Festivals & floors

Fall is definitely here, as we can tell from the changing leaves, the cooling weather, and all of the outdoor festivals! We were supposed to head to Lynchburg last weekend to visit, but stayed home instead because it seems that the plague has started running rampant in Lynchburg! Grandpa called on Thursday to say that he hadn’t been feeling well, Eddie hadn’t been feeling well either, and Emily ended up with the flu by the end of the weekend. So while we missed seeing everyone, it’s a good thing that we stayed put! Tyler, Travis, & I all have had flu vaccinations, but I didn’t want to chance getting any kind of sickness. So hopefully we’ll be able to make the trip down there sooner rather than later.

So we were left on our own at home to find things to get us out of the house, as we were having the new kitchen floors installed over the weekend finally (and they look great!). There is this annual kids’ fall festival at the park up the road from us, and we decided to check it out. It’s a free event, and the weather was great, and if possible, it was even a little too warm. They had all sorts of blow up bouncy houses and activities for kids, fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars, tractor rides and tons more. We had a blast and even ran into a little friend of Tyler’s from school.

Tyler was a little hesitant about some of the inflatable houses and such, but once he got in one, we were waiting in line for every single one of them that they had. He loved jumping around and running through the mazes. They also had a petting zoo, which he loved. They had a miniature horse (that reminded him of the horses at Nana Scoggin’s house), a llama (which reminded him of the book “Llama Llama Mad at Mama”), goats, sheep, and a donkey (which he kept asking, “What’s that?”). He got to ride on the tractor that was dressed up to look like a fire truck, complete with siren and bell. And he even got to talk to a real policeman. He was excited to let the policeman know that he was dressing up like him for Halloween this year. When asked if Tyler would say “trick or treat” at Halloween, he replied, “No. I say – Come back here! The police!” We’ll keep working on that one.

We’re still working on potty training here, and hope that we’re nearing the end of our diaper buying days. Travis & I have found our “carrot” to dangle in front of Tyler as the perfect bribe for being trained – a preschooler’s digital camera! Tyler loves pretending to take pictures with our camera, and has been using up the film in an old disposable camera that I found last weekend. We found a kids’ camera over the weekend, and Tyler really likes the idea of it. He knows that he can’t have it until he uses the potty all the time, and is out of diapers and in big boy underwear. Bribery is not only an acceptable form of parenting, it’s the preferred method in this house. And it seems to be working. On Sunday, he wore underwear throughout the whole afternoon and only had two accidents. The first time was his “learning experience”, as he found out what it was like to really be wet. The second time was all about timing. He told us he needed to go, and we were in the bathroom trying to get him situated and we were just a few seconds too late. But we’re working through it and hopefully he’ll just keep getting better and better. His newest form of reward grosses me out a bit, but reassures Travis that he is indeed Tyler’s father – Brach’s Mellowcreme Pumpkins. I hate the things, but Travis treats them as their own food group, he loves them so much. Turns out that Tyler loves them too, so he gets a pumpkin for each successful pee in the potty. Blech. I want to go back to M&Ms or stickers. But whatever works, right???