Domestic notes

The museum is closed this weekend, so I don't have to work at all. longstrider has tomorrow and Friday off, is working Saturday (boooo) and has Sunday off. So we have essentially a four day weekend starting tomorrow, although admittedly one where we can't go anywhere.

Do you know how long it's been since we had such a long run of days off at the same time? I feel like I'm starting a grand tropical vacation, if only I could convince Sonya to dress up and be our cabana boy. What we'll probably actually do is go somewhere Improving like a museum or the zoo sometime this weekend, go to church Sunday and spend much of the rest of the time generally bumming around. I can't wait.

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It appears the secret to getting K back on the toilet is straight up bribery.* First, I introduced the idea of a long-term bribe (a Fisher Price Little People barn, which she was so engrossed with at daycare last week that I had to literally drag her away), to be given when she is completely out of diapers during the day (nighttime dryness can take a long time, and she has a genetic heritage of longer-term bedwetting, so I'm not going to make her reward hinge on something that could take years).

She was very enthusiastic about the idea of the barn and went charging upstairs, only to do an abrupt u-turn when we reached the bathroom door. So I decided that since two-year-olds are creatures who live in the moment, she needed a short-term bribe. In this case, chocolate. I brought out the bag of M&Ms and she practically sprinted for the bathroom. After the first time, where I was downright profligate with the chocolate, I've established more firm rules where she has to sit on the toilet for two minutes before she gets her treat. I'm going to gradually both increase the time and then move towards only rewarding actual production, but the key right now is just getting her in the bathroom again. It's definitely working - tonight, she sat on the toilet for at least another five minutes after I said she could get off because she was engrossed with playing with the timer I had brought in to count down the two minutes.

I know better than to count my chickens too early when it comes to a toddler, but the progress so far is encouraging. I may try putting her in a dress for some diaper-free time this weekend.

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In addition to the visit to someplace Improving and loafing, I'm hoping to get some projects done this weekend. Tomorrow, I'd like to make to a fabric store sans toddler, so I can get some fabric to get moving on the dinosaur dress.

And tonight, I made a very successful prototype of a four piece puzzle for K (pictures later). She was able to do the two-piece puzzles with absolutely no hesitation, so rather than searching high and low for something more complicated but not too complicated and then spending too much money, I made one tonight with Microsoft clipart and scrap cardboard for pennies. I'm looking forward to experimenting withy making more.

And if I'm feeling crazy, I might deal with the empty boxes drifting like tumbleweeds throughout the house.

(no subject)

I can't quite believe I forgot to include this in the list of weekend plans yesterday: neither longstrider or I are working tomorrow. But we intend to heartlessly send our child to daycare anyway. So tomorrow, you will find us giddy with freedom at a movie theater, hopefully seeing Spiderwick. First movie in the theatre in four months! Hooray!

The traditional spring movie drought has been particularly parched this year. Last year, we were able to take K to a couple movies that we wouldn't have bothered to see otherwise, but we were desperate to get out of the house and they were child-appropriate. But there hasn't even been that this spring. Just tons of particularly hideous thrillers and horror movies, which, well, yuck. I truly don't understand the impulse to put something that ugly into the world, or to sit through it. I mean, I understand the adrenaline thrill that comes from being scared, but the previews I see and the synopses I read to these movies don't seem to be nearly so much about giving the audience a good scare as simply vomiting the most nightmarish scenario possible onto the screen, which makes Nightmare on Elm Street look like Mary Poppins.

I, for one, will be glad when the trend in movies swings back to vapid romantic comedies.

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Our method of coping with the Writers' Strike has been to watch a lot of Food Network. It helps that Good Eats is on every night now, and Iron Chef America is long and complex enough that it's usually worth watching more than once. I was very surprised at how much Throwdown with Bobby Flay has grown on me, since I don't like Bobby Flay. But the process he goes through of analyzing what exemplefies the archetype of the theme dish is something I like in a cooking program. And Flay isn't nearly as obnoxious as I expected. So I don't go out of my way for it, but I don't change the channel when it's on.

A program we've really gotten to like is Ace of Cakes. The process of making those fantastical cakes is fascinating. It's also giving me completely unrealistic ideas of what we should do for K's birthday cake this year. I was walking through a craft store the other day, passing the cake making aisle and saw boxes of pre-colored fondant. I kind of wish I hadn't - this sort of discovery could be dangerous. If you find yourself reading frustrated and overwrought posts from me revolving around cake-making disasters this June, don't say I didn't warn you.