The little man started spelling his name like a champ. Sorry if I already shared this video somewhere. It's been too long since I've blogged, obviously, and it's all a blur. I love hearing him spell out his name. So cute! And let's face the facts - we gave him a special spelling, so it's probably a good thing he is learning to spell it early. He will be correcting people the rest of this life, unfortunately.
After coming home from church one day and finding Dodger "stuck" behind the gate on the lower level, we learned that Dodger has apparently learned to face his fear of jumping from heights and was jumping through the railing to the couch below. Then he was stuck. For who knows how long.
This became annoying really quick. Even when we were home, he would toss his toys or a sock down to the lower level, jump through, then whine for us to help him back up. SO obnoxious! We still haven't come up with a real solution. We have talked a lot about turning that railing into a half wall. I know it would close things off - which would stink, but at the same time, I think it would help define the different spaces. Besides, with it being a railing, that whole section is useless upstairs. We can't put furniture there or anything. Any thoughts? In the mean time, we have blocked the railing off with cardboard. Super classy.
I finally let Pierscen ride in one of the truck grocery carts and he loved it. Of course. Now it's the only one he wants to ride in, but at least he has been good if I tell him no. They are a pretty big pain to steer. Worse than most carts.
The biggest adventure of the month was losing our water. The temperature dropped down to the -20s for about a week solid. The first night it happened, we woke to find we had no water. We did everything we could to try and fix the problem ourselves, but it turned out that it was the water main that had frozen - nothing inside.
Trying to find someone to fix it was a nightmare. Ryan called about every company in the city and there was only ONE that was willing to try. Mostly because no one has the equipment needed to do it. The city thought that they could help, but when they came out and realized that it was frozen somewhere between the street and house, they said, "Good luck."
As luck would have it - and three days without water later, we finally had a company come out (on the weekend - so we had to pay emergency rates) and went to work. It took them almost four hours, but they were finally able to break up the ice and get the water flowing again. When they did, the water came through REALLY dirty. Their guess was that this may have actually resulted from some road work that was done out in front of our house a few months ago. It's possible that a dirt clod - turned ice chunk, lodged itself in our pipes. No way to really prove it, except that they weren't able to get our water flowing again until they trying clearing the pipe leading out into the street. THAT's when it finally broke free and we got water again. So yeah, it's probably the construction companies fault. Nightmare. Anyway, it was a relief to have water again.
Until two days later... when it froze again. ?!?!?!
This time the city and the plumbing company came out together to tag team clearing the line to our house and the line out in the street. Once we had water flowing again, we left a faucet running 24/7 for probably close to 2 months. No risking it. It was better to pay for the water than for the cost of the plumbing company.
Lessons learned and the miracle behind it all: Water really should be part of food storage! I know they talk about it, but I don't know about you - but I don't think about it that often. Thank goodness, Ryan purchased a 50 gallon drum last summer that we filled. We used that to flush toilets and dishes primarily and then I bought some drinking water. Yes, we could have used the drum water to drink, but it tastes pretty plasticy. Anyway - have water on hand guys! You never know when you will need it! Secondly, we received a tax refund this year and when it came down to it, it was almost to the penny what he had to pay for the plumbing. So not what we had hoped to use it for - but I am SO grateful it didn't come out of our pockets!
Discipline has been an adventure - trying to find something that Pierscen understands and takes seriously. Time out seems to work the best. I had to snap this picture though just to show his personality. Even in time out he is trying to show who is boss. "I may be in time out, but you can't make me look at the corner." Hahaha. Thankfully, he isn't in that corner too often. He has put himself there for reasons unknown, but he is a great boy most of the time.
Of course, I can't post about February without mentioned Valentine's Day. Ryan told me to stay in bed for a bit while he went to get Pierscen out of bed. When P came into the room, this is what I saw:
Isn't that the cutest thing ever? He brought me a card, half an orange (he ate the other half before he could make it to the room) and the flowers - yes, they were in his mouth just like that! So, so cute! I love my sweet, thoughtful boys.
The pictures below are just showing off his blue tongue after getting a sucker at Home Depot and also showcasing the puppy "mask" he made in nursery. Pretty cute.
It was a good month with lessons learned. Hopefully we never have our pipes freeze like that again, and if anyone has suggestions on what to do with that railing, feel free to comment!
And here's our fearless little man! We put his training toilet on the 4th stair just to prevent him from trying to jump from there. The height isn't the issue so much as the distance is. I don't think he could clear it. Sometimes I think this boy will give me a heart attack, but I also love that he is willing to try just about anything.
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