Meet Rockstar

or maybe it is Rock Star; I'm not sure. But I know you would like to meet her. The only problem is that I am way behind on pictures, so I'll write this post with all the places for the pictures to be, and maybe, just maybe, I'll come back later and insert them. If not, it will still be a post worth reading. F. is potty training again. (Do you remember my fiasco with training last year?) He has been asking me to wear underwear since before Christmas and I kept putting it off. But in the past few weeks he has started waking up at 4:00 ish to have his diaper changed. (Since I'm still not sleeping through the night--I know, my own fault--it left me cranky and very tired.) So I decided to do the prep-work for a second try. I read Potty Training in One Day, Toilet Training with No Tears, and skimmed a few others. I decided to compile what I liked (modeling with the doll, lots of treats, total focus for one day, try to be stress free) and what I didn't ("Grandma would be sad that you peed your pants", potty training to the clock) and try it out. Since I liked the doll idea, I looked online for something cheap and water proof. Nothing. I headed to Target and picked up a $13 bath doll. But since she only had a diaper, I needed to make some underwear for her so that F. could help her change her underwear and such. I designed a pattern and whipped up three. The boys were concerned that she didn't have pants, or pajamas, or anything else, so I promised them we would outfit her later. Saturday went well. We played downstairs on a fleece blanket all day. The fleece caught the pee and held it so we could go back and clean it up after we had changed underwear, etc. By Saturday night, he was figuring out how to hold it while he ran to the potty. We've had some ups (at a friend's for a birthday on Monday and no accidents) and downs (peeing twice during a movie). I think this time will work. The funniest thing is that A. thinks that Rockstar is his doll. He hugs her and screams for her whenever he sees her. F. also thinks that she is his. Me? I'm working on clothing the poor naked thing.

DIRTY!

As I mentioned before, F-- has decided not to wear diapers anymore. For a while we succeeded in keeping him in diapers by tucking him into onesies and safety pinning his pjs, but about 9 days ago he started fighting (literally) me every time I tried to change his diaper. It would take 10 minutes and end with me holding his upper body down with my leg and his legs down with another leg and trying to keep him from twisting out of the waist with one hand while I put together a prefold diaper and cover with one hand. It didn't always work. I decided not to fight it. Instead I pulled out the training pants.

Well everything was going swimmingly, until Thursday of this week. After playing with a friend in the morning, we came home for quiet time. And he went down like a champ, or so I thought. About 15 minutes in to his "nap" I started to hear him playing in his room. I was frustrated that he would be a very tired boy that afternoon, but kept him in quiet time for an hour. When I went in to get him up, I was shocked. He had pulled off his underwear (no naptime diapers for him) and pooped on the floor. Then he played in that poop, smearing it on the floor with his hands and feet, rubbing it into the laundry in his closet, and running it through the Geo-Trax station that his brother is currently insisting is their clock. It was everywhere. And it had dried everywhere.

Luckily, S-- kept an eye on A-- in the swing while I pulled out the chemicals (there goes my green ideals) and cleaned everything, starting with a very poopy little boy.

The next day, he pooped before he got out of bed after his nap, but I caught him before he could do anything.

ARGH! S-- never did anything like this. I was unprepared.

To Pee or Not to Pee . . .

Friday afternoon F-- decided that he was done with diapers. For the umpteenth time in three days, he started screaming and squirming and grabbing and throwing and hitting and crying while I changed his diaper. There was no rash. I was not dilly-dallying. But he was done. So I asked him if he wanted to start learning to go potty in the potty, went to the basement, fished the training pants out of a bucket, and started potty training. I wasn't planning on doing this so soon. I was hoping for warmer weather and an older infant. No such luck. It will probably take a while.

It has been a messy first few days if only because F-- has some runny poops right now. And our house isn't the warmest place on the planet--far from it actually. But we came up with a way to keep little legs warm--my knee-high socks with the ties cut out.

F-- doesn't complain about his nap-time and bedtime diapers. He also likes the idea of special "church" underwear. Wish us luck.