What's so wrong with being a numismatist?

I'm all for collecting. I collected stickers in elementary school. I collected charms on those awful plastic charm necklaces in fourth grade. At various times, I've started coin, stamp and baseball card collections.

But apparently, I've been too limited in the types of collections I've considered.

Apparently, some people aren't fazed by expense, rarity, size or weight.

Apparently, I'm married to one of these crazies.

My husband has no interest in collecting books, stamps, postcards or even beanie babies. My husband has the following collections:

1) Houses

2) Cars (This is more of an aspiration at this point. However, in view of #1 above, I just realized that we have a total of nine garage spaces, so I live in constant danger that this collection will be launched. Thankfully, most of the spaces are leased to others.)

3) Arcade games, not to be confused with video games. We're talking about the full-size, cabinet models.

4) Jukeboxes. It turns out that this obsession encompasses, to a lesser degree, old radios and other music-playing devices, including Victrolas. No table-top versions, though - it's just huge floor models for us!

If I asked Andy about his other collecting ambitions, I'm sure the list could continue. But without further ado, the unveiling of his latest addition: Jukebox #5, a Seeburg 100J from 1955.

The Best Invention I Never Came Up With

CLARIFICATION: Andy saw this post and said he thought I implied that we watch Baby Einstein all the time, which we don't. Sophie's probably seen it about five times. I was just remarking on its ability to captivate children of various ages and its profitability!

The Baby Einstein series has got to be the best invention since sliced bread. It's also a multi-million dollar company. How can such simple, low-budget videos entrance an entire generation? I don't know, but I'm glad it's here. Call it TV-as-a-babysitter, call it a substitute for interaction, call it mind-numbing if you want. It has its place (hopefully a small one) in a modern family. I salute you, Julie Clark.

Rugrats!

I just want to say that vacations with kids (especially multiple ones) have a totally different flavor from adult vacations and for many reasons can border on the insane. Reason #586: Most recently, we were at the beach for TWO DAYS. TWO DAYS! Depicted above are our condo's fridge and pantry. Mind you, there was much more food not pictured, on the floor of the pantry, the kitchen countertops and the freezer. Now, the Cokes are ours, and I've expounded upon Shelly's domestic talents in a previous post. They are partly responsible for the cornucopia of edibles you see here, but the kids deserve the brunt of the "credit" for this collection. It seems packing light, for now at least, is a thing of the past.

I really think this photo stands alone and says it all. No explanation necessary.

Pottywatch, Installment #2 (Subtitle: I Love POTTYTRAIN YOUR CHILD IN LESS THAN A DAY)

OK, I am writing this Saturday after the big Wednesday training session. I think I may have spoken too soon in criticism of the book. Although it didn't deliver as promised, I think it has been a huge help to us. Will hasn't been in a diaper except at night since the initial training. He spent Thursday and Friday at Mrs. Debbie's with only a few accidents. Mrs. Debbie is a Godsend in many ways, not the least of which is her patience and willingness to let me send an untrained child to her house in underwear! Today it is 3:00 pm and he has had only one accident. He is getting reminders to go, but I still think this is great progress.

Update: As I am posting this on Wednesday night, things are still going well. Will is still needing some reminders and having some accidents, but he still hasn't been in a diaper other than at night! Things are going well enough that I don't foresee us backtracking at this point.

If you talk to him, please congratulate him on his new skill!

Kathy

Interaction

Will and Sophie have a very good relationship. Will is quite loving, if sometimes overly enthusiastic, and Sophie thinks Will is fascinating and funny. Last night, Will was eating a grilled cheese sandwich while Sophie sat in the bumbo chair and ate squash and cereal in her typical messy fashion. When Will requested a refill of milk and I suspended her feeding to comply, Sophie, already in a delicate mental state due to fatigue, became hysterical.

Above her wails of protest, I heard Will ask clearly, "Are you crying, Vegetable Face?"

Will's also heard at least one, and probably multiple, family members use the word "stupid" - I'm not going to divulge any names as to the culprit (( MOM M! )). As anyone who knows our dog Ransom might guess, it's almost always in reference to her. So the other day Will, Sophie and I were in Kohl's when I hear Will sweetly singing to Soph to the tune of Frere Jacques, "Stupid Sophie, Stupid Sophie... Stupid Sophie, Stupid Sophie..." He obviously had no idea this was an insult, but I had to have my first "that is not a word we need to use" conversation.

Pottywatch, Installment #1

You know the saying about when something sounds too good to be true... The following was written back on Wednesday night.

I had my doubts about the 3-hour potty training exercise, but figured it was worth a shot. This morning was the chosen day, and I had all my tools assembled and my positive attitude resolutely in place. I had read the most relevant parts of the "Potty Train Your Child In Less Than A Day (Two Million Copies Sold!)" book multiple times and had it on hand for reference, and I even dropped Little Soph off at Mrs. Debbie's so all my attention would be on the task at hand.

We started strong with a productive visit to the potty. Unfortunately, after that we had trouble moving forward. According to the book, once your child successfully uses the potty, he should be so excited and take such pride in his new skill that he will begin to go at the mere suggestion that a potty visit might be helpful. From there, just bringing the potty up in conversation should be a good enough reminder, and after that, no reminder at all should be necessary. Now, I'm no expert on toddlers, but to accomplish this progression in half a day seemed a bit unrealistic to me. And let me say after experiencing today's events, in our case I believe it was an irrationally exurberant goal, as Alan Greenspan might put it. Just because Will CAN use the potty, it turns out, means neither A) that he will enjoy it nor B) that he will realize he needs to go prior to seeing a puddle at his feet. So that's where we stand now. If the typical child is trained in three hours using "the system", then rest assured that my child is not typical!

That said, I have a feeling for certain children at certain ages (and without a prior attempt at training to muck things up), this method might work quickly. For us, I don't think it was a waste. I hope I will look back in a few weeks and confirm that this was the jumpstart we needed. Although the day was not a smashing success, at least for now, Will is not in diapers. I think that would just confuse things further. He's asleep now wearing a pull-up but I plan to keep him in real undies as much as possible. We'll see if we're able to stick to that!

Wish us luck in this continuing endeavor.