A change in duties

Sam has been "potty training" for what seems like forever.

Just shy of his 2nd birthday he would poop on the potty, but not pee. Then we somehow lost all interest... and periodically I would test his interest ... we would try again, sometimes for a few hours, other times all day, until he'd lose interest and we would have accident, after accident, after accident.

Back in January, we had a fairly successful weekend of underpants, going potty every 45 minutes, but then Sunday and church happened, and by the end of nursery we’d had an accident, he lost interest and was back to pull-ups and diapers.

With boys (and girls too, I guess), I've always heard, “don't push them, when they're ready, they're ready.” And that was what I was trying to do with Sam. In the mornings, I'd ask, “Do you want to wear big boy underpants, a Spiderman pull-up, or diaper today,” and let him pick. Making it clear that if he chose one of the first two, he'd have to sit on the potty when Mommy said it was time to. Again, we'd have some successes, and lots of messy failures. And unless he was naked or in Sacrament meeting, he'd NEVER tell us he needed to go potty, we were always the ones telling him when it was time to go.

Finally last Monday, May 1st, I decided it was time to simply put him in big boy underpants and see what would happen. Preparing myself for weeks of accidents, vowing to be consistent and not give up, no matter what, we started.

Sam did pretty well all week, averaging only 2 accidents a day. I count myself lucky we only had one public accident (we had a week full of errands, etc. getting ready for Rebecca's 6th birthday and all girl party!). It happened at preschool and was only pee - a lot of pee, but only pee - that I can deal with in public. Thankfully, I had a change of pants and underpants in the car and had just purchased wipes at the store!

I think Sam's finally starting to figure out when his body needs to go potty. We've been accident free since Saturday afternoon! AND he's been waking up dry! Tonight GR is experimenting by putting Sam to bed with big boy underpants on, not a pull-up. We'll see what happens in the morning.

I'm comfortable taking Sam anywhere in underpants, but not confident. I still drive around town with a couple pairs of underpants, a pair of jeans, some wipes and a pull-up - in the front seat of the car! I'm not sure we'd be accident free if I didn't remind him every couple of hours to go potty. But today - for the first time in underpants - Sam said, "Need to go potty!" So off we rushed to the bathroom where Rebecca was just finishing, poor thing had to wipe standing up so her brother could go, such a good sport!

So it looks like for the first time in 6 years, I will have a short three month break from changing dirty diapers!

Side tracked

Thursday, 13 April 2006

Today was the deadline for the local Parks and Recreational sign-up forms to be turn in. So Emily, Sam and I went to make sure Rebecca got enrolled in t-ball with other girls from her elementary school, and get both girls enrolled in a little 6 week cheerleading class. T-ball will start once school lets out and cheerleading will start a few weeks later. Hopefully, we won't have a scheduling conflict with practices/games falling on the same night.

The office is next to a great little park, and the weather today was sunny and beautiful! The kids persuaded me to stop for a while to let them swing and slide and have some good old fashioned fun. Afterwards we drove through Wendy's drive thru to get a glass of ice cold lemonade.

My two boys

Tuesday, 28 March 2006

Off we go again

Wednesday, 12 April 2006

Today for lunch Emily and Sam had peanut butter and honey sandwiches and a huge bowl of strawberries. After cutting up half the carton of strawberries and making sure everyone was settled, happily eating their lunch, I went to respond to a quick email before loading everyone in the car for the preschool run. I might have been in front of the computer 60 second before hearing Samuel scream, and come running into the front room with blood dripping down his hand.

Turns out he and Emily inhaled the strawberries and he decided he could cut them up himself. Our new kitchen knives were no match for his little finger.

(This picture is terribly out of focus and a bit misleading but it's all I've got. We took two pictures, and they both turned out this way ... the cut was straight and very clean and was about 3/4" long.)

It's 11:50... 40 minutes before preschool starts. I get Sam's finger cleaned up, asses that it's not going to stop bleeding for a while, wrap a wash cloth around the finger, make a phone call to a friend in our neighborhood who also goes to preschool in the afternoon who might be able to give Emily a ride (she's not home, leave an odd disjointed message), and discover Sam has a poopie diaper. Use a large claw clip to hold the washcloth around Sam's finger and apply light pressure, but won't cut off circulation, and change his diaper, and call another Mom who lives up the street and whose daughter also attends preschool with Emily - she's able to take Emily to school, I call GR get his cell phone and warn him we're coming, and off we go.

We get to the ER about 12:30 where GR meets us. They aren't quiet as fast this time, but we still get seen within 10 minutes. Sam won't let anyone, including GR look at his cut. I finally get the wash cloth off his finger (everyone was rather impressed with the claw clip solution to applying pressure and keeping the wound covered) so the nurse and the doctor could look at it. It's stopped bleeding, but he still isn't keen about anyone touching it.

GR and I learn that finger tips don't have much blood circulation, so they don't use numbing agents when dealing with cuts on the fingertip. Numbing of the area could cause permanent damage to the finger tip because it reduces the circulation of blood to the area. Instead of stitches, they glued the cut closed with Derma bond, put two Band-Aids on it to keep Sam from bending his finger, give him a green popsicle for being brave and off we went to race back home to pick Emily up from school. (Thankfully, Wednesday's are Rebecca's afternoon with Grandma, so I didn't have to worry about who was going to pick her up!)


"Strawberry Cut" update:
Sam will still tell you how he got his scar, which has healed very nicely. And he will also tell you that he isn't supposed to cut strawberries by himself, that's Mommy's job. And we haven't had any major injuries since, knock on wood!