Man Does Not Live by Blog Alone
OK, so I'm cheating on my blog with Facebook. That's one problem. Then there's my sister's wedding, preparations for which (mostly for the shower) have been consuming some of my time. Then I just haven't been at the computer all that much, as even my FB account will attest.

Anyway, life has been busy as usual. Daniel still isn't walking except occasionally. He does do more actual walking and less (p)lunging when I get down on the floor with him, and the other day, he stood up in the middle of the dining room (well, the middle of the edge- but not holding anything) and took 5-10 steps to me. He can do it; he's just not in much of a hurry! He has been adding words daily, though! That's a lot of fun- one of his recent acquisitions is "Hi"- complete with dipthong ;) He's already got "no" down, though at this point it's "nuh nuh nuh" with the corresponding head shake. And to think Jay didn't answer a question in the negative for years... =]

Jay decided he'd like a firetruck birthday cake (they had firetruck cake pans at the Transportation Museum), so we've got a theme for no. 5. So far, his guests are "the teachers from Sunday School". Kids, schmids. Maybe by September he'll decide he might want to invite some short folks, too... Jay is doing great with our very informal school work. He keeps asking for a new memory verse, so I think we're going to go with a new verse every week, even though I may not get through the "curriculum week" for two or three actual weeks. Paul and I are working out our own plan, so we can both know what the goals are and spend time on them.

Isaac likes learning the verses too, and we are actually ahead of the game with most subjects, it's just the activities we don't seem to complete. We did make boats out of tin foil yesterday and float them in a dish pan. That went over well, and then we took the dishpan outside to the porch so that the parts of the dining room that hadn't yet flooded would be spared. The boys had fun watering the garden/yard in the rain. Why not?

Isaac's poop is happy today for the first time in weeks. A couple of candy frogs had to help push it out, but it finally went straight from digestive tract to toilet with no soiled underwear in between. I made him sit on the toilet about 5 times today, because he was holding it back ALL DAY. It's kind of cruel, but still kind of funny, that when we were on the train today at the Transportation Museum, I asked him every time he got a focused look on his face what he was doing, because I really didn't want to have poopy pants on the train. I had taken him to the restroom and sat him down on the toilet before the train ride, but it would not have been the first time he had gotten down off the potty and made a mess right away. Ugh! I sure hope he is ready to carry through with this success, but we had gotten him to do his number 2 on the potty once before with no apparent continuing benefit. I won't miss the *Gru-uuu-unt* "Your turn, Isaac" or the "Here comes the poop train: Chugga chugga POOP POOP!!" or "We want happy poop! It wants to go in the potty!" I tried to speak his language. What can I say?

In more appetizing news, we had falafel from a box ("pom poms" in Isaac-speak) with yogurt dill sauce from our dearly departed downtown gourmet store and home made pita bread for dinner after we got home. I, for one, thought it was delicious, though it wasn't a whole lot of food. Daniel and Jay liked the pom poms. Isaac, on the other hand, wasn't terribly enthusiastic. Of course, he did have a very full gut until AFTER the meal!

Labels: baby talk, potty training

- posted by Lenise @ 10:00 PM |

 
Livin' La Vida Baby
Daniel's settling in quite nicely. He does much better holding a pacifier in his mouth than either of the older boys did, and (if he's well fed and sleepy) I can wrap him up, pop a pacifier in his mouth, and put him down to sleep with NO DRAMA!! Granted, he's less than 2 weeks old, so this may not last, but it's been very nice so far!

The older boys have been adjusting really well. Grandma and Grandpa G were here to help them ease into it with lots of extra attention, and Jay and Isaac keep talking about them (e.g. Isaac said this morning, "Peese... ma'I... talk Ganma Papa?", holding the cordless phone out to me). Uncle Todd was able to spend several days with us this past weekend (he arrived Friday night and left Monday evening). The boys have loved roughhousing with him. Yesterday, I innocently held Daniel up above my head for a second and lowered him. I may have repeated it before Jay got the idea to ask ME to do "up and down" with him. Ha! As if! So he was directed to Uncle Todd (U' Todd in Isaac-speak). It didn't take Isaac long to join the clamoring, and Todd was once again the center of orbit for 60 pounds worth of rambunctious little boy projectiles.

Jay has gotten back on track with potty training, and is forging ahead into the self-directed part of the program (hooray!). The only rough spot is that he wants to wear underwear to bed, and he's just not ready yet. Hopefully he will be soon!!

Labels: boys, family, potty training

- posted by Gary @ 9:08 AM |

 
Dazed and Confused
How is it that a not-quite-two-year-old can stay up until after 10 PM (crying- well, wailing- for a good part of the time), wake up several times during the night (twice requiring help to return to sleep) then wake up at the crack of dawn, refreshed and happy (once a parent dragged herself out of bed to obey his distressed-sounding summons)?

Isaac was pretty funny last night, actually, from time to time. Paul had to be at church, and unfortunately the boys decided to talk for an hour or so, at times VERY loudly, rather than go to sleep. After a while of this, Jay quieted down, and Isaac started crying. And wailing. I went in, thinking the 3-year-old (who, by the way, talked Daddy into letting him wear his underwear to bed) was asleep. As soon as I entered the room, that illusion was shattered, and Jay ended up telling me he needed to use the potty. I sent him downstairs to use the potty, while Isaac stood at the side of his crib, reaching out to me and saying, "Beffest.. time.", "Up" or "Down'tairs!"

*Sigh* At least it's pretty clear what's on his mind!

Meantime, Jay's making good progress on his reading lessons again. Paul took a little break from them (wisely so, if you ask me), but now Jay seems to be getting back into it. I'm still not convinced that each lesson needs to be done in its entirety when Jay's getting frustrated, but Paul's been a little more lenient, which probably helps Jay to do well. Isaac asked to have a reading lesson the other day, so Paul went over the S sound with him. A day or two later, Isaac found the reading book when he was home with me and asked for another lesson. I opened the book to the first page, he found the s and said, "Ssssss".

Isaac's been picking up on other phrases he hears from Jay, and he's been saying, "Oh, that's good" a LOT lately, usually in a not particularly appropriate context. Jay also likes to say, "I'm coming wif' you guys", if, for example, I tell him Isaac and I are going upstairs for a diaper or to get dressed. Isaac hasn't grasped the plurality of this expression, but has certainly grasped the expression, so we (or at least I) hear, "wiffoo... guys!" on a fairly regular basis.

Labels: baby talk, boys, potty training

- posted by Gary @ 7:38 AM |

 
Work in Progress
Jay's been doing pretty well at potty training the past week and a half or so. Unfortunately, that's meant my staying on top of him and sending him to the potty every couple of hours or so, and insisting that he sit at least once in the morning. It beats cleaning up accidents, but it would definitely be better if he could take the initiative himself.

Meantime, he and Isaac have been enjoying their puppies. We went to the house of some friends yesterday, and the boys spent quite a bit of the afternoon walking their dogs. At one point, while Jay was otherwise occupied, Isaac walked both dogs. This was a frustrating experience at times, but Isaac is dogged (pun fully intended), and he managed to make a circuit or two with both Lucky and his own unnamed puppy.

Labels: boys, potty training

- posted by Lenise @ 5:43 PM |

 
Oh, No Not Agee-yan!
A certain boy has forgotten how to put number twos in the potty when his Mama is present. Now Daddy gets poop-free days, but Mama only gets them when she's at work. And let me tell you, she is not happy. Jay actually woke up with a dry diaper this morning, and kept it that way until sometime in the afternoon. I instructed the miscreant to ask his daddy to change him, since I'd been changing poopy diapers all week. Yeah- that's the other thing. Now he only wants to wear underwear on Daddy days. I guess I should just be thankful that he's putting it into a diaper rather than underwear, but it's so frustrating, knowing full well that he CAN do it, and it usually comes right after he's done a number one, or right after I've asked him if he needs to go. All those potty books say not to punish, but I think in this case it is warranted. What do you veterans say?

Labels: crazy people, potty training

- posted by Lenise @ 8:03 PM |

 
And There Was Much Rejoicing
Jay wore green doggie underpants all day yesterday without a single mishap!! We celebrated with an ice cream dessert, as promised. I probably shot myself in the foot on the nighttime dryness front a few nights ago, when I answered a wee hour summons to find Jay asking to go to the toilet. As loyal readers will know, this toilet is quite a hike from either of the bedrooms, as it is at the rear of the house on the first floor, and the bedrooms are upstairs, and the bottom of the stairs is in the front of the house, more or less facing the front door. No way was I going down there with him at that time of the night (tired, lazy). Unfortunately, he did not want to use his toddler potty which was in his bedroom, so I told him he could use his diaper. "No! I don't use a diaper na'ymore!" But I think the discussion had outlasted his bladder control, and he quieted down and went back to sleep pretty much immediately.

I've got to check on that Sears home improvement contest... I have ALL KINDS of ideas for improving our house, I just lack a budget.

Meantime, I need to get back to the day's occupation: home improvement through dirt elimination. I took the day off from work and shipped out the menfolk so I could spend some time getting the house ready for a Christmas tree and the small crowd we're expecting for festivities surrounding the annual Christmas parade on Friday. I even bought one of those vinyl tablecloths I so despise. It may be tacky, but it certainly is practical.

Next on the list is to get the dining room vacuumed. If I could move the piano, china cabinet, and dining room table out, the easiest thing to do would be to pull up the carpet and haul it to the curb. Then I could have the floor re-finished (see paragraph 2 above). That not being an option, I may have to get the upstairs vacuum cleaner with the dried-bread-crusts-pasta-and-grapes attachment down here. Wish me luck!

Labels: Cleaning (Rah?), Old Houses, potty training

- posted by Lenise @ 10:03 AM |

 
Good Stuff
Well, there's some reason for rejoicing around here. I've actually been able to maintain my earlier hours at work, which makes my life somewhat more pleasant. More importantly, though, Jay has really bought into the potty training, at least the past several days. He's consistently wanted to wear "underwear" (the word "underpants" has mysteriously fallen WAY out of favor) in the mornings, and the poor boy was really rather upset that we wouldn't let him wear underwear to bed last night (talk about a recipe for disaster!) Today was the second day we went out with underwear on, and the second day he stayed dry (at least for as long as we were out- there was one accident yesterday, but so far, so good today!)

Time to stop Pull-ups purchases*!! Hooray!!


* We've got a full bag, which I really don't think we'll need, at least not until we start with Isaac.

[Edited 20 minutes later to add: there's the accident. Oh well!]

Labels: boys, potty training

- posted by Gary @ 3:33 PM |

 
Not Ageeyan!
There is one song on the LeeAnn Womack CD I keep in the car which never fails to get Jay's attention. The refrain is "You've Got the Wrong Girl", and this phrase is repeated again and again throughout the song (apologies for the overly flashy link).

Jay will say "Mama, he got the wrong gril [sic]. He got the wrong gril ageeyin! Oh, no, he got the wrong gril agEEyan!!!" etc etc. Started out hilarious, but it's still cute.

Potty update: Jay was wearing BIG BOY UNDERWEAR all day until dinnertime, when he had an accident. Then he put on training pants, but stayed dry until bedtime, when he "use-ed" the potty! By the by, that is what he was telling the waiter when we went out to eat Sunday night. "I use-ed the potty!! I use-ed the potty at home!!!" Poor guy had been talking baby talk to Isaac, but didn't seem to know what to do with our "potty-mouth" boy ;)

Labels: boys, potty training, Singing

- posted by Gary @ 7:51 PM |

 
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
Jay continues to be doing pretty well with his pottying. I was very encouraged yesterday afternoon when I asked him to get a dry pair of training pants and he asked to wear underpants instead. "Do you know what that means?" "I use the potty!" Yup, that's pretty much it! He did very well with his underpants yesterday.

I was putting Isaac down for his nap, though, when Jay reportedly evacuated his bowels. I didn't know this until after he went to bed, though, so when he was working at the same task later in the evening and told me what he was working on, I asked him if he had any poop to put in the potty.

Jay: No. We may have to buy some.
Mama [Stifling laughter]: I don't think it will come to that.
Jay: Poop is prob'y yucky. We can't buy it 'cuz it's not food.
Mama [giggling]: I'm sure you're right.

Then tonight, as we were getting ready for bed, Jay said he had to use the potty. I encouraged him to return quickly, and sure enough, he came right back upstairs with his little potty. That works too!

Labels: baby talk, potty training

- posted by Lenise @ 9:15 PM |

 
Successes and Setbacks
So Jay did an amazing thing on Saturday. He made it through the day without having to change his pull-ups. He got a dry pair when he got up in the morning, and kept it dry until bathtime at night. It went into the trash with its little fadable cars still completely visible. I was thrilled, and I let him know it. He even made it through a three-hour outing (granted, we didn't take drinks!), and probably another three-hour dinner outing (about half of which was travel). He did not, however, pass any solids the whole day.

Sunday morning he woke up complaining that his stomach hurt, so I eventually persuaded him to dump a load into the potty. It was rather a respectable load (much more, um, formidable than previous loads), and again, I was overjoyed. The joy didn't last, as he filled his Pull-Ups right after breakfast. "I brought new ones!" whoop-tee-do, emphasis on "do". The whole church outing didn't go much better, and by the time we got home, his pants were also soaked. *Sigh*

He did much better the rest of the afternoon, though, and seemed to remember most of the time what he was supposed to do when the opportunity presented itself (and allowed himself to be persuaded the other times). All in all, Sunday didn't end on a pessimistic note, potty-wise.

"Monday, Monday" as the song goes, "So good to me. Monday morning, it was all I hoped it would be", and then came Monday evening. That was when I got home to find Jay in a wet diaper, with no apparent plans to use the potty, after he'd done his due diligence in the morning, before I left home. *Sigh*

Here's hoping Tuesday goes much better.

Labels: potty training

- posted by Lenise @ 8:54 PM |

 
Words to Bring Tears to a Mother's Eyes
"Mama, I love using the potty!!"

There's got to be something wrong with me, but I teared up with joy the second time he asked me to help him use the toilet today, and he put little bits of number two in there. Not that it's the first time he's done so, but that he initiated two potty trips between 6:30 AM and 8:00 AM, and although he didn't initially want to put no. 2 in the potty, when I asked him, he was compliant!

Yesterday was a very different story, and when his sock and shoe turned up poopy at the mall, I was far from happy. I don't know if this incident actually made an impression on him, or what, but he's had his best day yet of potty use, as far as I can tell (hard to be certain, since I was at work today, but preliminary reports are good).

Anyway, I called home this afternoon to commend and encourage Jay, which is when he uttered the fateful words above. I sure hope this is one corner which stays turned!

Labels: boys, potty training

- posted by Lenise @ 7:42 PM |

 
Potty Treats
The other day, Jay finished up on the potty and came out to discover a pile of junk mail. He picked up an envelope from the Saturn dealer (wanting me to trade in the car we traded in on the van), asked permission to open it, and proceeded to tell me that it said that he gets "nummy bears" for using the potty. Later, he picked up the BathFitter ad and it apparently had the same news. Unfortunately, no combination of gummi bears, stickers, and popsicles seem to achieve the desired result.

So today, since Paul is out tuning pianos, we're trying big boy underpants. It's almost 9, and we're on pair #2. I have a feeling it's going to be a long day.

Labels: baby talk, boys, potty training

- posted by Lenise @ 8:37 AM |

 
New Strategy
We're going the chart-and-sticker route (today, anyway) with Jay's potty-training. I told him he could pick out new potty prizes at the Dollar General (since the gummy bears ended up in a pile in the bathroom sink a couple of nights ago, Jay cheerfully snacking on them). He was pretty excited about the idea, and we ended up finding some dinosaur stickers which came in a pack with hundreds of those half-inch round stickers and another pack of fish stickers.

The less said about trying to make a neatly-lined chart with two toddler hangers-on the better. Anyway, that aside, so far, so good. Jay colored on his chart a little, and he's up to three stickers in about an hour (one was a retroactive sticker). He also decided he wants to wear his underpants. Here's hoping the chart is that little incentive he needs!

Labels: boys, potty training

- posted by Gary @ 2:51 PM |

 
A First for Isaac
Isaac surprised me and distinguished himself as quite possibly the only child in his nursery to successfully use the potty. We haven't been having a whole lot of luck getting Jay to tell us when he has to go (though he will now and then, at least for number ones...), so I've been pretty skeptical when Isaac has asked to use the potty that much of anything would come of it. Anyway, this is the second time Isaac has said "Potty", answered in the affirmative when I asked if he wanted to use the potty, AND headed for the bathroom. I decided to go with it since Paul and Jay were out on a walk.

He was not interested in using the little floor potty, so I lifted him up onto the Elmo seat on the big potty, and the first thing he did was aim down. This is a child who's been watching big brother! Isaac will happily brush his teeth for the better part of an hour, and he was in no rush to be done with the potty. Sure enough, ten minutes or so into the process, the waterworks began. I had to help him aim, since he had stopped aiming some time ago, and I didn't catch him right at the beginning, so there was some clean-up involved, but it was not bad at all for his first try at the toilet! Hooray, Isaac =]

There's been a whole lot going on, including travel by us and our families, all kinds of walking by Isaac, etc., but I'm too tired to say much more right now. Hopefully it will be soon!

Labels: boys, potty training

- posted by Gary @ 7:46 PM |

 
New Potty Seat
Well, we went to Wally world yesterday morning to procure a slightly roomier potty seat for the big boy. He had a choice between Elmo/Big Bird and fun, exciting white. You can guess which he opted for, particularly if you have heard Jay talk about "Melmo". Melmo is a new friend, whose acquaintance Jay had not made until he received a potty video featuring Elmo from Paul's brother's family at Christmas. Anyway, the new seat accommodates the boy's nethers much better, though we still run into an incompatibility between Jay bending his knees and being far enough back. There was still some splashing going on, I'm afraid. All the same, I think we'll forego the splash guard. From what I've heard, it can be a traumatic accessory.

Labels: baby talk, boys, potty training

- posted by Lenise @ 12:08 PM |

 
Jay Sit Mama Po'y
To which I say "By all means! Let me help you."

Before bed, we tried the potty tonight. No dice after the first attempt, so half nekkid tooth-brushing ensued. I then suggested Jay give it another try. He decided he'd rather use the big potty, so I scooted the stool over and he held onto my arms and tried really hard to make a no. 2. It was all bark and no bite, but in the midst of his earnest efforts, he did manage to get a bit of the no. 1 in the potty, and, again, quite a bit on the seat, stool, and floor. I suspect this is par for the course. I'm actually quite encouraged that he's done a little something on the potty three days straight. Maybe he'll take to the potty more easily than most.

Labels: boys, potty training

- posted by Lenise @ 8:15 PM |

 
Jay Fush Shelf
Well, it's "baby steps", but it's progress. Jay sat on his potty a few times today, and the last time, right before bed, he wet a little in and on his potty chair. I'd say 2-3 mL worth actually accumulated in the pot, but not much more was outside the pot. Paul reported similar results after Jay's bath last night. I wonder if I got the wrong potty, because there's not a whole lot of room for the child's bottom! Maybe it's just a function of there being enough seat for security, but it seems like the size of the opening is making the whole process more challenging than necessary. *Shrug*

I was the "room parent" in Jay's Sunday school class today, and I was encouraged to learn that less than half the kids are fully potty trained, especially given that Jay is among the youngest in the class. So in other words, we're not stressed out about the whole thing. It would be nice if it were coming along more quickly, but Jay's definitely not behind the norm. I fear he HAS gotten significantly more aggressive since becoming a big brother, though, judging from what I saw today. He wasn't hitting or pushing, but he was grabbing toys, and he (regrettably) does all three at home with Isaac. Of course, it may be as simple as this: he's a two-year-old, little brother or no!

Labels: boys, potty training

- posted by Lenise @ 8:05 PM |