Amelia goes around singing, “Families can be forever and ever” (the real words are “Families can be together forever”).  She told me today she doesn’t need anymore candy because she knows how to go on the potty by herself.  This was of course after she admitted sneaking several extra coins and eating lots of candy.

Daniel is trying to get me to fix his hair with girly hair holders.   He has also discovered cars and trucks and buses and gets very excited when he sees them. 

Kathryn decided it is her doll’s birthday tomorrow so she made invitations to a party, decorations, a sign, and party hat.

The picture below is something else Kathryn made – herself as a fairy princess.  She drew and colored each part, cut them out, and put them together.

Amelia, Daniel, Kathryn | 1 Comment »

I wouldn’t go so far as to say Amelia potty trained herself.  But once we made her start, she pretty much did.  A few months ago we tried taking diapers off and she resisited.  She held it in and then the minute I was out of the room she went on the carpet.  She screamed when we took her to the potty.  So we decided to wait.  Once she turned 3, we decided to try again.  I was very apprehensive because of what had happened last time.  But I was willing to try for a couple days to see.

First we got what is now called “The Potty Training Machine”.

We just wanted to encourage her to sit on the potty, even if she didn’t go, so she gets a coin to put in the machine whenever she sits.  A coin yields 2-3 M&Ms.  Anyway, to make a medium sized story short, she just goes when she needs to!  She does not go when I ask her to.  She does not go before we leave for the library if she doesn’t need to.  She usually does not go even if I offer her extra candy (like before we go shopping).  She goes when she needs to!  I do take it upon myself to remind her and talk about going, so she is thinking about it and knows to go when she needs to.  Because she has had accidents when she just forgets.  She is so independent, she doesn’t want to go when someone else tells her to.  Against my judgment we also took diapers off at night and she is doing great!  Again, she doesn’t always go right before bed, because in her words, “Pee pee is coming up my body, not coming down my body.”  But we wake her up when we go to bed to take her and often she’ll go then. 

The first day we took her diapers off, I asked Kathryn to tell Amelia about how to go on the potty.  It was so cute! 

Anyway, the point is, that Amelia is just doing it her way and it is awesome.  No taking her to the potty every 15 minutes or whatever.  (Of course that method did work well for Kathryn).  It is awesome to just have one kid in diapers!  He just inherited a couple more boxes of diapers so we’re good to go for a long time.

Amelia | No Comments »

One of my cousins mentioned that sooner or later everyone has a Costco post.  So I decided it was my turn.  Sure, I love to buy diapers at Costco.  I’m glad Kathryn went to preschool near Costco, because I didn’t feel bad going there almost every week.  I really love to buy gas at Costco – it is always the cheapest.  I don’t know if I should admit this, but I also love the hotdog and drink for $1.50.  We do that for lunch or dinner every once in awhile.

But this post is not about the shopping.  Darryl’s firm does the audit for Costco.  When we got back from Seattle, Darryl was put on the audit team for Costco.   We have learned what an awesome company it is:

They always look within the company before looking without.  Most of the people he worked with in their accounting department had been at Costco their whole careers.  

Largest company in pacific northwest – that means its bigger than Boeing, Microsoft, or Amazon. 

Costco’s goal is only to make money on the membership fees.  Anything more than that, they put back into lowering product cost.

The audit team worked at the corporate office, which is a large complex across the street from the first Costco store to open.  At the office is a huge cafeteria where the employees (and auditors) really ate lunch everyday.  The kids and I met Darryl there once for lunch.  The camaraderie among the employees was evident.  And the cafeteria had great food for very low prices.

My favorite thing to hear about from Darryl was the annual shareholders meeting, which Darryl attended.  He has been to these before for other clients.  In Darryl’s experience, one of these meetings lasts about 6 minutes, with zero or one shareholder present.  Not so at Costco.   For Costco, it was a huge  event held in a big hotel ballroom, with literally thousands of people attending.  People came from out of town to attend, some obviously come yearly.  It lasted about 90 minutes.  All Costco food was there for free, as well as booths showcasing new products. 

At one point they opened for questions and many did ask questions, to which the president and CEO answered.  One guy asked if they could put signs up to show what was in each aisle.  The answer was that Costco’s model is a treasure hunt.  They want you to look down every aisle.  That would explain why sometimes the diapers have moved after being on a certain aisle for six months!  But I do like the treasure hunt idea.  Sometimes we find a treasure!  And sometimes I can’t find something but the kids are ready to go, so we go.

Family | 1 Comment »

I always thought preschool graduations were so cheesy.  Did they exist when I was that age?  Perhaps, and I don’t remember it at all, which kind of proves the point that they are kind of silly. 

So when I saw that there was a graduation for Joy School, I was a little wary.  Of course I knew the kids would like it.  And they did!  It was so cute, I think I’ve changed my mind on preschool graduations.

We started the year with two boys and Kathryn, and Amelia was not officially part of the group.  When it was at our house Amelia always participated and then one boy moved away, so Amelia started attending all the time. 

They were quite serious about the graduation.  It was at our house, and both Kathryn and Amelia helped clean that afternoon.  In fact, they were so excited about cleaning and were so happy working, we might start having weekly graduations at our house.

I told the girls they could wear any fancy clothes they wanted, and they both picked princess dresses.

Here they are singing a couple of songs.  We all had fun and the girls are so sad not to have Joy School anymore.  I said we will have Family Joy School this summer.  They really liked it on Tuesday, because we just had art, snack, and play time!

Amelia, Kathryn | 2 Comments »