Potty Training 101

I have been very busy potty training Joel for the past week. Through all this potty training I have learned a few lessons that I would like to share with you.

• You can never have enough clean underwear the first day of training.
• Boys can soak dry underwear while going potty on the toilet.
• Don't start them too young. They get this whole potty training thing MUCH faster when they are old enough to understand it all.
• Potty training children sometimes fear having the first bowel movement on the potty. I have learned the trick.....refried beans morning, noon, and night!! After two days they can't help but have a BM!!!
• Be careful how hard you grab and yank on the zipper to your little boys jeans. You just might grab and yank something other than a zipper.
• Do not play hide and seek with a potty training child. When they are looking the other way for you and you scare them when you run up behind them...they will scream VERY loudly and wet their pants.
• Get very excited with every success. They really are proud of themselves. I am cherishing every huge, potty training smile I have been shone!!!
• Stick with it...even if they seem to be having a horrible attitude about it!!
• You will so enjoy seeing your little boy out of a diaper and into underwear!! They are so cute running around the house "ALL GROWN UP"!!

Why Son must you be so big?

Joel has learned something new today. He has figured out how to undress himself. It is freezing outside, not too warm inside, but he has proclaimed that he no longer likes clothes!! What am I going to do with this child?

He has also figured out when the camera is going to take a picture. I am getting way TOO MANY of these shots!!

WHAT A KID!!!

Our Nativity set

My mother-in-law got this Nativity set for my family probably 12 years ago!!  I LOVE THIS SET!!!  It is so durable.  Through the years all the kids have enjoyed playing with it.  This year it is Joel's turn.  He is the first one to actually PLAY with it.  He loves this thing and I so enjoy listening to him play.  He has cute names for certain items....Joseph is God, Mary is The Mommy, and the donkey is Donkey Boy (off of Pooh).

The past couple of days

Joel had been sick since Saturday night. He had a high fever for days. He finally got rid of his fever sometime yesterday and is now doing a TON better. Today we were able to go outside in the land of the living again!!! We went down to the lodge to eat lunch and we went swimming in the lake. Right now Joel is down for his nap and I am heading out with a friend for the evening. Today has been GREAT so far!!!

He makes us laugh

It has been a while since my last post. Tonight I thought I would share with you what Joel has said today that made us all laugh.

Joel found his empty cup. He was in need of some more water. He brought the cup to me and said, "Mommy, my cup hungry! Feed it!"

It rained here today, so the umbrellas were out of the closet. Joel found one and brought it to me. He wanted it opened, but this is what he asked, "Mommy, turn my umbrella on?"

What were we up to today?

Daniel's fun thing for today was listening to a CD, while in bed.



Emily is all about her hair. She enjoys looking good for any occasion. Today she worked hard on straightening her hair so that she could go....swimming in the lake!



Lauren and Amy's newest passion is making pot holders!!! They are very creative and quiet when they are doing these!! If anyone out there has extra pieces for a loom sitting around, my family would love them. Even Daniel has gotten into making these things. In fact we now have SO many pot holders in our house that many of you will be getting one for Christmas!!





Joel loves to have a HAMMER (or hanger in Joel language) in his hand at all times. I won't tattle on him and tell you some of the more creative places he has hammered. I will tell you though that he has gotten the hammer taken away more than once.

Speech therapy

Here is a short video of Joel not learning how to say PLEASE correctly. I knew that my parents would enjoy it, so here it is!!

Yes, I have seen the video. I have NO IDEA why the thing messed up like it did, but at least it didn't mess up his voice!!!

OOOPS!!!

Joel brought home a peanut butter and jelly sandwich from lunch today. He placed it on the floor and then he laid down to get his diaper changed. I guess he really didn't want that sandwich, because when his diaper was changed he ran off to play. The sandwich was forgotten.........but not for too long! Jeff found it and cracked up laughing. I went running to see what was so funny.


See for yourself.......






Apparently Joel had laid down on the sandwich and it was scooped up into his diaper during the change!!! None of us remembered it even existed until Jeff found it!! It somehow puts a whole new meaning to "playing with your food" doesn't it?

Oh, by the way......I am not telling WHO changed the diaper, but I am sure that he will NEVER do this again!!!

For the sake of documentation

I am taking a risk that this will not be funny to anyone, except Karen and me, but being the dedicated blogger that I am.....I just had to document it anyway. Joel has been seen here at camp recently wearing his life jacket everywhere he goes. He eats in it, plays in it, swims in it, goes for bike rides in it, and the list goes on. He honestly wears it so often that people make jokes about it! He has, for some unknown reason, attached himself to this thing. I have chosen to not make a big deal about it. I allow him to wear it everywhere except........



TO BED! I draw the line there! He wanted to wear it for his nap, but I wouldn't let him. I made him take it off. I laid it at the end of the bed and told him he could have it back after his nap. I left the room and this is what I found when I came to wake him up 2 hours later.






Next time I will take it out of the room, but for this time I am glad that I didn't! It sure made for a cute picture and a funny story!!

Must you?

Our Joel does things NONE of the other four would ever do!




Here he is unbuckling himself from his car seat! Riding in the car has become quite the battle lately. My other children NEVER even tried this and Joel does it often.



Here is Joel's other favorite hobby.....getting himself something to eat! Just about everyday he gets into some type of food. I promise we feed the child plenty! He just likes to snack a lot!!! This WAS a brand new box of Corn Flakes. He made quite the mess with the box pieces. I told him he had to clean it all up. Look where he put some of the trash!


He drove the trash all around the house before he took it to the trash can. That is another thing that the other children never did.....play with trucks. Joel LOVES any truck he can push around.

SHORT video of Joel

Thank you to the Maxwell Family for the gift of this video capability! I am having so much fun with it.

FYI..."Nanin" is what Joel calls Lauren

My exercise program

All these hills are right outside my house. Joel must think that I don't walk up and down them enough. He has come up with a great workout plan for me! I let him go outside to play in front of the house where there are no hills!! He runs down a hill and won't come back up when I call him. I have to go down the hill and CARRY him back up!! Joel weighs almost 40 pounds and he is very heavy for me!! This great workout plan is doing a real number on my legs and my lungs! You should hear me breathing when I get back home. I have to wait a minute or two to discipline him, because I am so out of breath!! I think that his plan is working though. My legs hurt just sitting here typing this post! By the time he learns that I mean business and stops going down the hill without someone to watch him, I will be in pretty good shape!! Well maybe not, but I will be better off than I am today!!

What?

• Last night on our way home from Granger it was snowing very heavily. We were almost home when we all were sure that we saw....lightning and thought that we heard thunder!!! Is that possible?

• Last night Jeff was on the couch asleep. I went over to him and said, "Honey, is it time to go to bed yet?" His reply, "Oh I closed my eyes. I guess I just forgot to open them." (He really makes me laugh!)

• Today when I was at the Post Office I over heard another customer say, "No, it's all for the same last name. I have three addresses!" Why would one person need three addresses? (By the way that he and his two buddies were dressed and behaved, I am sure that he was not referring to Summer cottages!)

• When I came home from my outing this morning this is what greeted me.

Jeff was watching the children and he FORGOT to dress Joel! ( Should I be worried about Jeff's memory?)

• A telemarketer called me yesterday. He was trying to get some info that I was NOT about to give him. He persisted for at least 10 minutes, telling me why I was safe to give him my bank info. I do not hang up on telemarketers, so I was stuck listening to him and continually telling him, "No thank you." I finally said, "I have said no and I am not changing my mind. I will not be rude and hang up on you. Please let me go." His reply, "You can be rude." He actually was giving me permission to hang up on him! (Believe me...I wanted to be rude, but I just couldn't. I did consider giving the phone to the two year old though!) I told him that I wouldn't hang up. He finally relented and let me go. I thanked him and we both hung up. (Why do they have to be so difficult sometimes?) PS-The same guy called me back today 3/28!! I didn't hang up, but I wouldn't talk to him.......so he hung up on me!

So much to talk about

1. We are now officially wireless!! I am SO excited! This has been in the works for months. Thank you Bryon and Karen for making this work!!


2. Joel had been sick for almost two and a half weeks. He had the longest lasting stomach bug I had ever witnessed. During his sickness I was so concerned that he would never eat normal again. You see, while he was sick he was just grazing all day. He would eat the weirdest things and then not want his favorite things. This went on for way too long. I am here to tell you that all my worries were not needed. Joel is now all better. I am very sure of this, because he is now eating once again like the horse he has always been. I am so excited to see him eat a real meal and then be satisfied for many hours. Thank you Jesus!!


3. Joel was able to have his best friend Hayden over today. They haven't played together in weeks, because of all the sickness in our house. The two boys were so excited to be together again. Here are some pictures of them.

I love you!

I have decided to make Sundays....my day for posting a video. I am trying to get video of the other children, but they are not cooperating at the moment. So here is another video of Joel. He had been talking to his sister Emily on the phone for about twenty minutes. I took the video, because he was just walking around the house and talking non-stop (like his mommy does on the phone). By the time I got the camera out, he wasn't really talking anymore, but he would repeat whatever I told him to say. These two phrases were what he was saying on his own, just one minute before the camera came out. I hope you enjoy.

Making his SOCCER dad proud!!

My boys

Joel and Jeff are still sick! I am not sure that they are getting better. I hope that by later today I will see some improvement. Right now the only thing that is exciting in this house is that no one else is showing any signs of getting sick!!!! It will be a miracle, if someone doesn't get something! We have about four different things going around.

Karen (my wonderful friend, whom I love very much), if you read this PLEASE help!!! We NEED a new episode of Little Einsteins! In the last three days we have watched the 6 episodes that we do have at least a dozen times!!! I even went to the library yesterday and got Joel a ton of different cartoons. He honestly wants nothing to do with them. He ONLY wants "Stines"! HELP!!

Buddies!

The cutest thing has developed in our house recently. Amy and Joel are becoming great friends. They have been playing together for two days now. As you can see in the pictures, they also make a huge mess while playing! I don't mind the mess though, as long as they are getting along and having fun!

How can they stand it?

Thanks to the invitation from Carter and Hayden, today my children went outside into the "God made freezer!!" This is no joke. It is so cold out right now. I was freezing just going outside to check on the kids to make sure that they hadn't turned into ice cubes!!! As you can see, Joel didn't freeze to death, but his poor little cheeks are still red. How can children stand playing out in this stuff?

What did you say?

A quick note to let you know that Joel and the rest of the children are much healthier now. Thank you so much for your prayers. We NEEDED them!!

Joel's vocabulary has increased by leaps and bounds recently. He no longer just gives us those quick one word answers of yes and no. Our most recent example happened first thing today.
When he woke up this morning he looked a little lost. Being the GREAT mom that I am, I asked him, " Joel do you want something?"
He immediately replied, "Eat!"
Okay, I am a smart mom. I knew what that meant. He was hungry. He had been so sick this week that his appetite had really changed. I wanted to make sure that I got him exactly the thing that he wanted to eat.
I asked him, "Joel, do you want cereal?"
"No."
"Joel, do you want oatmeal?"
"No."
"Okay, Buddy, do you want toast?"
"No."
"Joel David, what do you want to eat?"
His reply, "BRESSFIST!" (Translated....breakfast, for you non mommy readers)
Just in case you are wondering, "bressfist" this morning consisted of two bowls of oatmeal and a piece of toast. Apparently a big vocabulary calls for a big appetite!