I Have a Better Perspective...

on last night's FPU preview. Yes, very few people came. However, that doesn't mean that people won't sign up for the class. I know of several people, now that I've thought about it, who are going to take the class. There's the church secretary, the newly married couple, a couple from the first class who had to drop out after a few classes, and a couple who registered online. That's seven people. PLUS the couple who signed up last night, and will be bringing their 2 teenaged kids. Even if that's all we had, thats a good group. And when I talked to my church advisor at Dave Ramey's office about it, he said that a small group is almost better than a large group because we'll all bond. We won't have our small groups that we bond with. We'll bond with the whole class. Very good point.

On to other topics. Nathaniel's potty training has been going very well. He hasn't had an accident (other than #2) since this past Thursday. So it'll be a week in a couple of days that he's been dry. Yippee! I think we're going to switch him from his training underwear to regular underwear another week or so, just to be on the safe side. But I've very pleased with how he's doing. I hardly have to ask him anymore if he needs to go potty. He just goes on his own. I do still ask in the mornings right after he gets up, but he doesn't usually want to go right away, so I wait till he decides to go on his own, and he runs right to the potty. I just keep reminding him to stay dry.

The boys are in bed now. And so far all is quiet. David, I'm sure is asleep. Nathaniel is probably playing a little with all the toys in his bed that he sleeps with. He better get a good night's sleep tonight since he's not getting a nap tomorrow. We have his Pre-K open house from 1-2 pm & Dr appts for both boys at 2:45 pm. But that's the last things that we have to do for the week.

An Obvious Monday

Today did not start out well. Its been so totally a Monday that I could hardly stand it. First, I had to wake the boys up so we could go pick our dogs up at the kennel where we boarded them this weekend. Nathaniel had wet his bed, but I should really say soaked. I had to wash his sheets & his comforter. I also sprayed his mattress down with Febreeze. (wonderful stuff, Febreeze) David wasn't ready to get up, and attempted to play possum, but it didn't work too well since he'd already talked to me before his possum attempt. After taking them downstairs, I tried to get Nathaniel to use his potty, but he didn't want to.

After the kids got dressed and we headed to the kennel. Got the dogs picked up and made it back home. It was about 8:45 am when we got back home and I again took Nathaniel in use the potty. He again didn't want to, so we had a test of wills for the next 20 minutes before I finally convinced him to pee. I'm sure he'd had to go since he got out of bed, but is stubborn enough to hold it for over an hour simply because he doesn't want to go.

A short while later, Nathaniel began tormenting David by knocking down all the Transformers that he'd set up for his current battle. David can really work himself up into a tizzy when he wants to, and today was no exception. Tears, pounding fists on the floor and stomping his feet in frustration just fuels Nathaniel's fire, but David is still young enough that he can't just ignore what Nathaniel is doing. Whereas Richard can stop Nathaniel with just his voice, I have to physically intervene and pull Nathaniel away from the area, which doesn't work very well, since he just goes right back to tormenting David. Today, I got sick of both David's behavior and Nathaniel's, and told David that he was going to take a nap when Nathaniel did. That must have been the straw that broke the camel's back, cause he actually threw a temper tantrum. Not a throwing himself down on the floor, kicking and screaming, but he threw a toy on the floor and threw himself down on the rock. That really clinched it for me. Then I needed a nap. David cried off and on for an hour because he was so upset (and TIRED!)

After lunch and naps, everyone felt much better! David was acting more himself, and Nathaniel got his birthday package from Aunt Cherie & LOVES the new Transformer Optimus Prime Battle Blaster that he got. Its too difficult to explain, I'll post pictures of it tomorrow. Needless to say, Nathaniel wanted to take it to bed this evening, but we wouldn't let him. Its "parked" in the "shed", aka the box that his gifts came in.

I'm exhausted, so I'm off to bed.

The First Day.....

of serious potty training for Nathaniel. I took and stashed away the half a dozen pull-ups he had left and told him this morning that he didn't have anymore. He was not a happy camper. He looked in the spot we normally keep them, and sure enough they were gone. He didn't want to put on the cloth training pants that I'd borrowed from a gal at church (she has 8 boys, and 2 not yet ready to potty train). He went upstairs and was looking in his drawer for something and finally picked out a pair of shorts. He decided to go commando and went about 3 hours without an accident. After that, he was willing to put on the training pants. I woke him up from his nap after 2 hours and got him to go potty, and he did very well until after dinner, and has had several training pants changes since about 5pm, but he's gone through less than 6 pairs of training pants for the first day, so I think that's pretty good for the first day without pull ups. We have been going through a lot of Tootsie Pops though. I'm going to need to get some more tomorrow when we go into town. But hey, whatever works, right?

I (unintentionally) made David cry again tonight. I suggested that tomorrow we go through all his coloring books and tear out the uncolored pages, save them and throw the rest away. He did not like that idea one bit, so much so that he started crying. So I explained to him that it was just a suggestion and that we wouldn't do anything to his coloring books that he didn't want done. He did say we could go through them and throw away the ones he didn't like. I'm just trying to clear stuff out cause he's got about 20 coloring books, about 80% of which have all been colored in except for 2 or 3 pages.

Well, I just spent the last 30 minutes trying to get the boys into bed. David wasn't difficult, it was Nathaniel. I was trying to get him to go potty before bed and he didn't want to, then he did but couldn't, it was back and forth until I was ready to scream. Finally, now they're in bed. But I'll go up in 45 minutes or so and get Nathaniel up and take him potty. Just in case. He's usually dry in the mornings though, so I'm not too worried about it. Tomorrow morning should be interesting though.

What a dreary day!

Its a cool, gray, overcast day. We got a little rain this morning, but nothing happening this afternoon except cool breezes occassionally wafting through our open windows. Its 66 degrees right now. The high is supposed to be 75. I don't think its going to make it.

For some, this next topic will be boring, but I'm excited about it, and since this is my blog, I'm going to talk about it! :) Richard and I are HUGE Stargate: SG1 & Stargate: Atlantis fans. (maybe me moreso than Richard) Last season was Stargate: Atlantis' (SGA) 5th and final season. I was pretty faithful about watching them on SciFi Friday nights, but the few episodes I missed I bought the digital downloads off Amazon.com and watched on our PC or laptop. Well, Season 5 became available June 24th. I had pre-ordered it on amazon.com, and it shipped out late last week. It came in the mail yesterday. I was so excited I could (and can) hardly contain myself! I watched some of the bonus features already and the first couple of episodes. With subtitles & commentary on, of course. It drives Richard nuts, so I only do that when he's not watching with me. I like the subtitles cause one of the characters (Dr. Rodney McKay) talks so fast sometimes its hard to catch what he says. And the commentary? To get the perspective of the writers/directors/producers/actors, though not necessarily all of them are doing commentary on a particular episode. Don't worry, Dad. I'll be sure to bring it down when we come in August. :)

Nathaniel has his last 2 days of summer school pre-kindergarten this week. He starts pre-k in the fall. And so we've been struggling to get him potty trained. He knows what he is supposed to do. He wakes up dry most mornings. He likes to go potty in public bathrooms - at the store, restaurant, etc, but is reluctant to go at home. We even bought him a toddler sized urinal. Yeah, I'm not kidding. Check it out @ http://www.peterpotty.com/ It actually flushes, which he likes to do, but getting him to actually pee in it, well, that's another thing all together. We've tried borrowing Grandpa Dave's train clock, and letting him push the button that makes train sounds and sending the train around the outside of the clock. That's worn off. (we'll bring it in August, Dad) We've tried Tootsie Rolls as a reward. That doesn't work anymore, either. Nathaniel is just so stubborn and independent like Richard that it isn't funny. If anyone has any suggestions, they would be greatly appreciated. We can't make him go, its the same premise as "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." If we even try to make him go into the bathroom (or to his potty downstairs) he has a meltdown.

If the weather improves tomorrow, I'm going to take the boys swimming in the afternoon. Its supposed to be partly sunny and 86 degrees, so we'll see.