My Mommy-blog...the only girl in the house!

Yes, I have to admit it. The picture is proof enough. My boys like to wear buckets on their heads! I'm not sure where they got the idea. But its true...buckets are not just for carrying toys, they are for wearing!

Our 3-almost 4 now- yr. old took his good old time here. He got the peeing down at about 3 yrs old. I'd try working with him but he just wasn't getting it I guess. Then one day he insisted he still had to go after I changed his diaper- I put him at the potty and he went! I knew it was ...TIME! OK! YES! .....(oh, there just went the air in my balloon!)...Perhaps the biggest hill was up-ahead...getting him to do the big poop- on the potty!

He didn't want to poop on the potty, he'd cry tears sitting on it...(btw-I had tried a musical potty earlier on , and 2 different kinds of potty seats...which he prefered to sit on the big potty). I tried the "you can have a lollipop if you poop in the potty" (also did the "pee= candy skittles"-which worked!-thanks Aunt Sandy and friend Renee for those tips). I bought him a toy jet (like Matchbox cars)to open as a reward when he did finally poop. Finally- capitalizing on his desire for a new bike- I insisted that big boys who ride bikes also poop in the potty- so if you want a bike = poop on the potty! None of it was enough to lure him out of his comfy-zone of hiding behind the furniture or in a corner of the house standing in a pull-up or diaper to have his poop! Finally- I brought out the big-dog...children's laxative. The pharmacist said the kid won't be able to hold it! They have to go! So me and Fletcher's Children's Laxative (flavored in rootbeer may I add) went to work! Well, my son did hold it- until he let it go during the night! Whew! I'm glad my husband was up to take care of that mess-undies went in the trash! We had one other similar, not so bad accident I think and a couple other bumps in the road but then one glorious evening (after my MIL =mother-in-law)showed me an article about this very issue I was inspired to another round of tough love. Then, through much "wailing and hollering" my son called for someone to come and see what he did. And lo and behold- he'd done it! And now he happily, if not proudly declares he poops in the potty...he even says "bye" to it as he watches it swirl away with a flush!

The word never meant much to me...maybe heard it a handful of times or less. Don't remember the entire definition but we got ourselves ONE! That's what Andre' Berneir of Fox 8 news said. I haven't seen this much snow in one day in Ohio since....the blizzard of 1996- when I lived in Lynchburg, Virginia! In 1996 my friend and I were Resident Directors for a high school age performing arts boarding school and we literally moved in with the kids in the dorm, tied phone wire to a sled which we drug down the street to the school building to get food out of the cafeteria and drag it back to the dorm so we could feed these kids.

Today- Sat. March 8th I had that twice yearly children's charity sale that I sell in and after my husband shoveled me a path, I ventured to the church to work my shifts...seemed like a terrible idea at the time but I made it. I think about 5 inches of snow or more fell between 7:15am and 4pm when I was getting ready to leave. Just this past Tuesday it was pouring down rain, freezing to some degree- more or less in places of Ohio and then all this snow...WITH...thunder and lightning about 6am as well! Is it just me, or is Ohio the only place you can experience 3-4 different seasons within the same week!

Well, when one child gets sick, you can expect them all to get sick! Fortunately, in that respect, I only have two. But Jack was ill last week, this week it was Brendan. Brendan has been getting the worst of it it appears. So, for two weeks I have missed church to keep sick ones at home. Since my husband is teaching the 1-3rd grade he needs to be there. I assist in the class but we have other people to help also.
Yes sir, vomiting in the morning, puking in bed...diahrea as runny as pond scum...I'll hold back on further descriptions. Let's just say, it ain't pretty! Somethings just get thrown away when this happens...if you know what I mean. Some things have to be salvaged at just about all costs too...like when it happens on your child's FAVORITE blanket! Oh, well...parenting isn't for the weak ...at heart or stomach, but some of us are just that at times and so we trudge through gagging and praying!!

Ohhh. Here we go. My now 4 yr old saw some of a "kid" movie?? on tv...that one w/ Eddie Murphy and the Haunted House. I'm not sure "how" it came to be on but I happened to catch the scene where Eddie and his "daughter" I guess are trying to get out of a crypt and the walking dead are coming after them. Then one day my husband took the boys to the park near us where there are lots of steps...however it was part of a monument where a dead president happens to be buried on. So now for the past few days my son keeps talking about death and dead people and yellow bones and our eyes, etc.. I do my best to keep the answers honest and kid-friendly-not scarry. He's still too young to understand. He's bothered by what he doesn't understand. We talk about the positive side of death...being in heaven with God but my son is concerned about going to heaven without his favorite little car , previously it was about leaving his bike behind. We sat up in the rocking chair talking and reading books for awhile...I was trying to distract him into forgetting about death but he wouldn't let it go. I told him we would get donuts for breakfast tomorrow. I tried refusing any more discussion about death but it kept surfacing...I told him tomorrow we could talk about it. Finally, we had to put this to a close for the night. Somehow...thank the Lord...the conversation turned into...does God have a backyard with flowers and would God like it if he (my son) picked him some flowers...I said yes. And so, on that note he went to bed in peace. And when he did wake up too early (like 4-4:30am) it was my husbands turn to tend to him! :)