Grandma and Grandpa Visit

For a kid, what can be better than your grandparents coming to visit?  You get spoiled and loved on for days on end.  I mean, sure, parents are fun, but grandparents are where it's at.  We were lucky to have John and Trudy stay with us for a long weekend and we had a blast.  

Our first stop: The Potty Train.  Apparently this is somewhat of a tradition in Paul's family.  Once you get potty trained, you get rewarded by going for a ride on the "potty train."  At this point, I am confident in saying that Parker is potty trained.  Right from the start he had no issue going #1 in the potty (there were a few accidents at sleeping times, but that was short lived).  #2 however, was a different story.  From the day we started potty training to his next bowel movement was four days.  You're probably okay without the details, but let's just say that there were several similar instances over the course of the following month.  And during those times, he was sooooo cranky.  I can't say I blame him, if I were that uncomfortable I would be cranky too.  We decided that something had to change and so we instituted a consequence.  A week ago, he had been holding his #2 for several days, and it finally came out in his undies.  So, I took away seven of his favorite toys and put them on top of the kitchen cupboards where he can see them every day.  The rule is that he has to go doodoo in the toilet everyday and if he does, then he gets one toy back, but if he doesn't, I have to take two toys away.  So far this has worked and we've avoided the nasty attitude that accompanies his constipation.  (That was kind of a long aside, but I do want to remember this first experience with potty training when we're in the throws of it with our other children.  It didn't happen overnight, which I was really hoping it would, but it is happening.)

Anyway, back to the potty train.  We rode the train in Balboa Park and Parker loved it!  

While we were at Balboa Park we also went to the train museum, the botanical building, rode the carousel, listened to the band practice in the amphitheater and went to a marionette puppet show.  It was a full day!

While we were looking through these photos, Paul was sort of in awe at this one.  When I asked why he said, "You don't see anything unusual in this picture?!  You and Kate look like the same person!"  I'm still not sure I see it quite like that, but I can see the family resemblance.

We had this bit of deliciousness one night:

As always, we had a great time with John and Trudy.