Theo Goes Potty: An EC Update

It's been 3 months since I started doing elimination communication with Theo.  We haven't really picked up in our frequency of practicing it, and I'm still rarely willing to let Theo go completely without a diaper.  Still, I feel like I've made some big improvements in understanding Theo's elimination needs, and he's started making a distinct grunt to signal his needs to me.  Really, this is what EC is all about.  It's not about the number of "catches" you make, or even necessarily about letting your baby go without diapers, it's about the bonding experience you have with your baby and learning more about his or her needs.

With that in mind, we've made big strides within the past three weeks.  Theo is now pooping in his potty, instead of just peeing in it.  He's now sitting up mostly on his own, and can therefore sit on his potty, without having to be held in place.  He really likes his bECOPotty, and he'll sometimes kick at it and reach for it when he wants to go.

Crawfish Boil

This year we celebrated Memorial Day weekend with a crawfish boil.  Our children even got to see BOTH sets of grandparents this weekend, and it was fun having my parents over for the weekend. A few pictures from the event:

Beautiful Live Crawfish Waiting for the Boiler

Fee Turned her Crawfish into a Finger Puppet

Theo Ate Crawfish Too!

And good times were had by all!

Around the Homestead

Gardening is in full now.  I must get the weeds out of the okra.  The soil is decent at best, but certainly not great.  Tomatoes are doing well.  We even have a few blooms.  There are blooms on our lemon tree too.  This week I transplanted some cucumber plants.  We have to water every day!  Damn, this drought!

Mr. M. brought his tractor over to build us a front yard.  He almost ran over a killdeer nest, but he's an experienced East Texas farmer.  He knew to look for a nest when he saw the bird pretending to be injured.

The R's across the street gave Fee a bunny for Easter. She named him "Rat" because she has an ironic sense of humor.  In the mornings she helps me care for him by refilling the water in his cage--a simple chore for a two year old girl.  I hope this teaches her a little responsibility, and the importance of caring for living things.  The R's  also built us a giant rabbit hutch.  This will be for meat rabbits in the future, but "Rat" is distinctly marked as a pet.  When we get our meat rabbits, we will have to explain the difference for Fee.  I think she'll understand.

While I'm mentioning the R's:  Mr. R. was over here dropping off some pastured eggs, and discussing various matters with PK's parents.  It turns out his peahens had laid some eggs under a pine tree at the front of our property.  The R's now have 4 peahen eggs in an incubator.  I hope they hatch.  One can make a lot of money selling peacocks, and I'm sure Fee would enjoy seeing the babies.

But do the Lords of War in fact
hate the world? That would be easy
to bear, if so. If they hated
their children and the flowers
that grow in the warming light,
...that would be easy to bear. For then
we could hate the haters
and be right. What is hard
is to imagine the Lords of War
may love the things that they destroy.

Wendell Berry, X, from Sabbath 2003, from Given