Because apparently I can't post on singular topics

* We have achieved pee in the toilet! On K's part that is. B and I both have quite good aim in that regard, thank you. And she sat on the toilet completely of her own volition, and would have completely forgotten about the chocolate if I hadn't decided that success deserved a reward and gave it to her. I think I'll try putting her in a dress tomorrow or Thursday and try going bottomless for the afternoon.

More tedious updates on my child's bladder as events warrant.

* My mother put a downpayment on a condo last week. Eesh - we went from "thinking about it but it's probably a ways off" to "downpayment" awfully quickly. But she can afford the condo and the house at the same time and I'm sure it will be easier to get work done on the house if she's not living in it.

The condo isn't finished yet, which is a big advantage because she'll be able to get it customized for her needs. All of the units are accessible, but she'll be able to get things like an accessible shower and a bathroom sink and counters that she can get her chair under. She's thinking about a move date some time in June. My brother and I are starting to make plans to go up after Acen in May to help get the rest of our stuff out and take other things she might be giving away.

There are a hundred logical reasons why this is a good idea, which I keep telling myself. Because I can't deny that losing my chldhood home less than a year after losing my father doesn't sting a bit. Like I said before, I'm a grownup, so I'll support her in this. But it's still a bit emotional.

* The dressmaking has been going gangbusters. Each one takes about 20 minutes, making it just possibly the most addictive sewing project ever. I've branched out a bit - instead of using t-shirts for the entire dress, I'm using a toddler t-shirt for the top and went to the fabric store for some cute cotton prints for the skirt. Cute cotton prints are cheap to begin with and you only need half a yard for a skirt for a toddler. So now K has a fishy dress, a dragonfly dress and a dinosaur dress. I'm particularly pleased with how the dinosaur dress turned out. I found a nice shirt with embroidered dinosaurs at Target and then lucked into a dinosaur print for the skirt that matched the dinosaurs on the skirt remarkably well. Approximately twenty minutes and four seams later:




It's a huge hit, as pretty much all the dresses have been. It's been fun - I made a dress nearly every evening last weekend, put it in K's room when it was done and then got to hear her pleased squeals in the morning: "Dino! Dino!" "Fishy!" It's nice having a toddler who's easy to please.