Day 13...... Friday the 13th!

Seriously! 3 times in 7 days!! Tonight we were doing arts and crafts at the table and Johnny was in my lap. I was trying to put him on the floor so I could draw some apples and worms that the older kids needed to cut out for their craft. Well when I tried to put him down he lunged forward and bagged his lip on the table. Now we have our 3rd and hopefully FINAL busted lip for the week! I am blaming Friday the 13th for this one! Tomorrow I am going to line them up and get a photo of their lips.....More Chaos inside the Comeaux house!

ANNABELLE


I can't wait for UNIFORMS! After 6 shirts, 3 skirts, and 2 pairs of tights (and I am NOT exaggerating even a little bit.) We finally settled on the pink stripe dress with about 10 minutes to spare. YAY for uniforms next year!!!

Even though she makes me want to pull my hair out sometimes, I still love her more and more with every passing day.

Her poor lip.

This morning as my bug was walking out the door for school. I screamed from across the house. "ANNA STOP!"
She turned and looked at me......"What mom?"
"Sweetie you have no shoes on."
"Thanks a lot dad. You were going to let me go with no shoes?"
Gotta love when dad gets the blame instead of mom!!!

JUDGE


School time.

I love this picture. Judge looks like he is busting a move :).

Today we worked on patterns.

Brown, Blue, Green. Brown, Blue, Green. Brown.......

More patterns!!!

Arts and Crafts time!

Judge and I made a sail boat!

JOHNNY


John Paul worked on his colors today!

I almost forgot.... I was so proud of Johnny this morning. Dennis called me downstairs this morning because Johnny pooped in the potty!!! Dennis noticed "he was doing his business" and brought him to the potty and he went!! YAY! I can't say I am going to start potty training just yet but I am super proud and I think he will be A LOT easier to train compared to Judge. He sees Judge going and is always talking about the potty. So we will see. We may have another round of potty boot camp coming up this summer!

I got some great advice from a friend of mine on homeschooling both the boys together, and I tried it out. When Judge and I were doing something I made sure Johnny was around and involved in a small way. Also when working with Judge, I found something similar to do with Johnny. Like when Judge and I were working with patterns I gave Johnny blocks and started helping him sort them by colors. It seemed to work really well. She pointed out that as long as Johnny was around he would learn from the older ones and he would pick up on things! So grateful to have great moms/friends with great advice.

Johnny working with shapes while Judge and I made a boat out of paper!

LIAM


Yes he is always HAPPY!

Don't you want to squeeze him.

Liam and Rabbit

Road Block

Yes I am very proud my little man is pee trained, BUT the poop part isn't happening. He has been using the potty for almost 3 weeks and hasn't pooped once on it. He continuies to wait until he is in a pull-up or he just uses his big boy pants. I understand this will take time. Everyone keeps telling me that poop take longer to learn, but I am pregnant and cleaning poop out of underwear....well lets just say I am at the end of my rope.

I had hoped that if we just kept with it then something would click, but that hasn't worked. I have been positive. I have begged, hey I have even tried shaming him. Nope nothing. So on Wednesday we took Annabelle to the toy store (she learned her phone number and address). We picked out some really cool new toys and I have them hanging in the bathroom. Do you think he cares, NO! He is content to set there and look at them for the rest of his life.

I am at a road block. What do I do? Do I buy a bigger toy and try bribing him with that? Do I make him sit there until he goes? Or do I just take him outside and hose him down every time he poops his pants and hope he gets it then? (<-- this is Dennis' choice.)

UGH. He HAS to be COMPLETELY trained by September! He needs to learn to poop on the potty, use it without the potty cushion, and learn not to completely undress every time he needs to go. There is still so much he needs to learn and I see the time slowly slipping away from me. I am NOT giving up, he will get it. Yes this is a little frustrating but it was frustrating in the beginning when we started out, and look at how far we have come. This will just take time and I need to accept that. I am sure it will get a lot easier once I do.

YES HE IS!

Well I can say that Judge IS potty trained. He has a few accidents here and there and he has not learned how to poop on the potty, but he is completely "pee" trained!!

I am still not sure how I am going to teach him that the poop belongs in the potty, but I am making him clean up his messes and I will just keep reminding him that he needs to make poop on the potty. I am also promising him a trip to the toy store when he finally poops on the potty.

I am so happy I did not give up. There were several days where I wanted to say "I quit" and I wanted to put him back in diapers, but I DIDN'T!

There is light at the end of the tunnel if you are potty training. DON'T GIVE UP! It will happen. I will not lie, it's not going to happen over night or when you want it to. Stick with it and when you feel like you are going to pull your hair out just remember you are strong and you can do it. If your a mom it should be a piece of cake compared to giving birth and all those mid night feeding. Potty training has nothing on sleep deprivation.

I am so proud to see our work has paid off. It was only a week and a half but it did seem like an eternity. WE DID IT!!!

The next challenge is going to be seeing if you can go out of the house. We are starting slow. I took him to sit with the ladies on Monday and I brought his potty cushion and he went while we were there. But I am not carrying a potty seat around forever. He is going to need to learn to use big potty seats without the cushion we have at home.

Potty Boot-Camp Day 5

OK things are getting easier. No he isn't peeing on the potty, but I feel this huge weight has been lifted. I think it is because I have accept that it's going to take time! Oh well, he pees on the floor, I am NOT going back. By accepting all this it taken ALL of the frustration out of the process. He will eventually get tired of cleaning it up and then start using the potty, if not.....oh well. I can't make him learn I can just make it possible for him to learn.

He is continuing to stop the pee when it starts coming out, but he is still not letting it come out while he is on the potty. So we get damp underpants every 30 minutes. I am trying to find a way to explain to him that it is good to stop it when not on the potty, but he needs to let it out once he makes it to the potty. I will do more reading tonight and see if I can find the answer. Maybe another mom has dealt with this.

Another thing that I am trying to decide on is what do I do when he stops the pee and sits on the potty. Do I make him sit until he pees or do I set a timer. The reason I am having a problem deciding is because he can hold it for hours. I put him on the potty after he starts and make him sit there but he holds it in until I let him up or pees just a little and then ask to get up. But if I set a timer, he gets up then right after he gets his underpants, he wets them a little.

I did make a reward wall today with all his match box cars (see picture below). I am hopeing this gives him a little more incentive in the bathroom.

Lets hope something clicks tomorrow.

Potty Boot-Camp Day 4

I have to just keep reminding myself that it is ONLY day 4, and on day 30 I will continue to remind myself it's ONLY day 30.

Today was easier, but yet harder at the same time. Judge his gotten a LOT better about sitting on the potty when he hears his timer go off. This is a great thing. He will go in and sit on the potty, I set another timer, and when it beeps he can get up. I still join him from time to time in the bathroom, but it was nothing like we were doing when we first started.

I think he has learned to hold it to a certain degree. We had to take Annabelle to the soccer field today and he held it from the time we left the house until the time we got back home (45 minutes). He even kept reminding me, from the back seat, "We don't pee pee in our car seats."

He is also getting great at stopping when he starts peeing and he is not on the potty. The bad thing is that he stops when he is on the potty too. He only peed 2 1/2 times today. 1 1/2 on and 1 off, but the time he peed off he was inside the bathroom! :)

I know, "How did he pee a 1/2 a time?" Well we were sitting on the potty and he would start and the minute he saw it coming out he would stop it. This happened about 4 times in the span of an hour. By the 4th time I had had enough and had to walk out of the bathroom. Thank God it was bath time because that gave me a great excuse to "give up" for the day. I know he thought all of this was a big game, because he would start peeing and when he or I noticed he would instantly stop, and start laughing. I then would beg and he would laugh even harder. So I gave up begging.

I think I still need to learn that just because I THINK he needs to go doesn't mean he does. Also I need to keep reminding myself that just because I KNOW he has to go that doesn't mean he is going to. He has only been peeing about 3 times a day so I think I may have to lay off a little bit. I do want him trained but I am going to have to just let it happen. There is no use stressing us both out or getting aggravated over it. I am not saying that I won't get aggravated. I need to try harder to remind myself in those moments that this isn't going to last forever, and that he will one day get it.

It is very very easy to get discouraged. You want them to train so bad. But it's not going to happen until they make up their mind that they want to. By the 8th time in the bathroom I do start to doubt myself. Can I do this? Is it worth it? Is he even getting this? But I have to put those thoughts out of my head. I know I can. Women do it every day all over the world.

So with everyday that passes I end up getting a little more encouraged that I can do this. Not because he is peeing on the potty but because I haven't just given up and put him back in diapers. I almost did but in the end I didn't throw in the towel. I have stuck with it. I know he will not be in diapers when he graduates high school, so who cares if it takes 3 months to train him. Thank God I started now I guess. I just have to keep thinking positive. Negativity will get me NO where. It will just make me want to pull my hair out.

Leaving it up to God and Judge tomorrow, and praying he doesn't flip out about having to wear a pull-up to mass.

Potty Boot-Camp Day 3

Letting go.

I have learned a very valuable lesson today in potty training.

"Just because I want him to pee, that doesn't mean he is going too."

What I mean by this is, no matter how much I wanted him to pee on the potty it wasn't going to happen unless he wanted to too. I could make him sit on the potty but unless he needed or wanted to go, nothing I was doing was going to MAKE him go. I could beg and I could bribe, but none of that really mattered. I just had to let go. I had to realize that he was not going to make it every time. I really had to accept that this is going to take time. Yes I wanted it to happen overnight, but I want to win the lottery too. We don't always get what we want.

Today was easier, but he only peed on the potty once out of the 3 times he went. I think he is learning to hold it. I mean after a gallon of grape juice only peeing 3 times. The kid must have a bladder the size of Texas. But progress is progress, I will take it where I can find it these days.

We did try the new routine today and it worked A LOT better for mom. We started with 10 minutes on and 10 minutes off. The good thing is that mom was not in the bathroom all day. I set the timer and told him to listen and when it went off he could get up. So he would go in and sit. I only went in about every 3 times and I would read a book or spend a few minutes with him. He was pretty happy with this for about the first 3 hours. Then it became too much for him he was tired of sitting in the bathroom. He was becoming restless and I had to be in there more and more. I didn't mind but he was becoming more and more irritable and frustrated.

So we then started going every 15 to 20 minutes and that worked a little better, but he still wasn't peeing. He had held it for almost 6 hours. I was desperate for a shower so I put him on the potty in my bathroom while I jumped in. What do you know. He started peeing! It was going everywhere, he was screaming, and I was covered in soap from head to toe. I jumped out of the shower (almost busted my butt) to try and help him hold it down (his penis). When I did though he stopped and didn't want to start again. I sat and sat and sat and nothing happened so I told him good job and we went back down stairs. I turn my back for 2 seconds and when I turn around he had finished peeing ALL OVER THE FLOOR. I was so frustrated, but I refused to let him see. I got him a towel and the laundry basket. I made him clean the floor, then change his under pants, and finally put the laundry basket away. I did let him know that I was very disappointed in him and that I was not happy at all.

I think we are still going to change things up again tomorrow. I think I will give him longer time in between when he gets off the potty and when he goes back on. I also think naps are going to be coming back tomorrow. He is just getting too tired. By 2 he is beat and sick of the whole "potty" thing. So I think for both our sanity we will be doing naps tomorrow. A nice little break in the middle of the day sounds heavenly to me.

This does seem like a never ending battle. I have to teach him to pee on the potty. Then to poop. Then hold it down. Then to stand and pee. When I start thinking of everything that is still left to do I do get very discouraged. But I am committed. I will NOT go back to diapers. I can not say there aren't moments that I start replaying my old excuses in my head. But I have to stay strong. I have to stick to it. I can't give up. He isn't going to train himself.

This is a learning process for both of us. So I will continue to change things. And I will continue to hope a pray that something sticks.

Potty Boot-Camp Day 2

They say the first day you spend with a new routine is often known as the "Honey Moon" stage. Well they are right. The first day was a little trying, but after staying dry all day it was going to take A LOT to discourage me.

Exhausting, frustrating, and just plain bad doesn't even begin to describe my day. I thought today would be fun, and we would stay on the yellow brick road to success. WRONG WRONG WRONG. It was torture. By the end of the day my patience with everyone was totally shot.

Judge has learned that if he doesn't go we can play in the bathroom and he will have 100% of moms attention. So he would start to go I would get excited and he would stop. This in turn made me want to lay down on the rail road tracks behind the house, because I felt he was doing it on purpose. And that was just one problem from today.

I thought I had a great game plan going in. We would spend 15 minutes on the potty then take a 15 minute break if nothing happened and an hour break if something did. Well that all went out the window by by 10 am.

The problem with this is that we made the potty so much fun he wants to sit on it. When we get in there before you know it an hour has passed and nothing has happened. After all that I don't want him to get up 1. because I know the 4 glasses of juice he just had has to be ready to come out and 2. because we have been in there so long I don't want him or me to feel like the hour we spent in there was for nothing. So we sit and wait and sit and wait until I want to pull my hair out. Then I let him up and what happens the minute I turn my back? HE PEES ON THE FLOOR! Something has to change. I am trying to come up with a new plan for tomorrow because what I did today is NOT working. It is just driving mommy crazy!

He did pee on the potty 3 out of the 5 times he peed today, which is a very good thing, but we spent over 5 hours in the bathroom. After spending that much time in the bathroom by the end of the day we were both beat! I had really had enough. I could feel my grasp on my frustration slowly slipping away. I don't want to be the mom that spanks her kid to get him to pee on the potty. I refuse to make this a horrible experience for him. I want him trained, but there are a few things that I just will not do. So yes, something is going to have to change tomorrow. Time for a fresh approach a new game plan (or maybe I will try the one I wanted to try today but didn't succeed in trying.)!

I am keeping my fingers crossed and just praying that something clicks for him tomorrow.

Potty Boot-Camp Day 1

I DID IT!!! YES I DID!!!
I started training Judge today. We have taken away ALL diapers and now only have big boy pants during the day and a pull up at night.

It was challenging but we made it through day 1 of potty boot camp DRY!!!

We started this morning we had a fun filled 2 hours on the potty. We played puzzles read books and he finally went pee pee on the potty. To say I was proud just wouldn't do the situation justice.
He started to pee at one point (this is where mommy learned an important lesson) and it went everywhere so he "stopped it" you could say. Then with a little encouragement he started back up again, but this time his gun was pointed south.

After he peed on the potty I made such a big deal about it. He got a car, suckers, and M&M's. He was really proud of himself but still really unsure about the whole "big boy pants" thing. He kept asking for his diaper back. Thank GOD I had Thomas the Train underpants (*Note to all moms make sure you have really cool/speacial underpants in case this problem arises.) I finally talked him into wearing his new underpants. The bets had been placed, would he or wouldn't he pee in them.

He didn't! He went 2 1/2 hours completely dry and then it was back to the potty. Another 2 1/2 hours on the potty and he did it again!! HE PEED IN THE POTTY!!

After all the trouble he gave me today about wearing big boy undies, tonight when it was time for the pull-up he cried and said he wanted to wear his undies to bed. Dennis and I finally talked him into putting the pull up on and he went to bed dry! Lets all hope he is dry in the morning.

Yes is was a VERY VERY VERY long day in the bathroom, but it was so worth it. When Judge started to get discouraged I just changed it up. We would play a different game or read a new book. Today was all about letting him see where the pee comes out and learning the mechanics of it all.

So I would say day 1 of potty boot camp was a complete success!! Day 2 starts tomorrow at 6 am. We will still be using POSITIVE reinforcement (NO NEGATIVITY, the potty is a happy and fun place.) We will be changing a few things, like how long we sit on the potty and how often we go. But we have our potty treats (M&M'S and suckers) and a bag of new match-box cars (he will earn one each time he pees on the potty.) Everyone keep your fingers crossed for another good day tomorrow and hopefully we will get a poop in the potty tomorrow.