Lots and lots of new things

We've had a lot of adventures lately here at the Carter house. I have begun to get bigger--slowly--and find myself slowing down and starting to let my house help do more of the work. This is an adventure since I write a recipe in French (not my first language) and she reads it in French (which is her third language) and then I usually either end up "fixing it" before its too late (like with yeast bread which I recently found not rising in the oven because it hadn't been kneaded and was still wet) or explaining to my husband what I think might have gone wrong, like with the scalloped potato casserole that turned into mashed potatoes last week. The trick is to figure out what she is good at and have her stick with those things. Like quick bread--she is really good at quick breads.



Ben has had several life changing experiences in the last two weeks. Experience number one was the potty. We started on Friday and by Tuesday discovered that he has an incredible ability to hold his pee pee. Unfortunately he refuses to "go" unless he has a diaper on. So this silly blond boy sits on the potty for over a 1/2 hour needing to go pee pee and holding it because he thinks its bad to go anywhere but in his diaper or training pants. Then, when he can't hold it anymore and it comes squirting out he cries and says "I have pee pee!" Similar situation with poo poo. He was holding it on Monday afternoon and crying and I didn't know what the problem was. He wanted to sit on my lap but we really can't do that anymore since I've got another baby on my lap--and suddenly he poops right onto the floor. Then he steps in it and starts to yell, "I have poo poo, I have poo poo." I couldn't help but laugh. We have cement floors so this is no problem at all. I just pick it up, toss it in the toilette and grab a mop. I'm thrilled to know that when he IS ready to go in the potty I don't need to worry about him peeing in the house. He also learned to wipe, flush, and wash his own hands this week. He is back in diapers however, until we can get him to understand that we want him to pee pee and poo poo in the toilette.



Besides the accomplishment of learning to wash his own hands, Ben has begun to sleep in a big boy bed. I started to think about doing this when I realized that he wouldn't fit in a pack n' play anymore--and since we will be traveling the whole month of August we would either need to stick him in a pack n' play or have him ready for a big boy bed. I figured I could at least give it a try and if it didn't work out I would put him back into his crib.



Day one, I sat on a mattress on the floor of his room at nap time for almost an hour before deciding that he needed to sleep more than he needed to sleep on a mattress. So I put him in his crib and before I could leave the room he climbed out and landed on his head. I was so freaked out (he was fine by the way) that I resolved never ever to put him in his crib ever again. Dave came in and I told him what happened and he was pretty sure Ben had learned his lesson--but I wasn't convinced and gave it another half hour. He fell asleep and didn't budge, didn't fall off the mattress, did just fine. We rigged up a mosquito net at bed time and now he has spent his first full night on the bed. Of course we had to pretend to go to sleep on his bedroom floor before he would close his eyes, but the noise of the rain outside was soothing and the ceiling fan felt pretty good. I was happy for the quiet time.



We've pretended to sleep next to Ben on lots and lots of floors, since he has had eight different bedrooms (qualified by anywhere we've stayed for at least one month) in his 22 months of life. Change is something he is used too, and it seems to get easier and easier but I think we feel like its getting easier because we are so used to helping him transition to new places and new beds. For Ben, changing bedrooms and beds is a one or two day transition process. Changing bath tubs, for some odd reason, can be a two week to two month transition. I'm not looking forward to bath time in August and September. Every time we've moved he has screamed through bath time for at least two weeks if not more!


Along with potty training and the big boy bed I've been asked about giving up the pacifier. As far as I'm conserned, this kid has enough crazy trama in his life. He moves every couple of months, plays with all kinds of different toys since his end up in boxes being shipped all over the world, changes climates and clothes and people and modes of transportation...that pacifier is his one steady object and I don't care if he wants to use it to sleep with until he is 10 years old. I think his next adventure might be wearing shoes--or another attempt at the potty...



And then there is Dave's latest adventure. Actually, since I started writing this blog several days ago, Dave had a huge adventure getting our passports back from a less than honest buisness man who was supposed to be transporting them back to us from Chad, where they were having our long term Chad visas processed. That is an amazing story that I could tell in person but could never do justice in writing. Lets just say that God is good and he will give us the strength to deal with whatever trials come our way.


What I will tell you about is Dave's lesson in Chicken prep. I've been taking advantage of my house helper here in Cameroon being a great teacher. I've asked Dada to teach me to do my laundry by hand (which came in handy durring potty training week) and make ech, this lovely flour bassed jello type stuff that the Africains around here eat as often as we eat bread, and other exciting things. I asked Dave to take care of learning to kill and clean a chicken. I told Dada I wanted him to learn and she asked, "what about you?" I just said--I have no interest in that. She seemed to respect that, maybe...