Photo Friday

Here's a few pictures from this last week.  They're in no particular order.  But then again, our lives rarely follow a particular order.

milk, food coloring and dish soap make a fun, snowy day activity!

look who's trying to sit up!  And he found his toes :)

watching the football game

A Balloon Suprise

This afternoon we received a fun surprise at our house!

The card read:

Congratulations!  We're so proud of you on your potty training success! 

Love Grandma Marty and Papa Dave

Brooks was so excited.  And even more exciting (for me, not him) was that before he came downstairs and saw the balloons, he pooped on the potty!  And his usual reward for pooping is a new balloon.  Well, this was the grand-daddy of all balloon rewards!  Thanks Papa Dave and Grandma Marty for balloons.  Brooks loves them!!!

The Answer to all of Life's Problems

I bet you didn't think there was such a thing, but my four month old has proved otherwise.  Whenever things get tough for him (you know, all those terrible four month old problems he has), this is his "go-to" solution.  Night or day.  This is his answer to all his problems.  What is it you may ask??

Roll over.  Yep, that simple.  When life hands you lemons, just roll over.  At least that's what Carter does.

Hungry?  Roll over.

Tired?  Roll over.

Bored?  Roll over.

Need to burp?  Roll over.

Need a diaper change?  Roll over.

Happy?  Roll over.

Crabby for no apparant reason?  Yep, you guessed it.  Roll over.

Anytime Carter needs anything, he rolls over.  The funny thing is that it usually doesn't solve the problem.  (Well, unless it's the "I need to burp" problem, because the pressure on his tummy does make him burp.  But then he usually spits up and rubs his face in it which makes him cry anyway)  And when he realizes that rolling over doesn't feed his hungry tummy or change his diaper, then he gets even more upset.  (And changing the diaper of a baby who feels the need to roll over isn't so easy by the way.)

So I guess I don't have the answer to all of life's problems for you.  I'll keep working on it.  But until then, you can enjoy some super adorable pictures of my roly-poly baby :)

do you see my baby pushing himself up?  Who gave him permission to get so big?

He'll totally hate me for this someday

The Potty Training Diaries: Day 7

8:30pm
Well, our day started early in this morning.  As in 1am early.  Chris woke up to Brooks crying in his room and he went to check on him.  I figured he had finally pooped and wanted his diaper changed.  But when Chris went in he found that Brooks had puked.  All over himself.  All over his bed.  (sigh)

Brooks had complained that his tummy hurt earlier that evening and he didn't eat any dinner.  But I figured it hurt because he hadn't pooped since Friday afternoon.  Guess that wasn't it.  So we're trying to clean things up and Brooks is just crying.  He was tired, obviously not feeling well, and most of all he was upset that he could no longer wear his Buzz Lightyear jammies.  It seriously took me 10 minutes to convince him that Elmo jammies would have to do for tonight until we could wash Buzz.

We cleaned him up and tucked him back into bed.  Only to hear him throw up again 15 minutes later.  And again half an hour after that.  Poor kid.  There wasn't anything left in his tummy at this point, but I felt so bad that was sick.  We were out of clean sheets, so I just threw a blanket down over his bed for him to sleep on.  And of course he threw up on his pillow too so he didn't have one of those either.  His bed was looking pretty bare.  But fortunately that was the end of it and he slept straight through until 9am this morning!

He still didn't have much of an appetite today and just nibbled here and there.  I was trying to push fluids as much as I could.  My biggest concern with pukey sick is dehydration more than the throw-up itself.  So because his body was just absorbing all the water and juice he drank, he didn't pee too much.  But he did tell us when he had to go and always peed on the potty.  I'm feeling pretty confident that he can stay dry most of the time.
But he still hadn't pooped.  It had been over 48 hours since his last bowel movement (see?  I know his poop schedule better than my own)  So right before bed Chris sat him down on the potty one more time to see if he could get him to go.  They sang songs and told stories.  Anything to keep him interested in sitting there and pooping.  And he did!  Finally.

The problem though, was that since he hadn't gone in so long it was a really hard poop and his bottom was actually bleeding a little bit.  He was hesitant to even stand up after he went.  I wish I knew how to get him to poop more regularly.  Then it wouldn't hurt so much and he wouldn't be so upset by it.  But it seems the eternal battle with every kid potty training is how to get them to poop.  Hopefully he'll fall into a routine and become more comfortable with going on the potty.

Well, that's it!  Our potty training week has concluded and overall I say it was a success.  It was worth hunkering down and just doing it!  But I am looking forward to actually leaving the house this week.

The Potty Training Diaries: Day 6

9:00pm
Well, today was pretty uneventful (thank goodness!)  No potty accidents.  He was wet when he woke up from his nap, but just his underwear.  His bed was dry.  So it must have been just a little oops.  He didn't poop all day, which is a little disconcerting to me.  He used to poop every day at the same time ... like clockwork.  But now he waits until the very.last.moment possible to poop and we just hope he catch him before it becomes a disaster.  So I find myself hovering.  Do you have to poop?  What about now?  Now??  I don't want to put extra pressure on him, but seriously, if I have to deal with poop in underwear again I may just scrap the whole thing and put him back in diapers until he's 5!  Ok, maybe not but seriously, it was bad. 

So that's it.  I think we're in the home stretch and within a day or so I might just declare Brooks potty trained.  But then again, as soon as I do that we'll regress right back to having potty accidents all day.  So maybe no delcarations, but perhaps just a little less hovering.

To combat this otherwise boring potty training update, I'd like to note a few other observations during this process.

• Never have I been more aware of someone else's fluid input and potty output during the day.  It's like I measure it.  Ok, you drank 6oz of juice now, in about an hour there should be about 4oz of pee.  Ok, go!  I know eventually I won't freak out about it as much, but now I am hovering.
• Toddlers do not instinctively know how to pull up their underwear.  Since this potty thing is becoming more routine, I figure it would be wise to teach Brooks how to dress himself.  Well, at least the bottom half of himself.  But whenever it came to pulling up his undies, he'd grab them from the bottom and pull - twisting them into this bunched up mess on his 'you know what'.  So it took a few days, but I'm proud to say he can confidently pull up his underwear "from the top" and cover all necessary parts.  Most of the time.
• Potty training has not reduced my handling of poop and pee.  In fact, it has increased.  Instead of changing Brooks' diaper just two or three times a day, I'm now having to empty the little potty every times he goes.
• Diaper sprayers are useful for more than just spraying off cloth diapers.
• I sometimes just want to skip washing hands after going potty.  I know it's what we're "supposed to do" and yes it does eliminate germs.  But it takes forever for Brooks to wash his hands (push stool in front of sink, turn on water, get hands wet, squirt soap, rub hands together, rinse off, dry hands, move stool over to light switch, turn of light and done)  And that doesn't include the many times of me saying "Don't play in the water.  Just wash your hands.  No, seriously, stop playing in the water!"  And my hands are so chapped from washing them so many times.
• It's a good thing Brooks' pants have adjustable waists.  His pants barely stayed on his skinny little butt while he was wearing diapers.  Now with underwear there's little hope of them staying on at all!  Cinch 'em tighter!

The Potty Training Diaries: Day 5

2:30pm
Well, today is day 5 of our potty training endeavor.  After a really great day yesterday with no accidents I wasn't sure if I should expect the same today or prepare for some regression.  This morning went really well.  Brooks peed in the potty a few times and didn't have any accidents!  We're on the right track.

Right before nap time, he peed like usual.  Then he went into his room for nap.  I could hear him playing around in his room, which isn't too unusual for him to do before he falls asleep.  Then he comes knocking on his door saying he has to go potty.  Yeah!  I'm glad he's taking initiative to pee.  So into the bathroom we go.  No pee.  Then he starts playing with everything he can find in the bathroom.  Ah, so you don't have to pee, you just are putting off taking a nap.  You clever toddler, you.  So pants back on and back into his room.  I go to nurse Carter.

While I'm nursing I hear Brooks literally running laps in his room.  Good grief, what is that kid doing??  I finish feeding the baby and head into Brooks room to tell him to go to sleep.  And then I smell it.  That wretched awful smell.  Poop.  I tried not to be upset, but I really wasn't looking forward to cleaning this up.

"Uh oh.  You had an accident" I say.  Brooks wasn't as upset as I thought he would be.  But he certainly didn't like the feeling of poop in his underwear.  Hopefully this was a learning experience for him.  So I lay him down on the bathroom floor totally perplexed as to how I'm going to remove these poop-filled underwear without getting it everywhere.  And well, I never figured that out because as I took them off, poop smeared everywhere.  All over his butt, down his legs.  Oh gross!  And in the process he's kicking his legs because he just wants to get out of these poopy underwear, smearing poop even further.  On the floor, on my hand.  "Stop kicking!!"  I yell at him.

I manage to extract the underwear from his bottom and begin the multi-wipe process of cleaning him up.  I ask if he has to pee and he said no.  So I put him in clean underwear and pants and tucked him back into bed.  So there I am.  Just me and the poopy underwear.  Showdown.  Should I wash them in the sink?  Ew, no.  The bathtub?  That would probably clog up the drain.  And then I remember.  We have a diaper sprayer!  So I head downstairs, holding the offending undergarment at arms length and proceed to spray it off in the toilet.  I washed out the undies, threw them in the wash and scrubbed my hands with soap.  Done.  I know I'm naive by saying I hope I never have to do that again, it's true.  Here's hoping for a better afternoon.

4:00pm
Brooks woke up from his nap and thankfully he was dry.  He peed on the potty right away.  Then he said "I don't poop on Woody.  That makes him sad."  :)  Brooks sat down for a snack and had quite a bit to drink.  I'm not going to prompt him going potty this afternoon to see if he will tell me when he has to go.

5:45pm
Sure enough, Brooks came and told Daddy that he had to go potty.  Sat him down and he peed.  This is giving me hope after our poop disaster this afternoon.

10:00pm
The rest of our evening was pretty uneventful.  Well, except for our little "fire hose" incident.  From the very beginning we always taught Brooks to point his penis down while peeing.  (makes sense, right?)  He's always complied but tonight while peeing he pulled it out and well, you can imagine what happened.  He was so non-chalant about it as I started freaking out "Put it down! Put it down! Put it down!"  Fortunately the mess wasn't large and considering our poop incident from earlier in the day, it really wasn't even that gross.

We went out for a short trip to the grocery store with no problems.  We came home, Brooks made one more potty trip and we put him to bed.  Then about an hour later, he came knocking on his door saying he needed to pee, and he did!  I was so proud of him.  We was wearing a diaper so could have easily gone in that, but I'm encouraged that he knows the "gotta go" feeling and wants to pee in the potty.  What a big boy!

The Potty Training Diaries: Day 4

2:00pm
The morning went great.  No accidents!  We even ... wait for it .... left the house!  In underwear!  And Brooks did great.  I didn't remind him to inform me if he needed to pee for fear that's all he would think about (Chris and I had a meeting, so I really just needed Brooks to sit quietly and play for an hour and not get bored and ask to pee every 5 minutes.  A mother can dream, right?)  We made it all the way home and peed on the potty.  I didn't want to attempt peeing outside the house yet.  I'm not sure how he would do sitting on a "big" potty.  I suppose we should try it at home first, but I'm nervous.  Several months ago in a small attempt to potty train, Brooks said he needed to pee while we were out shopping.  So I took him to the bathroom and help him on the toilet.  That totally freaked him out and he abandoned potty training.  I don't want that to happen again.  I'd appreciate suggestions on public peeing.  (and yes, I do realize how ridiculous that sounds.  I'm holding on to hope that someday I won't have to handle other people's bodily functions all day)

4:00pm
Brooks peed right before nap and when I got him up he was totally DRY!  The bed, the floor, his underwear!  I seriously felt like dancing.  And, maybe I did just a little :)  He sat on the potty and peed quite a bit.  I'm so proud of my big boy!!

We did have one accident during snacktime but it had nothing to do with potty.  Brooks spilled his milk all over his shirt and pants.  I guess we just can't go a day without a change of clothes, can we?

9:00pm
This whole day has been accident free!!  Woohooo!!  I'm so proud of Brooks.  Most times I've been telling him when to go potty, but a few times he's told me he has to go.  I think tomorrow I'll let him initiate going potty more.  I went out this evening to our monthly LaLeche League meeting, so Chris was in charge.  He said Brooks did great and went poop again on the potty!  I don't think I'm ready to declare this potty thing "mastered" yet, but boy today was encouraging.  Hoping for more of the same tomorrow.