It's here. The time that most parents look forward to from the first diaper change...DIAPER FREEDOM!! Mikaela has been wearing "big girl underwears" for about a year now and took to potty training very well. She was very motivated--such a difference from Cameron. We bribed that kid with everything under the sun, but he was having none of it. Kaela barely had to be prompted, until the novelty wore off and her independence kicked in. Even then, it wasn't as daunting a task as training Cameron (and a lot earlier than him, too). Throughout the year she would have anywhere from a few accidents a day to a couple a week. Within the last month (she turned 3 two months ago) she completely stopped the once-a-week accidents, and within the last month she has been waking up dry every morning. About two weeks ago we started sending her to bed with no pull-up on and she hasn't had a single accident! Again, so different from her big brother.

I feel a rush of freedom, or a realization that...this is it. Cameron and Mikaela are "big kids" now--it's official. And I feel great about it, but part of me is saying, "be careful, don't grow up too fast." I guess I'm fearing a slippery slope scenario. In any case, with the good comes the..."COME. ON. Are you kidding me?"

Why is it that my daughter must visit every public bathroom in the vicinity--twice?! This is one problem that I didn't have with Cam. It doesn't matter where we are or what we are doing, but if she is even remotely aware that there is a bathroom in the area--SHE HAS TO GO. OK, so she's just being careful and doesn't want to have an accident, you say. Maybe, but why, after 10 minutes of going, does she have to go again?? Or, even worse--when we are in BJ's in the farthest corner of the entire place with a full cart of groceries--I HAVE TO GO POTTY. Or my favorite, "Mommy, I have to go POOOOOOPPPPIIIEEEE."

And while we are on the subject of going...I have always shyed away from allowing my son to go outside. Even though we are in a remote area with no neighbors on two sides, I just didn't want him to get into that habit. I know of kids who suddenly feel the freedom to let loose wherever they are and (LOL) Cameron already had a surprise poop in my aunt's yard when I let him run naked for a few minutes outside. I thought it was hilarious, and my young male cousins will probably never forget it as long as the live. Anyway, the kid doesn't need any ideas. Well, of course boys will be boys and men will be men. Kyle has taught and allowed him an occasional outside pee and knowing this, Cameron has suggested to me several times while playing outside that he, "isn't going to make it." The bathroom is right inside and probably closer than the closest tree, but outside seems like the better option. Or on a recent walk out back to the lake, he refused to go back to the house and wanted to pee in the neighbor's yard. It's not a constant battle at this point, and I will continue to fight it as the situation arises. I'm just not ready to teach my daughter the finer art of squatting in the woods. You know, the whole balancing act, proper squat format, don't pee on your shoes!, and watch out for the bugs...she's got her college years to learn that.

Now that my time is not consumed with eating away my stress, I have time for reading a book (The Story of Edgar Sawtelle--not as consuming as Twilight, but I'm enjoying it so far), watching my favorite show So You Think You Can Dance, and today we garage saled. Kyle and I are lovers of a good deal, so of course we love garage sales. Before the kids, we'd casually stroll about with Tim Horton's (coffee) in hand and look for some household/tools/furniture bargains. We did a bit when the kids were young, but not as much. Once we moved to this more rural area, we weren't able to go out as much since we are fairly far removed from most communities who have the good sales.

This year (today) we finally hit the yearly 10 mile garage sale in our area. Ten miles and about 5 communities all selling their crap. And we loved every minute of it. We tried to plan a course, but that got cumbersome and just started hitting the ones we though looked good as we passed by or the ones we could get out and walk around to several. We took the kids with us, knowing that they would score some free crap (and did they ever), but also knowing that they would probably get cranky and need to go home at some point.

We headed out at 9am and I could feel the thrill of the hunt immediately. I lost track of how many we went to, but we just kept going, feeding the kids snacks, lunch, drinks all along the way. We took our jogging stroller knowing that if we were walking quite a bit or if they started to just get plain tired they could crash in there for a bit. Best. stroller. ever. And we got several compliments on it. We had two potty breaks, filled the SUV up to the point that we were shoving things in between Cameron and Kaela and tied stuff to the roof, didn't get home until 4pm, and spent $92 including a couple hot dogs, water and cupcakes. We couldn't believe how amazing the kids were behaving--they loved it! The kept saying "are we going saling more?" "Are we going to another sale garage?" I'm sure that getting toys and clothes for them helped, but I think they also enjoyed talking to everyone. We also were in awe of our finds...we just wanted to have a fun, carefree day and took out $100 cash. This is some of what we came home with (not sure I can remember it all, but I'll try):

• At least 20 pieces of clothing for Kaela including boots, slippers, pj's, snowsuit, and playclothes (no boys clothes in Cammie's size!! Just one pair of snowpants)
  
• some little toys, crafts, baseball glove, sport backpack, stuffed Barney (ick), FREE bubble blower that we already have but the kids always fight over, FREE helicopter toy that Cam is in love with, strawberry shortcake colorforms and figurine (free)
  
• 3 wood chairs (two are in my kitchen now) for $3 each
• scarf for me
  
• 2 nail guns--finisher and stapler for $20, new weeder tool because my disappeared
• FREE wood lounger that was sitting on the road waiting for garbage pick up
• bike for Kaela for next year--all girly and she took $10 less than she was asking ($30)
• a trellis for $2 but we didnt' have room and have to go back for it. hope it's still there tomorrow!
• horse swing for swing set--$5 (they are about $50)!! and bouncy hopper ball

The kids were troopers the whole way and Kyle started to peeter out after a while. It seems my recent and unfortunate run-in with poison ivy, and the prescription of prednisone to control it, has kept me fairly wired and energetic. I can't remember having this much energy, which helped to keep me going but has also helped me to motivate to get the house spotless and laundry done. I know, most people do these things normally, but I wanted to do them and could probably clean until I fall over--if only I wouldn't keep the kids up in the process.

Tomorrow we are going to try to work on the raised vegetable garden again. It was put on hold when we weren't sure what money would be coming in, but now we feel that we can move forward. Nothing substantial, but it's new to us so it's exciting!