Potty training #2

Yes, yes, yes... we are attempting to potty train Jude this week.
Yes, it might be a bit crazy but we are giving it a go anyways.
We starting talking about the potty and peeing in a potty and getting rid of diapers and becoming a big boy a while ago.

Shelly attempted to work with Jude last week while they were visiting, but had little success.

We are again utilizing the no diapers, no pull ups, bare butt, hard core for three days technique.

Day 1 Summary:
12+ misses on  the floor of the kitchen (mostly).
3 times peeing on mommy
2 wet pairs of underwear
0 poops anywhere
2 dolls drinking water and peeing in the potty.
5 successful completion of peeing in the potty, though started elsewhere.


Jude knows what the potty is.   He knows how to sit on the little potty when asked.  He liked to help baby dollies drink and go to the potty and then get praise.  He got better at "finishing" in the potty by the end of the day...and boy can he hold in the pee when he wants to.  Jude really got the idea that if he pees in the potty he gets M and M's.  Tamlin got sympathy m&m's too.  He stayed dry through nap, but I didn't get him on the potty fast enough after he woke up.  He really likes the underwear with cars on it.  I think he gets that pee and poop go in the potty since he declares uh-oh when he starts to pee elsewhere. 
I know the poop is coming...we may have to bust out some puzzles or new books for tomorrow for extended sitting on potty time while we wait for it.  I am cautiously hopefully but Brian isn't convinced quite yet.  And we haven't tried the big potty at all yet (I need to run out and get a potty seat).

Keeping our fingers crossed :-)

So much stress...

Really...
I think this is the most stressful I have ever been...ever...in my life...
I hate being a grown up.
I know it will eventually all work out.

To sum up...
I have a new job starting soon = yeah.
We have moved to a new rental house, which didn't go 100% smoothly = yeah and ugh.
Our new rental is smaller than our old house so we have lots of boxes and things in storage = ugh.
Rental was a bit dirty and mildewy and all rooms needed paint = ugh.
New house and job is closer to family, who we haven't seen in months = yeah.
We need to navigate the DMV to get new license and tags for Ohio = ugh
We have completely cleaned and landscaped our old house = ugh
Old house has been on the market almost 90 days with no offers = double ugh.
We have to figure out what to do with the house before money to carry mortgage and rent runs out = triple ugh.  We may have to consider a short sale if possible and take the blow to our credit.
Brian needs to look for work and we need to figure out working our hours and watching the kids = ugh.
We are potty training Jude in the middle of this = yeah and ugh.
 I find myself consuming more adult beverages of late...but our new rental does have a view of Lake Erie and that helps.

Ugh.

Clean house

Our house has never been so clean as it is now...
I feel that I have been permanently attached to the vaccuum cleaner, the carpet steam cleaner, and the steam mop.
I should have bought stock in "Method" brand cleaners.
The boys have entirely too many cars to pick up every evening.

I really hope our house sells soon.

Moving and selling the house at the same time is horrendous.

My youngest is now Two!

Little Jude isn't so little anymore...he's two year's old now!
Due to all the confusion with the move and selling of the house, we are planning to celebrate next week when Brian's parents come for a visit.

His vocabulary is growing every day.  I think he is really happy to be able to communicate with us more.  He's added:  Bootiful (beautiful), Pretty, Fly (usually referring to airplanes), Sky, Flower, Out (for outside), No, Pizza, Bubbles.

He has been very intent on stacking things lately and building towers with any blocks he can get his hands on.

Books are a hit, especially if they have planes or trains or trucks in them.  He often will pull out a book, walk over to one of us, turn around, and plant himself in our laps...demanding to be read to. He recognizes that letters are important.  He'll point to the letters and say "O","M","E"...though he might not be pointing to those letters in particular.

Now that it is nice, he always wants to go outside.  He loves playing with the big digger/dump truck outside or throwing a ball around.

He is just starting to begin pretend play.  He'll get out all the little plastic dinosaurs and very carefully set them up-right.  He'll prance them around while "roaring" at them.  It is so cute.

He is certainly his own person and has his own mind.  He has no problem leaving us all in the family room to wander upstairs to get a truck or a book if he thinks of it.  And he'll let us all know if he wants something and is told no...oh, such tears!

He has hit the picky-eater phase.  He'll like something one evening but shake his head against it the next.  However, cookies and crackers are always favorites.  He'll eat sausage and chicken most times, but not much other meat.  Pizza is preferred most times and poptarts are a must in the mornings.  He handles a spoon and fork fairly well and knows that they are important, but often uses his fingers instead.  He does like to eat and always wants to know what everyone else is eating too.

He is still a snuggler and loves crawling into and out of laps.  He still loves being held to sleep when he can convince one of us to lay down with him at night.  He loves to give big hugs and cling to you deeply.  I still love these sticky warm hugs of love :-)

New words and favorite phrases

Tamlin is attempting to converse about time.  Often things have happened last year or will happen tomorrow.
For instance:
Tam: "Mom, can I play on the ipad like I did last year?" or "Is Ciearra coming over to visit tomorrow like she did last year?"

Tam's current favorite phrase is "That's my favorite!" and "I know" (Sometimes heavy with sarcasm).
He has also been working on numbers and prices, so he'll say "look, mom, it's on sale!" or "It's only 1 dollar."

Jude is expanding his spoken vocabulary to include:

Ball (any circular object)
Up
Down
Hat
Huck = Truck
Vroom or Beep = Car
Banana or Nana = banana
Cracker
Binky = pacifier
Ducky = blanket
Quack, quack = duck
Moo = cow
Woof, woof = dog
Meow = cat
Yee-haw = for yee-haw or for horse

Ease = please, but more often he just signs it
Thank you = said whenever he gets something or he give you something

And just lately....Butterfly, which he says softly like a whisper.

I can't wait until Jude figures out more words so he can tell us more of what is going on in the noggin of his.

As Jude nears two year

We are now firmly in the terrible two's, on top of everything else that is going on with life.  Brian, Tamlin, and myself are learning how to deal with Jude's rush of emotions and lack of communication skills, which equals frequent melt-downs for seemingly no reasons.

Jude's mind seems to be going something like this...

I'm awake
I'm awake, why is no one else awake
I'll push the talking dog button repeatedly until brother wakes up
Wake UP!
WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!
I'm wet
I'm hungry
I want my diaper changed NOW
I don't want my diaper changed
I HATE being on my back for diaper changing
MOM!
MOMMA! MOMMA!
Up?
UP!
UP! UP! UP!
Oh, now I see the candy. 
I want candy.
CANDY, CANDY, CANDY!
No Candy?
Down.
I'm still hungry.
HUNGRY!
I want a poptart!
No, I want brother's poptart!
I only wanted part of my poptart and now I'm done
DONE!
I want out of my chair
I want up into daddy's lap in his chair
I'm still hungry and I want whatever daddy's eating, even if it was the same thing I was eating a second ago
PLAY!
Truck.
TRUCK! TRUCK! TRUCK!
I want whatever truck Tam's playing with.
SHARE!
Oh, momma's trying to write something.
I want a pencil
PEN!  PAPER!
Scribbling is awesome
Can I eat pencils?  Let's try!
Wait, pencils aren't food?
I'm freakin' starving!
Can I eat pencils?  Let me try this again...
I want daddy!
DADDY! DADDY DADDY!
UP!
Down.
Nobody loves me!
I'm all alone and nobody understands how horrible my life is!
WAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!
HUG me!

And this seems to be all within the first hour of the day...