What an afternoon!

Well, we spent all day at the Smiths and had a grand time. Owen rode a real big boy bike with training wheels and pedaled and steered and everything...and thought he was the cat's meow. Asher slept from 8:45 am to 4:45 pm straight with some scant feedings in the interim. Yikes, we might be in for it tonight, or it might be the best night ever with such great naps, who knows. In other Asher sleep news, sleeping in the carseat at night rather than flat on his back in the bassinet has suddenly transformed Asher...he is entirely easy to put down, falls right asleep, and sleeps at least 4 hrs at a time. Wow. I tried putting him down in the bassinet again just to see if it was a fluke...nope! Just won't settle down in there.

So. Owen didn't take a nap today and needed to go to bed early. Asher slept all day and woke up right as the three of us arrived home and needed to get Owen in bed. Of course! Asher was *ravenous* having pecked at his meals all day, so after getting out some peanut butter and jelly and a bagel to make a quick sandwich for Owen I parked myself on the kitchen floor to nurse Asher and figured Owen wouldn't die if he ate a plain bagel for dinner. Lo and behold, while I'm paralyzed, Owen proceeds to push his stool across the kitchen retrieving a knife and then commences making his own sandwich :} Seriously! He did it all...opened the jars, spread his sandwich, got a banana. There was jelly bomb residue left around the kitchen after the fact, but hey, he really helped out in a pinch! I did have to squeeze in a picture or two when Asher took a nursing break. He also (under my verbal direction) got a sippy cup and brought me the milk and Hershey's syrup for some chocolate milk. And put away the jars, milk, etc. when he was done! (Did I mention that when I came downstairs from getting dressed this morning he was alone in the dining room putting away his duplo blocks all by himself! I gave him a mini Hershey bar for that.)







Well, between the big-boy bike riding and making his own dinner Owen was feeling pretty full of himself. So what does he do completely spontaneously during bathtime but stand up suddenly with a peculiar look on his face, tell me he needs to pee-pee, let me take him out and dry him off and then sit on his littly potty and go...first time. :O Now to the early potty trainers who mastered this all long ago, what's the big deal...well, if you'd seen the magnitude of the tantrums surrounding attempts to encourage the potty around here, you'd understand that this was a bit miraculous. I am probably the only mother in the world who's instant internal response was, 'Oh NO! Does this mean we are going to have to stop suddenly and find bathrooms whenever and wherever we go? Shoot!' But I guess it has to happen sometime, and my son appears to be potty-training himself, which isn't all bad.

What a growing-up day. Good thing I have another baby :)