a coop, multiple rejections, a toddler and more

I did not even realize that it's been nearly a month since I posted. So here's what's been going on since then.

Coop

Right after my last post, I received a shipment of Enwrapture skirts for which I had hosted a coop. A few hundred people paid me for an order for them, then I ordered the skirts in bulk so we could get a wholesale discount on them. It was interesting b/c this company doesn't allow color selection for wholesale orders, but it was a lot of fun. We got them for about a 70-80% discount off of retail. Here's part of the craziness:




And here's what a couple of them look like:





Rejections (and a possible job finally!)

Tim has been having a few interviews here and there, but then a few days later he would invariably receive a rejection email. But even rejection emails after an interview are better than no interview at all. He had tried to be a truck driver, a college bookstore manager, an insurance agent (which we may still do after a couple of years as a secondary job), an IKEA kitchens salesperson, a 911 dispatcher and a number of others that I can't remember right off the bat. He has yet to hear from a company that makes video recording equipment for police cars, but said he would really like that position.

But meanwhile, he is pretty sure that he has found what he wants to do. He is going to be a plumbing apprentice. They pay is not terrific at the start so he will either have to hope for overtime or get a second job, but it's steady, stable, long-term work. He went to an orientation/testing for it today (he finds out tomorrow at around 3:00 if he passed the test, then the rest of it is just a matter of paperwork before he can start), and the instructor said that in 30 years of doing this, the longest he has been without work was 2 months. Tim could also be an HVAC apprentice instead of a plumbing apprentice. There are raises every 6 months that are pretty substantial. The only bad news is that a group of classes started a month ago, so Tim's first raise won't be until 18 months from now, and the whole process will be 6 years instead of 5 since the first year, he will just be working instead of working and going to class. But we are very excited about the long-term situation this will help us be in.

Toddler

Lydia is now 21 months old, and very much a toddler. We continue to train her, and have found that if we train her like it's a game, then she seems to be more receptive. Like the other day, we were playing "stop/go" with her, to teach her to stop right away when we say stop. We would hold her hand or walk right next to her, and say "go go go go go go go go go go go STOP!" and then stop right then. Then we'd go go go some more and stop again. After a while, Lydia started doing this herself. She'd tell herself go go go and stop. It was so cute. She has several more words since the last time I posted, and will try to repeat some 3-syllable words or phrases now, too.

We've given up on potty training for now. The whole idea of it, and especially when I look on a message board and see children younger than Lydia who are completely trained, just makes me cry. I'm trying to just push it to the back of my mind and revisit it when she's 4 or when she shows very VERY clear signs that she is ready to do her business somewhere besides her diaper. I've read Diaper Free Before Three which encourages "early" potty training, and we did try those methods for a while, but they just didn't yield any results for us at all. Lydia is not ready. She doesn't care if her diaper is wet or dirty. I will just continue what I've been doing, which is letting her come w/ me to the bathroom and letting her watch me put her poop in the potty (we cloth diaper) and talking about the whole scenario w/ her in a lighthearted manner (oh, look, your diaper is wet. One day you'll put it in the potty and you'll stay dry).

Here's a few videos of her modeling one of the short wrap skirts which is still way too long for her, lol. But the three videos combined show how she's grown so much since the last time I shared. :)

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Ok well never mind on the videos... YouTube is doing site maintenance so I'll have to post them later. :p

More

I am still crocheting play food. I'm gearing up for what I hope will be a busy holiday season. My link over on the sidebar is still pointed to my Hyena Cart, but I'm toying with the idea of moving over to Etsy instead. Each site does have its pluses and minuses. In the meantime, I'm making a bunch of in-stock food, especially bread (the bread is what seems to tie me up the longest when I get a custom order, lol). I have about 60 different items now, with more in the works. When I first started making it, I would have never thought that I'd have such variety. I also am attempting to start another work at home thing, just to make a little change here and there. The company seems to be having technical difficulties right now, though, so I'm not able to complete my test. Hopefully I can finish that test by this weekend though.