little victories

much more of a marathon than a sprint. potty training has been taken to a whole new stratosphere with you. it is my most despised parental duty, probably because i don't think i can honestly do anything to will someone to notice a biological need. with your brother and sister, it wasn't fun, but it was quick. with you, we worked tirelessly for over a year, seriously worked, before it started to click. and even though now that you are trained, and now we are done, we know we are not really done. in the back of our minds there is still the knowledge that anything from a virus to an extra fun day in a new environment can throw you off and we will have an accident on our hands. months will pass and try to make us forget, but we don't. so today, when you excused yourself, and successfully did your business solo as you do all of the time now, i silently thanked God, reminded myself that many of your peers' parents don't have the most-of-the-time luxury that i am currently witnessing, and reveled in how far you've come.

Potty Training

This post has started and stopped, been written and deleted, forgotten and found again... Might as well post it now before any more time passes!

Just over a month ago we officially started on the business of potty training Ruby. We'd had the seat out for months, let her sit on it before baths and bed, talked it up, but hadn't really started anything official.

To be perfectly honest, I did not anticipate the drawn out ordeal this has become. I trained Eli in a few days with minimal accidents for a few weeks after. (Night training is another story, but that's not a concern of mine at all right now.) Maddux was trained in a day, I swear, with no more than two or three accidents ever, including nighttime. I thought this would be a no-brainer, especially because Ruby is such a modeler and picks up on routines and whatnot so quickly.

Well friends, it has not gone as planned and this mama is at a loss. We will have great days, days where she doesn't have any accidents and always goes when we take potty breaks. And then we will have days where she has two accidents before 10AM. And these days will polarize how I feel about it all so harshly: I will be so hopeful that this is the start of a new era when she has a good day, and then when she has a less than good one, I feel like she'll never get it.

In the beginning, she was a camel. Even though I was giving her water like crazy all morning, Ruby would hold her bladder from 8AM until 2PM...crazy! That lasted for a few weeks, which made creating successes difficult, but we focused on the staying dry part and talked it up a lot. That seems to be out the window now, so it's anyone's guess as to what her body can do at this point. The main hangup has been her telling us she has to go. At a friend's house the first week, she told me three times as she was running to the potty, and she actually went once. I was SOO excited. But since then, she's only told us and actually gone maybe twice. Most days she won't tell us at all. (Her successes come when she goes during our scheduled visits.)

So we are in underwear most of the time. The rare exception is gymnastics (I'm not in there with her and I can't put that on the instructor) and the occasional instance when a young sitter or friend who is doing me a huge favor is watching her. She WILL get it. But in the meantime, I just may lose my mind for spending so much time in the bathroom and so much energy on trying to predict when she needs to go.

Let's Add Something Else To Our Plates, Shall We?

Ruby had a great night with Grandpa Jim; she even slept until 8! I arrived just after that, but he and Grandma Cathie hung out for a while to eat breakfast and play with Ruby. Then she and I made our way to the gardens before working on speech. Rounds were very boring; Ruby is fine as fine could be. Her temporary fevers over the weekend didn't even warrant antibiotics, and she received platelets yesterday, which bumped her numbers up into the very good range.

Here's my newest challenge: potty training. Not something I would choose to do during the journey, but she's in the zone. I planned it once school started; the potty seat is ready to go at the house. It never happened during the summer because the older kids were too much of a distraction for me, but then we got a 3-week trip to CHOA, so my plans had to change. I was thinking to just wait until after our hospital stay, but then we got another 3-week trip added, pushing our date with the potty back at least another month, AND, she gets the diaper supplies for me the second she starts to go (the solid variety). She is very aware of what's going on, which means I need to act.

But how...

Here are my roadblocks:

• she needs to stay so very clean to avoid any infection, and doesn't get daily baths (just a sponge bath)
• our room needs to stay oh so clean, as we live there
• she is on fluids all night, so even first thing in the morning, she is more 'full' than usual, and I'm not sure that it's reasonable to expect that she could control her bladder at that time
• all of the meds she is on give her diarrhea

Aren't you so glad you decided to read my update today?!?!

Hopefully someone will read it that also had a child in the hospital around the same time and has some advice. Otherwise, I just lost a lot of readers.

Happy New Year!

Haven't posted since Christmas....not a real post anyway. I tend to play catch up on video when I have extra hands around to help with the kids, so this holiday break has been video-centered, as evidenced by the last few posts. Soooo, let's catch up on what's happened, shall we?

The Christmas week continued with Mom-Mom, Rachel and Aunt Megan coming to town. Four pasta dinners later, Eli and Maddux spent a morning with them several exits north of home at a mall that houses a carousel. The kids loved it! We tried to take Eli to one a few years ago, but it was closed when we arrived, so this was the first ride for them both. Maddux told me she rode on a zebra and she 'not scared'. Eli had a blast....I think he rode a few different animals, but the details are escaping me now.

Cold weather blew into town, and our outdoor play was limited again. We tried to ride bikes at the river, but the wind was too chilly, so a brisk walk took place instead. Eli had his first play date without Lehr or I present. A time out took place, but the parents assured me that the boys play(ed) really well together, so we'll have to get them together again soon.

Last, but not least, I decided we should tackle taking down the decorations AND potty training in one day. Sounds silly, but PT requires that you stay indoors (at least when it is 25-degrees out) all day, so my thought was to kill two birds with one stone. Maddux has been pooping on the potty like a champ. For close to two weeks. Somewhere around Christmas I realized that I hadn't changed a dirty diaper in over a week. What a nice 'surprise'! So yesterday we decided to tackle the 'pee-pee'. She had one accident right off the bat, but after that she was a pro. We set the timer, but she ran to the potty before it went off every time and had success. Later that night we had one more accident on the way to the bathroom, but we're calling the day a success. Today we put a pull-up on her when we went to run errands, but we still went to the bathroom several times while we were out and she stayed dry the whole time. (YAY!!!!) This week at school worries me because I'm not sure of her ability to hold it more than a minute or so once she realizes she has the urge. We'll see!!

I BIG!

Maddux has been in the transition of potty training for a few weeks now, even though we haven't really done the full-on potty 'bootcamp'. I've had two half days with her (while Eli was at school for three hours), where we've done the underwear-instead-of-diaper thing, full on with lots of liquids and a timer to keep trying to sit on the potty. She's not had any luck with peeing, but in the other department, she is at about 75% success! And her lack of success is only when her requests to sit on the potty are not responded to. (Which is hard to do because she is VERY insistent and loud!) She will ask to sit when she has even the slightest urge, which means that sometimes she will sit four or five times before actually going, but it means less diapers overall, so I'm willing to do it! She is oh-so proud of herself too; she tells everyone, "I big guwel. I poop on the potty and get a *Sharkie." (*A Sharkie is one of the many 'treats' she may choose from when she has success. If she doesn't tell you about those, she'll tell you that she's going to get a 'tweet'.) Could not be prouder of my little girl right now...she is growing up so quickly!

Potty Like A Rock Star!

So I still haven't 'formally' started training Maddux, meaning I've not spent a whole day (or even more than a few hours) in the process. We offer it to her all of the time, and she sits on it before her bath every night... Besides that, one day last week we had a few hours before gymnastics, so I put real underwear on her and fed her lots and lots of water, setting the timer to sit on the toilet every five minutes or so. She didn't have any success that day, but something obviously stuck!!

Over the weekend Maddux got out of her bath and went (naked) into her bedroom to get her diaper and pj's. Less than a minute later she ran out, saying, "I gotta go potty!" She sat, but nothing happened. So we resumed our nighttime ritual. She got lotioned up and then said it again: "I gotta go PO-tty!" She ran in and nothing. By this time, we are realizing that she probably really has to go, so we try to delay putting on her diaper for a little longer. It worked! A few short minutes later, Maddux returned and pooped on the potty...totally initiated by her! We made a BIG deal about it, of course. The best part was how excited Eli was. He happened to be standing by the sink, brushing his teeth when the celebration took place and he joined right in, congratulating her and telling her how proud he was. "Good job, Maddux! You're a big girl!!"

Fast forward to this afternoon when the kids and I are at Eli's appointment with the orthodist. Maddux looks at me and says something about 'potty' and 'treat' and 'big girl'. This is not unusual as she has talked about it (very proudly) since she had her success a few days ago. (In fact, she is so proud that she tells EVERYONE, "I poop on the potty!!") It sounded to me like she was informing me she was going to repeat her performance that night. I assured her she would, and went about doing whatever I was doing. She ran to the other side of the doctor bench and started to bear down. I jumped up and asked her if she needed to go NOW, to which she nodded. Thankfully, the bathroom was right across the hall...I could even leave the door open so I could see Eli (the doc wasn't in the room). She sat down and did the deed like it was no big deal. Fireworks. Fanfare. Applause. This girl is on a roll!! Once again, Eli was SOO the proud big brother. The whole ride home he told her, "Maddie, YOU get to pick a treat out of the bag!"

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!"

Weekend Wrap-Up

Busy weekend. Friday night I had a bootcamp graduation 'party' at a local restaurant. Since we had a friend who completed camp that month, Lehr decided to come and bring the kids for a little bit. It's a crazy atmosphere and it was made crazier by the amount of kids in attendance this month. But they all had a good time. There ended up being live music on the back porch towards the end of the night, so Lehr and the kids stayed out there and watched until well after bedtime. Saturday we had our typical yard-work morning. Eli opted to do a lot of edging rather than mowing this time. He dragged one of Lehr's edging tools all around our yard and our neighbor's, edging the extra grass away.

After nap time we had a pool party to attend. The kids were very excited to jump and swim with their friends. A quick 'dinner' fell in there somewhere and then back to swimming. Maddux has become all too likely to do her business while wearing a swim diaper as of late, so we had that whole issue to deal with. (It just may push me to potty train her now even though she is only one week on this side of two years old!) Three nights in a row of late bedtimes, but what is summer for, if not fun, right?

Big Boy Bed

One GREAT thing about Eli being in a big boy bed is the snuggle factor before he falls asleep. Instead of reading in his chair, now we can lie in bed with him and read books, talk, pray......and fall asleep!! Eli has never been a fan of falling asleep with us (not even as a baby), but the other night, he did!! Lehr was reading to him; after 15 minutes I decided to check on them to see what was happening. At 8:15PM, both of my boys were sound asleep. That does happen from time to time for Lehr, but Eli ALWAYS stays up talking and singing in his bed until 9PM or so. Good times!!

On a related note, Eli is sleeping in better now. He's not quite back to his regular 9-930AM wake up time, but he's sleeping until at least 8AM before nature calls, which makes everyone happy!

Weekend Update

We had no real plans this weekend, but we ended up running a lot of family errands. This wasn't too exciting for Eli and Maddie, but they fared pretty well. We did take in some of the great weather by playing in the front yard Saturday morning. It was chilly, but oh-so sunny for a change! Eli is into 'painting' the driveway by use of a paint roller. Every day he tells me, "I got lot work to do, Mommy. I need to paint the driveway again." Maddie wants to do whatever he does, so she is often jockeying for a chance to push the roller also. Most of her time outside is spent throwing balls out of the ball bucket in the garage. She'll yell "Baaaaah!!" as she throws them.

Since I haven't talked about it in a while, Eli's potty training is basically complete. He's still in a pull-up for naps and night-time, but he hasn't had a dirty pull up since at least Christmas. The downside of that is his wake up time has shifted almost 2 hours earlier. Since his body is currently telling him when he needs to use the bathroom, he wakes up at 7 or 7:30 and goes. This is waaaay earlier than we're used to. The good news (besides the fact that he's really 'getting it') is that he will go back to his room after he's gone. For now.

Eli gets homework from school each weekend; this weekend was a heart he was supposed to color/decorate and return on Monday. I pulled out the water-paints for him to use on his project and he had a great time. He was very purposeful in his painting in the beginning, changing colors every few strokes. I loved seeing him concentrate so hard!

Kriss Kross Will Make Ya....

Eli is finally starting to want to dress himself. Of course he's able, but he is/was never willing. We came in from school today and he asked for his hoodie so he could put it on 'all by-self'. I did have to put the hood on his head (to hold the jacket in place), but from there he got the arm holes and everything. And he was sooo proud. After lunch we made our usual trip to the bathroom (it's been a looong time since he's had an accident during naps!) and then I instructed Eli to go to his room and put on his 'night-night underwear' (a pull-up). He came out and asked if he could wear his jeans to bed. I told him 'yes', but he had to put them on himself. He did and then came to where Maddux and I were so he could ask me for help with the snaps. I cracked up at his straight face...he had no clue he had the pants on backwards.

Big Boy Bed

It finally arrived. Both the bed physically arrived and the transition from my baby to the bed he'll sleep in until he leaves my house. Wow...kinda scary. The bed was supposed to be delivered between 8-5 (nice window, huh?), but thankfully it came in the first hour. I rushed home from bootcamp to wait with Lehr only to find (at 9AM) the bed set-up, made, and Eli happily tucked inside of it. He was sooooo excited. All day long he kept telling us, "I love my big boy bed." and "Maddie, guesswhatIhaveabigboybed!" The bed-rails we ordered did not arrive yet, so we will have to brave a few days/nights without them, which worried me. Eli is used to having huge walls to keep him in bed, and he frequently snuggles up next to them, testing their strength as he sleeps. I cautioned him before his nap, reminding him that if he slept too close to the edge, he might fall out. So far no problems! He actually slept upside down during his nap, with his feet at the pillow and his head at the foot of the bed, on top of the blankets. I guess it's hard to get used to a new way of sleeping when for his entire life of three years, he's slept 'on top' with only his special blanket. Regardless, he slept successfully and didn't soil his pull-up during his nap (another 'rule' of ours for the big boy bed). Hooray!! Tonight's bedtime routine went great and he is once again sleeping happily in his new bed. For Eli, life is good.

My Precious First-Born

Every day Eli shows me more and more that he is a first born. Eager to please, reminding Maddux of things when Mommy forgets, and always making sure everyone knows the rules (even if he doesn't follow them). Today was no exception. After an uneventful lunch and short play session, Eli voluntarily used the potty and then received the reward of dancing to an extra song while I put Maddux down for her nap. As always, I reminded Eli to dance to the song and then go to his room once it was over. I heard him in the big room, rustling about after the song ended, but figured he just got distracted. As I was leaving Maddie's room, Eli called out, "Mommy! I cleaned the big room for you!" I turned the corner to see all toys off of the floor, put away in the bins or on top of the couch. Amazing. We routinely clean up, but never before has the cleaning bug hit him to clean so immaculately on his own. Even though the couch-stacking tactic will take me some extra work, I praised him up and down. I asked Eli why he cleaned and he said, "Cuz it was a MESS!" My sweet sweet boy....

One Hands, Two Hands, Drumming On A Drum

Eli got quite a treat tonight. In honor of his latest (VERY) successful potty performances, Lehr took him to Guitar Center's Drum-Off Finals after dinner. The boys got to see some great percussion performances and Eli was totally into it. He got home just after 9PM so he should have been tired, but he wasn't. He kept telling me about how the drummers hit the high hats and the tom-toms and the bass drum. As expected, Eli was very animated throughout the demonstration. Then he told me, "Reid's mommy was there, but she shouldn't be cuz the drums just for daddies." (Apparently Lehr and Eli saw 2 or 3 other families from church there and it was more heavily male attended.) Lehr and I heard him talking well into 10PM, so I have a feeling he'll be a little tired for school in the morning.

Maddie and I hung out at the house instead of taking in the show. She had a really rough afternoon with teething, so I opted to entertain her at home instead of in a crowded store. After we played with all of her favorite toys, I took her into the shower with me instead of giving her a bath. She loved it! At one point I was holding her under the stream with me and she kept reaching up to 'grab' the water and rub it on her head. Then she did the same to me. Life is good.

Day-O-Eli

Eli had a time out at school today. The funny thing is, I didn't find out from his teacher; Eli ratted himself out to me. When I pick him up from school, I usually ask him a few questions: what songs did you sing, who did you play with on the playground, what did you eat for snack, etc. And if I knew of a special activity (like Monday's firefighter visit), I'll ask him about that too. I knew they talked about and cut open pumpkins today, so I asked Eli about what he saw inside of the pumpkin. He says, "Ummm, I don't know. I was in time out." When I asked why, he told me it was because he was talking. (I assume he meant talking while the teacher was talking.) I'm glad to hear he has consequences like that at school, but it does not sound like they required an apology from him. This is something we are real sticklers for in our house (an apology to the wronged person upon exiting the time out), so I informed him that if he didn't apologize to the teacher the next time, we'd make a special trip back to the school to do it. This would NOT be fun for Eli as he does not enjoy being put on the spot like that.

We are moving forward with the potty training again. We have another strategy (peanut M&Ms) and it seems to be working so far. I think it is working (for now) because this child rarely gets chocolate (maybe once/month in a cookie at school), and he has never (to my knowledge) had an M&M before. He recognized the bright colors as 'candy', but he couldn't identify it by name. All I have to do is remind him that he might get a piece of candy if he makes a deposit and this kid is running for the bathroom. When he finished today, Eli ran around saying "I so proud of myself!!!!" Glad to know he's not short on self-esteem.

Out Of The Mouth Of Eli

- "Mommy, I so proud of ooh!"
Eli says 'ooh' for 'you' a lot still. Sometimes he gets it right, but many times he'll leave the 'y' sound off. Today he told me he had to pee, so I let him go to the bathroom by himself. I came in at the end to help him with the soap because he couldn't reach it to wash his hands. Since I was there, I took care of business for myself too. When I was done, Eli said, "Mommy, I so proud of ooh!!!"

- "He no say "Maybe I da one."
Eli loves music. Duh. The kid also has a mind-blowing memory. He'll hear a song once and recognize it within the first few notes the next time he hears it. Two months later. His latest 'thing' is asking me who the artist is for any song that remotely peaks his interest. Most of the time I know, given I'm a music fan myself with what I thought was a good memory about songs/artists. (I thought that before I met Eli.) A few days before we left for the beach (roughly two weeks ago) "Psycho" came on the radio. Halfway through, Eli asked, "Who sing this, Mommy?" I told him it was Puddle of Mudd. "Oh. I like dem. This is my favorite song." He says this a lot these days, so this song didn't seem any more significant than any other. A few times while we were on vacation he would ask for Puddle of Mudd, but since this is not 1986, we didn't have a boombox with us while we were hanging out at the beach, so his requests were not granted. Fast forward to this afternoon. I told Eli he could pick one song to listen to on the computer while I put Maddux down for her nap. He requested Puddle of Mudd. I had forgotten about the "Psycho" incident, so I chose another one of their songs ("Blurry"). When I came out of Maddie's room, Eli told me, "Dis not Puddle of Mudd. He no say, 'Maybe I da one.' Not da right song." (Side note: If you're not familiar with the song, it starts with a few guitar notes and then the lead singer says, "Maybe I'm the one. Maybe I'm the one. Who is.") It took me a few minutes to understand what he meant. Once it hit me, I was once again reminded that nothing gets past this kid. Time to really start paying attention to those lyrics!

Daddy Weekend

As soon as we returned from the beach last week, I unpacked my suitcase only to fill it again with walking clothes for the weekend. A friend from high school flew up to walk the Atlanta 2-Day Walk for Breast Cancer with me in downtown Atlanta, and we needed to check into the hotel less than 24-hours after our car returned to our house. (Thank you to everyone who supported me this weekend, financially or with kind words of support. It's A Journey raised a lot of money, and I had a great time raising funds and awareness for a worthy cause.)
* Someone just uploaded a BUNCH of pictures from this weekend to SmugMug: check them out!

Lehr said he and the kids had a great time too. Friday night they hiked at Sope Creek and ate a picnic dinner/ snack. For the first time they saw turtles swimming just off the dock! Saturday was a lot of outside play, with a quick trip to purchase a new baseball as Eli had another big potty success. And Sunday was church. I am so happy to be back home with my babies...I can only hope they missed me as much as I missed them...all three of them!

Beach Vacation: Last Day

All good things must come to an end, just as this trip has. We spent our last night with some friends that just happened to be in Watercolor at the same time as us. They have kids of similar ages, so we did pizza and pool until the kids basically begged for bedtime. This morning we woke everyone up a little early (7AM) so we could enjoy the beach before loading the car. Eli spent most of his time chasing fish and crabs in the ocean. There were no waves and the sandbar was even more shallow than it has been this past week. Such conditions were conducive for animal hunting; we saw a few crabs, plenty of fish, and a small shark. (Not the mention the dolphins we saw daily.) All in all, the kids fared pretty well on the drive. They watched the Muppet Movie with D and snoozed a few minutes here and there. Eli's highlight was our stop at Cracker Barrel because he was allowed to pick a special toy in celebration of a big success on the potty before getting into the car. Now they are sound asleep in their beds and all is right with the world.

Turning The Corner?

What a great day!! Eli slept until 9:30 because of the lack of sleep he got this weekend. Maddux and I hung out for a while in her room before we went to rouse him. We had a pool date at 10:30, and given that the pool season is coming to an end, I figured it was a good idea to not skip this one, even for sleep! We met Tyler and a few other friends at Ty's pool, but the water had been drained and a large lock was on the gate. Luckily, Tyler's mom knows a nearby neighbor (in another hood) well enough to ask permission for us to hold our pool party there. Eli was all set to jump and swim with his newly flotation-reduced turtle back and goggles. He did so well when we removed one float from his contraption, but after a few swims he seemed to realize that he had to work harder. He still keeps his head up and refuses any help offered to him, but to the untrained eye, he appears to be drowning. It's always a good time when I take him to the pool now as he causes everyone watching to jump out of their seats when they see my child jump in and barely lift his head out of the water as he treads water to the steps. Lots of laughs!

Our pool hosts came to join us, which made Eli's day. The two girls attend our church and Eli adores them. They entertained him (or he entertained them) the entire time we were there. They jumped in and then he jumped in. They swam and then he swam. And when Eli asked to use the restroom, the girls watched Maddux for me. I honestly felt guilty that I wasn't paying them for the great service they provided! But back to the restroom request. Eli asked to go twice before I told him he needed to (basically) 'put up or shut up'. He has a tendency to go to the bathroom, but then try for less than a second. When I'm at the pool with both kids, this is not an ideal situation as I usually do not have helpers to watch Maddux for me. I just reminded him that he either needed to stay on the toilet and 'be patient' with his body, or we'd have to go home. Wouldn't you know, a few seconds later he went! And not just the liquid variety! This was huge cause for celebration. Grandpa Jim and Grandma Cathie just sent him a shirt and card congratulating him on his progress, so when we got home he was able to open the card (it plays music...Queen, which is his favorite these days) and wear the shirt. The shirt says "Potty Like A Rock Star". I told him when he went, he'd be able to don the shirt and have a drum and/or guitar concert. He got totally into it. Today was a great day!!

Just Another Update

As I'm sure you've noticed by now, I've fallen a bit behind in my blogging. And when I've actually taken the time to post, the pictures are non-existent and there aren't even attempts at wit. I've become the definition of a slacker. In my defense, things have just been busy. Potty training has taken away any chances I might have had to take some good pictures, as well as any opportunities for 'fun' things to blog about. Then, when I could have been writing about things Maddie is up to, or even what interesting tid-bits I've learned in the PT process, I've been otherwise occupied. Bootcamp prep has taken more of my time than usual in the last two weeks (not complaining at all though), and I've had several families at church request photo shoots. While I enjoy taking pictures and bootcamp oh-so much, they take time. So my usual second job (blogging) was placed on the back burner. I promise to try to move it back to the front ASAP.

Since I've missed posting about a few things that have happened recently, I'll catch you up to speed now. Maddux is full-blown walking. She took her first steps a month or so ago and then backed off from it. Then she started taking two or three at a time the week before her birthday. Every day since then has found her moving faster and faster. First she walked unless she wanted to go fast (in which case she would crawl). Then she walked some of the 'fast time'. Then she walked over toys and still kept her balance. Now she walks almost exclusively. Even if she falls, she usually pushes herself back up to an upright position immediately. And she is SOO proud of herself. She laughs and points as she walking, as if she's working the crowd in a bar. I love that girl.

Eli had a great few days, staying dry (except one small accident which he alerted us to right away and which never even made it through to his shorts) for five days straight now. He still doesn't stay dry when he sleeps (not that we expect him to), but he has increased the amount he goes in the potty, even using three outside-of-our-home toilets in the last few days. Saturday morning he and Lehr met two other daddy-son families for breakfast and a trip to a train museum. Eli had a blast and told me all about it this morning. We finished off the day yesterday with a trip to the pool. Between the rain and the potty training, we haven't been to the pool since July 4th weekend, and Eli has missed it. Last night he stepped up his game: not only does he jump off the diving board now, he jumps off and then swims (which is really a doggy-paddle-water-treading motion) to the side only to climb out using the ladder. All by himself. 90% of the time last night he requested Lehr and/or I NOT be in the pool with him when he jumped. He loves being all grown up.