Potty Potential

Here's another quick pre-holiday recap post (if that ever actually gets done), but this time, our subject matter is pee-pee and poo-poo. Yay!

I have told myself (and others) for some time now that after the holidays were over, I was going to start working with Owen on potty training. I would like for him to be fully trained by the time the new baby comes in April or May, and since he will be 2 1/2 years old next week, now seems like a good time. So, here we are, at this pivotal stage in my baby's development, and I have no clue where to start. Perhaps I'll just take you along on this journey with me — and if you have any pointers for me in the meantime, feel free to drop me a line.

{As a side note, Owen has had some sporadic success peeing in his Elmo potty chair (as you'll recall from this post), but he has not been consistent and we haven't really been trying to get him to go any time other than before his every-other-day bath. So, he's not completely unfamiliar with the concept of peeing in the little plastic bowl, but it's not something that's become a regular part of his routine by any means.}

Anyways, at the library today, I picked up a few light reading materials on the subject matter.

These are, of course, intended to get Owen more interested in using the potty and talk about how big boys transition from diapers to underpants, etc. I haven't watched the video yet, but we did read two of the books together tonight and Owen seemed relatively interested. So, I decided to give it a try. I pulled Elmo out into the living room and parked him in front of the TV. After only about 30 seconds of watching Blue's Clues without pants on (that is, Owen of course), he did it! And, as I gushed and gushed, he seemed genuinely pleased in himself this time! So, we washed our hands and he got a cookie as a reward. (Big mistake? Not sure yet.)

About 30 minutes later, he asked me for another cookie and I told him that he could only get another treat if he went on the potty again. So, he said "ok," which, if you know Owen, you know is a common response to all sorts of questions. I dragged Elmo back out and we repeated the whole process (only this time I think Dora the Explorer was on) and he peed again! I chose to reward him this time with something a little smaller (and more manageable on a long-term basis, I think) and gave him a Hershey Kiss instead. He was equally thrilled.

It wasn't long before he caught on to the idea that if he pees in the potty, he gets a treat and this boy is motivated by food (like his mama!) so he started asking me to "potty again." I think we'll wait until bedtime and try one last time tonight. And tomorrow, I have no plans other than to go to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things (see my list below), so we'll try an intensive day of potty patrol, though I'm not exactly sure what that is going to look like just yet.

Here is my list for the store, in preparation:

• Pull-ups
• Some sort of even smaller incentive treat (I'm thinking a bag of M&Ms, giving him just ONE each time he's successful)
• Carpet/upholstery cleaner (for the inevitable accidents)

(We already have a rather extensive supply of big-boy underpants, but I think I will start with the pull-ups and just see how that goes first. Anything else I'm missing???)

And of course, seeing as how I've never done anything quite like this before, I have a host of unanswered questions, like, is it OK to train with the Elmo chair or should I insist on using the real toilet (either with or without a kid-size seat attachment)? I'm concerned that if we get him trained with the potty chair, we will only have to re-train him to use the real toilet later, but currently, he FREAKS out if I try to sit him on one. (I've only ever put him on straddling, facing backwards, as I've heard that is the best way to make sure they don't fall in and don't spray pee all over the place.)

Another questions is just how exactly is the best way to approach this "training" stuff. Do I do a several-day-long boot camp and not leave the house until he figures it out? I already know the answer to that...my life is too busy for that and it's not really my style. For instance, I don't have any plans for tomorrow, so I can work with him all day at home, but the day after that, I've got places to go and things to do. So is it OK to switch back and forth between using the potty and wearing pull-ups or underpants, to letting him go in his diaper? Or will that just confuse him? Do I need to commit to this 100% or not at all?

Advice is welcome. In the meantime, I'm going to do something completely out-of-character for myself, and just wing it. I'll keep you posted on our progress...

If you don't have anything nice to say...

First off, let me just say that I have very good intentions of writing a Christmas recap post one day very soon (maybe even later today...), but in the meantime, I just had to jot this one down.

True to the notion that Owen teaches me just as much (if not more) than I teach him on a daily basis — something I have observed over the past two and half years — I realized today that I need to keep my verbal road rage in check...and fast.

Shortly after leaving the library this morning (I won't even go into the humiliating tantrum state in which we actually exited the building), I received a phone call from Ryan (on my new iPhone...woot!)

(Ok, this post is already starting to exceed the maximum number of allowable parenthetic statements, so I apologize in advance for that.)

Anyways, I received a phone call and while answering it, I nearly missed a stop sign, causing me to slam on my brakes to avoid running through a four-way intersection, which, thankfully was empty in all three other directions. I think I said something like, "whoa!" as I did it and then answered, "hello." Owen, on the other hand, responded to the abrupt stop with — and I quote, "Are you kidding me?"

I immediately asked Ryan to hold on and I turned around to ask Owen to repeat what he just said. (I wasn't sure that I had heard it correctly.) He wouldn't repeat it, but just smiled at me with a huge grin and giggled a little — which, incidentally, made me completely forget how angry I was with him only moments before for the major library exiting meltdown.

But I am fairly certain that that is what he said. Mostly because on our way to the library, I got stuck behind a semi-truck that, in addition to being in all the wrong lanes (i.e., going straight in more than one turn-only lane), was going sooooooooo slow! And I'm pretty sure I may have said something like (ok, exactly) what Owen said now. "Are you kidding me?" After that earlier incident, Owen spent the rest of the drive talking about "passing the truck" and "Mommy drive really fast," and "I don't want to do that again," -type statements. Needless to say, it obviously left an impression on him. And one that I'm not proud of.

I am grateful, though, that the only thing I said was, "Are you kidding me?" I have been known to say worse. And after Ryan and I finished laughing hysterically at our little imitator, it occurred to me how grateful  I am for the reminder to keep my anger, and especially my comments, in check. Stat. Thanks for that one, little buddy. Lesson learned.

Merry Kissmas!

Most of you have probably already received the hard copy of our Christmas card in the mail by now, but I thought I'd share it for you here as well. (Oh, and kuddos once again to Jackie Petersen Photography for the ah-mazing photos and card design. She's ridiculously good.)

And in case you missed it from our message above...

Merry Christmas to all!

J-O-Y to the mantle

(Or, the exciting transformation of my fireplace mantle over 5 days time.)

Here is my ho-hum mantle on any given day.

Sorry for the crappy picture. This was taken before I ever considered doing a blog post about my mantle (because why would anyone do that?), and was supposed to just be a reminder to myself on how to put things back once the Christmas decorations come down. Although, upon a recent close inspection of the framed wedding photo, I realized that both Ryan and I totally have double chins in that pose, so it will probably not be making a return appearance after the holidays. And the whole thing really is pretty bland and one-dimensional, so maybe I'll work on spicing it up a bit more in the future. Anyway, in the meantime...

Here was my mantle upon emptying the contents of my Christmas decoration bins.

Not bad, not bad. Just not quite Christmasy enough...

And here is my mantle now, after several (completely out-of-character for me) super-Christmas-spirited enhancements.

I love it! Of course, the most obvious change is that I took down the somewhat boring, but pleasant-in-color-palate picture that we normally have hanging above the mantle and replaced it with "JOY!" But I think that the garland adds a little extra touch of something special and makes me grin whenever I glance that way.

And I would actually prefer to have our stockings hung by the chimney with care, instead of from the bookshelf near the fireplace, but because of some super heavy-duty snowflake hooks holding them in place and a grabby toddler roaming around these parts, I fear a concussion and a subsequent trip to the emergency room by doing so.

The JOY canvases were pretty simple. I got the idea via pinterest (of course) from here. I bought three 16x20 canvases at Hobby Lobby, along with a yard of gold decorator's fabric, wooden letters, craft paint, and ribbon. I simply staple-gunned the fabric around the back side of each canvas and, after painting the letters (I used three coats of Folk Art Metallic Bright Red [493] acrylic paint) and allowing them to dry, I attached the ribbon with flat thumb tacks (both to the letters and to the top of the canvases). Donezo. I — a certifiable math dummy — managed to figure out the simple calculation for hanging them even and level (I'm pretty proud of that) and just used Command hooks to do so, so as not to put permanent nail holes in the wall. I completed the entire project off-and-on throughout the course of one day. That's some kind of project record for me, I think.

How about you guys? Have you had any unexpected bursts of holiday decorating pizzaz? Implemented any new pinterest ideas for the holidays? Here's another very simple idea that I implemented in my home for displaying all those Christmas cards that have been rolling in already. How am I so behind on that this year? I guess I need to apply some of that Christmas pizzaz into getting our cards done now.

Guess who peed in the potty???

I'll give you one hint. His name starts with O and rhymes with "goin'." That's right. We had our first actual pee in the potty chair last Wednesday. Of course, it was totally by accident. When I removed his diaper before his bath, he just started to go, so I quickly shoved him down on the potty (but not before he wet all over Elmo's smiling face! Ha!)

(Here's a photo of the day Owen and Potty Chair Elmo were first introduced, from this overly optimistic post back in March.)

Despite my obnoxiously enthusiastic excitement, Owen was less that thrilled about the whole thing. I don't think he quite grasped that he actually DID that. That he made the pee come out, that is.

We've been putting him down on the potty before his bath for a while now, but without any success. I was hoping that the day it happened by accident, he would finally see what it was that he was supposed to do whenever I say, "just go pee-pee, buddy." But so far, he's only done it one other time and I think that was completely by accident, too.

So, I'm not holding my breath that we're actually "there" yet or anything. But at least it's a step in the right direction!

In the meantime, check out my little bug looking cute as ever. (Photos courtesy of Jackie Petersen Photography.)

Brain dump

I think one of the big reasons why I have gone so long between posts (besides the crippling fatigue of the first trimester of this pregnancy) is because I don't feel like I have any "big" news to share. But there are always things going on around here — things of varying degree of "interestingness" (a word I just made up — you're welcome), especially depending on your relationship to me and my family. But since I have a moment this afternoon, I thought I'd jot a few things down.

And so, I present to you, a random sampling of my memories from the past few days, weeks, etc.
(These really are random. Sorry about that.)

Yesterday at the park, Owen came over to show me an acorn he had found on the ground, but he accidentally dropped it before he made it to me. I told him to look right behind him on the ground where he dropped it. He looked for a little bit (although it seemed he looked everywhere but the spot where he actually dropped it) and eventually picked up something else and brought it to me. I was horrified to see a petrified (thankfully) piece of animal poop in his palm and immediately smacked it away. A chorus of "Eww, dog poop!" accompanied us on the immediate stroller ride home. That'll teach me to carry hand sanitizer in the stroller at ALL times from now on.

I've started jotting down some of the funny things that Owen says, as I know I will forget most of them much too soon. He really says all kinds of things now — some funny and butchered, others perfectly pronounced — and I haven't been very good at writing them all down. But here's one I like a lot. Ryan recently returned from a business trip to New York City and brought Owen back a little, yellow, toy taxi car, which he looooves. He calls it his "New Yor City tapseap." I LOVE how "New York City" comes out nearly perfect, but "taxi" is the part that gets slaughtered.

Last night during his bedtime prayers, I asked him what food he was thankful for and his answer was, not surprisingly, "ice cream." (We had just snacked on ice cream earlier that evening.) I also asked him what drink he was thankful for and, not nearly as expected, he replied with "coffee." Hmmm. I had to chuckle!

He also recites both the "God is great..." and "Come, Lord Jesus..." prayers quite well before each meal. I'm constantly amazed at how much he is capable of absorbing — his brain is such a sponge!

I bought him a DVD from the $5 bin at Wal-Mart that has a bunch of classic Christmas songs from classic children's Christmas movies. (Think, those claymation versions of Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, etc.) The very last song on the disc is "The Little Drummer Boy" from a similarly cheesy claymation movie I've never seen. The first time we watched it, I took some time to describe for him who the characters were in that particular song — Mary, Joseph, the Wise Men, and of course, Baby Jesus. Well, after that song ended, the DVD was over. And, because he wanted to see more, Owen started screaming/chanting, "Baby Jesus! Baby Jesus! Baby Jesus!" Too, too, TOO darn funny and cute! Now, he refers to the entire DVD as "Baby Jesus," and we watch it pretty much every single morning (and some evenings, too).

For Halloween (see, I told you this post was random), we borrowed a bunch of costumes from friends because we really had no clue what to dress Owen up as. That, and we're cheap. Here are a couple that I managed to get him to try on...

Buzz Lightyear

Police Officer

But the winner was this adorable monkey. So cute!

As for how I'm doing (which I get asked all the time), I feel great. I have finally started to feel some movement from the baby, though it's still just that faint, fluttery stuff right now. I've also had some unpleasant hip pain that I don't remember having this early with Owen. I'm not sure if it's just my hips widening to make room for the baby or if I actually maybe injured myself. (I first started noticing it immediately after walking in a 5K race several weeks ago.) It's not a constant pain, but man, when I try to get up from certain positions, I feel about 85 years old!

I have broken out some of my maternity wardrobe, though most of it is really still too big for me. I'm in that awkward stage where my regular jeans are WAY too tight to wear comfortably, but my maternity pants seem to fall off of me with every step I take. So, I spend most days in sweat pants or yoga pants, which, really, is just fine with me. It's so different this time around not spending my days in an office cubicle, surrounded by co-workers. I'm enjoying being able to just lounge around in comfies!

Well, that's about all I've got for now. I hope you enjoyed the spewing of my brain on this fine fall afternoon. I have a feeling this might be how my posts are constructed for a while. You're welcome. 

Big news!

I'm not exactly sure why I've waited as long as I have to make this announcement on my blog, but here goes...Owen is going to be a big brother! Ryan and I are expecting baby #2 in April 2012 (April 24, to be exact.)

Maybe I put it off because most of the people that follow me on this blog already know this news. Or maybe it's because the excitement of a second baby is (regretably) less enthusiastic than with the first. Or maybe I'm just lazy. Most likely, it's some combination of the above.

But I am really excited! We've been "trying" for a while now, so it's definitely a blessing. Officially, I'm 16 weeks along and feeling great. (Gotta love that 2nd trimester!) The first was pretty good, too, though I'm glad to bid farewell to that overwhelming feeling of fatigue. I also had a little more nausea than I recall with Owen, but never anything too severe. (I never actually got sick, that is.)

I'm not sure yet how I will document my growing baby bump this time around, but I probably won't be as diligent as I was the last time, taking a picture every week. I did go back to my posts from February 2009 just this morning to compare how big I've already gotten to where I was back then and I'd say my progress is pretty similar so far.

Looking ahead...I'm excited to start feeling movement (hopefully any day now). We're planning to find out the baby's gender this time (so exciting!!!), but more on that in a few weeks. I am also planning to try to deliver via VBAC this time around. (Look it up if you don't know what that is — I can't bring myself to type what it stands for.) And I'm immensely anxious about introducing a new baby into our current lives with a very active (and very dependent) toddler. But, on the other hand, I just can't wait!

(Oh yeah, and I designed the decal on Owen's t-shirt in the photo above. Cute, eh?)

He calls it his "bird shirt" and he hates putting it on. Is that a bad sign?