Tales of a Potty Training Weekend

Here we go... take a deep breath with me.

Note: this is NOT a potty.  It is Andy's BUMPO.  Cal likes to pretend it's a potty.  We are fine with that as long as he doesn't treat it like a potty... also Note: golf club in hands at all times.

I wrote before that Cal was interested in the potty, but his mother was not quite ready (she's so selfish). Now that things have calmed down with the screamer sweet one, Cal is still interested, so it's time to devote a little time and effort to the cause.

Here's the time line of the weekend (and a few days prior):

Thursday 8/4:
Cal woke up from his nap and took it upon himself to remove his (VERY FULL) (very) dirty diaper.  He so kindly placed it in the crib and yelled out repeatedly: "Mommeeee!  I poooooooped!" hmmm. MAJOR clean up required.

really you can't make this stuff up.

Friday 8/5:
Mom goes in after nap time to find a completely naked little boy sitting in the corner of his crib, peeing.  Yes.  That is right.  Shorts? Off.  T-shirt? Removed (didn't know he knew how to do that).  Diaper? Gone.  Only thing on him was his paci (which he was holding in his mouth like a cigarette, but that's another story).  Apparently his diaper was wet and he didn't want it on anymore...some say this is a sure sign that a kid is ready to be out of diapers.  (Personally, I think it's a sign that he is turning two and he knows how to take the stupid thing off...).  Andy was screaming and needed attention so mom put a diaper on Cal and went to get Andy.  As mom is feeding Andy, Cal comes into the room carrying a pair of big boy underpants (some might also say this is a sign that a kid is ready.  Whatever.  I think it's a sign that he likes the trains on the underwear).  We put the big boy underpants over the diaper, just to appease the child that is screaming for his big boy pants.

it's blurry because I realized he was sitting in pee right as I took this.

About 20 minutes later, Cal comes to me (I'm sick of referring to myself as mom....) and says "pee pee!  Pee pee potty!!!" But he had his diaper on, so I just made a mental note.  Well, I decided that now was as good of time as any... let's do it.  I removed the diaper and was about to put on the underpants, and asked him if he needed to peepee first.  He said, "okay!" and ran to the bathroom.  And peepee he did. A lot.  It was pretty cool! He finished and completed the routine which I am trying to ingrain in his brain: FLUSH, LID DOWN, HANDS WASHED.  That last one is tricky though because after he pees, flushes, and puts the lid down, he wants to go celebrate with someone.  He's pumped.  But we work on it, nonetheless!

After the success on the potty, I reward him with a "pop pop" which is just a little dumb dumb sucker.  He is sooooo excited about his reward.  It dawns on me that I need to come up with a different reward since he will be peeing a LOT during the day...I can't give him a sucker for each time.  Maybe he will get a pop pop if he poops on the potty and something smaller, like an M&M for pee...just thinking out loud.

About 30 minutes (and some juice) later, Cal says "poo poo!!" so we race to the bathroom and he gets the giggles as he sits on the potty.  Like, can't stop cracking up giggles.  I thought it was hilarious too... this time there was no poo, but he did peepee again... just a little.  We were on a role.  No accidents yet.

Eddie got home another 30 minutes later and we played for a while and then Cal announced he needed to peepee again.  I was thrilled that he was letting us know!  Eddie took him in this time since I was holding Andy and he peepeed for Eddie: horray!  He was a little disappointed when he couldn't have a pop pop since we were about to have dinner.

Eddie wanted The Loop for dinner so he took Cal with him, sans diaper (but with shorts!) to pick it up.  I told Eddie Cal should try to go one more time before leaving and Eddie didn't think there was any way he would have to go again, but I insisted he try...he went peepee...(listen to the momma!!!).  When the boys returned with dinner, Cal was ready to eat and Eddie was even more anxious to eat.  I was nursing Andy so I told Eddie that Cal needed to try again before eating (he has peed in his high chair more times than I'd like to count...).  Eddie felt like since he went right before they left, there was no need for him to go again.  I kept my mouth shut, and Eddie sighed and said FINE.  He put Cal on the potty and he peed...a TON!  hahaha  Eddie came out and said: "you were right. he had to reallllly go!"  But, looking at the positive, he had to go, but didn't go in his pants!  WOOHOO!  Big step right there.

After dinner, Eddie brought Cal upstairs and Cal was saying "poopoopoo" over and over again.  He put him on the potty, but after about 3 seconds, Cal announced it was "all done!!!" and ready to get in the bath tub.  I think he probably could have gone a little then, but he was excited to get in the tub.

He went down tonight in an overnight diaper and we will start again tomorrow... it could be a VERY trying day for me.... praying for patience, calmness...and some good wine by happy hour!

Saturday 8/6:
After a long night with Andy, Eddie got up with Cal this morning and put him in a diaper.  I slept for another (glorious) hour and came downstairs.  I promptly removed the diaper, determined to be diaper free during awake hours. 
Cal immediately peed on the potty for me and we put on shorts, no diaper for the morning. He wanted a pop pop, but I told him that pop pop's were for poopoo only (can't believe I use this kind of lingo now!).  He said "okay" but went to the drawer where the pop pop's are kept.  I gave him a treat instead, a chunk of a chocolate chip granola bar.  As soon as he finished he started saying "more treat, more treat!"  I told him that he had to peepee on the potty to get more treat.  So, again, he said "okay!" and ran into the bathroom saying "potty potty potty potty."  Hmmm.... the treats might sort of be working, but I'm not convinced that he gets it.
I continued asking him every 20-30 minutes if he needed to peepee. He would either say "no" or "okay!" and if the answer was no two times in a row, I made him go sit anyway.  Each time I did this, he peed.
Andy and I went to the grocery store to pick up some other kinds of treats so that we could reserve pop pops for poopoo.  Eddie was going to play outside with Cal and he promised to ask him to peepee while I was gone.  I got back an hour later, and Cal was still accident free! 
We ate lunch and he peed on the potty several more times, really liking the new treats: M&Ms! Yummmm!
Side note story: Cal has been taking stuffed animals and trying to diaper them while talking to them: "okay baby, you go peepee" or he will pick up the animal and put it in Andy's bumpo and say: "go peepee potty, baby, pee pee potty!" SO funny... after he picks the animal out of the bumpo, he will say okayyyyy, then try to re-diaper him.  It cracks us up!
Cal went down for a nap today at 1:00 in a diaper, but with his big boy underwear on top, and then shorts on top of that (he insisted about the underwear).  After putting him down, there was some CRAZY screaming coming from his room so I went in to find him with both legs sticking out different crib slots, completely stuck.  He was taking off his shorts and his legs slipped through the slots.  The kid is determined to get the diaper off!  We will see how he is dressed when he wakes up.... I'll update from the afternoon later...
Cal woke up from his nap and when I went to get him, he had his shorts off and was pointing at the trains on his underwear saying "choo choo!!!" The kid loves trains.  I carried him straight into the bathroom and onto the potty. He didn't need to go, but he tried.  I took him off the potty and straight into underwear without a diaper.

The afternoon went well.  He went potty several times and had no accidents...! A few times he would get a treat (2-3 M&Ms) and then would say "more treat?" and when I told him he had to go potty for a treat, would say "okay!" and run to the bathroom, pulling his pants down as he ran.  I'd put him on the potty and he would push as hard as he could to get anything to come out so that he could get a treat.  HA!
I read somewhere that little boys especially are hard to potty train because they hate to stop playing to go to the potty...this makes TOTAL sense with Cal.  He doesn't want to leave his trucks for a second to stop and pee.  This will be a challenge we work around..maybe we will take the trucks with us into the bathroom....
All in all, we had a very successful first FULL day of potty training.  He is wearing a diaper tonight for bed, but we are going to try for diaper free during awake hours again tomorrow.  We did not have a "number 2" today, so I'm sure that will be fun tomorrow (he has gone number 2 on the potty several times before, so I don't think he's scared of it...). I think tomorrow we are going to take him to a park, so it will be out first real outing, diaper free, but it's outside so if he has an accident, it'll be easy clean up.  Plus, this park has bathrooms, so we can run him up to them if we need to.
Hoping for a good Sunday in this weekend of trial and error!

underwear on the head... that's where it goes, right?

he didn't bother pulling them all the way up

Sunday 8/7:
Eddie got up with Cal this morning and I asked him to put him in big boy underwear instead of the diaper.  Eddie agreed.  I was upstairs getting Andy down for his nap (he was going down for his nap just as Cal was waking up, if that tells you anything....) and was rocking him in the nursery.  I could hear things going on downstairs and I heard Cal jibbering away and then I heard "potty".  Well, I think I am trained to that word right now, and I think I can understand his jibberish because I am around him so much.  I wanted to scream downstairs "get him to the potty!!!!" but I was holding an about-asleep baby in my arms.  Then I heard him say "POTTY" a little louder and Eddie sprang into action.  It literally sounded like he jumped over the couch to grab him (and he very well may have! haha).  Then I heard Eddie say "ohhh, no...."  We had our first accident.  But to be fair, Cal tried to tell him, he just didn't speak up very well.
A clean pair of underpants and some clean shorts and we were back at it.  He had a real tiny little accident, but he was saying potty as it started, and he finished on the potty.
Once I came downstairs for the day, I started asking him every 30 minutes.  Most of the times, he was happy to go in the bathroom and try (he goes every time).  Other times, when he's playing hard, he kicks and screams and doesn't want to go, but I carry him in there and put him on the potty and he goes immediately.
It seems like every 30 minutes is a lot, but when you think of how tiny his little bladder is, he's gotta go a lot!
Eddie and Cal took Hank on a little walk to a lake near our house.  Eddie said once they reached the lake, Cal announced "poopoo, daddy" and Eddie said he panicked.  Hank was off of the leash, he could hear two dogs coming up the trail and Cal had to poop (is this not the funniest picture??).  Eddie started calling for Hank, he dropped Cal's pants and then sat him down in the middle of the trail to retrieve Hank before the other dogs came...ha! I guess all of that excitement discouraged him from going number 2, but he stood up and peed for Eddie in the woods.
After the walk, Eddie left to go play golf so I was dealing with both boys... I needed to run a few quick errands in my car, so I put Cal on the potty one more time (he went) and loaded up the car to run around.  We were gone almost 45 minutes and made it accident free.  When we got home, I put him on the potty immediately and he peed quite a bit.
He had a hard time going down for nap today-- I really think he didn't want the diaper on.  Again, I put on the diaper, then the underpants, then shorts-- this time shorts that have a button and are a little tight on him so they are harder to take off.  There was a LOT of talking and screaming going on in his room and it finally got quiet (after over an hour).  I went in to check on him and I found the shorts off and the underpants NEXT to the crib and the diaper almost off....but the kid was asleep!

Underwear next to crib. Shorts in crib. Diaper almost off.

I am nervous for camp on Tuesday.  I just emailed his teacher to see what she thinks...diaper or no diaper... I don't want to regress by putting him in a diaper, but is it fair for them to have to take him to potty every 30 minutes?
After his nap, I tried to get into his room as soon as I heard him wake up, so he wouldn't have time to get the diaper off.  I ran in there at the first noise I heard and his diaper was off and he announced, "mommy, I peepee!!"  Honestly, I really think he hates diapers now and doesn't want to go in them anymore.
He spent the entire afternoon in big boy underpants and didn't have any accidents!  woohoo! 

Monday morning-- (this is supposed to only be a weekend update, so I'll keep this part short...): I was nursing Andy getting him ready to go down for his nap, Eddie was in the shower and Cal decided he needed to poopoo.  He told Eddie, while Eddie was in the shower, so Eddie flew out of the shower and put him on the potty and he only peed.  He got him back dressed and got back into the shower and Cal decided to poopoo at that time.  In his pants.  And on the bathroom floor.  Chaos followed. 
HOWEVER, I took Cal and Andy to the post office and Target today and remained accident free.  At Target we went into the bathroom and Cal peepeed like a champ on the potty... I was thrilled!! We will see how the week goes!

Brothers

no words needed :)

This time last year...

On August 6th, 2010 Mr. Cal took his first steps! He's been walking a whole year and hasn't looked back once...

Here is the video we took of the first steps.

I am loving looking back at where we were a year ago!

Camp pick up

Cal had camp again this morning, and again he had a big time.  There were no tears at drop off and all morning before we got there he kept chanting "camp, camp camp!"  He was excited!!!

When I went to pick him up, I almost didn't see him in the corner dressed like this:

I mean, honestly, you can't make this stuff up.  He was wearing a Lightning McQueen costume, held up by suspenders, nonetheless, and a hard hat.  And he was happy as can be. 

They had water day today where they play in little water table outside and one of his teachers told me that Cal was by far the wettest of all of the kids-- haha!  He's loving every minute of it, and I love him having so much fun!

C-A-M-P!

This morning was Cal's first day of Camp-- for the August session... he had camp in June too-- however, he only went 3 of the 6 times because we were traveling for the other times.... anyway...!

We were SUPER excited about this camp because after the June camp, I called to see if there was room in the August camp and it was full, but they put Cal on a wait list... well, some other kids wanted to do an August camp too, so they opened up an entire class! AND, to top it ALL off, there are 6 kids in the class and they are ALL from Cal's play group!  SO FUN!  It made drop off this morning great to see all of the moms and I think it was easier on Cal since he saw so many familiar faces. 

Cal got a new lunch box which he loooooves and was so excited to carry it around this morning as we got ready to go:

seriously, I have GOT to break him of saying "cheeeeeese" every time the camera is out!

 Before we left, Cal kept saying "bye, Andy!!!"  I guess he thought I was going to leave Andy at home to take him to camp.  Cal looks so old to me in this picture...again, cue me being emotional today (read previous post).

"Bye, Andy!!!"

 One more picture before heading out the door!

ugh: cheeeese!

 Cal did GREAT at drop off!  He did not cry once and was happy as can be with a new teacher!  I played on the floor with him for a little bit and then told him that Mom and Andy were going to leave, but we'd be back.  He gave me a huge kiss and said "okay!"  It was amazing!

I tried to get back early enough to take some pictures of the class, but it was chaotic in there.  I'll try again on Thursday.  I did get one as we were leaving of Cal and Brad.  I've written about Brad before-- they are just too cute together!!!

This is where Cal will be in the fall for preschool...I'll get the kleenex out now.  I know he loves it, and it's soooo good for him.... but it means he's growing up!!!  (note: it's also really good for me to have this time alone with Andy, who has become SUCH a fun baby!!!)

"you mean I get you all to myself???"

I'm looking forward to Cal enjoying camp with his buddies!!

Anniversary

One year ago today my grandfather passed away. I wrote about it here. My parents were in France and I had to be the one to call my mom to tell her the news. 

I just can NOT believe it has been a year.  I miss him so so much, and I try to look at it as a blessing.  He passed away so peacefully, and was still sharp.  He didn't have to suffer, or be (too) dependent upon others. 

These are two of my most favorite pictures of him:

Grandpa with my mom's mom-- never got to meet her, sadly, but in all honesty, I talk to her often (make fun if you must).  I truly feel like she is my angel watching over me.

and grandpa with me...I adore this man. Still.

And, on another note, crazily enough, this is also the one year anniversary of Cal being done with nursing... ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I couldn't believe it.  When Grandpa passed, I was weaning Cal down anyway to prepare for a solo trip with Eddie.  With my parents being out of town, I ended up spending a bunch of time with my grandmother and I wasn't able to run back and forth to nurse Cal, so I stopped...

How insane is it that I didn't even take a year off of nursing??  And doesn't that make it seem like time just flies? 

So, I've been a little emotional today...  my parents are away on another trip (this time to Africa!) and I think a part of me is terrified that I am going to have to call them with bad news again... how morbid is that?  But for anyone who has read this thing for a while might remember, after Grandpa passed, I had to call them when they were on yet another trip to tell them that my grandmother required emergency surgery... not a very good record.  For a while we joked that they just weren't allowed to travel.  Ever again. ;)

Puppy Love

I am not sure where Cal learned how to train a dog, but it wasn't from us...

Church

I have really been wanting to go to church lately, and I hate to make excuses, but it's been really hard with Andy's tummy issues-- we didn't want to take him and have him scream throughout the service, or have me not be able to calm him down.. and his scream was such that even in the nursery, the entire congregation would have heard it. Literally.

But I made up my mind that we were going today. Eddie was going to play golf, but it was canceled so he came too! It was wonderful! Andy slept in my arms the entire time (ahhhh), and Cal had a great time in the nursery... after he got over the drop off. He does NOT like to be dropped off! My goodness! He cried when I left him (Eddie can't handle the crying, it breaks his heart, so he waited down the hall with Andy while I did the dirty work)...

After we got home, I made the boys take some pictures-- it's rare that we are all dressed nicely (at the same time!).

Cal says "cheeeeeeese" every time the camera comes out now, and we end up with...well, cheesy pictures:

 wish the lighting was better :(

 trying to grab Cal while holding Andy:

 works for me:

After Eddie left to play golf (which was truncated by a storm), I took a few more pictures of Cal and Andy just for fun...

 and while I took above pic of andy, cal went and found some cars and....a plunger!

 the motley crew

Sleep Update: 10 weeks

Mr. Andy will be 11 weeks old on Wednesday (cah-razy!), and I want to take a minute to do a sleep update, so I can go back later on in life and remember this stuff.

party at my crib! 12, 3, 5, 6...really allll night! come on over!

In weeks 9 and 10, I felt like Andy was making a lot of progress sleeping.  He was taking 2 great naps in his crib, at least 2 hours each, and a few cat naps in between.  I have been trying really hard to follow the eat, wake, sleep cycle, and felt like that was working well. 

Then, last weekend, we went out to dinner with some friends Saturday night.  We had a sitter and left milk for Andy. Well, long story short, Andy wouldn't take the bottle, screamed like crazy, and our sitter texted me before I even ordered dinner.  There was no calming him.  He screamed for 2 hours straight.  I came home before ordering dinner and found a distraught baby and sitter. 

That night, I guess he was so exhausted from all the crying, he slept a 6 hour stretch.  I was PUMPED!  He only got up one time that night and I was SO SO excited!  I thought we were turning a corner.  The next day, he was still worn out because he took two AWESOME naps in his crib-- it was just great all around!

you mean I am supposed to SLEEP at night?

You know how the bible says "Thou Shall Not Boast"?  Well, I was telling everyone what a great sleeper he was and that he slept for 6 hours and he only got up once and wasn't that so great..... well, he SHOWED me! That next night, Andy got up 5 times.  Yes.  5 times.  And each time, he was a challenge to get back down again.  Not just a feed and back in crib.  This was a feed, rock, burp, change, rock, pace, bounce, feed....ack! The next day, he went down for his morning nap (in the crib), and slept for all of 15 minutes.  hm.  I rocked him again and put him down again, and he was awake 15 minutes later.  I knew he was exhausted because every time I rocked him, he fell asleep instantly. 

We ran some errands, and he dozed a bit in the car, and then it was time for afternoon naps.  Again, he fell asleep while I rocked him, but then was awake again after 15 minutes!  This went the ENTIRE nap time!  I was soooo worn out from the night before and I spent the entire time Cal was down, trying to get (and keep) Andy down.  It wore me out. 

That has pretty much been the trend this week-- a lot of broken naps... I'm trying different things to get him to nap longer.  I just can't figure out what has changed...


Our pediatrician says it's time to let him cry it out.  I am ready for this HOWEVER, Andy sleeps on his stomach and I am not comfortable with him crying it out until he is capable of flipping back and forth.  Is that bad?  I just don't want him on his face screaming... if he could roll to his back and then back to his stomach, I'd feel better.


He is napping right now, and I put him on his side.  I think part of the problem too, is he is liking his paci and likes to fall asleep with it in, but when he's on his stomach, he can't turn his head without the paci getting caught and waking him up.  He isn't able to put the paci in by himself yet either...that will help too. 


So, there's the sleep update.  Hopefully, we can keep getting those long stretches at night...

Cal starts camp again next week for the month of August and then school starts in September...!!!!  It starts at 9:00, so I am going to have to figure out Andy's napping around drop off and pick up.  I might make him nap in the car for the morning nap!  I don't know what else to do-- unless Eddie does drop off every day....

Side note: I am going to be doing some mega tummy time this week so that we can start crying it out sooner! 

huh??  Tummy Time??  Noooo, thank you!

Just Another Day in Paradise!

(in pictures)

trying to hold as many golf balls as possible

my son, the hoarder: 3 golf clubs, 2 golf balls, a car and a boat...all for a bath.

reading a golf book...

hey mom, this chair feels a little small

his new truck, stuck in Hank's tail

trying to remove the stuck truck from hank's tail.  Notice the boots. It wasn't raining.

And a video to sum it all up:

And lastly, quick story of errand running this week:

I had to run to Marshalls and had both boys with me.  It was 104 out... I unloaded my double bob, loaded the boys in the stroller and headed in the store (sweat broken).  A random man stopped me and told me he felt sorry for me dealing with a double stroller and 2 kids in this heat.  I wanted to tell him that I was trying to get inside out of the heat, but he was in my way... instead I smiled and told him it was lots of fun... I managed to squeeze the stroller through the "in" doors and started walking through the store looking for the needed items.  Cal kicked off one of his crocs (shoes) right when we rounded the first corner of the store.  I didn't want to fight with him to put it on, so I left it on the front of the bob where the feet go and I would just put it  on him as we were leaving.  I went up and down a few aisles and found just what I needed and headed to the check out.  I bent down to out the shoe back on and it wasn't on the stroller.  Hmmm... so, I walked back to the baby section, where we were doing most of our shopping, and it wasn't there either.  So, not one to get frustrated, I decided to walk the lap of the store again, this time staring at the ground.  Cal wears these shoes every day.  He can take them off and put them on by himself, which is huge in our chaotic house. 

I walked another lap around the store (almost felt like I was working out, pushing my jogging stroller laps around a store...but not quite).  No croc.  UGH.  I figured it must have fallen to the ground and then gotten pushed under some of the racks.  So, I got down on the ground of Marshalls, on my hands and knees and looked under racks.  All of them.  I spent about 20 minutes on my belly looking for the stupid shoe.  There was a woman working in the department where I was so I asked her if she'd seen a shoe.  She started laughing.  Seriously, lady?  Oh, by this point Cal was screaming MOMMMMAAAAA!!!!  Over and over and over again...just because he can (see above video). 

I went to the check out to pay and see if maybe someone kind had turned in this stupid shoe.  It couldn't just walk out of the place, right??  I paid.  No one turned in a shoe.  So, I made one final lap around the store, going up and down each aisle, looking under each and every rack...no shoe!  So we just left, Cal wearing only one shoe!

I wish I could say something clever about it magically appearing, but NOPE!  Still no shoe!  I called the store today to see if someone had found it, but no one did... or if they did, they didn't turn it in.  Maybe somewhere in Durham, there is a child with one leg who has a new (to them) croc... if that's the case, I hope they enjoy it. Oh, and the stroller fit in the "in" door, but wouldn't fit out the "out" door.  And the IN door had a sensor on the other side, so I couldn't get it to open for me.  I had to ask a girl to go out and then come back in so the doors would open for me....

Just another example of me living Just Another Day in Paradise!!!