Red letter day

It's been an up and down day for everyone.

Kathleen, my mother-in-law, had hoped to receive checks from Hugh's two son's in the mail today. These checks will cover the first two months of his stay in an Alzheimers/Dementia residence facility, which cost about $3,000 a month (and this is the cheap one with a shared room). The checks didn't arrive. She's at the end of her rope, so this was devastatingly disappointing news.

For me, it was a great day. The Baby finally peed in his potty. He turns three at the end of July and I had started to wonder if he would have to go into Depends if he didn't start using the damn thing soon. The cheesy Potty Training DVD from Target might have been worth the $12.99 I paid for it.

Then again, there's the flip side of the story. Earlier in the day I had to stop Hugh from peeing in the Baby's room--something new. Tonight he refused to go to the bathroom by himself. Kathleen asked me if I had rubber sheets for their bed. Unfortunately, I don't, and their bed is also our living room futon/couch.

No napkin eating tonight. Hugh slept through his dinner, and later I followed him around the house feeding him bites of cherry danish off a fork. He did move furniture and area rugs all over the place; try to pick the flowers off the couch, and was really bothered by the grout between the bathroom tiles.

The Baby had a melt-down right before naptime and screamed and cried his way to bed. Later on he ran circles around Hugh, who told him "Oh, be quiet!"

I'm quite looking forward to everyone going to bed, having a big glass of wine, and watching a cheery show like Mad Men.