Warmer Weather

The past week (and a half?) we've had much warmer weather. It's hard to believe we recently had the ice storms where Matt was skating on our street. It's been really humid and the temp. has ranged from about 60-80*. Last Friday it was particularly warm and we'd been outside probably 4 hours or more. I was feeling too hot in my layers of clothing, so I stripped us down and we got out our swim suits and turned on the sprinkler. Yes. Our swimsuits in February. The weather was warm enough, but I have to admit that the water out of the faucet was still quite cold. Dean loved it. Walt liked it, but he kept saying, "Cold. Brrrr." every time he touched the water.

Let down

After 3 years of talking about needing a new bed, we finally bought one on Monday during the President's day sale. It was very apparent that Matt and I had different bed preferences. He liked firmer beds, and I liked plusher beds. In truth, we need a sleep number bed, but it's just not in our price range. After an hour of trying different beds with our kids running amok around the store, Matt had it narrowed down to his two favorites. He'd ruled out my favorite by saying while it was comfortable, it was too soft and he'd still have back problems most likely. 

His final choice was ok, though firmer than I'd have chosen on my own. We ended up buying a Simmons Beauty Rest King size.  It's supposedly in the "medium" range for softness. I thought it would work fine for me.  But then it came. And I realised the brand new bed was acutally much firmer than the one in the store. Of course it would be, but I hadn't thought it through. Matt's happy with it.

I was angry. Very angry the first night. Paying as much as we did, I wanted to love it, and I didn't. I hated it. I don't feel like I sleep a lick better than we did on our old mattress. I have been crazy exhausted this week, and it's frustrating. I'm honestly thinking of buying a twin size pad for my side of the bed that I'll put on top each night.

While I'm on the "let down" kick, I'll also say that the ninja food chopper is not great. I bought it for myself for Christmas on Black Friday. I bought it to replace my dying blender, and it's not great. I'd much rather have a quality blender. It doesn't get the spinach for my isagenix shakes nearly as smooth as my blender did, and I'm not really a fan of being aware of the spinach as I'm drinking it.

To combat the negativity of this post, I will leave you with some of my favorite purchases in the last few years:

Ergo baby carrier. Best. Baby. Purchase. Ever.  I still use it often, and both my kids are great walkers and weigh over 25 lbs.

FoodSaver.  I got it and lots of bags for $10 at a yard sale. I have used it TONS and it would have been worth paying retail price for it.

Be Mine

The weather was beautiful today. 70's I think. Oh how nice it was to wear short sleeves and go outside. I was far too busy today to run this morning, so I sure hope this beautiful weather sticks around tomorrow so I can get out and "get some exercise in my body" (a Dean quote).

Dean and Walt made some cards for Matt with my help. We went to a preschool Valentine's day party this morning. I provided the activities and my friend Diane provided the house and goodies. It was fun, though Dean was incredibly whiny by the end. He did have a major fall yesterday (fell from our picnic table while trying to do a trick basketball shot and hit his head hard on the concrete. I was only a few feet away, but I was too slow to stop it all from happening.), so I guess I should be happy he felt good enough to go at all, poor kid.

The boys were very interested in the flowers that Matt brought home for me. This is the one time a year we have fresh flowers on our table. =) Dean kept saying things like, "Mom! Mom! Those flowers are soooo beautiful. It was so nice of dad to bring you some flowers." I pulled Walt off the table multiple times because he wanted to pick the flowers.


We had homemade falafal and pitas (one of my favs). While it felt like I was messing everything up as I was going along, the pitas were soft and chewy and the falafal were nice and tasty. I also made a cheesecake today.  I was very, very tired by the end of all of this. I should probably be heading to bed soon here.

short sleeves!

My super husband.

Enjoying the Valentine goodies from Grandma and Grandpa Waterman

Enjoying his AND Dean's treats (he stole Dean's first treat)

Cheese!

Capped the night with cheesecake with caramel and chocolate topping.

Never give up!

Well, we started once again with the potty training thing. Yes, I did start potty training him at 18 months (very much at his own interest), and yes he is now 3 years and 4 month and not "fully" potty trained. We tried the naked potty training a couple of times, and every time we got to underwear after about a week, he melted down big time, and we gave up. We did sticker charts, rewards, etc., but nothing was enticing enough to keep him going after having a couple of accidents, and I didn't want to push it if he just wasn't ready.

I honestly have to say I have just been plain tired of changing 2 sets of diapers for the last 18 months, and I initiated this latest potty training for selfish reasons once again. It has been frustrating for me because I see him as an incredibly gifted and smart child, and I couldn't for the life of me understand why all of his peers were potty trained and he wasn't.  I think it's partially because he's a perfectionist. And maybe I wasn't as patient as I ought have been in the beginning.

I got him interested in potty training again by bribing him with a nerf gun if he wore underwear for 2 weeks and continued after he got the gun. I didn't put any stipulations on accidents.  He really wanted a nerf gun for Christmas and didn't get one, so it was enough to get him to put on the dreaded underwear.

The first 5 days went pretty well. He was going all on his own, without me prompting, and he only had 1-2 accidents per day. I thought that was pretty good and didn't mind the accidents because he was trying. Then he just plain gave up. Like it was too hard to do every time, so why even try at all? One day he peed his pants twice and pooped once, never even telling me. He just kept on with the activities he was involved with, legs spread wide, soaking or stinking when I found him in such a state. Oh was I frustrated. I forced him on the potty a couple of times. The next day it was more of the same.  I admit I was angry and I began shaming him (only babies wear diapers, blah, blah) and threatening to put him back in diapers and not letting him go to preschool or have the nerf gun because "those things are for big kids and big kids don't wear diapers or poop their pants on purpose"...but boy did that feel all sorts of wrong. I was basically doing it out of anger and selfishness.

After he pooped again in his underwear I called my mom, frustrated and in tears.  I told her I didn't want to give up because I felt like it would set up a cycle of failure and add more frustration and woe to potty training.  I wanted him to learn to not just give up when things get tough. She agreed and said that instead of shaming I could say things like, "I know it can be hard, but I know you're a big capable boy and you can do it!" That sounded and felt much better.

So starting that day I set a timer. Instead of asking him if he needed to go, I calmly insisted he stop what he was doing to sit on the potty. He resisted me taking him to the bathroom when he insisted he didn't need to go, and then it came to me: He was worried about missing out on fun things, so I thought of having him take a book in for me to read to him. Basic, I know, but I hadn't tried that yet. He resisted a lot less after that, though he'd be done before we finished reading the first page.  The next two days we spent time at some friends' houses (who were potty trained) and he was much more willing to go at my prompting there for some reason.

I have been setting the timer for about 45 min. in between potty breaks and he's been able to go every time I take him. He doesn't generally resist any more, nor does he require a book every time.  He's actually gone poop on his own both days, and we have been accident free for 2 days. He's identifying himself more as a potty trained child ("Mom! SuperWhy is potty trained like Dean!" since his superhero outfit looks like underwear over a leotard) and I can tell he's feeling more confident in his ability. I will be extra super duper happy when I don't have to set a timer, but for now I'm glad we're continuing on, even when it was frustrating and difficult for both of us. I am not going to give up or let him give up. It's just not an option this time around.

I think potty training is the most challenging thing I've come up against yet. Hopefully it won't be like this every time...but I don't think it will be. Different children, different personalities and timetables. Crossing my fingers...

Walt's first hair cut

While we've trimmed his bangs a tiny bit, we gave him his first real "big boy" hair cut today. As in cut off his curls. It was a little sad, but his hair was getting long and stringy. It would look cute for about an hour after bath and then it would just get to be a tangled mess.

last night's bath so you could see all his bangs and bruises. He's added two more already today.

before

After, eating a chocolate as his reward.

This one totally makes me think of my bro. Nate when he was a baby.

Shake it a baby now

Walter loves having dance parties. He is usually not satisfied unless everyone in the room is dancing, including Matt who is not a dancer. So Matt bobs his head around a few times to appease him, and Walt goes on to shake his little booty. So cute. One night as we were getting ready for bed, he was totally busting a move to the leap frog table music, so I yelled for Matt to get the video camera. He gets a little distracted by the camera at first, but then he continues.  Sometimes we play freeze dance (kind of like red light green light for dancing, but we stay "stop!" and "dance!"), so that's why he was saying "STOP" at the end. It's not a long video.


Untitled from Celia Brasfield on Vimeo.

Ice Storm

We're "in the middle" of the worst ice storm we've had since we've  been here. Usually it hits and is gone by mid day the next day. Tomorrow will be day 3 of public schools closed because of ice. I was a little surprised they closed tomorrow because while there are still patches of ice on the road and you need to be careful, the roads are drivable. One friend in our ward said she's lived here her whole life and it's the first time they've ever been closed 3 days in a row that she knows of. I am so, so, so grateful that we are able to park both of our cars in our garage. Most people here use their garages for storage and park in their driveways or on the street.

Here's a video of Matt ice skating on our street! We don't even own gloves for him (or real coats for the boys...at least I was able to find hats and mittens for them when it snowed a few weeks back). It was 19* and close to 0 with windchill. By the time he was done, his fingers were nearly frostbitten. But he had fun. He said it made him want to move somewhere where he lived close to a pond that could freeze over for skating in the winter. Dean has been asking for "shoes with blades".

Untitled from Celia Brasfield on Vimeo.

I was super grateful that some of this ice melted today and we were able to drive to the store. We were out of milk (the boys got powdered + isagenix today. Thank heavens for food storage) and some other stuff, plus we were getting STIR CRAZY (or maybe just plain crazy). 

It was really a horrible day today. The boys had a number of yelling matches. (Walt's now a very good parrot. When Dean screams "NO!", Walt shrilly screams back "NO!!!!!" and they go back and forth until I break it up.)

Dean is on day 5 of underwear during the day He's done really well with it, though he's had 1-2 pee accidents every day. But today he just plain refused to go unless I carried him in there and made him go on the potty. He pooped in his underwear and peed twice in his underwear, never telling me of any of it. I had to discover all three by coming in and seeing him STILL PLAYING the computer or wii in his sorry state. I was feeling pretty livid. Needless to say, he will not be playing either until he demonstrates that he will stop doing whatever he's doing, even if it's fun, to go to the bathroom immediately. I just have to remind myself that he's little. But boy does it make me so angry sometimes.

Dean also spun a paint roller in the bathroom that I stupidly left within reaching distance. It was on one of those cleaning things that makes it spin really fast. I had started cleaning it out last night when I decided to just throw it away since it was getting pretty grungy. I couldn't get it off the stupid cleaner, so I left it there until I could get it off today.  But he got to it first. It spun yellow paint everywhere. All over the blue walls, brown cabinets, the white toilet, etc. I screamed so loudly that it made Dean cover his ears and cry. It was horrible. I was able to clean it all up, but boy, was I not proud of how I handled it. I still lectured him afterward too, which I probably shouldn't have done.

To cap things off, right as the boys were getting ready for bed, I went to throw Walt's dirty diaper away and I heard a bloody scream emitted from Walt's mouth. Matt and I ran into their room. Dean was sitting up on their shelves guarding his stop light alarm clock and Walt was wallowing on the bed. I thought Dean had just pushed him down onto the bed and Walt was being dramatic because he had such a horribly short nap today (because Dean woke him up while I was getting him new underwear after he peed himself).  But no, as we were reading scriptures and books, a new huge raised bruise was showing up on Walt's forehead. Apparently Dean pushed him from the shelves (really an old changing table) and Walt's head broke his fall on the metal railing on the rocking ottoman below. Poor kid. He looks like an abuse victim. He has a black eye from climbing over the arm of the couch and face planting into a wooden chair as well as a cut on his lower cheek from running and tripping in the garage and lodging himself between Matt's car and the jogging stroller.

There was one cute moment, however, that I must mention. After Walt's shoddy nap I was in my room and Dean was trying to be nice to Walt because he was crying from not having enough sleep and wanting to play with everything restricted to him in my bathroom (make up, Matt's razors, etc). Dean kept saying, "Don't worry. Dean's here. Would you like to jump on the bed Walt? Would you like to go play computer?" and at one point they ended up giving each other the cutest hug ever, totally unprompted by me. It was a nice little ray of sunshine on this cold and icy day.