Barry’s Daily Web News

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I’ve successfully installed Windows XP Professional, but it seems I’ve forgotten my password for my hosted site. It will probably be tomorrow before I can post again.

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I’m writing this post early, since I will be reinstalling the software on my computer. I switching from Windows XP Home to Windows XP Professional. I’m going for a clean install, so I will have to install all of my programs from scratch. If I don’t finish by this evening, I won’t be writing another post.

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Ethan appears to be back to full health. He ate three full meals today. I can’t remember the last time he has done that. It must have been at least a month.

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I had my car seat fixed today. The leather on the seat had torn so badly, the foam was exposed. I should have had it fixed months ago, but I didn’t have the time. I went with the cheaper option of putting in vinyl rather than leather, but you can hardly tell the difference. Since I washed my car yesterday, my car is now ready for the new year.

I also finished another project, clearing out my office of old paperwork. It’s amazing how the paper just seems to accumulate. Now, most of it is gone.

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We bought Ethan a new pair of shoes today. His old ones were still long enough, but we went to extra-wide to fit his feet better. Apparently, size 5 extra-wide isn’t that uncommon.

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Ethan was very talkative today. His favorite word is ball, pronounced “bahhhh”. He clearly knows this word in context, and he loves playing with the balls in the house, even including the christmas tree ornaments. He also says “da-da” a lot, but I don’t think he is saying this in context.

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Sean’s potty training regimen has come to an end. He refused to sit on the toilet, and I wasn’t going to spend another day changing clothes, giving Sean several baths, and washing clothes. I plan to keep asking Sean if he wants to wear his “big-boy” underwear, just in case he changes his mind.

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Ethan seems to be getting over his illness, finally. He still has a bit of chest congestion, but he is now full of energy. He is also doing better a sleeping through the night. I hope I didn’t just jinx myself.

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Sean wasn’t up for his soccer game. He spent the whole game with his head in Cortney’s lap. He may have been tired, since he was up early this morning. He now has a two week break from soccer, due to the holiday season. I hope he starts up in two weeks with more enthusiasm.

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Sean’s potty training hasn’t gone too well. All accidents, with no sucessful trips to the potty. I’m not giving up yet!

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I’m doing laundry as I write this. Sean is going through potty training, and he had a few accidents today. We did have one successful trip to the potty today, and that is encouraging. The other good news is that he seems to prefer underpants over diapers.

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Today was Sean’s last class for the year, and it was a Christmas special. After putting Sean on the bus, the whole family went to school for the Christmas special. Sean and the other kids did Christmas crafts, and then they sang songs and danced. Sean was really cute. Ethan had fun playing with all of the toys in the classroom.

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We decorated the tree this evening. Corky put on the lights, and Leslie and Cortney put on most of the ornaments, with Sean and I providing minor help. Ethan thinks the tree ornaments are toys for his use. It will be interesting to see if the ornaments within Ethan’s reach remain on the tree. At least Ethan will be old enough next year that we won’t have to run into this problem again.

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I completed the first of my tasks I have set out for the winter holidays. I wanted to wire both the cable box and the DVD player to the stereo. I ended up buying a composite video connector to connect the DVD to the TV, and the resulting picture is really impressive. I also tried to improve the connection from the cable box to the TV by using an S-video cable, but the picture was actually worse than the one on the co-ax cable. Oh well. At least we can listen to DVDs without having to blast the TV sound, which was not made for the surround sound output of the DVD player. I can also now listen to the cable music channels over the stereo.

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Today is the start of my winter vacation. I spent a good part of the day trying to help out Cortney with the kids. I faced a couple of tough parenting moments. The first one was when Sean did not want to go to school. He even did not want to get dressed. I tried my hardest to get him ready without pushing him into a temper tantrum. I tried to be calm, and let Sean know I was unhappy with his behavior. He eventually agreed to getting dressed, and when the bus arrived, he gave me a hug, then hopped on board.

The second tough moment was when it was time for soccer practice. Sean was not in the mood at all for soccer. He did not even want to be near the coach or the kids on the team. I decided to compromise, and I told Sean he did not have to practice, but he had to sit and watch. This worked, and eventually Sean wanted to participate in the practice. He ended up doing fairly well, and even participated in the scrimmage game.