My Day

If you're here for a bright, shiny, spirit-lifing post, keep browsing the interwebs. If you want to hear the brutal reality of my sucktastic day, read on.

It was a normal day for the most part. LO was back to school (thankyouJesus) and that left just me and Chase. He's still a potty-using fiend which is fabulous on the one hand, but ohsoveryannoying on the other one. He's getting to the point where he's self-sufficient in there, but every time he heads that way a certain very lazy and tired pregnant mama must remove herself from the couch and meet him in there to assist. Imagine that about a dozen times just before lunchtime hits, and you'll have a tiny glimpse into my morning. Oh, and add the fact that the boy, while he was in desperate need of a good #2, simply refused to knock it out and chose instead to wander the living room aimlessly all morning, whining that his tummy hurts. OMG. Seriously?

I won't get into the detail here since I feel it deserves its own lengthy and annoyingly irritating post, but I've been monitoring my blood sugar 4x/day for about a week now and have learned some interesting things. Like I'm on the path to gestational diabetes. Like my doc wants to put me on medication. Like I'm choosing to manage it with diet, which for those of you who know me rather well, know that I am NOT one to make healthy food choices consistently and am NOT one to walk away from sweets. So imagine the fun this is for me. More on that later.

After lunch I decided to call about LO's new furniture. We were told 4 to 6 weeks, but that it typically was coming in earlier like 3 to 4 weeks. It's been 4 so I thought I'd inquire about it. Lo and behold, the woman dares to tell me that LO's bed IS STILL IN PRODUCTION and wouldn't be here until MID-MARCH.

I just died.

I couldn't believe it. You're probably aware that we can't do anything to set up the baby's nursery until we get LO's new furniture and do her room first. So this puts a HUGE delay in getting things ready for the baby. And let's not mention how completely and totally inpatient I am about all things fun and home decor-y. And on top of that, I'm pregnant, people. Ever heard of nesting?! I'm driving myself INSANE not being able to do anything with LO's room or the nursery, but it was okay because the furniture was supposed to be here Any. Nuggin'. Day.

Notsomuch.

So once I'm done with my first bout of tears over the furniture, Chase and I head out to pick up LO. Boy was I pleased to hear she had a blue day (imagine the rainbow... blue's towards the bottom... 'nuff said). Great. Then there was the fact that a little fender bender took place in the pick-up line that should've resulted in the side of MY vehicle being scraped up, but luckily the rude lady in front of me was talking and wouldn't scoot up for me to go around her, so the guy behind me went around me and was the lucky one to get hit instead.

Then we get home. And I see a huge pile of fresh dog poo in our front yard. Thanks, unknown neighbor or wild dog/coyote.

And as I'm helping LO get set up to do her homework, Chase heads off to the bathroom to go pee. While he was sitting on the potty, he magically managed to pee All. Over. The. Floor. instead of IN the potty.

Whoa. Could this day get any better??

It's nap time. Things are starting to look up for me. Oh, and LO ate some of the Lay's sweet heat southern barbecue potato chips that I left out on the counter and about cried (not really, but sort of) over how hot they were, so that was funny. ;) She kept eating them, though, but then proceeded to clear out her cup of milk from the fridge. It helped make my day just a little better. (I'm a horrible mom.)

Okay, so this sums up my day so far. Yes, I fully realize all of these things are completely trivial and just a blip on the radar compared to what some people are going through, but it's been a crappy day and I just felt like sharing.

Woe is me.

Okay, I'm over it. The End.

;)

Baby Gear

Those of you readers who are rather astute may have caught the fact that I mentioned in yesterday's AMAZING post about Chase's AMAZING potty training progress that I registered for our baby boy at Buy Buy Baby. The list is pretty small... there's not much you truly need by the time your 3rd little one comes along. But we inventoried our supplies when we cleaned out the storage baby's room so we'd know what stuff we actually needed to include on the registry. It's basically some towels, blankets, bottles and a few sleepers.

This is where YOU come in! I'd love to hear some suggestions on must-have baby gear for 2013! It's been 4 years since we purchased baby stuff, and, let's admit: the stuff we picked up for Chase was a bit different from what you'd buy for a healthy little arrival. Case in point? I have a TON of snap-front sleepers that worked great for Chase while he was in the hospital because of his leads and wires and stuff, but those aren't so handy when you're changing a newborn's diaper in the middle of the night. And sure, we have all the big stuff like furniture, car seats, strollers, pack n' play, etc... but there's gotta be some "fun" stuff out there that would make welcoming #3 just a tad easier, right?

So please, feel free to comment below or on my Facebook post or via Twitter and let me know what things YOU found incredibly helpful with your recent little ones! :)

Ahhhmazing!

Okay, folks, for those of you who couldn't care less (yes, it's couldn't not could) about potty training, please move on to the next item in your Google Reader. But for the curious few out there (read: Grandmas), prepare to be amazed.

Last Wednesday, January 2nd, I began the lengthy and arduous sojourn of potty training Chase. I was expecting the worst. After all, I've always heard boys are harder to train than girls. And LO? She was a BREEZE in the potty training department. I never understood how we got so lucky with her. In fact, check out my concerns about potty training Chase in the except below from my post about what it was like to potty train LO that I wrote just over one year ago, on January 4, 2012:

I documented her "training" in this post...and I'm afraid she set the bar a bit too high. Seriously. It was like, 2 days of training and she was DONE. Trained. Fully trained both day and night. Zero accidents since. See what I mean? Set the bar too high. I'm scared thinking about what Chase has in store for us! Haha!

So of course I figured karma would bite us in the bottom when it came time to get Chase using the potty. It couldn't be that easy the second time around.

Or could it??

Today is Tuesday. I started potty training last Wednesday, so we're just shy of one full week of potty training. Let me give you the highlights:

• TWO accidental pees on his first day of training.
• TWO pees on the potty with his big boy underwear not pulled down (obviously in a hurry) on day 2.
• ONE poop in his big boy underwear on day 2.
• ZERO accidents in the past 4 days. No peeing on couches, carpet, flooring, car seats, beds... NADA!
• DRY DIAPERS in the mornings.
• DRY PULL-UPS after nap times.
• NO I am NOT kidding!!!

The kid will even fuss in his room after bedtime if he needs a trip to the potty. Last night hubs took Chase's little potty into his room when he was fussing and the boy pooped on the potty, went to sleep and, of course, woke up clean & dry.

Tonight I put him to bed and after our story, prayers, hugs and kisses, he informed me he needed to go potty. I took him to the kids' bathroom and helped him sit on the actual "big" potty. He pooped. The end.

It's seriously unbelievable, people. I had NO IDEA. Do you know how many potty training horror stories I've read? How many blogs about the drama and online forums about the frustrating and sometimes strange issues and problems parents face when it comes to potty training their kids??

I had NO idea. I am so shocked. And so blessed! I can't believe I'm not scrubbing poopy underwear 8 times a day and cleaning messes out of carpet left and right.

Honestly, the most frustrating part of this process had to be yesterday (Monday). See, Sunday we had church and then I had to work all day. This means hubs was home with the kids and had the joy of handling the potty training after I spent the previous 3 days solely responsible for it. Apparently Chase only peed like twice the whole day and never pooped. Like, EVER. For the entire day. Seriously?! I was so worried about the explosion that would be in store for me on Monday while hubs was at work.

But there was no explosion.

Instead, the kid went on his potty about 30 (THIRTY!!!) times throughout the day on Monday. I'm not even joking or exaggerating here, either. He'd pee. We'd dump and flush the potty, wash hands, get M&M's, and go back to the task at hand (usually Super Mario Bros. Wii). Then about 2 minutes later he'd pee again and we'd repeat the entire process. Then not 10 minutes later, he'd sit and poop on the potty, and we'd repeat again. About 30 seconds after that, he'd sit and pee. This went on All. Day. Long. I got the point of wondering if the kid was manipulating the "free candy after potty trips" policy and was purposely holding things in to go more frequently to get more candy. I wouldn't put it past him. He's no dummy.

So the worst part of this entire process was the fact that I had to get my lazy, tired, pregnant self up off the couch like 62 times yesterday to empty the potty chair and give out candy rewards. I'd say that's not too shabby, eh?

And let me just add that today was the first day I ventured out of the house with him to run errands now that we've started the potty training. The boy went pee twice while we were at Panera meeting one of my BFFs for lunch and then went pee again while we were at Buy Buy Baby adding a few things to my baby registry. Then we picked up LO from school and he was still clean & dry when we got home. I continue to be amazed by this kid!!!!!

Okay, enough potty talk. Here are a few pics of my little big boy from the past few days.

This first one is hilarious!!! Our first two days of training was without any coverage on the lower half. It certainly didn't keep this kid from his Wii games! LOL!

Still with the Wii. I loved that he was all curled up on the couch with no bottoms on. Seriously the faith I had in this kid's potty training! I wasn't worried one bit about a pee'd on couch!

By Day 3 we were able to start putting underwear on and taking it off during potty trips. He loves them!

So he needed to go potty, yes, but he was in the middle of a very important task on Super Mario Bros. Wii and felt it necessary to multitask. Just love this kid!!

Mommy kept him all kinds of hydrated during training to be sure there would be plenty of potty opportunities. I can't tell you how many sippy cups of watered down apple juice this kid blew threw over the past week! His kidneys sure are working great! Don't ya just love The Incredibles? ;)

Can't. Stop. Playing. Wii. Seriously, it's like a sickness for this kid. The first thing out of his mouth the past few mornings has been "I be Mario the red guy, you be the green one." Haha!

So there you have it! My next steps beginning tonight include removing diapers completely (he was just wearing them at night anyway) and putting him in Pull-Ups at night time instead. And at nap times, I'm opting out of Pull-Ups and going straight for the big boy underwear. And I'll attempt to keep the big boy underwear on him when we're out running errands, too, because I like to take chances like that. ;) Of course I'll keep a spare set of clothes handy just in case...

In summary, WAY TO GO, CHASE!!! YOU ARE MY ROCK STAR!!!

Prayers Needed

Please pray for this beautiful young lady who is undergoing a heart transplant at MUSC this morning. She was born with a heart defect similar to Chase's and has lived the past 17 years with half a functioning heart. Pray for her surgery, recovery and the family who made the sacrifice that is giving her a whole heart.

We love you, Taylor!!!

My Sweet Girl!

I came home the other night to find a little note left for me by LO. Well, technically, a series of notes.

Check this out:

TRANSLATION: "If you come home on time,  you can come give us a kiss and a hug."

TRANSLATION: "If you come home late, then you can't give us a kiss and a hug."

TRANSLATION: "Chase went pee-pee on the potty and I got a marble!!!!"

((Side note: Marbles are part of our rewards system for the kids.))

TRANSLATION: "And Chase got a marble, too!! And Daddy said that we had..."

TRANSLATION: "A really good good day today!!!"

Floating Shelves

HELP!!!

I'm desperate to find floating shelves as seen in the photo below, but unbelievably have been striking out everywhere online! I can't believe how hard it is to find these guys! They are white and I'm guessing between 12-24 inches long. I want them to be floating shelves so you won't see any hardware or support beams below them. Anyone seen such things??

Source: http://www.daffodildesign.com/2012/04/i-decorate-room-for-two.html

I've tried contacting this blogger but haven't received a response so I'm turning to my blogosphere friends for help. I really want to use these on a wall in LO's room when we complete her room transformation in a few weeks.

HELP!!!

Potty Time!!

UPDATED WITH A VIDEO BELOW!!!

This is happening TODAY!!!

The boy has surprised me beyond belief already! I seriously was worried he wasn't ready. We talk about pee-pee on the potty, but he hasn't been too interested in actually doing it. But I've been talking it up for the past few days and he "seemed" to be on board with the idea.

He woke up this morning and I had out his potty (complete with a few new Cars stickers on it) and a stack of big boy underwear. I asked him to sit on the potty before breakfast and he had a lovely little meltdown. I decided not to push it so I asked if I could change his diaper before breakfast. He agreed and I took off his damp diaper and left it off. I then proceeded to get his breakfast ready. He seemed a little confused and asked about putting his pajama pants back on but I told him his Pop-Tart (don't judge) was ready, so he ran over and climbed into his chair at the table. He didn't seem to mind the fact that he was wearing nothing but his pajama shirt!

During breakfast, he told me he pooped. GASP! I went over to check and saw that he had peed in his chair. No worries! I explained that it was pee-pee, not poop, cleaned him up, and he went back to his breakfast.

After he got down from breakfast, he headed into the play area off the kitchen and a few minutes later he said something (can't remember what) and I looked up to see he had peed on one of the foam alphabet letters. No worries! I told him it was okay, but that we want to make sure the pee-pee went in the potty (which was sitting 2 feet from him in the play area).

That, my friends, as of this writing at 2:00 PM, was his LAST accident so far today!!! I can't even begin to believe it!! Boys are supposed to be much harder than girls, but he's so far proven to be just as easy as LO was to potty train! Keeping his bottom half naked with free roam of the house has been working wonderfully! I can't believe that he'll even stop in the middle of an activity (Wii, board games, etc.) to go sit on his potty and go pee-pee! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH! I'm so happy I can't stand it!

Now I know this is only Day 1 and there's sure to be plenty of accidents ahead of us, but I'm just so impressed and proud of his progress already this morning. Simply amazing.

I'll keep ya posted on how things progress (since let's face it, all of you are dying to receive potty updates from me)!

Way to go, Chase!!!!!!