We had a breakthrough yesterday! Allison was playing in her room, bouncing on her bed, and she stopped and took herself to the bathroom for a poopie! Yippee! I almost didn't even notice except I went to check on her because she stopped bouncing and was quiet! There is a light at the end of the tunnel! She's been doing better at daycare and school to take herself in to go pottie, but we didn't know how much of that was a scheduling/timing thing for her or a realization that she should go to the bathroom to stay dry. I was so excited I almost threw her a party!

The weather has been so nice on weekends lately, I have gotten in a rush for real Spring! Yesterday, I picked up a flat of pansies to plant, and a mini-greenhouse to start some seeds for the garden. I have tried starting seeds before, and it was a colossal fail, so I am a little anxious about this try. I know what I am doing this afternoon!



The pansies will go out in the pool area flower pots. When the boys were helping me clean up out there a few weeks ago, they dumped all the dirt out with the old plants, so I got more potting soil yesterday, and some more bark to put out in the area off the patio. I picked up 4 cubic feet of each - we'll see how much more I need! (Those bags were heavy!) I am so ready to put in other plants, but that is about all that is available at the stores right now. I need to stop by the nursery after church to see what they have, but....it is still early. The pansies won't last too long around here anyway!

I did a check last week on my front flower bed, and it is in pretty good shape. The Dusty Miller was nipped back by the cold weather, so I need to see if it will come back, but the lavender was already blooming, the columbine is putting out a new flower bud, and the pincushion plant and potato bush are both okay. I don;t know if my _____ (forgot the name - the one ones up against the fence) (Now I remember - Hollyhocks!) will bloom again this year or not. They bloomed last year, and I don't know if they bloom every other year. or if it is just the first year they don't bloom. I need to do some serious weed control in that bed - the grass came through the mulch we put in. I'm hoping to get Ralph to spray it with weed-killer when he sprays the rest of the yard area. I'm so ready for Spring! Maybe next year, I'll plant bulbs so they come up in the spring! (I say that every year around this time, and then by the time it is time to plant bulbs, I am burned out with playing in the yard.)