Monday, April 19, 2010

The post you've all been waiting for

I know that I do not post often. There are several reasons for this, but the main one is pictures. I like to read posts with pictures, but by the time I hook up my camera and upload the pictures that I have taken the last two months, I feel like I should go through and pick out which ones to print. This takes me forever and since I haven't printed pictures since July, it could take all day. By the time I get all of this done and get around to posting I have already talked to most of the five people that even read my blog so it is old news. So today I have decided to post without pictures to please those people that keep reminding me how long it has been since I posted.

Our favorite time of year is over. The weather has warmed up and the ground has dried out. Doug is back to being busy and I find myself getting excited at the thought of November. I've never been an outside person. I would be much more content to stay inside with a good book, but my kids love to go outside and I feel guilty if I don't take them outside several times a day. When I am outside I see all of the things that I need to do. Paint the porch, mow the lawn, plant the garden, clean out the flower beds, etc. None of these are things I enjoy. Needless to say--Spring is not my favorite time of year.

Now I am done whining and I can share my exciting news.There is a task that I have been dreading for the last three and a half years--putting it off because I didn't want to face it--POTTY TRAINING. Doug thinks that my conversations on this topic are weird so if you don't want to hear the details, stop reading now. I have talked to a lot of Mom's about this, asking advice and tips. The funniest thing for me has been how Mom's that have potty trained one child have all of the answers while the seasoned Mom's with six-eight-or even ten kids say 'every kid is different, what worked for one kid didn't work for another and every kid was ready at a different time.' It is as if those Mom's who have done a lot of potty training don't have to sound like experts, while those who haven't done much feel like they have to sound like they have all of the answers to prove themselves or something. Anyway, Luke had his birthday 3 weeks ago and it seemed the perfect opportunity to tell him he was a big boy and we were done with diapers. Up until this point he had only gone on the potty one time ever, but quite honestly I got sick of the amount I was spending having two kids in diapers. The first week we went without diapers we had zero success. I mean none. I would make him sit on the potty every 30 minutes all day long and he never went. It was so frustrating because I knew he needed to go, in fact he would go up to five hours dry and he would just sit and sit and sit on the potty. It was like he was afraid to go. After a week with no headway at all, I called my mom, she suggested I put marshmallows in the toilet and have him try to hit them. This worked, not for that reason, but because he wanted marshmallows. The next day we started using marshmallows as a reward if he would go and he went the first time. It was like all he needed was the right motivation. We had been using M&M's before. What kind of a kid likes marshmallows better than M&M's? At any rate it worked.
Now when I say he went I mean he was sitting on the potty but absolutely none got in the toilet. I still made a huge deal about it and he went the whole day sitting on the potty but never getting it in the toilet. He would start crying if I suggested he try to get it in the toilet, but that only lasted a day. Now he is doing really well and has filled up his sticker chart and earned a toy and I can join the ranks of Mom's that have potty trained one child and have all of the answers.

One final story. I am a Twilight fan. Not a crazy fan that goes and waits in line at midnight to buy the book or dresses up to go see the movie, but a fan that has seen the movies once and read the books a couple of times. Two weeks ago Abby came down with pink eye. The next day it moved to her other eye. A few days later Luke came down with it in one eye and then it moved to the next. Saturday Doug came home from work with one pink eye. Although Luke and Abby are over it now, I feel like I have my own little family of red-eyed Vampires. I should have taken pictures.