Lent

I have decided that I am going to give up unfinished projects for Lent.
This means that I either need to finish the project or give it up entirely.
My priority list is

• My article with my professor from last Fall
• Unpacking our remaining boxes
• Finishing house projects that we have materials for already but haven't done
• Craft projects

I will have to give up some of my "leisure time" (little though it is) as a sacrifice. I am hoping that I can be successful with this.

I wonder...

I'm trying to decide if Josie is getting ready for a growth spurt or if she had other motives this morning. She has been eating all morning. She had some dry cereal, a poptart, and some orange juice for breakfast with her brothers.
We took the boys to preschool and she came home and had some Saltine crackers, canned pears, an entire hot dog, some Whoppers, and I can't even remember what else.
There is the possibility that she was mostly after the Whoppers and would have kept asking for food until I allowed her to have some.

PT Update (Since this is a huge thing around our house)

Doug (I almost hate to say it for jinxing myself) has had six consecutive dry and clean days. He has earned two pairs of Star Wars underwear (one of which he wore today to school).
Andy, had an accident on the playground on Saturday. So he earned his first pair of Star Wars underwear after three consecutive days of dry and clean last night. We gave him the benefit of the doubt because he did have an accident last night when he was downstairs playing and didn't make it upstairs to the bathroom (he forgot there was a closer bathroom downstairs). However, today he was playing and very clearly wasn't trying to get to the potty when he had his accident. So tomorrow he will start back on day one for earning his next pair of Star Wars underwear.
I am encouraged though that we are having more dry and clean days so hopefully we are getting closer to being past potty training.

Minds of three year olds

So I have heard some interesting things lately.

1. My boys still think it is Valentine's Day because the numbers on the calendar at school are still hearts since it is still February
2. Doug is scared of snakes (not quite sure why...but he might have been watching a National Geographic Special with Jim....)
3. Reasoning between three year olds is interesting
   

I'm three for three....

Yes, apparently all of my children were conspiring to drive me crazy last week.
Josie was the penny.
Andy was the button (he even ripped it off his shirt before he stuffed it up his nose...it wasn't like I just had a random button laying around that he happened to find).
Doug was a little more creative. When we were getting ready for the wedding I had already showered the other two children that morning so I was getting them dressed. Doug was waiting to shower with Jim. Jim was cleaning up the lines of his beard so Doug decided he'd like to try shaving too. He picked up a razor and managed to create two small cuts right at the edge of his lips. Yes they bled a lot, but fortunately they did stop bleeding before we reached the church.
I was beginning to think that I was going to have to teach them all the phrase "foreign objects do not go in any orifices."

Party Animals

We went to some friends house over the weekend because some other people we knew were getting married.
We had a great time. The kids loved sleeping in their sleeping bags (Josie doesn't quite have the concept yet....she either laid down under the sleeping bag and often perpendicular to the direction she needed to be).
Our friends have a pool table so the kids loved rolling the balls around. Jim and Peter even developed the concept of "midget pool" but you would have to ask them about it because there are many rules that kept developing during play.
We visited a playground where they kids had a marvelous time and kept all four adults very busy trying to keep track of where everyone was in all of the twists and turns.
We went to the wedding and it was the first one for the kids to attend. Doug and Josie fell asleep in the car on the way to the church so Andy was the only one I really got to prep for what was going to happen. Of course he was then the one who slept through the entire service. Fortunately there were enough interesting things at the front to keep Doug entertained and Josie drew on all the paper we would let her have in the pew. Fortunately it was also a good Methodist wedding and the ceremony only lasted 20 minutes so it was perfect for our attention span.
We threw rose petals as they came out of the church but Doug was excited enough about it that he kept throwing them before the couple came out so random people gave him lots of rose petals. He also picked some of the church flowers out of their garden to give to me.
I think I might have to see about getting some of the professional photographer's candid shots from the reception because my children ended up in a lot of the pictures. There was a dance floor and my kids were out on it for every song except the special first couple dance. We went to watch the couple cut the cake and I made the kids sit down so that they could see without the urge to run into the photo. So of course the photographer took a candid shot of them all sitting on the floor. Then we carried cake back to our table. Unfortunately we did not grab a sit-down table fast enough so we were at a standing table. So I made the kids sit on the floor to eat their cake. So of course the photographer got a picture of that too.
We literally had to rip the kids away from the dance floor to go back to our friends house for the night. The entire way back Andy was wailing that he didn't want to miss anything, he wanted to know how it ended, he didn't want to leave. Doug was trying to reason with him that it was late and that he could just call up and go to the "married" house to see it and that someday they each would get married. Andy's reply was that he was not old enough to have a real phone number so that would not work.

Check Check

Retrieved button from up child's nose without having to go to the ER....check.

I got paid!

...to do a diaper change.
So it turned out that it was a penny and it only took 24 hours to move through the digestive system. I'm pretty sure that she only ate one coin so now I can mark the "child swallowed random item" off my parenting checklist to go with the "child bit deodorant" and "child sprayed random chemical in mouth". When you have three young children who climb, explore, and generally are curious about the world things are bound to happen. At least that is the excuse I am using.

A Nickel for your thoughts....

I'm not even sure where to begin with how today, and in particular this afternoon went. Soooo....I guess I'll start at the beginning.

• We were a little on the late side to preschool, but not bad. They were still running the car rider line so I was able to push the boys out and keep on driving.
• Josie was a little clingy and needy in the morning but I was able to get a fair amount of work done.
• We went to pick up the boys and that was when the fun began (depending on your perspective of things). Doug was wearing pants that are a little lose. I suppose it could be partly due to underwear not being as thick as a pull-up but I think he may have also grown a bit taller and lost a little around the middle in the process. His pants kept falling down. If I had known how bad it was this in the morning I would have put a belt on the child but I hesitated to do it because I didn't want to impede the child getting to the potty. Anyway, he kept showing off his butt and then when we got out to a grassy area alongside the walkway to the car both he and Andy decide that they want to pee...outside. Now a friend of their usually goes over in a corner behind a bush in this general area but the grass was wet and squishy from rain in the morning and they just both dropped their pants and started peeing while standing in full view of the whole world. My hands were full of backpacks and papers. Fortunately the only people to see them were a little girl from their class (who apparently has older brothers) and her mother who I had been chatting with on the way out. We had a long discussion about privacy on the way home.
• Then at home the kids ate lunch fairly well, but Josie is refusing to go for a nap.
• Andy decides he wants to pee outside again so I send him to the back yard. I thought he was going to come straight back in because he didn't have his shoes on but he proceeds to run around and play in the back yard in socks in the still slightly wet ground.
• I get him back in clothes and shoes and he has a poop accident (his first in about a week). I'm trying to get him and his clothes cleaned up and herd Doug and Josie inside and the phone rings. Too many things going on at once!!!!
• Fortunately getting all of them inside is a good thing because about 5 minutes later it begins to pour down rain.
• While inside Josie comes up to me acting like she has a bad taste in her mouth. She says "money....get it" while pointing to her mouth.
• I talked with Jim and I did get Josie to say that she ate some money. I have no clue what size coin and all I can think about is how small she is and what if she swallowed a quarter....So I call poison control because it is the first number I could find and I really wanted a second opinion about letting it pass versus taking her some place.
• They take down a bunch of information and suggest going to get an X-ray to make sure that it isn't lodged somewhere. We ended up going to the emergency room (it was the closest X-ray I could think of) and Jim met us there.
• Sure enough, Josie swallowed a nickel and it shows up bright and shiny on the X-ray. The ER doc called someone else to consult and they decide that the nickel is small enough and already in her tummy that she might pass it on her own. If we don't see it in a week we are supposed to go get another X-ray.
• Oh, and Poison Control does follow-up calls. I can understand the call to see what the prognosis was but when I said that we were supposed to wait for it to pass the person said they would call back in about a week. I was thinking...do you just need to put a resolution? Are you going to come search my house to make sure that I am not leaving money around for my children to swallow? What's the point if I am now in consultation with a doctor and you are at some 1-800 center. Anyway it seems annoying and slightly intrusive to have a second call back. Hopefully I'll spot the coin and be able to call them sooner (I already know that pink crayon takes about 4 days to get through the digestive system...)

It has been a day to say the least and hopefully my children did not pick up any horrible language from their mother because I did say a few choice words in their presence today.

General Update & more pictures

I found the song that was bugging me on Friday.
Kids have slightly runny noses so hopefully that won't complicate Doug's ears recovering fully.
We got home safely. The kids were good in the car and we have definitely justified actually buying Star Wars: Clone Wars on DVD (or as the kids call it...that movie with the good and bad robots). We have watched it at least once a day since we bought the disc.
I didn't get quite as much grading done as I would have liked but made a little bit of progress.
Andy did great over the weekend with one true accident that he was trying to get to the potty on time. Doug did so-so. He had a few accidents where he was playing with a particularly engaging toy too long and then he had a couple where he was running for the third bathroom because the other two were occupied when he realized he needed to go. Hopefully being home and back to routine will help.
Oh, and the picture of Josie in her car seat her eyes are closed because she is saying "CHEEEEEESE"

Beach!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!
I got a new Mother's Necklace with three children on it (I had one with two before...) and Jim got a special cake. It is chocolate with mint frosting in the shape of a heart. Yum!

Doug and Andy ended up having two parties because they are enrolled in two classes at school so that they are five days a week. They came home with candy as I expected but a lot less of it was chocolate than I expected (darn...less chocolate for me to eat but on the other hand that's better for me in that I won't be as tempted to steal candy from them). I was realizing how kids' Valentine's cards have changed. When I was little the cards were pretty simple and some kids put a few candy hearts in their little envelopes. Almost every card that Doug & Andy came home with had something with it whether it was a pencil, a fake tattoo, a sticker, or some candy. Doug took cards that had a picture of a car with stickers you could use to personalize it and Andy had stickers that made a puzzle picture of Lego vehicles.

Ahhhhh!!!

Ok, Josie passed her ear re-check with flying colors.
Doug did not...
He failed half of the hearing test again and the ENT said his ear drums were depressed (or something like that). He was within normal limits on a listening test for normal speech. So we have a nasal spray and go back in 6 weeks. The funny part was in the space of about two or three sentences the ENT mentioned coming back at 6 weeks, then he said 8, and then he said 4. So I asked him which one was when we should come back. The ENT said he was waiting to see what the nurse wrote down and she said she was wondering which one was right too. So the ENT said, "Let's do 6 weeks that's the average of all of those."

Oh, and we dropped Jim off at work this morning so that we could pick him up and head directly out of town. This meant the kids were up early and we had enough time to grab some breakfast at McD's. While we were there I heard a song playing that I like and had forgotten about and have no idea what group sang it. So of course now I can't remember enough of the lyrics to actually look it up and it is going to bother me until I either find it or get something else to focus on.

Scary

Yes I love having independent children and it is exciting to see how Doug & Andy are becoming more capable. Sometimes however, that excitement reaches a new level. They had dental hygiene week at school last week. So now they, especially Andy, have started spontaneously brushing their own teeth at random hours of the day. That wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that they put an outrageous amount of toothpaste on the brush. They are so so with spitting so I really don't want them swallowing that much toothpaste (even the toddler kind because even it has fluoride in it).
I also just discovered that Doug had apparently pooped in the potty. That's a good thing...except that he tried to wipe himself off with about a third of a roll of toilet paper (maybe a slight exaggeration...but not by much). There are enough other things I have going on with this house besides thinking about possibilities of plumbing issues. Let's hope that it all goes down. I did actually fish out some of it....

To-do list

Today is a to-do list day. I have just a ton of stuff to get done. (yeah...blogging is not really on the "to-do" list but oh well...a short break).

• catch-up on grading the classes I am teaching
• catch-up on inputting the attendance for the classes I am teaching
• figure out what I need to be doing in each of the classes I am taking (this could be its own to-do list by itself)
  
• clean the living room
• get Josie (with brothers in tow and taking into account potty training needs) to the doctor for the recheck to make sure her ear infection is clear(ing)
• While at the doctor make sure to ask if Doug's files have been sent to the ENT for the recheck on his ears and hearing tomorrow
  
• Get the kitchen in order
• Get the laundry done
• start thinking about packing for going to the in-laws this weekend
• make sure the boys get to do the last little bit for their Valentines to give to friends for their party tomorrow (and Friday)
  

Josie!

Someone's moving in!

Someone is finally moving in the house across the street from us. It has been empty for a very long time. The previous person moved out less than a month after we moved in (it wasn't because of us...)
Anyway, I meet her father yesterday. She is a single school teacher.
Unfortunately in the space of time in which I stood on the edge of the street talking to him the kids were downstairs by themselves (I was just taking the old kitty litter out). Andy had been helping me by using the small tank vacuum to suck up kitty litter in the hallway.

When I got back I could "smell" the vacuum and they had dumped about a third of a big bag of cat food into the cat dish and all over the hallway floor and then managed to suck up about 4 cups of it into the vacuum hose. They were just starting to drop individual pieces of cat food into the cat water which Josie had dumped from the small bowl into the big tub that is there to prevent spills on the carpet.
Another example of kids being "help more work".

Raising Star Wars Fans (and other issues)

Jim laid down the law with the boys last night. When Doug said that he pooped in his underwear because he was too busy playing Jim and I pretty much decided that that was it and that it was time to be potty trained completely.
So today Andy did great and Doug got 2 out of 3 bowl movements in the potty (sorry to be specific for those of you easily grossed out...but when you get to be a parent these things matter). Both boys got all pee in the potty between a combination of them figuring out that they needed to go and Jim and I telling them that it had been awhile and perhaps they should try. So progress there!

We got Star Wars: Clone Wars from Netflix also and are now in the middle of the third time watching it. We had already started watching the series on Cartoon Network so both Doug & Andy are in to it. We have long talks during the show about good robots versus bad robots and Doug has informed me that he has a green "Light Saver" while Andy says he has two "Knight Swords" with one being green and one being blue and that he does "great moves" to fight off bad guys. They now want various Star Wars themed paraphenalia such as the Star Wars backpack that one of the other kids in their class has, and they are both coveting the Star Wars underwear we walked past in Wal-Mart....so I do have a bribe for potty training.

TGIF

I'm so glad it actually is Friday now.
I felt like yesterday should be Friday and that this should be at least the end of the second week of February, if not the end of the third week....not the end of the first week in February.
It's been a long week (or long two weeks if you include the last part of January).
All three kids and Jim have been on antibiotics. I think I am getting better but it would help if I could get more sleep (perhaps then I would be less emotional...which is probably contributing to it seeming like a long week).
Highlights (or low points depending on how you want to phrase it):
Monday- Jim used a sick day to go to the doctor and was told to stay home two days to help recover.
Tuesday-I went to the dentist for a filling (forgetting that the last time I had dental work the Novocain lasted 9 hours) so I got my filling, came home and threw-up, skipped the classes I was supposed to teach (I had others who covered them, sort of), slept for 90 minutes so that the Novocain actually wore off, but also managed to bit my lip while it was still numb so I am still recovering from a fat lip...I didn't know I had bitten it until I saw blood.
Wednesday- Andy got fillings and did great, but both boys pooped in their underwear right at the end of our evening at church so that took some clean-up
Thursday- I spent about an hour crying after the director of the preschool asked me to put the boys in pull-ups when they came...at least until they were doing pretty well with things at home. Apparently Andy pooped in his underwear at preschool and it was messy. They apparently didn't realize that there were also pull-ups in the kids' backpacks and sure enough when they got home Andy didn't want to put underwear back on. He did pee in the potty but it felt like I had lost a week's worth of potty training. I wrote all sorts of blog posts but didn't publish them.
Friday- I don't know about today yet. I was extremely conflicted between the benefits of taking the boys to preschool in pull-up versus keeping them home in underwear. Doug loves going to preschool so I knew he would want to go. Andy enjoys it while he is there but is not quite as in to it. I ended up taking them and Andy ended up staying.

Do they have kids of their own?

Sometimes I wonder if designers have children of their own.
Case in point...we have a very cute set of overall that are 24 months size for Josie. Someone gave them to us. We do wear them; however, you have to undress the child every time. There are no snaps in the pants and the shirt actually has loops for the overall straps to go through. So no matter whether you are changing a diaper or having a child sit on the potty you have to completely undress him or her.

Also, now that the boys are (mostly) wearing underwear I have noticed that some crazy person decided that the really cool picture should go on the back of the underwear and not the front. So 90% of the time that Doug & Andy put the underwear on by themselves they put it on backwards so that they can see the picture.

More Potty Progress

We have pretty much continually been in underwear since Wednesday afternoon. We have had moderate success. Doug sometimes goes on his own and will stay dry if you remind him to go.
Andy seems to do best when you make sure there will be pee there and help him to relax. He is getting better about relaxing faster too.
Tonight during the Super Bowl I told him to go potty. He told me he wanted to pee on the grass. I asked him if he thought he could do that (he has not had success standing up to pee so far) and he told me he couldn't do that with the door closed. LOL
So, knowing that we live on a pretty quiet street, I let him out the front door. He was only in his underwear so he stood at the edge of the porch, got his penis out the fly of the underwear, thrust his little hips out, and peed on one of the bushes.
Then Josie wanted to pee on the grass. I took her outside and set her down on the grass. It was a little, but not too much, chilly outside. I told her to squat down and pee and she looked at me like I was crazy...then said "potty."