The Brookston Family Blog
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This morning before school, Porter was watching me on the computer and saw some of the blog pictures. When he saw the photo that I posed yesterday of him and Buster on the school bus, he exclaimed “there’s Joey!” So I guess his name isn’t Buster but Joey. There was a Joey in a previous class Porter was in but he insisted this was not the same Joey. But it’s pretty cool that he knows his name. That implies that the level of conversation progressed far enough that he knew his name.

Porter, of course, took his favorite train, Gordon, with him to school. But Alice didn’t seem to notice the difference yet, when I gave her Edward as a substitute while she watched “The Best of Gordon” DVD (her choice) and played with Edward and a tunnel. She’s getting to be quite a train fan.

Alice and Edward.

Setting up the tunnel.

Edward’s coal car went through the tunnel first, followed by Edward a few minutes later.

Alice was lying in Sarah’s arms this morning in such a way as to suggest she might now appreciate the bean bag chair. So we pulled it out and sat her in it. She seemed very comfortable in it and sat quite still (which is unusual in the extreme) for a long period of time. When Porter saw her sitting in it, he of course wanted it to be his turn, but we told him he had to wait.

Alice in the bean bag chair, as Porter impatiently waits for his turn.

A few months ago I got Porter this pirate-themed bathtub toy at Costco. One of its features was a cannon that squirts water from the bathtub by means of a plastic tube attached to a squeeze rock that you hold under water to fill with “ammunition.” Porter never seemed to quite grasp how it worked. He could make it squirt but not consistently. It was hit or miss, so to speak. But over the last week, he’s figured out how to squirt water with it alarming consistently. Now he’s no longer using the cannon. Instead he’s aiming the plastic tube … at me! And more often then not, he’s hitting me with a burst of water. He can make it shoot clear across the bathroom and out into the hallway, which is about five or six feet. He’s having a great time. I’m just getting wet. So it was with some amusement that last night while playing around with the squirter I watched as he accidently and unexpectedly tagged himself in the face.

Alice in the tub, oblivious to the fact that Porter just squirted himself in the face.

While looking at a friend’s site, who plays my photo scavenger hunt, I noticed a cool little java applet she had on her photoblog. So I looked into it and added one here. It lists the location of the last ten visitors, though I changed it to the last twenty-five. It’s fun to see where people are coming from. Take a look, you may see your own city and country. It’s on the left column almost at the bottom directly under the site meter. If you click on one of the location links, it takes you to a google map with pins in it showing you where all the places are that people are visting from.

Today’s tasks are fairly easy I’m happy to say. Keep doing what I’ve been doing, that’s job one. My big task for the day is to read. I think I can handle that one. I’m supposed to poke around on the FlyLady website and read testimonials and other stuff there. I also discovered while working on my “Control Journal” (which is really just a master schedule) that I also have daily “missions.” I guess I’m bringing cleanliness (which is, of course, next to godlessness) to the savage and wild environs of my house. Converting the heathen dirt, as it were, to the purity that only being clean can bring. See, I told you it’s a cult of sorts.