Gritty Diapers

Jon, Bonnie and family were just in town, and we were happy to meet up with them at the beach a few times during their California vacation. We’ve discovered that Kieran has developed a full-fledged phobia of the beach and that Haven’s favorite food is sand. I’m not sure why Kieran has developed this fear. He’s never had any traumatic experiences at the beach. Out of the blue he’s afraid of the “milk” (translation: frothy white waves), because it’s “too loud.” Consequently, he spent the majority of his beach time by himself about 20 yards behind us. Haven didn’t mind since it meant more sand for herself. Check out the slideshow for pictures.

Ryan is just about at midterms and seems to be holding up well under the grueling weight of his reading assignments. He’s been reading so much that his eyes become physically sore. He recently had a story published in a literary journal, Wanderings Magazine. You can check it out at http://www.wanderingsmag.com/fiction.html.

Grandma's Update:
The big news in Haven's world is that she cut her first tooth this past week. She graciously let me know it had arrived by chomping down on my finger. She's also begun pulling herself up to a standing position. Kieran finds her more and more interesting, which is dangerous for her since he likes to see her fall over like a sack of potatoes. She winces any time he's within a about a 5-foot radius of her. I guess it's the typical big brother/little sister stuff. (I vaguely remember assuming a defensive position every time Jon walked by me until he left on his mission.) Her current hobbies include cornering the cats, trying to eat everyone's food, and splashing in the tub.

Kieran's big news is that he's semi potty trained. The degree of his success is correlated directly to two variables: his degree of nudity and the quality of the reward. He was doing really well when I let him run around naked all day at home and while we had a supply of miniature Cars figurines to give him every time he used the potty. Once that supply was exhausted and once he began wearing clothes again, his dedication dwindled. He kindly offered to give back some of his figurines to bring back some of the initial potty-training excitement, and I took him up on the reward recycling offer.