Here's to another go

My friend Alicia said she missed my posts, so I'll try to re-commit to this blog. No promises. It's really turned out to be a fool's errand to keep up a blog, or three, while being a stay at home dad. That's been a big "well, duh" moment for me.

A lot has happened since April. In November, we were pleasantly surprised with an eviction notice. We had a handful of weeks to find a new place to live before they tore our apartment complex down. It added a little stress to our holiday season, it's safe to say. We found a place in Philomath, and we're much happier here. The kitchen is huge. It goes on for days. It's quite wonderful.

More recently, we went to Bandon to visit the West Coast Game Park Safari. They had baby lions and black leopards for visitors to pet. I played with a baby lion. They had lions, tigers, bears (oh my), leopards, monkeys ... it was a wild animal extravaganza. Aislin had a blast. On top of all the animals in the cages, there were deer, goats, llamas, and pheasants roaming around free. It was a really great time. We all smelled like a barn afterwards, but it was worth it. Here's a video of Aislin looking at the bears.




As you can see, she is walking and talking quite well. We went with Kate's parents, and a fun time was had by all.

Even more recently, we've begun the arduous task of potty training. It started out quite well. Aislin really took to the concept of "big girl panties" and "pee pee in the potty," but lately she's been regressing. Yesterday she had quite a few accidents. It has really tried our patience. One of the books we got said that the most child abuse begins when a child has an accident while potty training. It's a sad and horrible thing to think of. The child really only has a rudimentary concept of what's going on in her body. She can't be held totally responsible or be expected to pick up on it right away.

We've done potty training at the expense of weening. We thought that would be too much change at once. Aislin must be under a great deal of stress because she has been nursing like crazy during the night, making Kate's sleep nearly non-existent.

So, hard times in the McClain house of pain, but tempered with pride and fun. C'est la vie, I suppose.