Our second home

One of the disadvantages of being so far behind on your blog is that the posts cease to be very interesting.  One of the advantages, however, is that the journaling gets done rather quickly when you don't have to think of how to say things in a crowd-pleasing way!  :)  Not that my blog is for entertaining purposes, but I hope that someday...when it's in a book...that my kids will at least enjoy it.  I want them to remember that we did fun things and most of all...that we love them to pieces!

The zoo was our second home this summer.  We made several trips.  With friends, as a family, and sometimes just for some one-on-one time with McRae and Dad.  The heat didn't stop us and the new baby lions are a big hit!

McRae has always had such a fascination with animals.  It started with horses and cows but quickly expanded to all animals.  When he was really young, he was mesmorized by the "Life" videos we have.  He quickly learned all of the animals names, the sounds they make, and where they live (desert, sea, farm, etc).

McRae's love for animals is so strong that we used them as an incentive to help motivate him during potty training...and well, it worked!  He had been capable for about nine months but quickly lost interest.  I had learned from friends that this was not an issue to have battles about so I was not about to fight him on it.  I just figured he'd let me know when he was ready.  Well, he clearly wasn't in any hurry after taking a 9 month hiatus, so I had to come up with plan B.  Plan B consisted of letting him hang out around the house with nothing on but a shirt for about a month or so.  He never had any accidents when we did that, so I knew he was capable.  Then came the incentive.  Candy wouldn't work.  But new Schleich animal toys?  You betcha!  Lucky for me, Target quit carrying them in stores and I was able to score a few new toys on clearance.  Hurrah!  After about a week of receiving a new toy for each successful day, our boy was officially trained!  He still wears a pull-up at night but he stays dry 90% of the time.  It's a lot of work at first, but the end results are SOOOO nice.  One in diapers is definitely kinder on the pocket book.  Thank goodness we found some motivation that would work!