Life This Week

Yesterday we finally declared Ben "potty trained" and gave him his prize, a Mr. Freeze house!

And then he had 3 tiny accidents that same day...Argh! So I threatened to reclaim his awesome prize if he has an accident again and so far today he has been dry. 

Ben has really had some major attitude lately. His favorite sentence start off this week: "Told you..." Ways he has used it "Told you I didn't have pee." "Told you I was thirsty." " And what he really should say "Told you I'm being a brat." Because he's making me crazy!

Steven and Ben have been having sharing issues. Steven might be playing with one of Ben's toys or Ben might be playing with one of Steven's and then- fight! They grab it out of their brother's hand and scream, "That's mine!" And then crying ensues. After the millionth melt down I had had enough, I took all their toys, put them in the play room and locked the door. No more toys! And Steven's response? He raided my linen's cupboard and made his own little bed which also acts as a trampoline. As seen below:

My new solution to the sharing problem... I had a big talk with them about how everything is really not ours since God made us this world. And I talked about how God would want us to share our things. And we talked about what Jesus would do. And then we (more like I) determined that if we are going to fight over a toy (and not use our nice words to figure out who should play with it) then we can give the toy to someone who doesn't have toys and will appreciate it. So far, they have only lost one toy so maybe it's working!?

I let Lucy girl cry it out a 2 nights ago- it lasted almost an hour and was awful! So last night I was weak and went and fed her. This girl truly has me wrapped around her fingers already! I'm hoping maybe she'll just outgrow that one middle of the night feeding by herself because I really do miss sleeping through the night :( 

And last note, today we went to Boeing open house with my brother. The boys had a blast (is it any wonder since snow cones, cotton candy and chips were all involved). I enjoyed seeing my brother's cubicle and leaving silly notes in it, eating the yummy Firehouse sub, seeing the helicopter flight simulator, seeing cool real helicopters and spending time with my family (even Tyler was able to come!). 

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.

Bunk Bed & Potty Woes

Much to my surprise Tyler was able to build the bunk bed Saturday and now my boys are officially sharing a room. The transition has been both good and bad so far.The good part is night time. They did really good the past 2 nights. They chat for a bit but they don't play and they both go to sleep after not too long. And this morning was nice because instead of bugging me when they woke up, they played together and didn't even want to leave their room to go eat breakfast. I'm sure that's just the novelty of things but it'd be nice if that didn't change.

Nap time, on the other hand, was bad yesterday. Steven hasn't napped in over a week which  has been very depressing for me. Lately he had been decreasing his everyday naps to every other day but now he's stopped completely and when you've gotten used to getting a 2 hour break every afternoon, it's hard to let it go completely.  Yesterday though, Steven insisted that he wanted to take a nap with Ben so we let him. Well, that was a joke. About an hour and a half later, Ben was FINALLY asleep and Steven was still wide awake. It was a whole frustrating fiasco and I think now that they are sharing a room, it's probably time for me to give up completely on Steven napping. I just have to consider myself lucky that he lasted this long.

Getting Ben to poop on the potty has also been a frustrating fiasco. Since he refuses to eat veggies & fruit, he doesn't have daily bowel movements and when he does have to go it's difficult for him. I've been giving him Fiber1 Bars and Fiber pills but I think it's time to bring back the extra punch of prune juice because he will sit down and get up from the potty about 10 different time before he actually goes. 4/5 times he pooped last week have been on the potty which is fantastic but it is such an ordeal for me that I am not sure my pregnancy impatience can take it. If I can hang in there or get his bowel movements to be more regular then maybe I can try to get him to pee in the potty too. It sure would be great if we only had to buy the baby diapers when the she comes in October!

On a cute note, I had put Ben & Steven's names on their door to help them with recognizing their names and the day after the bunk bed was put up, Steven took Ben's name off his door and put it on his. 

Happy Things

Since Lucy is due around Halloween, my mom made her a Minnie Mouse hat so she can dress up too! The lighting in the picture stinks but it is SO cute. Now all she needs is a pink polka dot dress to match!

On a completely different note, Ben has been having bowel issues as of late and somehow I was able to use those issues in a spectacular way. I got Ben to poop on the potty today! I was so proud of him that I rewarded him with a lollipop! Of course, a few hours later he had to go again and it ended up in his diaper but still, he did it once and that's something to celebrate!

Also, their daddy got some comic books as a prop for a lip sync to "White & Nerdy" that he did at mutual with his deacons and the boys love them! They love looking at all the superhero pictures just as much as they love watching superhero cartoons on TV. My cute, little nerds!

Steven Vs. Pull-Ups

VS

When Steven was first potty trained he only had accidents a couple times a month during the night. But recently the amount of accidents has greatly increased. After trying to limit water intake, having him go potty right before bed time, even offering incentives I could see it was something he couldn't control so, I introduced him to Pull-Ups It wasn't out of anger or spite, I just couldn't keep cleaning up after him. I had no idea I was starting WWIII.

After being potty trained since this summer, my stubborn child did not want to revert to wearing what he perceived as "diapers." Every night bedtime was painful as I had to force him to put on the Pull-Ups. There was screaming, there was back arching and of course, intense wiggling.

And even worse, the little turkey, would wake up in the middle of the night and change into underwear only to have an accident later on in the night and I would still end up having to wash his sheets. Frustrating.

But I am grateful to say that the Pull-Ups have finally won the war! How? All of Steven's underwear is now located in our room. So when it's time for bed, there is no choice but Pull-Ups to put on. And when he wakes up in the middle of the night and goes to put on his underwear, what does he find? A drawer full of Pull-Ups. It's fantastic and I am enjoying the sweet smell of clean sheets again!