Margaret's new song

And Teddy dancing.

Ok, here you go.....

So the blogger occasionally has to receive some external validation. While I might not have the worldwide readership that I would like, I fortunately appear to have a strong readership in my family. And some readers on the other side as well.

Here, then, are some pics. This include pictures from the G'town-UConn women's game with the Philly relatives, a recent visit of Grandma Mary and Grandpa Dave, and a trip to the G'town-Marquette men's game (where we were fortunate enough to sit in front of the Marquette visiting student section while G'town blew the game). Please pay particular attention to the third photo that displays Teddy's chipped left tooth (along with the remnants of the blue crayon that he had just been gnawing.)

Throwing down the gauntlet

My goodness, folks, I know that someone reads this blog. After all, when I see various friends or family members, they comment on stuff that I write. And yet, when I threaten to withhold pictures, I get no response. So, like George Bush I, I'm now drawing a line in the sand - if I can't get at least three people (c'mon mom, for pete's sake) to request more pictures, all you'll get is my insightful ruminations from now on. But no kid pics. So there.

Potty problems

To begin with, still no pics. Sorry for those of you looking for a "pic fix," but I don't have the energy to download, edit, and upload pictures. Perhaps this reflects a broader trend towards this blog becoming more like the Philly relatives blog - they've never been into the multimedia extravaganza that sometimes occurs here. If so, this may be an opportunity to solicit feedback from my silent, but presumably large, reader base. If you want frequent pictures of the kids, speak now, or forever hold your peace.

The main topic of this post is potty training. As I've noted before (here and here), both of the kids have displayed the ability to use the potty. At this point, we don't expect much of the boy, so it's all gravy if he's willing and able to do anything on the potty. But Margaret's reaching the age where she should be moving out of diapers. In fact, she doesn't wear diapers or pull-ups at all at school. She generally makes it through the day without an incident with any problems occurring when she's waking up from her nap. When I pick her up, she typically sits on the potty before we leave, and she emphatically insists to Ms. Jakki that she won't use diapers when she gets home.

Once we get home, however, it's a completely different story. Margaret does not want to use the potty at home. She cries and complains, saying, in an incredibly petulant voice, "I don't want to sit on the potty. I'm a baby girl." Lovely. She behaves similarly when she gets up in the morning before heading to school. Of course, once she's at school, her diaper comes off and she heads straight to the potty. If we push the subject at home, it leads to a complete meltdown by her, and a near meltdown for us. Especially for me. Hell, she knows what to do. We know that she does. So, as with many other 2 year old demands (like "Papa drives" in the morning or "Mama dresses me" or "I want five crackers") her refusal to use the potty makes absolutely no sense. All it does is lead to really grouchy parents.

Of course, that is probably her intention. I suppose that she's working some sort of power play with us. But it's just not clear what she wants to accomplish or why this is the battle that she's chosen to fight.

Since I have to cook dinner, I usually cave shortly, if not immediately, after we get home, and she ends up wearing a diaper. Ms. Jakki says that we can't make it optional - we shouldn't ask her if she wants to use the potty, rather Margaret must sit on the potty, and there's no alternative, no matter how much she howls. Our next door neighbors say that they used a similar tactic with their second child as the diapers "disappeared," and they spent two weeks dealing with accidents until it got sorted out. That sort of "tough love" approach may be necessary, especially when, for example, Abby asks Margaret if she wants to sit on the potty, and Margaret responds as she did tonight: "That's not in my plans."

I do suspect, though, that the boy will be much faster with this issue. At the same age, he tends to be easier in most respects, such as fingernail trimming and water on the head during a bath (although not sleeping.) Perhaps we're better at childraising the second time around, but I doubt it. I think that he's just a less high-strung kid. And I hope that the potty doesn't become a central point of conflict with him.

Our moment of fame redux

Now, I know that I haven't been posting many photos of the kids lately. Which undoubtedly has my dedicated (but curiously silent) followers up in arms.

Luckily, when you have kids who are as photogenic as ours, you don't need to post public photos - the media takes care of that for you. As my dedicated readers must certainly recall, a photo of Margaret and me (along with a lot of other unimportant people) was featured in a Washington Post article about dog parks. More recently, we went to a benefit concert, featuring Mr. Don (of First Night Alexandria fame), for the G'town Public Library which burned in a massive conflagration back in 2007. A photographer from the Georgetown Current, our local free newspaper, was snapping shots of the kids as they danced to the songs. We noticed that he appeared to be taking an inordinate number of shots of Margaret and Reid, our next door neighbor, so we figured that there was a non-trivial chance that they would appear in the next issue.

Sure enough, here it is (be patient as it's a big file), although we mysteriously didn't get our weekly issue (I suspect foul play involving some jealous G'town mom whose kid wasn't quite up to snuff for the front page of the Current.) I discovered Margaret's presence on the front page while pilfering a copy of the Current from a nearby porch (btw, it's a free paper, so I wasn't really stealing anything) to get the rain bag to use for cleaning up after Maddie. After having been alerted to the existence of "the pic," I went into our favorite neighborhood bodega, the Griffin Market (whose owners endeared themselves to the Philly relatives by giving Alex a free containter of squid, octopus and other nasty fishy stuff), and told them about how I was wandering the neighborhood looking to steal copies of the Current (btw, the Current comes out on Wednesday, and I was doing this on Friday, so anyone with the paper still sitting on their porch wasn't planning to read it anyway.) While I had grabbed a few copies from nearby porches, Riccardo, the shopkeeper at the Griffin Market, pointed me to a big stack in their store. Consequently, I ended up lugging a completely ridiculous number of copies - about 30 - home, so if anyone wants a physical print of the famous pic, let me know.

Again, the link to the relevant issue of the Current is here. As Abby pointed out, Margaret has now been pictured in two newspapers in two years. A tough track record to maintain. And the girl is throwing down a tough gauntlet for the boy to compete with.

The bruiser

The boy is, officially, a bruiser. Each toddler cohort at daycare has kids who fit various profiles. Margaret, for example, was a sweetheart. Other kids are troublemakers, either for personality reasons or because they're prone to accidents. Teddy falls in the latter category. In addition to his recent chipped tooth, he has banged his head into a table at daycare, leading to an impressive welt on his forehead. And, earlier today, he ran into something that gave him a big shiner. In both cases, I got calls from the daycare folks altering me to the fact that there would be an incident report waiting for me later in the day. It's gotten to the point where I see an external (202) area code call, and I immediately wonder what the boy has managed to do to himself.

No pictures of the boy's wounds which, I know, must perturb fans of the kids. We'll work on getting some up.

Damaged goods

Earlier today, Teddy and I went for a walk with Maddie. We were heading out to see Oscar, who works weekends at a bodega near us, in order to talk football. Oscar is from Mongolia, but likes to talk sports, especially tennis, football and hockey. So we had to visit Oscar to talk about the upcoming Steelers game.

On the way, Teddy was walking next to me, but decided that he wanted to hold the dog's leash. Until we got to Scheele's Market, where Oscar works, Teddy was happy to hold my hand with one hand while clinging onto the leash with the other. Holding onto my hand is important because Maddie varies her speed in a way that can be difficult for the boy. She'll lurch ahead, yanking him forward and threatening to pull him over. But as long as I hold his hand, we're ok.

After stopping to see Oscar, Teddy decided that he no longer wanted to hold my hand. In fact, he objected to any contact with me, including the hand that I was placing on his head while we were walking. When we started to cross 28th Street, a number of things happened at once. First, we were getting closer to the park so Maddie, knowing we were close to the park, made an abrupt move in that direction. Second, someone drove past with Steelers flags on his car. A bit distracted, I yelled "Go Steelers!" and motioned at my t-shirt that commemorates the previous Super Bowl victory. I got an enthusiastic response from the passing motorist, but in the meantime, Maddie's yank sent Teddy sprawling in the middle of Dumbarton Street. He started howling. I scooped him up and we recovered our composure on the way to the park where Maddie chased the ball, despite a nasty hangnail of her own, while Teddy squished around in the mud.

On the way home, I noticed that Teddy had bloodied his knuckles "Hmmm," I thought "Perhaps his spill was worse than it seemed. Poor little guy." Later, when we were watching the game with our neighbors and their three kids, Abby said "Does Teddy have a chipped tooth?"

Oops. I suppose that the boy could have chipped his tooth during any number of recent falls. And I suppose that the doctor could have missed it during his recent check-up. But I suspect that his fall during our walk caused it.

Tommy, one of Margaret's buddies at school, recently took a spill and knocked out a tooth. His mom told us that the dentist said that it wasn't worth doing much given that it wasn't a permanent tooth. I suspect that the same policy applies to the boy.

It's not as if Teddy looks like a hockey player, but he definitely has a chipped upper left front tooth. I'll see if I can get a picture sometime soon. Even if it's not very noticeable, as I told our neighbor, it's like a scratch on your new car - once you know that it's there, you just can't stop looking at it. Our previous "perfect" little kid is now damaged goods.