5 reasons to jump for joy

So I've been a little cranky this week.  With good reason, but still.  I'm really more of a look at the bright side, optimistic type person and I've had about enough, so when I read Helene's post this morning, (which brightened my day!) I just had to join in on the fun!

The Girl Next Door Grows Up puts on Feel Good Friday's each week and has a few prompts to choose from that will absolutely make you feel better!  (a good idea for all of us in this winter funk!)  I chose

Just make a list. List 5 things that made you really happy this week. No matter how bad or boring you think your week was, I bet you can find 5 things.

So, here are my five things in completely random order!

1. It may really snow here tomorrow - a good 4 inches, with some ice, which means the kids will get to play in it.  AND my father, being the big kid that he is, bought us a plastic sled to replace the old red metal and wood one I have from childhood!

2. Report cards came out this week and the boys are doing above and beyond what is expected of them. I am so proud of my smarty pants!

3.  Little man has only had poopy accidents, he has got the peeing in the potty down pat!  Even wakes up in the middle of the night to go!

4. These fancy drugs that I am on have also killed the pain in my jaw that was driving me nuts.

5. Because I counted this morning, I know that in 76 days my bestest friend will be here instead of 708 miles away.

The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself. ~Benjamin Franklin

Crapped Out in NC

How's the potty training going you ask.

So glad you asked. 

So far we've got the pee in the potty down pretty good.  We can even make it through the night.  But we have another little issue.  We've crapped in the potty once, in our pants once, and on the floor once.  Any tricks on making that part of the ordeal transition easier????

On the flip side - don't you love these undies the in-laws bought?

Can you read the writing on the walls?

When we found out we were preggo with our singleton we were so excited that we were going to be able to decorate a whole room for him.  With the twins we were living in a rental with wood panelled walls in each room, so we weren't quite as lucky.

We put a lot of work into Little Man's room.  And it is was perfect.  Now there is new writing on the walls.


Can you read it?  I think it says - "I'll pee in my clothes if I want to!"

Starting 2010 off right!

Back in July I posted about starting the potty training on Little Man,  I never did an update.  Why? Because he is a stubborn little tyke and wasn't really ready.  My next goal was at Thanksgiving, but after the toilet debacle - there was no physical way of making it happen.  So yesterday morning I woke up ready to tackle the task again.

First, this kid is as stubborn as it comes, and well, diapers are much easier for him.  We've had him in pull ups for awhile and he has learned to take them off and understands the concept of going potty.  In theory.

The twins are a great help - they tell him everytime they have to go, so that he has a shinning example of what to do.

*** Post interrupted to run peeing child to the potty ****

Yesterday he managed to pee in the bathroom.  I actually gave him a reward, because well, he tried.  He just happened to be sitting on the edge of the toilet and all the pee went on the step stool. 

Today he has learned to sit backwards on the toilet.  (he doesn't like his potty at all)  That's pretty much all he's learned today.

But this is my goal - no diapers in 2010!!!  I think we can do it.  With patience, persistance, and a lot of prayers.

alligator in our toilet

My biggest fear is sitting going to the bathroom and sitting down on the toilet only to have something bite me on the butt. I always look first - just to make sure nothing is in there. I know it is a crazy fear, but one time I sat down and something did get me, it turned out to be a cricket that didn't like having the lights turned out, but all the same.


A few months ago the boys toilet started backing up. Oddly it wasn't all the time, just sometimes. I had the feeling something was in there. So one Saturday afternoon when the boys were at Pepaw's and Dear Hubby and I took the toilet apart. We took the tank off, and put the whole toilet in the tub. Then we ran a hose through the window and started flushing it out.

For starters, poop came out and of course since it was just the two of us, the poop jokes started. I told Dear Hubby he this was a "poopy job" and he replied that it was all because I am "full of poop." Of course then the "poop hit the fan" and the walls. We kept filling the toilet and plunging and trying to get pressure to remove all stop ups. We spent 30 minutes watching toilet paper and poop fly, but nothing else. Then we turned the toilet upside down and tried from a different direction, all the sudden I saw a little green head and squealed.

"It's an alligator"

No really, a toy alligator was in our toilet and causing all of our problems. Now how many people can say that?

"Never insult an alligator until after you have crossed the river." ~Cordell Hull

Tyler's Day

The twins and I were on our way home from Sam's yesterday when a fight broke out.
What's new.
T2 had gotten a cherry icee and was sharing with T1, only they HAD to argue over who had the longest sip, or whether they even got a sip. Finally Mommy asked for a drink and kept the cup. Then they fought over who made Mommy keep the cup.
So me being ingenious, asked "Who can be quietest the longest?" Which worked!
Then it transformed into "Who can be the quietest while making funny faces?" Which was still working until we all got bored with it so I asked "Who can..."
T1 said, "Who can count the most road signs?" Which is a game we've played before.
T2 replied, "Noo."
So I asked again, while thinking of something new and creative, "Who can..."
T2 interrupted to say, "Who can scream the loudest?" This was immediately followed by the loudest ear piercing yell there ever was. Only not to be outdone, T1 and I proceeded to scream as loud as possible. And then, as all twins can, they both screamed simultaneously as loud as they possibly could. At this moment I was grateful for two things: One, my dear hubby wasn't in the car, he would have not approved, and two, that we were on a country road with no cars nearby - people surely would've thought we were being carjacked.

T2 - he comes up with the darnedest things. Earlier in the day I had spotted him outside walking the dog. While the dog was pooping, he was peeing. And then because the dog was done before he was, he had trouble buttoning his pants as the dog pulled him in a different direction. I couldn't resist, so I yelled to him out the back door, startling him, which caused him to step (barefooted) into the dog poop. I was about to fall over in laughter. He comes running up to me and tries to wipe his poopy foot on my leg. EWWW -BOYS!

boy: n. noise with dirt on it ~unknown

poop stories

WARNING: Post not for the faint of heart.


Everyone is talking about poop these days. I've been reading all these blogs about potty training, and boys who don't tell you when they poop, and even exploding poop. A lot of these have brought me to tears with laughter. For a laugh of your own check out I can't turn my back for one minute. So after hearing about poop, inspiration struck and I decided to write a few of our own poop stories. Again these are from three boys, so not for the faint of heart - but I will also explain what happens when you leave a huggies diaper in a pool as a side note.

Our most recent poop story happened just a few months ago to poor little Bradley. I was cooking dinner in the kitchen while my husband was out. Nathaniel came in and said "Mommy, Morgan pooped on the floor." Now at the word Morgan, I knew what had happened as this was our pup in training, and the next words out of my mouth were going to be go get a papertowel. Only my thoughts were interrupted, and I never actually heard the word floor, I just assume that is what he said. Interrupting all thought processes within the house was this blood curdling scream that immediately indicates that someone is really hurt. (amazing how Mom's can tell the difference in screams of pain, verses he's bugging me).
I run into the living room to find Bradley, standing over the poop, with his hand (that is covered in poop) trying to get the poop out of his mouth, which of course is only making things worse. EWWW, so GROSS!!!
I scoop him up and deposit him in the tub fully clothed and commence to half drowning him while I try to rinse the poop out of his mouth so that he will stop screaming. EWWW!!! Eventually his mouth is clean and I strip him down for a bath now that we have poop splatter everywhere. EWWW!


When the twins were about a year old, they got a stomache virus from beyond. I felt so sorry for them as they were pouring from both ends. At one point I picked Tyler up and he threw up straight down the inside of my shirt (so much for v-necks). For days we suffered through pedialite and diaper cream, and lots and lots of changes of clothes - for all of us. Towards the end of it is when the poop art occured. They twins had finally made it through the night without getting sick and I was thrilled to have a full night's sleep. I heard them laughing as they woke up and I went in to get them out of their cribs. Apparently Tyler wasn't quite finished with the illness. He had pooped a nice bit, and then decided to take off his diaper and spread it all over the rails of the crib. Of course we had the cribs with the nice ornate bars with all these crevices that are great for getting poop stuck in. I was scrubbing that thing for HOURS!


Now we'e all heard of swimmies, you know the diapers for going in the water. But as a new Mom and Dad, we didn't know the real reason why. Someone had given us some when the twins were little, but they were so expensive I didn't want to buy more. The twins had a small kiddie pool, I figured what could a diaper hurt. What could a regular diaper hurt. Only the whole pool. Apparently when immersed in water a disposable diaper swells, and swells, and swells until it bursts at the seams. Inside are what look like little clear plasticy rolly pollies. And they go everywhere into the water. We had to drain the whole pool, trying to collect as many of those little suckers as we could to deposit them in the trash. (I'm sure we didn't want the kids to pick them up and eat them!). It was awful! Moral, either splurge for the swimmies or buy a plastic diaper to put over the huggies.

A child is a curly dimpled lunatic. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

ready, set, potty train!

Well, I'm ready. I went to the store on my lunch break and got all the gear.

• one potty chair (that converts to a seat adapter and stool)
• multiple CARS underwear
• peanut butter m&ms (because mommy needs a reward too)

This Fourth of July weekend, while others are off to the pool, visiting family, watching parades - we will be celebrating our own Independence Day - Independence from DIAPERS!!! We did the jam packed weekend last weekend, with the friends, parade, pool, fireworks, car burnout show (a boy thing), etc. This weekend it will be all about the potty.
Little Man started showing the signs a couple of months ago, but only recently have we been able to check them all off.

• dry through the night and nap time
• interested in the potty
• aware of when he goes
• desire to get the diaper OFF (not sure if that is a real sign of readiness though)
• Caught: sitting on the big potty, shorts off, diaper on

Most importantly its summer - (I don't train in winter) and I have a long weekend to work with. The twins were trained in the fall - turning 2 in July, they weren't quite ready - but by the end of August they were starting. I however was not prepared. Oh, I had the coolest potty chair given to me. It was able to have a picture on the lid, it had a handle and made cool flushing sounds and it had a recording of Mommy saying good job. I had special thick undies that stopped stuff from running down the leg. But after that, I didn't have a clue. I didn't know a thing about how to potty train a child, much less two. (Yes, I know, there are plenty of books out there, but I am not a self help book person).
I listened to great stories - of how I was trained in 48 hours. And horror stories - of how someone else took years. I got advice from all kinds of people (none of whom included rewards of any kind) about how often, what to say, etc. So I thought I was ready. We took the twins at the same time into our small bathroom, and Daddy showed them how it worked (I thought a man explaining would make it better - lets be like Daddy and all). And they thought it was neat, but no they didn't GET it. They enjoyed playing on the potty, in the potty, around the potty, but never actually used the potty.
I had figured T2, being just like his Mommy, would get it first. But about 2 weeks into our process, T1 all the sudden, understood. Finally, something, somewhere in there clicked and he got what was supposed to happen. A few days later he was done. No diapers, no pull ups (unless on car rides, because Mommy is a chicken), no wet bed. T2 was still not getting the whole concept. Maybe I started them too early, maybe I should've read a few books first. But I had one done and one not so done. Then one day, T2 walked in on T1 and while T1 yelled "OUT", T2 noticed his brother was doing something he couldn't. Well that was the end of that. T2 is never to be outdone by someone else, figured out what he was supposed to do and he too was done.
All of this was 5 years ago. Am I ready to try again? yes. Do I have a better strategy? yes. Do I believe that this time our son is a little more ready than the twins were? yes. Do I think it will happen in 48 hours? No. Not all of us can be that special :)

"A child can go only so far in life without potty training. It is not mere coincidence that six of the last seven presidents were potty trained, not to mention nearly half of the nation's state legislators." ~Dave Barry