Refinanced and Charlie-proofed.

We finally refinanced our mortgage today; we are saving over $200 a month. We rolled our variable rate home equity line of credit into our fixed rate mortgage so we are saving between $210 and $280 per month depending on what the variable interest rate home equity line was doing (some months the minimum payment was as low as $100, others as high as $170.)

We also had a contractor come in over the past couple days and put a banister on top of the 1/2 wall on the third floor so that Charlie can no longer potentially fling himself to his death. We just have to stain it to match the wood trim on the wall. Here is the unstained but otherwise finished product:


So all in all a productive Monday.

Potty Training Update

The potty training is going as well as can be expected, I think. Charlie is an expert pee-er on the potty, not implying of course that he actually *asks* to go, ever, but if you put him on the potty he will pee! He also, I have discovered, will pee on the kitchen floor and the bedroom floor but atleast he comes and gets me after said incidents: "Mommy! I peed on the floor! I PEED ON THE FLOOR!!"

There also, I hear, was a traumatic poop incident this morning, that from what I gather involved poop in some very unfortunate places, but neither one of my boys will talk about the incident so it leaves me to only wonder.

Modeling

CHARLIE: "Bye Mommy!"
ME: "Where are you going?"
CHARLIE: "I going to Dunkin Donuts to get a coffee and a bagel sandwhich!"

The Butterfly Place

We took Charlie to the Butterfly Place in Westford today; he enjoyed watching the butterflies from a distance and would have liked to see the fish pond up close, but had a good time nonetheless. Here are some not so good pictures taken with my rapidly expiring camera:

Armed and Ready...

We went out tonight and bought Charlie 12 pairs of underpants and 4 extra pairs of sweatpants, as well as a new potty seat. We are gearing up to go "cold turkey" on Monday! Wish us luck that we will be done with diapers soon!!

A Present

The summer clothes I ordered last week came in the mail today; they were discovered by Mike and Charlie as they came in the door. Charlie was beside himself with excitement. "A present!!" he shrieked as he came running in the door. "Mommy, you have a PRESENT!! I open it? I open it? I open it?" Then, after clawing the package open, "A pillow! You have a PILLOW!!"

"It's a dress," I corrected him.

"A DRESS!! A PRETTY DRESS!! MOMMY HAS A PRETTY DRESS!!!"

Just imagine if the package had actually been for *him*...

Dinosaur Days

This is the title of Charlie's new favorite book. He can pretty much recite along with it: "In the day of the dinosaurs there were no people. There were no cats or dogs. There were no cows or horses. What animals were there?" Here Charlie pipes up: "There were turtles! Fish! Crocodiles! And dragonflies!" When a giant crocodile is shown snapping its jaws at a chicken-sized dinosaur, Saltopus, Charlie screams: "THE GIANT CROCODILE IS TRYING TO EAT SALTOPUS!!! AAAAAAAAAH!!!!"

Sometimes I wonder about the appropriateness of this type of reading material before bed, but he just loves dinosaurs... And crocodiles... And sharks...