Potty Training

So I am in the middle of potty training my second kid, and so far it is going well.

We are still having trouble getting him to poop in the potty-it seems so far he is just waiting til he has a diaper at nap time or at night time and then pooping-though yesterday he did say he needed to poop, but I think by then he had already started, so it was all in his undies before we made it to the potty.

Pee; however, is going great. Over the last three days he has only had one accident, and that was yesterday while he was playing with a neighbor friend. And we made it through two doctor appointments yesterday (and he told me he had to go!)

Overall, it seems to be a success, and I am positive over the next few weeks-by mid July-we will be all good to go out and about with little worry over accidents. But we will see, that is always up for change; after all, switching it up on you is what 2 year olds do best.

My little bit of advice-which take it as you will, I have only potty trained one child completely-is to make it stress free for your child. It will be for you no matter what, simply because there WILL be accidents at some point, be them on your rug or car or at the store. Even months after you thought you were in the clear of potty accidents. Just realize that, and it makes everything all better.

Little Dude showed displeasure in being wet/poopy when he was about 2 years and 3 months (and I use cloth diapers, not disposables that make your child feel more comfortable)and he was pretty much potty trained in a week. We still had the rare occasional accident for a few months, and those "I need to pee NOW" moments when bathrooms were miles away (maybe yards, but when that moment happens, yards turn into miles) but overall, he was done.

JR is a little younger (just turned 2)and started taking his pants and diapers off when he got wet or poopy, so I took that as a sign to start the potty. JR was also extra motivated to do what his brother was doing, so that has helped with the process.

For the most part, there are no rewards, beyond making a huge event out of picking out big boy undies. No critical statements when accidents occur, no pressure or anger when we don't make it to the potty-just simply saying we will make it next time and "don't wet pants feel bad? Let's try again..." I said that a lot....

But here we are, two weeks from first potty training day, and I think we have hit the success point.

I'll let you know if we are still doing well after our lunch with the local fire fighters today (at LB Park, if you live in my area, around 11am).

And I wish SO badly I could post a picture of JR in his big boy undies or sitting on the potty, but alas, this little boy will be a teenager someday, and those photos are probably just going to have to be saved until he his going to prom. OK, that would be cruel; I guess I'll have to save them until he is potty training kids of his own.... Grandma and I will ooh and ahh over how cute they are until then.

Nemo Party

My little JR is obsessed with Nemo. He is still insistent on wearing some Nemo pj's that he has really outgrown. The pants are starting to look like shorts, but honestly I'm scared of the meltdown we will have if the Nemo pj's "disappear".

So, when it came birthday time, I KNEW I had to do a Nemo theme. And I thought it would be easy-just a trip to Party City, right?

No. Because apparently with all the Toy Story 3 promotion, Nemo was discontinued. So surely the Disney Store? No, but we did scoop up fun swimsuits (Nemo for JR, of course), since we were going to have water play. Wal-Mart? No, but I did find stickers, so I scooped those up there.

In my freak out over not having Nemo themed items, Bill mentioned the novel idea of just ordering it on-line. I married a genius.

So, after three clicks and a couple of days I had all Nemo themed fun you could think of. Without further ado, the party:

Our best attempt at a family photo. Really, this was the best.
All the kids eating.
JR, just up from his nap before the party and seeing the many Nemo balloons and decorations for the first time. That face was worth all the run around for the supplies.
Opening presents with is Birthday Boy shirt on (this was after all the water play was over)
Me and my cupcake Nemo. Dude, that was so hard and I was so worried it was going to turn out horribly, but I have to say I think it looks pretty awesome.

New

Well, everything has been very busy around here! We had JR's 2nd birthday party, family from Ohio the next week, and now we are currently undergoing potty training.

Yes, I said it. Potty training.

With two two year olds.

So far though, things are going great. JR is doing wonderfully and we even went out to dinner as a family last night with great success! JR went potty twice-and let us know he had to go; whoo hoo! You can tell he is quite proud of himself for being such a big boy. We talked to him last night too, about how when he starts to wake up dry he can move into the bunk beds with Little Dude-oh he looked so excited about that idea! I am excited for him; so far this is going well and has been very stress free (which I think is really the key to making it successful).

I have to say I am a little frustrated with Emily, simply because the potty training hasn't been continued over the weekends....so today it is like we are back at square one from last week. She does tell me she has to go, but is saying she just wants to wear a diaper. And I'm not into fighting them on the potty training; I don't think it is worth the stress. I'm all for letting the children show interest before pushing for it.

So, we may be aborting the second two year old training until it works better for her parent's schedule to continue over the weekends and when Emily decides she likes big girl undies again-she had been so excited last week and had actually been doing better than JR, so I am a little disappointed at this setback. But, no biggie, she will get there. On one note, while grocery shopping early this morning, JR had to go potty, so we went to the car where I have my travel potty set up and let him pee. Emily did want to go then and sit on the potty, so that was a good step today.

You probably noticed (I hope) that I re-did the look of my blog a little; I have to say I am impressed with the options Blogger now lets you do-something I had been disappointed in before. In fact, I had really been considering switching to a WordPress blog when Blogger released the new design editor, so great timing for me!


My work has been very busy-so much to the point that I almost hate getting on the computer anymore. I LOVE my job-and love even more that I work for such great people, but I am really feeling I need a little vacation. The only thing that stinks with my job is that even if I take a few days off, work just piles up-so it really is better to just work a little every day. But I certainly can't complain-being busy at work is always a great sign for job security!

Well, I guess that is all for now; I'll get pictures of JR's birthday up soon!

Happy Father's Day

My husband is such a wonderful Daddy to our boys. He plays with them, giggles with them, reads to them, teaches them "man stuff" (like how to pee standing up), and saves them (or me??) when I need a break.

He is amazing, and wonderful, in so many ways.

I got him a hammock this year, so he could relax outside in it and eat a sandwich. I had huge plans to set him up in it and bring out food and drinks and let him chill out.

But apparently I'm not very handy.

After the 2 and a half hours it took me to put up the hammock, the screws popped out of the tree as soon as he got in it. I thought I was going to cry; but my amazing Bill hugged me and told me not to worry-we'd work on setting it up again next weekend when he could help me screw it in better. On top of that; he wanted to just go out to eat instead, so I wouldn't feel sad about him not eating his sandwich in his new hammock.

Then he played with the boys while I caught up on work (and wrote this post).

Isn't he amazing and awesome?

So, Sweetheart, Happy Father's Day. I love you so much. Thanks for being the most wonderful best friend, husband and father in the entire world. I am so glad to be part of Team Z with you.


Bill with the boys "camping out" and "looking at stars" on our ceiling in the living room.

The Countdown

This weekend is another birthday.






My baby is almost two. He refuses to sit in a high chair and wants to sit on the potty whenever his brother does.

He tells jokes, even with his limited vocabulary-and that is growing by leaps and bounds daily. Right now the word poop is hilarious to him; I love how he throws his head back to laugh. He will put on Mommy's shoes and call them Daddy's shoes, and then throw his head back to laugh. His favorite word and color is yellow.

He told me happy birthday yesterday, and I love you too comes out as "I ov oo too".

I love you, JR; I am so glad God is letting me keep you for a bit.

Love always,
Mommy

Happy Birthday Mommy

Today is my birthday!

Before meeting my husband, I enjoyed birthdays, but they were far from my favorite holiday; in fact, I was usually glad when it was over. My husband's family though, goes ALL OUT on birthdays, and I have to say, it has rubbed off on me.

And since my birthday this year falls on a Monday (today!) I got to enjoy a weekend of celebration by going shopping with my super awesome mother in law. 3 hours in a mall? Oh YES!

But you know what? This is by far my favorite birthday and not because of the awesome shopping spree with Patty, or the awesome cake Bill and Ed got me, but because of this little guy singing to me last night as a way to avoid bedtime:



Oh geeze, can anything be cuter? And now I have every year to look forward to him singing to me again!

An Empty Nest

So last weekend, Bill and I got to go have an adult weekend, while the kids stayed with his parents.

It was wonderful and awesome to be "adults" again. We hit up some bars, hung out with kid-free friends again, and stayed up late-like back in college late-way past my current 9pm bedtime late!

And it was awesome.

But Sunday, as we waited for the kids to come back from Grandma's, I had a glimpse of the future and I didn't like it.

The kids were gone. The house was empty.

Though it was wonderful to spend time with just Bill-and I think that every couple needs that now and then (in fact, I think we will be doing it again around Bill's birthday). BUT, being in the quiet house, not breaking up a toy fight, and not hearing hysterical giggles every few minuets made me kinda sad.

I think I'm going to be that mom that really misses her kids, even when they are 30, so I'll be bugging them to come for visits. I'm hoping that they want to visit often.

I also think that now, when my in laws are wanting a visit, I won't be sighing and trying to find an empty day on the calendar. I see now; they MISS us and those visits are now terribly important to me; they are well deserving of knocking aside other plans. Because I know, that soon enough, I will be hoping for similar visits from my kids, when my house becomes much to quiet and their days are much too busy.

Turning Two

My baby is turning two in just a few days and I am quite shocked about it. I was even more shocked when I realized it was already June, and that I had not yet gotten invitations out for his party.

So, yesterday, in a state of panic-OMG I've waited too long!No One Will Be There!-I called everyone and found out just about everyone can come.

Then I went to get Nemo party stuff and couldn't find any ANYWHERE and as I started to panic over THAT, my sweet hubby mentioned that I should just order it offline.

And that was incredibly easy, so I am kicking myself for not even thinking of searching for Nemo party stuff online, since, you know, I WORK on the computer ALL DAY LONG.

Anyways. That is all taken care of, and I am super excited he will have some friends over to play. And I just can't believe he will be TWO!

Bill and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary over the weekend by leaving the kids at Grandma and Grandpa's and hitting downtown Wilmington. So very much fun. We will definitely have to find an excuse to do that again before next May.

We finished our deck project, and I will have to get some photos up here for you all; I'll brag and say it is just beautiful! It was super fun enjoying our deck when we got back to Raleigh Sat. night. Yes, we had margaritas and didn't have to play with light sabers.

Though by Sunday afternoon we were really missing the kids.

And thank goodness this week is short, because I am so tired; however, I think half of my "off-ness" is from continuing to get the days mixed up. Like I'm shocked it is already Wednesday. Tomorrow is Thursday? Impossible. Shouldn't it only be Tuesday?