Day 2

Night 1 wasn't bad at all - one little accident that woke Mary up and she actually finished going in the toilet! Unfortunately, that was the only time in two full days that she put any pee in the toilet. Today was pretty much just like yesterday, except that by the end of today Mary was yelling "Pee! Pee! Peeeeeee!" whenever she started to go, and she has decided she does not like to be wet at all. That counts as progress, right? So I guess tomorrow we'll see if what they say, that no matter how the first two days go it will "click" by the end of day 3, is true in our case or not.

In non-potty-related news, Michael is fast becoming a professional at his walker. It took him all of ten seconds to figure it out, and he's working on steering already. With a little help over the doorway bump he can almost make it around the kitchen track. When he's not in his walker, he is all about rolling and schooching. He doesn't have the crawling coordinated yet, but he can get his knees up underneath his hips and launch himself forward. He's pretty desperate to be mobile.

And this is what the sky looked like at about 6 pm tonight. I'm sure the picture does not do justice to the setting sun glow on the clouds, but it was worth a try.


Off to do laundry for Day 3...

Day 1

Spoiler Alert: This post is about potty training. If you don't want to read about potty training, please come back late this week, as any posts between now and Thursday are probably going to be about potty training.

We sent Daddy off to California for the week and I opted to take most of the week off work. What did I decide to do with my time off? Beach picnics? Trips to the local farm? Every morning on the playground? No. I decided to potty train Mary.

Several moms I know have recently had great success with a 3-day potty training method. It requires full-time attention on the potty trainee (and not really leaving the house) for at least three days, so I thought since I have three days off work this is the perfect time.

The idea is that the easiest (and fastest, and possibly only) way for kids to learn when they need to use the bathroom is through accidents. So you put them in underpants, tell them to keep their underpants dry, and watch them like a hawk. Every time they start to go, you scoop them up and run them to the bathroom, all the while repeating your mantra: "You're wearing big-girl underpants and you have to keep them dry. Tell mommy when you have to pee." That's it.

According to what I've read and those I've talked to, some kids get it in an hour or a day. Mary is not one of those kids. Other kids get it quick and regress for a day or so. Mary is not one of those kids either. And many kids do not make it to the toilet a single time in two or three full days. It appears Mary may be one of those kids. However, according to what I've read and those I've talked to, even those kids get it by the end of three days. Something clicks, and that's that.

Day one is wrapping up and there are a scant few pairs of underpants left in Mary's drawer, which started out with 20 pairs. According to what I've read and those I've talked to, this is a typical first day and I should in no way be thinking that perhaps this isn't going to work. So I'm off to do laundry and mentally prepare myself for night 1 and day 2.

Random, but I think Catherine looks particularly cute in this picture (and I'm not even sure why).

Face Painting Rocks

Our friend Charlotte had her first birthday party today, complete with giant bouncy house, balloon animals, and face painting!

It was one of Michael Jr's first parties so he had to set a standard for attire. Thanks for the hat Grandma!



Here's the birthday girl enjoying her first cupcake:



And her older brother - you can see they all took advantage of the face painting.


Catherine was a little unsure about the process...


But she very much enjoyed the end result (and the bouncy house - this is her peeking out the door from inside, which is where she spent most of the afternoon).


Catherine also got a rainbow on her hand, and Mary got a ladybug on hers. It took quite a bit of gentle persuading before they accepted that the paintings would not last their entire childhoods and it was ok for them to wash off in the bath!

Wrestle Mania

Michael Jr is not yet old enough for wrestling with his dad. He is more in "explorer" mode, looking at, tasting and touching everything.


And exercising, of course.


This means that Daddy has to wrestle with the girls. He taught them this great game where he tries to make it from one end of the room to the other and their job is to stop him.


He claims he is not of the "let them win once in a while" camp when it comes to playing games with kids, but I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be able to accomplish this if he was really giving it 100%.


Of course, sometimes the easiest thing is just to take one of them out of the equation.


Mary often retaliates with the face grab. It's one of her patented moves.


Michael also taught Catherine how to do the wheelbarrow, and she thought it was the best thing ever.


Mary wanted to try it also, but her little arms and body just weren't strong enough, so she ended up doing a kind of army crawl while Michael was holding her legs. Nevertheless she thought this was awesome. I really wish I had a picture of it but I was laughing too hard.

Antics

I have no idea what Mary is yelling at in this picture - she kind of looks like a future host of Hell's Kitchen.


Things you might know about Mary, other than she likes to yell at pretend cupcakes:
1. She likes to be naked.
2. She also likes princess skirts.
3. She likes to sing.
4. She likes to take two markers and pretend she is playing violin.



Michael has been working very hard this last week on his pushups. He can easily do more than me now.


He's pleased about that.