Freedom!

The title does not reflect the fact that a week ago, America celebrated Memorial Day. It does however refer to a significant milestone in a McCarthy family member's life. Yes, Nathan has undergone intensive training, and is now potty-trained! Freedom from diapers! Hallelujah!!!!!!!

Liesel undertook a mission to introduce Nathan to the wonderful world of cotton underwear. Needless to say, she was not looking forward to the task. However, Nathan was up for the challenge, and after only 1 accident a day for the first two days, he has been accident-free ever since!!! What a trooper!!

This past Monday was Memorial Day for us in the USA, and it was the perfect morning for us to visit a garden nursery, to buy some flowers that will add color to our front yard! That was the easy part!! The hard work was preparing the beds, digging the holes, planting the flowers, moving mulch around to the other beds, spreading the mulch and so on! It was also a quick way to get a suntan!

As part of Nathan's incentive to wear underpants, we promised we would buy him a wooden jungle gym (swing set). I found a good deal at a local Walmart and loaded it into my CR-V (barely) and unpacked it in our garage! Instructions indicate that it would take between 8 and 12 hours to assemble with 2 adults. Luckily, my manager volunteered to help me with it, as well as my good friend/colleague Brian! We haven't set the date to assemble it yet, as I still need to seal the wood to protect it it from the elements! So watch this space for the construction!

Another incentive for Nathan was to allow him to play with the Wii! He has taken to the Wii, like a fish to water, and is loving the golf, bowling - and now even the tennis. He has a very unorthodox way of swinging the Wiimote around in order to hit the ball, yet it seems to work for him! He has beaten me in golf, and Liesel in tennis and bowling! This is only after having access to the Wii for 5 days........

This weekend, we had the pleasure of having Craig, Liesel's brother come and stay with us. He was on a business trip up in Toronto, Canada, and he hired a car and drove the 5 hours to visit us! Nathan loved having his big (6' 7") uncle around! On Saturday, Craig bought Nathan his own 3 man tent, as an early birthday gift! As soon as we got home, Nathan wanted us to put the tent up. So now our 3rd bedroom has the dome tent set up and waiting for Nathan to come sleep :-) Nathan also taught Craig how to play golf and bowling on the Wii, and there were a few family tournaments this weekend, with all 4 of us participating!

On Saturday night, we went out to eat, and afterwards stopped at Dick's Sporting Goods. Craig told me that he was now in his happy place when he walked into the golf department. The prices here are about 50% cheaper than they are in the UK, so Craig to full advantage of his visit to the USA! 2 hours and about 60 swings of the golf clubs on a virtual driving range later, we came home and sat back and enjoyed a movie on TV.

On Sunday, we went to Church after Craig had completed a 3km run around our neighborhood. After Church, Craig, myself and Nathan dropped Liesel off at home, and we headed for the beach! The sky was cloudless, but there was a nippy breeze, but the beach was still fantastic! Nathan just loves the sand! After about 30 minutes we headed home, where a delicious roast lamb awaited us for lunch! It was then time for the siesta, after which Craig packed his car - and headed back to Toronto! It was wonderful having family spend time with us.