Think It'll Work? (It Will Take A Miracle.)

For the last several weeks, several times a day, Troy's train of thought goes something like this:

"Mom, I'm a BIG boy, and I'm going to pee and poop in the toilet, and then Santa is going to bring me some big boy undies for Christmas. Right now I'm a little boy, because I still have a diaper, but I will be a big boy."

Yes, indeed. It is SO time to train that kid. He poops and instantly has a diaper in hand, wanting to be changed. He got all embarrassed when he pooped while at preschool, because all the other kids are potty trained, and they saw that he had a diaper on.

While my mom was here helping me out after my surgery, she was really good about getting him to at least try to go in the morning and at about lunch time. (Since I've been on my own, though, that's kind of fallen to the wayside. It's all I can do to go through the motions of being a mom. Still. And it's been over 7 weeks. *sigh*)

So, I decided to try the sticker chart route:



I think I'll do a sticker for trying, and a treat of some sort for actually going. It goes until December 24, and honestly, I think we can do it. If I can just get him to sit on the potty and at least try to go 5 times a day, I think he'll be close to being trained, if not all the way trained. Oh, and we ran out of diapers his size, so we can do "little boy undies" (read Pull-Ups, which I totally know is a fancy diaper, but maybe I can convince him that it's a lot like undies so he'll treat them like undies).

Then, if he's close to being trained by Christmas, then maybe Santa can give him Big Boy undies for Christmas. And having him trained would be a super awesome Christmas gift for me, too.

Wish us luck! (And please, send some energy my way, because I really need it.)

They Call Me the Hip-Hop-opotamus

Jakob's Hip Hop class had their first performance during half-time at a high school JV girl's basketball game. I was so proud of him, because he actually performed! He tends to get stage-fright, and won't do things in front of crowds, like sing, or say his lines for the primary program, that kind of thing. On the way there, he said, "Mom, I hope I'm brave enough to do my dance."

So, behold! Sorry about the video quality; my camera tries to "correct" the lighting it's getting, which is why it flips to green all throughout. Good times with that. Apparently my camera thinks we all need to look like aliens or something. And the sound is none too good, either. (They start dancing about 38-ish seconds in - the guy introducing them took a hundred years.)



And here's the video that I got my post title from. Flight of the Conchords rules.

Like a Three-Legged Puppy With One Eye

This is one of the saddest things I've seen. Ever.

Here's a translation:

To Santa, From Jakob. No toys for me! :( I tried to find my Bakugan.

Do you know why there are no toys for me? Because I lost one of my Bakugans.



I seriously wanted to cry when I read that note that he wrote.

He lost his little Bagukan toy randomly, and I know it's somewhere in the house but we can't find it. He even bought it with his own money and everything. Poor guy. We told him that that's not how Santa works, though - not giving toys at Christmas because of losing a toy. He ended up writing a new note to Santa, telling him that he tried and tried to find his other Bakugan, but proceeded to ask for a ton of Bakugan things, including watch and calendar.

In other Jakobisms...

He has to read 20 minutes every school night. So one night he read about 15, and I told him that that was good enough, and I would write 20 minutes on his sheet. With big round eyes he said, "You're going to LIE about my reading time???" I told him, no, I wasn't, because the night before he had read at least 5 extra minutes that I hadn't counted into his reading time, so 15 plus 5 makes 20 minutes. I'm glad he is now aware of lying, and I'm glad that he was going to make sure that I didn't lie, either.

Another time that Jakob lost a different toy (sensing a trend, here), I told him to patiently look for it, and we'd be able to find it. A long time ago I had told him that he can always pray when he needs help finding toys, or if he's scared, etc. So I was in the other room, kind of looking for his toy, and I heard the end of a prayer that he was saying: "...please bless us, that Jakob can find his toy..." It was so sweet, and it made me so excited that his little seed of faith has started to grow, and that he thought to pray all by himself. I also said a little prayer in my heart, not necessarily to find the toy, but to help answer his prayer, so that he knows that Heavenly Father listens to him, even when it's over something that I would deem unimportant, but is very important in Jakob's little world. We found the toy half a minute later. I then told him that Heavenly Father helped him find his toy, and he said, "No, you helped me find my toy." I then explained that a lot of times Heavenly Father works through other people and other things in order to answer our prayers. We then said a thank-you prayer. I loved having that teaching moment.


And, unfortunately, we might have to have another teaching moment sooner than I would like. One night, Jakob asked, "Dad, does Lady Gaga have a lot of sex?" Pete answered, "Well, Jake, I'm not sure. Why do you ask?" Jakob replied with, "Lady Gaga is a hot woman. So she must have a lot of sex." Pete said, "Lady Gaga is not a hot woman. And, I don't think she's married, so she probably does not have sex, because only married people have sex." Aye, carumba. Not looking forward to that talk at all.

Ah, the joys and adventures of raising children.

Highs and Lows

Low: Forgetting my camera for our trip. Yeah, I'm a big winner. (So, to compensate, the internet will be providing pictures to fill in the visual gaps that would otherwise be in this post.)

Low: Troy letting our cat, Memo, out of the house, after we had kept her inside so we could take her to the vet to kennel her for our out-of-town trip.

Low: Slipping on the icy/frosty stairs as I go outside to try and find our cat. And, slipping again on the icy/frosty stairs coming back in when I can't find her, and getting a huge bruise on my shin.

High: Our cat coming back about 20 minutes before we headed out of town, so we could vaccinate and board her anyway. YAHOO! Especially since she never comes back that fast after being let out.

High: Our hotel, Embassy Suites. The swimming pool, the yummy cook-to-order breakfast (got a Denver omelet both mornings-yum!), the pull-out couch turned bed, the free parking, etc. etc. etc.

Low: Troy drawing with pen on the leather chair in the hotel room. After much scrubbing on my part, luckily it (mostly) came out. Very grrr.

High: Jakob losing a tooth at dinner the night before Pete's test. Did you know that the tooth fairy can come to hotels?

High: Eating dinner at Village Inn. I ordered a crepe that had Nutella (chocolate) and cream cheese on the inside, and bananas and strawberries on top. It would have been slightly scary to watch me eat it because I was scarfing it down so fast. But from here on out, when I make crepes, I'm totally adding the cream cheese.

Low: Having to threaten the kids within an inch of their lives to get them to stay in bed and go to sleep that first night. And then waking up at midnight to Jakob's watch alarm (which he somehow manages to set all the time even though I un-set it all the time), and finding Brock playing by the front window that looks out to the hallway at the front of our hotel room. At midnight.

High: Going to the Utah Museum of Natural History. It was easy to find (about two blocks from where Pete was taking his test), and we were the only ones there, along with a grandma and her 3-year-old grandson. The kids didn't really care about the mineral section, but loved the dinosaur bones and the bugs section, which made me squirm in my skin, because even though that tarantula is behind glass, it's still big and hairy and a spider. There's a little play area there with puzzles and a digging area, and I think we spent the majority of the time there.

High: Going back to the hotel and getting a little nap, along with Troy and Ivy. It was awesome.

Low: While dozing in and out of consciousness, my other boys were watching Pokemon 12: The Fight Against Some Very Angry Dragon Guy that Keeps Blowing Up the Good People That Can Open the Different Universes. Yes, I believe that was the actual title, and it very much sucked.

High: Getting coloring books for all my kids, along with new color crayons for each of them. Hours of entertainment.

Low: Not having a yellow crayon in my/Ivy's crayon box. I mean, who doesn't include yellow, but has three purples in there?!?

High: Eating at Benihana Friday night. Oh, mama! And an extra bonus-they have this yummy soup as the first course, and it has mushrooms in it. I hate mushrooms, but Jakob wanted to try my soup, and he ate the mushroom part!

Extreme high: Pete passed his CIH!!!! Congrats!

High: Going to see Pete's parents, and having all his siblings and the in-laws and the nieces and nephews come over. It was wonderful to see everyone.

High: Jakob got to spend the night with his cousin, Ethan. He did great, especially since that was his first sleep-over.

Low: Running into a bit of a snow storm on the way home.

High: It wasn't too bad, and it was only during a small part of the drive. The kids were great in the car, and even slept some of the way.

Low-and-High: Being tired. I have oodles of laundry and catching up to do, but it was an awesome trip.

Take 2

I'm being lazy/non-energetic/still recovering from surgery/uncreative today. No, check that-that's how I've been feeling for the last, oh, 5 weeks.

But, go here for details on our upcoming adventure.

Also, go here for exactly how I've been feeling lately.

Bossy

This morning-

Jakob: "Mom, why is Troy so bossy?"

Me: "Well, I don't know."

Jakob: "Mom, when you had Troy, did you maybe really have a girl, and she kind of got...mixed up when he was a baby and you had him instead?" (I'm thinking he was asking if Troy was switched at birth. I have no idea where he'd hear about something like that ever happening, but whatever.)

Me: "Trust me, Jakob, I know that Troy is part of our family."

Jakob: "Well, he's really bossy. Did he maybe get hit in the head when he was little with something to make him bossy?"

Me: (trying not to laugh) "No, I think he was just born that way."

New

The Nat Pack been facing a lot of changes lately, some of which have been awesome, and some maybe not so much. But as Sheryl Crow says, "A Change Would Do You Good".

Last night I got a new booster seat for Troy-boy. (By the way, there are some booster seats on sale at Walmart for $13.50.) He saw it this morning and is so excited. He just thinks he's all sorts of grown up. I wish it would translate into the potty training realm, though. We've been trying to potty train him, but that's very hit and miss. He'll try to change his own diaper, and I keep wondering why he can't just figure out the whole potty-undies correlation, but whatever. I wish my kids were the types that just take charge of that. I know kids like that exist; well, I think kids like that exist-but maybe only in a galaxy far far away. This morning he pulled out his red Bumblebee shirt (he also owns a yellow one and a blue one), and told me, "Mom, my tummy feels yucky, but this Bumblebee shirt will make it feel better."





I got a new computer, because our other one died. It's very little, and very cute. Now maybe I'll find the energy to start working on my online scrapbooking again.

Ivy's had the most changes. Her new trick is climbing up things. It's been kind of a blessing in disguise, because she's been able to climb up on my lap as I haven't been able to pick her up since my surgery. But we have to be extra careful about leaving things on the table.



And although she's a good climber, she's not good enough to get out of her crib. So we got her a new big girl bed. It's very pink, and has princesses on it. I'm thinking I might need to repaint the walls, or rethink the wall decorations, seeing as how they all went with our nursery theme of Winnie the Pooh. Maybe someday, I guess-I'll just add it to the mile long to-do list, that starts with hanging the new window blinds I got for our front room.

Oh, and also this Sunday Ivy gets to try her new nursery class, because she's 18 months old today! YAHOO!! (Well, unless she's like my boys, and hates it, and I have to sit in there with her for at least a few months. But you never know.)

Also, she's getting 4 new teeth. The child already has 12 in her little noggin-this will make 16!

Jakob has a new interest-Bakugan toys. Maybe anta-Say will bring some for istmas-Chray. But I'm thinking I'm going to have the kids help me clear out the unused toys before Christmas. I've done this before, and it's worked really well: I tell the boys how there are some kids that can't afford new toys, so we need to give our toys that we don't use to a store (D.I.) so that they can have toys for Christmas. So then I have them help me organize all the toys (blocks in the block bag, dinosaurs in the dinosaur bag, etc.), and then I have them take turns picking their 10 favorite toys to keep, and we get rid of the rest. (I'm not a super toy Nazi, though- If they pick a dinosaur, they get all the dinosaurs, and sometimes I still hang on to some toys that they don't pick-I call them Ivy's 10 toys.)

And I got new pain meds on Monday, because dang. I will hopefully be able to lift my kids, and vacuum and the like next week, though. It may hurt to do it, but I'll be able to.

Finally, Pete and I have a new obsession: a game called Plants vs. Zombies. It's hilarious, and fun, and the kids love watching us play it. Which I'm going to go do right now, because I have a very patient Brock sitting on my lap, ready to watch.

YAY for new things!