Prepared

This week Bryan and I started talking about Christmas presents. We're not usually so ahead of the game. Well, I'm not. Bryan is. Our second Christmas after we were married he bought an almost full-size digital piano for me and hid it in our two-bedroom Wymount apartment. In August. I didn't find out about it until I walked in on the last day of work before the Christmas break and found it set-up in our living room, playing carols.*

So far I have one thing on my list for the boys. This book:


We've checked this out from the library at least three times and each time I read it I discover something new. The text is cute, all about a large family gathering at grandma and grandpa's house for Thanksgiving. It's the pictures though that really get me. Diane Goode, the author and illustrator, has visually captured so many familial truisms that she must come from a large family herself. As each family arrives you learn something new. And the families are dressed in color-coordinated outfits, so you always know who belongs with whom, which adds even more to the story.

Click on the picture and check out her website. You can view some of the illustrations to get an idea for how detail-rich they are.

Now, I wonder if I can hide this from my bookworm boys for the next four months...

*Bryan and I are both sure that I've already written about this, but I've just looked through all of my past posts and can't find where. So if I'm repeating myself, oh well.

It's the Great Pumpkin!

I picked our first pumpkin on Monday. It turned orange a few weeks ago and stopped growing, so I thought it was time.


And this one should give you an idea of the grandeur of the gourd.


It's dainty. We planted a sugar pumpkin (produces small fruit) and a carving pumpkin (produces large fruit). This one came from the carving pumpkin. Cross-breeding?

One Day at a Time

Thanks for the comments and advice on the potty-training post last week. We've been taking some of the suggestions out for a spin.

Peter has worn underwear for the last two days and has had two accidents each day, but that's not terrible. I told him that when the daytime Pull-Ups were gone we wouldn't be buying anymore. We had to run errands on Saturday so he wore a Pull-Up over his big boy pants. Same with church on Sunday. I think that helped him to be more aware of when he was wet but still keep the mess contained.

We've been heaping lots of praise on him. That seems to help. Sometimes he'll let us into the bathroom with him and other times he demands his privacy. On Sunday he physically shoved me out of the bathroom, which should have gotten him a timeout except then he went and used the bathroom AND was still dry, so I focused on the good and not the bad.

We've set timers to remind him when to go. He has refused at times, but he's also told us that he needed to go before the timer beeped. I think that's progress.

We've also been plying him with goodies (hence yesterday's post). I'm so anti-sugar that this is really hard for me, but sometimes it works for Peter, so my desire for him to be potty-trained is winning out over my desire to instill healthy eating habits. Although, there have been a handful of times that Peter has finished in the bathroom and announced, "I don't want candy this time." That's fine with me.

Of course yesterday he refused to use the bathroom until about three in the afternoon, but after that he did swimmingly.

Me Too!

Yesterday both boys were fresh out of the bath and still just wearing diaper and underwear. Peter had successfully used the bathroom and walked into his room carrying his bounty: a large marshmallow. Cooper saw it and started pointing and signing please rather insistently. I asked Cooper if he wanted the marshmallow. His reply: "Yeah." I told him that it was Peter's reward for using the bathroom and that Cooper would need to use the bathroom in order to get one. He immediately reached down and tried to undo his diaper.

I think I know what bribe to employ when it's time to potty-train Cooper...

Child of the 80's

This has been in my head for the last day and a half, and I don't mind one little bit. I found it here.



Happy Friday.

Losing My Mind One Diaper at a Time

I was thinking today about the good old days. I fondly remember how Peter wanted to potty-train last year, how he hated wearing diapers, how excited he was whenever he successfully used the bathroom.

I've been pondering on that time because he's not doing any of those things now. No, that's not true. He's mostly excited when he uses the toilet, but that's only after an extreme tantrum and wrestling match have taken place to sit him upon the porcelain throne. You see, I've decided that I'm ready. I'm ready to have Peter out of diapers. And I think he is too. I think he's physically ready. He sometimes wakes-up in the morning with a dry diaper. I think he's developmentally ready. He understands the process and knows how to make everything work.

The problem is that he doesn't want to. I'm not sure if it's that he doesn't want to be interrupted with whatever he's doing or if he just doesn't care. On Thursday of last week I dutifully put Pull-Ups on him and set the timer, telling him that when the microwave beeped then it would be time to use the bathroom. He was game for most of the day. Toward afternoon it took a little more prodding to get him to go, but he was still trying. Then at about 5 o'clock he announced that he was done, he wouldn't be using the bathroom again until Monday. I told him I didn't think he could hold it that long. He looked at me confidently and said, "Oh, I can."

I know I should have tried again the next day, but because Friday is our shopping day, I didn't insist that he go as regularly. On Saturday, Sunday, and Monday we would prompt Peter regularly to go use the bathroom, but each reminder was rebuffed. On Monday night while I was getting him ready for bed I told him that when he woke the next day he would wear underwear. He told me he would not.

On Tuesday I dutifully got the thick underwear out of the top drawer and let Peter pick which color he would wear. He chose red and blue stripes. Then, after having him use the bathroom, I set the timer. He was willing the first two times, but after that he flat out refused. But I had put real underwear on him, not a Pull-Up, I was committed. And darn it, he and I are both much too stubborn for our own good, so whenever the timer beeped I cheerfully told him that it was time to use the bathroom. He would defiantly tell me no and then, when I persisted, he would flail and scream and hit and kick and do other unwelcome things to express his displeasure over the situation.

He told me on Tuesday that he would NEVER potty-train.

I can't figure out why though. Why is he so against this? I know that you're supposed to follow the lead of the child, but I'm afraid that he'll never lead.

Any advice? Thoughts? Has anyone potty-trained a remarkably headstrong and independent child? Or known anyone that has? Or maintained their sanity in the process?

Like Father, Like Son, Part 2

Bryan's dad, Bryan's brother Spencer, and Bryan.

Peter asked me yesterday what little boys are made of. He was asking about the nursery rhyme. All I could come with was snails and puppy dog tails. I told him I was missing something and asked him to help me remember what it was.

Me: Peter, what are little boys made of?

Peter: Computers.

I think he may be right.

No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem

"You know, I have to be almost naked to eat spaghetti."
-Peter, dressed in his Pull-Up and eating spaghetti

Peter, you're not the only one.

Expelled

Have you seen Expelled? It's Ben Stein's documentary about the exclusion of Intelligent Design from current scientific theory. Bryan and I watched it a few months ago and watched it again last night with Bryan's dad and brother. I realize that all documentaries are trying to make a specific point, they're propaganda. This is no exception. But I think his particular slant is fascinating.

He asks the basic question: What is so wrong with Intelligent Design? He gets answers like "it's stupid," "it's insane," and "it's utterly boring." All of these answers are provided by scientists, academics. Then Stein takes it a step further by asking what Intelligent Design actually is. The two opposing camps have radically different definitions.

And then he talks about Nazi Germany. That's the terrifying part of the documentary.

Go watch it, then come back and tell me what you thought.

Now That I Can Dance

I'm not endorsing the product, I just love when large groups of people simultaneously dance in unison.