The Problem and The Solution

Reagan loves the movie Cars. Really loves it. I think we watch it at least 7 times a week. And before any judgement occurs, it is rarely watched in its entirety unless it is Saturday or Sunday. And if it is watched, it is the only thing that is watched on that day. (Um, most of the time.)

As much as Reagan loves the movie, it comes second to playing with and reenacting the movie with his own Cars. This must run in the family because David seems to enjoy doing this, too. (I'm the smart one behind the camera.)

Part of this play involves playing chase. Observe:

The piece you just watched is called "The Problem". If you are 3 your bones are very "mushy" for a lack of a better word (very scientific, I know...please remember I've been home away from teaching for 3 years), and your mushy bones can go around and around and around and around a chair while crawling on your knees. However, if your are 33 your bones have lost their mush-factor. David often complains (under his breath) that this racing hurts his knees.

A little background info: David has 1/2 a kneecap in one knee due to a mountain biking injury, and he has recently diagnosed himself with a torn meniscus in the other knee. He frequently becomes Dr. David when it comes to his body...Megan knows this well.

Ah. But however cute and dorky my Dr. Husband is, he is very smart and resourceful. Please observe the following film I have titled "The Solution":

This is just one of the reasons I married him...and I'm not talking about just his cleverness. There are lots of giggles going on in this house!

Potty Progress

I really wasn't going to devote another post to our potty training until we had some serious news to shout from the rooftops, but alas--I have nothing else to blog about today since my life is totally consumed with tinkle and poop (our vocabulary in this house).

Last night Reagan got some tinkle in the potty! Most of it was in his big boy underwear, but some did make into the potty. We called my mom (Grandmother) and told her all about it. A few minutes later Reagan did it again! More tinkle in the potty. We were very, very proud of him.

Today I was looking forward to DAY 3 of our boot camp, as this seemed to be the magic day for Em's daughter (and another Mommy Nerd's daughter) months ago. According to these two moms Day 3 was still messy, but it may have been the last seriously messy day. And I thought between me and David being home it wouldn't be so bad.

Well, we promised Reagan a toy for tinkling on the potty, so we went to get that. (That is a whole 'nother blog in itself.) After that we went to drop something off at David's parent's house. We took the potty so we could play there for a bit. Then they invited us to lunch, so we went. We were gone from our house for about 3 hours...I felt like the DAY 3 was wasted since we were out and about. (I had also somehow taken the extra underwear out of my bag, so after Reagan had an accident he had to wear a Pull Up. Ugh!!!)

Here's the good news. Although we still had several accidents this evening after nap, Reagan POOPED on the potty this evening!!!! I won't go into detail, but he did not ask to sit and then poop. But poop made it into the potty!! We were all totally excited.

One of us (the one that is about 3 feet tall) was mostly excited because he got to spray the air freshener.

Tomorrow will be a challenge because, again, we won't be at home all day. We are going to go to church and then to lunch. But after talking to David about my "Em Pep Talk", I have accepted that there is no "wrong" or "right" way to potty train. We have taken bits of advice from friends and books and made our own system~~and not just to potty training. We have done this to our whole parenting system. So our "right" way is to stay home in underwear as much as we can. And when we have to go out he will wear underwear with a pull up over it. And we will continue to go to the potty while we're out and about every 1/2 hour to 1 hour. And it may take more than 3 days to fully train him, but we have accepted that this is our life for now.

And I'm good with it. :)

He Knows if You've Been Bad or Good...

Abby must have been a good girl this year.

Santa Claus came to our house sometime before I went to bed. I had just poured myself a glass of wine, and I was getting ready to watch A Christmas Story before I went to bed. (This was at about 12:30am...after our Christmas Eve celebration with David's family.)

When I walked into the living room I saw Abby sitting just like this picture with her nose to a bag of rawhide chews that Santa left for her and Elton. I promise that I am not exaggerating with I tell you she sat like that for the entire two hours that I watched the movie. Every once in a while she would lay down, but she'd pop right back up again with her nose just on the edge of the hearth.

David was worried that she'd warp the wood floor with her drool.

We had two very happy dogs the next morning when we finally opened the goody bag from Santa.

Christmas Images

Opening gifts on Christmas Eve at our house with the Babbitt family.

Making cookies with Daddy for Santa. I hope Santa likes colored sprinkles!











Setting out the cookies and milk for Santa. Reagan also wanted to leave an apple for Rudolph, an orange for Dancer, and carrots for the other reindeer.









Christmas on the 28th with the Grimes family at my dad's house. What is better than bubble wrap???

We hope your holiday was as wonderful as ours!

Help Wanted: Successful Potty-Training Mom

I'm taking Em's advice. Reagan has been in real underwear all day today, and we're not going back. We're in it for the long haul. Oh gosh. What have I gotten myself into?

I have been getting wonderful tidbits of advice, and I want to follow all of them. But I feel like this day and half of Kelly Type Training has already done the damage of Reagan resenting the potty.

Examples:
1. Give him one M&M for sitting on the potty and more or a bigger prize for doing something on it. (We actually have M&M treats through out most days. What else is there to give?? I'm thinking 1/2 a mini cupcake or something.)

2. Set a timer for every hour and put Reagan on the potty. (We've just constantly been asking, "Do you need to tinkle? Do you feel like you need to poop?" Every answer is "no".)

3. Use the big potty. (He HATES the big potty. Ok, so use a little potty. We have one, but it is entirely too small. We can't afford an extra potty. I think I just need to stick to the little potty until he has a few successes and then graduate to the big potty.)

4. Wear a pull up over his underwear if we need to run a quick errand. (I will definitely do this. This way we're not going back on the only underwear idea.)

I wish I could hire someone that is an expert at this so they can do all this work. :) I can pay you in mac and cheese.

Going Against My Beliefs

No Wii yet. I'll be sure to let you all know.

For all of Reagan's life I have said over and over that I would NOT put him in Pull Ups. And I have said that I just want Reagan to be 100% ready to potty train so that it doesn't take a month of training~~just a day or so. And I have said that it doesn't matter to me when he is trained~~he won't be wearing a diaper when he graduates from high school.

And I still want all those things.

But something, I don't know what it was, changed my mind yesterday.

I'm ready for him to be trained. Or at least in the process of training. I think he's the only kid in his Mother's Day Out class that isn't in a Pull Up or in real underwear. And I'm really ok with that.

However, there are times when it gets to me that he's in a diaper. Like at church. He is in the toddler class at church because he's still in a diaper. I've been told that he can be in the very, very early stages of training to move up to the 3 year old class. And we walk by the 3 year old class and they are doing such fun age appropriate things. Where as in the toddler class they mostly just play with big toys (like a kitchen or ride-on things). And who wouldn't want to give that up, right? But as a mother I want him learning in Sunday school and doing more challenging things.

And he's by far the oldest kid in his Sunday school class. I jokingly tell him to help his teachers with the babies.

David said last night that he thinks Reagan is lazy. (His words, not mine.) I'm quietly agreeing with him. I think that Reagan IS 100% physically and mentally ready. He is just choosing not to sit on the potty.

So today he was in a Pull Up. (Oh my gosh!!!! Something I would never put him in.) He had a choice between a Pull Up and regular underwear. He decided on the Pull Up, and I went with it. He sat on the potty once~~nothing happened. I don't know if he tinkled in his Pull Up, but he did poop in it. It was time for a nap, so I put him in a diaper for the nap. I told him that he'd only wear a diaper when he sleeps.

So things are changing at our house. Today we officially started potty training. Who knows? I may be able to dedicate all 365 of these posts (new challenge--post EVERY STINKIN' DAY in 2008) to potty training. But please pray that maybe it will only take 3...or maybe 15...or even 30.

Pictures of the holidays coming soon.

Happy New Year!

In response to Emily's post...

My 3 year old made it, too! Although I'm not sure if he quite understood what was happening. He just had to kiss his mommy for some odd reason in the middle of playing~~and say "Happy New Year".

We had a wonderful evening! We spent the early part of it with our playgroup buddies. The kids played upstairs (very nicely with each other) while the adults played Wii downstairs. Then we were off to another set of friends for about an hour.

Happy New Year to you all! I hope all your wishes come true in 2008.

And we're off to buy a Wii tomorrow...