potty like it's 1999

pee pee on the potty!
pee pee on the potty!
pee pee pee p-pee pee pee!

Everybody sing!

Doesn't every house have a peeing on the potty song?

So, we've been doing the whole pull-up thing with E for several months now. He has no fear of the potty, knows exactly what it is for, and is willing to use it for that purpose. #1? No problem! #2? No problem! Telling us when? Problem.

We had many successful days of dry pull-ups and even dry diapers in the morning. We also had many soakin' wet days. People often say that pull-ups are bad for the potty training process because it still functions like a diaper for the child and, therefore, they have no incentive for using the potty. No warm stream running down their legs or puddling in their little pants. Ew. Yeah, yeah, makes sense. But you know the other problem? Parents. It is soooo easy not to worry about getting your child on the potty in regular intervals because, hey, he's got super-dee-duper absorbant space-age tissue next to his tushie keeping it dry.

So this weekend we went out and bought a couple of packs of toddler underwear -- Cars underwear. No Scooby Doo in his size. No better motivator for the parents then having to clean up little boy pee. Sunday was day 1. We had 2 accidents. Monday we had 2 accidents. One of them he was nice enough to dribble from the living room window all the way into the kitchen.

J has joined the effort by making E a sticker chart and giving him stickers to put on for every successful potty trip. What a cool big brother!

Right now, at this moment, E is filling himself up with "purple wah" -- greatly diluted grape juice. Now he wants to sit on me. Lucky me.

I just love potty training.

my 4-year-old

Although we celebrated on Sunday, today our little girl officially turns 4. It blows my mind to think of how much has changed for her in the last year.

Happy Birthday, Sweetie!

Surprise!! Yeah, not so much. This was a staged pic. :)

At 4, she has her cupcake and she will eat it too.

Here, mom reads a homemade card written by the big brother. (Refer to previous post to know why this is a big deal.)

Hmmm. . . I guess things have changed a bit for us in the last year, too. Very cool.

:)

who'd a thunk it?

Many of you know that J went through lots of struggles when his little sister and brother came home last November. While having them was something he very much wanted, it also turned his world upside down. No more Legos in the family room. No more Harry Potter movies before their bedtime. No more mom and dad all to himself. Yeah, there were many tears, arguments, and tantrums from all of us. I will be honest and say that I had my moments of wondering what the heck we had done. Had we ruined his life? Why did we have to go and upset the balance of our family? I always had to stop and rewind back to our reasons for expanding our crew. I had to remind myself that we didn't do this for the short term but for the long term. We knew that the beginning would be rough -- had no idea how rough. (I think it might be kind of like childbirth -- if you truly knew how bad it could be, you might not do it.)

Each week, each month we looked for little signs of progress. J seemed to love his little brother, but he tried too hard and was often rejected. He seemed to simply find S annoying, and he did everything to make everyone's life miserable. J blamed the two of them for everything under the sun. For example: "I wouldn't have spilled my water if she hadn't been looking at me!" Yes, this is a true tale. I was at my wit's end with him when I started noticing that the amount of peaceful time seemed to be increasing. Fewer hateful words words were being used. And something truly bizarre started to happen: They started playing together. Yeah, can you believe it? Sure, it was loud and messy, and sometimes someone got hurt, but they. were. playing. together. Eeeeekkkk!!!

Everything happened a little at a time. We were eventually able to go from having animated arguments to discussions -- albeit stubborn ones at times. J started showing true affection toward E and even occasional moments with S. Usually, though, he was calling her Big Head. (Big Hair would probably be more appropriate, but hey. . .) Part of the problem was that J considered himself separate from them. He was one and THEY were one. This summer, we have seen a shift in this mindset. Perhaps he has seen that they do fight with each other. S tattles on E all the time. For whatever reason, he seems to finally be seeing that they are two separate kids, and maybe they are not the inseparable unit that they came in as.

J attended a sports camp at the Y this summer. Every morning, I would get all 3 kids up, dressed and ready to go by 8:30. We would take him in and he would want hugs goodbye from me and both kids. Well, his hug for S was more like an NBA chest bump -- he would kind of grab her to him and bump into her and then let her go. By the end of the summer, it had turned into a real hug with an occasional kiss thrown in. At bedtime, it is hugs and kisses all around. By my reaction you would think it was an everyday thing, but inside I am screaming with delight! Yeeeeeeee!!!!!!

Oh, but that's not all my cyber friends. We have noticed an obvious shift in S's behavior. She used to copy little brother -- act like a baby. Now? Uh, not so much. Now she is a big girl who is trying to emulate her big brother in everything. How many times has she said something that has been straight out of J's mouth?? Does she really like Pokemon?? And how many more times is she going to rub it into E that she can do things he can't? Oh, we have moved into a totally new dynamic.

For months, J couldn't stand his sister. This past weekend, he had fun buying her a birthday present, making her a card, and planning her party. His words sum it all up:

"I never knew this would be so much fun!"

Yeah, me neither my sweet boy. Me neither. :)

NONE-YA!

This is how I would like to respond to some people. None. Of. Your. Business. We are still getting that question that drives me crazy:

"So were they brother and sister? I mean, before you adopted them?"

NONE-YA!

Ok, I know I can be harsh at times, but I can't bring myself to give a mean, smart-ass response to these nice, well-meaning, nosey people. So, what I usually end up saying is something like this:

"Yes, but all 3 of my kids are brother and sister because they have the same parents now. Biology isn't important in our house."

This is my attempt to answer their question but to also let them know they are asking an inappropriate question. I mean, am I wrong here? Is there really any reason why someone I barely know (and often have just met) needs to know if my 2 youngest children are biologically related??

Makes me want to turn the tables on people. Something like, "Oh, do both of your biological children have the same father?" or "So were you able to get pregnant naturally or did you have to use fertility drugs?" I mean, can you imagine asking a single mom if both of her kids had the same dad? Or asking a preggers woman if she had a little help from Clomid?

So what about people who adopt 2 unrelated children at the same time. There are some agencies out there who will let families adopt 2 unrelated children from Ethiopia at the same time. There are various theories on whether this is a good idea or not, but I won't get into that now. I'm sure these people get the same none-ya-business question, and I am very curious about how they handle it. Also curious about how the nosey people respond when/if the AP says, no, they are not biological siblings. You see, I always get something like, "Oh, it is so nice that you could keep them together!" So, what does one say when the kids are not related? Gee, that's too bad? Oh, that must be hard? Or, do they manage to find something positive to say?

The lesson I have learned (and hope to pass on) is to think before you ask. It is hard to know what might be private info and what isn't. But it shouldn't be too hard to figure out what kind of info isn't really necessary for me to know. (That whole need-know-basis thing.) And I think a person's dna would fall into that category.

Ok. Done venting. Thanks for reading.
:)

bite-sized mumbles

* The other day M called S "smartypants." S became quite upset with dad regarding this name-calling and asked him to please not call her "sweatypants" anymore. So, of course, we now call her sweatypants all the time.

* E has a new learning strategy. When he wants to know what something is, he points to it and says, "Name?" I love it. I've never seen a kid do it like this before. Usually kids say, "What dat?" But E apparently has figured out that everything has a "name" and, therefore, he is going to use the proper terminology. What a smartypants. :)

* J is actually ready to go back to school. I can't believe it. 2.5 weeks to go. Let's hope 3rd grade lives up to expectations.

* Those who know me know that I rarely shop for our clothes in a regular store. I prefer second-hand. Not only is it better for the environment, but it is waaaaayyyyy cheaper and I don't give a rat's ass if something gets ruined. So, last week I went to my favorite local thrifty-type store to shop for back-to-school clothes for J and work clothes for me. I bought 22 separate items -- a ton of shirts for him and a ton of pants for me. $32.87. Yes, I am the queen and my husband loves me for it.

* Took the kids to Toys R Us yesterday just for fun. S and E had never been there. We walked in, and they had to stop at practically each game or toy and inspect it. M sooned realized that it was going to take us forever to make it through the store. Somehow, we not only made it out of the store, but we did it without buying anything or anyone having any tantrums because of it. I'm not sure if that makes us good parents or bad parents. (Hmmm. . . take kids to a toy store and not buy them anything . . . ok, maybe it just makes us crazy stupid.)

* S's birthday is coming up, and she can't wait. E, of course, is ready to have another one. What is funny is that they don't yet get the concept of having one per year. Understanding time is hard enough (if not impossible) and the idea that you only have one birthday but you get to have it again someday just doesn't compute. J told S that he has had 8 birthdays and she didn't believe him.

* Did you know that all 3 of our kids are copycats? Make. It. Stop. !!! (Actually, it is kind of funny when E does it because he's only 2.)

* And one political bit: How cool is my dad?? My dad is a 79-year-old caucasian man who grew up in a coal-mining town in Kentucky. He is a Korean War veteran who served on the USS Missouri, and he has spent most of his adult life in a small, conservative, Republican town in western Ohio -- my hometown. He has been known to have his prejudices, but he has come a long way in changing. He has also been known to not like George W. Bush. So, I just had to ask him: Dad, who are you voting for? He looked at me like it was obvious and said, "Barack!"
Yea, Dad!! If he can see it, then I have hope for others as well.

* Ok, two political bits: Can someone please make Grampy McSame stop talking?? His voice sounds like it should belong to some evil hypnotist in a bad B movie, "my friends". Oh, and the smile has to go. Just reinforces the evil hypnotist notion. Besides, if something obviously isn't a natural, comfortable thing for you to do, then just don't do it. blehhhhh.

Stepping down off my box now.
:)