CORA'S FIRST STEPS

After all the showing off Cora did over the weekend, we decided to move the furniture around tonight and create an easy opportunity for Cora to start thinking about taking a step or two between furniture. We figured some encouragement would help get things moving, but we were still surprised when she started taking 3-4 steps at a time! I didn't catch the first (or the best) on video, but you can get the idea:

I guess I better find my Baby Doll some summer sandals to fit her tiny feet...

DAYCARE POTTY INITIATION

Day 1 at daycare was touch and go...

This morning he woke up dry again (AWESOME!), but again would not go pee for us (although he was perfectly willing to sit on the potty for a minute). He stayed dry in the car (though we did prepare for an accident, just in case, by lining his carseat with one of our little waterproof lap pads - which have been just sitting unused in our closet since Cora was a newborn). When we got to daycare we introduced him to the boy's bathroom and sat him up on one of the toilets (with one of their little seat converters like we've been using at home). Twice. He wouldn't pee either time, and wasn't thrilled with being there. He did, however, think that washing his hands in the short sinks was cool. We didn't want to push it though, so we passed him off to his teacher with instructions on how to remind him to tell her if he needed to pee and what his pee-pee dance looks like so she could watch for it.

They started off by sending him to go potty with the K2 class (they go every 30-40 minutes). He'd sit on the potty when the other kids did, but not go pee. At 9:35 (an hour and a half after being dropped off and over 2 hours from when he woke up), he had an accident. After the accident, his teacher cleaned him up and they tried sending him with K2 again on their next trip. No luck. Or the next time. And when he still wouldn't go before lunch, they worried about naptime... But he slept all 2 hours and stayed dry!

After nap his K1 teacher decided to take him herself (getting someone else to watch her room), BUT he wouldn't go for her either. Though he did apparently like sitting there and talking to her and playing with the toilet paper roll. She tried 5 times this afternoon, and finally, at 3:30, he made a full deposit (and got some M&Ms as reward)! Whoo-hoo!! He had gone up to his teacher and yelled "Mommy Mommy!" while grabbing himself, so she rushed him in and used my tricks (talking about the pee-pees). I was so happy when she texted me about that success that I nearly cried! (We were getting so worried about him holding it all day like that!) He was so proud of himself! The other kids gave him high-fives, and he was BEAMING. After that, his best buddy in his class started telling his mom (the teacher) "James potty. Me go potty!" She may be training him sooner than she'd planned!

And tonight, at 7:00, following a few false alarms (apparently gas feels the same as poop to a potty training toddler), he TOLD Jay that he had to pee-pee, then went. And made another full deposit! TOTALLY AWESOME!!

We were hoping to get him to go once more before bed, and he sat, but he didn't go. Maybe he was all out though, since we cut off his liquids after dinner (6:45/7:00, like we've been doing for about 2 weeks now in preparation for training). Hopefully he'll stay dry yet again tonight, and hopefully he'll have an even better day tomorrow. You know, for it only being his 4th day training, I'd say that 3 pee-pees all day and only ONE being an accident is pretty darn impressive! WAY TO GO Bub Bubs!!

CORA'S NEW WORD

PT BOOTCAMP: DAY 3

Ah, Day 3, how we looked forward to you!

It was a better day, for sure. Not GREAT, and not EASY, of course, but MUCH better!

To start, James woke up dry again! Jay took him to the potty and he wouldn't go more than a few drops, but at least he didn't put up a fight. He drank just as much fluids today, but we had far less pee-pees overall (only 6 times today) and only HALF of those were accidents. James went 2 more times on the potty this afternoon and gave full deposits. And he was dry throughout his 2 hour nap again!

The trick for James turned out to be a bit less on the reminders (we only told him every 5 minutes or so today) and a bit more on forcing potty trips based on his body language. When we saw him do the pee-pee dance, we'd remind him to "Tell Mama when you need to pee-pee". The second time he did it, we reminded him again and told him to keep his undies dry. On the 3rd time, we scooped him up and said "James is doing the pee-pee dance because he has to use the potty. Lets go use the potty". (This all happened very quickly, obviously. It's not like we let him walk around needing to go for 10 minutes.) And we sat him up on the big potty, positioned ourselves right in front of him on that little stool, and talked to him about it. We told the pee-pee to "come out" and "lets go". We watched for it. We asked "Pee-pees, where are you?" and anything else we could think of to get James thinking about peeing (and not about getting down off the potty). We made the "psssss" noise. We encouraged him to squeeze it out. And he loved imitating all this, of course. I hope he isn't the only kid at daycare tomorrow making sound effects while he urinates...

You heard that right. Daycare. I considered staying home with him one more day tomorrow to be sure he's "got it", but in all honesty, I think daycare will be good for him. He can start going with the K2 class and will be able to see that the other kids go, and are happy to do so and are proud of themselves. We think it will help things click for him even faster. Hopefully the overnight dryness will continue, and hopefully BM training will soon follow (he didn't go at all yesterday, and didn't go today until late this evening after his bath, while walking around in his fresh undies - oh well, I just followed the method and did the same thing I did yesterday - he was a little upset about it, poor guy).

We're going all-or-nothing with this. No more diapers. No pull-ups or cloth training pants (at least, not yet - though we have ordered some to use for long car trips and plane rides). Tomorrow he goes to daycare in his undies and we have a talk with them about watching for his pee-pee dance and not treating him like a baby anymore (no more laying him down for "changes" - dirty undies are changed standing up only). The 3-day method is tough, but it's effective. It will be a while before he's accident-free, but he KNOWS when he has to go. Sometimes he tells us with words and other times just with body language. He's willing to go on the potty (and having him talk to his "pee-pees" has helped a LOT). These are BIG points of progress in our book. We may have had to tweak the method a bit to make it work for James, but we did it, and I'm proud of us ALL for surviving this weekend!

Of course, we are totally exhausted. Potty training is emotionally and physically tiring. Constant vigilance is hard work. You want them to succeed SO badly, and it's difficult not to blame yourself when they don't. Toddlers are heavy to keep running to the potty every 10 minutes. Entertaining a 2-year-old in the house for 3 days straight requires LOTS of running around the kitchen, horsey rides, mama/daddy jungle gyms, creative coloring, and lots of TV. Oh my goodness, James has never watched this much TV in his life. How do we know? Because for the first time ever he is reciting commercials. As sad as that is, it totally cracked us up as we were fast-forwarding through commercials while watching WALL-E for the umpteenth time today and accidentally stopped in the middle of the Hot Pockets Side Pockets commercial, and James beat them to the punchline "Hooooot Pockets!" So yeah, I think we're all ready to change things up tomorrow. I'm looking forward to spending the day in the solitude of my office. Where is does not smell of urine.

CORA THE EXPLORER

My friend Dawn told me last week that she and her son Coltin call Cora "Cora the Explorer" because she's always roaming around daycare with the director or getting into (and onto) everything in her room (or sneaking into the infant room). I had to laugh when I heard that. And of course, I totally get what she's saying. So when I turned around this afternoon after pouring James another sippy cup to find Cora IN the refrigerator, I figured I'd snap a picture and share the story.

PT BOOTCAMP: DAY 2

While Day 1 could easily have been likened to H E double hockey sticks, Day 2 only reminded us of the volcano scene at the end of Lord of the Rings. No, I'm not being dramatic. We knew potty training would be hard. We knew it wouldn't be fun. But we WERE excited, and we honestly had no idea it would be THIS hard and THIS frustrating. The 3-day method has 6 main principles, and 5 of them are easy: love, consistency, dedication, positive reinforcement, and focus. The hard one is patience. Hard hard HARD!

But let's start with some good news, shall we? James slept ALL NIGHT LONG and kept his undies (and thus his bed) dry. ALL NIGHT LONG. There aren't even enough ways to say 'awesome' to describe our happiness when we woke up this morning. One of the many reasons we had thought James was ready to potty train was that he was waking up dry in the morning. And we were SO worried when we put him to bed at 8:00 last night (he passed out on the couch immediately, since he was exhausted from skipping his nap), because he hadn't gone pee since 7:10 and we figured that meant he'd be wet in a matter of minutes. Well, he wasn't. We checked on him at 9:00. And 9:30. And 10:30. And that's when I snapped a photo and headed to bed.

When he woke up at 7:00 this morning, dry and happy, Jay took him straight to the potty. Nothing. I wandered downstairs with Cora about 15 minutes later. We couldn't get James to sit at the table for anything, so he walked around eating his breakfast cookie. And he requested both juice and milk with his breakfast. He normally drinks a lot, so the upkeep of his "fluid intake" has not been a problem at all.

After 2 hours passed with no accident (and no pee in the potty either), we KNEW he was holding it. And there was nothing we could do about it, other than continue to offer fluids and keep reminding him to tell us when he needed to pee. At that point, we started asking around for suggestions, since we figured he was either scared of the potty, or just flat-out rejecting it. We received some great ideas (including letting him put stickers on the potty to make it more friendly), but none of them worked. After another hour went by, he finally had an accident. A big one. On the couch. But since he managed to dribble the end of it in the potty, he got an M&M. A half hour later, he had a big accident while standing at the door, begging to go outside (I had made the mistake of using the word "walk" when talking about Cora and her mobility). 15 minutes later, he did it again in the same place. This whole time he was throwing a HUGE LONG tantrum, and there was nothing we could do to distract him or make him happy. At 11:30 and 12:00 he dribbled in his bed (we were playing in his room). He refused to sit at the table for lunch, and we finally figured out that he was rejecting his booster seat because he'd peed in it yesterday (maybe associating it with his potty seat?), so we sat him in a chair next to Jay and we managed to get some food in him. Not much, but some.

He napped from 1:10-3:40 and stayed dry the whole time!

He wouldn't get on the potty when he woke from his nap though. By 4:10 he was doing the pee-pee dance, crossing his legs and holding himself, but still refusing the potty. So we put him on anyway, up on the big potty (for a change of pace), then distracted him with a cup of warm water. Which we had him pour down his front. While the bath water was running hard and loud in the background. And he finally peed. Not a ton. Little bits in spurts and starts. But it was something! We celebrated big time. We wiped him dry with adult toilet paper and he flushed it down. We gave him a few M&Ms, and the bigger reward of a sucker ("Mmmm, deLISHious!"). He was SO happy and proud of himself. And we felt SO relieved that we'd finally had a bit of pee go into the potty (first time ever for James!) So at 4:45, following another pee-pee dance, we did the same routine. More M&Ms. At 5:25 and 5:35 he peed on the potty without the water running (or needing to play with water himself). And lo-and-behold, at 5:45, he let us know he needed to pee, got up on the potty without a fight, and peed. Oh my, how we loved the progress made this afternoon!The above scene is our new setup in the bathroom. James uses the big potty. Mama or Daddy sits in front of him to talk and encourage and show him his pee-pees. Elmo uses the little potty. And everyone is happy. We're far from finished with this process, of course, but we had another 5-10 successful trips to the potty (I stopped counting because they were so close together) before bedtime (again, most initiated with a small accident or leak, but still). By 8:30, he was still wide awake, so we put him to bed as usual (since that's his cutoff time). Not 5 minutes later, he was opening his door saying "pee pee". So I took him to the potty. And Jay went in to check his bed. SOAKED. Oh well, it was bound to happen. He tried to pee on the potty, but he had nothing left. So back to bed he went (luckily, we had stacked his sheets and waterproof pads for easy fixin'). After another 5-10 minutes, he was at the door again, so we visited the potty again. His bed was still dry. Potty was unsuccessful again. So back to bed he went again. Only this time he wouldn't stay in bed. Every time I tried to lay him down he cried for the potty. Knowing he didn't need to go, I held him and walked him around his room, swaying to his ni-night music. After 20 minutes of that, my back was SORE (32 lbs is a LOT to carry, especially at the end of a very long day), so I gave up and went to lay on the couch with him. Finally, at 10:00, he passed out and I took him back to bed. I guess time will tell if he has another dry night...

Tomorrow is Day 3. Sure hope today's lessons stick and we don't have to fight with him about trips to the potty. And sure hope we start having less accidents. Either way, we feel good enough about today that we're sticking with the method. Diapers are gone. Come Tuesday, he goes to daycare in his undies. And we'll just work through the transition as best we can. We know his teacher and director are very supportive. And we're learning that support is the best (and most important) thing you can give your child during this time. We can do this!

ROAD RAGIN' CORA

While big brother fought his nap this afternoon, Sissy had a grand time playing with his dump truck (she had napped earlier in the day). Though road rage did get the better of her a few times. However, she can correct her unfortunate situations a bit better than he could (even though he was 2 months older). And check out her walking skills - any day now, I tell ya!

(Disclaimer: This video is LONG. But it is hilarious. If you like laughing at little frustrated babies.)

PT BOOTCAMP: DAY 1

This morning we started the 3-day potty training method. Or what we've fondly been calling "Potty Training Bootcamp" (in our attempts to psych ourselves up for it). It was a rough day, I'll be honest. We started things off at 9:00am, after breakfast (and after Grandma left). We changed him into his undies, explained to him where his potty was and what it was for, then had him help us pack up all his diapers and take them up to Sissy's room, for the baby (since he is a big boy now). And then we started in with the reminders "Tell Mama and Daddy when you need to pee-pee" and "Keep your undies dry". We said one phrase or the other (or both) every 2-4 minutes ALL DAY LONG. After 12 hours of training, we had 15 accidents, 0 successes, and 0 naps. Here's the breakdown for those who are interested (and for my record-keeping, of course - kinda reminds me of James' first 2 weeks of life, when I had to record every nursing session, wet diaper, and bowel movement - ah, memories...)

09:00 AM We put him in undies

09:40 AM Peed behind the curtains in his bedroom (we should have known he was hiding for a reason)

10:05 AM Peed on the rug in front of the TV (this was the one time during the day when we got him to the potty fast enough for him to dribble a bit into the potty, so he got an M&M, even though he yelled "No potty!" and jumped up as quickly as he could manage with his undies around his ankles)

10:10 AM Watched the Dinosaur Train episode "Every Dinosaur Poops" and replayed the song at the end 3 times

10:30 AM Peed on the rug in the bathroom

10:50 AM Peed behind his train table (he said "pee" as he was doing it, so we were able to get him to the potty before he finished, but he still yelled "No potty!" and wouldn't go - at this point we draped the curtains up high and moved the train table so that he couldn't hide behind it anymore)

11:00 AM Peed in his closet (again with the hiding... if only we had locks for those closet doors!)

12:20 PM Peed on my computer chair (while I was sitting next to him, so I got soaked too)

01:30 PM Peed while sitting at his picnic table

01:35 PM Peed again at the picnic table (this was his first BIG accident of the day)

02:15 PM Peed at the kitchen table while sitting in his booster seat (another BIG accident)

02:17 PM Peed while standing in front of the aquarium

03:15 PM Peed in the hall (after a self-induced trip to the potty, in which no pee was deposited)

05:00 PM Peed in the sunroom (that was a LONG run to the potty, and another BIG accident, in which most of it ended up on Jay)

05:15 PM Pooped in the sunroom (he had been telling me "poop" and we tried the potty twice with no success, but as soon as we went back to the sunroom he walked away from me, then walked back over and said "sowwy", so I rushed him back to the potty - I followed the method and dumped his poop into his potty as I sat him down, and when he wouldn't go anymore, I cleaned him up and showed him his poop, then had him help me dump it into the toilet and flush it away, saying "bye-bye poop", and then I gave him an M&M)

07:05 PM Went into the bathroom and shut the door, then peed through his undies onto the floor while standing near the door

07:10 PM Peed on the floor in front of the fireplace

For the record, we tried to take him to the potty twice before bed, but he wouldn't go pee either time. Although he did willingly sit for 15 seconds...

POINTS OF FRUSTRATION:

1) The many false alarms (asking to go pee-pee or poop, then refusing to sit on the potty, or sitting on the potty for 10 seconds then declaring "All done!" and jumping up to run away)

2) The false alarms that we're sure were ploys to avoid naptime (every SINGLE time we tried to lay him down this afternoon he'd yell "pee-pee!" or "poop!")

3) Not being able to let him play on his own (the method requires you to be within a few feet of the trainee ALL DAY LONG, and we're so used to letting James just do his thing, playing with him while we do other things, and there is NO multitasking to be done using this training method)

4) The hiding (we feel bad that he needs to go and KNOWS he needs to go, but doesn't want to use the potty and doesn't want us to see him have an accident)

(Yes, he's eating a corndog on the living room floor. Don't judge. It's been a heck of a day.)

Honestly, the hardest part about today was his skipped naptime and the battle we had in trying to get him to take one. He was exhausted, we were exhausted, yet he just wouldn't give in. That was when we made our second pot of coffee and did some serious breathing. And while we know we have a long way to go with him still, there are a few things that are spurring us forward and keeping our hopes up about this 3-day process:

POINTS OF PROGRESS:

1) He tells us when he needs to pee-pee or poop (he just doesn't want to go in the potty yet)

2) He will go into the bathroom to pee-pee (just not in the potty yet, rather, he pees on the floor through his undies)

3) He apologizes when he dirties his undies

4) He was willing to sit on the potty when asked at the end of the day before bed

Tomorrow is another day. And some kids get it on Day 2. Please hope along with us that James is one of those kids. For now, I'm going to bed!

IT'S POTTY TIME!

Folks, please keep us in your prayers this weekend. Pray for our strength. Our patience. And our sanity. Tomorrow we start Potty Training Bootcamp! It's gonna be a Potty Party!

We are fully stocked with the self-proclaimed Potty Training Queen's bootcamp essentials... a little potty chair, 20 pairs of undies, t-shirts, plenty of fluids and fiber-filled snacks, waterproof mattress pads and extra sheets, Clorox wipes, some "silent" rewards, and a couple bigger rewards.

Wow. That's a lot of underwear...Very tiny underwear. And oh MAN are they ever cute! (James picked the packs of Thomas the Train and the sharks and motorcycles himself)

Tomorrow morning we commence training after breakfast. Wish us luck!

"MY PUPCAKES! MY COLORS!"

My aunt Margie sent me an awesome recipe for a rainbow cake about 9 months ago and I've been dying to try it! Then we decided that Cora's 1st birthday party will have a rainbows and sunshine theme, making it the perfect opportunity to make such a colorful cake. But I don't feel like making a cake. I prefer cupcakes. And cupcakes are more kid-friendly anyway. So James and I did a trial run last night. It was his first time "helping" in the kitchen, and he loved it. He was very protective of his "pupcakes" and "colors"...

I made half of them rainbow up, and the other half rainbow down:

Pretty enough not to need frosting. Of course, I HAVE to have frosting. Homemade. So I added my favorite white chocolate cream cheese frosting. After James did a taste test. What? Doesn't every parent give their 27-month-old a cupcake right before bed at 7:30pm?..."Yay! Pupcake!"*taste the rainbow*

That thing was gone in 30 seconds flat. I kid you not. My boy doesn't mess around when it comes to pupcakes. A child after my own heart...

A YEAR IN CLOTH

Before we start potty training this weekend, I wanted to get one last photo of my babies in diapers together. Because, hopefully, come Monday night, we will have only ONE baby in cloth. We will still be parents of "2 kids two and under", but no longer parents of "2 in diapers"! After I took the photo and saved it to my hard drive, I realized that I have taken "diaper duo" pictures every couple of months since Cora was born. So I decided to post them all again, in order. These photos are so sweet, and my babies look so CUTE in their cloth. I just might have a hard time giving them up! Good thing we get to keep using all the pink ones for another 10 months or so...

JULY

SEPTEMBER

JANUARY

MARCH

MAY

NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS

I took James to the good doc this morning for what I figured would be a "no news" visit, but since we're planning to potty train this weekend, I wanted to be sure. Because we would have scrapped all plans for PT bootcamp had James been deemed sick. He'd been pulling at his ears (mostly his right ear) for about a week and a half. I chocked it up to teething. This week he's also been trying to stick toys in his ear, as if to itch it, and saying "huwt". Hmmm... perhaps he got some water in his ears at the splash park? Since we were naughty and forgot the earplugs? But then last night I noticed his throat was a little red and swollen. So we just HAD to get him checked over.

We waited and waited in the waiting room. For an hour and a half. That is the one BIG drawback to using the most popular pediatrician in town. James was well behaved though. He ate his sandwich. He made some friends. And he continually walked over to the door leading back to the exams rooms saying "My doctor. My door." and asking for "Doctor 'Mith!" Wow, what a change from his view of the doc just a few months ago... He got brownie points with her for that!

Anyway, he weighed in at 31.8 lbs. No temp (as expected, we've been checking constantly). Ears clear and tubes in place. Strep test negative. 2 hours and $25 to find out what we thought all along... teething! (FYI, apparently a sore throat can also lead to ear tugging.) Sure hope those top molars break through soon. Before PT bootcamp commences on Saturday morning would be awesome. But we're not holding our breath...

Since James was awesome for Doc Smith (he sat still, laid back, and didn't mind a bit getting his heart and ears and lungs and throat checked - he just kept saying "Almost finished"), she gave him a sucker. He then earned EXTRA brownie points with her by saying "Thank you. Geen!" She was impressed that he knew the color of the sucker. And was so polite. And instead of telling her bye-bye, he said "See you!" as we finally walked out the door.

THIS ONE'S FOR JAY

James was WILD last night! And since Jay is missing his buddy just as much as we are missing him, I thought I'd put a compilation video together of all the craziness. First off, he goes looking for his Sissy in some ridiculous places (saying "Underneath? No." after checking each place), even though she was standing in plain view. Then he pretends to sleep (snoring, whether eyes open or closed, makes no difference as long as you're snoring, because snoring = sleep) and "jolts" himself awake, followed by crazy laughter. This is something his Grambot taught him 3 months ago and he STILL thinks it's hilarious (and it is, I admit, especially when he does it at the kitchen table). Finally, he's been jumping on the couch lately and landly squarely on his haunches. And getting in big trouble (time out - ooooooh!), since he's NOT suppose to stand on the couch, let alone JUMP on the couch. So he's started doing it on the carpet ("Ready? 3, 4, 6, 7 - Go Set Go!"). Ouch.

By the way Jay, he was totally performing for you there at the end. And I stand by my theory that he gets all this craziness from you.

"MISS YOU DADA"

Jay is on his first extended work trip (i.e. longer than overnight) since before Cora was born. (Crazily enough, he is in Jacksonville, while Jean is here helping me hold down the fort!) Turns out that James is plenty old enough now to miss his Daddy like crazy... Jean said that he asked for him 4 times during the day yesterday. When I got home from work, he called out for "Dada" thinking (hoping?) I was Jay. He came looking for "Dada" again when I was spraying out dirty diapers (a job, I admit, that Jay often does). And he woke up at 1:00am crying for his "Dada". Only a few more days to go Bub Bubs... I miss him too!

CABANA BOY

So Stephen, does he look the part? I know... We need a beach...

ADDY BUG BONNET

One of my friends started up a bonnet business a couple weeks ago and Cora got the pleasure of being one of her "testers". If you want a custom Addy Bug Bonnet for your own little beauty, check out her blog or facebook page.

SUPERGIRL!

Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!

SPLASHIN' IN BRANDON

We decided to "Go go go go, on an adventure!" today and spent a few hours at the Shiloh Splash Park in Brandon. James was hyped up before we even left the house, as he now understands that any "adventure" we promise will be plenty of fun for him! Yet he was SO patient waiting to get in, get his sunblock on, and have an adult ready to run with him. Love this little "Dude":

"Okay mama, can we go splash NOW?..."

The Queen disliked being set near the drain. She held her arms up in a hoity-toity gesture and complained until we picked her back up. This is her "icky" pose: Even the lounge chairs were worth exploring...We were so glad the kids were willing to leave their hats on all day. It was bright! And hot. And we felt a LOT better having their tender, pale skin well covered. Especially Cora's. Though she did spend quite a bit of time hanging in the shade too.Alex, Sophie, and Manu joined us after a while. Then James really got brave, and started running through the fountains and sliding down the slide. He plays SO well with Manu!

Of course, all the playing made us hungry, so we took a picnic break. For anyone who hasn't seen Cora eat a sandwich yet, here ya go. It's so nice not to have to pack "baby" food (i.e. purees) for our picnics! (And no, she still isn't eating peanut butter. Her sandwich was made with Laughing Cow's creamy swiss cheese - YUM!)

James, on the other hand, could LIVE off PB&J!

RIVER CREST

The Mighty Mississippi crested yesterday at 57.1 ft. A rather large group of coworkers decided to take it all in over lunch at Riverfront Park. It took this huge barge about 30 minutes to get from the bridge up to the fork with the Yazoo River - the water is RIPPING! We wish we'd had our binoculars with us, since it looked like the tug boat's radar was awfully close to the bottom of the bridge...

This view is generally a long, steep hillside down to the water's edge. Today, not so much. Those tree-tops you see out in the water belong to very tall trees.

This is the backside of Diamond Jacks. The casino floor is floating, but that building behind it is inundated. Can you see the white fence out there in the water, past the bushes?

Tonight Jean arrived back in town (since Jay is leaving on Monday for a week-long conference out of state, she agreed to come help me tend to the kids while maintaining my sanity, bless her heart!), so we took her downtown to Catfish Row for our usual Friday evening picnic, where she could see the river for herself. The level today is 57 ft even. The far end of Washington Street (just past Rusty's, for those of you who have visited) is under water and closed off.The old train depot is really swimming now...See all that water to the right of the depot in the below picture? Yeah, NONE of that should be there...Here's Golding Barge again. Completely surrounded, with their staircase floating (don't worry, it's tied-up so they don't lose it).And here is Diamond Jacks again, from the front. See that little awning out there in the middle? That's the top of that staircase again. Not that you can see the steps.The water is expected to remain above flood stage until mid-June. It's going to be a very long month for the folks who are displaced.