sunday funday

so a few months ago manning had a set back in his potty training - like he stopped using it for #2. for him, his underwear were as good a spot as any. he would not wear a diaper and would not use the potty. we don't know what happened because he had been using the potty successfully for like two months. after several failed attempts at bribes, we finally found the one that worked for him - chuck e. cheese. i went to their website and printed off a two week reward chart (they have them for everything if you ever need a good bribe - nose picking, reading, getting dressed, etc.). the way we (read: matt) figured, around the time manning completed the chart it would be maddux' birthday and we could roll the two trips into one! so today was the day!

daddy was feeling extra celebratory and we stopped at their favorite frozen yogurt shop - sweet frog - on the way to chuck e. cheese for pizza lunch and fun. (madelyn is happy, she just has an enormous gummy candy in her mouth and can't smile.)

manning's new "cheese" smile. sigh.

mason jumps in with a real one!

 and maddux wasn't excited at all...

once we had finished our pizza, we were off. i stuck with manning, mason and madelyn paired off and maddux and daddy were a team. chuck e. cheese on a sunday afternoon is not for the faint of heart. manning loves the 'rides' and asks to have his picture taken with each one, each ride.

we ran into maddux' friend lexi's family there too. as her mom put it, "why are you guys here? no one comes to chuck e. cheese on a sunday of their own free will." i told her we were paying a potty training dept.  they were there for a family birthday party. coincidentally, i caught lexi in the background of this picture i was taking of madelyn and mason. i didn't realize until i looked at the pictures on the computer.

jackpot! we hit the 500 ticket jackpot on a random chance game.

the kids had a blast and matt and i were ready to go. it was a fun family afternoon! love.

potting training for the last time!

i am excited to say that we have NO. MORE. DIAPERS. in our house!  well, there may or may not be some nighttime use - just because i HATE stripping the bed in the night. manning was not at all excited about it when i told him this morning that we were all done with diapers. in fact, he told me to go to bjs and buy him some more diapers. 

even though he was very angry at the idea of not wearing a diaper, matt took the big kids out for the morning and i toughed it out. he can't go to preschool in a few weeks if he isn't potty trained. once he calmed down and we got down to it, he learned very quickly and had very few accidents. (manning does insist wearing his underwear backwards though - and it is adorable.) 

after potty training all four, i must pass on the recommendation that was given to us - "Toilet Training in Less Than a Day" (http://www.amazon.com/Toilet-Training-Less-Tha…/…/0671693808). it focuses on keeping their underwear dry and it has worked in 4 hours will all of the kids (when they were ready of course). love.

well, that is one way to read a book

manning is really making me think that he is getting closer to potty training because he is always trying to pull his pants on and off. usually he does this by the toilet (although he will not sit on the toilet) but today he pulled his pants down before sitting down to read a book. he put the book down when i got the camera and then tried to pull his pants back up. he has come out naked more than once now. we will see where this goes. love.

could potty training be on the horizon?

so i might be jumping the gun a little but i am really hoping that manning is going to take after madelyn and maddux and potty train at two years, one month. over the past few weeks he has started to go over to the toilet and stand like the boys. he does this fully dressed and just leans on the toilet with his stomach.  but last night he removed his pants and diaper on his own (a first) and tried to stand at their toilet (i took a few pictures because it was so funny but won't share them here).

he then refused to put a diaper back on and tried to return the training potty when i got it out for him - since he was so intent on being at the toilet (which he also refused to sit on - he only sees boys standing, right?). it was pretty funny to see this naked boy carrying the training potty all over the house, crying trying to figure out where he should put it so that it would be removed from him.

i am really, really hoping to be rid of diapers (and strollers) this summer! love.

tuesday tip - go to the bathroom first

on our way to pick up mason one day last week, maddux had to go to the bathroom.  i have a "three request" policy about stopping the car, they have to ask three times before i am willing to stop (this has been a tried and tested method for all three bigs).  and this was the inspiration for today's tip...

go to the bathroom firstwhen we go to a restaurant - especially if i am alone with the kids - we go to the bathroom first.  and everyone has to try.  they don't have to go, but they all have to try.  and i ask again before we leave somewhere we have been for more than 30 minutes (like shopping) and the car ride is more than 10 minutes.

save yourself an emergency stop at the next waffle house.

do you have an early potty training rule for 'trying'?  love.

potty training maddux - the finale

i think we have done it this time!  maddux has been wearing underwear during the day since wednesday.  he spent most of the day on saturday away from home and had no accidents!  well, his underwear are staying clean and dry (for the most part), but the floor isn't faring as well...

he tells us when he needs to go and will wait until he gets to a bathroom without a problem.  he insists on using a regular toilet without a seat on it.  that is fine, great even, because there is a lot less mess to worry about. but, when he needs to poop, he won't go on the toilet.  fine.  we will just put him in a diaper to do his business like we did with mason.  nope.  he won't go in the diaper either because he wants to go on the toilet.  so what we end up with is about ten false and panicked trips to the toilet until he finally ends up taking the diaper off and pooping where he is!  it hasn't actually been a huge mess because he stops himself and he has been ultimately giving in to going in a diaper and then switching back to underwear once he has been cleaned up.  we are still working on it, but he did have success on the toilet today so maybe we are getting close to being fully trained.

he has actually been fairly easy to train - this time.  he is the only one, so far, who will go willingly to the bathroom when we suggest it - before meals, before getting in the car, etc.  madelyn and mason always fought this and we would just have to wait for them to tell us each time.

what occurred to me is that he has trained at almost the exact same age madelyn was when we trained her.  we are just thrilled to have less diapers to buy and are praying that manning follows in maddux and madelyn's footsteps when it is his turn!  so proud of our big boy!  love.

let me just grab my socks

this is what maddux thought was appropriate for meeting madelyn' bus this afternoon - wearing only a pair of socks.  i am just so so thankful for the bus now stopping directly in front of our house!  i think the driver could see him just inside the door and was laughing.  a fully dressed mason met madelyn's bus next to the mailbox while i stayed inside getting socks on a fully naked maddux.  i was also trying to convince him that he couldn't go outside like that.

yes, we are potty training again.  he is doing great - well except for pooping.  but that is a story for another time.  love.

tid bits

- maddux tries to actually lift you when he wants you to get up

- madelyn has changed her favorite color from red to pink; mason occasionally says green instead of blue

- madelyn was so excited to read some of the grocery list this week while shopping with just me. i asked if she recognized any of the words. she said, no, but then found "red" and other color words. she recognized/found other words she knew (i.e. applesauce) and could tell when things weren't on the list, like "banana". i would tell her what we had and she would find it on the list and cross it off.

- maddux very rarely sleeps the whole night in his bed. i think it is a combo of bad dreams and molars coming in. his molars are almost completely in so we will know soon how much of a factor they have been.

- the kids can get their own breakfast in the morning - cereal (no milk), bananas and yogurt. this is very nice!

- the kids have all done amazing with adding manning to the mix. maddux loves him very much and tells me the second he cries, even if i am holding him.

- maddux has his first potty success! he was sitting with me, 'told' me he needed to go, took off his diaper in the bathroom, got on the toilent and went. so exciting.

potty update

we have success!! after i posted about mason's pride in wearing underwear he went poop in the potty (i say "potty" but he is using a regular toilet with no 'potty seat')! and then he insisted on wearing underwear to bed. we have totally let him take the lead since it isn't a matter of ability but willingness at this point.

he doesn't even ask for any help in the bathroom or even tell me that he is going to go - he just goes.

he has had no accidents in two days and has spent two nights in underwear. we are so very proud of him! love.

potty training - part 3

mason is on day 4 of underwear! we have been putting him in a diaper for overnight (although he is generally dry in the morning) since he won't poop in the potty yet. he had two accidents today but those have been the only ones in the past three days.

he is quite proud of himself and has been telling me that the baby in my tummy will wear diapers, but he is a big boy and wears underwear. it was all his idea - i just reminded him.

friday night he told me that he would wear underwear and use the potty "tomorrow" (we usually talk about wearing underwear while i change his diapers). so on saturday morning i reminded him about our conversation and he picked out some underwear.

he still wants a diaper for pooping and i told him that i am fine with that. he just needs to tell me when he is ready and i will change him into a diaper.

maybe we won't have three in diapers after all! love.

throwing in the towel - again

we have stopped potty training - again.  over the course of the week there was only one accident outside of the bathroom (on a neighbor's indoor trampoline!), he woke up dry every day, he willingly tried to sit on the potty without being asked, would generally go 'try' when asked (like before getting in the car or before meals) and was getting great feedback from his teachers about how great he was doing at school (he stayed dry/clean but never went at school).  the problem was that he would hold it as long as possible.  there is no problem with bladder control here - we are talking more than 5 hours in some cases. 

the problem was that he would jump off the potty at the moment he couldn't hold it any more and pee (and/or poop) on the floor.  we tried everything.  we let him have treats while sitting on the potty, play games on our phone while sitting on the potty (that was our one total success) and every other means of keeping him sitting at the moment he started peeing.  what was worse is that mason is our super neat kid who has to use a napkin (or several napkins) at meals, he likes to be clean and the mess of pee was getting to be too stressful for him.  not to mention that the twenty trips to the potty and crying leading up to actually going was starting to wear on me!  but peeing on daddy while he helped in the bathroom - twice - was what caused us to throw in the towel. 

we will try again in the spring.  i really, really don't want to have three in diapers, but i don't want to stress mason out either.  just from hearing from other friends, it seems that turning three is the threshold for successful potty training for boys.  only mason doesn't turn three until after baby is born...  love.

potty training - again

doesn't that just say it all?  potty training is going fairly well so far.  the past few times he has done well for the first three days or so and then mason gives up entirely and puts forth no more effort to make it to the potty.  he hasn't had a ton of successes, but he is very enthusiastic about keeping his underwear dry and gets super excited when he gets even a little urine in the potty.

it occurred to me that i do not want three kids in diapers come june so we are going to try and hang tough this time for more than a week.  we do put a diaper on him at night and he doesn't go while he is sleeping so we just need to build the successes during the day before we will let him sleep in the underwear.  the getting out of the diaper and into underwear in the morning has been the most difficult part so far, but once he is in his underwear he is very happy about it.  and he stays dry in public - so far.  i am hoping that going to school this week will really help him with the transition to using the potty all the time.  i know that it helped reinforce things for madelyn.

time will tell.  love.

success!

mason was so upset to be back in a diaper that he sat on the toilet (not the little potty) and pushed/grunted until he squeezed out a little urine.  so then we let him put back on his underwear.  within five minutes he wanted to go again and you could tell that he was trying not to go until he was on the toilet.  and he did it!  we are so very proud of him and he is pretty proud of himself.  maybe we will give him a few more days before givign up and going back to diapers.  love.

adventures in potty training

we have been working on potty training this week.  and it has been an adventure.  he has yet to use the potty correctly.  he doesn't want me to go in with him - i guess he likes his privacy.  he knows when he has to go, but he doesn't want to take his underwear off (he likes them that much).  so he goes back and forth to the bathroom until he can't hold it any more.  i have had a lot of mess to clean up.  and even when he does make it to the potty, he won't take his underwear off so he still needs a fresh pair!  i am going to give him one more day, but it looks like i am going to have to go back to diapers for now.

i was hearing odd sounds from the bathroom so i peeked around the corner and then went to get my camera.  he discovered that his voice echoed in the toilet.  i am not sure what possessed him to talk into the toilet in the first place but it made for a funny picture.  love.

bunny-bear was ready

bunny-bear might have been ready, but we had too many errands that we all had to go on over the weekend and i wasn't able to attempt to potty train mason.  bummed.

i am considering just trying to do it during the week with the other two around too because i just don't see our weekends opening up any time soon and mason is so ready!  at least i think he is...

he has asked to go on the potty several times and his diaper is always warm with fresh pee when i take it off him so that he can sit on the potty.  i told matt that i am just going to suck up the mess risk and let him try again.

i went to turn off the bathroom light and found bunny-bear ready and waiting.  it's time.  love.

potting training part 2

i wish i could post the pictures, but since there is nudity i won't.  instead i will try and be as descriptive as possible.

now that madelyn is out of school for the summer i am ready to really tackle potty training mason.  we dabbled once before and he just wasn't ready.  but i am feeling better this time around.  i am done with two in diapers and i want him trained before we move into the house or go to florida in the fall.  and it was like he read my mind...

when i went to give them their baths on monday night mason tried to climb up on our toilet.  i got him the little seat and helped him up.  he pointed his penis down and watched and waited.  his diaper was warm so i didn't have high hopes but was encouraged that he wanted to do it and was patient on the toilet (a huge difference from when i tried to train him before).

tonight i saw him getting into his pooping posture so i asked him if he wanted to go in the potty (which i do from time to time).  to my utter shock and amazement he said yes! (or at least he gave the single grunt which means "yes".) so off to the bathroom we headed.  he always tries to get up on the toilet but isn't quite tall enough to do it on his own.  i got out the little potty (i hid it in their shower when we had the designer over on tuesday night).  he sat on it and tried to go for about a minute and then stood up, picked up the entire potty and took off down the hall.  since he couldn't tell me where he was going - the no talking thing - i had to just wait and see what he was up to.  he made his way to the kitchen, set down the potty, sat down and started trying to go to the bathroom.  he was really trying too.  he put the potty exactly where i had it when we tried potty training a few months ago too!  i asked if he wanted a book (like the potty book we got from the library a few weeks ago) and he grunted a "yes".  i think he sat on that potty in the kitchen for at least 5 minutes!  i tried to give him some privacy but kept checking back to make sure he wasn't making a mess with anything that might end up in the potty. 

he was so cute.  he was trying so hard to make sure his penis was pointing down and kept peeking to see if there was anything happening.  i wish you could see the pictures.  he is almost too tall for the potty so his knees were really high, he had the book balancing on his knees and was ducking his head down to 'read'.  he was being so patient.

i think he and i are going to give it another go on sunday.  love.

nail polish and potty training

mason has every sign for potty training readiness - he points to his diaper when he goes to pee and poop, he can pull his pants (and diaper) on and off by himself, he can follow multi-step instructions, he wets and poops his diaper predictably, he is dry after sleeping, he takes interest in sitting on the potty, etc.  so i went out and bought fun treats and drinks, arranged a list of things for matt and madelyn to so for a few hours, and got to training mason.

he was really, really excited about wearing underwear.  and he did a great job going through the motions, teaching a baby doll, and cleaning up when he would have an accident.  what didn't he do?  go in the potty!  he kept getting mad that it was in the kitchen and not in the bathroom, so i moved all of our supplies in there instead.  i think he was just not feeling 100%.  either way, after 4 hours and no successes in the toilet, i put him back in a diaper for nap time.  no big deal.  we will try again in a month or so.

one of the errands i wrote down for madelyn and daddy was to buy the princess nail polish she had picked out for when she stopped sucking her thumb.  and she requested that daddy paint her nails with the ariel (purple) polish as soon as they got home.  the nail polish stayed on about as well as you would expect for princess nail polish applied by daddy, but madelyn was very proud of it none the less.  she did, however, ask me to do the re-painting a little later that afternoon (once the ariel polish had all peeled off).  not daddy.

we aren't painting her nails with the mavala polish any more and she is very over sucking her thumb and biting her nails.  she is picking her nails now, but at least she is only ruining her nails and not her teeth.  you've got to choose your battles.  love.

daddy's finished product.

while daddy's away...

...the kids will play!  matt went to wisconsin to take care of a few items at the house before our closing in a few weeks.  he left wednesday night after work and came back late saturday afternoon.  thankfully, he took maggie with him so i wouldn't have to walk her with all three kids.  it turns out that he was glad for the company since the house had no cable or internet; he said things were pretty quiet there.

the kids and i didn't just sit at home though. there was snow so we didn't get out everyday but we did go to the library on friday and saturday we made stops by wal-mart, lowe's, and michaels.

our first lowe's project.  madelyn was disappointed that she had to wait for everyone to get registered before they handed out the projects - and that she had to wear the safety goggles.

hard at work on her game box.  it was nice that they had kid sized hammers.  lowe's gives out patches instead of pins (like home depot) for the project.  madelyn asked for her pin on our way out and just didn't understand why she couldn't have a pin.  but she cheered up when we passed by some cashiers she could show her project to.  this kid will talk to anyone.

madelyn 'teaching' maddux to lift up his head while holding his hand.

after our trip to the library madelyn and mason were sitting side by side 'reading' olivia books and it was so cute.  unfortunately, mason got down from the chair before i could get back with a camera.

happy wrestling and blocks before baths.

the block table has become a major component to madelyn's imaginary play.  she is always voicing characters, singing songs, and telling stories to herself (and her friends).  here friend is getting a ride from clarice while madelyn drives cars through "city" (she told me that her city just doesn't have a name).

mason is really ready to potty train so we picked him up some big boy underwear on our trip to wal-mart and i had to try them on him.  we are going to wait on actual training until after our trip to close on the house in a few weeks.  he can pull his underwear and pants up and down all on his own and even goes to sit on the potty when going in his diapers so i really think that we have a chance now.  if not, we will just wait some more - no pressure.

mason has come a long way with holding hands in the parking lot so i am getting braver about going out with all three.  it wouldn't be such a big deal if it weren't for the cold and snow.  i am finding that more than three short stops and i am worn out from the loading and unloading!

we got along just fine without daddy, but we are more than delighted to have him home again!  mason just kept saying, "da-da!  da-da!  da-da!".  he really missed his daddy.  love.

the joys of a public bathrooms

and i don't mean that sarcastically either. first madelyn showed more interest at using a public bathroom, then we potty trained and she only wanted to use her 'potty' at home, and now she has decided that public bathrooms are fun. she has gone to the potty everywhere we have been in the past two days - more than once. at least we are over the phobia.

on a third trip to the bathroom this morning at denny's it was obvious that she had nothing more to give. to not waste the trip, i took a turn. and here is why i am sharing - madelyn stood in front of me and held on to my waist to keep me from falling in! she kept saying that she'll hold me up - don't worry. i thought that it was really cute because she was totally serious and focused on the job of keeping me from falling into the toilet.

on a sadder, but still bodily function related, note, we had to take mason to urgent care after our breakfast/lunch out. his left eye was a little crusty this morning when he woke up and by the time we got to the restaurant it was oozing a green goop! i have never seen so much come out of an eye in such a short period of time. i was so concerned about it making him uncomfortable or upset that we went straight to urgent care to get it checked out. it was just a clogged tear duct like i has suspected. all we have to do is massage his tear duct several times a day with a warm washcloth. it should clear up in a few days. the doctor gave us a prescription for the ointment they rub on newborns' eyes because there isn't really much that can be done before 6 months of age medication-wise. he said that the warm compress (washcloth) was more important though. madelyn was telling everyone at the clinic that "mason's eye is sick". she has a little bit of a runny nose too. hopefully, we will all get healthy in time for madelyn to go back to school in two weeks. love.

please give me a diaper!

tonight while i was preparing madelyn for bath time she started to do a little dance and demanding a diaper. she has been sitting on her potty reading a book while the tub is filling and we were doing just that tonight. once the tub was full, i put her in and she started crying for a diaper and crisscrossing her legs. i asked her if she had to go potty and she said yes. i took her out and she sat on the potty crying for a diaper and doing a little dance. after a few minutes of this i decided to go put a diaper on her. once she had the diaper on she ran back to sit on the potty and read her book. after a few minutes i told her that it was time to take her bath. when i took off her diaper is was very wet!

while i don't think this is a great sign about what we have to come with potty training, i do see two positives - one - she knows when she has to go - two - she can hold it successfully. she also came to get me after lights out because she had gone "potty" and wanted a new diaper. again, her diaper was very wet. this is really exciting for me because i normally have to beg madelyn to change her diaper. she usually couldn't care less about her diaper being dirty and it has been several months since she was consistently asking to be changed at dinner time so i am taking this as progress towards the possibility of potty training.

we also said good-bye to grandma this evening. madelyn gets a little nervous when we go to the airport with me in the car. she worries that it means that i am leaving. she was sad to see grandma go, but was happy to see that i was getting back in the car and leaving with her.

before we left the house for the airport, grandma reminded us that we needed to get a picture of her with madelyn. madelyn had just woken up from her nap and was not in a hugging (or touching) and smiling mood. it took a while to get her to come sit on grandma's lap for a quick picture, but we got one.

and - for the record - i am not ignoring the fact that i turned thirty yesterday. i haven't posted about my day because i want to get some video of the most beautiful version of "happy birthday" i have ever heard on my birthday. not only that but she has a wonderful answer when i ask her about how old i am. i love her. love.