I know I shouldn’t be surprised, and I’m not really surprised, but I am dreading the cold weather. When I talked to my mom the other day and she told me that two inches of snow were predicted for the area where she lives, all I could do was wrinkle my nose and think how hard it would be to cart around two kids once it got snowy, cold, and icy. In fact, as I write this now, I’m wrinkling my nose again. Yuck. Maybe I can get Jason to change professions and become a resort manager or a golf course groomer/manager so we would have to live somewhere that it was warmer for most of the year. Not likely, but a girl can dream.

As it has every other year, the arrival of fall also signals the arrival of new tv shows and new seasons of old favorites. This year, I was a little skeptical about starting to watch any new shows. Last year, I watched two shows on NBC, Windfall and Kidnapped, and both were canceled suddenly. I was pretty frustrated, because I liked them both and just when I was starting to figure out who all the characters were, the shows suddenly disappeared.

From the previews, I thought that Life looked pretty good, but once it came on, I just wasn’t interested. I “watched” a few episodes while I was asleep on the couch with A. The concept of the show is that the main character was a policeman who was framed for multiple murders. He went to jail for twelve years, and he was somehow found to be innocent while he was in jail. Now he’s out, and he’s a cop again even though he has a multi-million dollar settlement (I think). In between his cases, he is trying to figure out who framed him, and everyone he knows is somehow involved. Not a bad premise, but I just couldn’t get into it. I still have four episodes on my TiVo, because I want to like the show, but I don’t really.

Also from the previews, I thought that Journeyman looked a little lame and a little like Quantum Leap. When Life didn’t pan out as my great, new show of the season, I decided to give Journeyman a try. Surprisingly, I liked it. It’s a bit deeper than Quantum Leap in that not only is he a time traveler with missions to complete and people to save, there is also quite a bit of story line revolving around his family and how his time travel affects them.

I’m also liking the show Pushing Dasies about a man who is able to bring people back from the dead. The idea behind the show is a bit cooky, and so are the characters and the settings. I think that it’s one of those shows that you will either love or hate. My dad said that he tried to watch it, but he couldn’t get into it. I can understand that. Even though I think it’s a good show, I can see how its audience could be limited.

Now what?

I wrote a while ago about how I was going to sign up to become a Discovery Toys consultant. Well, I did it. I got my consultant number and everything!

I’m a little unsure where to go next though. I got an e-mail last week telling me welcome on board. So, I guess my next step is to either buy some toys or tell line up some parties? They don’t give you a whole lot of information or guidance right away. I think I’m supposed to have a bunch of toys coming in the mail soon, so maybe I’ll feel more direction once those arrive.

K continues to tell me that he has to poop. Today, he told me that he had to poop, and so I asked him if he wanted to poop on the potty. He said yes, so I took his pants and diaper off and sat him down on it. Well, it was just so neat and exciting that I think he forgot all about pooping. He was content to sit there, stand, and then sit again. After about 10 minutes, my mom put his pants back on, and he hasn’t said anything about it since. I guess that was pretty painless for all of us.

I was adamant that I was not going to potty train early. I didn’t even want to consider potty train K until he was much closer to 3 years old. He however, seems like he may have other ideas. Lately, he’s been telling me that he has to go to the bathroom before he goes. (sigh) I guess we’ll get started. We have the potty out now, and he’s definitely interested. I’m not ready to say that we are officially potty training though. I suppose in the end this is a good thing, but since I was so prepared not to push him, I am not quite used to the idea that he’s ready.

Not for me, for K. We decided to get him a little play kitchen for his birthday. We ended up getting this one from Step 2. So far, I have to say it has probably been one of our better choices for gifts.

At first, when I suggested it to Jason, I thought that he might not think it was a good idea or that it was too girly. Fortunately, he didn’t disappointment me, and he thought it was a great idea! We looked at quite a few and settled on the Dream Kitchen from Step 2.

We got it in the mail, and a couple days later we assembled it for him. We put it together one night after K went to bed, and the next morning, we didn’t say anything and let him just discover it. It was very cute. He was sitting in the living room when he saw it, and his eyes got wide. He slowly approached it, and his smile got bigger and bigger. We had planned to go to town that day and spend some time together as a family, but we almost couldn’t get K out of the house he was so intent on playing with his new toy.

Now that he’s had it for a couple weeks, he has gotten used to having it. He knows that when he goes to bed at night it will still be there the next morning. When he is cooking in his kitchen, he often brings me food to eat and something to drink, too. In another demonstration of how much kids pick up on, today he brought me a piece of plastic pizza on a plate with a fork and knife! What a smart little guy.

His newest culinary specialty is that he puts his burp cloths in the oven, microwave, and on the “stove” to boil them.

A few days ago, I wrote a little about our attempts to live a healthier lifestyle. We went grocery shopping, and it was easier than I thought to find meals that were in line with our new goals. We’ve had healthy, dairy-free suppers for the week. They are actually tasting better than I thought.

My problem though is the cravings! Oh, the cravings… Last night, I was oh, so close to begging Jason to drive into town to buy me a bakery cake. I couldn’t stop thinking about the frosting and the yummy sugary feeling on my teeth. If I was able to eat dairy, I would put a scoop of cool, creamy ice cream right next to it and let it melt into the cake. Could it get any better?

Fortunately, I was able to resist and I did not order my husband out in the 40 mile an hour wind to get me a craving-satisfying cake. I am feeling a little less desperate for the sugary foods today. I’m hoping that what people tell me is true, and after I’ve eaten healtheir for a couple weeks, I won’t want that stuff nearly as much. Keep your fingers crossed!

On one of my regular blogs, BreastfeedingMums Blog, today, there was a link to a story that details a mom’s experience nursing her four year old. Before I started nursing K, if you had told me that we would still be nursing at 2 years, I would have laughed at you.

I know some people think he doesn’t need it anymore, and I know some people wouldn’t choose it for themselves, but I have to say that they longer I nurse him, the more rewarding it becomes.

I had a great day today! Hopefully that great day will carry over into a great night.

As some of you know, our baby, A, has been what some would call a bad sleeper for the past couple weeks. He’s been increasingly waking more and more. Last night, he woke at 10:00, 1:40, 2:40, 3:10, stayed up until about 5, woke again at 5:30, and 6:30. At 6:30, I finally brought him to bed with me until 7:45 when he was up for the morning.

Needless to say, after a couple nights of this, one becomes rather exhausted. I add this to chasing a teething, sick with a cold toddler, and it makes for some long days. Until now, I’ve been a little hesitant to ask for much help. Partially it’s because I didn’t want to ask, but the other part is that honestly sometimes it’s easier to just do it myself.

Yesterday, I was a little disappointed that my husband had to work today, and I wanted to do something different. So, Jason called his mom to see if she would be around today. She was around, so the boys and I drove down to visit her.

I know there are lots of people who are not blessed with supportive, loving, and most importantly normal in-laws, but I fortunately have all of the above. My in-laws are wonderful people, and I truly enjoy spending time with them. The best part about today was that both of the boys got the attention and spoiling that they needed while I got a little time to run errands and do shopping that I had been putting off for far too long.

So, we returned home tonight, spoiled, loved, and refreshed. What a nice day!

In the past 11 days, since I’ve been blogging much more regularly (Thanks, NaBloPoMo!), I’ve been getting comments. I love it. It’s so fun to check my e-mail and see that someone has read what I said and they thought enough of it to leave some form of interaction for me. Thanks to everyone who comments. It is an encouragment!