Clara´s Game

Ever since my parents brought Clara Candy Land for her third birthday, she´s been a big fan of board games.

So much so that she invents her own games.

Usually, her games are a little hard to follow.  Or they lack strategy.

But this week´s is a winner!  I´ve asked to play it more times that she has.

 1)  Evenly divide up the shape pieces between all players.  We´ve played with just two players and have had up to four.

  2)  Players take turns placing a piece on the board with one straight edge of said piece in complete contact with either the edge of the board or another piece that´s already been played.

  3)  Point of the game?  Fill up the board!

The trick is not to run out of room, and (magically) given the number of pieces, the shape and size of said pieces, and the size of the board, it always gets tight toward the end, but the board is always filled up.

 It´s rather like putting a puzzle together, but getting a different result every time.

 Way to be a game inventor, Clara!

Milestones on Both Sides!

What´s new with us in the last week?  A number or things!

I´ve gotten serious about Joey getting potty trained.  Now, I´ve been a big believer in T. Berry Brazelton and Magda Gerber´s advice to just let kids potty train on their own schedule.  It sure seems like the easiest way to do it.  However, after a very promising few weeks in September, Joey has had NO interest in learning to use the toilet.  I was planning on letting him take his sweet time and not force the issue until he turned 3.  I remember very well the months and months and months it took Clara to learn how to use the potty.  But, in retrospect, I started her too early.

It dawned on me last week or so that Joey is showing every single benchmark for potty training readiness that there could possibly be.  And then it dawned on me that this was just silly.  I KNOW he can go potty.  He did it just fine for a few weeks in the fall.  Then he got scared off after having a few accidents.  So I backed off.  All winter.

But now it´s warm enough to run around naked all the time.  So that´s what we´re doing.  And it´s working out pretty well.

It´ll be awhile before we venture into the world of underwear again, but . . .you go,  Joe!

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Clara´s milestone came on Tuesday when we were eating popscicles in the patio and she complained about her tooth hurting.  Turns out, she has her first loose tooth!

Truth be told, this threw me a little.  I´m not one of those people who cringe at birthdays and lament the passing of the years.  But . . . but, but--you´re five!  You can´t possibly be losing teeth yet!

I guess she can.  *sigh*

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

For the last year, Joey has been taking some serious, two-hour-long naps (or longer).  This afternoon he woke up after a mere half hour.  Instead of getting him out, I let him know that he needed to rest for a full hour (because I needed the full hour) and I would be happy to give him some books to entertain himself with for the remaining half hour. He thought that was swell!

So here´s hoping for another smooth transition from naptime to rest hour.  Whew!

However, now he just started playing with the knob to his bedroom door, so I´m guessing that I´m out of peace and quiet pretty soon.