potty training

coleman & ellison... destined for love..

do you know how hard it was to take this picture??

pj cuties

Mere, me & Kasey on my b-day!

turning 30.. EEEKK!!!

potty training

enough said, right? I deserve a pedicure for this.. no, better yet, a medal of honor. Today was the day that I had picked to start potty training Chase. This way I would have the whole weekend & until Tuesday until he went back to school to get this thing knocked out. So.. we started by putting on "big boy" underwear" first thing this morning. He refused. "But Chase, I will give you a cherry pop if you wear these all day long"

"Okay mommy" he says. Wow, bribery really does do wonders.
So.. we do our usual Friday morning routine. We put Ellison down for a nap around 9:30 & then Chase sits on my bed & watches Cailou while I take a shower.
"Chase, if you have to go potty while you are watching your show, you just come & get me, OK?"
MISTAKE #1!!!
So I hop in the shower & start to wash my hair when I hear little footsteps running toward my bathroom.
"mommy, I have to go potty!"
"okay, Chase, here I come.."
Oh my goodness - with my hair wet w/ shampoo all in it I step out of the shower & put him on the potty & he goes & gets a treat. That wasn't so bad, I thought & besides, now he will not need to go the rest of the time that I am showering - & back in the shower I go..
pitter patter, pitter patter.... "oh no, here he comes again!"
"mommy, I have to go potty!"
"okay big boy, here I come!" I step (no, slide) out of the shower & almost crack my head open. "Is this really worth it?" I am thinking...
He sits on the potty, gets another treat & then I get back in the shower..
When I finally get out it is way too quiet in my room. I start calling Chase's name & there is no answer - I know EXACTLY where he is...
"Chase, get out of Ellison's bed right now!" I ran into her room & he had climbed into her bed, woken her up, & was hiding his face in her crib. EEEKKKK! I thought... all of this for a potty??? Later on in the day I had cleaned up 4 "accidents," one of them being #2!!! I think I would rather Chase just wear diapers until he turns 12!!!


Yesterday we had another potty training "incident." I was cooking dinner in the kitchen when I heard Chase mutter under his breath.. "there is poo-poo everywhere!" I must admit, my first reaction was to panic. The last time I heard this phase was from my sister-in-law, Emily. She was watching my niece, Hopie, who was upstairs in her bed at the time. She had just put Hopie to bed when she heard over the monitor.. "Oh, no, there is poopie everywhere!" She ran upstairs to literally find "poopie everywhere!" It was all over her fingers, her crib, sheets, etc. So.... you can imagine my fear when I heard that phrase again. Chase had had a #2 accident in his "big boy underpants" & it was so gross!! Oh well, I guess it goes w/ the territory....

favorite quotes of the week..
after Ellison's "foot slipped" into Chase...
"Ellison, do not kick me, I am a nice boy!"


can you feed a baby with one foot?
This email below is I from my friend, Sarah. She has a new baby (Bennett) & a 2 1/2 year old (Bradley). It is HISTERICAL!!! And this is our life with kids..... he he!!

Yes you can. While I don't have a Blog the last 24 hours of my life have made me consider starting one...and then made me decide I don't have time. Sorry this is so long. You don’t have to read it but hopefully you’ll find it entertaining.

5:30 pm - So last night I get an email from a college friend/bridesmaid saying that she's flying into Charlotte in 4 hours and would like to spend the night. I tell her I'm happy to have her but that I won't be home from Prayer Triad until 11:30 and that I have to leave the following morning at 9:25 for preschool. She's one of those people that I would break my neck to see so I'm excited about the visit but know I'll be up late.

11:30 pm - When I arrive home from prayer, Joe informs me that Bennett screamed the scary scream the ENTIRE 3 hours that I was gone. We finally get him to sleep, Joe goes to bed and Katie & I visit until the wee hours. I go to bed knowing I'll have to get up at 6 in order to finish a project I had promised a client earlier that day.

5:30 am - I wake up this morning at 5:30 completely wiped out so I ask Joe to call and wake me up at 7 so I can get some sleep but still have some time to work. 7:00 comes...no phone call. 8:15 comes and I wake up in a panic. Bennett is crying, I haven't pumped in 9 hours, I desperately need to shower (you know for me that's bad) and I need to pack Bradley's lunch along with all the other normal morning activities. I also can't get Joe on his mobile or work number which makes me feel a little freaked out. So after draining my engorged self I pick Bennett up out of the swing (where he's been sleeping for the last few weeks) to find that he's drenched and smells really funky. I move the blanket that was under him to find the swing covered in black and purple furry mold and mildew. I'm not sure how I let that happen. I carefully remove the cover, sop up the nasty moldy liquid that had settled into the plastic part of the seat and proceed to the bathroom to give Bennett a bath in the sink. After taking a shower I go into Bradley's room to find him completely naked with a ripped off diaper that's dry as a bone. This tells me that he stripped before he went to sleep the night before. Of course he had peed all over the sheets I had just washed the day before. Changing his bed is not my favorite task since it involves more laundry and constructing a complicated tent structure that he insists on having up at all times. I finish getting ready and Katie holds Bennett in order to prevent a melt down while she sits with Bradley at the breakfast table (he can't eat alone for some reason). As I walk down the stairs Bradley looks at me and says "Mommy, is miss Katie a boy?". (she has short hair and wears no makeup) Since she's sitting right there I say "No" and hope that he won't ask the question 10 more times as is his current routine. Of course he does...oh well. The good thing is that of all the people I know she's the least likely to be offended.

9:35 am - We finally get in the car. Bradley is covered in Molasses and screaming that he wants "special water" (water with juice) not "clain water" (plain water), which I can do nothing about as the only two liquids I have in the house are water and Windex. He is being difficult when we arrive (as usual), so handing off a package to Hope and a check to Jennifer seem like monumental tasks at the moment. Katie sits in the car with Bennett while I walk Bradley in to class.

9:50 am - (Now for the smooth normal part of my day) I drop Katie back at the house. I lose my appetite until I walked into Bruegger's to see that everything Bagels are HOT. I pick up lunch for Jen & I and head to her house. When I arrive she informs me that he smiled at hew all morning. He still hasn’t smiled at me... I am convinced that he doesn’t care for me.

12:40 - We leave Jen’s and realize I only have 20 minutes until I need to pick up Bradley but I must go to the store so I can make a meal for the Osborns. After pretending to play super market sweep I hit every red light on my way to Forest Hill. Fortunately I am only a few minutes late. Most days Bradley has a temper tantrum on the way in and out of preschool and today is not a day I could risk that happening so in my state of desperation I decide that the Jelly bean laying on the ground under the table in the breezeway is the perfect bribe to get him to the car without a melt down. (Yes I'm serious and it worked).

1:25 pm - When we get home Katie is still there (much to my surprise as she was headed to Columbia to be in a wedding). I unload the groceries from the car and am eager to get Bradley down for his nap (a 30 minute ritual) so I can pump and start cooking. He continues to insist that we go outside to swing so I give in since I know it will be raining when he gets up. After 10 minutes or so we turn to walk back in and I realize that Katie had completely closed the back door when she came out to join us. I think, “no big deal I'll just go in the front door.”...Locked. So I get in the garage to go through the laundry room...Locked. Maybe a window would be open...all Locked...except Bradley's room on the second floor. I get the ladder out of the garage, carry it to the backyard and lean it against the house. I take Bennett from Katie so she can try one more window that I can't reach (she's a good foot and a half taller than I am). Bradley proceeds toward the ladder with the intent to climb it. As it begins to fall on him somehow I catch it with one hand (the only super mom thing I did all day) but it still hit him pretty hard and he screamed and cried like he was really hurt (he was fine). In the meantime Bennett also starts to scream and it begins to rain. Somehow I manage to get on the roof (it’s the most athletic thing I've done postpartum) and feeling so relieved I go to open Bradley's window. It opens about 3 inches and then I remember that my dad had put screws in it so Bradley couldn't open it all the way. So feeling screwed myself I grab the crow bar from the garage and force the downstairs bathroom window open by breaking the lock. I've never been so glad to have broken something in all my life.

3:00 pm - Feeling even more eager to get Bradley down for his nap I race him up the stairs, perform the nap routine and leave him crying (also part of the routine). On my way down the stairs I look outside to see someone pulling up in the driveway. Who could it be? It was Lisa Stewart. How wonderful. My house is the biggest disaster it's EVER been (no exaggeration). I'll be so proud. We have a good visit but once she leaves I only had 30 minutes to make dinner and Bradley and Bennett are both awake and crying. I finally get Bradley up so I only have to hear one child crying and he decides to take off his diaper and go to the bathroom in the toilet. He does pee but then he wants to stay "skinny" (which means naked) and I just don't have the energy to fight him. I realize it’s a bad idea when he says "it's spilling" and I turn to watch him pooping on the carpet. I go to clean it up when Joe calls to ask if I would mind if he stays at work for 5 more hours. From this point on I decide that everything will just be funny so I say "sure, stay there all night".

5:45 pm - By this time it's pouring rain but we all make it out to the car (an hour late) to drop off the meal. Note to self: When a Paper Bag gets wet the bottom will fall out. Enough said.

6:45 pm - To finish off my wonderful day, Bradley decides that he'd like to play in the mud. Joe just aerated the yard so we have serious mud but at this point I no longer care what he does I just know I have to feed Bennett who is clearly starving to death. So... We all head upstairs to the bathroom, Bradley covered in mud, Bennett screaming the scary scream, and me about to explode, where I give Bradley a bath with one hand, pump with the other and give Bennett a bottle with my foot.Tomorrow will be a better day!