The Stuggle is Over!

Mia.

Oh my sweet, precious, last born. She is so crazy I don't even know where to begin with her!

I am going to be completely honest with you for a second here. I started this struggle series a few weeks ago, because something happened that I was VERY embarrassed about. And I didn't want to talk about it with others, because it was so embarrassing. But then I remembered that people have honestly actually come up to me and told me that my life looks perfect, and I realized I needed to be much more open about my struggles. I don't lie about stuff here on this blog, nor do I intentionally try to dupe anyone into thinking that my life is too good to be true. Did you read my posts about my first foster placement? I was a pretty serious disaster back then. And, oh wait. I still am today. I don't know how people could ever get the perception of perfection from looking at me, but I am here to proclaim that I am very mediocre and I am ok with that!

So, back to Mia. And my embarrassment. Mia just turned 4 last week. Two weeks ago? And even though she honestly potty trained herself at about 20 months of age (bless those older siblings of hers that I have been whining about!) she has not been able to sleep without a Pull-Up. She's FOUR. The diaper industry has been robbing me blind for almost 8 consecutive years!

I am realizing more and more that children's bladders are like snowflakes- not a single one of them is the same. Lily was successfully potty trained by her third birthday. But we had two VERY unsuccessful, and one VERY TRAUMATIC attempts before that glorious day that she no longer needed a diaper. She night trained herself within two or three days and the poop training took a bit longer, with the help of lots of Miralax and lots of prayers. Topher was potty trained before he was two, but he wasn't night trained until he was about three. His bladder was pretty small so he had a lot of accidents compared to Lily who had hardly any. Then Mia was on the same track as her brother, but then eclipsed the time that she required to become night trained.

I tried so many things with her: making sure she didn't drink anything after 6:30pm (she goes to bed at about 8), waking her up in the middle of the night to pee, making her do bikram yoga before bed so that she had no moisture left in her body... Just kidding. We really did try to bribe her with clothes, toys, and candy. But nothing worked. Do you know why? Cause her bladder is a snowflake. It wasn't and isn't like anyone elses. I was SO PROUD of her early potty training accomplishment, even though I know I truly had nothing to do with it. But then I was so embarrassed about her inability to stop peeing at night, even though I HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT!

Parents who are trying to potty train your babes: Relax. Don't compare your kid to any other kid.
There's no point. Your kid is a snowflake.

I started writing this post over two weeks ago. And miraculously enough- MIA NO LONGER WEARS A PULL UP TO BED! She had a week of waking up dry then wet every other night for about a week. And then her bladder decided to pull up it's big girl panties one day and the flood gates were closed! It has been so wonderful! And I am so happy for Mia and myself. So the struggle is OVER! I WON THE POTTY TRAINING WAR!!!!! Even though I had nothing to do with it.                        

The Dark Side of Potty Training

Much of the things I feared about potty training occured over the last few days.

It started with a trip to Chandler Mall on Saturday. I love Chandler Mall. It's not the best mall I have ever been to by any stretch of the imagination, but we often go to Supersition Springs Mall, which is about 2 minutes away from our house, and any mall is better than SS Mall. Except that SS MAll now has TWO play areas for kids, and that is awesome. And there are hardly any stores in SS Mall, so my debit card is pretty much always safe when I am there. Except they have a carousel in the food court. Anyhoo, I digress.

So the kids and I picked up our wonderful friend Grace on our way to the mall. As we were driving along Guadalupe, Topher announces he has to pee. Of course he does. And he is wearing undies, so of course I have to pull over. So I get to a Walgreens, and run to the bathroom. Thank the good LOrd that grace was with me so that she could stay in the car with Lily, who was taking her much belated nap at 5 in the evening. Topher peed and then we were good to go. We get to the mall and things are great. We go to Pottery Barn Kids, which is where Grace needs to purchase some items, and fortunately they have public restrooms that are pretty clean in the back of the store. Lily now has to pee. So we go pee. I ask Topher if he has to pee again, and he says no. He lied.

After shopping a bit, Grace needs some tea. And she gets me a drink while she gets her drink, because that's how Generous Grace rolls. And Generous Grace is also Thoughtful Grace Imo (aunt) cause she has asked for two sippy cups so I can share my special drink with my kids. My kids love Grace. I love Grace. It's a lovefest when we are together. So we are having a great time, walking around the mall, getting towards the play area, drinking our drinks, having a great time. We get to the play area and Lily gets to running into the play area. I pick Topher up from his seat in the stroller, and he is SOAKED. he has peed so much you would think he hasn't peed in weeks. The stroller is literally dripping. GROSS. i know. So I take Topher to the bathroom while Grace hangs out with Lily. MOTHERS: do not leave the house while you are potty training your kids for a month, OR go out in a group where there is an extra adult accompanying you, especially if you have more than 1 kid.

So Topher gets dried up and I put a Pull Up on him and quit worrying about him for the rest of our night out. This Pull Up was an extra life saver because Topher ended up dropping the dirtiest poop in it on our way home from dinner later on. This kid is not ready to be in undies 24/7. And that's ok.

Then yesterday Topher was acting like a giant baby and soiled 3 undies by 10 am. One of the soiling moments happened while he was trying to pee on the potty, only 1. he still had his undies on. and 2. it happened while he was trying to pee on lily's toy potty for her baby doll. as pictured above. you might have thought that picture was a remodel of the bathroom. it looks like it could be... but to get a full picture of how 'big' the toy bathroom is- here is a pic of lily sitting on said toy potty:



After the morning's many mishaps, I was ready for a fresh start in the afternoon. I asked Topher if he had to pee in the potty and he said "Yes!" So I picked up the potty that was hanging out near the dining table (what? that's a good, sanitary place for it...) and as I picked it up real quick to put it in front of Toph, I noticed there was already a lot of pee in it. I noticed because now there was pee on my arm, jeans, foot, and of course- the carpet. I kinda screamed in terror/shock. Lily looked at me and said: "I did pee pee in potty!" Yeah you did Lils. Yeah you did.

So I hobbled over to the bathroom (again, so thankful for our SMALL apartment right now!) with potty in hand, pee on arm and foot. i tried to get cleaned up as quickly as possible to avoid topher ruining his 4th pair of undies. fortunately, i got back to him in just the knick of time. Later on as I was making dinner, I opened some ricotta cheese, and a yellow-water poured on me once again, causing me to change my outfit again. That had nothing to do with potty training but it did contribute to my already massive pile of laundry. After I made dinner, I attacked the carpet with my Lil'Green Machine so that even if I am constantly wreaking of urine and littered with pee pee stains, my home doesn't need to be.

And in other potty news, Lily has dropped two of the largest and longest poops in the universe in the toilet this week. She has been happily receiving her cookies, and I have been happily handing them out to her. And that's all from potty central. Over and out!

secrets to OUR potty training 'success'

we are definitely not 100% potty trained in the watson household yet. well, i am. we are working on chris and the kids ;) lily is 100% in undies all the livelong day, but wears a Pull-Up at night to sleep. she has not woken up even close to dry yet. according to lots of parents i know- this is ok to do. i have heard of other parents who had their kids in undies at night and just did a ton of laundry every day. i am not those 'other parents'. topher is getting so great at telling us when he has to go, even if he is wearing a Pull-Up, which he does when we are out and about. he has occasional accidents in his undies still, but that's ok! we are so proud of both of our kids we could throw up.

here are some of the things that we did that worked for us. now, please remember that we tried potty training about 3-4 months ago and that was a DISASTER. if you are potty training and it's not going well- just STOP. read my posts from before about potty training, give thanks you are not me, and take a breather. for everyone's sake. i have heard and read that potty training shouldn't be hard, and that when your kid is ready it will be easy and painless. i never ever thought i would be able to say this- especially with potty training lily, but it's so true! it was pretty easy!

step 1- fail and move on.
we tried. we failed. we stopped. we moved on.

step 2- prepare ye the way.
after some time had passed from our failure, chris and i started warning/telling/prophesying that one day there would be no diapers in the house and that she would HAVE to pee on the potty. we told her this starting in novemeber. we did our potty training camp in january. lily likes to know what's going on, and i think she really appreciated the warning. topher on the other hand, doesn't really care what's going on or when, he just wants to be a part of the fun. we did not prepare him at all i don't think. at least not verbally the way we HAD TO with lily. all kids are different. even if they have the same genetic make-up.

step 3- comfort, not chaos
they say to make sure things are not chaotic. 'they' being 'profesional potty trainers/pediatricians/moms, etc... i will give them some kuddos for this advice as well. we did not have anything going on in january. we had been in the apartment long enough. we were in our daily schedules. everything was good to go. the kids had been hanging out on their potties for quite a while. topher even peed a few times. lily- not so much. but she didn't mind sitting on it again which was great. we talked about pottying more and more as the day approached. we watched videos and read books about it. again- more for and with lily than with topher. and lily was pretty excited about undies this time cause she knew some of her friends were wearing them. we bought some that she and topher got to pick out themselves, and this made the process more fun, and more real for both of them too.

step 4- pray!
actually, for me, this was step 2. post-failure. i don't think i prayed all that hard about potty training the first time i did it. and failed. after that i prayed and prayed and prayed. i prayed for lily to be ready and for us to know when that might be. i prayed for myself to be ready for anything- failure part 2, or success. i was a mess. like seriously scared. i was scared that lily would legitamitely never want to be potty trained. i was scared that we would fight again like we did before. i was afraid that i would lose my mind again like i did before. i needed peace, to be calm and courageous to proceed with our plan. therefore i needed to pray. and i thank Jesus for having helped us out as much as He did!

step 5- stock up.
during our first attempt to potty train, we bought some 'big items' to 'entice/bribe' the children to pee in the potty. it did NOT work then. so we still had these toys, and brought them out this time around. the kids were happy to receive their prizes, but did not necessarily pee to receive them. or at least topher didn't. he peed 3 times and we gave him his toy. he was happy. this made lily want her toy a little more, so she peed 3 times that first day and received her toy. and was happy. but then the next day when the kids both had accidents on the floor, chris took the toys away. toys may or may not work for you. they were not really a deal maker or breaker for us.
but i did stock up on juice boxes, yogurt drinks, candy, and stickers. these were the real tools we needed for potty training. the kids drank A LOT the first two days of potty training. just to make them need to go. and they got a reward for even just sitting on the potty. this made the day fun, and very sugary. lots of teeth brushing occured those days.
i thought the stickers might be more fun for the kids to put on their charts, but they didn't care as much as i did. the chart was a good reminder for chris and i as to how many pees made it into the potty, and we could see their progress every day. progress is always good.
we also 'stocked up' on Pull-Ups, but hid them. we used to have a drawer with diapers in it in the living room. if the kids needed/wanted to be changed, they opened the drawer and brought us a diaper. both of our kids, at some point, checked to see if there were diapers in the drawer, and there wasn't a single one. they knew we were serious!

step 6- set the timer and go go go.
one of my girlfriend's who has successfully potty trained her two girls told me that she set her microwave timer for every 20 minutes, and whenever that timer rang, her kids sat on the toilet. and they did this all day, for a few days. except when they were napping. cause everyone needs a break. so we did this, and it worked out well for us.
one thing that tripped me up a bit with lily was that she would say she had to go and then either not go, or take 20 minutes to go. i had visions of us being at target for hours, in the dirty bathroom, waiting and waiting for lily to pee. the first day and a half was spent WAITING for the pee to flow. but when it started flowing- it's like the flood gates were opened and there was no more waiting. lily knew when she had to pee, and when she peed she did it as soon as she sat down. it was awesome.

step 7- keep on keepin on.
every time your kid says they have to pee- get up and put them on the pot. they won't always go, but if you don't listen to them, they will have an accident sooner than later, and you will probably both feel discouraged because of it. this happened with topher once or twice... (learn from my mistakes people! i make tons of them!)
and like lily, even though things may start slowly, they will pick up eventually.
the whole thing is pretty exhausting for everyone, cause there is so much getting up and down. setting the timer. turning it off. getting the carpet cleaner. going to the bathroom. getting more juice. going to the bathroom to empty the potty. etc, etc. but in the end it all pays off! just be prepared to work for your reward though.

this is what worked for US. if you are about to embark on the potty training journey-i bid thee good luck! if you should happen to stumble, or fall off of your horse completely- that's ok. give it a couple weeks or months and try try again. know your kids, what they like, what they need. for some kids this thing takes 3 days, and for others it takes a LOT MORE. and all of that is OK. your kid WILL pee pee in the potty!

Got Pony?

does anyone have a pony i can borrow?

ok. i was just joking about promising the kids a pony if they pooed on the potty. but yesterday, topher pooped on the potty all by himself!

we were just hanging out in the living room. i was doing something. lily was chillin. topher was hanging out. then he saunters over to the potty, which is strategically placed in the middle of the living room, drops a deuce, then yells out: "Mama, I did pee pee!" I walked over to my boy, very proud of him already, and was so surprised to see the most beautiful little poop sitting so pleasntly in our little green potty.

"Topher! You did a poo poo! You get a cookie!" I say with a giant smile on my face.
"Cookie? Yeah!" All Topher ever hears is: "Cookie".
Then Lily chimes in: "Topher, poo poo? I'm so proud of you! She is not jealous or embarrassed by her little brother's achievement. Nothing in her makes her want to poo on the potty.

She has now pooped twice on the carpet. Fortunately for me, they were very solid and did not leave a mark on the ground. Fortuntaly for her, though the poops were solid- they were neither the size of babies, nor were suppositories involved in prying them out.

So Lily is 100% in undies during the day. 100% in Pull-Ups at night. And butt-naked when she has to poo. On the floor. Topher pees and poos on the potty, and often tells us when he has to go, even when we are out and about. But he also still pees in his undies, which is the main thing we are working on with him. I don't know if it's comfusing for him to be in undies/free-ball/Pull Ups during the day, and then Pull Ups at night, but he is doing pretty well in our books. (and yes, I said 'free-ball.')

"It Worked!!!!"

so we are having tons of fun potty training still. topher is getting better at tellingus when he has to pee, especially when we are in public. lily is a professional pee-er now. her downfall is the almighty poop though. mostly because every bowel movement is like givng birth.

last week lily pooed on monday, the first day of potty training. she had a pull-up on for nap time, and i think she knew it was going to be her only pull-up opportunity, so she took it and dropped a load. awesome.

then we got to friday and i realized she hadn't pooped since monday. yikes. she was crying and pushing and complaning about her stomach hurting. i kept telling her the poop just wanted to be in its home in the toilet. i didn't pressure her to poo on the potty. i just wanted her to poo. she stood on a plastic bag in the middle of the living room, pushing and crying, and squeezing out some pee cause she was pushing so hard. she was not a happy camper.

finally by the end of the night, when she was already in her pull up and jammies, she was crying cause she really had to poop. so i decided to take some drastic measures. i still had my bottle of glycerin suppositories from when topher was a clogged up little infant. they were good till the end of the year! so i grabbed one of these giant glycerin 'bullets', grabbed a half a cookie, and went into lily's room. i told my little girl that i had medicine that was going to help her poo. her face lit up at the mention of the word 'medicine'. she LOVES DRUGS! loves them. if topher needs some tylenol, she needs tylenol. topher will get the real stuff, and lily will get some juicewater in a syringe. everyone's happy.

anyhoo, so i explained to lils that i had to put the medicine in her butt. she still looked excited, especially when i gave her the cookie. and then the excitement stopped when i tried to insert the suppository. 'OUCH!' she cried. i didn't even get it in yet! when i got the clear little bullet close enough to her butt hole, it got sucked right up, as if lily's bum was a cute little vaccuum. this is when the hooting and holering went to the next level.

we went back into the living room where lily proceeded to cry and complain about her 'owwie bung' for about 10 minutes. it was so sad. the bottle said it would take anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour to work. all of a sudden lily started tooting. toot after toot emerged from her bung. then came the labor-like pushes and the serious lamaze breathing. lily was still weeping, but happy that something was happening. when the poop finally dropped, there was a moment of silence. lily looked up to the heavens, as if to thank the Lord, and exclaimed: "It worked! It worked..."

We changed her out of her soiled pull-up and went to put her giant Chipotle-burrito- sized turd in the toilet. right where it belonged. lily waved good-bye to her giant brown baby (proportionately to her body, that poop was probably the same size she was if i had been lily's size when i birthed her and her giantness.) and then the toilet was clogged. and it was the second toilet my girl has clogged in the last month. like i said, we are having a crap load of fun potty training at our house! and by the size of lily's poops- that's a LOT of fun!

Letting the pictures tell the story

Note: all these pictures were taken at the end of the day when the kids went to bed and potty counts were over and i was scrubbing the carpets more...

Day 1: Monday

-made potty charts for both kids. 3 categories: sit, pee, poo. kids got a mini m&m for sitting. a skittle for peeing. and a pony for pooping. many m&ms were consumed (almost every 20 minutes) a good number of skittles were consumed. no ponies were given out.
-yes, that says that lily only peed 2.5 times today. she peed in her diaper a ton when she was napping. i guess that was enough for her.
-there were NO TEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! from either chris, myself, lily, or topher. huge victory.
-only 3 little accidents on the floor.
-easy-ups were worn for napping and sleeping only.
-kids never actually left the apartment.
-great day!!!

Day 2: Tuesday

-praising Jesus for giving us patience and the ability to pee in things other than diapers!
-only 2 accidents on the floor. one from lils and one from toph. lily cried for a few minutes when she thought she couldn't pee on the potty. then she remembered she was a big girl and started peeing like crazy.
-still no ponies. lily pooed in her easy up yesterday. topher is constipated? time to fiber up!
-kids peed on the toilet at Nana and Papa's house. Super! they aren't attached to the toilet at home, or just peeing in front of me and Chris, all good things!
-progress for lily. a little regression for topher. not feeling sad about any of it!
-another great day of praising Jesus and peeing on the potty. this is going WAY better than i thought it would! Chris being home has been supergreat and absolutely essential to the process.

Day 3: Wednesday

-chris was still home today! so great. such an awesome husband and amazing dad. and superb potty training coach. he is officially adding that to his professional resume.
-left the house to go to Target! Topher peed his pants almost immediately and we tried to pee in a public bathroom with no success. Lily has yet to pee her pants. good girl!
-topher tried to poo on the potty, but no one was watching him so he stood up mid-poop and got it on the carpet. fortunately it was pretty solid. and i have an awesome carpet cleaner. he tried, and therefore got a cookie, but no pony.
-lily is a peeing champion and we are SO PROUD of her! And Topher too.
-thanks so much every one for praying for us!

will update more thoroughly later!

Oh girl...

topher had his day in the sun, so now it's lily's turn. i have recently been having glimpses into lily's future, and i like some of it, and some of it makes me just want to get down on my knees and pray. the above pic for example. lily did not want to take a nap the other day, but then she passed out in the living room. it just so happened that she passed out on her potty. flashforward 20, no THIRTY years, when she gets drunk as a skunk (in the privacy of her own home!) on half of a glass of a wine cooler (like mother, like daughter!) let's say this is a picture of her future, and she is drunk in public, hugging a toilet, not a potty, imagine her father standing off to the side of this picture, ready to arrest his daughter, and every person who serves alcohol in the state of arizona.

another peak into her future that kinda freaks me out comes to me when lily is trying to poop. lily has some bowel issues. she just has very firm poops. we are trying to insert A LOT of fiber into her diet. but sometimes it still takes a VERY long time to get it out. sometimes there are tears. sometimes there are screams. sometimes lily wants me to go away. but sometimes she wants me to hug her and push with her. i count to three and we 'PPPPPPPPPPPPUSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!' then we take a break. breath. then get ready for another big 'PPPPPPPUUUUUUUUUUUSHHHHHHHH!!!'
again, maybe this will happen in 30 years... but not while she is drunk on half a wine cooler. obviously, that's not ok.



then there is this picture. i hope this is a picture of her future. it's almost as good as a chastity belt. that's 6 pairs of undies on top of her diaper folks. impenetrable! yes, these undies have been put on haphazardly, but somehow she got them all on, and she even fell asleep like this for awhile. this picture was taken last week when she was getting pumped about potty training. we are in the midst of potty training week, and i will have pics and posts aplenty of that in the very near future. just know we are all alive, sane, there is some pee pee on the carpet, but there is plenty of joy in our hearts and praise for Jesus!

Oh Boy...

Here's Topher playing with his bristle blocks in the kitchen. While I was getting dinner ready, he was just busy playing with his toys, having a grand time. Then he stood up and I noticed something wasn't right...




Topher had a loose string on his jeans, and he managed to get that string caught in between two bristle blocks, so the blocks were just hanging from his pants. And he LOVED it. i tried to take it off, and he freaked out. He was very impressed with how well-endowed he was suddenly looking, and he wanted to show it off.

Boys will be boys.



And here's another picture. Not of Topher fortunately. This is Chris' bloody sock after he ran in the PF Chang half marathon yesterday. Chris pretty much never grabs the camera to take a picture of anything unless it is a giant poop, or an overflowing bottle of urine. So in staying with Chris' obsession with body fluids, he snapped a pic of his owie foot. Considering my husband just barely trained for the event, I think his time of 2 hours and 8 minutes is pretty great. Congratulations husband- though you are gross, you are pretty dang awesome. Same goes for you son.

speaking her language

i wrote in my post the other day ago that lily always asks if i am happy. and i said it's cause she doesn't want me to be sad. then i thought about changing that sentence numerous times. no, she doesn't want me to be mad at her. she doesn't want me to spank her. she does not care if i am sad.
i often do not know what lily is thinking. but here's what i do know- lily thinks in terms of happy and sad. when we sit to draw, lots of different things come out on the pages- giraffes, flowers, tracings of her hands, of mine, numbers, letters, and always happy faces and sad faces. when i draw a happy face, she makes a happy face herself. on her face. then she changes her face to a sad face and requests that i draw a sad face. this is one of her favorite things. happy and sad faces. these mean something to her.
i have embarrassingly enough shown my sad face to her many many times. my frustrated face, my tired face, and my disappointed-with-myself face are all the same to lily. they are not happy faces. they are sad ones. it is something i am going to try to conceal more this year. lily takes my sadness as personally as i take her not being able to use the potty yet. even if i am frustrated with topher's disobedience, lily looks at me and asks: "happy mom?"
i can't explain the concept of joy in pain to her yet. so i take a deep breath and say "yes." cause i still have joy in the midst of her naughtiness, and topher's disobedience. these are my babies. they are so crazy. but i love them so much. they bring me such joy.
today was another crazy day in the watson apartment. a great day. and a crazy day. it started at 6ish. it's 10 and it's finally winded down. but lily for some reason would not go to bed. all these excuses of being scared of something she could not explain, needing some water, needing her blanket to be placed on the foot of the bed just so, no- not like that mom, like this, one more song, one more prayer. not exactly what i was needing after an already too long day.
lily came out one more time. she found a piece of garbage that NEEDED to be put in the garbage IMMEDIATELY lest the apartment implode from the mess. i allowed my girl to give in to her inner streaky neat-freak, and then i decided to change her diaper one more time before bed. between her and sungu, i have changed bedsheets 3 times this week. and they are both still in diapers.
so i changed lillers diaper and helped her pop up the way she likes to after she has received the gift of a dry butt. she popped up, into my arms, where we sat and hugged. i whispered in her ear that she really makes me so happy. and she looked at me and gave me the biggest, juiciest smooch! it was dripping with love and acceptance. i tell her all the time that she is cute, and that she is a special girl, and that she is pretty, and that she is a great sister to topher. but never before had i gotten this huge a response from her. finally! i had said the simplest words that actually meant something to her!
i guess another new year's resolution is to find out the special language that actually means something to lily, and the other special language that will mean something to topher. and this is another resolution that i do not intend to break.

Thursday's Thing- Potties

This is NOT a post about how to potty train your kids. Why? Cause I have no clue how to do that. Today is a post about the potties that I do have though. (I am looking at this picture I just took, and it kinda stinks. At least this isn't a photography website!)

The one on the right is the ever popular Fisher-Price Cheer For Me potty. You can get it for about $30. It was Lily's cousin's, and after much disinfecting, it is Lily's. Cause I do not spend $30 on anything, least of all a potty that can't even train my kid to pee ;) Anyhoo, it's a cute little thing that requires batteries (of course. Do toy companies and battery companies own a lot of stock in each other?) It says fun little things like 'it's potty time!' and it sings and says 'up' and 'down' for when you move the lid up and down. Cute, but all so unnecessary.

The potty on the left is from IKEA. it is $3.99. I very gladly bought this for Topher myself. This cute little potty comes in black, red, baby blue, pink, and this awesome shade of green that I love. Topher picked it out himself, and later when we got home, we decorated it (and Lily's as well) with stickers. According to the books, it's good for the kids to have 'ownership' of their potty, and to look upon it as something that is fun and wonderful, not something that wants to steal their life essence (aka, their pees and poops.)

The best thing that this potty offers, that the $30 potty does not, is a pee-pee shield. There are lots of potties on the market, and lots of them have pee-pee shields, but none of them are $4. And another great thing about this potty is that since it is just one piece, it is very eay to clean. The other potty has a little piece that the kids do their business in, and you can take it off to empty it into the toilet. But there are lots of crevices and other pieces for kids to pee all over. Less to clean is always better. Always.

So run on over to IKEA. Then maybe to Michaels to get some stickers from their $1 bin, then blow the rest of your $10 bill at Starbucks on one drink, and have a great time potty training!... :)


here is Topher's potty up close.


And a side view so you can see the pee-pee shield to the left, and the back rest on the right. So many amazing features for just $4!!!!!

Potty Training- Day 3... Forget it...

I didn't post yesterday for a plethora of reasons. The main one being that we were out all evening at Wes and Kim's watching Josh's nationally televised college football game, where his team- the underdog UAB Blazers, beat the favored Southern Mississippi something or others. Josh is the kicker for his team, though he is a freshman, and he was beyond awesome yesterday! He made a 51 yard field goal, and made all of his other attempts as well. That'a boy Joshy!

I also didn't post yesterday because it was not a good day for me. Yesterday was Day2 Part II and it was a disaster on all fronts. I am officially waving the white flag (or white training pants) in defeat.
The major victories of yesterday were-
1. Lily did NOT pee in her car seat while we were out for about an hour.
2. Lily did NOT pee in her bed when she took a nap with her training pants on.

But the major failures were-
1. Lily cried every time I tried to put her on the potty, and by the end of the day M&Ms and a baby stroller were no longer enough to motivate her to sit on the can.
2. I cried a couple times and proved to be the most immature person in our home, even with a one and a half year old and a two and a half year old living there.
3. Lily did NOT pee on the potty at all yesterday, only soiling herself once, but almost giving herself a urinary tract infection. Or at least I was afraid she was going to.

Which I actually called the pediatrician for some advice, and they thought there was a possibility that Lily did have a UTI, and told me I should come in and check it out. But before going, I decided to test Lily out and see if she wasn't peeing cause it hurt too much, so I reluctantly put a diaper on the girl (her first day time diaper in two days) and she filled that puppy up with pee pee like it was going out of style! No tears, no screams.
Needless to say we didn't go to the doctor (that diaper saved me from a $20 co-pay and hours of sitting in the waiting room!) and we are putting potty training on hold for everyone's sake. I am praying for more patience and wisdom for the next time that we do this, and I am praying for Lily who has all the physical signs of readiness, but not the emotional ones?
After I took Lily's pee-filled diaper off of her, I asked her if she just wanted to sit on the toilet, no pressure to pee or anything as she could see that I was going to put another diaper on her, and she got up, ran to the bathroom, sat on the toilet (againa, no tears or screams) and patiently waited for her chocolate treat. And I guess that was a mini-victory at the end of a long long long day. Did I feel the effects of defeat and failure? Of course. But did I also feel a tremendous weight being lifted off of my shoulders when Chris suggested we put this project on hold? You betcha!
So stay tuned folks, cause I may have lost this portion of the potty battle, but the war shall be mine! Lily will not graduate high school in diapers!

Potty Training- Day 1 Part III

the day is over! at long last!!!!! so i wrote earlier at about 1pm. when lily should have been napping. she wet her training pants at about 10am. so surely she would have had to pee by 1pm. or at least 2pm. right? wrong. at about 2:50pm, while lily was crying cause she had to pee SO BADLY, i just plopped her down on the toilet in my bathroom, and held on to her, and she to me. it was kinda sweet. i could feel her relaxing, and then i could smell her farting, and i thought we were making some serious progress. i was just waiting to hear the steady stream of urine breaking the water in the toilet, but instead i started hearing a different, yet altogether very familiar sound- snoring. lily had fallen asleep on my shoulder while sitting on the can. wow. so i decided to sit there for another few minutes, hoping and praying that she would relax enough to just let it all go. to no avail.

so i put her on my bed, bare butt and all, on top of a few folded sheets that i was more than prepared to wash after lily woke up from her nap. she slept for two hours, and NO PEE. which was good news for me (and my mattress and bedding!) but oh how i longed to see some pee!!!! and oh how lily longed to rid her body of the pee! but she couldn't. or wouldn't. i sat her on the toilet again and in the midst of her screaming and struggling to get off the toilet, she dropped an ounce or two of pee. and she was DEVASTATED. i often have no idea what is going through lily's head, even when she is trying to verbalize it to me. but this not wanting to pee business is too far beyond my comprehension. i have heard about how kids hate pooing on the toilet because they feel like they are losing a part of themselves down the toilet. that i can ALMOST understand. but this is just pee! c'mon! IT'S.JUST.PEE.

barb came over for dinner. so great to have her over. i just needed some support, and an adult conversation, and someone to step in. no one better than Super Nana. barb had to force herself to pee pee on the toilet three times tonight. what a champ! (she did get some M&Ms out of the deal though.) i figure the woman's done it four times before this, so surely she would have some advice for me. but none of her kids were as stubborn as lily is. well, maybe Andi, but even then i don't think there were quite as many tears, or bribery tools being used either. and again- all to no avail. lily SLOWLY started letting go of her pee- first in her undies, then in her training pants, and finally on the bathroom step-stool. and i couldn't have been happier! (well, yes i could have been, but work with me here. stay in the moment with me.) she got an M&M for each accident, which i am sure a lot of people would frown upon me knowing i did that, but at this point i just have to convince lily that peeing is a good thing, and later i will have to convince her that peeing on the potty is a great thing (one M&M vs five!)

Potty Training- Day 2 and Day 1 Part II

Day 2- We went up to Heber to see Wes and Kim's new baby- a cabin that they affectionately refer to as 'The Abbey'. It was awesome to be up north where it was a ton cooler, and a ton less polluted. Very very nice. BUT, we did not do any real potty training stuff, so Day 2 was not a real potty training day, so...

We kinda find ourselvse back to square one, as in Day 1 Part II. So lame. I almost shouldn't have even started on Monday if I wasn't going to do this thing wholeheartedly. So this morning Lily has already peed in one of her training pants, and is now working on THREE hours and a half without peeing. That's kind of awesome, right? That she can hold it so long? But I don't want her to make herself sick by not peeing. And it's definitely nap time right now, but I know that once I put a diaper on her she is going to pee like she has never peed before. So we continue to wait....

I realize that as I am potty training my girl that this takes more discipline on my part than it does on hers. I keep wanting to go out and do stuff. But that means she is in a diaper again. So instead of me going out and doing what I want, I have to put my needs/desires on the back burner and wait and wait for Lily to pee. On the potty. So that I can give her some dang M&Ms. And that's what motherhood is about- pure selflessness, which is why I am not that good at this yet! But what I am really good at is peeing on the potty. And every timeI have done it today, I have eaten an M&M in front of Lily. I don't even need to eat lunch today- that's how much chocolate I have consumed :)

Potty Training- Day One

We are officially settled in, and our 'normal lives' are back on track. I actually went in to work for the first time in over a month! (I know, how do I even have a job? Thank you nepotism!) Which means the babes had a day with their daddy, which they loved. Except that the beginning of the day involved waiting in the waiting room of the pediatrician's office for over an hour for Topher's 18-month check up. Fortunately the kids were good, and Topher didn't even mind getting two shots today. The doctor was impressed with our Toto's development and told Chris to think about potty training. Interesting... Since Lily isn't potty trained yet... So, we decided to give it a go for the both of them today, and this is what happened:
-We went to Target. We bought plain white training pants for Topher and Lily, and then some colorful ones for Topher, since Lily already has some. The doctor recommended starting with the plain ones, then 'rewarding' the kids with colorful ones once they peed on the potty a few times. He also said to get a treat that they love but won't get at any time other than when they potty, and to praise and praise like crazy once we have any signs of success. So we bought a bag of M&Ms, and a toy stroller/pack-n-play set for Lily.
-Then we went to Walmart and bought a toy shopping cart full of food for Topher's incentive gift. They had some at Target, but they were all pink and that was a big no-no for dad. BUt I was pretty impressed that Chris even was ok with his son playing with a shopping cart. Topher does love him some food though, even food that just looks like food but isn't really food.
-Then Chris ditched me and went to school. Thanks a lot Chris. ;)
-The potty fun began. The diapers came off and training pants were on. Our Elmo potty video was on in the background for a little extra motivation and we just sat and waited. And we drank juice. And we waited. We went about an hour and a half before we had any action. Right after we finished dinner, I was getting Topher out of his chair and noticed he was wet. Not surprising, even though I asked him and Lily if they had to pee about a million times while we were eating. So I took Topher out of his wet trainer and put on a new dry one. He was wet again within two minutes. But nothing got on the carpet- which is awesome. I contemplated whether I should just finish off the set of three training pants now, or bite the defeat-bullet and just put a diaper on him, and I went with the latter decision. Which ended up being The Best Decision of My Life, cause he dropped a GIGANTIC steamy deuce five minutes later. After wiping his butt, we all went into the bathroom and dropped the poop that was in the diaper into the toilet. Much applause ensued. My kids are nuts. The weirdest stuff amuses them.
-So Topher was done for the night, which was totally fine by me since we are just trying to get him used to the IDEA of potty training. But the Lilster was the real challenge of the day. And she was a drinking, and she was a sitting on the potty, but she was NOT peeing. And we were already at the two and a half hour mark...
-Long story short- she finally peepeed in the potty. At the three hour mark. Though thirty minutes prior she was begging me to put a diaper on her. She knew she had to pee but she just didn't want to. Test of wills- Mama came out on top! SO when she finally let herself go- it was amazing! For everyone. High fives were being thrown left right and center, M&Ms were being gobbled up, and Lily got the car seat/infant carrier piece from her 8 piece toy. There was much joy in the Watson Apartment.
So Day 1 down, we'll see how many more it takes for Lily to be an 'Official Big Girl'.