100th Post!

Well, I thought Alex would have liked to write this one, but I promised Dad (Hi Dad!) that I'd do one of these blog posts each week, in light of not updating as regularly in the past.

I honestly think that the 100th post of a blog about babies is a bit silly. After all, don't we have enough milestones to celebrate with our kids? Speaking of which, next weekend we're going to be trying a different approach at potty training: full-on. The boys are definitely showing all the signs, especially not wanting to keep their diapers on. The only reason we're not doing it this weekend is that I think Alex needs to recover some more from her back mishap so she'll be at her best for potty training, which is sure to be a long and arduous process. I do hope the boys make it easy on us though!



Also, we had an unexpected but delightful visit from Nanny and Poppa (my grandparents) this last weekend while Alex was hurt. We've been meaning to get up to visit them for nearly 2 months now, but every weekend, we have some catastrophe or illness that we don't want to give to them, but this last weekend, Nanny and Poppa came to visit us with Emily and Jeremy, my cousin and her husband. It was such a nice visit, with the babies playing with their great grandparents and having fun with their new presents that Nanny and Poppa brought with them! The pictures above come from their visit, with the boys thouroughly enjoying the visit with their great grandparents. We also had a little fun putting them into the gift bags that were brought to hold the presents, although one of them broke, so we had to put both babies inside one. Notice the longhorn pajamas? Got 'em on clearance from Target. I love good deals!



Well, that's that for now. The boys are bugging me to read books to them, my favorite type of pestering. See ya next time blog world!

Potty Training Update

So, since we've backed off the intensive naked-all-day training, things have been going pretty well.  We hit the potty every day when we wake up, go down for naps, wake up from naps, and before bed.  Most of the time, we have success with these trips.  Sometimes the boys (mostly Jude lately) will come up to me and yell "Potty!  Potty!  Potty!" and we'll run to the bathroom and have a successful trip.  Each boy has pooped in the potty once.  Lately however, Eli does not like to sit on the potty and will fight me to go into the bathroom.  I'm just letting him be.  If he doesn't want to come to the potty with us, he doesn't have to.  But he DOES have to wear his diaper.

Keeping diapers on my sweet little babies has become an all day ordeal.  The only time they can't get them off is if they are wearing jeans with snaps and zippers.  Sweat pants?  Diaper's gone.  Onesie?  Diaper is gone without even unsnapping it, don't ask me how!  If I wasn't so over cleaning up puddles all over my house (which I still do, by the way, since Jude has taken his diaper off every day during nap time for the last week) I would probably just have them naked again.  But I just can't handle that much cleaning.

Potty Training - Start of Day 3

I'm thinking we're going to back off of the potty training a bit.  We've been doing some pretty intensive no-diaper time for the last couple of days and it seemed to be working until this morning.  Nothing has changed, I did nothing differently today than yesterday or the day before and suddenly the boys are not cooperating.

We woke up and went potty, things went fine.  But that was the only time.  They have refused to even SIT on the potty - even when I know they have to go - but prefer to pee on the floor.  They scream if I go anywhere NEAR the bathroom.  And then they pee on the floor.  I've even started having them clean up the puddles with me but it is completely meaningless to them.  In the span of 15 minutes, we had 5 accidents and 3 trips to the potty.  So I whipped out the last of our diapers and put them on the boys.  We're going to go to the store and get some more.  We'll keep going to the potty first thing in the morning, before and after naps, and before bed, but they'll wear a diaper during the day (the introduction stage of Diaper Free Before 3) and we'll try to get rid of diapers again in a week or two.

I am frustrated and disappointed.  I had really thought that this would be a couple of really crappy days and then things would fall into place.  Instead it's been a couple of really crappy days that have gotten us nowhere.  Maybe I'm expecting too much.  They aren't even two years old yet.  Maybe I was trying to move too quickly.  I don't know.  I feel like I've failed which I know is ridiculous but that's not making me feel any better.  I can only hope that when we try again it will all fall into place.

Potty Training - Day 2

Today was pretty much more of the same from yesterday.  Maybe a little better.  Eli has taken us TO the potty a couple of times when he has to go, but still lots of puddles on the floor from both boys.  And puddles elsewhere... more on that later.  We thought we might try underwear today to see how they would handle it.  Not well.  We went through all 18 pairs of underwear before 5 pm.  After that point, I just kept them naked.  That seemed to be better.  I think that maybe the underwear confuses them because it's too much like a diaper.  Needless to say, I am doing laundry.

I will leave you with an anecdote from potty training that will maybe make you laugh.  This evening before dinner, I took both Eli and Jude to the potty before putting them in their high chairs.  Jude peed but Eli did nothing.  He didn't even want to sit on the potty.  I figured it wouldn't be a big deal and I'd just take him in the middle of dinner if he had to go.  Well, about halfway through his dinner, Eli stood up suddenly.  I asked him if he needed to go potty and he told me no.  Then he peed all over his plate.  He thought this was very funny.  I did not.

Boys are so gross.

Potty Training - Day 1

I'm going crazy.  I knew that this would be hard and frustrating but I seriously want to beat my head against a wall.  Yesterday was pretty successful - Eli peed in the potty once and Jude pooped in the potty once (even though I put him on the potty after he'd already started pooping) and they're super interested in the potties.  We went to the store and bought the second potty and a stash of underwear.  We decided that we'd just go whole hog today and have the boys spend most of the day naked.

Today started off really well.  Eli peed in the potty right away and Jude was willing to sit on the potty but did not do anything.  We were playing and hanging out when Eli began to pee on the floor.  We ran to the potty and he held it all the way to the bathroom and then finished up in the potty!  I started getting really excited thinking that Eli would have it by the end of the day and we'd be set!  That's when things started to fall apart.  Eli threw a tantrum because I wouldn't let him play in the bathroom and peed on the floor.  We ran back to the potty but he'd already emptied his bladder so nothing happened.  We went back to the living room.  He threw another tantrum and peed on the floor.  We ran to the potty but, once again, nothing happened.  This continued for a couple of hours before I couldn't handle it anymore and put a diaper on him.  We all calmed down and tried again right before nap time.  Travis took both boys to the potty at that time and said that they both peed in the potty.

During all of Eli's meltdowns, Jude was having some trouble also.  He still isn't very good at recognizing when he's going to pee so he had a couple of accidents.  No peeing in the potty except for right when he woke up and then again right before nap time.  The fact that he did do it before nap time though is encouraging and I'm hoping that he'll get it soon.

I just keep telling myself that this will pass and that if we make it through this stressful, crazy time I won't have to change diapers any more.  And I'm taking lots of calming breaths.

An Epic New Journey

If you'd asked me a week ago, "potty training" was akin to a dirty word around here.  I didn't want to hear it or think about it.  It terrifies me.  When I hear that phrase I have visions of poopsplosions and pee on everything, constant laundry, living my life in the bathroom, and daily bedding changes.  Needless to say, I was putting off starting such an endeavor until absolutely necessary.

Eli and Jude have been showing signs of "readiness" according to the American Academy of Pediatrics' standards for a couple of months now.  I kept telling myself that they were not ready and that they can't communicate enough to tell me that they need to go.  I would come up with excuse after excuse but after the recent nudist episodes I have had to confront the issue head-on.  I bought a book called Diaper Free Before 3 which has helped me change my mind and shatter all preconceived notions about potty training.  She does not agree with the AAP about "readiness" and recommends starting as early as 6 months old.  I'll probably write a detailed review of the book once I've really started to engage in her method but for now I'll just say that I am ready to commit to doing this messy, inconvenient, but necessary task.

She recommends to start by continuing to wear diapers (except for those older than 2) but place your child on the potty at scheduled times throughout the day - upon waking, before or after meals and naps, before bed - and also if you notice him or her performing potty cues to help introduce them to the concept of the potty.  Any kind of action during this time is good, but not necessarily expected.  Since we are older than the recommended start age, this phase should move quickly then we'll spend most of our time in underwear or training pants.  The final phase is about developing good potty habits for life.

I missed the boat this morning because I didn't wake up right when the boys did so our first potty trip was before nap time.  I am happy to report that it was a pretty successful trip!  Jude started making his "I'm pooping" face so I took him to the bathroom and plopped him on the potty.  He was not very pleased with this change in his "routine" but did poop successfully in the potty!  He was pretty mad though that I took his diaper off... we'll see how that goes for the next couple of days.  Eli though watched the whole thing and patiently waited his turn (at the moment, we only have one potty) and when I sat him down, he smiled at me and peed!  No drama, just did his business.  He didn't end up emptying his bladder completely though since he stood up and then peed on the floor, but it was a good start.