Crisp Autumn Eve 3 Column from TCBOTB

Monday, January 24, 2011

100% POTTY Trained ..... and I stress POTTY

Yep, that is right. To date, MacKay and Oscar have had NO pee accidents for the past 3 days. The only times they have accidents now are pooping accidents (which sometimes are accompanied by a little bit of pee dribble but not an entire pant wetting experience like before). It is SO great. Though we still need to work (or wait) on the pooping part, I am SOOOO happy that they are doing so well at pee'ing in the potty. Up until recently I was asking them periodically if they needed to go .... sometimes they said yes, but usually they told me no as I was asking so frequently. On a few occasions they actually would tell us they had to go. MacKay's way of letting you know he has to go is quite interesting... he tells you he DOESN'T have to go or that he ISN'T wet/poopy. I caught that one only after 2 instances where he did that. Today I decided to leave it up to them to just tell me all the time and they are doing really well. They sorta feed off of each other on it .... they see the other have to go and it makes them think about it and the 2nd one usually isn't too far behind in the race tot he bathroom.
I also decided late last week to attempt "standing" while peeing with them. Mainly because Oscar, again, pee'd at school and messed himself up a bit. At home they come to rely on that "guard" on the potty seat/chair... but at school (and every other public place) they won't have that and need to either know to direct their flow down or just do it standing up. They weren't fans of standing on a stool in front of the toilet - I think they didn't feel stable and were more worried about falling. And those holes in the potty chairs are WAY too small. So we started them out with getting them to pee into an old ice cream bucket in the shower. They did that a couple times and then lost interest. So this morning I decided to try the cheerios trick with MacKay. He did well and really liked it.... so I grabbed a ton of toilet paper and proceeded to draw pictures on the individual pieces .... for them to sink into the toilet. I asked them to help me think of things they wanted on them and we ended up with: Diesel 10 (big shocker), spider, fish, octopus, boat, sailboat, smiley face, snowman, helicopter, train, star, shark, etc. So I put my artistic talents to use to make things for them to pee on. They now are DYING to get into the bathroom to go pee, even when they don't even have much in them. Pretty funny. They still thoroughly enjoy all the steps they go through in the bathroom and are getting SO good at doing them all on their own. They pull down (and up) their pants with very minimal help if even any at all, dump the bowl from the potty chair in the toilet (though Oscar dumped an entire bowl full on the floor the other day as he wasn't paying attention), flush the toilet, get their sticker for their chart/tree, wash their hands, and lastly get their M&Ms.
The other big event for the boys: their new room/beds. All last week we were getting ready to do some major painting etc this weekend. Thursday night the ceiling was "popcorn'd" and we had orange peel texture put on the walls. Gma Chris came up Friday afternoon to help watch the kids while we focused on the bedroom, and their cousin, Kelly, visited for the day which always is a treat for the kids as well.. Gma Chris was quite impressed with how much progress the boys had made with potty training and kept up our endeavors quite well, even got them doing a better job of washing their hands.... though we still need to work on getting them to quicken up the pace as we're currently wasting quite a bit of water in the process. Friday morning we were able to get a coat of primer on the walls, and later that afternoon we taped off a line to separate the top from the bottom so we could start putting on the two colors we had. The navy color we used on the bottom half needed a second coat, so that went on Saturday morning.... then the rest of the day was spent installing the new doors we had (closet, bathroom and bedroom), putting up the new trim (baseboards and door casing) and the chair rail to separate the two colors. On Sunday we moved the boys' new beds in and put their new bedding on. They were excitedly running around in the room the entire time, saying how they LOVED their new room and the colors etc. They were SO excited to get ready for bed that night and crawled right in. They didn't go to sleep as quickly as they normally do.... but eventually they did, AND stayed in bed all night long without falling out. I only checked on them twice throughout the night (I was EXHAUSTED and only woke up twice myself) .... and I only had to readjust Oscar once as he was sleeping sideways in his bed. Hopefully they are able to stay in there going forward as it is a LONG drop down ...... why do they make mattresses so high these days. Yikes. But they are SOOOOO plush and comfy.
Evie just had her (early) 18 month doctor appt where we found out that she is in the 50th percentile for height (31.5") but the 20th for weight (21 lbs 6 oz). She's such a scrawny lil peanut .... but long. She still wears them, but I think we're ready to pack away all her 12 month pants now. Though the waist fits just fine, they are getting short. I think it's going to be hard fitting clothes for her if she is going to continue to be such a little string bean. Poor little one got 4 shots that day at the doctor's too.... though it was largely my fault. I had forgotten that she needed a 15 month appt, and she was due a shot then (which she never got), and to top it off she still needed to get her flu shot booster. She was a trooper, though she was a sore little girl later that night. She would just stand there and cry to be picked up cuz her legs were hurting her. Evie also was in prime form for Gma Chris's visit and still enjoys being a part of the whole potty training experience..... namely, the M&M portion of it. She somehow manages to get a couple M&Ms out of us while we are in there... she's got such a sweet tooth. Hoping that will help when it comes her time for potty training. Lately she's been infatuated with wearing her tutus all day long. Right away she nabs one and comes running to us with it pleading for us to put it on her. She just prances around in it too - like she totally knows how cute she looks in it. Even tends to walk on her tip toes at times when she is wearing them. Must get some more of those for her .... I think she's going to like playing dress up and princess in the coming years. She's also been climbing up into her highchair at her first notice of us starting to prepare meals. Poor thing - I don't know if she is just super hungry or she just knows what we're gearing up for and jumps the gun... but it's sorta cute. She's also started saying what I think is "Mine". Not sure if she got this from the boys... or if Gma Chris thought she was being funny teaching her a new word :) But I could swear that is what she is saying, and it would be fitting for the times she is using it. Still a little chatter box and running around singing all the time.
Well.... as always, it's time for the pictures ..... enjoy.
Evie donning some chocolate pudding, one of her favorites that she just won't accept help on.

Oscar and Evie came across some of my shoes and decided to take a stroll around the house in them. (Note Evie in one of her tutus that she just has to wear all the time now)
MacKay (with Daddy) and Oscar (with Joe) helping the big boys put up trim with the nail gun.

The boys new room/bedding


Hoglund WrestleMania 2011:







The boys' first night in their new bedroom and beds

Evie wearing the dress I wore for my 1 year old pictures ..... it's a little small on her, but looks so cute. I will try get one of my pictures to scan in to compare. Though I can say with sheer confidence that she looks MUCH cuter in it and has WAY more hair than I did at her age.


The boys' potty charts/trees...... now FULL of monkeys. Might need to make a new chart for them soon. (Note: I've told them that when they finally poop on the potty that they get to put DINOSAUR stickers at the bottom under the tree)

See you soon.....

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