Slap Cheek, Potty Training & Other Adventures

It's a little blurry but the picture above is of Steven fixing Benny- Benny was a robot. Other silly things from my Steven last week- at church he was getting a drink from the fountain and some water got on his upper lip, when that happened he asked his daddy, "Will that make my mustache grow?" Also, I was contemplating getting Steven a tie that would go around his neck and he did not like that idea, in his most dramatic voice he declared: "You can't get me a zipper tie, that hurts my body!"

Below I tried to get a picture of Steven's red cheeks but was unsuccessful, you can't really tell how red they were. Last Monday Steven woke up with what looked like a sunburn on his cheeks and then I noticed he had a flat, lacy rash on his upper chest, back and arms as well. After doing some internet diagnosing and then calling the nurse practitioner for confirmation, I found out Steven had Fifth Disease, aka slap cheek. He had had a runny nose for a few days before the rash which I thought was just symptoms for a cold but apparently those are the symptoms before the "disease" and apparently that was when he was contagious. Once he got the rash he was no longer contagious. I felt bad because that meant we diseased everyone we met that weekend. Thankfully Fifth Disease is nothing serious for children. For him (and then later Benny) it just meant a lovely rash and some crankiness.

On Sunday we were getting ready for church and Benny got really quiet and asked "We going to Jesus Christ?" It was really sweet :) Lately Ben has been very prone to start off phrases with "Maybe I..." For example, "Maybe I do" or "Maybe I should" or "Maybe I would like it"  He also has been very good at saying, "Ok mommy" when I ask him to do something- his follow through is less than great though.

This week I begun the torturous job of potty training Ben. Day 1 was awful- I was really having high hopes that it wouldn't be but it was. I started off the morning by showing Ben how his army guy can pee and poop in the potty and get treats. I also set a timer and took Ben to the potty every 15 minutes and then rewarded him with candy just for trying. Well, Ben managed to hold all his pee in until about 11:30am and then he peed his underwear, MAJOR, 4 times in a row- despite me putting him on the potty after each accident. I wanted to die. That afternoon, he finally started to pee in the potty (and I started only giving him candy if he peed) but he was still slightly dampening his underwear in between each sit down and I was taking him to the potty every 10 minutes. We went through like 20 pairs of underwear. It was depressing.

Day 2 was a major improvement! He once again held in all his pee until about 11:30 (despite me taking him to the potty every 10 minutes) had a MAJOR accident BUT when I sat him down on the potty after the accident-- he peed! And for the rest of the day all his pee went in the potty and he stayed dry- it was wonderful!!! However, he did have a BM that night and it was quite awful getting him to sit down and let it out on the potty- bribery didn't even work.

Today (Day 3)- he has been dry so far (it's 3pm in the afternoon) AND I haven't had to take him to the bathroom every 10 minutes to keep him dry. It's been more like every 20-30 minutes. Now I just want him to start initiating more that he needs to go- he has a few times but most of the time he only goes because I take him there.

And in the picture below you can see that Benny wanted to be like his big brother and have a chain counting down to his birthday. The chain also marks when we get to do the Boeing open house with Mike and I added a couple chains so it would go until Easter. Lots of fun things a'coming.