without modern conveniences

why, hullo! it HAS been a while, hasn't it? No, no, nothing untoward going on here, just a slip from the regular blog routine. THANK YOU for noticing!

You know that saying / song "you don't know what you got until it's gone?" We're really appreciating TWO modern conveniences these days... First, I wound up driving the truck around for a week or so. Which is normally a great thing, but the A/C decided to completely quit after weeks of limping around. Which wouldn't be too bad, if the drivers side window could roll down without getting stuck...

So, Florida summer (heat + thunderstorms) + no air conditioning + window stuck up (ha!). Suprisingly, I wasn't annoyed by this for the first few days. Perhaps I was sweating out the anger, but it was all pretty philosophical. I have always enjoyed the heat, and it reminded me of my childhood and teen years, when I would wear jeans in the summer. It didn't hurt that most of this time I needed the truck's bed to load up bamboo and other assortments for our VBS, which also meant I was usually in shorts and a tshirt instead of 'office' clothes. But seriously, I had thoughts of not fixing the AC for a while.

Then, somewhere around the 5th day, I was stuck driving around in the aforementioned thunderstorms. And I realized- again- why Florida was not widely settled until after AC had been invented.

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The very next week, on the first day of Vacation Bible School, I had TWO adorable kids in the house and decided to make them popcorn. So into the microwave it went, and then my cell phone rang, and it was someone with a much needed donation for the very next morning, and... well, we all know what happened next, right? Certainly my college pals do- nothing brings back Tucker memories like the smell of burnt popcorn.

But to say this was a burnt offering in no way accurately describes the actual event. We were seriously lucky and sincerely blessed that the entire kitchen did not go up in flames. The 2 kids were either unfazed by the smoke, or too scared to move off the couch. I'm not sure which...

Here you can see the corn has popped, burnt, and then burned down into a one inch brick!

So, I did concede we needed to work on fire safety with the boy. Perhaps he was *hoping* the firefighters would come?! In any case, our efforts at clearing the air weren't so great, and Kaden wound up with bronchitis within 48 hours. Thank goodness my mom lives nearby, because we basically camped out there for the rest of the week to give him some clear air (and me, too- Jim has lungs of steel!).

Tackling, Potty Training and Apologies

When you watch the very short video above, I want you to look at the expression on his face please. It is both hysterical and slightly worry-inducing re: future team sports.

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We are at the end of the first full week of honest-I'm-not-kidding-we-are-REALLY-potty-training-this time. Last weekend, we had Friday through Monday at home with no accidents, and Tuesday at Nana's with 2 accidents, and Wednesday at daycare ("school") with one "incident". The teacher sais she wasn't really sure it was an accident, because Kaden just announced at lunch "I'm peeing", and when she said "hold it, hold it, let's go to the bathroom"... he replied, "No. I'm peeing right now."

This was followed by Thursday, in which we had 3 accidents at school, which doesn't really sound like any training was happening at all. The preK director has asked if we were doing rewards, and I told her we were using stickers and a chart but another friend swore by M&Ms. She agreed that the candy option was magic, so we headed straight to Target. Kaden was so excited about the M&Ms, and so was I honestly, and he used the bathroom right away without any problems. But then he misunderstood the "one M&M" concept and tried to eat a whole package. This was one of the few times I let him eat something before we paid for it, and I got bit because of COURSE he had a meltdown when he didn't get to eat the whole bag, and there I am in the checkout line, with a screaming toddler in one arm (I'M DONE CRYING! I WANT M&MS) and a debit card in the other because really who's going to look for change in that scenerio?

This was followed by 3 accidents at home on Thursday night- did I mention this was the day Jim was sick, too- and I was sincerely ready to reactivate the Amazon monthly case of pullup subscription. But Friday he went the ENTIRE day- school and home- with no accidents and all sorts of good behaviors, even though we forgot to give him M&Ms sometimes. So.

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The best- and most humbling- Kaden conversation also took place on Thursday. When we were headed to the store, he asked if Daddy was at work, and I said no, he was home sick.

Kaden: what's wrong? Mommy: His belly hurts. Kaden: why? Mommy: I don't know why, he just got sick.

Pause. Kaden: I know why his belly hurts. Mommy: why? Kaden: Because you yelled at him yesterday. Mommy (pause, I don't remember this, but...) oh. You really think so? Kaden: Yes. Mommy: Well, I guess I better apologize when we get home. Kaden: And give him a hug, too.

So, we get home and eat dinner and go about stuff. About an hour or so later, I remember this and say in a loud voice: Jim, I want to apologize for yelling at you yesterday. Jim: what? Kristi, whispering: shh, just go with it. Jim: Um, okay. Kaden is playing with his fire trucks and pointedly ignoring us. I give Jim a hug and walk over to the computer. As I'm sitting down, we hear Kaden say: That was very good, Mommy.

Swimming Along (12 years later)

I was so excited about the Georgia Aquarium Trip (disclaimer in later posts), that we decided to drive to a nearby one with the boy. I was quite impressed that in the gift shop, he patted a manatee on the head and said, "we're going to see you next." He was right!

Now, manatees are fun creatures, but not that uncommon around here and so rarely a cause for a second look. But these guys were so HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE, they reminded me an annoying car dealership. Massive, I tell ya.

We also had the pleasure of a face-to-face with a sea turtle. If you haven't seen these in person, they are also way bigger than you'd expect after little pet red-ears or even run-ins with a few snappers. No matter where/when we see sea turtles, we're always a bit suprised at how big they are. Another of our favorites.

Mote seemed a tad smaller than other places we've been, but the exhibits they had were really cool. They had quite a few tanks with lower windows, which made it a ton easier for Kaden to explore a bit on his own. Above, he's fascinated with a crab. I was fairly encouraged that he can recognize a fair amount of sea life already. Of course, all 3 of us were stumped by the chocolate chip sea cucumber, which looked a bit like an overripe banana. But still...

I also got some great ideas on ways to do "religious education" differently. Above is a mural where kids each got a puzzle piece to paint- when assembled, it formed the outline of a shark and was part of an educational display. I'm thinking this might be good for a saint's feast day!

Even with the plexi-glass, it was a bit unnerving to see Kaden staring down a shark or two. It was his immediate goal when we announced our mini adventure.

Me: Want to go to the aquarium?

Kaden: Oh, yes! yay-yay-yay!

Me: Do you know what an aquarium is?

Kaden: No.

Me: It's like a really big fish tank with all kinds of different fish in there. Big ones, that we don't usually see.

Kaden: Can we see the bad sharks?

Me: Well, not all sharks are bad, you know. They help keep the oceans healthy.

Kaden: Ok. Can we see the bad sharks?

Me: Honey, sharks have an important place in the ecosystem (a look from JimDad)... uh, sure.

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Even now, he'll tell you his favorite part was the sharks. I'm not sure if he even remembers anything else. We spent a goodly amount of time at that exhibit... after his staring, he started assuming superhero poses and 'shooting' the sharks (complete with sound effects). Sigh.

Oh, and the trip was the 1st part of our '12 days for 12 years' anniversary celebration :) Part 2 was a "great date" last night, and we'll stretch the other 10 out through the summer!

Home Sweet Home

TWO supermans picked me up from the airport today! One was wearing his costume and trying to wake up... the other was Clark Kent style.

But Clarkie boy came in quite handy when I unpacked and found out that about HALF of the resources I bought at the conference were soaking wet! It was a really long day, and I'm tired. And now I have to email a stinking airline to discuss their policy of CHARGING to check a bag but then leaving it stand outside during a 2 hour RAIN delay, which doesn't seem like "checking" anything at all.



This past week I was off to Atlanta for a ministry conference. A few friends also went, and it was the first conference since Kaden's been born that we were at without family or volunteers around. And you know what? It was MORE productive and MORE rejuvenating than any other multi-task attempt. Amazing.

And since it was downtown Atlanta, we had fun walking around and visiting some touristy sites. Aquarium- Great fun! That Centennial Olypmic Park is waaaay cool! But the Coca-Cola world? Not so much. Save your money folks- just google "coke art" and then liquify some bright candy into a too-sweet beverage to sip and dump down the sink. Oh, then give about 50 kids a TON of caffeine and sugar and let them run around you and scream. That's pretty much the scoop.

Anyway, one of the benefits of the trip (besides some really neat connections /ideas / resources) was that I realized how much my family needs a real vacation: us relaxing together somewhere away from all the ordinary stuff. So I guess it's a good thing summer's coming up, eh? What's your vacation plans?