Potty Training Vacation: Day Eight

Ok, first of all I would like to know who on earth taught Zoey to use "Oh Crackers!" as an expletive because it is hilarious!  We were playing around making videos after her bath (she loves to watch herself on video so we often make tons of random video just to entertain her) when she dropped "Oh Crackers!" on me.  It's totally going to be my new catch phrase.

I specifically had something funny that I was going to share about bath time tonight, but Zoey being silly sidetracked me and it completely flew out of my head.  I swear with each child I've had I've lost more brain cells and the ability to retain anything at all.  So instead I'll just share the cute bath pictures.

That last picture of Zoey really makes me want to let her bangs grow out, she looks so pretty!

Well my vacation is almost over, tomorrow is my last day off before I go back to the working world.  I think I've hit a wall with my productivity so I plan to do a whole lot of nothing until Marty gets back from Sweden in the afternoon.  Then we'll be mostly doing some celebrating, cooking on the grill, and maybe an adult beverage or two.  But I accomplished a TON on this vacation, in the past eight days I:   made significant progress potty-training a toddler, scrubbed every floor in our house on my hands and knees, scrubbed every baseboard, washed the windows, organized the hall coat closet and got rid of everything that doesn't fit,  took the couch apart and cleaned under all the cushions and got the crumbs out of every crevice, went through all of the kids' toys and got rid of everything that's broken or they don't play with anymore, dusted every piece of furniture, scoured both bathrooms, cleaned out the refrigerator, cleaned and reorganized the pantry, bought a binder and filed all my coupons by genre, washed a million loads of laundry, moved our bed and evacuated the dust bunnies, hosed down and bleached the litter boxes, killed a big scary bug with lots of legs, and got caught up on my DVR list.  I think I just got exponentially more tired just typing all that out so I'm now going to treat myself to a pile of M&Ms, glass of wine, and some Food Network.

Potty Training Vacation: Day Seven

Today was really fun!  We basically spent all day playing inside, there wasn't a whole lot of work accomplished for the first time since I went on vacation and it was awesome.  We fingerpainted, had a tea party with Zoey, Finn and Cheeto, drew on the chalkboard, played with play doh, played musical instruments and danced to the 80s station, jumped on the bed, ordered pizza and ate ice cream.  Perfect day!!   And it's SO cute how Zoey and Finn are continuing to play and interact together.  Here are some photos of them playing in the toybox:

Finn did two new things today.  He usually holds both of my hands when he's walking around the house, today he let go of one hand and was walking really well holding just one hand.  He actually got mad when I led him over to the furniture to let him cruise, he really wanted to practice walking holding my hand instead.  The other thing that was different happened when my dad was leaving.  Typically I always take both kids to the door and we wave goodbye to whoever is leaving.  Finn has been half-waving the past couple weeks but not consistently and I didn't really even think he made the connection about what was going on.  Wrong!  Today I left Finn by the toybox to play and just took Zoey to the door with my Dad.  When my Dad walked out the door, Finn complained rather LOUDLY from across the room and started vigorously waving.  He was definitely making it known that  he felt left out.  I scooped him up and took him to the door and he just grinned from ear to ear and waved, it was so cute!

On an unrelated note, I noticed today how much Zoey has my eyes.  The shape of them is Marty's but the color is all mine.  It's a little hard to see because her bangs are in her face but I took a picture.  (Pay no attention to our just-got-out-of-bed-and-haven't-taken-a-shower-yet look!)

Potty Training Vacation: Day Six

I actually don't have much of an update today, it was pretty uneventful.  I probably would have skipped it altogether but I have this 9-day chronology thing going on.  Skipping a day now feels weird.

She continues to do really well with potty training half-naked and still has some accidents when we try to put clothes on.  However, she did go outside and play for a little while this morning and she stayed dry the whole time even with clothes on, woohoo!  I know I need to try the test soon of taking her out in public but I'm way too scared yet.  I have bad mental images of her peeing in the frozen food aisle at Weis and some little old slipping in it and breaking a hip.

I can't believe I'm really not all that stir crazy yet.  It must be because I'm putting a ridiculous amount of energy in scouring this house.  I swear I'm nesting for Kristen.  Sympathy-nesting!  My legs are actually bruised from scrubbing all the floors on my hands and knees.  Tonight my project is to finish deep-cleaning the kitchen.  It's my most-loathed chore.  As a side note, today I pulled aside the barn door in our dining room to clean behind it and found 12 paint brushes.  Apparently Zoey has been sticking them through a hole in the door.  I was wondering where they had gotten off to.  That must be what she's doing in the dining room because she sure doesn't eat in there.  Sometimes I don't know how she survives on such little food, the cardinal in our yard eats more than Zoey.  See this picture:

That pretty much sums up her dinner tonight.  A glass of water.  Her plate of food went completely untouched.  Well, not completely.  Finn ate her ham after he was done with his own.  Then after eating the corn I cut off the cob for him, he decided that her corn ON the cob looked way more appetizing and ate that too.  He loved biting the corn on the cob, it ended up being a huge mess and I had to pick corn out of his nostrils but he had a blast with it:

Potty Training Vacation: Day Five

Well apparently we're going to have to join a nudist colony.  Because Zoey is now doing amazing with potty training... as long as she's naked.  At least from the waist down anyway.  She had 100% success rate with both #1 and #2 when I left the underwear/shorts off.  I didn't even have to prompt her, she just goes in the bathroom and does her business in her little potty.  She actually won't let me anywhere near her, she shuts the door in my face and says "Scoot, Scoot Mommy!"  (That's what we say to the cats when we're trying to shoo them away).   However, she still enjoys emerging with potty-insert in hand, filled with the fruits of her labor, holding it aloft as if she discovered the holy grail and brandishing it for all the world to see.  Don't get me wrong, I'm gung ho on all of Zoey's achievements.  I practically did a cartwheel the day she learned to use a fork (which almost landed me in the ER.... thirty-something year olds are not meant to do cartwheels.  At least not without booze).  I seriously have done some genuinely enthusiastic cheer numbers over the last couple days, this is a big milestone that moves her closer to being an independent functioning little person.  I'm stoked, or else I wouldn't be writing a ridiculous daily blog about it - ha!  But listen you have to draw the line somewhere.  And that line is being presented with a fresh bowl of toilet twinkies.  I have to maintain enthusiasm to give her a sense of a job well done, but let's just say it's a race to the flush.

It just occurred to me that it's going to be hilarious if she reads this as a teenager.  *Note to self, save this for light-reading for her first date*

But I digress.  Anyway, as soon as the clothes go on, it's like potty training never happened.  So I'm just going to let her embrace naked time for a couple more days to let the concept percolate in her head.

In other news, Zoey & Finn had their first episode of chasing each other around the house.  Finn was still holding onto the wall, but he was practically trotting after Zoey and she was laughing like crazy.  Then they would switch and she would run after him, tickle him, and dance away again.  They must have done about 47 laps around the house.  That wore them out, they were totally spent and ready for bed by 6:30.  They racked out right away and I haven't heard a peep from them since:

Potty Training Vacation: Day Four

I can't believe I'm almost halfway through my vacation.  Nine days seemed like an eternity to have at home, but it's flying by.  It's been awesome spending so much time with the kids, especially without worrying about going anywhere or doing anything.  I'm so glad I committed to just spending this time at home.

Today was another good day in potty training.  She only had one pee accident on the floor but otherwise she peed in the potty.  We're still having the issue with her forgetting to pull down her underwear though, I think tomorrow I'll put shorts on over her underwear.  Maybe that will help her to make the distinction that peeing doesn't happen in clothes.  

I left my grandmother in charge while I went to have my teeth cleaned this morning, she did a great job and it figures that Zoey had no problem pooping in the potty for her.  Meme hangs out with a bunch of nuns though, clearly she had the advantage of calling in a special favor from up above.   That's ok, I'll take all the help I can get!

I've been so distracted by all these potty training shenanigans that I haven't updated on Finn.  He's doing awesome!  He's in full-on cruise mode now, cruises all around the house and actually walks pretty fast too as long as he's got at least one hand on a wall or piece of furniture.  He's not quite ready to let go and walk just yet but he gets steadier on his feet every day.  He's still sleeping through the night for the most part, woohoo!!  Occasionally I hear him wake up and whimper but he puts himself back to sleep pretty quicky.  Getting uninterrupted sleep at night is flippin' amazing.  Overall he's just a completely happy laid-back baby.  I got some cute pictures of him today, it cracks me up that he ALWAYS smiles for the camera.  It's such the opposite of Zoey, she usually flees or hides her face whenever the camera comes out.

Potty Training Vacation: Day Three

I give today a B+.  Zoey didn't have ANY pee accidents on the floor, woohoo!  She walked over to the potty every single time and peed in it.  This would have been much more impressive if she wasn't also wearing underwear at the time.  This whole underwear thing is throwing both of us for a loop, who knew a pair of skivvies could make things so complicated?

She just can't quite grasp the concept of pulling her underwear down BEFORE she pees, so she pees right through the underwear into the potty.   I intercepted her a couple times and showed her what to do, but it's not sinking in yet.  Oddly enough, she was totally capable of taking her underwear off before she had to poop.  I didn't see her remove them, but I saw them on the floor when yet again I observed her running from her own poop, leaving a Hansel & Gretl trail of poo-crumbs in her wake.

Later I tried to address her reluctance to poop in the potty by re-enacting the "send the ball home" scene from Happy Gilmore, substituting her poop for the golf-ball in the speech.  Yeah, I knew I lost just a little bit more sanity when my ploy to get my child to not flee from her own poo was to sit her down and quote:  "The poop itself has its own energy and life-force, its natural environment is in the potty-home, so why don't you send it home?  Its bags are packed, it's got its airline tickets, bring the poop to the airport, send it home Zoey".  At least she was amused, she was cracking up at me:

In other news, my goal for this week other than potty training is to do some serious deep cleaning.  I pulled out a hairball the size of a pygmy goat from behind the book shelf and it freaked me out, I've really neglected the down and dirty cleaning since Finn was born.  So today I got all kinds of motivated and tackled the living room and the downstairs bathroom.  I cleaned the baseboards, scrubbed the floors on my hands and knees, washed the interior window awnings, cleaned the windows, went through the kids' toybox and got rid of the stuff they don't play with any more, cleaned out the fireplace (with a lot of assistance from my Dad), and re-organized the hall coat closet.  While digging out the closet I found Zoey's halloween costume, she got sooooo excited about her "monkey suit" and insisted on wearing it for most of the morning:

So now I'm SPENT and am going to treat myself to a large helping of Zoey's reward M&Ms and a glass of wine!

Potty Training Vacation: Day Two

After a somewhat rocky start, today turned out to be an excellent success.  The only problem was that I think I rushed trying to get her overnight diaper off right after she woke up.  I was excited and wanted to get the ball rolling, but when Zoey first wakes up in the morning she's a grouchy beast until she drinks her milk and watches an episode of Blues Clues.  She seriously doesn't want to talk to anyone or function in any capacity until these two things are accomplished.  I know this.  So I should have known better than to try to talk potty training when Steve had only just discovered the second Blues Clue.  This resulted in a minor meltdown, some airborne race cars, and a pee accident on the floor.  I backed off after that and she was fine the rest of the day.

I decided to skip underwear altogether today (for Zoey, not me!) and let her run around all day in just a t-shirt in the interest of making it as easy as possible for her to get to the potty and do her business in time.  Plus who doesn't love running around half-naked in the summer?  She peed on the potty every single time for the rest of the day!  There were a couple times where she was perched a little weird and we had run-off on the floor and one time where I don't know what happened or how she managed to do it, but a pee fountain shot up from her girlie-bits and sprayed the living room.  It was bizarrely impressive.  In good news, my hardwood floors haven't been this clean in a long time.  They get a good scrub every time she goes.  But I'm sort of hoping she decides to use the regular toilet in the bathroom before too long as opposed to her mini portapotty.  It's going to get awkward if she's 13 years old and whizzing in the living room.

She LOVES her little potty though, she carries it all over the house.  Maybe she's testing out where her favorite place to pee is.  A couple times I caught her peeing on both the large dining room table and her own little table.  She put the potty on the table then sat atop it like the queen on a very large throne.  Don't worry, I swear I cleaned off all the tables, you shouldn't find any pee under your dinner plate.  At least enough to notice...

The only thing we had no success at all with was the #2.  I could tell she had to go but she just didn't want to sit on the potty to make it happen.  So awhile later I heard this terrified scream from the kitchen and came around the corner to see Zoey RUNNING and pooping and screaming all at the same time.  There was this sad little trail of nuggets behind her and she was fleeing as if the poo was trying to attack her.  I have NO CLUE what was going through her mind, but she threw herself into my arms and exclaimed "the poop, Mommy, the poop got the floor!".  I wanted to reassure her, but I was trying not to laugh and I didn't even know where to start, especially when she pointed it at it and added "be very very careful, Mommy".   I was so confused, I just gave her M&Ms and changed the subject.  Hopefully the mystery poo-monster doesn't visit tomorrow.

The next day's game plan is to reintroduce the underwear and see if we can maintain an awesome success rate.  Cross your fingers!

Potty Training Vacation: Day One

Today was the first of my nine-day vacation.  There were many original plans for this glorious nine days off, I wavered between trips to Sweden to dance, North Carolina to visit family, and the beach just to relax.  What did I originally settle on?  Potty training at home.  I am officially claiming my old fuddy-duddy card, both because I chose my child's bodily fluids over these trips and because I actually used the word "fuddy duddy" in a sentence.

I think Zoey has been receptive to potty training for awhile now, but it's been difficult to really commit to it when I have to leave the house to go to work.  Zoey really seems to do best in "all-or-nothing" settings so I figured this week would be the perfect opportunity to give it a whirl.

This morning I told her we're "all done diapers", explained the potty options (big potty in the bathroom vs mini porta-potty), and let her go commando around the house:

She felt a little weird about it at first and kept asking to put her diaper on, but it wasn't long before she was climbing the couch in all her half-naked glory and putting her pressed hams on the window for all the neighborhood to enjoy.  My strategy was basically to pump her full of liquids and put her on the potty every 10-15 minutes, rewarding her with M&Ms for making a deposit.  Of course nothing ever goes according to plan though when you have two ankle biters running amok and while I was trying to pull Finn out of the cabinet he had accidentally crawled in (and was somehow lodged in a crock pot), Zoey had her first accident and peed on floor.  Accident #2 came shortly thereafter but I was able to scoop her up and put her on the mini potty to finish doing her business, she was subsequently rewarded with M&Ms and a song-and-dance number by me.  My showtunes had little effect on her, but the M&Ms hit home.  It only took that first M&M for her to get the message and she proceeded to walk over to the potty 5 more times throughout the morning, pee, exclaim her victory over her own urine and immediately request her M&M reward.  I love bribery.

I was a little worried though when it was time to lay Finn down for a nap.  Number one our upstairs is mostly carpeted and I'd much rather clean pee off a hardwood floor.  Number two while I give Finn a bottle and lay him down, Zoey has about 20 minutes of unsupervised time where she can pretty much pee on anything she wants  (Sidenote, haha I just said "number one" and "number two" in a potty training blog.... yeah I'm 12).  Anyway, I put the mini potty in Finn's room, hoping I could encourage Zoey to go on it while I rocked him.  She was having none of that, took the potty out of his room and left.  I was convinced I was going to walk out of his room to find a giant poo on my pillow, sheets soaked with pee, and her wearing the potty for a hat.   It was awesome instead to find a potty full of pee!  She peed on it all by herself with no prompting, go Zoey!  The rest of the morning and early afternoon went really well with no problems, she peed on the potty by herself each time.  I thought it was funny though, when she peed on the mini potty she would just carry it around the house and pee whenever she felt like it.  But when she peed in the bathroom she absolutely wanted the door closed and to be alone.  This is her kicking me out of the bathroom:

Since the day went so well, I decided to try her out in underwear.  It was a little harder in the underwear, she wasn't as inclined to rush to the potty and I don't know if the sensation of underwear made her feel like she was wearing a diaper again.  But the afternoon also got busy, Zoey got distracted with visitors and I wasn't quite as attentive to putting her on the potty every 10-15 minutes.  So we lost focus and had a few accidents.  She was also getting tired.  But she definitely loved wearing underwear and had a fun time picking out which ones to wear.

Yeah, that's her walking around the house in my sneakers.  But look how cute her little toddler butt looks in big-girl underwear, ha!

So we'll be back at it again tomorrow.  She did great today for a first attempt, I'm hoping we can continue the strong start through the whole day tomorrow.  

Hershey Park Happy

Last week we took the kids to Hershey Park, it blows my mind how much bigger Zoey seems this year.  Last year she was too little to go on most of the rides and I had to squeeze in next to her (being very pregnant with Finn) on the ones she could go on.   If you want entertainment, watch a 9-month pregnant lady trying to stuff herself into a toddler-sized rocketship.  Now this year she goes on everything by herself except the carousel.  She points out all the Hershey characters and knows them by name.  She waits patiently (mostly) in line and seems like such a big girl.

Mini train:

She adores the carousel, or "horsey ride" as she calls it:

This cracked me up, she covered her eyes for the whole pirate ship ride:

 The Dizzy Drums!  This one she was barely big enough for.  There are no seatbelts so if you don't hold on you get tossed all over the place.  She ended up glued to the back wall of the drum hanging on for dear life by the time the ride was done but loved it anyway.  This is her pre-ride:

Finn didn't go on any rides this time, but he was a very entertained spectator:

 The swings were by far her favorite ride.  Here she is in total bliss: