So proud of our big boy!

Alan and I agreed that this would be the perfect weekend to begin JD’s potty training. Why? Well, it was because yesterday, while JD was playing quietly in his room, he took off a poopy diaper all by himself, and let’s just say the Lightning McQueen blanket may never be the same…

Of course, that was completely forgotten by this morning. I was standing at my sink putting on my face, when JD walked over to the toilet and said, “Potty. I go potty, Mom. I go potty.”

Oh, right. He did not forget. That’s usually what it takes for potty training dreaders like me to finally get it done.

So we did it. HE did it! I stripped down his bottom half. That’s right. He went naked bottoms all day long.

It was so easy. JD’s readiness made it a breeze.

We now have three successes in the pot and only one accident—Yeah, he peed on the Lego drawers.

This morning he went two hours without going, so I poured warm water over him, as he sat on his little potty. That did the trick. Then the other times, he just casually walked over to his potty and peed. Whoot!

Oh, and I use pull-ups for nap time, and wonder of wonders. When we opened the Pull-Up box, there was a full-sized stuff Mickey Mouse in the box! What a perfect surprise for his first day of potty training! He was so excited.

We didn’t even have to resort to candy bribery. Throwing a jump up and down party worked well for JD.

The third time he went, he stood back, pointed at his potty and said, “Ta-da!!”

hehehe

Hurray!

The post DAY ONE OF POTTY TRAINING JD TA-DA!!! appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

my chubby little cherubs

Soccer season is officially over. We have a couple of weeks of peace and quiet. (Sort of. We do still have four children.) Then basketball season starts. Caleb and Joshua will be playing on the same team this year, with Alan as their coach!

Daniel is now enrolled in a pre-school! Just half day, and he doesn’t start until January, but  I’m excited for him. He’s going to love it.

JD is becoming quite the blabber mouth. It used to be that Dan followed me around all day and talked my ear off. Then the cold and the rain came. JD does not enjoy the cold or the rain, so he stays inside now. He’s like a leg appendage half the time, and he has plenty to tell us. There is no word that he cannot say. There is no feeling that he cannot express. There is no need or want that he does not feel compelled to share with me.

“Gert? Gert? I want gert.” That’s right. JD correctly uses pronouns. Hurray!

“JD, please get out of the fridge, and yes, you may have a yogurt, but get out of the refrigerator.”

“Poon. Poon. I get it. I get a poon,” as he fishes around the drawer, which is so high compared to him, that he can only peek into it with one eye, as his hand searches for a spoon.

“Got it!” He runs to the table.

“Nakin. Nakin.”

“There’s a napkin right in front of you. See?”

“Oh.”

He says ‘oh’ all the time, and it’s adorable. He tells people hello, and it’s adorable. He says pretty much anything and it’s adorable. That’s the beauty of being two.

“Done! Cars. Cars. Cars. Cars book. Read me. Read me this Cars book,” as he shoves his laptop-sized book in your face.

I try to at least read to him once per day. The others all got so much more of my time. I want to squeeze this poor little home-school toddler. If his brothers were at school, he’d get so much more of my time.

There are so many pros and cons to the home schooling. JD may not get as much one-on-one, but he adores running around with his big brothers, which he gets to do so much more of this way. He’s much better at entertaining himself than he probably would be if he were my sole focus. He made a Duplo tower today, all by himself, that was as tall as he is.

Oh, and the boy has sweet manners. I never have to ask him to say ‘thank you,’ he does it naturally. He also says, “No, thank you,” when he doesn’t want something.

**********

I’m off to bed. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. My old lady hip is angry with me. If it doesn’t improve, I will be tempted to cave and get a steroid injection. I keep reminding myself of the long term disadvantages to that, though, so I’d rather not.

I did receive the rheumatologist referral in the mail this week, so maybe I will soon be getting more answers. God knows. God knows what is causing my pain, and he knows what I need.

This home-school experiment has forced me to lean on the Lord more than I ever have, and  I’m learning so much. I would that everyone would have the opportunity to be given more than they can handle! Haha! That’s what it has taken for me to learn how to trust God more.

Okay. I will really go to bed now. Bring on the weekend!

The post So let’s just talk about the two-year-old and other updates appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Case of the Missing Lightning McQueens: Solved!

JD is obsessed with three things: dirt, Lightning McQueen, and Mom. After all, he’s two.

He inherited at least one Lightning McQueen car from his big bros, but he has also been given several as gifts. He got at least one for Christmas, he got three or more for his birthday, plus he got one when Nonna visited. All total, I’m thinking there should be a pile of 10 Lightning McQueens somewhere in this house, yet we can never find ANY of them.

The other day, JD was under the dining room table, when he suddenly began shouting, “McQueen! McQueen! McQueen! Lightning McQueen!”

Alan was home alone with JD. I have no idea where the rest of us were. Alan crawled under the table with Dirt Boy, and sure enough there was the cache! FOUR Lightning McQueens and several race cars were all hiding in a panel under the table. You could just see one on the end poking out, and the rest were still in the panel. Alan had to slowly work them out from this wooden tunnel that we did not even know existed under our table.

It was the event of the week. Caleb and Daniel arrived home and pounced on the opportunity that I have been promising them but have yet to deliver them.

Daniel snatched one up, “Write my name on this one! Write my name on here!”

JD was in bed, so the collection was left undefended.

You see, JD is a HOG of Lightning McQueens and race cars. No one else gets to touch one if he’s around. I dutifully wrote Daniel’s name on one and Caleb’s name on another.

Our boys take the whole name-stamped-ownership thing as gospel truth, an unbreakable definition of ownership. Even JD understands the importance of it.

Unfortunately, I wrote Daniel’s name on a rusted one, so he keeps trying to trade JD, only to be met with, “NO! This yours (points to Daniel’s name). This mine!” as he points to his own name on the shiny new one.

There can never be enough Lightning McQueens.

**************

A couple of weeks ago, Nonna texted me a question that went something like this, “Can you post your favorite pics of the boys? I’m working on a Christmas project.”

I texted her back, “Christmas!? It’s only August!”

“Get with the program, girl! Christmas is only 11 weeks away!” she sent back.

So I sent her this picture, because this is how I feel about Christmas shopping, airplane tickets, and suitcases:

Oh, Christmas….

I have my reasons….

Thank you, Merry Christmas, Excuse Me, I’m Sorry…..On the return trip it took a month to get all of our suitcases back…

Our Nightmare Before Christmas….You would cry too if it happened to you.

Melancholy Christmas Cards and Dental Nightmares

I need to remind myself of this one: Best Christmas Ever

***********

 JD ate three bowls of cereal this morning, and when he was finished he took both of his spoons and ran to the kitchen. He opened the spoon drawer, tossed in the two dirty spoons, and proudly proclaimed, “Did it!” Then he dashed to the living room.

A super-mom probably would have taken that opportunity to show JD how to put his spoons in the sink. Actually, Super-Mom would have only allowed him the one spoon in the first place…

I, on the other hand, busted out laughing and rushed to find Alan to tell him the story. Oh, but first I made a note on the wipe-off board to put it on my blog.

Then I finally fished the offending spoons out myself.

*********

Roll Tide, y’all!

The post Just the Funny Paper: Hilarious Toddler Stories appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Who do you think does the packing in a house of five males and one woman?  Call me sexist, I don’t care. The answer is Me. I will naturally be handling this.

Don’t short change Alan, though. If you haven’t figured this out yet, he does MOST of our Christmas shopping.  I know! I bet not too many of you can say that! I did manage to buy a few things for the women on our list this year.

He also put together shelves for me today, and he is now out with Joshua buying him a winter wardrobe of shirts. Meanwhile, he still has a fever. He and the boys have the boys’ annual winter sinus infection. For Caleb, that won’t go away until probably June. Is that weird?

Hillary. I’m actually asking my friend Hillary. What do I do with my nose-runs-all-winter-every-single-year child??

Okay, back on topic.

I just had to share this, because I thought it was funny.

I, in my bossy April way, said to Alan, “Everyone is allowed three pairs of pants in their suitcase (for our 9 day trip).”

Alan, after agonizing over which pair of pants to take, finally gave me ONE pair.

“Alan, can you get me two more? You’re allowed to bring 3.”  Yes, I am that bossy about packing, and not about everything, I promise. If I didn’t behave this way, it would be time to leave, and no one would be packed.

Alan, completely serious, replied, “Three pairs of pants!! That’s excessive!”

It’s a nine day trip!!  That just cracked me up. Meanwhile, I’m proud to announce that I am even holding myself to only three pairs of pants. 🙂

As we speak, Daniel is the only person who is completely finished packing.

I cannot describe to you how wonderful it is to have finally birthed a type A child. I LOVE them all equally, but when you’re trying to get six people ready for a trip, having an extra type A on hand sure does come in handy!!

Good news for grandparents. I did not allow Joshua and Caleb to pick out their clothes for this trip. You are welcome.

Am I nervous about flying with four children again? Yes, a little. Here’s what happened last time:

The Flight of Four Children

Merry Christmas, everybody. I gotta go. JD just knocked over the Christmas tree. I didn’t even know that was possible.. Sometimes I wonder if we will ever be able to get out of here.

The post Of course, Mom ends up packing everybody’s suitcase. appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.