Happy Mother's Day

Saturday morning was a stark reminder of what being a Mom was all about. At 5am, when the house was still dark and relatively quiet, I was awaken by a small voice coming from the other room. "Mommy, I have to go potty." Forgive me as I have not kept everyone up to date with the potty news in our household, but Josh has been officially potty-trained for almost a month now, night and day. He had been staying dry very regularly at nights for months, so we made the switch to underwear just before we ran out of pull-ups. So back to my story... 5am potty calls. Groggy-eyed I drag myself out of bed and into Josh's room. It was dark and I sleepily checked his legs for dampness. Yes, I was too late. He had gone in his pants. I lift him out of bed and let him walk to the bathroom so he can finish his business and we can get him into clean, dry jammies. As I pull his wet pants off, I am dismayed to find he was not only wet, but there was diarrhea everywhere. The bug that had been going around daycare the week before had finally caught up to us. And since I had let Josh walk to the bathroom, there was not only diarrhea all over Josh and in his bed, but now tracked through the bedroom carpet and in the hallway. *Note to self: Next time Josh needs me in the night, turn on the bedroom light.* This is the part where being a Mom is really no fun. The poop part. So after he gets a quick bath and some clean clothes, I send him into our bed because I am just not changing his bed sheets at 5:30 in the morning. Just. Not. Doing it. There were 6+ spots on the carpet that I did get scrubbe, at least until they looked good enough in the wee hours of the morning. The first morning rays were peeking there way into the windows by the time I climbed into bed. By then, Josh was awake enough to keep bouncing around, tossing, turning, talking and telling us about his boogers. Yes, now his nose was running like a faucets. And he was laying on my pillow. "Mommy I have boogers." Sure enough there they were, smeared across his face and onto my pillow. I grab a tissue, wipe the snot off his face, turn the pillow over so we have a clean spot to put our heads, and grumble about how now I have to wash his sheets AND our sheets in the morning. More talking, now he has his cars in the bed, tossing, kicking, turning. Now Molly is whining. And I am thinking to myself how I wished I hadn't volunteered to help at church in the morning. 10am comes waaay too soon when you cannot get anymore sleep, especially since we live almost a half hour away from church. Finally at almost 7, Adam pipes up, "Josh do you want to watch cartoons?" On one hand, I felt guilty for letting Whinnie the Pooh and Strawberry Shortcake babysit my son so I can get some sleep and on the other hand I wished he had thought of it sooner. All I could think of was, "Happy Mother's Day to me."

PS (We made it to church by 10am.)

Potty Talk

Potty-training... I didn't know those words could make me smile so broadly. Josh has been wonderful this week. I really am thinking he may be diaper free by Christmas. He has stayed dry almost all week! I am amazed... For a while there, it would seem like he would go a day or two really well, but as soon (literally within a half-hour) as I put a pull up on him, he would pee in it! It was rather frustrating. Well, the same thing happened this past Monday, and I had had enough. I decided he was going in underpants so he would really know the difference of being dry and being wet. He did okay for about an hour or maybe even two, but then he let loose all over the floor. And not just a little bit. And boy, did I make a big deal out of that pee. (Really, I expected it to happen, but he needed to know that it was not okay anymore!) Since that day, I could count on one hand the amount of times he has had a wet diaper/pull up/underpants. He has even stayed dry at least two nights this week. Now I have to figure out how to get it into his head, that he needs to poop on the potty too. This is a harder task, I think. Any suggestions? Josh has been so pleased with himself that he has been a big boy this week. He loves how it makes everyone happy. Daddy is happy, Momma is happy, Uncle Joe is happy, Cat is happy, Gramma is happy, Lange is happy... (Yes, this is his list of happy people.) I will be so, so happy when my little, uh, I mean big boy poops on the potty too. To think that it has been almost a year since he first peed on the potty... Last Christmas day. (I know, that makes it really easy to remember.) What a big boy he is getting to be. *smile*

A Post About Josh

Josh. What more can I say? He is rapidly approaching his 21st month and the fun has officially begun. For instance, I left the room for all of ten seconds (literally) yesterday, only to come back and find that Josh had snatched a permanent marker from the counter and had scribbled over all but two of my lower kitchen cupboards. So thankful am I for the internet. Such a handy resource it is in these occasions. Turns out that a bit of scrubbing with a toothbrush and toothpaste removes most, if not all, of those pesky permanent marker scribbles. I am also thankful that our cabinets are the cheaper low-end cabinets, because the finish looks a little faded from all that toothbrush scrubbing. I would be more displeased if the cabinets were cherry or walnut, ya know?

Words. In abundance. Every day it seems there is a new one. I must be careful to season my speech with salt and not use words like stupid in his presence. I like when Josh talks about one of my siblings and uses their name. He has a name for each of them, I think.

Jim= Jin
Dave= ? (We must not spend enough time with Uncle Dave.)
Joe= Noe, though just last week it was Nose
Nate= Neet
Ben= Ben (He's good at that one.)
Hannah= Nanna
Adam's brother Andy= Nanny
And of course all grandparents are referred to as Bubba.

Pottying has gone slow this week, but there have been days in the past where Josh has stayed dry till lunch time or has peed 5+ times during the day. But he seems to have weeks where he wants to go on the potty and weeks where he does not. I have heard similar things about other children and since Josh is not yet two, I'm not worried about it. (Though diapers are pretty $$, and next time around I may invest in cloth diapers.)

All in all, I still am loving being a mom, though at times it is difficult to keep up with all that being a Mom and housewife entails, along with working 3-4 days a week. I do enjoy both of my jobs, but it is just too much for one girl to handle. It's hard for me to keep up with everything. Which is why I only blog 1-2 times a week, or less. Though look for me again tomorrow, because I want to post about what I will be doing for the next 10 days. :)

Last Pot Post

For those of you who think my life now revolves around potty training an untrainable 14 month old, it does not. Maybe I was over enthusiastic about it this past weekend and that's why I was such a grouch when Josh didn't want to sit on the potty. He has been much better since I wrote my last post, and I think it's a fun learning experience for us both. I am not trying to rush him and I am not disciplining him when he pees in his diaper. I merely set him on the pot when I think his bladder should be full (ie after lunch, snack time, bottle or upon waking up dry after nap) and sometimes he goes and sometimes he doesn't. More often than not, I've timed it well and he can go a "wee" bit. He cheers for himself (sometimes even when he hasn't peed) and I also issues the proper hurrahs. I don't think it's a bad idea for me to set him up there a couple times a day. I may be wrong, and maybe I should not even bother. But none-the-less, I am enjoy seeing my son learning to react to my actions.

Stubborn Pottying

Sometimes I speak too soon. And you all will be glad to hear that Josh does not want to go potty this week. You do not want me to have "wonder-child" nor do you want me to have complete success in potty-training Josh before he is two. That would make you all "look bad". Josh has decided that the toilet is no longer his friend and, even though he is perfectly capable of peeing in the toilet, he kicks and legs and whines. He has only gone once a day since Saturday, compared to the up-to-four-times a day of last week. Last week it was fun for Josh. This week he does not like it. I am discouraged. Say, if he was a year or so older, what advice would you give me? Would you say "Keep sitting him up there", "Put undies on him so he knows when he goes", or "How stupid of you, thinking that a little baby could pee on the potty when they don't know any better"? (If you choose the last phrase, you will no longer be my facebook friend, cause he certainly does knew better, and even cheered for himself last week.)

Pottying Baby

It is a joy to realize that children are much smarter than they are given credit for. Granted, they are also stubborn little creatures and often quite defiant. But that shouldn't discourage anyone from encouraging their baby to use their heads. :)

On Christmas morning, Josh woke up pretty much dry. I gave him his morning bottle and when that was finished, I was surprised to see he was still dry. Well, I supposed, now would be a fine time to sit him on the potty, since there was no doubt that he indeed had to go. I turned on the tub faucet (a little trick I learned when giving Josh a bath) and sat Josh backwards on the potty. He didn't go. As soon as I set him on the floor he started peeing, so I popped him back up on the seat and he continued doing his business. Success! He had peed in the potty. Since that day, with the exception of two days, Josh has continued to pee on the potty several times each day. He still goes inbetween potties, but we both cheer when it's done where it belongs. I was pretty sure my Mom thought I was crazy, putting my 14 month old on the potty, but then she happened upon this link about diaper free babies. Now she knows that there are even crazier parents out there than I. If you are interested in becoming a crazy parent too, check out this site as well. Pretty informative, but you have to be a very dedicated Mommy.