Back on Schedule

It's school time! 

 The kids have been giddy with excitement and now it's finally here.

There were some bumpy parts, getting classes and teachers worked out.  Joseph was originally put in a Spanish class, but switched because he doesn't speak Spanish.  Then he got put back in the Spanish class and had to be switched again.  In the end, he's in a dual-language class, so he'll learn some Spanish after all.

Elena had a teacher, but got moved to make room for all the new kids, but that teacher wasn't G/T certified and Elena really needs a G/T teacher so she got switched back.  When we got to school, on Monday, we had to find out which of the three possible teachers she'd be with.  I'm glad we talked with all of them at Meet the Teacher, last week, so we already knew what to expect and she could walk right in and get settled.

 It's so nice to have my days on a schedule, again.  I know when I need to get up, when I can run errands, when to have dinner ready, and when we all need to be in bed.  Sometimes, things get hectic, but I know what's going on and I feel like I've got a handle on things.

And none of that would be possible without this:

 Right before school started (seriously--Saturday or Sunday night) Lucy decided that it would be OK if she settled down to sleep at 10 or 11pm, instead of the 1 or 2am that she'd been doing all summer.  With that, she also started sleeping through the night, most nights, then wakes up for a light breakfast and goes back to sleep.

 

 I have gotten mountains of laundry washed, folded and put away, the last two mornings.  I feel so productive for the first time in months.


Why laundry?  Well, 1: the kids were out of not-school clothes, and 2: since the house is relatively empty I decided to just stick James in underpants, apply lots of juice, hang out in the bathroom all day, and deal with whatever laundry results.  It's past time and it just needs to be done.  He kept asking for a diaper, the first day, but after his initial frustration of having Mom say No has resigned himself.  He does pretty well if he's naked, which is what did the trick for Joseph, so we'll see.

The Post I meant to Write Two Weeks Ago

It's a new year and Joseph is 3 so that means... SUNBEAMS! He's been geared up for weeks, talking about Primary and all the things he gets to do in there. The day before he officially started there was a Primary PJ Party where all the kids got to meet their new teacher(s), put stickers on a prayer rock and color a journal. He had so much fun getting to do things with the big kids!


At church, the next day, we talked up Sunbeams and how Sunbeams do Big Kid Stuff and always use the potty and get to sit in Primary. We'd been doing this for days (weeks, really) to get him ready. As soon as the last prayer was said in the chapel he was off like a shot and halfway down the hall toward nursery, as usual. "Hey Joseph! Sunbeams are over here, in Primary! You don't go to nursery anymore!" This was Not a Good Thing, apparently. He didn't want to go in to the Primary room. "Come here, babe. I'll sit with you." So Mommy sat in one of the little seats on the front row while we waited for his teacher. "Look! There's your teacher--say hello. And there's Jack. Jack's in Sunbeams, too, just like you. Do want to go sit by Jack? Sure you can go sit by Jack! I'll see you later, sweetheart."

Meanwhile, Mr. Wiggle-pants (aka James) wanted to go wandering up and down the pews during Sunday School. After spending several fruitless minutes wrestling him, I decided it wasn't worth the effort and took him to consult the nursery leader. "16 months? He's playing just fine--go back to class, Mom" Score! (Really, he's only spent 4 months not in the nursery, so I knew he'd pick it back up pretty fast.)

After church, Elena's teacher dropped her off in Relief Society, then I got James and she got Joseph and we all headed to choir. Joseph showed me his hat that he colored and when I asked what he did in Sunbeams he shouted "I go potty!" Anything else? "Umm... We sing songs."

So, I guess hearing that Sunbeams use the potty was the last push that he needed to be declared Potty Trained. I haven't had to wash out underpants in a month or more and the number of wet pants dropped drastically in the last two weeks of December. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. After all, he started wearing undies because you have to use the potty to go camping with Daddy. Now he keeps them dry so he can go to Primary.

Movin' Right Along

Will did it at the beginning of the summer. Tess did it, a month ago. Danielle did it, two weeks later. Joseph has joined their ranks, now. We have one less kid in diapers! I can't say "no more diapers!" because James still wears them, but I can't say "he's in underpants!" quite yet, either. We'll get to that.

I'm not sure who decided what, or why, but it started a week ago, Friday. Our standard deal with Elena is that she can not have any accidents in the week leading up to the Daddy/Daughter Campout, because the campground restrooms take time to get to, and she has to practice planning ahead. At the last minute, I ran out to the store so that the campers would have cash on hand to pay for the campsite, and Elena begged to go with me. That poor grocery cart did not deserve what happened to it, and the deal was broken. Somehow, during the cleanup and bath at home, Joseph ended up in underpants. He did not seem in any way adverse to this development--perhaps because of promises to go camping for his birthday, in the spring--so he stayed there. I set the kitchen timer for two hours, and every two hours I 'd get him to hop up and run to the bathroom to do his thing. After a couple of hours, he knew that the beeper meant potty time, and that he could go on his own, too. He even happily repeated the performance for three days. One small hitch, though--dry pants percentage was ~90%, clean pants were only about 2%. And then, at some point, Joseph forgot to put his underpants back on, after visiting the potty, and was totally accident-free for the rest of the day. He knew he needed to go, ran to the bathroom, did his thing, and that was that.

So... we have a half-naked child running around our house, these days, though he does put the rest of his clothes on if we need to go out. He managed to stay presentable at church, today. The process was much more laid back than earlier attempts with him, too. Don't worry, Regan, the diapers Tess passed on to us will still get used, it'll just take a little time for James to grow into them.

Movin' on Up

Joseph has made the move to underpants! There's still ~1 accident a day, but that's about it. We still have backup diapers for long outings, since he's never used a real toilet, only the training potty, but that's OK. He's totally dry at night, though, and wakes up and uses the potty first thing, all by himself.

It Gets Harder?!

We've been busy-but-not-busy for the last little bit, here. Joseph got sick, last week, and the effects lingered much longer than expected, especially for the amount of energy he was still displaying. It's possible that James caught it from him because he's suddenly super spitty. To top it off, James is going through a growth spurt and wants to do little beyond eat, sleep and scream. Joseph also has some kind of viral thing that's giving him sores at the corners of his mouth. We went to the doctor, today, and he came up neg. for strep, but she gave him a prescription to help him feel better while we wait for whatever it is to blow over. Plus, Elena is earning back her Big Girl Panties. She went from forgetting to go, to "forgetting" to go, to not caring, last month, and had to spend a few days in diapers and a week in training pants. She started back with the plain BGPs, today, and has to keep them dry to earn movies, helping with dinner, taking links off our advent paper chain, and her daily peice of Halloween candy. As if this was not enough insanity, I'm working on gifts for family, there's been an outbreak of sobbing at every tiny thing, and I have a talk to give in church on Sunday. Sigh...

I'll put up a ton of pictures soon.

Joseph Meets the Potty

I've been feeling for a while that's it's time for Joseph to become acquainted with the potty. With a bit of impetus from Callie and Will, I pulled it out, last week. Joseph loves his little potty and loves to sit on it. Mommy, however, doesn't have the same sort of uninterrupted time that she did when Elena was learning, so we're doing it a little differently, this time. I usually do a half diaper change on bath nights and send Joseph up to the bath bare bottomed, so on Saturday night I introduced a potty-sit, as well. Right away we had a success! Everyone cheered and clapped and I let Joseph flush all by himself. I think we will have to up the number of baths he takes just so he can sit on the potty, too. He needs them anyway (he plays hard!) so this is in no way a loss.

One Month

Today marks one month since Elena left the last vestiges of baby-hood behind. I have to say that I love having her potty trained. Even with the accidents, even with her need to announce her trips and the seeming inability to go without us responding to tell her it's ok, it's so much better than changing diapers. I'm a little, sad, though, to see this stage left behind. She's growing up so fast. She's brave, and smart, and clever, and into everything. She loves to dance, go high on the swings, fly through the air as I twirl her around. She wants to fly like Tinkerbell does and goes fast on her tricycle down little hills. She has so much energy, jumping around the floor and off the couch and her bed. Half the time she's sweet and caring, showering me with hugs and kisses and saying please and thank you and sorry. The other half she's driving me crazy, running and shouting and crying over the tiniest little thing. I got to thinking about personality colors the other day, and I think she might be orange. She's adventurous and outgoing, friendly with everyone she meets. I'm very blue, though, quiet and sensitive, and I think this may be where some of our head-butting comes from. I don't know how to deal with her when all the energy comes out. I've tried to channel it, but that only works for a little while, before I get frustrated. I'd love to take her out but it's hard when it's hot, you don't have a car, and you don't have spare cash. I just wish I could find something we could do to give her an outlet to her energy without driving me up the wall.

Big Girl Shopping Expedition

Yesterday was Panties Shopping Day! Gwamma came to meet us and we went up to Tita's Target to meet Tita and Tito for panties shopping. Tita clocked out and spent her break with us while we debated the merits of Cinderella vs. all the Princesses, Dora vs. Hello Kitty, and bold polka dots vs. pastel with lace. Elena personally chose Dance Princesses and Dora, while I added Hello Kitty and Gwamma added the bold variety pack (polka dots included). We also picked out a few new dresses. We had a lot of fun and want to thank Gwamma, Tita and Tito for making it so special. Elena's doing a great job remembering to use the potty, and she really has very few accidents. Here's to 4 days with no diapers!

Is That It?

We started showing Elena the potty and how it works about a year ago. We've done spurts of more intense potty teaching (load up on juice and spend the day in the bathroom) every now and again as my moods have shifted around, but never really enforced anything for more than two or three days. This morning, trying to get Elena out of Jonathan's way so he could finish up his paper, I asked her what she wanted to do.

"Go shopping... get panties."

"If we go shopping for panties, sweetheart, Gwamma's going to want to go, too (that's her Gwamma Thing, taking the little girls to buy big-girl panties)."

"And Tita (my mother-in-law) and Tito (my father-in-law) too."

"What about Popa (my dad)?"

"He go inda office."

"OK... You know, if we go buy panties, you'll have to use the potty."

And she did. We broke out the Tropicana Fruit Squeezes (water with just enough juice to make it taste really good) to keep the momentum going and she downed more than one bottle. We had hot dogs and Freezy Beans (still-frozen green beans--she loves them) while watching Cinderella. There was one accident, but she ran to the potty and finished there, without my reminding her. She went six times, in fact. All of those, she recognized ahead of time that she needed to go, and she went. We're going to do this again, tomorrow, and Sunday too, and (hopefully) she'll be in plastic pants for nursury and we can go on our shopping trip on Monday. I know it won't be a total piece of cake, but I'm amazed at what having her make up her mind can do.