#3

I have said many times, Simon is quite different from Daniel and Sam.  I knew from the start that he was different.  For starters, Daniel and Sam were very easy babies.  They played on the floor and entertained themselves for long periods of time as infants.  Or many times they enjoyed hanging out in their swing or exer-saucer.  Simon cried for the first 6 months of his life.  Simon only stopped crying if he was being held.  He didn't enjoy alone time on the floor.  Daniel and Sam never wanted to feed themselves.  In fact, today, they would probably be happy if someone was feeding them.  Simon wanted to feed himself as soon as he knew what a fork or spoon was.  He got frustrated if he missed, but he still wanted to do it himself.  Simon had issues with dairy, and couldn't have any until he was about 1 1/2 years old.  Daniel and Sam never had that problem.  Daniel and Sam never cared what they were wearing.  I always picked out their clothes.  I still pick out their clothes.  Simon has very definite opinions about what he will and will not wear.  And so we come to potty training.  Daniel and Sam ran around the house naked for a couple of days.  Then they transitioned to underwear, and that was that.  They knew the routine.  Simon has not had any interest in being potty trained.  But we convinced him that it was finally time to try.  So last week we started the potty training process.  The first day he DID NOT want to run around the house naked, although after about day 3 I was able to convince him that he would be okay.  We've been at this for about a week now.  He does pretty well if he is naked, but every time we put underwear on him, he has had an accident.  So we still have a ways to go.  I don't mind that he's different, and I embrace his uniqueness.  I just find it rather amusing that I think I know how to raise kids, and then along comes Simon, and everything changes and starts all over again.  I guess he will be the one to keep my on my toes.

3 Events

For many people, this past weekend was filled with exciting events.  Of course there was Father's Day.  And I am sure there were graduations, weddings and many other fun ways to spend the weekend.  Here in our family, we also celebrated the weekend.  It started on Friday night when we went to Jeff's graduation from residency.  They had a dinner and presentation.  It was held at the Multnomah Club.  Jeff's parents, his sister and her husband, my parents and the boys and I were there.  For me, it was wonderful to see him reach this milestone.  He has worked so hard.  In some ways it feels like it can't be 3 years already since we moved here and began the residency journey.  And in other ways, I wasn't sure if it would ever end.  I'm glad it's behind us, and now Jeff is working as Chief Resident for the next year.

The second event for us this weekend was that Jeff and I celebrated 10 years of marriage on Saturday.  My parents were here, so they watched the boys and Jeff and I got away for the day.  We had a wonderful day.  We had a picnic at Washington Park.  We talked about what we had learned in the past year and what our goals were for the next year.  He took me to dinner at Nostrana, a favorite for us.  Again, I can't believe it has been 10 years already.  It doesn't feel like it has been that long. 

The third event this weekend was celebrating Father's Day.  Jeff wanted to go to Sauvie's Island and do some berry picking.  So we went out there.  We picked some berries, then we had a hay ride.  We enjoyed some strawberry shortcake.  Then, we went out to dinner at McMenamins.  They have a nice outdoor area to sit, and it was such a nice day.  It was very enjoyable.

I hope everyone had a great weekend.

A Series of Unfortunate Events Followed by One Fortunate Event

For the past several weeks, I've noticed an odd smell coming from our Honda Pilot.  I thought it was related to some foul smelling windshield washer fluid.  There was this one time when "they" topped it off when changing the oil, and it smelled so bad, we never had them top if off again.  So I was just assuming it was the bad smelling fluid again.  But then last Wednesday when I drove home after taking Daniel to school, I turned the car off but noticed the fan was still blowing, as if the car was trying to cool off.  I thought this was strange.  I waited a few minutes to see if it would shut off.  It didn't, so then I went out to check the antifreeze and see if it was low.  When I screwed off the lid, the fan stopped blowing, which again I thought was odd, and quickly figured those two things must be related.  I filled it up with water and it took close to 2 quarts of water.  Again, my radar went off that something wasn't right.  Later that morning, I took the two younger boys to the library.  I watched the heat on the car, but it didn't seem to be abnormal.  The smell was getting stronger though, so I was worried.  And when I got home, I noticed a substantial leak under the car.  I called the mechanic and they said to bring it in right away.  We took the car in on Thursday, hoping that it was fixable and wouldn't cost a lot of money.  This car is old, has quite a few miles, but we were hoping it could last a couple more years.  Then, when we heard how much it was going to cost to fix it, we knew it was time to say good-bye to our car and search for another.  To make a long story short, we ended up buying a new Honda Pilot last weekend.  Things worked out pretty well for us.  I'm happy to have a car that runs again and hopefully won't require any work for a very long time.