Back to the whole potty training thing ...

Thanksgiving weekend being a nice, long weekend, I decided to start poking the sleeping bear that I like to call "training Karl to use a potty." Simple.

Alright. So the girls were easy to train. And Karl shows no interest. But I've got a plan ...

~ Immediately following the week he'll spend away at his grandparents' house, I'm doing this thing. ALL diapers will be thrown out in a big ceremony. The changing table will be turned into a toy shelf. The underwear purchased as one of his xmas presents will be displayed. The waterproof mattress pad will be put on the bed. Another pad will be ready in waiting. The washer and dryer will be put on stand by. I will expect plenty of wet and dirty clothes. I will plan on many trips to the potty. No pullups will be used at night because of my opinion of their tendency to put a wrench, at times, into training, especially night time.

Back to thanksgiving's long weekend. I took Karl to the potty maybe 50 times. He'd comply and sit or stand, sometimes even "pushing out" a little fart, but nothing else was ever created. Okay, at least the boy is allowing me to get him to sit and/or stand at the toilet.

When he would ~try~, I'd smother him with praise and adoration. But at the end of each 'visit', he'd look at me and tell me he was done.

Okay. So he tried. I'll take that over nothing.

At the end of the weekend, he just finished another round of "trying" but telling me there wasn't any pee waiting to come out. Again, I broke out into applause.

As I'm grabbing a diaper to put him back into, I say, in passing, "Yeah Karl, just think, when you actually PEE ~IN THE~ POTTY, I'm going to give you ice cream."

"ICE CREAM?" he questions, suddenly very interested.

"Yup. Ice cream. How awesome is that?"

"Okay. I'll go potty". And still pantless, he sits back down on the potty he just, moments ago, was sitting on.

And he pees.

"Ice cream now? WOOHOO!!!"


That proves a few things...
He knows damn well how to pee on that potty.
I'm a dumbass.

Am I missing anything?

haircuts

I am TERRIBLE at getting my kids their haircuts. I put it off and off and off until they all have long straggly strings of hair. Although I'll shave Karl's hair into a mohawk on occaision, I do nothing with the girl's hair. I just took them all three today and it literally has almost been a year since their last haircut.

What about you? How do you work haircuts for your children?

I'm not changing your diaper when you're a teen.

I potty trained both girls successfully when they turned 2. Wasn't that hard, I just felt like I was an awesome mom. ~wink~

And then came Karl.

The boy is almost 3 (two years, ten months) and he has ZERO interest in the potty.

I've tried to reason.
I've tried to bribe.
I've tried to bribe excessively.
I've tried to just sitting him on the potty 100 times a day.
I've tried to humilate him. (that sounds way worse written out)

He doesn't care. Not at all.

Me: "big boys wear pullups and big boys get to wear underwear! Babies wear diapers. Are you a baby or a big boy?"

Karl: "I'm a big boy!"

Me: "great! Then let's put on your pull ups."

Karl: "NOOOOOO! I wear DIAPERS!"

dude.

Ella the sarcasm monster. Allison the sensitive one. Karl the mommy's boy.

I see so much of myself in Ella. The things she says in retort to something have me cracking up more than not. She is definitely the one my mother wanted me to have so I "got it back". Although I correct her when she does it, i'm secretly "right on!"

Allison is one huge bag of feelings. I asked her the other day if Ella liked boys yet. The answer was no. Then I asked her if she liked boys yet. She immediately broke down crying and said between sobs "you are embarresing me! Heh, I guess she does like boys.

Karl. What a different relationship I have with him. He's a momma's boy and he knows it. Like most last kids, he gets away with murder. We went to a wedding the other day. Mother/Father dance (father was my brother), I was fine. But the mother/son dance? holy shit. I don't think I'll make it through without crying if I started training now.

my kids are skateboarding.

i just posted on my usual blog that i went skateboarding today. I didn't mention the coolest part. All three kids went skateboardeing with me. oh man, i hope they grow up punk.

Mother's Day was, um, "magical".

I had a fabulous Mother's Day. I of course spent the day with my children and I loved every single moment of it. Allison made me ~tons~ of handmade things for me. Each thing she created was better than the last. Ella made me things too. And Karl painted me a flower and a magnet.

But then came the best part. They came into the living room holding two wrapped presents.

I opened it.

The first was a 11x14 matted and framed picture of Karl. The frame was blue and it made his eyes just stand out so beautifully. The second was another framed picture, this one of all three kids. I took one look at it and I burst out crying.

Our friend Laurel took some amazing pictures at Ella's birthday party, and unbeknownst to me, she got them ready for printing and my husband took them down to get framed. What amazing friends, kids and a husband I have. I just don't have words for how lucky I am.

Happy Birthday Ella!

On April 23rd, my oldest daughter turned 7 years old. Oh my. I barely blinked.

I'm going to try my best to get into blogging again, so here is a little place holder to get it started.

It's like stealing candy from a baby.

Or for that matter, a five year old.

I took a baggy filled with Nerds away from Allie the other day for one reason or another. I just saw it sitting there and before I gave it back to her, I took a handful for myself.

I just now gave it back to her and she was so happy she got it back. Nice she didn't notice that handful missing!

Ahhhh. The joys of motherhood. Motherhood meaning the ultimate boss in everything they say or do. /< insert evil laughter here />

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I don't know how "they" do it.

And by "they", I mean those women with many children. And while I'm at it, I don't know how SAHMs do it for years on end. Or daycare providers. Or teachers.

My last couple days have been child inundated. Ella's last year's kindergarten teacher was in a bind Wednesday after school, suddenly having to find daycare for her three year old. Since I am currently a SAHM for the most part, I offered to watch him yesterday and today.

So my days have consisted of getting up at 6:45a, getting the girls ready and driving them to school at 7:30a. I drop them off and then swing by my friend's classroom and pick up her son. I then go about my daily routine with two little boys in tow. Oh my gosh how boys play differently from girls!

At 3:15p, I drop her boy off and pick up my two girls, then I continue my day as a SAHM of three kids, which consists of: laundry, cooking dinner, cleaning up the dinner mess, supervising homework, baths, play time, getting all three ready for bed, putting them down, pack their snacks for the next day, laying out school clothes and do a general clean up of the living room. By then it's 9:30/10p and I sit down for the first time in the day.

Today, I turned it up a notch and I decided to let the girls have their first slumber party with two little girls from school.

Awesome.

I just took a 15-20 minute shower, it being in my top five longest showers in my life. Hopefully the warm water will put my body into sleep mode. I have chronic insomnia and it's about this time my body perks up and gives me a huge second wind, making me wide awake until my body gives out between 2a - 4a. It's a fabulous combination I tell you.

How do women with more than three kids do it? And how do career SAHMs do this year after year? My hat is off to them.


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104.8. Yeah, strep ~really~ sucks!

Karl had a low grade fever for a couple days. Only high enough once to give him medication. (I only give tylenol or motrin if the fever is over 101.4, which my pediatrician agrees with.)

This morning when he woke up, it was 103. Awesome. I called his pediatrician and due to the strep going around our house, they wanted him to come in to get swabbed. His poor little body had a temp of 102.6 when we got there, only a mere 3 hours after giving him his last dose of Tylenol. The nurse swabbed his throat and left us there to wait for the doctor.

When the doc came in, he confirmed what I feared. Strep.

So a prescription of antibiotics was written. Instead of sending us on our way, he asked about the other two kids. Ella is already on day three of her antibiotic, but so far, Allie hasn't gotten strep. So he decided to write out a second script of amoxicillan, for her. He said steep is so damned contagious, she was at high risk to develop it too. He explained how he is not pro-antibiotic, especially when they don't really need it, but in our case, he thought it was the right decision to make. Now all three kids will be covered during the contagious parts of the bacterial infection, so hopefully no one will share it again.

I just got home from girl scouts and it felt like Karl was burning up. 104.8! My poor baby boy. I quickly got him into a cool bath, which he shook and screamed during the entire time. A dosage of Tylenol and 30 minutes later, his temp is just below 102 and he's laughing and playing.

Ugh. Strep is no joke. Please, please, please, let my kids get better soon!


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Strep sucks.

After a two/three days of a 103 fever that was not responding to medication except bringing it down no more than a degree for an hour or two, a night of spiking a 104 degree fever and four hours at urgent care, Ella has tested positive for strep group a. Again.

I knew something was up and just had a feeling it wasn't just a virus. Of course, the morning I take her to urgent care, the Tylenol and Motrin decide to kick in. When she had her temp taken in triage, it was only 99.5. The doc said she looked "good" and said it was most likely just a virus. But he would take the throat swab, just in case, stating, "it will be negative".

Fifteen minutes later, we walks in and says, " whattya know, it's clearly positive". So she is on another round of antibiotics for another ten days. Hopefully this time, it won't go around the family and get back to her (she had it three weeks ago).

Funny thing, when I talked to the MA at her pediatrician's office on Friday, she asked if I had changed her toothbrush after being on meds for 24 hours. Have you ever heard of such a thing? It sounds completely reasonable, I have just never heard of it!


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Formula?

I have three various cans of formula here I am not using:

~ 1 8oz can Similac Advance
~ 1 12.9 can Similac Advance w/ EarlyShield
~ 1 12.5 can Enfamil Premium Lipil

If you can use, and most importantly USE any of these for ~your~ baby, leave me a comment here and email me at and I will send it out to you. Please, if you don't really need them, let someone else who may be struggling take them. I can easily donate them to our local shelter but as always, I would rather give them out to some in need.

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Happy birthday Karl!

Okay, so it is not really his birthday. It was actually a month ago but I was still in my hiatus so now is a better time than any.

He turned the big 2. I can't believe I have already gotten to have two years with my son. He is amazing.

He is starting (finally) to talk more. Definitely behind, but I am no longer worried about it. He will try to repeat any word you ask him now and he is putting two words together also. His pediatrician says that if other people cannot understand 50% of what he says in another 4 months, we will have to start some early type of speech therapy. So we will cross that bridge when we get there.

Having a son is so different than having a daughter. He is such a momma's boy and I ~love~ it. Both the girls are Daddy's girls and I never got that kind of attention before. Now I finally feel what it's like and I freaking adore it. I feel a little bad for my husband when he tries to get some cuddle time with him and all he wants is his mommy, but Tom has gotten that from the girls for the past six years so now it's my time. And I'm eating it up.

We shaved karl's head into a mohawk and I love it. When we go out in public, we get three types of attention. Those who don't pay any attention at all. Those who look at him, and then me, and shake their heads in disgust. And then we get huge smiles from people, telling me how freaking cute he is. And I have to say the latter happens way more than anything else. I have a picture of him on my phone, so I will upload it to this blog soon so you can see me little man.

Karl has almost but given his crib completely up. He now likes to sleep in his "big boy" bed. It is a full size bed and he looks so tiny in it. I also have pictures of him sleeping in it and i'll upload those too, hopefully tonight.

The girls are all doing well. No big updates for them right now. They continue to do well in school and have transitioned into little helpers for me at home. It's great.

More later... Keep tuned in for pictures very soon!


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