I'm Too Sexy For My Shirt...

Snapped a couple of pictures of Carter in his "big boy underwear." It was almost a little scary how much he enjoyed posing for the camera in his underwear. We are trying to encourage the desire for potty training. Thought having him wear Lightening McQueen underwear would do the trick. After removing the diaper and putting on the underpants, we stuck by Carter's side and encouraged him to use the potty every 15 minutes or so. He refused to use his potty, stating that he didn't need to go. At one point both Ben and I left the room for a few seconds and Carter peed on Lightening. This was very upsetting for Carter. Now he doesn't want to wear the underwear for fear of wetting them. Hmm...that may have backfired.

We now have a sticker chart up next to his potty and is very interested in earning stickers for every successful trip to the potty. He knows that a certain number of stickers will earn him a new toy. Hopefully this will do the trick.

Euro Disney

Just back from Disney Land Paris. Despite the terrible weather and Ben coming down with the flu, we had a wonderful time. It was in the 40s and rainy for most of the weekend. If the weather had been warmer, we would have taken more pictures...but our poor little fingers were so cold that we didn't take the camera out much.

We saw many Disney characters and Carter had his picture taken with Goofy. Poor Carter was a little bit intimidated by the size of Goofy in "real-life." By far the best sighting was Lightening McQueen and Mater. Carter stood at close to them as the fence would allow and talked to them (and, no, they don't talk back). We eventually had to drag him away so that we could actually go on the "Radiator Springs" ride. We all loved the ride and immediately following we were able to snap this photo before they herded us away.

Two other ride favorites were the Flying Dumbo ride and Orbitron (a flying spaceship). Carter was so cute with the Orbitron ride. The first day he didn't want to go on it at all...he was too scared. On Day 2 he watched it for a long time but wasn't ready. He said "maybe tomorrow." Finally on Day 3, he was ready to go with Daddy. He loved it so much and when he was finished, he ran over to me and proudly said, "Mommy, I just rode in a space ship!!"


Ben was such a trooper. He came down with the flu and suffered with a fever for most of the weekend. Despite his body aches, he still carried Carter on his shoulders and took him on rides. Like most of Europe, you can't get Tylenol without a trip to the Apothecary to convince the pharmacist that you are in dire need. And at Disney Land, the only option is to go to the Park's First Aid station and talk to a doctor. Fortunately my boss and his family were also at Disney and had some Tylenol with them. So we learned our lesson, never leave home without a healthy stash of Tylenol in our luggage.


At the end, Carter didn't want to leave (of course!). I imagine that we'll be taking another trip to EuroDisney at some point...hopefully I'll pick a time when we'll have better weather. The rest of the pics from our trip can be found here.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everybody. This is a special holiday here at the Gale household. Seven years and one week ago a bunch of us were at a party and we started talking about what to do on St. Patty's day the following Saturday. We all decided to meet at Connor O'Neill's in Ann Arbor. Well, as luck would have it, everybody either left town or came up with something else to do. In the end it was Carla, me, and several gallons of Guinness. One thing let to another and - somehow - going back to Carla's place to "take a nap" turned into married with a kid. I still think our friends planned it.

Today we are celebrating by going over to a friends house after work for Shepherd's pie and Guinness (pints not gallons).

Internet Service Returning

We should have home internet service (and phones) again on Tuesday, March 25. Web-cam enabled grandparents can expect web chat sessions again on Sunday, March 30.

We are heading to DisneyLand Paris this Friday for the long Easter weekend. I have told Carter that we are visiting Mickey's House. His response, "We're going to the clubhouse?" For those of you without children, there is a TV show called Mickey Mouse Clubhouse that is Carter's favorite. You should have seen the excitement in his eyes when Ben then told him that Lightening McQueen was going to be at Mickey's house, too.

Happy Easter/Spring