Sandbox

We got Brady a sandbox today, after I waited patiently for an entire week.  I wanted to go last weekend and Jim told me I needed to wait.  Can you believe I made it a whole week?  I can't believe it.  Haha!!  It took Brady a few minutes to learn to love it.  But once he did, he loved it.





He really liked when I buried his car down below.  Here he is telling Dad where the car is buried.  He thought this was so funny!


Then I got a bunch of cute pictures of the boys and the dogs in the yard.  I was far away and this is them being them.








Trying to snuggle with Zoe while she was busy fighting Maddux.

Gardening

Last year I was so excited to have a veggie garden.  I planted the seeds indoors in the early spring, built these boxes myself, helped haul the dirt, and all I got was one measly watermelon plant.  This year I am determined to be successful.  I bought full plants and better soil.  Here is my planted garden after a week.  That's about 4 days longer than my garden lasted last summer.



This is the farther box from the house.  There are zucchini and strawberries around the edges.  There is a spaghetti squash in the middle.  One strawberry plant didn't make it, but it never looked good going in the ground.


Here is the closest box to the house.  In the middle is that watermelon plant from last year that yielded the cutest little watermelon ever.  Around the edges are 4 types of peppers and cucumbers.  I already have pepper buds on one plant.  Woohoo!


Middle box has a pumpkin in the middle and all types of tomatoes around the edges.




Keep your fingers crossed!!!

Sales Sales Sales

Today we hit the road to head out to the beach.  Brady talks all the time about the beach so when we asked him this morning if he wanted to go he immediately said YES!!  Before going to the beach we hit up the Carters outlet.  I heard there were great sales and of course I snagged a great coupon.  Today was the first day I was able to do something I didn't even think I would get to do.... shop for a girl baby...... my girl baby.  The clearance rack had some killer deals on it, literally I paid 97 cents for a cute sparkley girl shirt.  Here is the proof:

Do you see it....... its pink, and polka dots, and sparkles.  More than half of these pieces were less than $2, I am glad we made the trip.

And because Dudette doesn't yet have a closet, or a room for that matter, I hung it all here to gaze longingly at.  Cute huh???

Anyway, here are the rest of the pics from the day.  I managed to get another state sign without killing us:

And then we finally made it to the beach:

He was full of snuggles and hugs today.

He gathered quite the rock collection.

Day 3 of the 3 day PT mission

Ugh, thank god this is over.  Well, that's the thing, its not over, its only just beginning.  I started this whole stupid ass process more as a challenge to see if this "miracle" would work.  I never should have started because now we feel like we can't just stop and go back to diapers. 

Day 3 went significantly better than the last 2 days but we are NOT 100% trained like that lunatic said he would be.  We started out the day with 3 small poop accidents, mostly because he held it in for 2 days, but ended up actually pooping on the potty.  Yippee!!  And other than those 3 accidents we had 4 pee accidents, and only 1 was a big accidents, the other 3 were little tiny dampness ones.  He finally learned to relax on the potty and take care of business in one sitting.  We had lots of good potty trips today. So this afternoon after smoking crack we thought we would try to leave the house.  Jim was almost pissing himself with worry about it, and I pretended all was good, but I was also sick to my stomach with worry.  He made it to 2 stores and then without notice, peed all over at Buy Buy Baby.  He did manage to stay dry the rest of the time we were out.  So at this point we are super confused.  Do we totally give up and admit defeat and go back to diapers?  Do we continue on and act like we are totally comfortable with this?  Who the hell knows.  I guess we will take each day one at a time.  We decided for now, undies at home and diapers when out, Jim and I just aren't ready.  And also, he gives no verbal cues, just a pee pee dance that we can recognize.  So until he starts telling us he has to go, we just don't know.

Day 3 totals:
AM-6 accidents, 3 were poop
PM- 1 accident
7 good potty trips

In the end, I do NOT recommend the 3 day Potty Training guide by Lora Something or other

Cutest tushie on earth.

Poor Zoe can't catch a break.  He follows her everywhere.

"Mom, get that thing away from me.  I am focusing!"

Day 2 of the 3 day PT mission

Ugh, I wish we would have just quit yesterday.  But alas, another day had begun so why not go the distance.  I broke the "3 day potty training guide" rules and put him in a diaper last night so I could finally relax for a bit.  Thank goodness because it was full this morning.  First pair of undies went on and we were off and running.  I had a few things planned to keep us busy.  First up, we put the tent up in the living room.  He loved this, but insisted I be sitting in there with him.  Then we danced in the kitchen, and we also spent time coloring on the sliding glass door.  He went 2 hours with nothing, no accidents and no pees on the potty.  He was like a ticking time bomb and I was nervous the whole time.  Factor in a few more accidents and tons of piss on the floor, and that was our morning.  Thank goodness for nap time.  The frequency of accidents improved since yesterday, but he still isn't telling me he has to go.  He just stands there watching himself pee all over the floor.  I am about half way done what this woman swears will work, and I am not a believer.  I just can't imagine how its possible.  Hopefully this time tomorrow I am singing her praises instead of cursing her very existence.   And he used said tent as a urinal.   He seriously managed to get pee all the way up the walls of the tent, how is that possible?  That thing made its way to the washer, hopefully it comes out in one piece.  Jim said the tent smelled like a mortuary but I am thinking he meant convalescent home, it stunk!!

Nap time came and went, it was only 2 hours today, and he woke up dry.  I don't get how this is possible, but it is.  Just like yesterday he peed in the potty after waking up, but then not even 1 minute later the flood gates opened up and he pissed all over the hallway floor outside the bathroom.  Ugh!  The afternoon drug on and on.  Jim came home and we discussed just quitting.  He is no closer to being trained and we are getting frustrated.  But, with no plans for tomorrow we decided to just hang in there.  I wouldn't feel comfortable saying the crack-headed woman's plan doesn't work if we didn't complete her full training plan.  So, tomorrow is hopefully the last day of this godforsaken plan.  I do not see the light at the end of the tunnel and can't wait to clean my house.  But who knows, maybe he will dream about loving the potty tonight and tomorrow will knock our socks off.  Doubt it.


Total for the AM:
9 accidents
2 pees on the potty

Total for the PM:
10 accidents
2 pees on the potty

Also, he doesn't give a shit about getting m&ms and doesn't mind wearing piss filled undies.  Who is this kid?  I took a few pictures, but am too brain dead to bother getting up off the couch to put them on here.  If only I could drown my sorrows in Miller Lite, only 4 and 1/2 months until that's possible, but who is counting.

Day 1 of the 3 day PT mission

Think what you'd like, but I am here to tell you I am crazy.  Oh, you didn't know this already? Well its true, I am crazy.  My latest proof.... potty training.  I read a book that claims you can train any kid, boy or girl, over the age of 22 months in only 3 days.  I love a gimmick and can be sold on anything.  As a kid I wanted everything I saw advertised on infomercials.  Whether it was a crazy shampoo that would make your poker straight hair curly (didn't work and smelled funny), a curling iron that rotated and did something else I can't remember (didn't work and most likely took out a bunch of my hair), or a crazy plastic apparatus that said it would give you killer abs (didn't work, it was kinda scary).  Yes, I made my parents buy me all that crap.  So when I saw this book advertised online I just HAD to have it.  Luckily, I got it for free, so I won't feel so bad when it was just that..... a gimmick.  As soon as I got it I read the whole thing.

OK, I have my game face on.  I know the plan.  We are stocked up on potty chairs of various shapes and sizes, we have 21 pairs of undies (the book said 30 and I thought they were crazy, they were not, I need more), flushable toddler wipes, and chuck-it (chocolate).  We planned to start on Saturday of the 3 day weekend.  The book says you are to stay home for 3 straight days and so I felt bad that we would be stuck indoors for the whole weekend so I decided to start today, Thursday.  I was all pumped up to start.  First thing in the morning I show him the potties, the undies, tell him what a big boy he is, yada yada yada, and the day starts.  He goes 50 minutes without wetting his undies even a drop.  I am cocky at this point and think this is going to be easy.  Fast forward 4 more hours and there have been tears (mine), more pee on the floor then since Zoe was a puppy, and a bag of 18 pairs of piss soaked undies.  Thank god for nap time. 

The book gave you a few pieces of advice.  Get your house completely ready, catch up on laundry and cleaning, brush your teeth before getting them out of bed that first morning, and have everything set up.  Mostly because once you start there won't be 3 seconds where you can do anything but stare at your kids nether regions waiting for the piss to flow.  I should have ignored the cleaning part because I mopped and cleaned bathrooms yesterday and now there is piss everywhere and the whole first floor needs to be steamed cleaned.

I don't have the best memory, but one childhood memory I do have is of the first day my brother wore big boy undies.  Just last week I was laughing with my mom and brother about this day.  Haha, he needed a million pairs of undies, haha, mom you were so frustrated, haha, it took forever.  Little did I know this would be me a week later.  Holy crap, this is hard.  There should be a potty training camp you can send your kid to, I would pay a shit ton of money !

I got a reprieve when naptime came and he slept for almost 3 hours (insert my sheer joy here).  He woke up dry, how the hell is that possible??  I sit him down and he pees.  Not even 2 minutes later..... he pees on the floor.  Is this how the afternoon is going to go?  I seriously hope not.  I got a 45 minutes stretch and an hour stretch with no accidents.  Then came the accidents.  18 in total for the pm.  This included him peeing in the potty 7 times.  This kid seriously got his father's bladder.

And to think I get to start this all over again.  If by the end of 3 days he isn't peeing consistently in the pisser, I am going to kill the woman who wrote this craptastic book.

SO in total:
AM- 18 accidents in undies including one dump  and 6 pees in the potty
PM- 18 accidents in undies and 7 pees in the potty

What will tomorrow bring???  And yes, I must be crazy to try this again.

And of course some pictures.....

First pair of undies for the day.  How cute is that tushy?

This is about half way through the morning.

  Up from his nap and ready to go.

Loving on Zoe, but not sharing his cookies.

Practicing his letters.  I did everything I could to keep him in the kitchen this afternoon, and it worked.  He stayed dry the whole time we made this craft.

We used our scrapbook punch to cut out the stars and then he got to glue them all on.

Another scorcher

Again today it was 28 million degrees and I just couldn't bring myself to go outside to play.  So I tried entertaining him indoors.  It lasted about 45 minutes after his nap this afternoon before he was getting his shoes and saying "outside please mommy, thank you."  His manners are great, but he thinks because he says please and thank you in the same sentences, it guarantees him whatever it is that he is asking for. Here's what we did for that 45 minutes:

Trying out the paint on his leg. 

Can you tell he got a haircut?  I think he looks so much older.

After that got old he moved onto decorating his new "ramp".  I bought blackout material to sew to the back of his curtains.  I finally got to that this morning so he had the tube to play with.  We stuck stickers to it and colored with markers.  It actually works really well as a ramp.

And what day would be complete without a meltdown, this time over cookies.

So tonight I am upstairs folding laundry and mopping the bathroom floors.  I hear giggling so I look out the window and see this:

Yep, that measly little baby pool I complained about yesterday had 3 kids in it and they were having fun.  Jim didn't quite understand that regular diapers can't go in the pool, so by the time I looked his diaper weighed about 100lbs. and was seconds away from exploding.  They had a great time sitting in that thing.

Brady obviously had fun because he spent 45 minutes before falling asleep replaying his days.  Most of the conversation was about "swimming pool Macy Kendal" and I heard talk of green trucks, Maddux building a truck, popping bubbles, "its me Brady".  I didn't even need to turn on the tv, I used that as my entertainment.  Finally I heard "night night" and that was it, he was asleep.  What a funny little kid.  I always think its not possible to love him more, and then he does something cute like say "hi mommy" and hugs me.

Outside fun from yesterday

Yesterday it was about 28 million degrees so we did anything we could to stay cool.  Which involved this measly little baby pool.  We really need to step our game up this summer and get something better, but until then, we are making the best of it. 

Cutest story ever:  So we were out here playing when "the girls" Macy and Kendal came out to go to their friends to play.  He was kinda upset they weren't coming to play with him but I distracted him and we moved on with our fun.  When they were done at their friends and walking up the street he said in his super sweet voice "Hey guys, its my Brady!"  Ugh, it nearly made me cry.  And of course the girls couldn't come over then because it was dinner time, so he was sad again.  Luckily Daddy came home right afterwards so he could make a fuss over "its me Brady".  Sometimes I love my little chatter box, othertimes when he is asking "cookies please Mommy, thank you, cookies please mommy, thank you" at 8:30 am its not as fun.

I even got a spa pedicure.

He was trying to drink from it.

Chillin like a king.

And the afternoon wouldn't be complete without 8 pieces of watermelon.  This kid is going to turn into a watermelon.

And lounging on the couch before dinner.  Who does this kid think he is?