Extreme potty training with Josiah

Potty training ran my life for 3 days one month ago ... but the rewards have been GREAT and Josiah's inconsistency in his poo & pee habits are no longer running mine day in and day out! I began the saga for training Josiah back in the beginning of July. I could tell he had been "ready" for quite awhile and he did good for a little while ... but then he began to regress, I began to get frustrated and all in all I realized there was a lot of inconsistency that I was allowing to happen. That's when I ran across the 3 day potty training method and after reading it realized that it was the right fit for both Josiah and I. So after taking a 14 day break from doing anything I put it into practice the last weekend of October.

This is a snapshot of my first day: We got up and had breakfast together. We then took all his diapers and padded training pants and told them "goodbye". We got all his new underwear from the dryer and put them in his drawer. I took him to the bathroom and introduced him to his new weeman urinal and told him that pee and poo were going in the bathroom from now on because he is a BIG boy! Then we went about our day. He made it to the bathroom first thing to go poo - he likes to hold on to mom and put his little head in the crook of my neck while he "does his thing". It's a little stinky but that's what he needs for now ... that's when he told me that I was his favorite superhero - awesome!! The rest of the morning and afternoon was him peeing in his underwear (or rather on the floor) and me rushing him to the bathroom saying, "yucky, now your underwear is wet". I got peed on twice during that time and spent a lot of time w/ vinegar-water and a rag :) I spent a lot of the day saying, "tell mommy when you need to go pee" and "are you still dry?" "Good boy, keep your underwear dry"! Finally at dinner time we sat down for our meal and he said, "I need to go pee" - which he hadn't done for about 2 hours. Chris was home so we made it a family affair and we all went into the bathroom together to see him go pee in his new urinal. And BOY did he go!! He "dumped" it back in the toilet, got his treat and Ellie led the procession out to the livingroom so we could "jump for joy" ... although Josiah refused to jump for joy until we changed it to, "jumping for Penny" (from the movie Bolt). He did GREAT the rest of the evening and when it came time for bed he went pee w/ his daddy and we tucked him in ... prepared for a night of changing sheets ... which never happened! He came out 20 mins after we put him down to go pee one last time and then Chris took him pee @ 3am.

It's been one month since those 3 days and I am happy to say that Josiah is fully potty trained. He has moved from going pee in his wee-man urinal to standing on a stool and going pee "just like daddy". We are working on him going all by himself now - something I remember doing w/ Elizabeth when I first trained her. If he doesn't need my assistance he gets a special treat and he LOVES that incentive! He still has accidents now and then - but mostly just little leaks from waiting too long. It's still hit or miss during the night. Sometimes he'll keep his bed dry all night long and other times he has accidents all thru the night! I decided a few days ago to use the padded cloth pull-ups I used with Elizabeth when she was his age and I have cut my laundry in half!! All in all I am VERY happy to not have to wash cloth diapers every other day - I do not miss the diaper days one bit!

it's been almost 2 weeks ...

since I removed the dvds from the livingroom and put the library books in their place. The first week was a bit tough with Elizabeth asking for a movie every day. Also every time I did her hair she asked for "PBS kids" (which we watch on our computer). I told her we weren't going to watch a movie every day anymore and so when the asking would start again I would sit on the couch with the kids and pull out a book. We've read SO many books over this past week. First of all I am absolutely amazed at the attention span of my 2 year old. We've been reading books for the 4 - 5 year old level and he has no problem sitting there the whole time. They will sit there for 20 - 30 minutes at a time just listening to me read! One would think that with all this reading my house would be messier than before ... the funny thing is that it's not any worse than when I when we were watching anywhere from 30 mins to 2 hours of a dvd per day. After talking to my friend Carrie about this I realized that unlike watching a dvd Ellie and Josiah are interacting with me the whole time we read together. They are getting an extra dose of love that they cannot get with a movie.

We watched a movie on Friday night together (well most of it was together) and since then they have only asked to watch a movie once. Even yesterday when I was doing Ellie's hair she didn't ask to watch anything ... she just played with her toys at the table along with Josiah.

It has been a wonderful transition for us all!

Rain!

I woke up around 3:30/4 this morning to the sound of the rain ... was SO excited to hear it pouring down and wished that I had a window in my room to open and listen even more! Had just drifted back to sleep when Ellie came into the room saying, "mom, you were mad at me in bed", "What?" I replied. "I had a dream and you were mad." I picked her up reassuring her that I was NOT mad and that I loved her. I then took her to the potty, put her back in bed and told her to listen to the sound of the rain that God was sending for her to listen to. Her eyes were wide and her smile got big as she talked about how she couldn't wait for morning when she could put her boots and raincoat on and go jump in the puddles! Somewhere between 4 and 5 she came in yet again and I tucked her back into bed ... then Josiah woke up screaming about his "pee-pee" hurting him ... took him pee and told him to listen to the rain. He was so excited to wake up and go out in the rain that I'm surprised he actually fell back to sleep!

It's so fun to share with my children the joy of weather and change in the seasons!

God is so good

My son loves this song ... found him standing on top of my laundry basket singing this on the top of his lungs yesterday. Such a beautiful sound to hear your children singing praises to the Lord. It truly is a picture of the verse in scripture that says, "...out of the overflow of the mouth, the heart speaks." (Luke 6:45)

I am praising the Lord this morning because he is good. The past year and especially the last few months have been a tough journey for our family. We have been struggling financially in a way that we've never struggled before. We have had to let all of our credit cards go, stop paying on most of our mortgages (we have several investment properties), have lost one property to foreclosure, we are the in process of declaring bankruptcy, have bills due this next week that I have NO idea how we will pay and the list goes on.

Yet the Lord is faithful.

• I began babysitting a little boy at the beginning of summer - that's the Lord's provision.
• A friend called us right after we prayed about our bills a few weeks ago and offered to loan us the money we needed to get through the end of the month - that's the Lord's provision.
• I am on the end of all my tea/coffee and lately I haven't been able to get through the day w/o some caffeine ... yesterday I won a coffee and tea package at a babyshower - that too is the Lord's provision.

Those are just a few of the things that come to mind as I sit here in the early morning, yet the point is not in a list - the point is that HE is faithful and takes care of His own!

All the while my husband works and works to try to see deals close in real estate. He's even going to drive a trailer one day this month and deliver a bunch of packages through a gig he found on craigslist. I'm so proud of him and the way he's stuck to his work even though there has yet to be real payoff AND that he is looking for alternative and creative ways to provide for his family.

I will continue to praise HIM, continue to trust in HIM, continue to "lift up my eyes to the hills" for He is faithful. (Heb 10:23)

I lift up my eyes to the hills—
where does my help come from?

My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;

Ps 121:1-3