Ty & Wes Time: Pee Down, Poop To Go, Blizzard, Monkey Friend, Ice-Fishing, Grabbing Things & Mom Back To Work

Wes: 12 Weeks Old

Ty: 2 Years & 4 Months Old

The Potty Chronicles continue! Sorry everybody, but it consumes you when you are doing it! Last Friday I was hoping for a day of no pee accidents, but he had 2. He just gets so involved with playing that he does not want stop. This was despite me singing the song from Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood (a PBS cartoon), "When you have to go potty, STOP and go right away! Flush and wash and be on your way!" We have sung that song a million times and Ty chimes in with the "away" and "way!" The big news of the day was that he actually pooped on the potty for the first time - without starting to go in his undies first! Huge deal! Let me tell you! Sonia had sent us some potty training songs and one of them was so funny... talking about when your poop hits the water it makes a funny sound! So when he did it, I said, "Did you hear it? Did you hear the plop in the water?" Well, he thought that was the best and kept saying, "plop in water, plop in water!" So I'm trying to make it fun and say, "Want to go make it plop in the water?" The other news of the day was that it had started snowing in the morning...we were getting a blizzard! I had gotten used to the bare ground and thinking about spring, but forget that! Heath made it home, thankfully, and we hunkered in for the night. Ty made another 4 word sentence that Heath was impressed with. They were playing together upstairs before Ty went to bed. Ty got all excited and said, "Daddy, stool...up...ball!" Ty was saying that he needed to get the step-stool, so he could put the ball up on the dresser! He is really coming along with his talking! Westin was pretty status-quo for the day. He is such a good boy.

My happy status-quo boy

On Sabbath, the snow was very heavy until afternoon. We ended up getting 2 feet. Despite the actual blizzard, Heath went on the lake for the ice-fishing derby late in the morning. He brought his ATV with his plow and actually had to plow to get onto the lake! What boys will do for their fishing! Church was cancelled everywhere, so the boys & I had a day at home. I did some research on message boards about Westin's nursing dilemma, and did find that so many mothers out there discovered that their babies would all of a sudden become very efficient at nursing (around 3 months of age) and would only nurse for 5 minutes on a side as well. So I decided last Sabbath that I would stop obsessing and that maybe Westin is just very efficient now. He is still so happy all the time, he still sleeps through the night, and has plenty of wet diapers and at least 3 big poops a day. All signs point to him getting enough milk, so I'll try to stop stressing. On the Ty front, he did a cute and a bizarre thing last Sabbath. The cute thing was that Ty had gone down for a nap and as I was putting him down, he said, "Westy nap?" I said, "Yes, Westy is napping too." He seemed happy with that and went down. 10 minutes after he appeared to be sleeping, I heard on the monitor a big sigh and then Ty said, "Westy nap." Talking to himself! So cute. The bizarre thing happened after he woke up from his nap, he was really excited and pointed to the window and kept saying over and over again, "monkey...monkey...monkey!" I couldn't understand why he would be talking about a monkey, so I thought that maybe he wasn't saying, "monkey" and it was supposed to be another word, so I just blew it off and brought him downstairs to eat lunch. While he was eating lunch, he got all excited again and pointed outside saying, "monkey" again. I was so perplexed at what he was saying, so he felt he had to clarify. He pointed to the sky outside and said, "see monkey sky again." Then he proceeded to make monkey noises! So there was no question that he was saying, "monkey," but I still have no idea why he would be seeing monkeys in the sky. The only thing I can come up with is that #1) he has an imaginary monkey friend, #2) he watched a video on Youtube with a monkey in it, or #3) it was a dream he had. Very, very puzzling.

Maybe they should nap together! (=

Last Sunday it was back to the lake for Heath for the second day of the derby. He had his best derby ever and caught 7 good-sized lake trout! The snow had stopped and it was a beautiful day, so Sonia & I made a plan. We met up at Danny & Janet's house (Heath's aunt & uncle), which is just down the road from where Heath & the crew were ice-fishing. Wes & I stayed and visited with Danny & Janet, while Sonia took Ty out on the ice. He had a blast! He was there when Heath caught a few fish and he thought it was great! He would go right over to the hole and watch the fish come out. When they would let the fish go, he would wave and say, "bye-bye fish!" Ty & Sonia were out there a couple hours and then they came back and Danny took Ty for a ride on his tractor and had Ty slide down his giant snowbanks! Ty was in heaven. I ran into a few potty-training dilemmas that day, let me tell you. The first of which, I was determined to keep him in his big boy undies on the drive there. You don't realize what a pain it is actually going to be, until you do it! We were driving on the highway, when Tyson deemed it time to potty. What are you going to do? We were close to our exit, so I encouraged him to hold it and then pulled over in the park 'n' ride. I had placed a portable stand-up potty in our trunk, just-in-case...and thank goodness I had. Also, thank goodness we have a station wagon. I swear, you need a station wagon just for potty-training. I plopped Ty right on that sucker in the back of the station wagon and he did his business right there! 20 degree weather and no privacy, but he got it done! He made it the rest of the 30 minutes to their house without a problem. But then came the dilemma of going out on the lake. He has never peed standing up and Sonia couldn't lug the portable potty on the ATV - I just wasn't sure what to do. My decision was made when Heath strongly suggested that I put a diaper on him. He said, "If Ty pees, it's all over." It was too cold for that. I agreed, since he had started the training less than a week ago. It would have been asking too much. But I hate to give him mixed messages! But then I had an even worse dilemma. When he got back from the ice, we were going to be driving to Laconia (another 30 minutes away) and he had not had a nap all day. I KNEW he would fall asleep, so what do you do? I put diapers on him for sleep since he doesn't have the control yet. So, he was in diapers even longer that day (not the same one, though)! He did fall asleep but woke right up when we got to the Goodwill. Sonia came with us (no, I don't think I will ever get to the place to take both of them to Goodwill by myself...at least not for years) and then we met Heath at the Mexican restaurant for supper. After supper, we rushed home and then I left for the airport and Heath got the boys to bed. I was going to pick up my parents, since they were coming in that night. It was great to see them! They all had a great time on their cruise. It's just nice to be able to pick up the phone and call them again!

Getting ready to go to the lake - snowpants with nothing underneathe and socks for mittens! He's totally prepared!

Their ice-fishing spot

Watching Daddy fish

Tractor ride

Sliding down the snowbanks

After all the fun

On Monday Westin turned 3 months old! Happy Birthday! Exciting, but it just means that my 3 month maternity leave is over! )= Monday we got another 3 inches of snow with freezing rain, so no pharmacies for us! )= First matter of the day, I officially stopped Westin's acid reflux med, since he had been on it for a week without any improvement and I was on the kick of "he is just efficient with his nursing." Ty did a few more cute things on Monday. One thing that was cute but exasperating, was that Ty decided that he was not happy with Westin napping and ran into our room and said, "Westy wake up!" And unfortunately, Wes did wake up! Then Ty was in the bathroom with me and wanted to put deodorant on and said, “boobies” and proceeded to rub deodorant all over his chest! A little off on that one! The potty-training thing took a sinister turn when I realized that Ty is trying to pee constantly to get a treat! All I hear all the time is “Potty…potty…potty.” He will sit there and squeeze a few drops out and then exclaim, “Yea! Pee! Treat!” Oh my. Since he had only been potty-training for a week, I felt that I couldn’t start discouraging him by taking away the treats, because I didn’t want him to regress. But then after he would have his little treat, he would say, “More treat.” I would say, “No Tyson, that is when you go on the potty.” So in response, he started saying, “More potty.” He pretty much says “More potty” after every treat he gets!

This is what he does with the treats - puts them in holes in his tractor & then wants me to get them out for him!

Tuesday was a great day because Ty had his first accident-free day… that is for pee! Poop is still a problem, but I’m trying to be patient with that one. One thing that was cute was that Ty wanted to use my iPhone, but Westy was sleeping. I said, “Ty, you know that you can use the phone when I’m nursing Westy.” So Tyson said, “Westy nurse. Westy nurse.” I said, “No Ty, Westy is sleeping. He doesn’t need to nurse now.” Tyson was not satisfied with that and said, “Westy, wake up. Nurse!” He is a persistent bugger. Tuesday afternoon Noni came by to get familiar with Westin’s schedule and Ty’s potty-training, since my first day back to work was the next day. It all went well, despite a little coaxing that needed to be done when Noni fed Wes his bottle.

He is "talking" so much

He is also really grabbing things

Wednesday was the day that I had been dreading. I won’t lie and say that I didn’t shed a tear, but it was much easier this time around. I guess it is because I knew what to expect and I knew that Tyson has done so well with this schedule that I didn’t feel as anxious. That is not to say that I didn’t miss them like crazy, because I certainly did. The first day at work went well – it was very busy but it did seem like I had never left. Except that I felt a tad rusty, I have to say. I felt like that part of my brain hadn’t been used in 3 months and I guess it hadn’t. Not that I made any mistakes, but I just felt like I was slower and my flow was not where it usually is. It was funny, a patient remarked that I “must have done this before” when I put an IV in. I had to laugh and told her that, “Oh yes, but you were my first IV start in 3 months!” Obviously I explained about my maternity leave and she and her husband thought that it was very funny. I called my mom during one of my pumping breaks and she said, “Westin is an angel. Ty is the one giving me trouble!” Isn’t that the story of my life! Ty is quite a handful but I don’t know how in the world we ended up with this sweet, laid-back boy in Westin. He is just so sweet. Anyways, the boys did well with Noni, but acted up a bit for Heath. Why are they always better with the grandparents? I had two interesting things happen to me on my way home from work. First of all, I had stopped into Rite Aid to grab something (right next door to the hospital) after my shift and I was walking to my car when this guy said, “Can I talk to you for a minute?” He was a couple of cars down from me and I said, “Yes. What do you need?” He said that he was a college student from Concord and that he was just about out of gas. He said that he had just pulled off the highway and needed some help to get a bit of gas in his car. He said, “Come here. I can show you my gas gauge.” Well, that set off alarm bells in my head – there was no way I was going over to his car at 10:30 PM at night! I said, “I’m sorry. I don’t feel comfortable. If I carried money on me, I’d give it to you, but I never carry money on me. I’m sorry.” I got in my car and drove off. His story just didn’t make sense. Whichever way he came from off the highway, he would have passed at least 2 gas stations. Why wouldn’t he have pulled into one of them? Why pull into a Rite Aid parking lot? It was just strange. I had a weird feeling like he was trying to abduct me or something. Looking back, I probably should have called the cops on him, but I didn’t. I had the opportunity to talk to the police that night, though. As I was 4 houses away from home, I got pulled over by a town cop. I knew that I wasn’t speeding – and I wasn’t… he was telling me that passenger headlight was out. I couldn’t believe it since we had just changed our driver’s headlight a couple of months ago. Well, that night I was absolutely beat and, of course, fell asleep while nursing Westin and woke up at 3 AM. That meant a 3 AM shower and I didn’t get to bed until 3:30 AM. It just happened to be that Tyson woke up at 6:30 AM the next day, which he never does. Why does that always happen?

My angel - who I missed so much

Last Thursday was Valentine’s Day! I decided to treat myself by doing a full cleaning of my house that day! I couldn’t get it all done, but I got the majority of it done! Tyson started something new with his pooping problem. He definitely knows when he has the urge to go, but he is scared to go. He asks to go potty and is grabbing his butt as he runs to the bathroom. But the moment that his tush sits down on the pot, he says, “Done…walk!” He does not want to even try to go! So he will do these “false alarms” like 9 times in a row, which I know means he has to poop. On the 10^th time on Thursday, he pooped his pants a bit but then finished on the potty. These false alarms are annoying and time consuming, but just part of the process. The good news is he really does have the pee part down and has had about 6 days in a row of no pee accidents! Yea! My dad came and visited with us for a bit before he headed on a date night with my mom on Thursday. Then Adam came over and Ty said the funniest thing. He pointed at his hair and said, “I need haircut!” He actually does, but how did he know that? It was so cute! When Heath got home we went to the 99. Ty ended up going to the bathroom at the restaurant 3 times while we were there. Hopefully the frequency will die down a bit! Heath & I hope to go out for a belated V-Day’s date night in a week or two. We’ll see! Have a great week!