ALMOST potty trained!

I say ALMOST potty trained cuz we have come a LONG way but still have quite a way to go. We spent the entire weekend asking and urging them to use the potty on a regular basis and had a number of successful uses of the toilet.... but quite a few accidents as well. Of of yet, still no pooping in the toilet whatsoever, but I would venture to say that MOST of what they have to pee out is ending up in the toilet vs in their pants now. Which wasn't the case earlier this weekend when we started. When we started we were going through MORE diapers and/or pull-ups than we normally would if we weren't potty training, so it was looking quite bleak for a while there. But Saturday things sorta took a turn for the better when MacKay stayed dry all morning long until just after lunch when I think he just piddled a bit in his pull-up. We can usually count on him to stay either dry or fairly dry throughout the day now. Oscar, too, has stayed dry for hours at a time, or good portions of the day, but on an average has a few more "piddles" or accidents than MacKay. I chalk it up to the fact that I'm not sure that Oscar fully understands the concept of EMPTYING his bladder. He will pee on the toilet, but it's more of a dribble or sprinkling than actually completely freeing himself.... which then results in him pee'ing in his pull up between trips to the bathroom. I try to have Oscar use the actual potty chair (and save the toilet with toddler seat for MacKay) so that I can validate that he is pee'ing a good amount before letting him run out of the bathroom saying he is done... but he really likes using the toilet option instead so it is hard to really know how much he is going. Most of the time I can count on MacKay fully emptying himself as he LOVES to watch it.... the stream. He likes to let it go then stop it, then start it up again, then stop it .... boy is working on those keagel muscles I tell ya. He seems to know when he has more to go, and when he is done... so I can usually trust him when he says he is done and wants to get off the toilet. He also knows how to get the job done quickly. MacKay goes in the bathroom and within seconds of getting seated starts pee'ing. He gets it done and gets out - the way it should be. Oscar is more like his dad in that he doesn't mind hanging out in the bathroom for a while. I keep trying to point out to him that if he just got "to it" that he could be done and out in the living room or his room playing with his toys instead of sitting on the toilet... but he just likes to sit there and gab. Though he also likes his privacy.... on many occasions he asks me to leave and get the rest of the clan (MacKay and/or Evie) out of the bathroom as well. Most of the time when we do that, within minutes he is calling from the bathroom for us to come back saying he's pee'd and is done - which I can tell he has pee'd... the question always being, "Is he done, did he get it all out?"

They both love the process though. They both pull their pants and pull-ups down (mostly by themselves), and back up, then grab their sticker to put on their chart/tree, wash their hands and then dig into the M&M jar for their treat. They've got that who routine down pat now. Currently, MacKay has 24 stickers on his tree and Oscar has 21. They also like to watch their "stuff" go down the toilet and even like helping me empty the bucket from the potty chair into the toilet. They are really getting a kick out of all of this. Me, I'm just glad this isn't as stressful of a job as it was for those first few days. Now it is more laid back and I just ask them if they need to go.... vs practically dragging them in there kicking and screaming every 30 minutes and having all those accidents. The accidents are fewer now, as are the trips to the bathroom.

Next steps.... I think MacKay is ready to try training underwear. I love and hate these pull ups. Considering we have the new furniture and JUST had our living room carpets steam cleaned (possibly a mis-step on our part, doing all that BEFORE they were trained), I like that they minimize the "mess" that we could have had. But I don't think that pull-ups do the job in showing them what it is going to be like if they pee in their pants when they are wearing underwear... they still do a very good job of wicking away the wetness that I think they need to feel to get to that next step in their potty training success. So I think we are going to give training underwear a try for a bit before going to real underwear. I think that will help MacKay to eliminate the pee accidents (that are quite minimal) he has throughout the day and might help more in THEM telling ME when they have to go - instead of me having to ask them every 5-10 minutes if they need or want to go.

Some funny stories somewhat related to our potty training ..... I think the boys are more and more aware of their ... "plumbing" now, which might be the end of me showering with them in the future. Just yesterday I took the boys in the shower with me while Evie was napping. While I was getting showered up the boys were playing around in the water and conversation between them turned to penises and peeing etc. It occurred to me that some boys really get interested in potty training and using the toilet when they get to stand up and pee - meaning they get to SEE what they are doing. So I excitedly told them that we were in (the shower) the ONLY other place it is okay to pee in. One, being the toilet, and Two, being the shower. I pointed out how all the water goes down the drain and if they needed to pee, they could do it in there. Made some comments about how it is okay in the shower but not in the bath etc... but basically gave them the go ahead to have some fun and watch their stream thinking that might spark yet even some more interest in this whole pee'ing in the toilet thing. Oscar kept saying he couldn't pee like it was a concern... but I just told him it was okay if he didn't need to go, or just didn't go.... that he didn't HAVE to, just that he could. That's when the conversation took a turn. He looked straight at me (my stuff) and said "Where's YOUR penis?" I about erupted in laughter but stayed cool and just said, "I don't have one, Oscar. Only boys have penises." He was completely fine with that explanation and seemed to understand and looked back at me (my stuff) and just said "Oh, you got THAT?" Yep.... I got "that." Moments after that we continued with the fun shower experience when MacKay started pee'ing in the shower and was completely mesmerized by it. He kept pinching at his pee stream and putting his fingers in it which I quickly explained to him was dirty and gross, so he stopped. He was having fun seeing how he could control the direction and distance ..... and that's when I noticed he was pee'ing on Oscar's foot, which Oscar also noticed and quickly told MacKay "You're PEE'ING on me, MacKay." I told him he had to pee in a different direction (which he did)..... but much to my surprise, Oscar ran over there and urged MacKay, "Pee on ME, MacKay." Had to put a stop to that one too ... again citing out it is dirty and gross etc. A while later Oscar, too, was excited to do a little release in the shower and proudly showed me how far he could pee. Unnnghhh...... boys. So I decided to wrap up the whole pee'ing in the shower thing and told them we were getting out so they needed to stop now cuz we don't pee on the floors etc..... but said "Isn't it fun to stand up and watch it? Just think... when you get REALLY good at pee'ing in the toilet like you have been.... you can try standing up like this, like Daddy, to pee in the toilet..... Won't that be fun?" To which Oscar replied.... "No, that hurts my penis." ?????? That kid just likes to talk, even when he has nothing to say, I swear. Thus the end of our eventful, and possibly disturbing (TMI), shower experience.... which might be one of my last with the boys as they are getting a little too interested in the differences between our bodies.

Some news on Evie ..... she's almost 1.5 years - will be in a matter of a week or so. I failed to mention this for the last week or so, but she also is getting into her high chair by herself. She can do it easily when she is wearing cotton/jersey pants .... but has a harder time when she is wearing stiff jeans that don't allow her to get her knee/leg up high enough to get that first heave up. She's so proud of herself when she does it and the minute she sees us starting up lunches/dinners etc she goes running over to get in there. She's been a little over zealous with her confidence in her abilities lately too. In the past 3-4 days she has had quite a few spills/incidents/falls. She fell down the stairs a few days ago.... and I KNOW she was at least halfway up the stairs at the time she started her rolling descent. I was down showing the boys some youtube videos of Diesel 10 (a constant request of theirs .... "Find some more Diesel 10 on the computer, Mommy") and I was assuming Chris was keeping track of her (going up and down and up and down the stairs) ..... all of a sudden I heard some bumps on the wall where I was sitting (other side of the stairs) and more and more bumps and grunts etc... until it hit me what was going on. Shortly after it hit me I saw Evie sprawled out at the end of the stairs with this shocked look on her face which immediately turned to sheer terror and crying. She was fine but that was quite the scare for us. Then the next day she took a dive off of one of our end tables which resulted in a bloody nose and bruised/scraped nose. And NONE of this has deterred her from continuing to climb on things she shouldn't be. She's learned some more parts of her body.... her butt, her neck, her chin, hands, legs. She's repeating MANY more words now... like hat, eat, puppy, baby, car etc. We have her 18 month check coming up so it will be interesting to find out what %ages she is at ..... probably 50 or below, she's such a peanut.

Some other news to share..... our plans were pushed back on the boys room due to illness and availability of the guy who is doing our wall work (patching, texturizing etc). So Chris worked on fixing all our nail pops this weekend and tore off all the trim etc last night. Tonight the guy is coming out to do the patch work, and then tomorrow he will start the texturizing of the walls and ceiling and hopes to be done by Thursday. That means we can start priming and/or painting on Friday, so I am hoping that means that we can have their bedroom done by the end of the weekend. I'm excited to hand off our toddler beds to the Williams family (which I am sure Shawna is more than happy to receive as she's 30 weeks pregnant and sick of lugging her 2.5 yr old boys into and out of their cribs) and get my big boys into their new beds and bedding. The boys' beds have temporarily been moved into our room ... they will sleep in there with us while the work is going on, and possibly even downstairs with Gma Chris if she comes up to help this weekend. My only concern was voiced last night by Oscar.... when I told him that this was going to be their last night sleeping in their toddler beds in their room for a while, that they were going to be moved into our room so we could paint etc...... when I told him the walls were going to be blue (navy and a lighter blue) he got very upset and told me he wanted GREEN walls. He almost looked like he was going to cry. I told him I could put up some green pictures and put up green letters (their names).... but that wasn't making him feel any better. He wants GREEN walls. Hopefully he gets over that as Chris was quite adamant he doesn't want a multi colored room... he's fine with different colors as long as it is just different HUE of the same color (ie navy and lighter blue). But he's afraid it will get too "circusy" if we do completely different colors. I'll post some pictures when it is all set up .... I'm so excited.... the boys are getting a big boy room (not just our "hand me down" master suite that wasn't youthful at all), AND it will be yet one more room in the house to check off of our "needs to be updated" list. YAY!

Here's a picture of the boys' potty training tree/charts (monkey stickers) as of the conclusion of last weekend.

Evie sitting on Daddy's shoulders while we played a game of Uno Moo with the boys. We solicit her help when we need to draw out of the barn (don't have a match of our own) and she enjoys being a part of our game.

Evie enjoying sour cream with a little bit of quesadilla .... she wasn't super keen on the quesadillas until we offered up the sour cream. Then she scarfed it all down and proceeded to paint herself with sour cream. [Note - you can sort of make out the bruise on her nose from her nose dive off the table the day before]

Stay tuned..... more to come soon.