Update on Crises Past

I have some incredible news, people. I think it's officially safe to say THE MISTER IS POTTY TRAINED. If you've been thinking all along that we'd already reached this point, you've been sorely mistaken. It got so bad after Annabeth was born. Curt and I were fighting anger every time we had to change him. We'd been working on it for so long. And changing a three-year-old is just wrong. I will refrain from writing a descriptive paragraph on that. You're welcome. Suffice it to say that the comparison between my preschooler's pull-ups and my newborn's diapers just magnified the problem.

After six and a half months of trying everything under the sun, here's what finally did it. Jackson had gotten the tee-teeing thing down pretty quick. It was the other that gave us so much grief. Ever since the beginning of the year, Jacks had a very regular pattern of going during his nap. (This was one of the major factors causing The Nap Crisis of 2009.) One day Curtis got really brave and put Jackson down for his rest time without a pull up on. So he'd have to come out of his room and go on the potty or else do his business in the bed. Curt really got lucky because it worked! That's all it took! Of course, now it takes him 20 minutes to go down for a nap because he gets up over and over to go, but at least we aren't changing any more enormous diapers. Today he only got up once, so maybe we're making progress.

It's been about two weeks since we've had him in underwear except for during his nap and at night. He's been to church, to the rodeo, to the mall, to MDO, and everywhere else in his unders and he's done great. I think he's had maybe 3 accidents and they've been at home. I have to give huge props to Curtis because he's worked so hard with him these past few months. I also have to give credit to my amazing co-workers because they have prayed really hard for us about it lately. Thank you, sweet sisters!

Also, remember The Sharing Crisis of 2008? Well, honestly, it was so miserable that I can count on one hand how many playdates we've hosted at our house since then. I think the last one was in November. It took my friends calling me and saying, "Hey, can we come over this week?" for it to happen. It just wasn't worth it to have anyone over when Jackson spent most of the time in trouble. He simply couldn't handle other kids playing with his toys without having tantrums. But today my friend Michelle came over with her two boys to meet Annabeth and have a playdate. Keegan is 2.5 and Jack is 1. I was kind of nervous, but Jackson showed me that he has really grown up. Even though he had a few time outs, he impressed me big time by how well he played with Keegan and shared with both of them. It was a monumental improvement. I think maybe we can get back into the swing of playdates again.

And in case I haven't mentioned it, The Nap Crisis of 2009 was solved by changing the name of nap time to "rest time." We remind Jackson that he doesn't have to sleep, but he does have to stay in his bed and be quiet. And every day he actually sleeps. I am deeply indebted to whoever it was that suggested that to me. Taking the pressure off was like magic. He went back to sleeping every day for two hours, just in time for the baby to come.

I'm super thankful to God for this big, timely reminder that these things we work so hard on really will bear fruit in time.