House Hunting, Potty Training, and Attitude Shifts

Birthday week was really great, for several reasons. TJ and I celebrated early, but then he ended up getting the whole weekend off! It was so great to have him for 2 whole days (and I'm not being facetious!). We got to watch the Super Bowl with friends and some awesome local pizza, and Joe even rented Dance Central for me so I could play it this weekend. :-) I love it. On top of all that, we were approved for a mortgage and then looked at 3 houses on Thursday. None of them were winners, but it was great to finally get to look at actual houses instead of just looking online. By the way, pictures can be extremely deceiving. Holy cow. We got to look at another house yesterday that we both really like. There is some fixing up to be done, but nothing that seems urgent or immediate. It's a 3 bedroom with hardwood floors, kind of an older bungalow feel (which I LOVE) and a full, unfinished basement that we can work on to make into good living space. We'll see though. I guess for the loan we're looking at we need to make sure it would even pass inspection before we try to move forward too fast (there are potential moisture problems in the basement). But more than anything, it was just really nice to see a house that we liked after the first three striking out. I do have to remind myself that it's ok if this is a longer process than I'd like. I'm the girl who bought a car in one day right after TJ and I got married. And that did not turn out well.

Just for the record: Azteks suck. No thank you, Pontiac.

In mothering news, I found out this week that 2 of Josiah's friends can already recognize numbers they see or count to like, 20. Siah likes to count, he just likes to mix the numbers all up. And he couldn't read the numbers to you, he just knows they're numbers. Except 8. He really likes 8. SO, yesterday I started sitting down and making him count with me for a while and showing him this little flashcard book we have with numbers on it. I know I shouldn't worry about it, and by the time we have 3 kids I'll probably just depend on books and Sesame Street to help me out with the counting. Maybe when you're just working with the first one, you're more worried about what other kids their age are doing and making sure you're keeping up. But I'd like to see those other kids be able to point out all the components of a motorcycle. Which my son can do.

We're also continuing to work on potty training. It's going well, as long as I remember to make him go to the bathroom every 15-20 minutes. Sometimes he does great and lets me know when he needs to go, but we've gotten to the point where some of the fascination with the potty has worn off, and now he'd rather keep playing than stop to go. I think this whole experience is going to teach me more discipline as much as it teaches him to use the bathroom.

This Sunday Papa preached a great sermon about attitudes, and he said something like, "Everyone wants to feel important and special, and that's ok, but we need to work to have an attitude that puts others first, trying to make them feel important and special." Something like that. At least, that's what I got out of it. On New Year's Day I wrote in my journal that humility was a character trait I'd really like to grow in this year. Not the kind of humility that puts itself down, but the kind of humility that makes people walk away from you feeling special and cared about. A humility that doesn't wait for its turn to talk, but looks for ways to get to know the other person better and hear what they have to say. And I've noticed that I am in a much better mood (and therefore, everyone in my house is in a better mood) when I'm not focusing on my needs and getting mad at the person who isn't meeting them the way I want.

Well that's all I've got for today.