A Day of Sunshine and (Mostly) Good Luck

Neither Greg nor I come from an Irish background, though I have some Scotch-Irish ancestors. Regardless, the boys and I got into the spirit of things today. We all wore green. Henry is chewing on some Irish soda bread that Nick and I made this morning. He loved it!

On Saturdays, Greg works all day. Now that he's home with the boys all week during the day, Saturday is his only full day of working as a therapist. I'm finding things to do to keep us occupied without Daddy around. For starters, I gave both boys a bath. You know, for luck.

I even wore green shoes myself. I'm very happy with this pair of Dansko sandals. My feet can't handle anything else now that I've tried them.  I can only wear Dansko shoes, according to my podiatrist and ortho.

Actually, back to the subject of luck, I felt pretty lucky when I looked at this picture and saw that my ankle was pretty much back to normal size. Baby weight is gone. At least the baby weight from Henry. The baby weight from Nick. . . well, I'm still working on that. Anyhow, my ankles look positively trim compared to last June.

After the dressing in green, we decided to try something new. Last year I helped Nick make cookies with green sprinkles, but I wanted to try something more authentic this year. We made Irish Soda Bread with raisins. I didn't have any caraway (Nor do I know how to spell it. Had to look that one up.) and I used 3 cups of bread flour and 2 cups of white whole wheat flour. Other than that the linked recipe is exactly what we did. Here is Nick helping me squish the butter into the flour.

Nick only needed one time out the entire time we were baking. (For throwing a spoon across the room.) I'd call that some pretty good luck. I tend to have more patience while we're baking than at other times. I'm not sure why. Perhaps it is the sweet reward at the end of the baking experience. Nick is learning to stir without getting flour all over everything.

Here's what the final soda bread looked like. (Look in the bowl.) It was sweet, but not too sweet. The raisins were perfect, and the texture was unique. I like it. Nick and Henry did, too.

We also did some neat St. Patrick's Day crafts. Nick decorated this shamrock with a big "N" for Nick. Then he stuck all the stickers on himself. He also stuck several stickers to the kitchen table, our hardwood floors, and the refrigerator. But the stickers came off without too much trouble. I'd call that pretty lucky.

Here's what his final project looked like. Not too shabby. Nick looks angry in this picture. It is because he had just refused to go to the potty. I think it's going to take even more than the luck of the Irish to potty train this boy.

I'd say that Henry liked his first St. Patrick's Day. I finally got him to clap on cue. This really made my day. I love when he responds and copies us.

Henry liked the Irish Soda Bread so much that he kept crawling to it and stealing pieces out of the bowl. I guess the crusty part must feel good against his teeth.

Signs of Growing Up

Everyday my Nicholas is becoming more of a little boy and less of a toddler. Soon I won't even be able to blame anything on the fact that "he is only two." Here are some recent signs I've noticed that my baby is growing up:

1. Creative Play. Nick has all-out conversations with all of his toys, and he role-plays things that have happened using his cars. The other day he had his cars all go to lap sit at the library, and he admonished them for running around and being "too loud cars."

2. Counting. Nick is starting to understand the concept, and though he can only count with one to one correspondence on a hit or miss basis, he's been getting more hits than misses lately. Point in case: Friday evening he says to me, "Mommy, I want raspberries. Put them in the purple bowl. One, two, three, four, five raspberries in my bowl." Then, he counted them to make sure I wasn't cheating him on the raspberries. Maybe it was just coincidence that he counted them correctly, but I was excited. I can't help it--I'm an elementary school teacher.

3. Coordination. Nick is starting to be able to put on and take off his clothing and shoes, to a point. I have to confess that I have spent very little time on this. Our babysitter is a stickler for teaching things step-by-step, and I admire her ability to patiently explain every step of putting on a sock, and then wait and talk through his impatience. It takes Nick forever to do this, but I love that he is learning how.

4. Letter recognition. On my way back from Iowa a few weeks ago, Nick started identifying letters on street signs. He also knows many stores simply by their signs, though I'm sure the distinctive color and shape of the signs have more to do with it than actual reading skills.  "Mommy, look! T is for Target. Are we going to go in there and go shopping? The "t" says "t" and T is for Toni!" (This is from Monday, I believe.)

5. Storytelling. Nick has started retelling lots of the books we read him, and he even memorizes some of the words. We let him take books to bed with him, and even though it's pretty dark in there, one night this week I could hear him quoting from this book he loves, "Edna." It's part of a poem (Recuerda, by Edna St. Vincent Milay), and he loves the way this poem sounds. Nick likes the line, "We were very tired. We were very merry. We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry."

6. Stinky feet. This is definitely a little boy sign. You know how babies and even toddlers always have that cute little kid smell? Nick is no longer one of them. Except for right after his bath, Nick smells like an amalgamation of crayons, dirt, kid sweat, and fresh air. It's not actually a bad smell, but it shows that he's not a baby anymore.

7. My son is a backseat driver. He's always telling me that the light is red and it is not my turn. Then he tells me that the light is green so I should go. Pretty soon he'll be commenting on my following distance or the no-turn-on-red sign. Perhaps.

While I'm often frustrated with his behavior (you'll notice I have consistently avoided the entire topic of potty training), I am usually pleased with his growth. I'm a little wistful that his baby years are mostly behind him, but it is so nice to have actual conversations with him. I'm torn between feelings of pride and regret. Regardless, I think Nick, sometime recently, has crossed the line and is officially a little boy, even if he won't be three for another month.

Dry Erase Markers, Being Too Busy, and Kicking

Last week one of Nick's pee-pee prizes was a little dry erase board and marker. Because I was naive, I let him take it with him to nap time. Frankly, I was exhausted and not thinking straight. The sudden, random tiredness that hit me all the time in the first trimester of this pregnancy has started returning with a vengeance, right on schedule in the third.

Do you see those cute little knees? Yup. Dry erase marker. Everywhere. He's been doing pretty well with potty training. He has even had several days without wet man panties. Nick has not, however, been able to go #2 in the potty. I have no idea why. I hope he figures that one out eventually.

Today Nick used his first urinal--Greg took him into the men's room at the Kohl's, and held him up, and low and behold, success! This does present a problem for me, though. You see, Nick is afraid of public toilets, and the ladies rooms never have urinals. Hmm. It was hilarious when Nick came running out of the men's room. He announced to everyone at the service desk, "I went pee-pee in the potty!" They were duly impressed.



Pardon my absence lately--the last two weeks have probably been my busiest in years. I have a part time freelance writing job and I am under deadline, so I've been spending lots of time researching and typing like a madwoman. I have 5,000 words due by Thursday, but I got a lot done yesterday and today, so now I only have about 2,400 left to go. I'm trying to earn some extra money for all the diapers we're going to be going through very soon. I seem to remember an average of 8-10 diapers per day--I shudder to think.

Then, I have two teacher friends working on their National Board Certification. It's the highest honor a teacher can get in this country, and the only way to get a Master Teaching Certificate in Illinois. I became a NBCT in 2008, and now I help mentor other teachers working on their portfolios. I remember how excited I was when I got my new IL Teaching Certificate, and it read, "Master Teacher." Can't beat that feeling.   :)  Anyhow, I've spent the last few weeks reading their papers and giving them suggestions. Their final portfolios were due last Friday.

To top it all off, I had to make a little visit to the hospital. The little boy inside of me was being kind of lazy, and my doctor had warned me to call if I didn't feel movement over a 24 hour period. This kid has never moved very much, and maybe it's because I was so busy, but I couldn't feel him at all for well over a day.

My obstetrician had me go in to radiology to get an ultrasound and have the baby pass some tests. He started moving right away on the ultrasound, though I still couldn't feel it. My placenta is in a weird spot, in the front, and I think that's why movement is so muffled. I guess he passed all of the test with flying colors. Aw, he passed his first test. The doctor said that with this good of a test, the chances of anything being wrong are practically Nil. Plus, especially in the last two or three days, the baby has been dancing a jig. His movements have become stronger and I'm having less trouble feeling him.

Anyhow, the trip to the hospital was just a precaution, but now I've been extra careful with tracking movements. We found out that Greg can usually feel him with his hands, even when I feel nothing. So he is now in charge of kick counts. Seems like a fair deal, seeing as I have the responsibility of carrying the baby 24/7. Oh, and apparently dark chocolate and caffeine help--this little guy dances when I indulge.

Speaking of dancing a jig--here's Nick dancing in his crib. This is probably the last week he'll be sleeping in the crib. Greg got the toddler bed together, and we're just waiting for the new crib mattress to arrive. (The original one we ordered was the wrong size.) Nick is thrilled, and every time he passes his toddler bed, he announces, "That's my bed! I gonna sleep in there!"

You Say You Want a Potty Training Update?

Or maybe you don't. No problem. No one says you have to read this. . . but I've been asked by several people to let them know how Nick has been doing with The Great Potty Challenge of 2011. After two weeks, I guess I would call him partly trained, or well on his way.

The picture below is of Nick showing off his latest potty prize--a foam sword from the $1 bin at Target. (Incidentally, he's also holding a cake pop from Starbucks. Yummy!)

First of all, Greg did not potty train him in a weekend, not that any of us actually thought that would happen. But he got a good head start. There were a lot of incidents of backsliding and arguing, along with too many accidents to count. We never gave in, though, and Nick has been completely out of diapers for more than two weeks. (The only exception is overnight--we do still use a diaper then. We'll work on that another time.)

I do think we're making very significant progress, though. That first week or so, Nick averaged one successful potty trip per day. On Friday, he earned three prizes, on Saturday, he earned four, and today he earned three prizes. His accidents have gone from 5+ per day to only one or two. He's started "going" immediately when he sits on the potty. Even more impressive was last Tuesday, when Grandma Toni was trying to get him dressed, he started to go on the couch. She told him to hold it and he did! He stopped, ran to the bathroom, and made it to the potty.

I've spent more money on prizes, man panties, and plastic cover up pants than I ever thought possible. My home is filled with very cheap, annoying toys that Nick has won for going on the potty instead of in his man panties. We've also learned some lessons:

1. Double or triple bag the boy when you leave the house. Today, for example, when we went out, Nick wore cheap Elmo underwear with thick Potty Scotty waterproof pants over them, and plastic pants over that. The cheap underwear is in case of a #2 accident--it's extremely hard to clean up, so we usually just throw out the underwear. Potty Scotty man panties cost nearly $9 a pair, so the extra layer is worth it.

2. Have plenty to do while in the potty. Some of Nick's prizes have been things to do in the potty, like a portable dry erase board, coloring books, books to read, and markers.

3. Have a comfortable place for an adult to sit. I feel like I've spent most of the last week sitting either on the bathroom floor or precariously on a stepstool, waiting for the magic moment.

4. Do laundry every day. Trust me, you do not want to run out of training pants! The good news is, I've never in my life been more caught up on laundry.

5. Let the kid pick his own prizes. This method seemed to work best for Nick after I took him to Target on Friday and let him fill the cart with prizes. He knew what he had to do to get those toys, and man, is he excited! My stepsister in law was telling me M and Ms worked for her kids. Not Nick. He wants the good stuff. I wish I could get him excited about an M and M. (My wallet would be grateful.)

Here he is in Target, helping pick his own prizes.

I'm nervous to see how potty training will go this week when Nick returns to daycare. He hasn't had as much success at the babysitter's house, and he's still afraid of public bathrooms (aren't we all), even though I bought him a portable seat to use while we're out.

Today, though, we left the house at 11 a.m. to run errands and didn't return until 2:30. Nick stayed dry the entire time, and went immediately as soon as we got home and put him on the potty. I find that amazing since I had to use the bathroom twice during that time period, and Greg went four times while we were out. After he went, he took a two hour nap, woke up DRY, and then immediately went on the potty successfully again. I would call that a very good day.  :)

Pregnancy Update: 28 Weeks

Yup, that's our boy. Can you see how he's got his legs squished over the top of his head? That's one flexible baby! I think he has Greg's nose. I'm not sure where he got the flexibility from, though. Certainly not from me. Here's my pregnancy update.



Weeks Pregnant: 28 weeks, 4 days. He's about the size of a large eggplant now. I went for this ultrasound on March 15th, and the doctor said that he weighed 2 lbs., 4 ounces at that point. Size-wise, he's doing great. The doctors haven't found any signs of vitamin or iron deficiencies (in me) or growth restriction (in him) at all yet. However, nothing came up with Nick until after 30 weeks, so they're going to watch me closely from this point forward.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Greg took this picture of me last night, when I'd just eaten a huge dinner of hibachi steak and scallops with sushi. I'm feeling kind of round, but I'm very happy that I'm not waddling yet. (At least I'm pretty sure I'm not waddling. I keep asking people and they tell me no.)
 
Weight: (From starting weight) +10 pounds. (I lost six pounds in the first trimester, then I gained that six back plus ten more.) I gained 8 pounds this month. Sigh. I think that's a lot for one month, but I barely gained at all until this month, so my doctor isn't worried.

I will say, though, that getting up and down from the floor is getting extremely difficult. I've spent a lot of time sitting either on the bathroom floor or on step stools, and every time I stand up my tailbone is on fire. I'm going for a pregnancy massage on Tuesday, and I'm really looking forward to that. (It was Greg's Valentine's Day gift to me.)

Movement: I was actually really worried about how little this guy was moving, but the fetal medicine specialist says that's because my placenta is in the front. He is moving more, but it's nothing like when I was pregnant with Nick, who was like a gymnast or a kick boxer when he was in utero.

Exercise: Well, not as much as I'd like. I did do pilates once and an elliptical trainer workout twice. I've kept up somewhat with my stretching, though, and I've done plenty of walking. I'm sure I'll do more this week, because I'm on my spring break. I want to do the pilates DVD again. Nick loved it! I feel like I've been generally more active with this pregnancy, probably because I spend much of my time chasing after a toddler. That sure counts as exercise. Or it should!

Coincidentally, I wore the same sweater for my 17 week picture and my 28 week picture. Hmm. I'm definitely bigger. I flipped the pic on the right and put them side by side so you could see the growth.

Cravings: Still with the coffee. I love my tall, skinny latte from Starbucks in the afternoons. Did you know they started carrying these teeny little desserts? My latest obsession is something called a red velvet whoopie pie. Trust me, they're good. Try one. If it's true that women crave things that their bodies are lacking during pregnancy, apparently I'm lacking in caffeine and red velvet.

On a healthier front, we recently switched to organic milk, so I've been drinking lots of that as well. Last week my family went through seven half gallons in seven days! We've also been having a ton of spinach salads, lots of fresh green beans and broccoli, and strawberries, apples, and bananas. My Costco grocery bill is intense, but our family eats well. I'm still making my own whole wheat bread in my bread maker, so I know that's healthy. Hurray for flax seed!

Sleep: Well, lately I'm waking up with back pain or limbs that have fallen asleep. I'm sleeping a little deeper, though, so that's good. Plus, since I just started the third trimester, the mind-numbing exhaustion hasn't hit me yet. I seem to be fine with 8 hours of sleep.

Medical: I'm still taking: 1 liquigel prenatal vitamin, 2 Flintstones Complete Chewables, 3 chewable calcium supplements, 1sublingual B12, and 1 baby aspirin each day. So far my labs are good, though, so the vitamins must be working. My blood sugar was better this week, but last week I was complaining of low readings (40s and 50s each day after eating) so of course the endocrinologist wants me to wear a continuous blood sugar monitor for a few days. Isn't it weird how as soon as you call the doctor to deal with a problem, the problem gets better? The day after I scheduled the test, my blood sugar readings went up and I haven't been below 60 in days.

Mood: I've been a little overwhelmed since we started potty training. I keep thinking about how hard it's going to be--not with the new baby, but lifting Nick and wrestling with him after I've had a c-section. I didn't think the recovery was bad at all last time, but I didn't have a 30-lb toddler to heave around all the time then, either. My mood regarding the new baby has been great, though. I am starting to get excited now as I look at teeny tiny sleepers and onesies.

Symptoms: Sometimes my belly jerks randomly and you can see it from the outside. With Nick, you could see arms and legs moving across, but with this pregnancy I just get sudden jumps. I was making popcorn (the old fashioned way, on the stove top) today, and the noise of the popping popcorn made him wake up and start dancing. My whole belly was jiggling.

Potty Training Update

Should I show this one to his girlfriend someday? I thought it was pretty cute, anyway. Warning: This post contains information about potty training. If this isn't your thing, no problem. You don't have to read it.  But I have enough people who wanted to know how it goes that I decided to just make this into a post.

So here's the potty training update:

Greg put Nick into his new, expensive man panties Saturday morning, and spent a few hours getting Nick to go on the potty. He sat and sat but nothing happened. Then, when Greg was in the shower, I put Nick on the potty and we started singing, "The Wheels on the Bus." For some reason, that seemed to do it, and Nick peed in the potty. He seemed so very surprised, but was thrilled with the toy he got (a wind-up helicopter).

I guess Greg didn't have any more success that day.  I left around noon and was downtown all day Saturday. Nick went through lots of 5 ply man panties, all to no avail. He woke up this morning completely soaked. Nick sat on the potty several times with no luck. You'll notice from the pictures that we have lots of interesting items in the bathroom: books, markers, paper, crayons, and a dry erase board. That's to keep him entertained enough to sit there for awhile without getting mad. Finally, Greg got him to pee on the potty, and gave him some silly putty as a prize. Nick was thrilled, but then immediately pooped in his pants.

By the way, we learned two important lessons here today. First of all, silly putty makes quite a mess when a toddler pulls it into strings and flings it all around the living room. Also, supposedly "waterproof" five-ply underwear doesn't hold a good sized toddler BM. Nick had two of those today, and one leaked so badly that it got up to his hair. He has had three baths this weekend.

Today we had to go to a birthday party, but we are stubborn and didn't want to go back to the diapers, even just for a few hours. It was a party for a two-year-old, so Nick was able to sit on the potty a few times, though he never had any success. Instead he wet through his pants very badly while sitting on Greg's lap, ruining both pairs of pants. I teased Greg because of the location of the wet spot on his jeans. It looked as though Greg was the one who'd wet his pants.

Late this afternoon, I took Nick to the Babies 'R Us to choose some new training paraphernalia. I let him pick out Elmo man panties, plastic pants, and a new Elmo potty seat. No luck since then, but Nick sat on the potty willingly at least four times this evening.

Here are the numbers:

Days: 2

Total Potty Trips: 14

Successful Potty Trips: 2

Toys Earned: Also 2

Random Items Thrown Into Potty: 4, not including tons of toilet paper (1 hair band, 1 orange crayon, and the tag from my new maternity shirt)
Number of Times Toilet Flushed (Empty): 23

Wet/Dirty Pairs of Man Panties: 10
Fits Thrown: 7

Outfits Worn: 5

Baths: 3
Amount Spent on Additional Potty Paraphernalia: $76

Additional Pairs of Man Panties Purchased: 9

Additional Pairs of Plastic Pants Purchased: 9

Loads of Laundry: 2

We are not giving up. Greg and I decided that being consistent is the most important thing, so we're keeping Nick in training pants until he's trained. At least we're going to try, especially since our babysitter and Nick's Grandma Toni are willing to help us with the process during the week.

The only compromise that we made was to keep Nick in diapers at night. I feel very hypocritical expecting Nick to make it through the night without peeing, because I get up at least three times a night lately. Also, since Nick started crawling out of his crib, we've child-locked his door from the inside.

From what I've read, this process can take a really long time if parents keep switching back and forth. I'd rather see it through and persevere, even if it takes more patience than either Greg or I have right now. I bought three different kinds of training pant options to try, but I'm not going to go with pull-ups. From my experience, I think that those don't allow kids to feel when they're wet. I want Nick to care when he's soaked. He's already becoming more aware of the feeling. Nick is 28 months old now, and its time.

Wish us luck. We're going to need it over the next few. . . weeks? months? 

Cookies for St. Patrick's Day and the Need for a Lucky Charm

Nick and I decided to make cookies for St. Patrick's Day. We make cookies nearly every week, but these cookies were special. We made them green!

I didn't have any sort of shamrock cookie cutter, but I had plenty of green sprinkles left over from Christmastime. So we made sugar cookie dough and rolled little balls. Then we rolled them in green sprinkles. Nick loves sprinkles!

Nick's problem is that he likes to take big bites out of the cookies as he's making them. We lost a couple this way. Eventually he got the hang of rolling them around in the sprinkles, though. He loved flattening them as well.

By the way, yes, that's my belly in most of the pictures. It was awkward to take pictures at this particular angle, and my belly was always getting in every shot. Perhaps that's just Nick's younger brother trying to share the spotlight.  ;)

See Nick's shirt? It says "Mommy's Lucky Charm." I got it when Nick was just a tiny baby on the clearance rack at Gymboree. I figured he'd fit into it eventually, and I was right.

Greg's actually the one who could use a lucky charm this weekend, though. You see, he went to a seminar a few months back where the presenter explained the perfect method for potty training a toddler. Greg is an LCPC (a therapist, but also a supervisor for other therapists) and so he knows a lot about behavioral modification. Greg has been telling me that all he needed was some training pants and a giant bag full of cheap but exciting toys, and he could get Nick started on the road to potty independence, even though we haven't had a lot of success thus far.

The $8 apiece man panties have arrived in the mail, I bought out the $1 bin at Target the other day, and we've been hyping the potty to Nick all week. On Saturday, I'm going downtown with a friend to celebrate her birthday, so Nick and Greg will be all by themselves. . . except for the potty. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this method of Greg's works well. Otherwise, I'll be spending my spring break cleaning up puddles. Any positive vibes or lucky charms would be appreciated.

And So It Begins. . .

What, you say? What begins? Well, the joys of potty training. Last weekend Greg and I bought Nick his own little potty. He's been talking about using the potty for awhile, but I don't really believe in pushing kids into potty training too early. (Even though my mother insists I was potty trained at 18 months.)

However, since Nicholas is now two, I figured it wouldn't hurt to get him confortable with the idea of using a potty. He became incredibly excited when we were in the Target and he saw the potties. The store had conveniently put them on the bottom shelf, easily accessible to toddlers. So Nick tried sitting on each of them, insisting, "I go poopy on the potty!" Here's what we decided on:

We chose this model for ease of cleaning rather than style. The fancy ones with the buttons and sound effects were cute in the store, but I could imagine them being rather gross to clean out. This one had fewer crevices. Plus, Nick liked it. He kept pointing to it in the back of the cart as we shopped, exclaiming, "That's my potty!" to anyone who walked past. We figured he was enthusiastic enough to at least give it a try.

I do have more experience than your average mom in this challenging endeavor called potty training. You see, I supported myself through most of my high school and college years by working in daycare centers. I even spent an entire summer working in the "2s" room, along with another adult plus sixteen two-year-olds. Our goals were 1.) to potty train them, 2.) to prevent them from biting one another, and 3.) to try to get them to take afternoon naps. Sound easy? Let's just say they were like a game of whack-a-mole: you get most of them to take a nap, and then somebody pees on the floor. As you're cleaning up that mess, somebody bites somebody else and the resulting cries wake up three more children, one of whom has a dirty diaper. While you're cleaning up that stinky mess, the other two bite one another, leading to more crying, and, ultimately, more peeing on the floor. I remember spending a lot of time with bleach water, and even more time writing up "biting reports." There is a very good reason I did not even consider having children before age 30. Anyhow, whenever I get frustrated with Nick, I just remember that summer and try to think of what it would be like with fifteen more of him. Then I smile and give my boy a hug.

Anyhow, back to our ill-fated first potty training attempt. I should warn sensitive readers that this is not a story to read while eating a snack. In fact, if you are at all grossed out by potty-type talk, please just stop reading right here.

***Warning*** Gross but funny story ahead

From my considerable potty training experience, I did learn that for very young little boys, they need to connect the dots and figure out when they are peeing. You have to be lucky enough to catch them peeing and get some in the potty. Then a lightbulb goes on and they start to get what to do (hopefully). We started out by giving Nick a nice big cup of orange juice. We hardly ever give Nick juice of any kind, but since we all have colds I figured the Vitamin C would be good for us. Over the course of about an hour, Nick drank about 14 ounces of orange juice. He told us "I go potty!" so Greg took him into the bathroom and showed him how to sit on his new potty.

Nicholas was super-excited about the potty, though he didn't really want to sit on it much. He was more interested in pulling out the bowl, touching the froggy's eyes, and even wearing it like a hat. I suggested to Greg that perhaps we should just leave Nick sans diaper for awhile, and try to catch him peeing. Nick certainly was happy enough wandering around naked, and we have hardwood floors. I decided that after all of that orange juice, something was sure to happen soon.

Fast forward about an hour. Not only has no pee decided to appear, Nick has determined that the potty is the greatest toy ever. He especially likes to sit on it with one foot in the bowl, and put toys into it. Since it was nearly dinnertime, we were about ready to give up and put the diaper back on. Then comes the gross part.

I'm sure you've guessed it by now. #2. All over the floor in a giant pile, about a foot from the potty. Nick announced immediately afterward, "I go poopy!" Never have I seen such a look of horror on my husband's face. Indeed, the look on his face alone made me start laughing hysterically as we tried to stop Nick from spreading it around the living room. Greg cleaned up the worst of the mess as I scrubbed Nick the tub. I laughed the entire time, because, at that point, what else can you do? It was my own fault for leaving the diaper off for so long. My daycare experience served me well after that, when I remembered how to make a 10:1 bleach water solution to sanitize both the floor and the potty.

As for Nick, he didn't seem to care at all about the mess he had made. But he was really, really ticked off when I had to wrestle him into a diaper after his bath. Nick wanted naked time to go on forever. He never did pee, at least not that night. However, when Greg woke him up this morning, he had soaked through his pajamas, blankets, and sheets. My boy must have a super bladder to have held it that long.

We'll try again this week, but I am not in a hurry. I know that this process can take a long time, and I will make it into a power struggle if we try to push it too soon. A power struggle with a two-year-old is one that will definitely be lost. Nick is still excited about his potty, so we'll go slowly and try periodically as our patience allows. Most importantly, I know I have to keep a sense of humor about the whole thing.