Another potty progress report

Yesterday's tally:
2 pair dirty underwear (both wet and poopy)
0 pair dirty pants
2 pull-ups
About 15-20 pee in the potty
2 poops in the potty

So, yes, he pooped 4 times yesterday. Having loose stool/diarrhea isn't the greatest when you are just learning to use the potty.

The day started out really great. We went to Sunday school at church and he went in the potty right when we got there, they took him once in the nursery but he didn't go. When I came to pick him up he was still dry. I took him and he went potty again. He was doing so well I decided to stay for "big church" and let him stay in the nursery and play. During that time, they took him and he went once. So after almost 3 hours at church he was still dry! Yay! Got home and texted Braden that he was still dry for the day and not 30 seconds later he peed and pooped in his undies. Rats. Was hoping he'd make it all the way to naptime. So he was in a pull-up for naptime and it was a little wet afterwards (so he is peeing while he's sleeping). He won't be wearing a pull-up during nap at school, so we'll see how he does with that.

We didn't bother with pants or underwear after nap while the kids played upstairs for a while. When he's got nothing on, he's GREAT. He'll tell me "I needa potty" and then run to his little potty, sit, and go. Later, before we went downstairs, we added underwear to his outfit (no pants). I made dinner while the kids took all the cushions off the couch and made a fort. After a little while, Blythe said, "Mom, come see." And I had my typical response, "hold on a minute, let me finish this". So she said, "no, come quick!". So I went over there and she showed me something green (like Crayola crayon Green) on the cushion. I asked her what it was and she said "poop". What? So I look at Ethan and sure enough, he has green poop running down his legs (coming out of his undies). Yuck!!! So I take him to the bathroom and get him cleaned up. From that point on, he went underwear-less and pant-less and thus had no more accidents. Being underwear-less, he would tell me when he needed to poop so I had time to take him and at that point I was really glad he was toilet-training and I didn't have to change all his poopy diapers.

Anyway, better than Saturday, though not perfect (not that I expected him to be). Since he was pantless for a good portion of the day, it's hard to really compare, but I think we are making progress (until this morning when he peed his pants before we even left the house for school).

Don't worry - I won't have any more progress reports to this detail. I just have to make sure I document how these first couple of days go so I can look back the next time around when I'm potty training #3.

Potty training progress report

Final tally of the day:
6 pair dirty underwear (5 wet, 1 poop)
1 pair dirty pants
2 pull-ups (if you count the one I put him in tonight for bed)
about 30-35 pee pees in the potty

So actually he had a really really good first day. Of the 5 wet underwear, only 1 was really a full accident. The others were wet after a series of very small pees (drops). As the day progressed, his pee pee's in the potty got much larger (streams vs. drops earlier in the day). He didn't poop in the potty today....just once in his underpants. Hoping to have that fixed tomorrow because it's really yucky. We also weren't home from 8:30-12:30 this morning. The kids had gymnastics and then we ran a few errands, so the day started out with all trips to public bathrooms and Ethan did quite well (though figuring out exactly how to go when there is no stool, he hasn't yet learned to aim, and sitting is difficult trying not to fall in...well, I guess it's a learning experience for us all). Also after nap we went to the Freel's for dinner, which I think helped because it's more peer pressure since it's not just me telling him to go potty every 15 minutes. So actually we were hardly home all day. He did only tell me a couple of times that he had to potty and those meant he already went (one was last night, one was today with the one wet accident). Otherwise it was me taking him every 15-20 minutes about.

How does this compare to our potty training of Blythe? Completely different. She went through 10 pair of underwear the first day and I'm pretty sure 10 pair of pants. Hers were all accidents and I can't remember if she actually peed on the potty at all the first day. She did a whole lot of sitting on the potty with no results. Ethan was pretty much in and out of the potty as he would pee just about every time I took him. I did put Ethan in a pull-up at naptime and he did pee in it. Blythe did not wear pull-ups at naptime starting day 1 and never had a naptime accident. Blythe's second day was MUCH better and by day 3 she was pretty much golden. She wore a pull-up for about a month at night but was dry almost every morning during that time. I'm expecting Ethan's second day to be slightly better than today then the 3rd day to be slightly better than that, etc. And I'm expecting he'll be in pull-ups at night for maybe up to a year.

We're on the potty train

After I picked the kids up from day care today, we headed to Walmart. In the rain. Which is certainly not something I would choose to do normally (take the kids to Walmart that is), but we had a mission. To let Ethan pick out his big boy underpants. He won't actually be wearing these underpants at the beginning much as he'll be wearing his training underpants, because they are more absorbant, but training underpants don't have cool cartoons on them, so they aren't as enticing.

So anyway, his first pick was the Thomas the Train ones (big surprise). Second pick - Pixar (which included Nemo, Incredibles, Toy Story, Wall-E, and Lighting McQueen (the ultimate reason why he was drawn to them).

After Walmart we headed to Chick-fil-a, where the kids played a while on the slide. Then afterwards we went home. We unloaded groceries from Walmart and Ethan found his new underpants. I was going to wait until tomorrow to start him, but he was excited so we started right then. Yes, it was 7:30 and bedtime is about 8:00 or 8:30, but what the hey. So before we put them on, I explained to him that these were not diapers. These were big boy underpants and he was not to go tee tee in them (or poopy). We go tee tee and poopy in the potty. Yes, yes, yes, whatever. So first he goes pee on the potty (a full 10 or so drops as he normally does). Then he puts on his Thomas undies and shows them off. See my hiney?

Then we head down to the basement to let the doggies out and let the kids play some more. At 7:40 Ethan holds himself and tells me he needs to poopy. So I sit him on the toilet and he pees. Also his undies are a little wet. So holding himself and telling me he needs to poop really means "I need to pee right now...actually I needed to pee 10 seconds ago". Anyway, it's only a little in his undies, so we just put them right back on. Then the kids decide to jump on the bed in the basement. Well, that probably wasn't the best idea. At 7:45 he's now peed a little more in his undies (still not much....but seriously? every 5 minutes?). Apparently he's been learning from our dog Bogie. So I try being harsher with him letting him know he should not pee in these undies and that they are NOT diapers. He cries. Other note to self - maybe not best idea to start when he's really tired.

So at 7:55 we head upstairs. At this point I'm already anxious to get him into his pull-up diaper for the night. Before I do, he pees again in his little potty. So that's...what...5 times in less than 30 minutes? 3 of those were in the potty, so that's something to celebrate I guess. But I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be a really long day.

The many faces of Ethan

Ethan rarely looks at the camera or smiles at the camera when his picture is taken. Yesterday he was being a bit more cooperative, but I ended up with lots of different looks, so I put together a little collage.

Coming Soon.....big boy underpants!

I wanted to wait a few weeks before "officially" potty training Ethan, but right now he's very excited about it and very cooperative and so I'm afraid I'll miss this window if I wait any longer. So this weekend he's transitioning to big boy underpants.

Braden is at the men's NCAA swim meet, which was now delayed to start tomorrow instead of today due to a whole bunch of swimmers from different teams who all got sick at the same time (they were all on the same flight). So that means I'll be going solo on the potty training over the weekend. Combine that with my 7 months pregnant impatient self who is run down from being a little bit sick all week and we should have an interesting weekend. Wish me luck!

Weekend Update

Ethan is home sick today from school. Woke up feeling miserable with a fever similar to how Blythe felt last Wednesday. Though a bit of Tylenol and magically he was pretty much back to normal the rest of the day. Hopefully he wakes up from his nap feeling just as good. I thought he had already caught what Blythe had had though since he threw up a few times on Saturday. No fever that day though and otherwise he felt perfectly fine. He even went to his first gymnastics class and jumped on the trampoline almost the whole time! Pictures from that later. Just after lunchtime on Saturday he and I were outside on the porch swing and I went to put him on my lap when suddenly he barfed ALL over me. Lovely. At least we were outside.

Later on Saturday Gommy and Poppa came for a short visit. They came to pick up Laura...my helper for the week who is already being missed! Anyway, they stayed until Sunday morning and then headed out. The weather was pretty nice so the kids have been driving the Jeep quite a bit. Blythe's gotten to be a pretty good little driver. Ethan...well...sometimes he's pretty good about keeping the accelerator down. He can't steer though. I'm sure it won't take him all that long to figure it all out.

And I feel pretty confident they aren't going to roll the Jeep on the sidewalk, so I'm not the one making them wear helmets. They both want to wear their helmets and don't want to take them off. The other day we went to the playground and Ethan wouldn't take his off even to swing on the swing. So I look like the parent who makes their kid wear a helmet on the swing!

I'm loving the warmer weather because the kids LOVE to play outside! Blythe has been riding her bike a lot and trying to work on her braking skills (using the bike instead of her shoes). Ethan has been trying to ride his tricyle but hasn't figured out the pedaling thing yet. There's almost no sand left in the small sandbox, which is fine because Braden is going to make a big sandbox that will fit some of Ethan's Tonka trucks. Ethan's also been working on his golf game. One day this Spring maybe we'll make it up to the miniature golf place. Though he doesn't prefer putting...he likes his "irons" the best.

As you can see, Braden made it home on Sunday. Congrats to the Hokie women who landed 24th at NCAA's (meaning they are the 24th best program in the country!). Nice!

Baby update

Yesterday I went to the doctor for a regular visit. From this point on, I go every 2 weeks. Good news - the protein in my urine had gone down (not completely gone, but defintely better). Blood pressure is still fine, so no sign of preeclampsia right now. I had only gained 2 pounds in the past 3 weeks, which was a nice surprise. Probably had something to do with the stomach bug I had last week. I was measuring a centimeter short, which was also a surprise since I feel like a whale....how could I be SMALLER than I'm supposed to be? Anyway, it's no concern unless I'm at least 3 centimeters short. So, appears baby didn't grow a whole lot in the last 3 weeks. Which probably means baby will be growing A LOT in the next few. Overall I've gained 29 pounds and I'll be 30 weeks along tomorrow. So all is good.

I was very happy that Laura is here visiting since Blythe woke up sick with a fever yesterday morning. She would have been in no shape to go to the doctor with me, so it was nice to have Laura here to keep an eye on her. Basically she just watched movies most of the day. She was clearly feeling better in the afternoon so we headed to the VT baseball game and packed a picnic dinner after we picked up Ethan from school. I thought it was supposed to be sunny, but no luck. Oh well, the kids had a great time running around with the Freel kids. When we first got there, we saw the Hokie Bird. Blythe had brought her hula hoop with her to the game, so the Hokie Bird played with that a while and gave Blythe lots of hugs. Meanwhile Ethan was hiding behind me clutching my legs saying, "Bye Hokie Bird" over and over again.

And in other big news....Ethan peed at the big potty last night...standing up! He acted like he wanted to, so we got out the stool and he stood on it and leaned over and held the back of the potty. He managed to push out a little bit of pee and was very happy with himself. A few more weeks and then it's no more diapers (during the day at least).

Ada's Baptism

Last weekend we headed back down to Durham (yes, it's been my second home for the last month or so) for Ada's baptism! This time it was a short, one-night trip, but we had a blast. The weather was very nice both days, so the kids got to spend some time outdoors. On Saturday, Blythe "helped" the guys with yard work while Ethan took a nap. And by "help", I mean she played in the mud. Apparently she is officially over her fear of dirt.

It was the first time my whole family was together since my dad retired on March 1st. So we took the opportunity for all of the adults to go to dinner at Angus Barn, a famous restaurant in the Raleigh area. I had only been there once before, about 10 years ago, and it was just as delicious as I had remembered it to be. We even got to take a tour of the restaurant, the kitchen, the wine cellar, and the private dining area. It was a nice 3 and a half hour, kid-free experience!

Sunday was Ada's baptism at 11am, which was really 10am since daylight savings came on Sunday (which now means all of the clocks in our house say the right time again...since we are too lazy to change most of them in November). She looked beautiful in all white and despite her parents worries, she didn't even get anything dirty!

The baptism went without a hitch and my kids even sat through most of the church service (Ethan got a little chatty at the end so he had to step out for a few minutes).

We got some pictures following the service. I tried to find one where I don't look fat, but I'm almost 7 months pregnant, so without some good photoshopping, it's just not going to happen. Anyway, here are Braden and I with our niece/goddaughter:

We tried to get some pics of the 3 kids together, but Ada was getting tired and my kids had been sitting for too long, so pausing to look at a camera was just not happening.

Anyhoo, after the baptism we headed back to Doug and Lynette's house and grilled out some burgers and hot dogs and enjoyed the outdoors a bit more before loading the car and heading home. We also brought back my sister Laura and my parents dog Rudy to stay with us for the week while my parents vacation in Hilton Head (cause when you're retired that's the kind of stuff you get to do).

So Ethan turned 2 the other day....

And I finally have a few minutes to blog about it!

Ethan had a really great birthday party on Saturday night. Nothing big, just a few family and friends that came over for the shindig. About a week before, I didn't really have a theme, but found a cool dumptruck cake to make so "dump truck" ended up being the theme. I even made invitations (how crafty of me!). They don't sell dump truck balloons at the store, so we also had a little Thomas and Sesame Street theme going on. Anyway, Ethan liked it all.

The cake didn't turn out exactly like the picture, but Ethan was able to tell it was a dump truck, so that's all that mattered.

Doug, Lynette, Ada, Laura, and my mom came into town during the day on Saturday and we made some brisket for dinner and then got to dive into the cake and ice cream. Ethan loved that it was his birthday and people were singing to him. And he loved trying to blow out the candle all during the song.

He didn't so much like that the cake got cut up and demolished, but got over that.

He got some cool presents - a bowling set, some light up trucks, a soccer ball and goal, and a Virginia Tech bean bag chair that is supposed to go in his room, but is still sitting in the middle of our living room (since both kids love to sit on it).

Blythe and her friends spent about 3 straight hours playing dress up and them coming down to show us each of their outfits. Some of the time we would play Miley Cyrus and the girls would "dance" to it by holding hands in a circle and jumping up and down.

So it was a good party. We seem to luck out on weather each year on Ethan's birthday (except the day he was born), so were able to spend some quality time outdoors. Sunday we finally got to break out the Jeep the kids got for Christmas. Ethan took Ada for a little spin and then Blythe drove for a bit too. Ethan got to practice his soccer skills too with his new ball and net. He's got a ways to go as far as practice goes.

Now on to Ethan's stats and what he's up to these days.

Dang if I didn't already lose the papers they gave me with his stats. I remember them mostly though:

• 34.5 inches long (about 50th percentile)
• About 27 pounds (around 40th percentile)
• Can't remember the head circumference, but I remember it was around 75th percentile (no wonder it's hard to put shirts on him lately).
• So overall, pretty average stats as he has been most of his life so far
• These days Ethan is quite the little guy to be around. He's learning so much and he appears to learn very quickly. He knows most of his ABC's (in song, not by recognizing the letter), he knows most of his colors and uses them all the time to identify things. He can count to 14. He knows several shapes (circle, triangle, square, star).
• He loves singing songs and knows itsy bitsy spider, wheels on the bus, the hokey pokey, E-I-E-I-O, and probably a few more I can't think of.
• He loves to pretend he's swimming all the time. In the bathtub, on the ground, wherever. I think he's ready for summer and the pool to open.
• He's quite good at throwing a ball and throws both right-handed and left-handed. Usually his left-handed throw is a little better.
• He still is a very neat little boy and picks up after himself very well
• He loves to help in any way he can so I try to give him little tasks to help me. He fills the dog bowl with water when I give him a cup to pour in there. After I fill the bowl with dog food, he likes to take it and go put it down (which is nice because bending over gets harder by the day for me).
• LOVES bathtime and loves to make a watery mess in the bathroom. And he loves the "rain", which is what it's called when Braden turns the shower on after bathtime in the tub is over.
• He's very ready to be potty-trained, but I'm not quite ready. We have some travel coming up and Braden's got more travel for work and so I just need him to hold out for a little longer. For now, I'm content with rarely having to change his diaper because he sits on the potty first thing in the morning and does his business and sits on the potty at night and does his business then too. Next step - teaching him how to pee standing up. I think that's Braden's territory since I too have no idea about that. And he also currently has to be completely naked when he sits on the potty, so we'll have to get him past that too as I don't think that would go over too well in the regular world.

Anyway, happy 2nd birthday Ethan! Sorry it took me so long to get it on here!

Slacker

Okay, so I know I've been slack. One day I'll look back and go "why didn't I blog about Ethan's 2nd birthday?" But I promise I will blog about it and I have lots of pictures that I haven't put on the computer yet and we went to the doctor today for his 2 year checkup so I'll post his stats too. By the way, he turned 2 on Sunday.

But unfortunately I came down with a stomach bug on Sunday night which knocked me out all of Monday and I spent all day yesterday trying to recoupe from a missed day of work. Today doesn't look much better as far as extra time goes (especially after spending some time at the doctor's office this morning). So maybe it'll be tonight or more likely tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Congrats Dad!

On Monday my Dad retired from being an airline pilot. He's been an airline pilot (first with Braniff airlines then with US Airways) for I think my whole life (he may have had a brief stint as something else in my very early days).

So I grew up with my Dad being "on a trip" several days each week. I practically never knew exactly where he was going, but when I was younger he would always bring something back for me and my brother and sister (don't get too excited...it was usually an airline wings sticker or maybe a cookie from the airplane snack box). But, it was enough to let us know he was thinking of us. And when I was a bit older, he always managed to be there for my important swim meets or other important (or even not important) family events. At the time I think I just expected it. Now when I look back I realize the sacrifices he probably had to make time and again by flying trips he didn't want or maybe getting paid less that month just so he could have those 2 days in a row on a weekend off.

Sometimes he couldn't spring it to have Thanksgiving off or Christmas off, so we just made up new dates for those holidays and it really never bothered me. I was just proud to have a Dad that was a pilot...I mean how many jobs are cooler than that? Not many. Every time a plane passes over Blythe and Ethan both say, "That's Poppa's plane!" Clearly they think it's a pretty cool job too.

So congratulations to my Dad! I'm proud of him for making it to the end (even after 9/11 when flying became a much more stressful job). I'm happy to see him in this next phase of life (retirement) and hope he enjoys it! I know he'll be busy this year with some travel and lots of golf, and a new grandchild. I'm keeping a list of "home improvement requests" - you know, to help him out in case he gets bored.

Only about 30 more years or so until I get to retire! Yeesh - that's a long way away.

Ethan can count

He can count to more than 6 though. He can actually count to about 14 (or "boreteen" as he says it). Though he almost always misses the number 10. Funny how kids do that...seem to skip right over a particular one. For Blythe it was always (and still is most of the time) 15.

He can also do most of his ABC's, but getting him to get all the way through them on video is too hard because he always wants to see himself on video before we get even halfway through.

Hi primary focus right now is probably colors, which he's doing pretty well at. The first colors he knew were brown and black. Weird. He has no problem with green or blue usually. And usually gets pink right too. Sometimes he has issue with yellow. Most of the time he can't remember red. And he usually gets white correct.

Smart little boy!

To die for

Here's our conversation at breakfast this morning:

Blythe (telling Daddy): I made this butterfly thing out of sand. I used orange, and purple, and green. Not yellow.

Daddy: It's beautiful

Blythe: Yesterday I played with Ashley at her new house

Daddy: Did you like her new house?

Blythe: Yes. I did like her new house. Did you know one day we're all going to die?

Daddy: (silence...weird look to Mommy)

Mommy: (shrug)

Blythe: One day you're going to die and I'm going to die too. Will we be together when I die?

Daddy: Blythe, it's going to be a really, really long time before that happens.

Mommy: Right. You'll be really old. Older than Gommy.

Blythe: So I'm not going to die in my life?

Daddy: (not quite sure what to say)....No

Blythe: Can I have another cinnamon roll?

Really not sure where she got that. I don't think they talked about it at Ashley's house. They might have discussed it at Sunday school. Anyway, a little much for a 4 year old to take in.