pee/poop in the potty

try #2

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest
Theo was pretty excited about using the potty a few months ago.  I blogged about and everything so you know it was like…whoa. He did really well. I didn’t wanna push him or stress him out. We got busy working on the house and I didn’t feel like it was my mother-in-law’s job to potty train my kid. So I slacked off and Theo got lazy. He hearts a diaper. 

I would talk to him about it from time to time.  Suggested wearing underwear.  He’d blatantly refuse. Throw fits. I quit asking. Here we are, weeks since the last time he’d worn underwear or peed in the potty.  I don’t know why, but a little over a week ago I started negotiating with him. I told him if he wanted to play outside, I needed him to wear underwear. He told me “mommy, I’ll pee in the grass.”  I said that was fine, no big deal, but if he did, we’d have to stop playing to come in and get cleaned up. No accidents.
The next day I asked him if he would just wear underwear in the car in the way to the sitter’s house. He caved for a sticker. The next day was tougher. He was crying and throwing a fit. I asked why and he said he didn’t want to poop in his underwears (he’s never dropped a deuce in the toilet).  I explained that he had already pooped that morning so he would be fine. No problems. That was last Friday.
He’s very aware of when he has his diaper vs. underwear on. He asks “am I wearing underwears still?” “Can I pee in my diaper?” Etc. He is smart enough to do it…he totally gets it. Now it’s just a matter of consistency on my part. He has to learn that this is the norm. This is what’s expected.  He’s worn underwear to the sitter the last 7 days that he’s gone and then worn his underwear all day except for nap & bedtime. I think he’s had 2 accidents.
Now if I could figure out how to get him to poop in the toilet. What’s that all about?
xo,
~C~

progress / no progress

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest

Progress:  A little over three months ago, we moved in with Ryan’s parents. Dexter was 12 (ish) months old so I figured it was time to wean him off of his bottle.  Oh, how he loved his bottle. During the transition of moving, I decided it was too much change and I didn’t want to push it. I kept putting it off and putting it off until about three weeks ago. We had a couple of rough and inconsistent days, then he got sick, really sick, and I just wanted him to drink to stay hydrated.  I didn’t care what he was drinking out of.  As soon as he was better, it was full steam ahead.  A rough few nights later, he totally adapted to the soft spout sippy cups and has not had a bottle for over two weeks now.  Success!

Nuk 10 oz learning cup

No progress:  Theo peed in the potty 3-4 months ago, too.  He has days and weeks of doing well, and then nothing.  Just a couple of weeks ago he declared that he wanted to wear underwears in the car.  I let him.  He did awesome. He did this a few days in a row and had no accidents.  Then he flipped the switch and turned it off.  That’s what he does.  Days of underwears then weeks of refusal to wear them.  I don’t know about this kid. Obviously he has the control to hold it and the ability to tell me when he has to go.  I think he’s just lazy.

Progress / No Progress:  Theo has been throwing the world’s worst tantrums all day every day (only a slight exaggeration) for the last couple of weeks, and they have been especially horrific the past 3 days.  So bad that I have cried the last two days.  I could go on for hours but let’s just say I feel pretty worthless and ineffective as a mother.  I have felt like his behavior is somehow a reflection of my parenting.  Without making myself cry again, let me just say that the point of this paragraph is the “progress” part, which happened tonight, sometime between tantrums.  He let me look inside his mouth (I’ve been trying for a month but he wouldn’t let me) and I found what I was looking for.  A two year molar that is all the way through, 2 that are about 3/4 of the way through, and 1 that is about 1/4 of the way through.  That makes me feel like maybe the teeth have SOMETHING to do with his terrible-ness, and it’s not just his age that is making him so terrible.  I feel terrible saying that he has been terrible.  But he has been… terrible. 
post S’mores bath – he’s cute when you give him chocolate
Progress: Dexter is talking more and more. He says short sentences.  They are very simple, usually beginning with “I want” and ending with “bottle,” “food,” “that,” “ball,” or whatever other object he sees.  But it’s a start!  He even knows some of his colors.  He’s fairly consistent pointing out blue, pink, and green already!  Theo picked up on colors really early too, so this must be something that we/our babysitter incorporate into casual conversation without even realizing it.  Exciting! I love it when they surprise me with their learning. 
Friday night, we visited the park near our new house!

Saturday night, post S’mores bath
Progress / No Progress:  I’m two weeks into my new job and I still love the company and the people but I’m in a weird spot with my actual position/work.  I’m still training.  But I’ve watched people do the same things over and over and over.  I’m kind of to the point where I cannot watch another person do the same thing again. I’m not going to learn anything else that way. I have to do it on my own.  I talked to my supervisor about it.  She agreed that I should try some things on my own; I did.  I couldn’t remember how to do stuff, so I had to ask for help fifty times.  I felt dumb.  It’s hard, going from being one of the smartest people at work to being, indisputably, the absolute dumbest.  
Progress, sorta:  Last weekend we emptied one of our storage units.  The smaller of the two.  We had hoped to be in our house by the end of August but that didn’t happen.  We still have to finalize our flooring plans and get it done before we move in.  The new goal is by the end of September.  I do think it is realistic. I hope I’m not wrong.  The boys’ bathroom is coming along really nicely.  I can’t wait to post some pictures.  The bathroom is going to be black, white, and gray.  I am torn between choosing a really colorful shower curtain to pull color from, like this: 
Or going straight up b&w, with something like this (which I really, really love, but wonder if it’s too blah for little kids):
What do you think?  Opinions, people!
xo,
~C~

easier/harder

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest

Do you ever feel like you’re wishing away the age that your child is at because it’s harder than what you anticipate the next stage will be?  I guess I wouldn’t say I’m wishing it away, but I find myself thinking “it sure will be better when…” Fill in the blank with anything the boys will be able to do 6 months or 6 years from now.  There is always something easier and harder than the way it used to be…there is always something easier and harder about the way it will one day be.

When the baby is a newborn, you’re thinking it will be nice when they can sleep through the night, tell you what you want, and doesn’t need to be held all the time. Later you remember how snuggly they used to be, how they used to nap 6 times a day, and how they didn’t ever say “mommy, I don’t like you anymore.”

When they are 6 months old you wish they could walk or crawl so you don’t have to carry them every second of every day anymore.  Once they start that, you’ll remember what it was like to sit them in one spot on the floor and leave the room, knowing they would still be there when you got back.  You know, as opposed to licking electrical outlets or something (mine have safety plugs, I’m just saying!).

Then they turn 2 and they start throwing tantrums like you’ve never seen. The kind non-parents didn’t know existed.  Then you think, man, it will be nice when he’s 5 and can be reasoned with at times like this.  You think it was a lot easier when we didn’t have to try to talk him into peeing in the potty every day.  Or bribe him to eat.  Or bribe him to do just about anything because he’s so dang independent that he wants to do what he wants to do when he wants to do it, or else (see first sentence of this paragraph).

Needless to say, I am only 2 years and 5 months into this parenting thing.  I can only imagine how I’ll be sitting around one of these days, feeling pretty sad about my boys driving away from home on Friday night to go to a high school basketball game or pick up their dates.  I’ll remember how they wanted me when they were sick and how they reached for me to pick them up out of their cribs.  I’ll think about the joy on their little faces when they were only 1 & 2 years old and they had just discovered something so simple and new.  Every time I find myself idealizing how wonderful the future will be, I bring myself back to the right now because these little kids of mine?  They are pretty much perfect and the most fun that they’ve ever been.  Will there come a day that I don’t feel that way anymore?  Hope not.

~C~