Big Changes!

Things have been taking place here -changes -and let me tell you, these are some really nice, actually great, changes. And, they are eliminating some other changes that would ordinarily have been needed too!

What kind of changes are these that I rave about tonight?

Well, every day now, for the past four days in a row, Kurtis has been going to the bathroom door, pounding on it and requesting to be let in there so he can sit on the potty!

He gets in there, pulls his little insert for the commode seat out and puts it in place and with a little help in the undressing department, he then gets up and sits up -like a big, big boy -and has done his business there then!

When he's finished, he tell us "Good job!" And you betcha, yes indeed it is!

Earlier tonight, it was so darned comical though. I went in the bathroom to hand Mandy the telephone and he was sitting there, concentrating on the task at hand. Actually he had already processed a bit through -if you get my drift -but apparently had the feeling there was more there so he was staying put to see it through, all the way.

Mandy finished the phone call and started giving him a bit of a pep talk, telling him to push it out, way out and he -being heavy into the echolalia thing (can't spell tonight), started to imitate what she had said. However, in doing that, he hunched over, made like he was really straining very, very hard and then said "Push it out, way out!"

But, because of his posture and his straining efforts while trying to speak, his voice rose and got this really squeaky sound to it as well and all of that just totally broke both Mandy and me up. Completely! And with us laughing -actually howling -he started laughing, clapping and cheering too.

So nice to have such a happy little camper like him around here. (He is, generally speaking, usually very much the happy little camper too, most of the time. Except when Mommy isn't home to get him out of his school van or if she happens to venture upstairs without explicitly telling him where she is going. Then, he can wig out pretty loudly and very fast!)

I don't know what was wrong with our sweet little pup tonight too. He just all of a sudden upchucked on the living room floor. Not exactly what Mandy wanted to see, for sure. But boy, it sure did draw the attention of the two kids to the scene. Both of 'em had to come running over and look at the nice (NOT) mess there. Kurtis was so excited over this event, Mandy and I both were afraid he was gonna go a bit to far and walk right into the middle of Sammy's little "gift." So I had to grab him by the shirt and kind of yank him back a step or too till Mandy could get the paper towels and get it all cleaned up.

She decided maybe what made the dog sick was that he likes to stick his nose into the cat's litter box and seems to relish chewing on that stuff a bit. Boy, I thought dog's were supposed to have a really good sense of smell and if that's the case, I can't figure out how they can get their nose that up close and personal to the cat's litter-crapola, ya know. It's hard enough to cope with that particular scent when you are two rooms away and one of these lovely (NOT) cats has decided it was time to relieve themselves of everything they have ingested for apparently the past week and a half or something like that. Foul, really, really foul, ya know!

Bring on the gas masks might be a recommendation in the future, huh?

I got a pleasant surprise today though when Mandy brought the mail home. There was a nice little package for me! A book, written by a lady I've never met but with whom I have been corresponding, off and on, for about 4-5 years now. It's a book she wrote about her father and another gentleman who became unlikely partners back in the early 1900s in some coal mining operations in south-central/western Pennsylvania and how her father went on to build is own coal company back then. Very well-written, interesting and amazing -all rolled into one little package.

Written by Jean Crichton, the name of the book is "Digging For Treasure -Two Pioneer Coal Developers in Portage, Pennsylvania."

Jean's uncle -brother of her father -was Kyle Crichton, a well-known writer from the 30s through the 50s and formerly a columnist for Colliers magazine and apparently there must be some very strong writing genes in Jean's father's family that her uncle and she were both blessed with. Although this book is not large -only 85 pages, in length, I was able to sit down early this evening and read it the whole way through. (Luckily, both grandkids were on pretty good behavior at the time and that gave me a good opportunity to concentrate and read.

And to enjoy learning a bit more about the history of the coal industry in this region of the state as well as to learn a lot about Jean's father and others of his era in the process. An extra bonus there in that.

And that takes me pretty well up-to-the-minute now and time for me to call it a day. Need to get all the rest I can tonight as Maya doesn't have school tomorrow (or today, now since it's past midnight) but Kurtis does. So that means she will be here all day, and ripping and tearing the house up, being bored because there won't be any other child here to boss around. And brother, she does dearly love to do that too ya know!

Saturday, we are to have visitors coming our way -from Michigan -and hopefully I will have pictures to post of that shortly thereafter. It's been a long time in the making but if all goes well, come Saturday I will finally have a chance to meet one of my favorite bloggers and one who has been a friend via our blogs for about three years now, since we became acquainted shortly after we had both begun blogging in August and September of 2006.

Yep -the one and only Skittles and her husband are in the vicinity -visiting Friday over around Altoona so since I live only about 50 miles from Altoona, she and "Mr. Skittles" plans are to stop by my place on Saturday.

And I'm really very much looking forward to that!

Now -time for another big change as I am venturing off to bed and it's not even 2 a.m. yet!