The kids and these kittens are just so cute together I can't stand it. Georgia chases them around growling, "Kitty! Kitty!" (yes, she growls) and they actually stop to let her pet them. One day Nate was laying on the couch on a pillow with a blanket over him, and both kittens jumped up there to cuddle with him. Another day he was sitting in a chair watching a movie, and the kittens were piled on top of each other napping beside him. He started petting Kooka and said, "You're the best kitty in the world." Then noticed Allee Galloo and said, "And so are you."
The kittens are not always so adorable. Kooka (the gray one) is usually pretty calm, but Allee is a troublemaker. A couple nights ago, I was trying to get Georgia to go to sleep. As I was rocking her, Allee wandered in the room and crawled under the crib. Hmm. Well, I can't just leave her in here because she'll disturb Georgia. So I called Blake in there, and we had to move the crib and spent 5 minutes chasing her out. Blake closed the door behind him, but it was pitch dark in there so I opened the door, thinking he took Allee downstairs. Just as Georgia was nodding off, here comes Allee again, right under the crib. So I had to move the crib again, but she wasn't under there. I looked everywhere and finally found her out in the hallway. She must have run out when I wasn't looking. So I put Georgia down and left, and a couple minutes later we heard loud meowing over the baby monitor. Allee!!!! Sneaky kitty.
Georgia is saying so many words these days and really communicating well. On Saturday I had her in her high chair and she started whining. I asked if she was all done and she said, "No." I asked if she wanted more lunch, and she said, "Yes." But after a few minutes she was still whining, and I said, "Georgia, I don't know what you want!" She said, all exasperated, "Nigh nigh!!!" She's figured out she is going to have to talk to get through to me.
One day we ran out of milk, so Alisa tried to sneak some formula into her bottle. She looked at it skeptically but gave it a try, made a face and pushed it away. She kept saying, "Milk!" and "Baba!" thinking surely one of these magic words would get her her milk!
The last couple of times we've gone out to eat with Georgia, we've tried to get her to drink through a straw, but she really wasn't interested. On Sunday, Mindy and I took the kids to Steak and Shake for breakfast (surprisingly good breakfast), and Mindy gave it another try. After practicing for just a minute or so, she got it! It is so amazing to watch a baby learn something new. Drinking through a straw is one of those things we all do and don't even think about, but babies have to learn pretty much everything. I don't know why, but Nate had such a hard time learning to drink through a straw and didn't get it until he was almost 3. And here Georgia picked it up in no time. It's just kind of magical to watch a child learn a lifelong skill (even just drinking through a straw) right before your eyes.
Nate also learned something amazing a couple nights ago. We were reading Dr. Seuss' Hop on Pop, and it's a perfect book to start learning how to read. Nate knows all his letter sounds, and he was actually sounding out and reading these words! I'm so proud! We read it again the next night, and he was able to sound out the word "Red" without help.
And lastly, another Nate-ism. As I was giving him a bath, he said, "I don't want to take a bath! I want to go to school stinky!" :) Nice.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Stroll & Roll!
Our Stroll & Roll benefitting SBAK was last Saturday, and Team Nate the Great raised just shy of $1,200!!! That is awesome! Thank you so much to everyone who gave a little and a lot. This money goes toward programs and services for SBAK, and since I plan those programs, you know they're helpful, right? ;)
In addition to raising money, I also of course helped put on the Stroll & Roll. (On a staff of 3, you really can't not be a part of anything!) The event was a lot of work, but we were very pleased with the outcome and everyone seemed to have a great time. I guess we had 250-300 people there--at least that's how many we were expecting, but it looked like a really good crowd. In addition to the walk, we had carnival games, free lunch, face painting, shrek, a magician, train rides, and a basket raffle.
Both Mindy and Lucas came to participate in the walk, which I really appreciated. Blake of course brought the kids, and even though I was working the registration table, I noticed a little crowd forming to watch Nate doing the Cha-Cha Slide with Shrek! It was so cute. He would sliiiiiiide to the left, then sliiiiiiide to the right, then CRISS CROSS!
You can see pictures of it by going to this slide show and looking at numbers 4-8. Then 57-63 is my family starting the walk. Several people now have told me they saw me walking on the news! (I'm glad I didn't see it!) http://kellydavenport.zenfolio.com/sbakstroll/slideshow
Both Georgia and Nate wanted to run for awhile then be carried for awhile. It is not lost on me how amazing it is that Nate is running in the Spina Bifida Awareness walk. We are very thankful.
In addition to raising money, I also of course helped put on the Stroll & Roll. (On a staff of 3, you really can't not be a part of anything!) The event was a lot of work, but we were very pleased with the outcome and everyone seemed to have a great time. I guess we had 250-300 people there--at least that's how many we were expecting, but it looked like a really good crowd. In addition to the walk, we had carnival games, free lunch, face painting, shrek, a magician, train rides, and a basket raffle.
Both Mindy and Lucas came to participate in the walk, which I really appreciated. Blake of course brought the kids, and even though I was working the registration table, I noticed a little crowd forming to watch Nate doing the Cha-Cha Slide with Shrek! It was so cute. He would sliiiiiiide to the left, then sliiiiiiide to the right, then CRISS CROSS!
You can see pictures of it by going to this slide show and looking at numbers 4-8. Then 57-63 is my family starting the walk. Several people now have told me they saw me walking on the news! (I'm glad I didn't see it!) http://kellydavenport.zenfolio.com/sbakstroll/slideshow
Both Georgia and Nate wanted to run for awhile then be carried for awhile. It is not lost on me how amazing it is that Nate is running in the Spina Bifida Awareness walk. We are very thankful.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Some pretty cute pictures and videos
I haven't posted pictures in awhile, so here goes! First is a short video of Nate's latest achievement: Walking down steps without railing or holding a hand! Whoo! We are so excited.
Here's a rare brother-sister photo. Neither can sit still long enough for me to get them in the same frame.
Here's me and Darla, my best buddy from senior year, with our babies! Cash is so cute I could just keep him in my pocket.
A favorite activity of both kids is climbing on daddy. He's their personal, portable jungle gym.
Notice Georgia STANDING on her chair. Typical.
You know she's sleepy when she willingly lays down. But not for long. She was back up and running within seconds.
Okay, this is a fairly steep hill at my parents' house. Nate decided he wanted to run down it. By himself. With no shoes. It took a lot of effort to get up the hill, then stand up, then I just cringed and prayed as he took off running down it.
But he did it! Over and over! I was so proud of him for being brave and trying something he really wanted to do.
Crinkle nosed smile.
Looking at trains at the train museum.
I don't even know what this look was about.
Here's Allee Galloo (formerly known as Baby Allie)
And Kooka (short for Kookaburra, formerly Baby Smoke)
We had a motorcycle run to benefit SBAK yesterday, and the kids came out to see the bikes and show their support. Nate was walking on Daddy's shoes.
Georgia found some beads and was enjoying all the attention running around.
Here's another recent achievement--riding a tricycle ... while playing a kazoo. (The OT says it helps him coordinate his breathing with activity.) Sorry it's sideways, but it's short ... because he ran into something.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Team Nate the Great Update!!!
As I posted a few weeks back, we are participating in the Spina Bifida Association of Kentucky's Stroll & Roll, it's awareness walk and major fundraiser. I set a goal of raising $1,000 for SBAK, and thanks to everyone who donated, we reached our goal!!!!! I'm stoked!
But, I'm also very competitive. :) And another team has surpassed my fundraising by $250. So, if you would still like to donate to this very good cause, we would appreciate the support, and we might just win!
Also, if anyone wants to walk with us, it's going to be Sept. 18, a week from this Saturday. So far Lucas and Mindy are going to walk with me, Blake, and the kids! The more, the merrier! Grandparents are especially welcome. (Wink wink)
But, I'm also very competitive. :) And another team has surpassed my fundraising by $250. So, if you would still like to donate to this very good cause, we would appreciate the support, and we might just win!
Also, if anyone wants to walk with us, it's going to be Sept. 18, a week from this Saturday. So far Lucas and Mindy are going to walk with me, Blake, and the kids! The more, the merrier! Grandparents are especially welcome. (Wink wink)
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
I'm back!
My laptop has been in the shop, so I have been unable to blog for more than a week. Blake took the laptop to one of the IT guys at work who has his own business on the side. He opened it up one night but couldn't do anything because half the screen was black. Blake said, "Oh yeah, Colleen says it does that, but all you have to do is poke the screen in this one place and the black part goes away." Oooookay, so he tried again, but this time he still couldn't do anything because the battery would die every few seconds. Blake told him I also had a secret for that--all you have to do is unplug the cord, wait 5 seconds, and plug it back in ... the laptop always has to be plugged in. He just returned it in the same condition he got it. The laptop has died twice while I've written this paragraph. So I think I'll buy a new battery and go from there. It's just so slow I can hardly do anything. It's sad when I can check my email or facebook 100x faster on my phone than on my computer.
Well it has been a very busy couple of weeks. Last week at work was crazy. One day I drove to Murray, Ky, which is a really, really long way from here, for a conference. Then a couple days later I hosted a program at work, then I worked one evening at a trade show. There were 3 out of 4 days there when I barely saw my kids while they were awake. I have vowed to myself that I won't do that anymore. If I have to work one evening, I will take the morning off. If I work way more than my regular 40 hours, I will take a day off. I'm fortunate that my boss is very encouraging of that, but I have learned the lesson the hard way. Last week I was exhausted and just missing my family. I get so excited about my job because it's exactly what I want to be doing and there are so many opportunities to do great things. But I need to pace myself for the sake of my family.
I also almost went blind last week. Well, that's a little dramatic, but it felt that way at the time. I was putting together a cardboard sign at work for a program the next day, and I rammed the corner straight in my eyeball. Didn't even flinch! Aren't you supposed to have natural reflexes that make your eye close? Mine did not. It HURT. I finally got my contact out, and it was ripped. I couldn't open the eye and couldn't drive, so Blake had to come get me. This was Nate's first day of school and I planned on picking him up, so we did that on the way home, with me covering my eye and wishing for a patch the whole time. Lucky for me I have a friend who is an optometrist, and I went to her house, where she saw there was a tear on my eye. She gave me some drops and told me to put another contact in there to act as a bandaid to protect it. She said to go home and lay down in the dark and take the next day off work. Yeah right on both accounts! I wish! :) The next day I went to work wearing sunglasses and wore them all day. It was great hosting a class, inside, at night, wearing sunglasses. If I hadn't explained what happened to everyone I talked to, they probably would have thought I was nursing a hangover. :)
Oh, another stupid thing I did last week. When I went to Murray, I had to get up at 4:30 am and drive there in time for a conference, then drive back that evening. On the way out of town, I stopped to get gas. I will say that I rarely get gas for myself--Blake is so good at keeping it filled for me. But I'll also blame lack of sleep. While it was pumping, I went inside for some caffeine and a snack, came back outside, and drove away ... with the pump still in the tank. Everything was okay! The car was okay, there was no gas spewing everywhere. I was hoping no one saw that smooth move, but two guys came running over to check on things and made sure to tell me how lucky I was. Oops.
Because of working so much last week, I was able to take a super long Labor Day weekend! I took Friday off to pack and we got an early head start to my parents' house. What should have taken 4.5 hours took an agonizing 6 hours--and the last one was sheer screaming by both kids. We were glad to get there. Saturday morning I got to visit with my friend Darla who I haven't seen for years and meet her adorable baby. Then later in the day, the Bowen family descended on my parents' house! My dad's parents, 2 sisters, and his brother and his wife and 2 sons came to visit. We had so much fun! Nate LOVED his cousin Trace ... a little too much. He followed him around like a little puppy. Trace was great with him though. We ate a lot and went shopping and sat around a fire ... good times. Georgia was attached to my hip the entire weekend. She wouldn't go to anyone or even ride in a stroller while we were out! Must be on mama's hip.
Monday before we left, my parents played a round of hide and seek with Nate. He cracks me up! While my dad counted, Nate ran to the other end of the patio and just covered his eyes. Awwwww. My mom hid him behind a chair, and when my dad said, "I wonder where Nate is ...", Nate piped up, "I'm behind the chair!" :) While my mom counted, my dad took Nate up the hill behind some trees, and you could hear Nate giggling uncontrollably the whole way up. Once my mom hid in a big trunk, and she seriously startled him when he lifted the lid and saw her! The last game, my mom counted while Nate just ran around in circles giggling then ran over to a tree and, with his back facing us in full view, put his hands over his face. SO CUTE.
On the way home, we decided to break up the trip this time by stopping at the train museum near Cincinnati. A little boy's idea of heaven is eating pizza and a Thomas cookie while watching trains roll by. Only about the last half hour of the drive was absolutely miserable.
So, we brought home two kittens. My mom's cat had a litter of seven, and she'd given away all but the last two. I figured we'd be talked into bringing one home, but she somehow talked me into bringing home both of them so they wouldn't get lonely. I don't even really like cats! I'm such a sucker. They really are cute though. The intention was for them to be outside cats, but they've spent a lot of time indoors today. They wanted to come in, so I thought I'd let them in for a little visit, and next thing I knew I had lost them upstairs. I spent half the day hunting kittens at one point or another. Georgia LOVES them. A little too hard. Nate named them Baby Allie and Baby Smoke because one looks just like its mama Allie, and the other looks just like my mom's other cat Smoke. We might change the names, but for now it's really cute.
I was so happy I got to take today off to recover from my long weekend! That's the dream! I did laundry and put things away and went grocery shopping and took a nap! Now I'm ready to go back to work tomorrow.
Well it has been a very busy couple of weeks. Last week at work was crazy. One day I drove to Murray, Ky, which is a really, really long way from here, for a conference. Then a couple days later I hosted a program at work, then I worked one evening at a trade show. There were 3 out of 4 days there when I barely saw my kids while they were awake. I have vowed to myself that I won't do that anymore. If I have to work one evening, I will take the morning off. If I work way more than my regular 40 hours, I will take a day off. I'm fortunate that my boss is very encouraging of that, but I have learned the lesson the hard way. Last week I was exhausted and just missing my family. I get so excited about my job because it's exactly what I want to be doing and there are so many opportunities to do great things. But I need to pace myself for the sake of my family.
I also almost went blind last week. Well, that's a little dramatic, but it felt that way at the time. I was putting together a cardboard sign at work for a program the next day, and I rammed the corner straight in my eyeball. Didn't even flinch! Aren't you supposed to have natural reflexes that make your eye close? Mine did not. It HURT. I finally got my contact out, and it was ripped. I couldn't open the eye and couldn't drive, so Blake had to come get me. This was Nate's first day of school and I planned on picking him up, so we did that on the way home, with me covering my eye and wishing for a patch the whole time. Lucky for me I have a friend who is an optometrist, and I went to her house, where she saw there was a tear on my eye. She gave me some drops and told me to put another contact in there to act as a bandaid to protect it. She said to go home and lay down in the dark and take the next day off work. Yeah right on both accounts! I wish! :) The next day I went to work wearing sunglasses and wore them all day. It was great hosting a class, inside, at night, wearing sunglasses. If I hadn't explained what happened to everyone I talked to, they probably would have thought I was nursing a hangover. :)
Oh, another stupid thing I did last week. When I went to Murray, I had to get up at 4:30 am and drive there in time for a conference, then drive back that evening. On the way out of town, I stopped to get gas. I will say that I rarely get gas for myself--Blake is so good at keeping it filled for me. But I'll also blame lack of sleep. While it was pumping, I went inside for some caffeine and a snack, came back outside, and drove away ... with the pump still in the tank. Everything was okay! The car was okay, there was no gas spewing everywhere. I was hoping no one saw that smooth move, but two guys came running over to check on things and made sure to tell me how lucky I was. Oops.
Because of working so much last week, I was able to take a super long Labor Day weekend! I took Friday off to pack and we got an early head start to my parents' house. What should have taken 4.5 hours took an agonizing 6 hours--and the last one was sheer screaming by both kids. We were glad to get there. Saturday morning I got to visit with my friend Darla who I haven't seen for years and meet her adorable baby. Then later in the day, the Bowen family descended on my parents' house! My dad's parents, 2 sisters, and his brother and his wife and 2 sons came to visit. We had so much fun! Nate LOVED his cousin Trace ... a little too much. He followed him around like a little puppy. Trace was great with him though. We ate a lot and went shopping and sat around a fire ... good times. Georgia was attached to my hip the entire weekend. She wouldn't go to anyone or even ride in a stroller while we were out! Must be on mama's hip.
Monday before we left, my parents played a round of hide and seek with Nate. He cracks me up! While my dad counted, Nate ran to the other end of the patio and just covered his eyes. Awwwww. My mom hid him behind a chair, and when my dad said, "I wonder where Nate is ...", Nate piped up, "I'm behind the chair!" :) While my mom counted, my dad took Nate up the hill behind some trees, and you could hear Nate giggling uncontrollably the whole way up. Once my mom hid in a big trunk, and she seriously startled him when he lifted the lid and saw her! The last game, my mom counted while Nate just ran around in circles giggling then ran over to a tree and, with his back facing us in full view, put his hands over his face. SO CUTE.
On the way home, we decided to break up the trip this time by stopping at the train museum near Cincinnati. A little boy's idea of heaven is eating pizza and a Thomas cookie while watching trains roll by. Only about the last half hour of the drive was absolutely miserable.
So, we brought home two kittens. My mom's cat had a litter of seven, and she'd given away all but the last two. I figured we'd be talked into bringing one home, but she somehow talked me into bringing home both of them so they wouldn't get lonely. I don't even really like cats! I'm such a sucker. They really are cute though. The intention was for them to be outside cats, but they've spent a lot of time indoors today. They wanted to come in, so I thought I'd let them in for a little visit, and next thing I knew I had lost them upstairs. I spent half the day hunting kittens at one point or another. Georgia LOVES them. A little too hard. Nate named them Baby Allie and Baby Smoke because one looks just like its mama Allie, and the other looks just like my mom's other cat Smoke. We might change the names, but for now it's really cute.
I was so happy I got to take today off to recover from my long weekend! That's the dream! I did laundry and put things away and went grocery shopping and took a nap! Now I'm ready to go back to work tomorrow.
Monday, August 23, 2010
More Nate conversations
I love when Alisa texts me with pictures of the kids and funny things they're doing and saying. Here are a few recent ones:
"So Nate is trying to get out of feeding himself applesauce. The latest reason: This is so going to wear me oooouuuutttt!"
Alisa: It's potty time!
Nate: NO! It's changing time! You have to change! I will get in trouble if I potty!
Nice try, buddy.
Scene: McDonalds drive through
Alisa: I need a chicken nugget meal ...
Nate: Stop saying words! I'm trying to sleep!
A few days ago, Nate was sitting on the potty (notice a theme with these stories? He's on the potty a lot) and he was drumming (always drumming) with some markers. I noticed he had a couple of pink spots on his legs and I thought he had colored on himself earlier. But after a couple minutes I noticed LOTS of pink spots on his legs. I realized the marker was leaking and threw it in the trash. Nate looked down at his legs and gasped, "I'm Pinkalicious!" (If you haven't read the book "Pinkalicious" it's about a little girl who eats so many pink cupcakes that she turns pink.)
Some very common questions we hear around here are:
What's YOUR number? Translation: "I am 4. How old are you?"
What's YOUR letters? Translation: "How do you spell your name?"
What's YOUR color? Translation: "What color is your hair?"
And today, Nate had me laughing so hard out of nowhere. We were in the truck for hours and were a little stir crazy. When Blake got out to pump gas, the truck went "beep beep." Nate went beep beep. I said "honk honk." Nate said "choo choo." I said, "meep meep." Nate said, "toot toot." I said, "Moo moo," and Nate said, "INTERRUPTING COW!!!" Oh my gosh! I couldn't breathe. I have been trying to teach him that knock knock joke for months now. (Knock knock, who's there, Interrupting Cow, Interrupting Cow Wh---MOOO!) He still has yet to tell the joke correctly, but that right there was 1000x funnier than the original joke!
You may be wondering how potty training is going--very well, actually! I may be a bit premature in saying this, and I'm knocking on wood right now ... but I'm going to say it--Nate is potty trained for poop! He has pooped in the potty every single time for two weeks now. In fact, Friday night I was getting Nate settled in bed and had already read him his stories when he said, "I have to go potty." I thought he was just playing a trick on me to let him go back downstairs where his potty is. I told him if he really had to go potty, he'd have to use the one upstairs (which he doesn't like). He said fine. Well, he went in there and pooped in the potty!!!!! And he TOLD me he had to go! I'm so excited. Now he does have a tendency to get a little constipated here and there, but it's nothing that we can't control with his diet, so we're going to have to be extra careful about it now.
We still have a ways to go with the peeing. We sit him on the potty every 45 minutes, and just about every time he'll sit down and pee very well. Many times he'll stay dry between pottying, but very often he's not dry. Right now we're using pull ups because I was ready to collapse at the thought of changing underwear 8 or more times a day for the forseeable future! But it's going pretty well and we're just going to keep at it. It looks like we'll send him to preschool next Monday in pull ups, but he'll go to the potty 2 or 3 times during the school (half) day just like all the other kids.
Nate has been doing VERY well with walking up and down steps by himself (holding onto a rail with one hand). This is major progress! But a few days ago he tripped and either badly stubbed or broke one of his big toes. I have not taken him into the doctor because I really feel like there's nothing they can do about it, but it's turning black and he's having trouble walking on it. Other times he pays no attention to it. I've broken and badly stubbed toes over the past year, and I know that both HURT. Poor guy.
The other thing Nate is doing very well is swimming! A few months back we had to drop aquatic therapy because of our insurance, so we picked up swim lessons since being in the water has been so good for Nate. Well, the last couple of weeks, he has been dog paddling (with just a float-thing on his back) from one end of the pool to the other and back again! He complains about it the whole time, but he does it! This picture is a little dark, but it's Nate jumping in the pool to his teacher, BJ.
After all that about Nate, I'll update on Georgia too. She has this ornery little crinkle nose grin that I just love. I'll post a picture another time. She's saying "Boo" (which sounds like "buh") all the time now--when opening a door, or taking off a hat, or hiding behind a curtain. Her favorite thing in the world is to empty out my purse. The child still won't play with actual toys but loves anything that seems to be a no-no. I see her wandering around with random objects in her hands. Like a box of tic tacs and a tissue. Nate's toothbrush. Fingernail clippers and a shoe. Oh, and the other day I met Alisa and the kids at the park, and they were climbing up to this little kid slide and sliding down, and while we were talking, Georgia slid down all by herself! She is such the daredevil--she giggled the whole time.
An update on Blake and me--Last week marked our 7th wedding anniversary and 11 years together! Wow! That's more than 1/3 of my life! I don't think anyone ever expected us to make it this long, lol!
Blake is notoriously bad about gift-giving. While I put thought and time into getting the "perfect" gift for every occassion, Blake asks me what I want. And I've learned to just order what I want myself so I'm not disappointed. This tells you how clueless he is about gifts--One of his good friends got married this weekend, and when I asked him what we should give him as a wedding gift, he suggested something for the guy's baby .... Honey, you don't buy a baby gift for a wedding. So imagine my shock when Blake got me a lovely anniversary gift! Sunday night Blake said he'd gotten me something and asked if I wanted to know what--NO! He is also notoriously bad about keeping secrets! I always get my gift before my birthday, or he tells me what it is. Well Monday, he called and asked, "Did you get anything from me this morning?" I said, "I got that picture of the kids you emailed me." "No, anything else?" Then I realized he had sent me flowers! And he totally spoiled it by telling me! Anyway, 18 beautiful red roses arrived at my office later that day. The next day, my coworkers and I were standing around when the FedEx guy brought in a box. We weren't expecting anything. He said it was for me! It was a dozen of the most gorgeous fancy chocolate covered strawberries! And the card said something like, "You gave me two precious gifts, so I wanted to send you two gifts for our anniversary." And this from the man who suggests rotating my tires for Christmas! (Not really, but that's not far off.) He did good!
Well it's been a very long weekend. I hosted a program for adults with SB Saturday in Louisville. Then we drove to Owensboro to attend Blake's longtime friend Scott's wedding and to spend the night at Memaw and GrandBob's house (where Memaw successfully got both of them to sleep by herself while we were at the wedding!). Then Sunday morning after breakfast we drove all the way to Lexington for a playgroup for kiddos with SB and their families. It was a VERY fun weekend, but I'm beat. I have the day off tomorrow, and I'm going to get my house in order, grocery shop, and take a nap!
"So Nate is trying to get out of feeding himself applesauce. The latest reason: This is so going to wear me oooouuuutttt!"
Alisa: It's potty time!
Nate: NO! It's changing time! You have to change! I will get in trouble if I potty!
Nice try, buddy.
Scene: McDonalds drive through
Alisa: I need a chicken nugget meal ...
Nate: Stop saying words! I'm trying to sleep!
A few days ago, Nate was sitting on the potty (notice a theme with these stories? He's on the potty a lot) and he was drumming (always drumming) with some markers. I noticed he had a couple of pink spots on his legs and I thought he had colored on himself earlier. But after a couple minutes I noticed LOTS of pink spots on his legs. I realized the marker was leaking and threw it in the trash. Nate looked down at his legs and gasped, "I'm Pinkalicious!" (If you haven't read the book "Pinkalicious" it's about a little girl who eats so many pink cupcakes that she turns pink.)
Some very common questions we hear around here are:
What's YOUR number? Translation: "I am 4. How old are you?"
What's YOUR letters? Translation: "How do you spell your name?"
What's YOUR color? Translation: "What color is your hair?"
And today, Nate had me laughing so hard out of nowhere. We were in the truck for hours and were a little stir crazy. When Blake got out to pump gas, the truck went "beep beep." Nate went beep beep. I said "honk honk." Nate said "choo choo." I said, "meep meep." Nate said, "toot toot." I said, "Moo moo," and Nate said, "INTERRUPTING COW!!!" Oh my gosh! I couldn't breathe. I have been trying to teach him that knock knock joke for months now. (Knock knock, who's there, Interrupting Cow, Interrupting Cow Wh---MOOO!) He still has yet to tell the joke correctly, but that right there was 1000x funnier than the original joke!
You may be wondering how potty training is going--very well, actually! I may be a bit premature in saying this, and I'm knocking on wood right now ... but I'm going to say it--Nate is potty trained for poop! He has pooped in the potty every single time for two weeks now. In fact, Friday night I was getting Nate settled in bed and had already read him his stories when he said, "I have to go potty." I thought he was just playing a trick on me to let him go back downstairs where his potty is. I told him if he really had to go potty, he'd have to use the one upstairs (which he doesn't like). He said fine. Well, he went in there and pooped in the potty!!!!! And he TOLD me he had to go! I'm so excited. Now he does have a tendency to get a little constipated here and there, but it's nothing that we can't control with his diet, so we're going to have to be extra careful about it now.
We still have a ways to go with the peeing. We sit him on the potty every 45 minutes, and just about every time he'll sit down and pee very well. Many times he'll stay dry between pottying, but very often he's not dry. Right now we're using pull ups because I was ready to collapse at the thought of changing underwear 8 or more times a day for the forseeable future! But it's going pretty well and we're just going to keep at it. It looks like we'll send him to preschool next Monday in pull ups, but he'll go to the potty 2 or 3 times during the school (half) day just like all the other kids.
Nate has been doing VERY well with walking up and down steps by himself (holding onto a rail with one hand). This is major progress! But a few days ago he tripped and either badly stubbed or broke one of his big toes. I have not taken him into the doctor because I really feel like there's nothing they can do about it, but it's turning black and he's having trouble walking on it. Other times he pays no attention to it. I've broken and badly stubbed toes over the past year, and I know that both HURT. Poor guy.
The other thing Nate is doing very well is swimming! A few months back we had to drop aquatic therapy because of our insurance, so we picked up swim lessons since being in the water has been so good for Nate. Well, the last couple of weeks, he has been dog paddling (with just a float-thing on his back) from one end of the pool to the other and back again! He complains about it the whole time, but he does it! This picture is a little dark, but it's Nate jumping in the pool to his teacher, BJ.
After all that about Nate, I'll update on Georgia too. She has this ornery little crinkle nose grin that I just love. I'll post a picture another time. She's saying "Boo" (which sounds like "buh") all the time now--when opening a door, or taking off a hat, or hiding behind a curtain. Her favorite thing in the world is to empty out my purse. The child still won't play with actual toys but loves anything that seems to be a no-no. I see her wandering around with random objects in her hands. Like a box of tic tacs and a tissue. Nate's toothbrush. Fingernail clippers and a shoe. Oh, and the other day I met Alisa and the kids at the park, and they were climbing up to this little kid slide and sliding down, and while we were talking, Georgia slid down all by herself! She is such the daredevil--she giggled the whole time.
An update on Blake and me--Last week marked our 7th wedding anniversary and 11 years together! Wow! That's more than 1/3 of my life! I don't think anyone ever expected us to make it this long, lol!
Blake is notoriously bad about gift-giving. While I put thought and time into getting the "perfect" gift for every occassion, Blake asks me what I want. And I've learned to just order what I want myself so I'm not disappointed. This tells you how clueless he is about gifts--One of his good friends got married this weekend, and when I asked him what we should give him as a wedding gift, he suggested something for the guy's baby .... Honey, you don't buy a baby gift for a wedding. So imagine my shock when Blake got me a lovely anniversary gift! Sunday night Blake said he'd gotten me something and asked if I wanted to know what--NO! He is also notoriously bad about keeping secrets! I always get my gift before my birthday, or he tells me what it is. Well Monday, he called and asked, "Did you get anything from me this morning?" I said, "I got that picture of the kids you emailed me." "No, anything else?" Then I realized he had sent me flowers! And he totally spoiled it by telling me! Anyway, 18 beautiful red roses arrived at my office later that day. The next day, my coworkers and I were standing around when the FedEx guy brought in a box. We weren't expecting anything. He said it was for me! It was a dozen of the most gorgeous fancy chocolate covered strawberries! And the card said something like, "You gave me two precious gifts, so I wanted to send you two gifts for our anniversary." And this from the man who suggests rotating my tires for Christmas! (Not really, but that's not far off.) He did good!
Well it's been a very long weekend. I hosted a program for adults with SB Saturday in Louisville. Then we drove to Owensboro to attend Blake's longtime friend Scott's wedding and to spend the night at Memaw and GrandBob's house (where Memaw successfully got both of them to sleep by herself while we were at the wedding!). Then Sunday morning after breakfast we drove all the way to Lexington for a playgroup for kiddos with SB and their families. It was a VERY fun weekend, but I'm beat. I have the day off tomorrow, and I'm going to get my house in order, grocery shop, and take a nap!
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Weekend funnies
I went away overnight this weekend with some girlfriends, and it was my first night away from Georgia. Blake said she woke up around 3 am VERY unhappy that I was not there, but they made it without me. :) My friends and I went to Lexington to see Beth Moore speak. If you haven't heard of her, she's a Christian women's speaker, and she's SO good. I really needed that. I had been struggling in my head with some things lately, like Nate's potty training, and she really helped me put everything in perspective. As in, remember what God can do. He created the universe. He has healed Nate so that he is walking. I'm pretty sure he can handle making Nate able to pee in the potty! Amen!
When I got home yesterday, I was determined to go to church. Blake was swamped at work and said he couldn't go (he could go Sunday, but we have a hard time actually making it to church on Sunday). So I decided I'd take the kids myself. I got them ready and in the car, and we were halfway to church when I realized I didn't even have a stroller with me. At a church the size of ours, there is just no way I could the kids in the building and to their rooms by myself without a stroller. But then I had to go somewhere, anywhere, because Nate would have been disappointed to just turn around and go home. So we went to McDonalds. Everything was going fine--Nate was eating his chicken nuggets and fries, and Georgia would steal a chicken nugget to gnaw on. He did spill his milk and melted over that, but it was easily resolved. The guy sitting in the booth behind me was doing some kind of business on his phone, and Nate kept yelling, "What are you talking about???!!!" :) Hey, that's what you get for trying to conduct business in a McDonalds. Well, then came a terrible storm. It sounded like it was right over top of us. Buckets of rain came down and the lightning and thunder were awful. So we were just stuck there for awhile. I finally let the kids down to just run around (luckily there weren't many people there). Georgia ran behind the counter! Then Nate was chasing Georgia and said to me, "She sure can vamanos!" This kid has been a Dora fan from way back.
Last night both kids actually slept all night! So I got an uninterrupted 8 hours! So we did get to go to church after all. Then after church and lunch I got to take a nap! I feel like a new woman!
Then we went to a birthday party for Nate's friend Logan at Pump It Up, which is a party place that has bouncy houses. Every time Nate goes in a bouncy house, he crawls around or just sits there and lets other kids bounce him. It's really hard to stand up. Not today! He was standing and walking and jumping and running! Check him out:
After the party, we went straight to Bible Study, and as Nate was walking in, he said, "This is so going to wear me out and drive me crazy!" He is saying the funniest stuff lately!
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Whobody?
So here are some recent pictures of the kids.
Nate and Georgia's latest thing is "racing." They both love running, and for now Nate can beat Georgia, but mostly he just likes having somebody to run with him. Sometimes when she's napping he'll tell us to go wake her up so they can race. I love that they play together already!
Oh they had such fun with mirrors when Aunt Mindy and I took them to the mall. Look at Georgia pointing at herself. :)
Love this picture. :) It's the Nate channel! All Nate, all the time!
Taking the kids to the mall is always an adventure, and it usually ends badly. This time I told Nate if he was good I'd take him to the food court to get ice cream when we were done shopping. So at the end of the day when everyone was tired and cranky, we claimed a spot in the crowded food court, and Nate and I stood in line at Sonic to get a Sonic Blast. I ordered and stood there for a really long time before I started wondering what was taking so long and looked over to see this girl meticulously making the world's most perfect Sonic Blast. She was neatly and evenly sprinkling crushed M&Ms around the top of it and adding a perfect swirl of whipped cream. I thought, Oh my goodness, honey, just give me the dang ice cream. It's for a 4 year old! All this time, Nate insisted on me holding him, so there I was waiting for her to finish her masterpiece with a 42 pound kid on my hip. Finally she brought it over and handed it to me, and I almost had it in my grip but she said, "Oh! there's a whole in the cup! I'm going to have to start over." And she turned around and threw it in the trash! Noooooo!!!!! By this time, Nate was crying for his ice cream. So she started all over again, and was just as meticulous this time around. She was too far away for me to explain that it really did not matter, that we just needed ice cream, any ice cream, like 5 minutes ago. When she brought it back, the most beautiful Sonic Blast ever made, I said, "You really didn't have to make this again. It would have been fine to just put it in another cup." She said, "I wouldn't have felt right about it--I would have made you another one anyway." Bless her heart.
Anyway, we made it back to the table for Nate to eat his ice cream, and he sat there with Mindy while Georgia and I went to the cookie stand to get a treat for the rest of us. While I was gone, Mindy said Nate was staring in a sugar induced stupor. She said, "Nate, are you catatonic?" He looked at her with all seriousness and said, "What did you say?" :) He says that all the time now in the same tone I would say it if he smarted off to me.
So, this past weekend was awesome! We stayed in a cabin near Natural Bridge/Red River Gorge with my friends Mindy and her husband Scott and Jenny and her husband Kevin and baby girl Ellie. The cabin was great--It had this comfy porch with swing and outdoor fireplace, and a hot tub, and it was out in the middle of nowhere. I was elated when we turned off the paved road. :) We made s'mores and played board games and ate good food and caught up with each other.
We took Nate fishing for the first time. There were all kinds of little fish just the right size for him to catch swimming around in the shallow water right in front of us, but we didn't have the right bait for them. We tried lures, peanut butter crackers, oreos (fish don't like chocolate), and chex mix. Nada. However, Nate had a great time throwing pebbles into the water, pretending to feed them to the fish. As we were leaving, I was loading Georgia up and Nate was panicking that I wasn't going to help him up the bank and that he'd fall in the water. He said, "I don't want to be fish food!" Where does he come up with this stuff?
Here he is with his Cars fishing pole. He did (sort of) learn how to cast and reel it in.
Georgia sat on the ground and ate the oreos that the fish wouldn't eat! Look at that face. Then she dumped out all the chex mix and tried to eat it off the ground. Nice.
Natural Bridge State Park had a great pool! The kids had a blast!
Georgia practiced climbing up on the side and back down again over and over.
Oh, and there was a shuffle board in the cabin, and Nate loved it! He was actually pretty good at it. I think he beat Blake and Scott a couple times.
And to explain the title of this blog post, when we were all getting in the truck to go fishing, I noticed my seat in the truck was pushed way back from when one of the guys had sat there earlier. I said, "Somebody's been sitting in my seat." Nate said, "Whobody?" We laughed and laughed at that one.
Hmm, what else. Well, Georgia is getting good at playing peekaboo. When I lay her down to change her diaper, she's always trying to roll away, so I throw her shorts over her face to distract her. She'll pulls them off and says, "Boo!" It's really adorable to hear her say it.
Last night my mom got me in the mood to shop for Halloween costumes online. (We are so notorious for starting to think about these things way too early.) I thought it would be cute if the kids wore costumes that sort of went together, like Tinkerbell and Captain Hook. Mindy suggested Nate be Peter Pan, but I wasn't so sure about making him wear tights. But when Nate and I were looking online at costumes last night, I saw a Peter Pan costume with pants. (Apparently, more parents than just me are concerned about their sons resenting them for life if they put them in tights.) I said, "Oh, Nate, look, a Peter Pan costume! Do you like that?" He very matter of factly said, "I don't." Shot down. You know what he liked best out of all the costumes? The ninjas. Sigh. He can't even say it--He says Injas. Hey, at least it's not Thomas.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
An Exclusive Interview with Nate
I asked Nate a few questions before bed.
(Background: A few minutes before, we were talking about pottying, and I was telling Nate when you drink water, it goes down to your belly and out your "pee pee" into the potty.)
Me: Nate, where does your pee pee come from?
Nate: Where does my pee pee come from?
Me: I'm asking you. Where does your pee pee come from?
Nate: Hmm. I don't know.
Me: Okay, next question. What color is your hair?
Nate: Let me show you. (Grabs some hair for me to see.)
Me: What color is it though?
Nate: What?
Me: It's red, Nate.
Nate: (Gasp) My hair is red?! Show me! Where is my hair red? (Obviously thinking I'm talking apple red)
Me: No, it's like brownish red. ... Never mind, it's brown.
Nate: (Noticably relieved)
Me: Okay, if you could do anything in the world tomorrow, what would it be?
Nate: Hey, where does my pee pee come from?
(Background: A few minutes before, we were talking about pottying, and I was telling Nate when you drink water, it goes down to your belly and out your "pee pee" into the potty.)
Me: Nate, where does your pee pee come from?
Nate: Where does my pee pee come from?
Me: I'm asking you. Where does your pee pee come from?
Nate: Hmm. I don't know.
Me: Okay, next question. What color is your hair?
Nate: Let me show you. (Grabs some hair for me to see.)
Me: What color is it though?
Nate: What?
Me: It's red, Nate.
Nate: (Gasp) My hair is red?! Show me! Where is my hair red? (Obviously thinking I'm talking apple red)
Me: No, it's like brownish red. ... Never mind, it's brown.
Nate: (Noticably relieved)
Me: Okay, if you could do anything in the world tomorrow, what would it be?
Nate: Hey, where does my pee pee come from?
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Payne Family Boot Camp
Over the last 24 hours, we have started sleep training Georgia and potty training Nate. We're just whipping these kids right into shape, and it's going well so far.
Georgia has us wrapped around her little finger. That is the most determined and stubborn child. She has learned from the best, her big brother. She wants us to rock her or nurse her to sleep, then when you lay her down in her crib, she pops right back up and screams until you pick her up again. If I happen to get her asleep enough that she doesn't wake up when I lay her down, I am not ashamed to crawl out of her room so I don't wake her. But the slightest noise--like my ankle popping as I leave the room--will wake her and start the whole process over again. When I do get her to sleep, she usually sleeps fairly well until 4 am, then she expects to come to bed with me and nurse pretty much constantly until I get up 3 hours later. Enough!
Last week I made the spur of the moment decision to let her cry it out. But I was rusty on my technique, and I was soft, and I'm ashamed to say she won that battle and ended up in bed with me all night. So last night I refamiliarized myself with the technique and was determined to win. I put her down very sleepy but still awake, and she started crying as I left the room. I let her cry 3 minutes, then went in and laid her back down and soothed her for a minute or two, then left again. I let her cry 5 minutes, soothed again, then 10 minutes, and when I soothed her down again, she went to sleep. Success! She did end up waking up around 1:30 am, but she had a dirty diaper, which is really rare for her in the middle of the night. So I changed her diaper, I did NOT feed her (whoo!), and she went back to sleep! Today she has gone down without a problem for all her naps and then to bed tonight. I will knock on wood and just expect to have more issues, but for now, this is working great! Very happy with our progress. A little crying one night is nothing if it means less crying overall for the foreseeable future.
We let Nate cry it out too, but that child couldn't go to sleep at all unless he cried for 10 minutes then passed out. He did that for at least a year. It was just the only thing that worked, stubborn boy. The difference with him was that he never stood in his crib. He'd just lay there crying until he fell asleep mid-cry. Georgia immediately pops up and stands in her crib, trying to scale the side, and it's much harder to pass out cold while standing.
Anyway, on to potty training. The back story is that very few kids with Spina Bifida actually potty train typically. Most need to be cathed and on some kind of bowel management program, whether it's diet or medication or enemas or surgery. Some need to do these things to keep their bladder/kidneys/bowels healthy, and others just have to start around school age for continence so they don't have to wear diapers. Well, Nate has never had any issues with his bladder/kidneys/bowels. All the tests look pretty good. One particular test on his bladder (urodynamics) shows that he may not be able to feel when his bladder is full in order to release it, but we just can't tell for sure. So although the odds are against us, we do feel compelled to try to potty train him typically to see what happens, and we have seen some positive progress that makes us hopeful that it could happen. For the last few months, we have gone in spurts making him sit on the potty, having "naked day," etc., but Nate is not at all cooperative. That's just Nate, and it doesn't help that he's a boy and boys are typically less enthusiastic about potty training, and we don't know if it might have something to do with how much he feels or can control. We just don't know! Combine that with the fact that Blake and I have never potty trained anyone before, and we're just fumbling around in the dark here.
But Nate is now 4. It is time to potty train. He doesn't particularly like naked potty training. Apparently this is a fairly recent phenomenon, leaving a child naked to run around so he can feel when he's had an accident. Many people are horrified and disgusted at the idea. :) But many parents of young kids swear by this method. Every time I mention Naked Nate Day, Nate says, "But I want to wear clothes!" So this time I told him he was going to wear big boy underwear, and not only that--they are THOMAS big boy underwear! His response: "But I want my diapers." Okay, four years in diapers ... you're going to be kind of attached to them, fine. But I put the underwear on him anyway, and oh my goodness. Little boy underwear is so dang cute I can't stand it. Adorable! It's so funny seeing him without a diaper padding his behind--I didn't know it was possible for his little butt to be even flatter. :)
Oh, I forgot to mention the potty itself. One of the reasons I've had such a hard time getting started with potty training is I have been unable to find the right potty. We've tried everything. A Dora seat that goes on top of the big toilet--the pee guard is nonexistent so pee goes everywhere, he feels like he's going to fall off the toilet, and it's too small. A special toilet seat that has an adult seat and a built in child seat--so awesome in theory, but that goes out the window when there is pee all over my floor. A truck potty seat that sits in the floor--again, nonexistent pee guard, and the seat was made for a 25 pound two year old, not a 42 pound 4 year old. A bjorn potty seat--the best so far, but it's hard plastic and makes his legs go to sleep. The best we could do was sitting him on the big toilet backwards. I don't know why it worked, but it did. I have researched potties online for HOURS, I am not kidding. Well last week I finally ran across one I thought might work and I ordered it. Jackpot!
The Prince Lionheart PottyPod is the Cadillac of potty seats. It's $45 worth of comfort for Nate's tush. The seat is cushy AND antimicrobial. It has the perfect pee guard. It's taller and wider than most potties. It's easy to clean. I'm in love with a potty and I'm not afraid who knows it.
So it's been going pretty well. Last night he went pee in the potty, and in a total rookie move I let him sit on the couch thinking he wouldn't have to pee again for awhile. Yeah, that's how you end up with pee on your couch. This morning Blake called me at work to update me on their potty training progress, and he said he was on something like his 4th pair of underwear. Um, honey, the whole point is for them to feel that they're wet when they have an accident. If you keep putting dry underwear on him, he might as well have a diaper on. Ohhhhh, he said. We're still learning. Alisa is the only one who's ever potty trained a kid before, and Nate knows it, I think. She put him in his swim diaper before leaving the house to take him to swim lessons (Did you know swim diapers don't hold pee?), and he was dry when he got there. When they left, she put underwear on him, and they got stuck in traffic for about an hour, but he was still dry when he got home and peed a bunch on the potty. Tonight he told me he did not want to wear his underwear in bed, and I complied, of course. Baby steps.
We're getting Georgia and Nate all fixed up. Now somebody needs to come whip me into shape. I'm thinking about starting Weight Watchers tomorrow...
Georgia has us wrapped around her little finger. That is the most determined and stubborn child. She has learned from the best, her big brother. She wants us to rock her or nurse her to sleep, then when you lay her down in her crib, she pops right back up and screams until you pick her up again. If I happen to get her asleep enough that she doesn't wake up when I lay her down, I am not ashamed to crawl out of her room so I don't wake her. But the slightest noise--like my ankle popping as I leave the room--will wake her and start the whole process over again. When I do get her to sleep, she usually sleeps fairly well until 4 am, then she expects to come to bed with me and nurse pretty much constantly until I get up 3 hours later. Enough!
Last week I made the spur of the moment decision to let her cry it out. But I was rusty on my technique, and I was soft, and I'm ashamed to say she won that battle and ended up in bed with me all night. So last night I refamiliarized myself with the technique and was determined to win. I put her down very sleepy but still awake, and she started crying as I left the room. I let her cry 3 minutes, then went in and laid her back down and soothed her for a minute or two, then left again. I let her cry 5 minutes, soothed again, then 10 minutes, and when I soothed her down again, she went to sleep. Success! She did end up waking up around 1:30 am, but she had a dirty diaper, which is really rare for her in the middle of the night. So I changed her diaper, I did NOT feed her (whoo!), and she went back to sleep! Today she has gone down without a problem for all her naps and then to bed tonight. I will knock on wood and just expect to have more issues, but for now, this is working great! Very happy with our progress. A little crying one night is nothing if it means less crying overall for the foreseeable future.
We let Nate cry it out too, but that child couldn't go to sleep at all unless he cried for 10 minutes then passed out. He did that for at least a year. It was just the only thing that worked, stubborn boy. The difference with him was that he never stood in his crib. He'd just lay there crying until he fell asleep mid-cry. Georgia immediately pops up and stands in her crib, trying to scale the side, and it's much harder to pass out cold while standing.
Anyway, on to potty training. The back story is that very few kids with Spina Bifida actually potty train typically. Most need to be cathed and on some kind of bowel management program, whether it's diet or medication or enemas or surgery. Some need to do these things to keep their bladder/kidneys/bowels healthy, and others just have to start around school age for continence so they don't have to wear diapers. Well, Nate has never had any issues with his bladder/kidneys/bowels. All the tests look pretty good. One particular test on his bladder (urodynamics) shows that he may not be able to feel when his bladder is full in order to release it, but we just can't tell for sure. So although the odds are against us, we do feel compelled to try to potty train him typically to see what happens, and we have seen some positive progress that makes us hopeful that it could happen. For the last few months, we have gone in spurts making him sit on the potty, having "naked day," etc., but Nate is not at all cooperative. That's just Nate, and it doesn't help that he's a boy and boys are typically less enthusiastic about potty training, and we don't know if it might have something to do with how much he feels or can control. We just don't know! Combine that with the fact that Blake and I have never potty trained anyone before, and we're just fumbling around in the dark here.
But Nate is now 4. It is time to potty train. He doesn't particularly like naked potty training. Apparently this is a fairly recent phenomenon, leaving a child naked to run around so he can feel when he's had an accident. Many people are horrified and disgusted at the idea. :) But many parents of young kids swear by this method. Every time I mention Naked Nate Day, Nate says, "But I want to wear clothes!" So this time I told him he was going to wear big boy underwear, and not only that--they are THOMAS big boy underwear! His response: "But I want my diapers." Okay, four years in diapers ... you're going to be kind of attached to them, fine. But I put the underwear on him anyway, and oh my goodness. Little boy underwear is so dang cute I can't stand it. Adorable! It's so funny seeing him without a diaper padding his behind--I didn't know it was possible for his little butt to be even flatter. :)
Oh, I forgot to mention the potty itself. One of the reasons I've had such a hard time getting started with potty training is I have been unable to find the right potty. We've tried everything. A Dora seat that goes on top of the big toilet--the pee guard is nonexistent so pee goes everywhere, he feels like he's going to fall off the toilet, and it's too small. A special toilet seat that has an adult seat and a built in child seat--so awesome in theory, but that goes out the window when there is pee all over my floor. A truck potty seat that sits in the floor--again, nonexistent pee guard, and the seat was made for a 25 pound two year old, not a 42 pound 4 year old. A bjorn potty seat--the best so far, but it's hard plastic and makes his legs go to sleep. The best we could do was sitting him on the big toilet backwards. I don't know why it worked, but it did. I have researched potties online for HOURS, I am not kidding. Well last week I finally ran across one I thought might work and I ordered it. Jackpot!
The Prince Lionheart PottyPod is the Cadillac of potty seats. It's $45 worth of comfort for Nate's tush. The seat is cushy AND antimicrobial. It has the perfect pee guard. It's taller and wider than most potties. It's easy to clean. I'm in love with a potty and I'm not afraid who knows it.
So it's been going pretty well. Last night he went pee in the potty, and in a total rookie move I let him sit on the couch thinking he wouldn't have to pee again for awhile. Yeah, that's how you end up with pee on your couch. This morning Blake called me at work to update me on their potty training progress, and he said he was on something like his 4th pair of underwear. Um, honey, the whole point is for them to feel that they're wet when they have an accident. If you keep putting dry underwear on him, he might as well have a diaper on. Ohhhhh, he said. We're still learning. Alisa is the only one who's ever potty trained a kid before, and Nate knows it, I think. She put him in his swim diaper before leaving the house to take him to swim lessons (Did you know swim diapers don't hold pee?), and he was dry when he got there. When they left, she put underwear on him, and they got stuck in traffic for about an hour, but he was still dry when he got home and peed a bunch on the potty. Tonight he told me he did not want to wear his underwear in bed, and I complied, of course. Baby steps.
We're getting Georgia and Nate all fixed up. Now somebody needs to come whip me into shape. I'm thinking about starting Weight Watchers tomorrow...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)