Just A Swingin'

Lake Fausse Point Sprinkler Park

It is finished...

Jed is finally completely potty trained!! For over 2 weeks now he has not had a single accident. (He had been pee-free for months, but till now refused to poop in the potty.) I don't really know for sure what changed his mind...but I think that it was that we adopted Sarah McGooden's punishment idea of taking away one prized posession every time that he pooped in his undies....and that he got to choose something back every time that he did it in the potty. He even lost his pillow at one point. I put everything taken away up out of his reach but to where it was constantly looking down at him begging/daring him to use the potty.

With the sudden change here, he also started gaining other independence. For so long he would complain that he couldn't dress himself & needed help. It was like pulling teeth to get him to put his own clothes on. Now he's dressing himself and get's very frustrated if you try to help unless he's asked for it. At nap time I'll find him in his bedroom changing his shirt. Multiple times.

He also wouldn't go the bathroom by himself b/c he needed help with his clothes. Now he goes and I wouldn't have any idea except for that he's told me and is now asking for his candy and his pants are twisted. (Yep, we still bribe since Riley is now on the potty training wagon...it's hard to break for one and not the other.)

All of this potty talk is just to say that my little man is really growning up...

Full Circle

One of the stories that is told often of my childhood involves my love for butter. My parents used to get so frustrated because they would always find little fingerprints (mine) in the butter. So one day my dad sat me down and let me eat an entire tub. I ate so much that I threw up.

Jed loves ranch dressing. "Branch" as he calls it. He drinks it from the little condiment packages from fast food restraunts. He sucks it off of his carrots & continues to double, triple, etc dip - like it's a Lik-a-maid. Well today, while I was not looking he poured about 1/3 of a cup of thick, homemade ranch dressing on his plate. Huge glob. My first instinct was to take his plate away and send him to get in the bath. But I passed on that one and, instead, gave him a spoon. I told him I wanted him to eat all of it. At first he was loving it. Saying "MMMmmmmm!" and smiling. But then I started having to 'encourage' him to keep eating. "But mom, branch is not for eating!" he started to complain. "That's what I always tell you, but you always eat it anyway, so keep going." After one more spoonful he was begging to go get in the bath (which NEVER happens these days). So I let him. No throw up - at least not yet. But he did complain that his stomach didn't feel very good. "Too much ranch, huh?" I asked him. "Yeah" he said with his head hung low.

Hopefully we are done with the ranch mustaches. At least for a while.

Thanks for the 'parenting tip', Dad!

I'll skip right to dessert, thanks....

Last week I brought dessert outside after dinner so that we could all enjoy chocolate mint ice cream sandwiches. After carefully unwrapping the paper to expose the bright green ice cream sandwiched between two chocolate cookies, Jed, exclaimed "Ohhh - It's beauuuutiful!!"

However, lately, you can almost bet money on this scenario at dinner time:
Mom cooks dinner.
Mom calls kids & hubby to come eat.
Mom fixes kids plate with a small amount of everything.
Mom places plate in front of kids.
Son, who was previously in a great mood, immediately starts whining that he does not "like that."

Oh what I would give to have him exclaim that dinner is beautiful and actually eat it with out complaining. Without being bribed by dessert to follow...

Phil Wickham

I can't seem to get enough of Phil Wickham...well, his music. This video was the first I had seen or heard of him & so I thought I'd share it. Nate got Drew the CD for Christmas & it hasn't left my stereo since.

We choose a song for each of our kids that kind of reflects our hopes for them, as well as is reminicent of the time in which they were born. (In other words, when they are teens they will groan because of our musical tastes!!) For Story we chose Phil Wickham's song "Messiah."

Messiah
Look, the road is narrow and hard to find
With secret battles inside our minds
Who can last
God we need your strength to find
Your light to guide us into the night
You're our only chance

Messiah, Messiah, Messiah save us

Run, I want to run to your open hand
But father I can barely stand
On my own
Now, like the children of Abraham
We're reaching out for the promised land
For our home

You are our only hope
You are our only hope
You are our only hope

Oh, and to head off your questions, Riley's song is "One Girl Army" by Five Iron Frenzy & Jed's song is "Beautiful Letdown" by Switchfoot. I can already hear their groans & they're over a decade away.

Potty Talk

Three whole days without a single accident during the day. That's right! I'm almost afraid to say it out loud but I think Jed is finally getting this potty training thing down. He has refused to poop in the potty for months but the last three days I have been in parenting BLISS as Jed is actually coming to me to tell me that he needs to go!

Last night I ran into Wal-mart to grab diapers while the kids sat in the car w/ Drew. Drew called me to tell me that Jed had to potty & that I needed to come get him immediately. So I did. He held it all the way to the bathroom! I am so proud of him.

We had been trying to get him to poop in the potty for so long that the first time he did it, I actually cried tears of joy! Now that's going on my "You know you're a mom if...." list.