Colorful School Days & a Park Poop

So my kindergartener has been getting into trouble lately at school. Mostly he finishes his work, gets bored and gets chatty. Really chatty. He had his first "red day" at school this week.

His school uses a color-coded behavior chart type of discipline/encouragement and here's a little of how it goes:

Green = good/neutral, everyone starts off on green

Yellow = bad, note home
Orange = worse (I was unaware that orange existed until this week), note home
Red = really bad & a chat with parents

So that's from acceptable to bad. But then there's...

Blue = better than good
Purple = super good, great even!
Pink = pretty much unattainably good! You win the behavior chart! Or something...

It's all pretty confusing. I think I really just got the hang of it this week, mostly because Simon has been a few different colors. I emailed with his teacher and we've hopefully found a way to help. Mostly, Simon (and a few other kids) will be given extra busy work allowed to practice their "word wall words" when they finish their work. I even let Sime pick out a brand new little notebook to take to school for this.

Another thing that will hopefully help is rewarding him if he stays at green or above all week. Simon's teacher suggested this. Since he had a bad last couple days, this morning I told him if he got above green today, we would celebrate. The kid got all the way up to purple (super good, great even!). So to celebrate we got McDonald's for dinner and had a picnic at the park.

Yay, right?! Well, so far this post has only focused on one child. Enter Charzie, my newly potty-trained two-year-old. She's been constipated/refusing to poop for the last three or four days. She had a few painful poos and got scared of going. I gave her stool softener. Then I got some prune juice. She wouldn't drink the prune juice. Then I found the right mixture of prune juice + apple juice + water so that she would drink it. She drank quite a bit of it today. I also gave her half of a FiberOne bar. Then she finally pooped! Hooray! She worked up quite the sweat and it was rock hard (yeah, too much detail, I know, but poop is a subject frequently mentioned here). So I was relieved that I wasn't going to have to deal with poop at the park now! Or was I?

Yes, yes I was. And not just Charzie's...

The kids and I were mid-McD's picnic when Charz announced she had to go potty. I thought it would be a quick pee-pee but it turned out to be a big ol' poop. This one was much easier to push out, I could tell. She had gotten like four days worth out in an hour! So we wiped, flushed, washed hands and went back to our McD's picnic. We cleaned up, took our toys & drinks to the van, then went to the playground. We'd been at the playground maybe five minutes when Charzie announced that she once again had to go potty, just pee-pee. Simon & Jonas also announced that they had to go potty, too.

Since the main doors to the bathrooms were open and there was someone else in the women's room, I let the boys go pee in the men's and told them to come stand outside the women's when they were finished. As I was helping Charz, I smelled something stinky. I looked down and saw she had some remnant poo in her panties. I don't think she even realized she had gone, it was more of a shart really (when you pass gas and a little something extra comes out...), but poo nonetheless... and I had left the diaper bag in the van. Then I heard Jonas' poop song, the one where he sings to the world that he just pooped. Did I mention that I had taken the kids out for this picnic alone? Yeah...

I yelled to Jonas that he would have to wipe himself because I couldn't go in the men's room. All the while people were walking by and going in and out of the bathrooms. I wiped Charz up as best I could with the cheap toilet paper. I got her undies and pants off. Thankfully her shirt was long enough to cover her. We washed hands and I wrapped her messy stuff in a paper towel and walked out to see Jonas standing at the door of the men's room with his shorts & undies around his ankles. He looked at me and said, "I pooped, Mommy."

So I picked him up, took him to the women's bathroom, wiped him, flushed, had him finally pull up his shorts, washed hands and headed to the van with both boys and a pants-less Charzie. Got her cleaned up and put fresh undies & pants on her and we went back to the playground even though I really just wanted to go home.

We were there to celebrate Simon's "purple day" and had only played for five minutes before Poop-fest 2013 happened. So we went back and played. Both boys bonked their heads. Charz threw a fit because she wanted to do things big kids were doing, but we stayed. And we saw some friends! Then we went home, I gave the kids a bath and got them all ready and put them to bed.

One would think I would have learned by now that at least one child always has a poop incident whenever I take them all somewhere by myself, right? But if I did, I wouldn't have as many amusing stories for you, then, would I?

Epic Win

Model Charzie

Guys... guys... guys, guys, hey GUYS! (I'm using the gender neutral, casual you version of "guys" here) I have an epic win in my house and I really needed it...

After 5 years and 4 months of having from one to three children in diapers, they are ALL POTTY TRAINED! My 2-year-old Charzie worked hard this past week, earned M&M's, ice cream, stickers & jelly beans, and she's been wearing adorable toddler undies during the day (pull-ups for sleep times). She wakes up from nap dry. She wakes up dry about half the time overnight. She'll pee on pretty much any potty. She's pooped on the potty for the last three days. AND two of those days she was sick and still used the potty! Oh, this mama is super-pumped! And I'm gonna brag on her.

Kitty bath

You see, a certain eldest child was three-and-a-half before he would consistently pee on the potty or poop on the potty at all. The middle one was potty trained before the eldest. We used all kinds of rewards/bribery/calendar-with-stickers tactics, but it was sibling rivalry + "dump dollars" from my mom that got the eldest one motivated. Being naked and a poop fascination motivated the middle one (and we were totally surprised when he just potty trained himself). Mini M&Ms for everyone + the promise of a big Hello Kitty toy and lots of excitement were Charzie's motivation. I think mostly M&Ms, though.

With having three kids, I can say potty training was truly different for each child. But the one thing that they all had in common was that they had to be motivated and/or feel like it was their idea.

The only outfit she'd willingly wear to church one Sunday

 Oh, we are so excited in this house! Next, we'll have to get rid of the pacifier & bottle. But we'll let her hold onto those baby things a little while longer...

If It's Yellow...

When it comes to the boys using the potty at home, we have the mantra "if it's yellow, let it mellow."  They shoot from the hip, if ya catch my drift, so this means a lot less handwashing on my part (the skin on my knuckles is raw enough with the current amount required).  Now I say that as a precursor to what I am about to tell you...

Charzie the Helper

Today, while I was having the rest of my lunch, I heard Charlotte giggling from another room.  That room was the bathroom.  She was washing a pair of Jonas' undies... washing them in the toilet... in toilet water that was mellowing...

The good news is, if she tries to wash any more laundry in the toilet this time next month, I won't have nasty bathroom carpet to clean in addition to my baby, the potty, step stool, bathmat & undies.

And you're probably waiting for an update on my 30th birthday coffee experience.  It's a comin'...

October, What?

I just realized that I didn't have a single post in October. Yeah, it's been crazy.

The kids like to get up before 6:00 AM.
My sister came to visit.
We went to a pumpkin patch.
Ate some Count Chocula, Frankenberry & Boo Berry cereals.
Chase went out of town.
My mom came to visit.
Both boys are daytime potty trained.
Jonas (the younger) wakes up dry in the morning maybe half the time.
Charlotte eats 2 meals of solids a day.
So far she likes oatmeal, rice cereal, green beans & carrots but loves pears.
Charlotte cries when her pears are gone.
I went to my first concert since my first pregnancy.
The Avett Brothers rocked my face, but I felt old & unfashionable... (another post soon, I hope)
The boys got their teeth cleaned at the dentist and did awesome.
Simon loves The Nightmare Before Christmas.
He thinks it's awesome that Mr. Oogey Boogey is made of bugs.
I carved Mr. Oogey Boogey for my jack-o-lantern this year.
I hosted a Halloweeney Playdate Party with a spooky snack contest.
I made skeletons on lollipop sticks using marshmallows & yogurt-covered pretzels.
Charlotte is 5 months old!
Chase's parents came to visit.
My BFF Keli brought her kids down for my party & to trick-or-treat.
Our kids were a BLT sandwich for Halloween.

That's pretty much my October. Now here are the pictures:

BLT Sandwich
Bread- Nella
Tomato- Silas
Bacon- Jonas (of course)
Lettuce- Charlotte
Bread- Simon

This Just Happened

"Is this poop, Mommy?" That's what 3-year-old Simon asked me as he held something small, brown and rock-like. Baby Charlotte had just fallen asleep, so I told him to bring it to me because (a)they have some rock-ish-looking toys and (b) if it was poop, he was already touching it anyway. He brought it over and sure enough, it was poop.

Oh, but there was more! Sime told me there was a bigger one. Of course there was! And it was on the floor in their room surrounded by (but not touching) their toys. (Phew!) Then he showed me one more tiny one in the living room.

You see, yesterday, 2-year-old Jonas just up and decided he was going to pee pee on the potty. It was his idea, so I let him. Since he was doing such a great job and actually peeing on the potty and not the floor, I let him be naked from the waist down as long as we're home and have no visitors. He's very determined to pee on the potty and gets super excited about it exclaiming "I pee peeeeeeed!" or "I did it!" every time he pees on the potty. Plus, it inspires Simon who now decided that he also will pee on the potty. But notice how I keep saying pee and not poop... yeah...

No Progress and Some Other Stuff

My 39 week appointment yesterday was a bit disappointing as my baby exit has made no progress from week 38. But the good news is that if Baby Girl hasn't arrived by 5:00 am Sunday she's being forced out! Yippee!

I thought that since this is my 3rd baby people would have stopped telling me how to get the baby to come out by now... nope. How about I just tell you how to get a baby to come out, mmmkay? Go for a walk, go yard sale-ing, eat something spicy, do something "spicy" (wink wink), pump some milk, listen to '90s alternative rock, go off-roading, do 20 jumping jacks then spin in a circle counterclockwise 3 times while humming I'm a Little Teapot, kiss a frog, rub a pineapple on your left leg, punch a dude in the face, sit outside during a thunderstorm, or just have your doc give you labor-inducing drugs!

Enough of that, so Simon pooped on the potty again! He's great at peeing in the potty if he's half naked (except that time he decided to pee on the wall and that other time he just peed on the floor for fun). It's been a while since he had pooped on the potty (he prefers to poop his pull-ups), but now he has the promise of going to see Cars 2 in the theater if he keeps it up. He's pretty pumped about that. You know what else he's pumped about? Grilled cheese sandwiches. I think it's his new favorite food.

Jonas is getting potty-obsessed. Well, actually it's more like being obsessed with being nakey. He's peed on the potty a couple times and will tell us "Pee pee potty! Pee pee POTTY!" so that we'll take his diaper off. Then he runs to the potty, stands there for half a second and then proceeds to run around the house naked. He's a manipulative chap, he is.

Speaking of Jonas, he is currently telling me, "I poot! I poot!" which means I need to change his diaper...

Hopeless

I had a glimmer of hope. Had. Now the hope is gone, all gone...

Last night Simon pooped in his room. Pooped. In. His. Room. A giant turd and five or so smaller turds. Of course this was about two minutes before clean-up time. I was in the living room with Jonas (who was pretending to pee on the potty) when I realized Simon was being too quiet in his room (again, anyone who has kids knows with the exception of sleep times, quiet = bad). I went in to check and there, in the middle of the room, on his Ikea playmat, was a giant turd. I mean this turd would be big for an adult. It was huge and there was a trail of smaller turds behind it. Simon had poop all over his legs, too.

I herded the boys out of the room, shut the door and got Simon cleaned up. Then I disposed of the turds and then rolled up the mat and stuck it in the garage. At least it fits in the washing machine.

I'm completely giving up on potty training Simon. He can just learn to change his own diapers.

Funnier in Retrospect OR A Laugh at My Expense

It's funnier in retrospect, but I was not amused at the time... "What?" you ask? Simon pooping on his toys.

That's right, Friday morning Simon pooped on some of his toys. And, no, he did not dump in his dump truck (although he did pee on a bulldozer). It was one of those mornings where I was extra tired and camped out on the couch kinda dozing while the boys played and watched some TV. Yes, I sometimes use TV as a babysitter, go ahead and judge me and make yourself feel superior; if you were pregnant and also had a clingy 18 month old and a 2.5 year old who regularly screamed in the middle of the night and got up waaaaaay too early, you'd have TV days as well... or you have a nanny or can ship the kids off to their grandparents' for the day...

Anyway, I had just started feeling well enough to get up off the couch and do something productive when I realized the boys were playing a little too quietly together in their room. Anyone with kids can tell you that other than bedtime and naptime, too quiet equals bad news. As soon as I walked into the boys' room Simon hid. There was a mess, but their room didn't seem too messy. And Jonas was just sitting on the floor playing with some stuffed animals... Then I smelled it... POOP! My initial thought was that Jonas pooped in his diaper (because in our house, if anyone poops, Jonas will also poop not wanting to be outdone). I checked, no poops in his diaper. Simon's been going pantsless around the house to make it easier for him to use the potty by himself, so I knew there was no poop in his pants... and that there must be a turd somewhere in the room! The search began.

I asked Simon if he pooped. First he said no but then quickly recanted. I asked him where and he pointed to the area between his Bounce-n-Spin Zebra and their chest of drawers. He had stacked his puzzle rack (with puzzles still in it) on top of a container for their zoo toys. On the very top puzzle was a turd! Why did he poop there? How did he poop there? Then I noticed another turd in the bear cave of their zoo toy. OK, how did he do that? It turned out that he had stacked the puzzles on the zoo container to stand on and reach something on top of the chest of drawers. While he was standing and reaching he must have just let the turds fly as he grabbed the object of his interest (a piece to one of his Matchbox cars). One turd landed on the puzzle and the other landed in the zoo which had fallen over at just the right angle to catch some poo in the bear cave.

Oh, I was livid. I made Simon watch me clean it up and then put the all the zoo pieces and puzzles in the garage. (Oh, and in the course of cleaning the poop, Jonas got into the toilet bowl cleaner. Thankfully, I was able to yank it out of his hands just as he was about to shove it into his mouth!) The rule is if Simon pees or poops on his toys, they are going into the garage until he can go on the potty and treat his toys properly. As I was gathering the rest of the puzzles I saw a puddle of pee on and around his bulldozer toy, which was about three feet from where the turds were. So not only did he poop on some toys, he went over either before or after to pee on another. After a cleaning, that toy also went to the garage.

The kid has bladder and bowel control, he just does not want to go on the potty. Well, he'll tell me he wants to be a big boy and that he wants to pee and poop on the potty and get a treat (always emphasizing the treat part), but he doesn't actually do it. He'd much rather crouch in a corner to poop or let it fly as he's running across the room (something he also did last week). Maybe he'd be more keen to the potty stuff if Jonas were to pee & poop on the potty, too. As obsessed as Jonas is with the potty right now (seriously, if he hears the word "potty" or he sees Simon pee on the potty, Jonas will dart over and act like he's peeing and pooping on the potty!) and as crazy as I feel, I just might try that. I mean, I'm already cleaning pee & poop up all the time as it is, so why not?

Potty Time!

Simon is reading some potty books and waiting for a poop. If he poops on the potty he gets a treat, gets to wear undies and we get to go visit Daddy at work tomorrow!

Jonas wants to join in on the fun and is also reading potty books. But Jonas tries to push Simon off the potty so he can sit there. He really likes to stand and pretend that he's peeing when Simon is finished. If Jonas was a little bit better at communicating, I'd go ahead and let him start potty training, too! Maybe he can do that this summer.

Just Some Craziness Around Here

As you can probably guess, things are pretty crazy around here. Jonas has his two bottom cuspids getting ready to bust through and it's making him a super crank. With this teething comes slight fever, runny nose and cough (from the runny nose), and of course the pain of teeth trying to push through his gums. Plus, Simon has been biting Jonas (unprovoked), also making Jonas a super crank. Jonas being a super crank means lots of crying & screaming on his part... and sometimes my part (but I mostly blame that on pregnancy hormones).

We're on potty training attempt number four with Simon (we gave up after attempt three because Simon got sick, Daddy had to travel and Mommy was sick and pregnant and then we were all going to be traveling for Christmas and didn't want to deal with it then). Simon has been saying he wants to be a big boy and go on the potty, so today was the first day of potty training... yet again. With the exception of peeing on his toy box, Simon has done a really good job today.

It seems that life with Simon is a battle. Okay, the entire day is not a battle, but every meal, nap time (which I gave up on and we have rest/movie time while Jonas naps), clean-up time, bedtime, potty training, etc. are battles. And a lot of those battles are just because of his will. For example, we can give him a dinner full of all of his favorite foods and he'll say he's hungry but will only want to eat two bites and then ask for a treat. Mealtime battles have nothing to do with whether or not he likes the food or whether or not he's hungry; he just has some control issue or something. It's the same with our last two potty training attempts; he understands the potty, has bladder and bowel control, and he even says he wants to go on the potty and be a big boy (and get rewards, of course)... but he would just pee and poop in his undies after getting rewards.

As crazy and frustrating as things get around here though, we have two very smart, hilarious and sweet boys. There are lots of kisses, hugs and snuggles. Simon looks out for Jonas and gets so excited when Jonas wakes up from nap. Simon can sing the alphabet with only two or three mistakes (...H-Y-J-K-M-&-M-O-P...) and Jonas can sing the alphabet a little, too (most of the letters are B)! Simon seems to remember everything, so we need to watch what we say around him. Jonas sometimes speaks in phrases (he said, "Car in'ere" [car in there] the other day!). Both boys like to imitate things we do and each other, too.

Oh, and we've narrowed Baby Girl's name down to two choices... probably! Of course, her name won't be revealed until she's born as we did with the boys. We're going to stay in our two bedroom place for this year (there's a lot more living space and storage [hello, garage!] than in the three bedroom places we've looked at, plus we have a great deal on rent since Chase does the yard work). So we've got some rearranging and purging to do and new furniture coming before Baby Girl makes her appearance. Things are only going to get crazier around here, I expect, until, well, maybe forever!

***Update***
So, Simon peed a little on the floor during clean-up. Gah! He still didn't do too badly for day one, though.

A Post Not Entirely About Poop

My dear blog followers, I must inform you that by my estimation, there will be at least three more years of poop posts on here. So if that makes you roll your eyes in disgust, check back in three years and there just might be a new subject matter on here... but I make no guarantees!

Now that you're informed, I'll give an update on the kiddos...

Simon, as you know, is potty training. He's starting to get the hang of it! I knew he was able and ready, just unwilling until I found the right motivator. He's pooped in his potty several times now and has gotten M&Ms, stickers, matchbox cars and most recently, Cars undies! He loves his new undies. He's been doing some Kumon maze, tracing and cutting books and loves to draw pictures of bats, spiders, pumpkins and ghosts. If we pass a house with Halloween decorations, he'll exclaim, "It's HA-WO-WEEN!" He's super pumped about going trick-or-treating and talks about knocking on doors and saying, "trick-or-TREAT!" Simon's starting to try to refuse his afternoon nap, but I don't think he's ready to give it up quite yet... or maybe I'm not ready for him to give it up quite yet. Hopefully I can at least keep him napping until I'm into my second trimester...

Jonas is quite silly and is the snuggliest person I've ever met. He loves to snuggle and sleep with my and Chase's dirty shirts. If I try to put one in the laundry, he'll find another in our room. He must have one of Mommy's and one of Daddy's in his crib as well as a blankie. Sometimes he just walks around the house snuggling them, too. Jonas wants everyone who comes into our home to pick him up... immediately! He's a big Daddy's boy right now and freaks out if Chase walks out the door or goes into the bathroom. He still climbs on everything and now has quite the vocabulary. He says: Mama, Mommy, Dada, Daddy, Papa (Grampa/Papaw), heeeyyyyy, bye-bye, baby, (and bye-bye baby to babies), dis (this), dat (dat), wuz dat? (what's that?), who's dat? (who's that?), skisy (squishy), e'wo (hello), pat pat pat bas'off! (pat pat pat blastoff! from Little Einsteins), down, more, tan'kew (thank you), stop (don't think he knows what that means), poop, boo, get out, no & ball (his favorite). He signs: ball, more, eat, thank you, bird, stop, baby, shoes, no & car (and maybe a couple others I'm forgetting). One thing Jonas enjoys doing is rearranging; he moves picture frames and hides the remote. This guy still takes two naps a day. He also likes to go in time-out after Simon is finished serving his time...

We're thinking Baby #3 is a girl (won't really know 'til January) and Chase & I may have even decided on a name! Woo hoo! Girls' names are really difficult for us. As usual, we'll keep this name a secret until she's born. I've felt sicker this pregnancy but thankfully haven't thrown-up. I don't have any cravings, but usually I get food aversions (with Simon it was peanuts and with Jonas it was eggs). So far I haven't found my food aversion this time, but mouthwash tastes absolutely terrible! One thing that's different this time is for the most part is that food tastes way better than usual! Hopefully that doesn't cause me to gain 80 pounds!

We've got a Halloween party to go to tonight, so I'll have a post with pictures of our awesome costumes coming soon. Here's a hint about the boys' costumes: they're different characters from the same movie and are mostly black & white striped... (If I've already told you what they are, please refrain from commenting about it!)

Illusive Sleep

Simon is a terrible sleeper. Anything that disrupts his daily schedule also messes with his nighttime sleep. Missing a nap messes with his sleep. Going to bed too early messes with his sleep. Going to bed too late messes with his sleep. When he's sick, it messes with his sleep. Simon has a cough, and of course, it's messing with his sleep.

Last night was like having a newborn again. No wait, like having Newborn Simon because Newborn Jonas came home from the hospital and slept 6 hours his first night! (It didn't continue that way, but he ususally slept 4 and 5 hour stretches the first few months... until he got sick...) Last night, like when Simon was an itty bitty baby, this guy was up every 2 hours. Every. 2. Hours. Thankfully, he only woke Jonas up once and Jonas went right back to sleep. But at 4:50 this morning I suggested to Chase that he bring Simon into our bed, then Chase could get some sleep on the couch.

Simon was very comforted by having Mommy right next to him... but he wouldn't go back to sleep. The kid has been up since before 5 this morning... just like when he was a newborn. At 6:40 he got mad because I wouldn't keep switching spots with him, but Chase came in and relieved me so I could get some rest.

Needless to say, there are some tired people in our household today. Tired and cranky. Plus, Jonas is working on the dreaded 1-year molars and those wonderful teething tablets have been recalled!

Oh, and to top it all off, this morning Simon pooped on the floor right next to his potty. At least Jonas was napping and didn't pick it up this time. (Did I not mention that? Last week Jonas picked up a Simon turd...)

We Have a Poop!

Big news, world: Simon just pooped on the potty!

And maybe he ran outside naked from the waist down to tell his daddy who was doing some yard work...

More Potty Talk

As I mentioned last time, I'm super motivated desperate to get Simon potty trained (the whole having three in diapers thing is super unappealing). Today, I changed my strategy a little...

After a few days of TV deprivation and missed pooportunities* and after hearing what some friends and relatives have done, I decided we'd camp out on or around the potty and read books, eat snacks and watch TV until the boy poops, by golly! We even skipped Simon's nap because as soon as I put a Pull-up on his bottom for nap he's bound to fill it with poo. Besides, he's not exerting that much energy being a TV zombie anyway.

Watching TV, snacking & waiting for a poop

So far, no poop... BUT he's peed TWICE on the potty ALL BY HIMSELF with no prompting or help from me! The first time, I heard the sound of pee hitting what I thought was the floor, gasped then saw him standing up and peeing into his little potty, then he turned around and watched some more TV. He's very excited about this accomplishment, and so am I! I'm sure it helps that he's naked from the waist down today, too...

Now, I'm not making him sit on the potty the whole time. Every once in a while I'll tell him to sit and try to poop, but mostly he just sits or stands near it and reclines on the ottoman.

Hopefully we'll get a poop soon, but I'll take the pee pee progress over nothing! I'm starting to see a light at the end of the potty training tunnel!


*poop opportunities, I thought my made-up word was fitting!

Potty Talk

Simon's been potty training for a week now. He's great at peeing on the potty when I take him and now wakes up from naps dry and even woke up dry this morning! But he is vehemently against pooping on the potty. He just will not poop.

Well, let's backtrack to the pee pee... Simon has only told me twice that he had to pee, the rest of the time I just took him to avoid accidents. He's not great at telling me he has to go but he's good at going when I take him. He wears a Pull-up if we take him to the store or the park or someone's house and they stay dry. Thankfully, he's not one of those kids that pees himself just because he's wearing a Pull-up. Actually, I think this is because he really doesn't care if he's got a wet diaper, Pull-up or undies, so he's indifferent about what's covering his booty. None of those things bother him one bit.

You know what else doesn't bother Simon? Sitting in his poop. That's why potty training him is so difficult. Since his birth he has never minded sitting in his own pee and/or poop in the least! He has the promise of matchbox cars if he poops on the potty as well as promises of M&Ms and Cars undies. Simon is very excited about all these things and talks daily about going to the store to get cars (and then adds other things he wants), but it's not motivation enough to make him poop on the potty.

But I think I've found Simon's motivator: TV. This kid loves TV. As of Monday afternoon, the rule has been no TV for Simon til he poops on the potty. And you know what? He's gone from saying he doesn't want to poop on the potty to actually trying to today! He sat on the potty for almost a half hour while we read books but pooped himself five minutes after he got up. But he did make another attempt of his own accord even though he didn't have to go... because he wanted to watch TV!

We've (I've) given up potty training twice now because I just didn't want to deal with it, but this time I pretty much have to or wait a year. If I don't do it now, I might as well wait til after Christmas because we'll be traveling and there's no sense in starting it a couple weeks before traveling. By March I'll be in my miserable 3rd trimester of pregnancy where I have little motivation to do much of anything, so there's no sense in doing potty training then, and besides that, he's very likely to backslide when Baby comes in May especially if he was just recently potty trained. I also won't have the time or energy to handle potty training while I have a newborn plus, I really, really, really do NOT want to change diapers for 3 kids when one is more than able to go on the potty (and just doesn't want to).

Simon is two-and-a-half. He's old enough to use the potty. He shows plenty of the typical readiness signs for potty training. It's a matter of breaking his will against it, and by golly, I think his TV deprivation just might do that... and if not, well, at least he won't be a TV zombie.

Oh, the Potty!

Simon is officially potty training (for the 3rd and final time). He's not really interested in the potty, but Jonas is. We have to keep the pee-catching "inner potty" piece up high when it's not in use because Jonas likes to take it out and put it on his head. If Simon is standing up to pee, Jonas likes to try to climb in. Until today, we've been able to keep Jonas out/off of the potty while Simon was using it. Today, you see, Jonas was so excited to see Simon's pee pee in the potty that he reached right in to feel it before I could push him away. Maybe Jonas will potty train easier than Simon since he's already so interested...