Small Victories

Today I am claiming a few small victories.
Thanks to some great FB friends I was reminded about a website devoted to the early learning of kids called www.starfall.com . Of course I knew about that site and have actually used it before. I just haven't used it for a while and had forgotten about it. So today I sat Ridge down at my computer and had him select which ever letters he wanted and I left the room. After yesterday's disastrous attempt at letter learning I thought it would be best if he did some independent study. And it seemed to go good. Not that he was really learning anything but at least he is getting some visualization of the concepts I was trying to teach him. I think he may be a visual learner and having me sit there and tell him things wasn't working. When we were trying to think of words that start with the letter L he would look around the room to find something. So I think having pictures for him to look at will help. I'm hoping that after a while of using the website it will start to come together and he will be able to make some progress. So thanks to all the friends who reminded me.
That is victory number 1. Sad to say but I'm claiming getting Ridge to sit at a computer to learn letters a victory.
Victory number 2 is that Rori peed on the potty today!! Lately she has had a serious fascination with the toilet and my bathroom has had several moppings due to her water splashing. So I decided I would put her curiosity to use. I haven't been feeling super well and haven't started a really legitimate attempt at potty training, but I thought I should introduce her to what the toilet is really for. We have sat on the potty several times and she really likes it (we got her a princess potty seat) but she had yet to do anything really productive while sitting there. Then today after her bath I asked her if she wanted to go potty and of course she said yes. (she always does) and I put her on the seat and let her sit there for a min. I wasn't really expecting anything but pretty soon I hear a tinkle and got super excited!! The next few minutes were filled with shouts of "Yipee!" and "Yeah for Rori!" there was also a fair amount of clapping and even a little dance when she got down.
I decided to put her in some panties just to see how it would go, and our victory was quickly followed up with her peeing all over my floor.
We were getting ready to go to the park so we went back into diapers and ran off to the play ground where we had a fabulous time playing with our friends.
So although I haven't jumped into the potty training with 2 feet we are at least experimenting and we have one small victory to claim.
Dyson has really began to blossom in his reading too. He amazes me every day with the things he is reading. (This may be part of my problem with Ridge, perhaps I expect too much of him. I may be comparing him to Dyson too much) He can read his numbers written out (ie. sixteen, fourteen) all the way up to the number twenty. He has been working in a work book for 1st graders and is doing amazingly well. He has such a great personality and keeps me laughing everyday.
He loves to sing and dance and the games he plays with Ridge are so hilarious to listen too.

Yesterday was one of those days that can really get someone down but are an important part of life. If you never experience the frustration and disappointment then you can never really appreciate the victories and successes.
Today was victorious and successful.
I love being a mom. There really is no other job like it.