Birthday Party Prep

So, after almost seven years of parenthood, we decided it was finally time to allow a little Birthday Party fun into our children's lives.  With the best intentions and the highest hopes, we decided to let Joshua choose his own party theme which we would then guide carefully through to its realization.  He chose wild animals, and Liz has a host of party games planned around the animals, and after she made the fantastic shell for the piñata, I went to work transforming it into the King of Beasts.  It took the better bart of two hours, but I'm proud of my first foray into piñata making; I just hope Liz didn't make it too strong for five year-olds to break!

You might think the photo is yellowed, but it's not.  It's just a lot of yellow stuff in one picture.  After the piñata, I set to work on what was originally supposed to be a rhinoceros cake.  Yeah, rhino.  There were a few elemental problems:

1. How does one fashion a rhinoceros out of funfetti-filled cake?  I love my son, but I was not up to figuring that one out.
2. Grey icing.  I can't even imagine how would one make grey icing.  (There's a little tribute to Steel Magnolias and the bleedin-armadilla-groom'scake.)

So, after combing the cake molds and discarding cartoon characters, vehicles, and every princess known to man, Joshua came to an agreement on this teddy bear.  Not so ferocious as the rhino, but definitely effective in his own little way.  Besides that, I'm rather proud of my decorating job, also a first for me.

I got my parental reward tonight when Joshua came down and exclaimed, "Dad, that is so coo00oool!"  He immediately called his brothers around to show off my handiwork.  They agreed, definitely cool.  It's nice to be cool every now and again.

Now we brace for the onslaught of sugar-charged friends, acquaintances, and church buddies.  This should be a riot; 

likely similar to the LA riots of 1992 . . .

Poo Poo Everywhere!

So, what is the dumbest thing you can do while toilet training?  A good question and here is the answer. . . you can strap your 2 year old into a car seat for a 14 hour drive.  Then, you talk on your cell phone with everyone you know, so you don't get bored out of your mind and ignore your children who are having a blast playing with your IPOD.  So, there we are driving along and Joshua tells me that Jacob went poopy in his panties, so I get off the phone and pull over to take care of it.  Then, we drive on and I get back on the phone and continue to ignore my children some more.  We end up in a great construction mess--one lane freeways should be banned and the same message makes its way to me again.  In the end even had I been paying attention there was NO place to stop, so we just kept going until we came across a town where we pulled over and took care of it.  On the plus side he didn't ever wet himself!  There is always something to be grateful for!  :)

Now here we are at the end of our road trip (which we took on Sunday) and I have to get him used to another house.  He only had one little accident yesterday and one today.  I think he is afraid to go, so I'm going to congratulate him with yummy things when he goes potty and is dry just to get him back on his feet.  Honestly one accident a day in a new place is doing pretty darn good, but I am a perfectionist, so we will go for a perfect day tomorrow!  All in all if he can handle this craziness he can handle anything!

Potty Training Day 5

Wow!  I cannot believe it has been five days already.  Jacob didn't wake up wet in the night until after 4 AM.  I will appreciate all forms of improvement.  I did learn that I need to stay with him until he falls back to sleep.  Those 5 - 10 minutes are much easier to give when the option of no more sleep the rest of the night is the other option!  As for the day I worked hard not to make him go potty only ask if he needs to go and ask if he is still dry.  He did a good job saying when he needed to go and even said when he needed to go poopy vs just needing to go potty.  I usually just had him go on his own which I think he likes better then a caravan of followers.  In the end he stayed dry and no poo in the pants!  He had two BMs and both made it to the toilet without my forcing--which is good because I cannot predict those!  He still needs encouragement to stay until he is done, but as long as he gets himself there without a mess who am I to complain!  I think we've been pretty successful!  Yippee!  I figure we'll be done when he is dry at night, so hopefully that will happen soon, so we can put a check mark in the toilet trained box!

Just Walk Away

I've been reading a book about being a Christlike parent and it talked about not reviling.  So, when your child hits, bites, kicks, screams, etc like they all do we should not reciprocate but just walk away.  So, last night when Joshua refused to get in bed and started throwing a fit I walked away.  I think that was the fastest I've ever seen him get in bed.  The last thing he wanted was to lose attention and he saw very quickly that it was the effect he was getting, so he changed course quickly.  I tried the same thing on Jacob this morning when he jumped in bed with me and started hitting and kicking . . . I just left.  He quickly came and said sorry and was much softer.  I think I'm going to like this new approach.  I also like it because I don't get upset, I get to go cool off and they learn they aren't getting what they want with that kind of behavior.  Win! Win! for everyone!

Potty Training Day 4

Wow!  Has it been four days already?  Well, last night was a nightmare!  Jacob woke up wet and told me how yucky it was, so we changed him and put down a towel in his bed.  I laid him down and went back to bed.  Moments later he was down in my bed with me.  It was 1 AM, so I wasn't going to fight him and just let him lay down with me.  An hour later I decided I couldn't sleep with him there anymore and took him back to bed.  Unfortunately, he still wasn't asleep and didn't even sound like he wanted to.  So, I left him in bed and, of course, moments later he was back.  Grrrr. . .  We ended up making a little bed on our floor for him and James laid by him until he fell asleep.  Needless to say we woke up very tired!  

But even though the night was not the best he was dry all day!  Yippee!  He even went to a friends house while we went to the gym and worked out and was dry there also.  I only asked him to go to the bathroom right before getting in the car, but the rest of the time he chose to go!  Today we're not going anywhere, so I don't plan on making him go at all but just asking if he is still dry and congratulating him on his success!  We'll see how it goes!

Potty Training Day 3

I'm not exactly sure if today was successful or not?!?  He woke up once wet in the night but then awoke dray in the morning.  I thought that was successful, but then I was coming home from the gym and didn't know that and had assumed he had gone to the bathroom, so didn't ask him about it until it was too late.  But then just an hour later we had our first BM in the toilet.  Now there is something to cheer about!  Then, we went on a field trip and for the most part he did great, but did have a little present for me in his panties which happened when he disappeared with some friends, but then he left many more presents in the toilet than were in his panties.  I think he really learned during that time how to go poo in the toilet.  He really knew what he was doing and was learning what it felt like.  Progress!  He did have one more accident later but he always comes to me to tell me, so he knows what he did was wrong.  I think today we learned a lot. . . I learned that leaving the house and having a crazy schedule doesn't help the process and he learned what things feel like and what he should not be doing.  I think in the end it was a good day.  

I have to admit even though he didn't master using the toilet in 48 hours I have really been calm, patient and determined to teach him how to do it.  A small victory for me!  I've really been working on being a Christlike parent and one of the things I'm working on is my reactions.  I'm proud to say I've seen progress in the way I've interacted with Jacob during this progress.  I've really been calm, patient and loving just as I think I should be.  And well, if I can do that while toilet training I think I can do it anytime!  :)

Potty Training Day 2

I decided that keeping a log will help me see the big picture through this process.  Last night he finally had a BM but not on my watch, so daddy got to take care of it--score for me!  The night was pretty wet, but I'm hoping that gets better as his days improve.  Today started off rough.  He decided that the toilet wasn't as neat as he thought it was yesterday, but with a few fruit snacks as motivation we were back on track.  He stayed dry until 4:30 PM today, so it was an awesome day!  I blame myself for the accident as we went outside to talk with a visitor, so he played and I talked meaning we were both distracted and alas we all know the result.  Otherwise it was a successful day where he would jump up and say he needed to go potty and off he went!  I love those moments.  No BM today, so we'll need to be ready for him first thing in the morning.  

Tomorrow we're going on a field trip to a farm, so I'm hoping there is a toilet close by . . . I guess we'll have to wait and see how that goes, so stay tuned!