Choo Choo Soul is on TV right now. I'll always believe in my heart that Genevieve was my son's first crush. Besides maybe Miss Lori at First Irving, who captivated Jackson with her beautiful, long hair. He appreciates good hair. It comforts me when I think that he will one day choose a wife with good hair genes and ensure that generations of future Jones women will be follicularly blessed.
Okay, so we are starting over (again) with potty training this week. Isn't that just fabulous? While we waited for Jackson to get Number Two down, he lost Number One. He just has too much to do to be bothered to sit there. So we are back in potty training bootcamp. Thank God my husband is home all week. The worst part for me is the nekkedness. I can only take so much. We have been telling Jackson for weeks that if he will poop on the potty we'll take him to Chuck E. Cheese. He gets so excited but it produces no fruit whatsoever. It's so tragic. When a Chuck E. Cheese commercial comes on TV he even says "I poo poo on the potty and go to Chuck E. Cheese!" Bless his heart. We are just dying to take him. I pray every day that today will be the day. Maybe we'll think of another reason why he can go.
The past two days have been much better discipline-wise. Saturday was just a very, very off day. We figured out that Jackson's time outs needed to increase by several minutes and I think that is going to be helpful.
In other random news, our dog is obsessed with me. Help me, Lord. He follows me around and stares at me like I'm about to give him the meaning of life. Maybe I'll invite him close and whisper "meaty bones" in his ear. Besides the fact that he stinks to high heaven (thank you pregnant nostrils) and I don't want him anywhere near me, I have been especially annoyed with him lately. He's totally two-faced. When we're looking, he seems to be the perfect, well-behaved dog. But when we go to bed or leave the house, he climbs up on the couch and leaves pieces of dried grass and loads of long, white hair on the red cushions. What is more, he's been helping himself to whatever treats he can find on the counter. He got some pizza a couple nights ago. You'd think I would learn, but it's so not like him that I can't bring myself to believe he's really going to do it. And yet he does. Again and again. We're on to you, Beckham Jones! Come to think of it, he started this behavior when I began buying him diet food. Hmmmm.
Today we're just hanging out around the house. Curt is putting up phase two of our Christmas lights. I'm not sure how many phases are in this year's plan. (We won't actually light them until after Thanksgiving.) We'll wait a little longer on our tree since we'd like it to still be alive by December 25. Our first married Christmas, we had a vaulted ceiling in our apartment that we wanted to take advantage of. We got this enormous, rather expensive, gorgeous tree that took up half of our living room. It was so pretty. I wish I could remember what kind it was. By the time Christmas came, we would sit in our living room at night and hear the tinkle tinkle tinkle of the pine needles falling down. (I don't know if it was the type of tree or if we forgot to water it or what?) When we started taking down the ornaments, literally half the needles fell to the floor. Then when we began to move the tree outside, the rest of the needles fell off. The thing was completely, utterly, totally bare. It was a sight to see. Then I made the huge mistake of attempting to vacuum up many of those pine needles and I ruined my brand new vacuum. Newlyweds, please look to me and learn from my mistake. Especially, Lord help you, if someone blessed you with a purple Dyson.
In the time it took to write this post, Choo Choo Soul turned into something else, which turned into the Dooblebops. I cannot even stand to have that on my TV for one minute. The male characters annoy me to no end. Pregnant Girl must rise up from her blogging and change the channel.
Whether you are working, administering time outs and chicken nuggets, shopping, lunching, schooling, or traveling today, I hope you have a good one.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
24 comments:
Hi, I know you haven't asked for potty advice, but my friend shared this advice with me and my son was potty trained in a week (and I tried everything)! Another friend since tried it and it worked with her son, as well. I bought a gumball machine and replaced it with skittles (if Jackson is okay with gum, great, but still doesn't get the concept of just chewing it). I just put it out and didn't say anything. When he saw it he got really excited and asked if he got to put pennies in there. I said yes, but first he had to go potty. He went five times that day! I worried he would have to eat candy forever, but after a couple weeks it wore off and he's in underwear and potty trained. Good luck either way, it really is a hair-pulling-out time.
I have done everything I know to do at this point and have thankfully gotten enough wonderful advice through the blog to publish a whole book. I just can't make him actually go number 2, which is the root of our problem. So I guess what we need more than anything now is just prayer that he will chill out and let himself go! Thanks, y'all!
My dog and friends' dogs followed me when I was pregnant- I think they sense the hormones! :)
Glad that you are enjoying your time off with your hubs.
Good luck with the potty training. I am sure you are anxious to have Jackson out of diapers by the time his baby sister comes along!
Blessings in abundance to you and your family this Thanksgiving.
Peace,
Sister Lynn
Amanda, I have decided to come out of lurking and introduce myself. Your comment on your dog had me rolling with laughter. My three children BEGGED us for a dog for three years until last Christmas when we bought a golden retriever puppy. I am the one in the family who pays her the least amount of attention and yet she follows me around like my shadow. I also have a red couch and I have to vacuum it AGAIN because she uses it to lay her poor, weary, one-year-old puppy body down on. Makes me so mad I could just SPIT!!!! My mother-in-law--aka Martha Stewart herself--is coming later and I've had nightmares of her horrified expression as she passes over sitting on my couch for a wooden chair instead! Oh, what to do? Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Shawn
my goodness...my 3 y/o girl has morphed chuck e cheese into "chucky jesus"! i always look around me to see who might have heard her say it. :0)
we're getting ready to schlep out to put the finishing touches on our holiday to-do list. and i'm doing it sans husby since he took this one day of his week off to go into the office to take advantage of no one else being there. Lord help us! i'm trying to get all my stuff done before tomorrow when most of our local schools let out for the break.
When I do have kids, I do not look forward to this area. Hopefully you will find what works and I can try it later in life! :)
I hope that you and Curtis are doing well. Josh and I haven't seen you in a long time.
Hope you have a great Thanksgiving!
Ashley
This is not very pleasant to discuss via blog, but I could not help associating Beckham's behavior with my cat's when she was allergic to a particular brand of food. It caused her to basically have IBS. The vet treated her with antibiotics thinking it was a bacterial infection, but it would reoccur. We finally discover that it was the food. She too became needy and stinky. But what I related to was that she had never been one to jump on my kitchen counters - never ate people food - but when she had this IBS, we could not leave anything out. She was on top of every surface, eating anything that we did not have a hold on.
I changed her food and all of the unwanted behavior stopped. Evidently, her leaky gut was starving her, or her brain thought the irritable tummy was hungry.
One more thing on the dog - my sister had basset hounds with vigorous appetites, and the vet told her to feed them an allotted amount of dog food and then canned carrots and green beans as filler.
Okay, enough unsolicited advice for today.
Happy Thanksgiving to you, too!
When my kids were little and we were stuck at an impasse or it seemed like I was losing the battle of wills sometimes it worked for ME to be the one to chill. I remember saying to my son, "I am not worried AT ALL that you'll go in the potty. I KNOW you will when you are ready! I am absolutely confident!" Then I took a deep breath...and relaxed...and I think I even rewarded him for trying even if he didn't succeed. I am hoping this approach will even work now that he is grown..."I am not worried AT ALL that you will find the right woman and settle down. I KNOW you will when you are ready! I am absolutely CONFIDENT!" Have a wonderful day with that cute son of yours...and take him to Chuck E. Cheese as a reward for trying!
Oh, I am soooo glad that I am not the only one who feels that way about the Doodlebops! And the rhyming woman is just more than I can take! Fortunately, the girlies are n't all that fond of the show either so at least it's not a major battle!
I think we lead parallel lives! Your pregnancy reminds me so much of my first...I could not be in the same room as our dogs. Their smell made me so sick.
Potty training was daughter was a nightmare! I still have to remind her to have potty breaks, and she's 4.
The doddlebops give me the creeps. So do the folks on lazytown.
I hear ya on the potty training! I am dreading it with kid 4. I think at some point though it all just clicks and they finally "get it". My oldest used to go in there and take stuff to read because that is what he thought he was supposed to do. Then one night his feet and legs fell asleep because he sat there so long. After convincing him there were not ants crawling all over him, I had to pick myself up off the floor because I was laughing so hard.
I am with you on the Doodlebops. I can't stand it! That channel gets flipped as fast as possible because if the kids start singing that stupid song, I am stuck leaving it there.
Amanda! You are too cute! I know you probably didn't mean to make me laugh, but thanks for the laugh anyway sister. As a fellow Prego... I understand your alter... "Pregnant Girl", and I am with you on the whole dog situation! I feel your nostril pain! Our poor dog just doesn't stand a chance lately. Oh well. You guys have a good one and thanks for the laugh. :)
~The Smiths
You probably do not need any 'advice' on potty training but if you haven't already get some rewards for him that he would die to get and have them sitting just out of his reach ... give him one each time he goes ... a toy or something ... get some from the dollar store and have several sitting around. we have tried the chuckie cheese as well with our second and it just doesn't do the trick even though he can tell us all about it ... however, the instant rewards are working well! not that you asked for advice :)
Since you mentioned Choo Choo Soul, you may just appreciate that several weeks ago while shopping at Macy's (in Orlando, FL - I live a few hours south of there), as I stepped off the escalator into the children's department I was star-struck as I caught of glimpse of Genevieve and the Conductor doing a meet-and-greet. I had specific items in mind to get for my boys, but I could absolutely not focus because I kept watching them and wondering if it would be too strange for me to have my picture taken with them sans child. For a split second, I wished I had my three year old there with me so he could meet them, but then I remembered that I was shopping...hmmmm...I told him all about it when I got home.
Happy Thanksgiving!
We love Choo Choo Soul!!!
And my sister's son was born in February 2006 and they are working on the #2 also...she's having a hard time with him going too!
We just went to Chuck E. Cheese last week as a reward for my 3 & 5 year olds filling up potty charts (the 5 year old for waking up dry; 3 yr old for staying dry all day). Boys are just hard on mommas when it comes to potty training. They don't care if they are wet/dirty and can hold it for days except for when you are standing in line at a store. After my first one (we stopped and started from 2 years to 3.5 years) I learned to relax about it. My 2nd guy will be 4 in Feb. he does fine all day but still wears pull-ups at night. All that to say, he won't go to college wearing a diaper!! = ) This phase will eventually pass.
Cracking up over your being Ghandi to Beckham... I can just see you whispering 'meaty bones' in his ear and his walking away slowly to contemplate. Girl you slay me.
And fist bump on the Doodlebops. I've never despised a show more.
This is horrible--but we were desperate--and it is working pretty well...finally, after nearly a year of "on again, off again" unsuccessful potty pooping, we put Noah (3 1/2) back in diapers for a while until he was relaxed and comfortable enough to actually have regular BM's again...then, one day, we put him back in underwear and told him that Mommy and Daddy are through changing diapers. Now, if he messes himself up, we place him, completely clothed, in the tub, and HE gets the joy of "changing himself," while I start a washer of hot water to dump the soiled clothing into. He usually winds up giving himself a full-scale bath, but I stay within his earshot and talk about how disgusting it is and how much it stinks. Then, when it's over, he has to "scrub the tub" with a rag (and I go behind him later with bleach water). He's had four accidents in the 6 weeks since we started that, and he is completely grossed out by changing himself (I think all the accidents were because he was really distracted or nowhere near a potty--not just lazy)...but he has started going on the potty, pretty consistently--which we still celebrate with gummy worms (which we keep in a clear jar that he can see all day long--but knows he cannot get into unless he poops in the potty). Anyway, while the "changing yourself" seems gross and maybe a little brutal--it is working better than anything else we've tried, and it's actually less stressful for me. We just had to pick a consequence and stick with it, once we were sure he understood the mechanics of pottying and knew what to do when he felt the need to "go." This may not work so well with a pregnant nose, though--it can get smelly for about 10 minutes while he's changing...
You are so precious. I keep finding you through Lauren Chandler and Natalie Patterson...
On the potty training, we are working on it right now with my 2 yr old BOY, I TOTALLY understand the nekkedness issue. We are not a family of nekkedness either; HOWEVER, I did find that if he was naked, and his potty was somewhere easily accessible (ours is in front of the TV). Our accidents went down A LOT!! Now, he's wearing clothes and pulling his pants down on his own...I think it's taken about 6 weeks to get to this point. So, all that to say, if you can deal with the nekkedness for a while the payoff is GREAT!!
Have a happy Thanksgiving!!
We ADORE Choo Choo Soul in my house...it's a highlight of our mornings. We do NOT adore the Doodlebops. Cierra likes to think we adore them, but if Mommy can't stand them...they're out. Good luck potty training sister!
Greetings Little Momma!:) Hope your Thanksgiving was fab!:) You are starting in again on potty training? My nephew says he will potty train when he turns 4, which is this month. But he says he's turning 5, not 4 now:)
katiegfromtennessee
Post a Comment