone will obey the traffic lights. I have seen fully loaded dump trucks fly (at least 40 or more miles per hour) straight through the red traffic light. So needless to say you must watch the traffic from every light and make sure there is nothing coming and then make sure you run like the dickens for the other side of the street.

Tomorrow I venture with the boys back to IKEA. We are going to try and get some of the things we still need such as laundry baskets and hangers. I am hopeful that the potty training will remain a success and Danny will be able to handle going to a store (remember at least 40 minutes just to get to the store) and getting home without just deciding he wants to go in his pullup. I am also hopeful we can get some of the things that will make our house more of a home--such as picture frames, throw pillows and blankets.