Playing peek-a-boo and look! He was holding his favorite toy airplane, Dusty! So this was before he buried Dusty in the sand. We spent 10 minutes looking, but Dusty was never to be found again. He’s hoping to get a new one for his 3rd birthday.

I’m sitting by the bathroom, making sure JD does not splash while he takes his bath. I can hear some other children of mine downstairs, voicing their disapproval of what I’ve cooked for dinner, and well….I’m thinking perhaps some of my summer vacation plans should be alone….maybe Alan can come, but that’s it.

When Aunt Janet and Daniel get together

So here’s my EXCITING NEWS. JD suddenly up and decided to start pooping on the potty this week. I’ve died and gone to Heaven, but first, there was that one day….

JD, you just made your momma so happy!!!

–John David excitedly met me in the hall way shouting, “I pooped in the potty! I pooped in the potty!”

Cautiously, I ran to the toilet to check his story. Odd. He seemed so proud, and there was a smudge in the bowl, but no poop….

“JD, where’s the poop?”

“Right there!” So it was. There was a shiny wet log, wrapped in a baby wipe like a poop-hot dog, sitting there on the bathroom counter.

“Oh!!  Ah!! Okay, JD, Mommy is so proud of you. Yeah!!  Good job!!! It is so great that you pooped on the potty. You are a BIG boy now, but please, next time, let’s leave the poop in the potty.”

“Yes, JD, so great. Big boy! Definitely always leave it in the toilet.”

….Then the next day he pooped in his underwear again. I wasn’t impressed. JD asked, “So I’m a little boy again?”

Sigh.

But ever since he’s been doing it the right way. He just suddenly shouts, “I gotta poop!”

We help him with his shorts, and then he runs off to the potty. Hurray!!!

“I’m making dirt angels!” (There aren’t enough baths in the world to keep this many little boys clean.)

So let’s recap the month of May:

Thesis: finished

Homeschool: DONE!

Field Trip to The Farm

Last child in diapers: Potty-trained!

Ablation: Canceled. Monitor inserted instead. I’m having lots of dizzy spells, though. I don’t know if they are a heart thing, but I have an appointment on Thursday.

Preschool: Graduated!

That was the last time my camera was seen or used, unfortunately…Sigh. No idea where he put that thing.

The move: all booked, scheduled, and planned. We are 3 weeks out!!!!

New House: Well, I’m still working on that one. Let’s not be hasty when it comes to my home sweet home.

The big boys: Improved their wardrobe by 100% by letting them watch The Sandlot. After that, they started dressing like Rodriguez, from the movie, and playing baseball ALL the time. They started their own league, at the elementary school baseball field, called The Sandlot League.

Don’t get too excited. They are already starting to go back to neon basketball shorts with shirts that don’t match.

The food: Emma introduced us to a delicacy that I sort of became addicted to, and you can buy them at the local farmer’s market:

Oh, yeah. Gluten free caramel apples!

Things are sounding pretty awesome, don’t you think?

It reminds me of that saying that you hear at church:

“God is good all the time. All the time, God is good!”

Alan and our friend, Tom, are taking the three oldest boys and Tom’s son to a minor league game today. JD and I are hopefully working on cleaning out drawers and cabinets in preparation for this move. I’ve already completed 4 closets, the buffet drawers, and the living room.

It feels SO GOOD to haul stuff off to Goodwill!!

One last story:

This is what my to do list looked like the other day:

-Morning Chores

-Check on Daniel.

-Shower/get ready

-Check on Daniel.

-Start sheets.

-Check on Daniel.

-Put away laundry. Move sheets to dryer.

-Check on Daniel.

-Well, you get the idea.  He’s such a good kid, and I can take him anywhere, but left to himself, he is busy, creative, and mischievous. You never know what he might decide to do!

Sometimes I do wonder what he will try next.

hehehe, fun with Aunt Janet’s iPad….And yes, that’s our thankful tree in the background. Yes, it’s almost June, and it’s been up since Thanksgiving. I couldn’t bear to take it down, I like thankful trees even better than Christmas trees. So much less stressful!!

Happy Memorial Day, y’all!

The post Exciting News, Dirt Angels, and Checking on Daniel appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

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.

sweet little dirt boy

JD is the definition of “all boy”. He requires 2 baths and 3 sponge-downs/day. He plays in dirt, sand, mud, and water. He’s the easiest toddler in the world because you will hardly hear a grunt out of him all day.

He wakes up, and he says, “Dirt?”

“You want to go play in the dirt?”

“Yeth.”

Sometimes, I promise, he wears shoes.

“Sure,” and we open the door to our mini-fence. It is literally a mini-fence. It is the size of a bedroom, and since there is no air-conditioning or bugs, we just leave the door to the house wide open. JD spends half the day in his tiny play yard.

He’s so filthy by noon that I bathe him, feed him lunch, and put him to bed. He sleeps for a couple of hours. Then he wakes up and says, “Dirt?”

“Dirt? Beach?”

He calls his sand box the beach.

Right now JD and Daniel are actually inside. JD has 2 Sarge jeeps from the Cars movie, so Dan convinced him to let him hold one. JD is very serious about his car collection. His favorite is this random hot rod called Boost. We only know his name is Boost because it’s written on his license plate.

All day:

“Boost?”

“Beach? Boost? Dirt?”

“Where Dad?”

“Boost.”

“Where Dad?”

He’s so cute, we just can’t leave him alone, and he’s two so he still likes to cuddle with me.

Notice the halo. Apparently, he truly is an angel! Or I should turn my flash off…

He was not impressed with the Potty Training Pep Talk that I posted last week. He’s boycotting the potty.

trampoline time

I was all geared up for the process too, y’all. I took a deep breath, Alan bought underwear, and I announced our plan to the tiny man.

“Look JD! Underwear! You are a big boy. You can pee on the potty and wear underwear.”

His eyes filled with sudden panic. His jaw set in utter determination.

Hmmm. The family stubborn gene is also strong with this one.

“Nooooooooooo!”

Uh-oh.

This is not how I had this planned.

I forged on. He wore the underwear, not that he approved of it.

I took him to the potty.

“Noooooo!” He fled the potty as though it were a rattlesnake. I don’t get it. Three weeks ago he loved the potty.

Why do toddlers pull this kind of mess?

Sooooo…..I put the underwear in the drawers. I put the boys back in Luvs. I’m going to have to buy a stupid tiny potty. I didn’t want to. It’d be so much easier if he’d just use the big potty like the rest of us. That’s what Daniel did.

But let’s face it. JD and Daniel are about as alike as a dog and a cat, so my next step is to try the little potty.

What? Does your house not look like this? Yes, they also play with my shoes. Shoes are obviously magnificent toys.

Do any of my California peeps have a potty they aren’t currently using that we could borrow for, oh, I don’t know, 6 months?

Each baby continues to remind me: As a parent, we never have this thing figured out. Each baby is unique, and some babies are down right humbling.

Embrace the humbling. Pride cometh before a fall.

Hope you are all having a great week! Anyone have any similar potty stories they’d like to share?

Do tell.

Update:

Getting a little potty did make a huge difference in JD’s willingness to participate in potty training. He used it right away. He even pooped on it the first weekend, which he followed by not pooping on it again for months. No, really months. Sometimes potty training is a long drawn-out process, and that is the truth.

The post Dirt boy does not wish to go to the potty. appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Right?????

Wrong. There are some things in life that you dread more with experience. As a first-time mom, I had no idea the things that can happen during potty training. How could anyone know these things? I was just stumped as to where to even begin.

Now that I’ve had a few toddlers, I know so many of the best case scenarios and the worst case scenarios. I roll my eyes at the trendy theories. I do. I’m sorry. I can’t help it. I’m completely puzzled as to why they say that running a 4 month-old to the toilet every 30 minutes is easier than strapping a diaper on them. And no, I’m sorry, I do not do 24-hour naked toddlers in my house. I have carpet, and enough pee will end up where it shouldn’t as it is. Why tempt fate? Underwear works just as well. No one wants to walk around in wet pants.

This is one of the few things we usually do pretty well. The last two boys were completely potty trained by 2 1/2. (But with one of them it felt like he was ‘training’ for a year!)

So here’s my pep talk:

To myself, or to any of you sharing this phase of life with me, whether it’s your first kid or your 10th, or whatever. I’m not saying I’m an expert. This will be a job, but let’s face it. It HAS to be done.

1. Your son is READY. He keeps telling you he’s ready. He keeps asking to visit that potty. It is TIME. You can do this!

Side note to first-timers: Your kid may never ask to use the potty. This is something only my subsequent children did. Unless they see other small children using the potty, the thought may not occur to them until you push it.

2. It really does only take a couple of days of the hard-core training to get the BASICS down. Accidents will seem like they keep randomly happening for months, but the basics will be mastered in just a couple of days.

3. We have tons of fluids ready to pump into the toddler. This will make it easier.

4. Toddlers are easy to please. You can do rewards, but you can also just throw a happy, jumping up and down, whoo-hoo, Wow! You did it! party, and they will feel greatly rewarded.

5. I have the other boys to help me. They are more than willing to coach and demonstrate for little bro.

6. UNDERWEAR. Pull-ups are a no-no for week 1. Save those for long car trips and night-time. Yes, I have unashamedly asked a toddler, “Can’t you just pee in your pull-up?” on a long car trip before. I’m not going for some trophy here. They know what’s going on. Unfortunately, they usually say no.

7. Get ready to do some laundry. The underwear and pants keep a lot of pee off the floor, but lots of laundry will be required.

And here’s the ugly truth about some things that might happen.

1. Even the best potty-trained kid will randomly poop in their pants, two years AFTER you potty trained them. We all have troubles.

2. Poop playdoh. It could happen to you. Steam cleaners work wonders.

3. Poop crammed into helicopters. I don’t even remember which boy that was.

4. Emergency peeing in public.

5. Discovering your child naked in someone’s yard on a playdate, peeing. It will probably happen.

6. Peeing on the trampoline. Just one of them did that.

7. It may be mastered overnight, or it may not feel like they are truly, completely, accident free for a solid 6 months. Don’t let it bother you. If you start potty training early, that is totally normal.

Make sure you aren’t just potty training yourself. If you set a timer, and run that kid to the bathroom every fifteen minutes, he will only learn that Mom is a little neurotic. The first few days, you may need timers. Past that, you have to let it go. Let the fear of wet underwear work its magic. Let them fail. We learn from failing.

Don’t despair if your kid doesn’t “Potty train in 3 days” even after you use the trendiest method on the market. Kids have plenty of their own developmental stuff going on, and they deserve lots of grace when learning new things.

I just pump in the fluids, put a stool at every potty in the house, take away the diapers, tell the toddler what to do, escort them to the potty often, and go with it.

We can do this…..as soon as we run to Target because I actually forgot to buy toddler-sized underwear.

Let’s hope this is less eventful than potty-training Daniel. You can read about that here: Toddler Fits and Potty Training and here: Potty Training: Guest Post by Daniel, age 2

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We arrived in Alabama with much excitement. Vacation, whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!

I spent the first few days of it in Florida with my mom, and it was paradise indeed.

Then I reunited with my children. We put JD to bed, and that’s when I remembered. Vacation groooooaaaaaaan. Vacation with a toddler. Does it really qualify as “vacation”?

There are still fun times, but the story of vacation week #2 is definitely all about the little fellow we sometimes refer to as Angry Bird, a nickname he lives up to at night when you put him in a crib that is not his familiar bed at home.

He likes to stand up in his crib and shout and holler and fake cry for 10-15 minutes, which feels like 30. Then he, ever so carefully, lies down and covers himself back up with his blanket and goes to sleep.

I’ve told you before that JD does not like change. His coping method has been to fasten his body to my lap all day. Anywhere we go, we go together. He is literally overjoyed to have his mama back. How dare I leave him for 4 whole nights???

It’s so sweet, really. He climbs all over me grinning and giggling, “Mom! Mom! Mom!” That’s all well and good, and I do enjoy it, until we’re in the pool, and I think I’m about to drown, or he holds on to my clavicle like it’s a safety rail. Yow!

We hear the same words a lot from JD lately:

“Mom? Mom? Mom.”

“lap. lap.”

“Want juice.”

“Noooo. Juice.”

“Cars. McQueen. Cars. McQueen.”

“Want Cars.”

“Want to go walk. Go walk.”

“Donut. Donut?”

“Outside.”

“Slide? Swing?”

“Mac. Doc. McQueen.”

“Read to me.”

“This.”

“Here you go.”

“Yes ma’am. Un’er’tand.”

“Pee pee.”

Wait a minute. Did he say pee pee?

Yesterday, Mom and I took all of the boys to a water park. It’s the best work out ever. That’s not due to all the swimming I do there. It’s because JD is very heavy to carry around in the 90 degree heat. I ate all the onion rings I wanted at lunch, knowing full well that I was burning about 300 calories an hour, carrying JD around.

We’d been there about 30 minutes, when Daniel announced that he had to go to the bathroom.

I think I have the only kids in America that NEVER pee in the pool. Mom was at the water slides with the big boys, and I was at the kiddie pool with the little ones, so I had to take JD to the bathroom with us. He hates his sandals, so I carried him everywhere. He just couldn’t possibly walk in those shoes.

Guess how long we spent in the bathroom. 30 minutes. First, the toilet was too tall, so I had to lift Dan up in the air for him to pee.

I cringed the whole time to see poor JD standing in the bathroom floor barefoot.  Ewwww. Best Mom ever.

As soon as I put Dan down, he said the dreaded words, “I have to go poop.”

Ooooo, no. Why didn’t he inherit my refusal to do that in public? I set him up and closed up the stall.

I turned and looked at JD, who thankfully, is the kind of toddler that never wants to wander away from me and actually listens when I say, “Stay with me.” (Thank you, JD.)

JD pulled on his trunks, which are a size 18 months, pulled as tight as they can go, and still are falling off of him. The he said the dreaded words, “Pee pee. Pee pee.”

No, JD is not potty trained. He’s been standing in front of the potty asking to go pee, unable to make anything come out for months.  Of course, he suddenly figured out how to make it actually come out on vacation.

First, I looked for another toilet. What do you know? The other stalls had shorter toilets!

Wha? Poor Daniel. So I started to help JD, figuring he’d just stand there and nothing would happen, as usual.

Nope. He peed all over me and the floor. I know that it was pee and not pool water because it was hot.

Cheer or cringe? Cheer or cringe?

I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to be returning to the potty training phase. We won’t be trying to work on this until we return home, but we have a little fellow that is obviously ready.

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

Mom and I also took the boys to Chuck E Cheese. The three oldest had a blast. JD had fun too, but oh gracious. Never take a 2-year-old to Chuck E Cheese unless you absolutely have to do so. That’s my best advice.

I figured he’d like the ride-on cars. No.

He cried. I thought he’d like the thing you climb up in. I was actually relieved he didn’t go near that. I would have had to climb up in the thing and fetch him when he realized how high he was and started crying, like he did on the elephant slide in the kiddie pool.

Thankfully, he did love the pizza and air hockey. He played air hockey with his hands instead of the bumper thingy, but hey, he played, so I was happy.

It’s just hard to enjoy Chuck E Cheese when you’re two because everything is taller than you, hard to push, and apparently, rides are very scary for some.

By the way, do you see JD’s hands in the photo above? They are FULL of cars from the movie Cars. He carries them around everywhere, all the time.

**********

JD is getting more used to Alabama now. I am sitting in the living room, watching Hoodwinked with the kids and my dad, and wonder of wonders! JD is not in here climbing into my lap! I can actually hear him in the kitchen playing cars! Hallelujah!

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

By the way, don’t bother texting me this week. I also drowned my cell phone.

I put it in the bottom of the stroller with a water bottle that leaked.

The funny thing is that I haven’t missed my phone at all. I feel FREE, really really FREE! Cell phones are sort of a ball and chain, aren’t they? In fact, the only thing I will potentially miss is the GPS.

Meanwhile, you can email me, contact me on Facebook, or call my mom. I’m more of a laptop girl anyway. Sorry, y’all!

I hope you are all having a great week. We are sunburnt, bug bitten, bothered by gnats, and eating all the southern vegetables and fried chicken a person could want! Life is good. Roll Tide!

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