The Sun is Shining and There is Poop in the Potty!!!

This is the face of a boy who finally pooped in the potty! After an epic two hours spent on the potty, we are making good on all the bribes we conjured up to get him to deposit in the correct location. This is the first of many surprises today. A small bowl full of peanut M&Ms. It will be followed with a burger, a trip to the park, a balloon and a cookie. ALL worth it if it means no longer cleaning up poop from his waist to his toes along with spraying out a pair of undies and/or pants and scrubbing a trail from his pooping hide-out to the bathtub. Lucky for us, the sun is shining and it's a beautiful day to have a big, huge poop party!!!! Not exactly something that I'd imagined when I became a mom, but none-the-less, here we are embarking on this special celebration.

GOOD JOB, LAWSON! You are getting to be such a big boy and we are sooooo proud of you!

It's All About the Bowl

When you are only seven months old, all you need to entertain yourself is a bowl and a spoon. Naomi has been working hard at feeding herself. She can get her little veggie puffs in her mouth no problem and she's getting pretty good at using the spoon! Pears and carrots (not at the same time) are her favorite. It can get pretty messy, though and I am really glad I went ahead and sprung for this four sided, magnetic closure bib by bebe au lait! It's awesome.



The other little person in my life is also all about the bowls lately. He running for the bowl a few dozen times a day and making it nearly every time!



Bowls are pretty thrilling around here lately and I am having a great time being a part of all these new milestones and big steps.... except those that involve poop falling out the bottom of the britches. Those steps, I am not having fun being a part of. We're getting there though. One potty party at a time!!!

Potty Party or Party Pooper???

Something is missing in this picture. Can you tell what it is?

A diaper!

We're having a Potty Party!!! Mr. Lawson is becoming a big, big boy these last few days. At any given moment, you'd find him wandering around the house sans pants, ready to dash to the potty whenever he feels the need! The first day had me plum spoiled. I thought this was going to be a piece of cake! Out of the blue, he asked to go potty before nap time and I jumped all over it. He went, we clapped, jumped up and down and scared the pee out of Naomi as we made a big, huge deal out of the greatness of his peeing in the potty. He napped, woke up dry again, peed in the potty again, we scared Naomi again with our overzealous celebratory dancing and hollering and the rest of the day went about the same. He would yell out "potty!!!!" then dash to the bathroom and go. His excitement may have had a little something to do with him getting a treat after he peed... maybe just a little something to do with it, but it was going really well!

Anyway, the next morning he woke up dry again!!! I thought we were home free! We said bye bye to diapers and discussed his new status as a big boy. Morning was going smooth as can be and the beverages and treats were flowing. Told you it was a party around here! Then, he got hungry and grumpy. I can totally relate and I know his Aunt Kelly would, too. Stay out of our way when we're hungry. GRAAAARRRRRR!!!!!! So, the grumps started and the accidents began. Using the potty was no longer fun, it was a struggle for power and I was losing my patience. I really tried to keep it fun, but by the third pee puddle on the floor just outside of the bathroom as he refused to sit and potty, I was pissed. I also was very aware that he had to poop and he point blank refused. Flat out would not go. In fact, I heard him use the word "diaper" for the first time as he asked for one to poop in. Poop. Poop. Poop! This was all going so well... and then.........

it wasn't.

Naptime was eminent and I put an Imse Vimse on his bottom and crossed my fingers that he'd wake up dry again. Well, he didn't. He didn't wake up at all, actually because he never fell asleep. He bounced around in his bed for over and hour and I finally took him out to try to use the potty. He peed, we pulled up his trainer again and he took off running. No poop and no nap. We took a wrong turn somewhere back there at the corner of Hungry and Grumpy and were quickly approaching Messy. Lucky for me, the unavoidable mess was contained in his trainer as he hid behind my bed pretending to play with Naomi. As it turns out, pull-ups don't do so well with poop. The removal of the trainer off a wiggly two year old yields very undesirable results. Although, after we got his bottom, legs and feet all cleaned up in the tub, he was back at peeing in the potty like an old pro! There's something about pooping that is just not happening though. Any clues on this would be more than appreciated!

So, that's where we're at right now. Potty parties galore over here! A few "surprises," as he puts it, but we're making some serious progress! I'm so close to only diapering one set of buns, I can taste it! Well, maybe that's not the best way of putting it, but you know what I mean! Bring on the big boy boy undies!!!! And Lawson, keep them on. Okay? No more stripping in your bed before nap. Got it? Okay, good... On with the party!!!

Going pee while reading about peas. Very appropriate.

Always wash your hands after you use the potty!!!

Yep, we bribe.

Tickets! Get Yer Tickets!!!

"Seeing is believing but sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can't see!"

-Conductor (The Polar Express)

When you are two, everything is real and you have no doubt. These two things combine to make life a very exciting and sometimes magical adventure. We kicked off the month of December with a viewing of The Polar Express, which was right up Lawson's alley due to his fascination with "choo choo's." It made my heart smile, though it should have come as no surprise, when Lawson popped out of his chair to grab a nearby piece of "peeper" to use a ticket for his ride on the Polar Express. Yes, he was ready to ride that choo choo to wherever it would take him and spent several minutes trying to hand his ticket to the "ductor" (conductor).

We also kicked off the month of December with the arrival of our Elf on the Shelf, Noggin (short for Eggnog and also reffered to as El Nino, which is mysteriously Lawson's way of saying Eggnog.). He's been waiting patiently in a box for over a year for Lawson to get old enough to play along and now every night as the children sleep, Noggin takes a trip to the North Pole to report to Santa about naughty or nice behavior then returns to the house in a brand new spot. So, each morning there is a hunt to find Noggin! Lawson loves it! He even took Lawson's train ticket for the Polar Express to the North Pole and it came back with ticket punches the next morning! Magic!



Naomi is pretty much oblivious to all of this, but has been having a grand old time sitting up and scooting backwards. She can get up into crawling position with her belly off the floor, so I'm thinking there's going to be a big, old box of trouble under the tree with her name under it.




To continue with our Holiday festivities, we went to get our tree today! We turned on some soothing holiday tunes, bundled up the kiddos to brave the 34 degree weather and headed off to the local tree lot.







Lawson walked around with his hands in his pockets and even smelled the trees to help us find the right one.



It was all smiles on the way back home with the car smelling Christmastreedelicious!




Now it's time for one of my favorite things about Christmas. Decorating the tree! Music, Cider and Christmas decor!!! All aboard the Christmas train!!! CHOO CHOO!!!!

"The thing about trains... it doesn't matter where they're going. What matters is deciding to get on."

Perspective

This picture was only taken two months ago, but it already feels like an old picture. They've changed so much since then. Especially Miss Num Num! It's strange how children make time feel different. A photo of myself taken two months ago would be considered recent, but this photo is already outdated. It puts things into perspective for me.


I woke up a few mornings ago with a strong sensation that moments are fleeting. This time spent at my mom's house is half over already and the holidays will be but a memory sooner than I'd like. This time next year we will have been in Texas up to eight months already! That blows my mind. I know I sound like a broken record going on and on constantly about how quickly time is going, but it never ceases to amaze me. I also find myself being reminded, in so many ways, to slow down and enjoy the kids while they are little. To enjoy this time of staying with my mom, even with Dustin away. To enjoy the process. It isn't a race to the finish or to the next step. This is life and it doesn't slow down and wait for you. Days happen, events happen. If I am not prepared to take it all in, then I miss out. And it isn't just me that misses out. The kids miss out, as well, if I'm too caught up in my mind to enjoy their little triumphs each day.

The quote I put below the picture is so fitting for them. They adore each other. They like to play and snuggle and laugh together. They even like to cry together. Lawson wants to go "nigh nigh" as soon as he wakes up in the morning just so he can hang out under the covers with Num Num. They are each others' world. But, I am also their world. Especially when Dustin is away. And that truly puts it into perspective. We may not be home as a whole family, but we are family and because we are together, we are home.

And I Quote

Ready to Fly the Croup

It's a farm full of yuck-germs around here this week. It started out with a very unwelcome swine and is ending with a barrel of antsy monkeys trying to fly the croup! Lawson got sick all at once on Monday night and by Tuesday was in urgent care, having not had a drop to drink in nearly 24 hours and a fever of 103.3. They didn't test him and didn't seem worried but said that he had the swine flu and should take an anti-viral. So, home again, home again, jiggity jig, with Rx in hand we went. He had a cocktail of the anti-viral, Motrin, gelsemium semp. 30 and oscillococcinum and seemed to get better almost immediately. Tuesday was spent running around playing and coughing and saying "no!" as much as always. The pig seemed to be on it's way off the farm and we were glad!

Eight o'clock rolled around and he went to sleep seeming almost back to normal. Well, two hours later, I found a very different boy in his bed. A barking seal had joined us at the farm and Lawson was not pleased. I didn't like the sound of his cough and wasn't about to risk letting him go all night for this to develop into pneumonia or bronchitis. Off we went to the E.R. to have him checked out. By the time we arrived, his cough was markedly better and had me feeling a little on the silly side for having brought him in. I stuck to my guns though and in we marched. Lawson rode in his stroller and Naomi hung out in my favorite baby carrier, the Balboa Baby. The nurses were laughing that I had babies everywhere, that some people accessorize with jewelry and I accessorized with babies. This had us all laughing, which was nice since Lawson was feeling more than a little uneasy with his "dinosaur mask" on to keep from spreading his germs. The nurse checked him out and thought he sounded fine, then the respiratory specialist checked him over and said the same thing. Then, a seasoned and sassy doctor walked in to give him the once-over before they sent us home. Lawson started crying the second he came in because he knew he was about to be prodded and poked again. Well, the doctor heard him inhale once and said, "he has croup." Which made me feel a little less like an overbearing worry-wart of a mom for bringing him into the E.R. Apparently, the cold and damp air outside on the way to the hospital was a therapy of sorts. The gave him some meds to take down the swelling in his esophagus and we were on our way with a much happier boy.

So, we're not sure if he ever had the swine flu or not now. He may have been misdiagnosed in the first place, or he could have had it and it turned into croup. I'm kind of hoping we got swine flu out of the way and have immunity now! This is starting to sound a bit like Survivor: Sick Farm. Luckily, the barking seal and pig have been voted off the farm and hopefully won't be coming back for the rest of us (though my mom may very well have stolen that barking seal off the farm for herself.) In the mean time, I'm going a little stir-crazy and wish I could fly the croup for a while! Until then, we've got elephant trains and walking lady bugs to keep us company as the rest of the sanitized toys hide out until the coast is clear! And when it is, I'm jumping on that train to chug-a-chug-a-choo-choo my way off the farm to start in on some Holiday shopping!!!

Poodini

Heard from down the hall:


Lawson, did you poo poo? Should you tell Mama that you need a new diaper?

Yeah, poo poo.

Kim!

...yes, I know.

No, you don't. It's coming out the bottom of his pant leg.

Um, what?


So, off I went to meet Lawson and Mima at the bathtub to take over this sure-to-be-stinky clean-up job. I started to pull his pants down and realized there was no diaper covering his buns. I patted down his legs and realized his diaper had gone completely missing and he had poop down in between his toes. Yuck. Actually, double yuck. So, where the heck was this diaper and how nasty was this going to get?! Thanks to the high powered shower head, I was able to power wash the poo right out from between his cheeks and his toes then scrub away all residual residue. Not that you care, but I was pretty thrilled not to scrub that off by hand.

I soon I found myself behind his little behind going on a diaper hunt, hoping he'd lead me to it's hiding place. We searched in the front coat closet, all the drawers and even under the pillows on the couch. No diaper. It was a major Poodini. It certainly isn't laying around with steaming poo smell or we'd have surely discovered it! It made me SO glad we've not had to deal with diapers being torn off and rubbed around all over the place. That would be a very...poopy... situation. For now, it's only elusive, dissapearing, Poodini diapers!

Out of All the Pumpkins in the Patch, He Chose a Rock

I'm barely able to comprehend that November has arrived already! But, Halloween has come and gone and all that's left are some pumpkins by the front door. Before I can fully move on to November, I've got to give a proper finish to October.

The day before Halloween, we found ourselves in the midst of a gorgeous, warm fall day and headed down the road to the pumpkin patch for a hayride. Lawson would have been happy to sit in the tractor by the parking lot all day long, but we finally made it to the hay ride that left us out in the country aside a sea of orange. We walked all around the pumpkins, but Lawson had his eye on other things. He snatched up a pumpkin-shaped rock, which Lawson calls a "gee-ock," and it was clear that there would not be any pumpkins coming home with us that day. He even had a little whirlwind romance when he found himself in the middle of the patch with a cute little girl who offered to help him with his gee-ock. They soon realized that not only did they have eyes for each other, but their boots did, too. They admired the eyes on their respective frog and bee boots and giggled with each other until the tractor started up to take us out of the pumpkin patch. I caught them making eyes a few more times as they passed each other around the farm, though. I'm going to have my hands full with this little Casanova!


















Halloween day rolled around and the fear of swine flu kept us home. I'm normally not a germ-a-phobe, but with Naomi still being so young, I'm avoiding the flu like the plague. Visions of snot-nosed children digging through bowls of candy only to eventually be eaten by a soon-to-be sick little kid swam through my mind all morning. So, that night, I dressed Lawson in a bear costume, walked him out the garage, around to the front door and he had a ball ringing the doorbell and trick-or-treating at mima's house over and over! He also thought it was great fun have the doorbell ring and see all sorts of kids show up to get their pillowcases filled!











And so our October ended with a fluffy little bear running gleefully around the house, sucking on his loot (two dum-dums) and yelling "ALOOWEEN!!!" It also come rolling to a close as Naomi figured out that she can get from point A to point B by rolling over and over and over. The look of glory in her face when she realized she got to where she wanted to be all by herself was pretty awesome. Luckily, I don't have to roll around on the floor to get where I want to be. I'm there already.

One Word

YES!!! YES!!! YEESS!!! YEEESSS!!! YEEEESSSS!!! YEEEEESSSSSS!!!

Not in a "Harry Met Sally" way, but in a "yipee for the little things" way. I know I am like a broken record around here with all this talk about the little things, but they make all the difference!

I have read the same book to Lawson every naptime and every bedtime since March. I don't even get the book out anymore because I know it forward and back. He fell in love with Little Quack (aka: "Quacka") the first time he heard about Mama Duck's five little ducklings (Widdle, Waddle, Piddle, Puddle and Little Quack) and requests it whenever he gets sleepy or realizes he has to go to bed.
Until yesterday. Suddenly it was the day of the Bear. Today was the second day in a row that we have read a different book. A book that Lawson's daddy picked out and gave to him about a snoring bear called Bear Snores On (funny how things parallel real life...). All I have to say is "and the mom grins on"!!!! Something new!!! What a difference a book makes!
Another YAY moment I had was in the car today on the way back from the grocery store. We've had about a weeks' worth of trips without constant screaming on Naomi's part. However, she has been asleep most of those times, so I chalked it up to good timing and luck. BUT, today on the way back from the grocery store, she was wide awake and HAPPY the entire way home. 20 minutes in the car without so much as a peep!!!!!!! Hallelujah!!! I am just sure that Lawson got ahold of her and told her how much fun "going bye bye" is and that she need not scream at the top of her lungs and make everyone miserable. So, thanks Lawson. It was nice to breathe naturally in the car as opposed to doing breathing exercises.

Another YES YES YES moment is coming very soon, too. Dustin has been gone for just shy of two weeks and will be arriving in just a couple of hours!!! Granted, this time apart seems very short compared to the couple of months we've grown accustom to, but it still stinks to have him away and I'm so excited to have him back home. I know a couple of other little people who will be happy to see him as well. Especially one little man who's set to turn "toe" in three days and will be glad to have his daddy there with him on that special day! I'm sure tomorrow's first word will be "daddy" instead of "heedle doo". Another welcomed change.

Kind-of Quiet

Quiet is something I crave. There is a constant symphony playing around here complete with power tools and hammers for percussion! I would like to think that I am the conductor, but let's face it, the kids are so in control! And as long as they have the baton, there will be noise. Or at least there should be. Quiet is a Jekyll and Hyde. It can be just what the doctor ordered or it can be the calm before the storm. Those rare few moments where you suddenly hear unexpected silence is usually a clue that something fishy is going on and you may have a big clean up on your hands. Those are the times I poke my head around the corner and see Lawson pulling all the books off the shelf, dumping the last bit of my coffee out or getting into drawers he shouldn't be opening. Nap time is a different kind of quiet. I look forward to nap time every day to both get things done and take a nice, deep, cleansing breath or two.

Today, I was enjoying the quiet for a good half hour, doing the dishes, humming "Lets Go Fly a Kite" (thanks, Beth... day number two and I'm still singing that song!) and listening to the hum of the sleep machine in the monitor as Lawson slept. Or so I thought. Out of the silence, an "uh oh". By the time I'd gone down the stairs and began to open the door, he'd began calling frantically for me. I couldn't help but crack up when the boy was standing in his crib with a horrified, worried look on his face and his diaper dangling from his hand. I've been lucky to have only had him remove his diaper on a few occasions and those times he found it funny. When Lawson sleeps, though, each item on the pre-sleep check list must be checked off in order and the covers must be arranged just so with his teddy bear and cup in their usual positions. Nothing can be off, or sleep just isn't going to happen. So, this was obviously NOT part of the normal routine. No biggie as far as I was concerned since the diaper wasn't dirty yet, so it was easy to laugh it off and put the diaper hoodini back to bed. No harm, no foul. Lawson did not find it funny at all. Maybe that'll keep him from doing it again. Let's hope! I guess sometimes even when I think I'm having my blissful quiet time, he could still just be in his crib quietly getting into mischief. So, now I get my somewhat quiet time. I have a sweet little baby cooing in her sleep all snuggled in my baby sling. That may be better than quiet, actually.