The Simple Things

It's the simple things in life that can bring so much happiness.  Such things like crawling in between freshly laundered sheets, hearing your two-year-old son asking to go to bed, three nights of David waking up dry, and a week coming up in Southern California, on the beach!  Ahh...such bliss! 

To top that, David and I went on a shopping outing and he had not used OUR bathroom before we left.  I managed to convince him that we should go try out the public bathroom, which I knew was going to be a HUGE milestone in his potty training.  More for me than him.  We get into the surprisingly clean restroom, enter a small stall (the handicapped one was taken) and put down toilet liners.  I try to put him on with his pants still partially on, but it didn't work.  So, off came his pants and underwear and I sat him down on the liner facing the back (his favorite position when peeing). He did it!  I was ecstatic.  A small thing, but it gave me the biggest rush!  I did not realize how big of a burden this whole peeing in public thing was for me, but I felt free.  Now I know I can go places and he will be able to use public restrooms.  No more hurrying home and cutting errands short!  No more being holed up in the house and waiting for him to pee before leaving!  Such pure unadulterated joy!  On my part.

So, how appropriate that we leave tomorrow for the happiest place on earth.  Looking forward to some beach time, seeing old friends, and coming home with my mom and sis in tow! What a great week it is!  What a great two weeks it will be.   Pictures to come!   

To All Women ·

A while ago, Billy and I were talking about his upcoming deployment and the decrease in the number of men being deployed this time around.  I was so angry because while I certainly don't want this war to go on, I also didn't want my husband to be over there with fewer men to ensure that everyone got back home safe.  I was crying and ranting about the government and President Obama and why they would give us (the family of the deployed troops) added pain when there was so much pain and stress going on already.  I felt like they didn't care.  Billy just calmly listened to me rant and rave, which was maddening in and of itself.  I went to sleep and woke up renewed the next day (nothing like a good cry).  I felt that I'd gotten all of that off my chest and didn't think anymore about it.  After all, it was just typical pre-deployment anxiety.  Then, a couple of weeks ago, I got this speech in my email.  Very heartening.  Thank you to the First Lady.  It helps to know that you care.   

First Lady Michelle Obama Speech Womens Conference Full Text ·

   
Bowling with David.  Love the dinosaur slide for the ball!  Watch your toes when bowling with David, though.  He stubbornly thinks he doesn't need help with lifting the ball, especially at the end when his muslces get tired.  Luckily, all toes survived the experience!

Halloween 2010

Library's Halloween Party

Grouchy Thomas, a little "towered"

Getting ready to go trick or treating

"I towered (tired).  I go home."



We had a fun Halloween.  I took David trick-or-treating with the millions of kids in the neighborhood.  After a few houses though, David was happy with his loot and ready to go home.  We got home and he had more fun answering the door for trick-or-treaters than he did while he was trick-or-treating.  I guess too many people make him a little anxious.  



Potty Training in 3 Days

Potty power!  David sporting off his new underwear...no more diapers!  Hallelujah!

I was thinking David would not be potty trained until at least a year from now.  I wasn't fully training him, but was occasionally encouraging him to try it out.  He would, but only when he was naked, which was when he was getting into his bath.  One of the books I bought suggested having naked time and I would try it, but my little David would much rather scream and throw fits if I even suggested naked time.  "Diaper on, diaper on, diaper on!"  So, needless to say, that didn't work. 

The same book also suggested not pressuring him into it, so I was pretty lackadaisical about the whole process.  He didn't act like he was ready and was anxious about it, so I laid off of it.  I did buy books and DVDs to encourage him along (hence the "Potty power!").  I bought Thomas underwear for him, too and told him not to pee on James or Thomas.  He wore it and proceeded to pee on Thomas and James, his beloved trains.  So, the books, DVD, and everything else was just a waste of time.  I felt bad that my son seemed to be behind everyone on the potty training bit, but had also heard that boys were harder to train than girls.  Then one day, as I was scrolling through my friends' news feeds on Facebook, I saw my friend was starting to potty train her son, who is 10 months younger.  I asked her to let me know how it turned out.

A few days later, I was on Facebook again and noticed pictures of my friend's son already in underwear.  I thought, "Whoa, that was fast!"  I asked her what she had done to potty train him so fast and she told me about Lora Jensens' 3 day potty training method.  I tried it and it worked.  It was a miracle.  Three days devoted to him was all it needed.  David was pretty much potty trained on the second day.  We still have hard times at night, but he hasn't worn a diaper since the morning we started the method.

Oh, a side note on that.  Before I even found out about this method, I had gone to Costco and bought a whole box of diapers.  A few days later, I read the ebook, and found that we were supposed to throw away all the diapers.  Ouch!  Oh well, what do you do?  No worries, they didn't go to waste.  My sister's son has the same size, so he can have them...when they come visit.  Always a proviso with me, I know.  So, Liz, if you want some free diapers, I'm only a hop, skip and a jump away.