Santa Fe and other things

All blogs need a picture so here's one.

My parent's just left after a weekend visit--which makes me sad because nothing makes me miss people like when I realize I am surrounded by no (adult) people. Especially people that rent minivans and make dinner. And entertain children while you do silly things like research straw sippy cups for over two hours. We actually made a little side trip to Santa Fe. I liked Santa Fe, it felt like Park City, adobe style. Lots of older couples dressed in cowboy hats and shearling coats down to their ankles. I didn't take too many pictures though. We saw this miraculous staircase, then I read this website that made it sound not so miraculous. Theo was obsessed with the old basilica bells that rang every 15 minutes. Also, it was cold there. I have not felt cold since last June in Portland. It was weird.

After we came back to T or C, my parents offered to baby sit while we visited some hot spring mineral baths in town that are T or C's claim to fame. Besides feeling like I was going to pass out a lot, it was something I would do again.

Theo is amazing at potty training while traveling. I'm not really sure why, but he had no accidents during the trip. (Well, one 15 minutes away from home. So close!) I also read an entire new book on potty training and have completely changed my philosophy on the subject. Sometimes I forget that I have no younger siblings, and disliked babysitting growing up, so my practical mom knowledge is sparse. I research online for days about most topics, usually about actual items that have Amazon reviews and medical ailments, (see sippy cups above, still don't know what to buy) but vast parenting ones like sleeping and potty training leave me overwhelmed so I usually pick one of the first things I read and go for it. This almost always leaves me changing course halfway when I encounter problems and actually find the method that works better for us. Like Oprah says, when you know better, you do better. I knew this book was the one for me as it was almost 300 pages, tackles every aspect of the subject, and even answers the biggest question I had after all my research--when is your child actually considered "potty trained?" Three days seemed too good to be true (it is.). Plus she swears a lot, which I find funny and appropriate. Our biggest change was no more rewards for expected behavior, which has gone really well. I should have known never to write anything about potty training in the first place, knowing I would read the posts later and think, "Aack! I was so dumb." (Because I become Cathy when thinking about parenting woes--lots of sweat beads included.)  It was a big reason for not writing about Theo's sleep, plus I was in no mood to hear opinions on the subject when I was getting four hours of it, 45 minutes at a time. So now you can read it, and laugh at my feeble attempts to know what I'm doing. Poor first children. I guess the conception that they are favored comes from parents constantly being on the brink of screwing them up for life, then making up for it with guilt and cars when they turn sixteen.