A New Leaf

Wow. What a rough 7-8 days we've had! Eli has been in a 'funk-phase' before, during and after the finger incident with Maddux that finally, FINALLY seems to have broken today. Nothing more than little, constant, continuous acts of disobedience. But those of you that have pre-schoolers realize 'nothing more' means 'nothing LESS'. It has been a rough patch. As much as I struggled and prayed and internally second guessed, Lehr and I presented a united front and maintained consistency through it. It seems that the eye of the hurricane has passed us by, for now.

Onto other news... Maddux has been healing quite well. She had a general check-up this week (still in the 95% for height) and the doctor gave her finger the 'A-OK'. I have been thinking about potty training a lot recently. I didn't start Eli until just before his 3rd birthday, but Maddie has shown some signs. This summer was a rough one due to diaper 'issues' with Mad Dog at the pool. This last month has been great because it has finally clicked with her that she cannot and MUST not use the pool as her potty time. If she goes, she now stays out of the pool and tells us right away so we can change her diaper. (We've even sat on the potty for many many minutes each trip.) It's been great!! The next step is getting her to do that when we're not at the pool also. Once school starts and I have two mornings with Maddux alone, I plan to further this process.

Since I'm already on potty talk, I'll move over to the other child. One day I realized that Eli has been dry during naps almost every day for a LONG time. There was a point back in May when Eli started resisting pull-ups during naps. He would promise to 'not pee-pee' in bed if I let him wear his big boy underwear. I'd usually give in with the stipulation that if he had an accident, the next day he HAD to wear a pull-up. I would also remind him that wearing a pull-up during naps was OK...his body doesn't always tell him he has to go to the bathroom when he's sleeping. (Eli appears to be a VERY heavy sleeper that doesn't get woken up by the potty cues.) So our success rate was about 50%. I would always offer the pull-up and only allow the big boy pants if Eli pushed for it. Suddenly here we are, wearing them every day for naps and I can't remember the last time I had to change the sheets. Nights are a different story for sure, but we did have one day a few weeks back that he woke up with a bone dry pull up.

Back to the positive day we've had with Eli...today was amazing! Eli was an angel and obviously TRYING to be an angel. I saw a few moments where he thought to stray from obedience and he visually chose to stay on track. This made me SO proud of him and his new-found big boy choices. Maddux is struggling a bit more with keeping her frustration in check, but I know that is all part of being two.

Today was spent cleaning out toy bins and clothes. The kids really got into it and helped pick out toys for 'other kids'. They also loved finding toys they haven't played with in a few months. Eli kept saying, "YAY! I'm so glad we got new toys!"