HOCKEY!

Happy Birthday Great Grandma!!!

I love birthdays!!! Just wanted to say Happy Birthday to Great Grandma Mulder. She taught me how to clap the first time I visited her house and I did it today thinking of her.

Grandma, Katie and I want to add our Happy Birthday wishes to Ben's - we hope you had a great day and thanks for being such a wonderful Grandma.

Imitation is the dearest form of flattery......

I pick my nose. Admit it. You do it too- sometimes while driving in the car, sometimes while in the shower, sometimes when walking up the stairs. It's like cleaning the toilet.....you feel gross while doing it but the outcome is so worth it. Well, I apparently must do it too much. I didn't come to this conclusion because I've caused nosebleeds or been made fun of by others, but because Ben, the copycat has started doing it then pointing to me. The other day we were driving around in the car and I looked at him in my rear view mirror. He smiled at me and proceeded to pick his nose then rub his fingers together, I guess like I do, wipe his hands, I guess like I do, then point at me and smile. How embarrassing when your toddler causes you to realize that you really should stop picking your nose and invest in Kleenex.

Other examples of Ben the copycat.....

- I'll work on getting it on video and upload it for you. I was wondering why he was walking around the house saying "Our God" but realized Brian has been learning "Our God is an awesome God" on guitar and Ben has been hearing it a lot lately. So he half sings, half says "Our God" over and over again.

- Today I was folding towels upstairs in my bedroom and Ben was in his room next door playing with toys. He would run in and check what I was doing then go back to his room and I could hear "choo choos" and "bunny" coming through the door so I figured all was well. I went into his room and he had taken an entire pack of diapers from the corner, opened the package and of course had them strewn across the room. Just when I was about to give him a big NO NO, I realized he was folding his diapers. He would pick one up, put one end under his chin and stretch the diaper out, then fold it and throw it aside. He must have done this with every single diaper in a pack of about 30. I watched for at least 5-6 diapers worth of time while he methodically picked up a diaper, put it under his chin to fold it, just like I had been doing with the towels and sheets. Amazing.

Anyway....an update on life around here other than potty training.

Potty Progress

If you would have asked me on Saturday how potty training was going, I would have shook my head and said we started too early and were paying for it big time. Most people know I'm not the best house keeper. As a matter of fact, I'm rather poor at it. On my to do list on any given day, there are just too many things that come before cleaning, like trying to take care of a 2 year old, get work done for the job, study for my snail's pace Masters degree, put food on the table. Serious housecleaning just doesn't get done very often.

Well....Ben gave us very good reason to clean house on Saturday afternoon. We were prepping to head into DC for a Nationals baseball game when Ben came running into the family room where we were and Brian noticed something on his foot. Let's leave it at this.....there was a large, mysterious, stinky pile in my dining room and the discovery of said pile led to a scrubbing of all the floors on the main level of the house. Then we were out of the house all day Sunday from about 8:30 a.m. until 8 p.m. so definitely no time for training.

Today however, we had a great day other than one accident. We had numerous successful trips to the potty and he's definitely getting the hang of it. I admit to defaulting today....not in the same way our nation is going, but defaulting to bribery tactics (hmm...maybe that is what the government is doing today too....) Today we tried having "potty treats." I gave Ben the option of what he wanted after he successfully made in the potty. He chose dill pickles and pretzels over M&Ms. What an odd child.

Now we are hanging out post-dinner enjoying some family time. Brian is reading some book about construction vehicles (aka "dig digs") to Cheetah, Duffy the bear and Ben.

F

To say that Ben got an "F" in potty training today would be an understatement. I spoke too soon yesterday with my hopeful banter about having him trained before long.

Let's just say.....nothing like a catastrophic mess on your dining room floor that gets tracked all over the house to stimulate a serious house cleaning.

Hoping that tomorrow we have less resistance, less mess and more trips to the potty

Never Underestimate the Shield

Call us crazy....but we're attempting to potty train our child (a boy no less) at 21 months. There's a good chance it won't work. There's a good chance if it does work it won't last. But we're giving it a go because he seems to be ready and is definitely interested.

A few weeks back, Brian was getting Ben ready for his bath so we had a naked little boy running around the bathroom while daddy filled the tub. Ben proceeded to stand in front of our toilet, stick out his little hips and pee right on the toilet. We took that as a good sign. In the last week or two he's been OBSESSED with this potty video from "Once Upon a Potty." He was wandering around the house going "potty? potty?" Then last week he had 'the look' and said "potty?" so we rushed him to the toilet but kept his diaper on and he actually pooped. Same thing happened the next day but I grabbed the tabs and got the diaper off and he sat on our toilet and did it again. So off we went to the magical land called Target to buy a potty, pull ups and baby tighty whiteys. Summary.......

Day #1 (only the afternoon)- 4 successful trips to potty with no accidents
Day #2 (morning)- 3 successful trips with a one hour dry outing in between

Day #3 (afternoon)- showing increasing resistance to the potty.....several accidents

Day #4 (today)- out running errands for much of the morning but 2 successful trips and one accident. Afternoon- no accidents and several successes of both variety.

Sometimes I think he's not actually potty training so much as being rushed to and placed on the potty every so often or when he has 'the look.' But regardless, I haven't been changing nearly as many diapers in the past few days and if he has to go, he'll go when put on the potty. Sometimes I think he just likes looking in the potty to see what is there when he's done. It's a chance to build up his own self-confidence and give himself a pat on the back (and a wipe).

It's hit or miss.....literally. Our potty came with a "male shield" and we laughed it off and tossed it aside not sure what the heck it was for. After getting sprayed and having a rather wet seat and surrounding area, we realized the pertinence of the little green shield. Brian told me the other day that he successfully managed to get all the pee in the potty using the green police riot shield. Note to all parents or future parents....don't underestimate the shield.

Back to Blogging

I've resolved to start blogging again. Not only is it a good way for family and friends to keep up with what's going on in our lives, but it's therapeutic. It's a way of debriefing after the sometimes routine days of parenting. It's a way of reflecting on the many good things we have going in our lives that aren't always obvious in the lemons that get tossed our way. It reminds me to find find joy in the mundane. So back to blogging again....

Hmmmm what to say about the past 3 months since the last post?? Best described in a few updated pictures!

I feel like I can no longer call Ben many of the familiar pet names we have for him because the word "baby" no longer accurately describes him. We've traded out "Baby Benj, Boo Boo Baby, etc for Benny Bop, Benjo Monkey, Ben Ken" It's amazing how parenting both ages a person and also causes them to digress back into baby talk and ridiculous nicknames. Back to the point...he's not a baby. Without even realizing it, we've transitioned from baby to bona fide toddler status. Goodbye swaddling, bottles, play gyms and swings and sleepless nights (YESS). Hello decoding toddler speech, independence, potty training (more to come on that tomorrow....) and the occasional temper tantrum. Hello next stage of life