Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Items of Use in My Daily Life

Specimen #1

Useful: I present to you the amazing, faithful, hard-working yellow tupperware colander(circa 1970's). It was given to me by one of Rob's college roommates after I expressed enthusiastic nostalgia for it. We must have had one like it growing up. I don't remember it exactly, but I remembered this when I saw it again and it was like meeting an old friend. "Oh, the yellow colander! I've missed you!" I've used this thing for all the years of our marriage for MANY purposes--food, crafts, and household projects. It might be the very most useful thing I own. Rob thinks he washes it in every sink of dirty dishes and has been known to ask, "Isn't the yellow colander in here somewhere?" We share a macabre joke that if I die an untimely death, this will be the thing that brings him to tears of remembrance each time he sees it. I will certainly stop to grab it if there's a fire.

Specimen #2

NOT Useful: I now present you with the vintage Snoopy alarm clock (also circa 1970's) we purchased at DI this summer. We thought it was so cute and retro and who doesn't need an alarm clock? Well once we put batteries in it, we discovered why it had been sent to DI. This clock has a heart-attack inducing alarm--one loud shrill ring (think Fire Station 5-alarm fire ring). Bea was playing with the clock in my bathroom yesterday and apparently set it to conveniently go off at 4:30 this morning. Scared me half to death! And sad to say this isn't the first time that has happened. In fact, my heart was beating so hard I couldn't fall back asleep and I lay there thinking what a worthless clock it is, since I've been truly "alarmed" by it at least half a dozen times and have NEVER purposely set it for its intended use. Back to Goodwill with you, little Snoopy. Run along now.

Specimen #3

Undecided: What do you think, friends? Are pull-ups a good thing or do they just prolong the agony? We have entered this swampy middle ground of potty-training and I'm not sure if these are useful or not. We're definitely out of the diapers. (There are 6 left in the house and I'm refusing to buy more--will I regret that?) But Bea is not completely (or even mostly) reliable in underwear. I clean up at least 2 accidents a day, but we are making progress. Just not enough to go out in public or to friends' houses without padded protection. Give me advice please. It seems like my last potty-training episode was a long time ago and SJ practically did it herself, overnight.

Anyway, these are three things I've used today. Two of these things will be used again and one no longer belongs in the family. Anyone need an alarm clock?

8 comments:

Carrie said...

I decided to only use pull-ups at night with my kids--and just jumped head-first into real underwear. It meant some cleaning up--that's for sure--but my kids were super sad about soaking cool unders rather than a pull-up. Good luck with PT--it is crazy!

Oh that alarm clock story is classic though. Cares just got a new hot pink clock from Wal-Mart for 5 bucks and it's alarm suddenly went off at midnight the other night (she too had been playing with it and turned the alarm on) Luckily we are night owls at our house and were reading scriptures right then. 4:30 in the am would be awful!

Krista said...

same as carrie with pull-ups at night until she learned she got a reward for having a dry pull up. It took her a little while to finally master the night thing. I think I went through two 60 pull ups (two packages) before she got it and was confident. We also would reuse pull-ups...those darn things are expensive (if they weren't soiled that is) :) During the day we spent about 1 week indoors with princess panties for intense training. For sisi, it was the poops not the pee problem. She would poop her pants when I wasn't watching. So she waited 3 days (me watching her like a hawk) until she finally went in the toilet. She is a once a day #2 girl so this was KILLING her by day three and including killing ME having to watch her!

Oh that alarm clock would have been dismantled immediately if it were in my house. Snoopy wouldn't even had made it to good will he would be officially dead. Sleep is ever so precious.
ps my mom has one of those colanders too. It is totally something that reminds me of my childhood too with my mom.
dude, I've never left such a long comment. It's not like I'm an expert at potty training either. I don't dare to train kai yet!

Melinda said...

Our colander was orange!!

Potty training - we still use diapers at night. Pull-ups cost too much and don't hold enough! Our little one thinks she doesn't need to wear them (diapers or pull-ups) so we end up putting them on her after she goes to bed.

With our oldest we would take him to the bathroom before we went to bed (he would only partially wake up but would go when told ). This really helped train him at night becuase he was such a heavy sleeper.

Good luck!

Maggie said...

Are you ready... 3...2...1... WAKE UP! Do you remember that grenade alarm clock our brothers had? Or the mickey mouse alarm clock that Mary and I shared "HI, GOOD MORNING, WAKE UP, WAKE UP!"

I also love those yellow colanders. If it makes Rob to sad to see it when you die, you can leave it to me in your will :)

klchristensen said...

Dear Flori
We have an egg cooker buzzer that dad hates and it will go off always during our morning family prayers as it tells us the eggs our done. The problem being you can hear it from anywhere in the house and it never stops until you turn it off. He threatens to get an new egg cooker for the only reason that he hates the buzzer. Funny the things that annoy us.
Like cleaning up accidents that didn't need to happen because we were just put on the toilet 2 minutes ago. Thanks for dealing with this at this time in your life. It doesn't last forever. In fact I can't even remember potting training Rob anymore.

Alison B said...

I would say don't use pullups, except for bedtime. that is what I did with my girls. It seems it was more confusing to them to have pullups. I say cold turkey with diapers, and then take a very hard week to just go every single half hour. whether she wants to or not, or whether she thinks she needs to. Or hour. whatever works. Every time she goes, she gets a juice box, so she'll have to go again soon. Maybe you are past this stage, but that is how i always started with my girls. I have no desire to potty train drew, though. He has no desire, either. :) Good luck! Keep us posted!

Alison B said...

BTW, I have some princess pullups if you want them. let me know.

kim said...

We had the yellow collander growing up, too. And I want to know what you are using yours for every dish load--I think I must be missing out on some great opportunities to pull ours out.