The Rock Star Sings Again!

Who knew that when you are potty training a toddler poop would be something you talk about so often and so freely. I sure didn't, but I do now. We talk about it often and this morning The Boy even sang all of us a little song about it. It went like this...

When you feel the poop come out your butt, plop plop poop! Plop plop poop!

I think it could be a major hit! His song writing abilities are outstanding! Watch out recording world there is a new star rising!

I'm Not Stopping Every 15 Minutes for Gas!

WE made it here safe and sound. Only had one potty issue along the way. It really wasn't much of an issue either. He just thought we were going to stop for him to pee every 15 minutes when he really didn't have to and that every time he "has air" he has to sit on the potty to let it out now. Nope! Not happenin. After the first time having to completely undress him, haul the Dora potty ring into the rest stop bathroom, and having him throw the door open on me while I was pottying that was it. I told him to hold it and go to sleep. He did and we made it with no problem.

Jayke was extremely excited to be there. P'pa and Meemaw had 11 monster trucks hidden all over the house like an Easter Egg hunt for him to find. He wanted his old toys first though. He drug Ppa out to the barn to check out the lawn mowers right away. Must be a kids dream. My dad has like 8 or 9 lawn mowers.

He immediately realized the pool has a deep end and has decided he wants to stay far away from it. That is good, he has fallen in in the past. He will be in the shallow end swimming with his AJ tonight and tomorrow though.

This morning we came over to see Oma and Opa. We got to see their new house they will be moving into in a couple of days. We went over to see Grammy too. Oma had a bunch of new cars for The Boy too. The kid has more cars than the stores have. We went to lunch with Oma and now we are getting ready to head over to my friend, Angi's, house for Jayke to play with her kids, Maci and Matthew.

It has been a busy first day so far. Jayke is extremely wound up and excited to be here. He has done wonderful with teh potty training so far, which I am thrilled about. The new car was great on the drive up too. Much easier to drive through the winding mountains than the Durango was. I didn't realize how much my car looks like my mom's BMW until I parked it next to hers and almost go in the wrong one. I didn't do that on purpose even though I bought a Durango after she did last time. I am not copying her, I promise!

I hope to get some pictures loaded on Dad's computer in the next day or so. I have just been really busy and super tired since I got here. I only had 3 hours of sleep the night before I drove up. Never fails that I can't sleep the night before I drive. I may start leaving at 8p.m. and driving through the night. Would probably be easier for this insomniac!

My wake up call this morning.

Jayke: MOMMY! Wake up and take me to go pee!

Still sleeping...

Jayke: MOMMY! Take me to go pee and I have poop in my pullup.

Me: What?!

Jayke: I tried to wake Daddy up last night to tell him I had to poop but he didn't wake up so I just went.

Me: You went and then slept in it?

Jayke: Yep. I said 'Daddy. Daddy! DADDY!!!' and he didn't wake up so I just went in my pullup.

When your day starts out with poop you can pretty much guess what the rest of the day is going to be like! Just sayin'.

Happy Birthday to my SIL atFull House! Hope you have a great day and warm food for dinner!

A Big ol' Smelly Day!

Another day from hell today. It started off fairly smooth. I managed to get up on time to make it to my appointment to have the dvd/game system installed in the new car. And that was the end of the smoothness. We were given a loner car to drive since it would take about 5 hours. Right off the bat Jayke started complaining about the car. First it was ugly, then it was too dirty, then it smelled bad. I had to agree with him on the last one. Smelled like some large man had been driving around eating burritos in it for about 4 or 5 days. It wasn't so bad at first, but it seemed to get worse as the day went on. Probably from the heat.

I thought I could distract him from all his troubles by taking him to get some breakfast. McDonalds, of course. Where else do little kids want to go eat? He insisted we go in so he could play on the playground. That was fine since we had an entire day to kill. Turns out he was a tad too short to climb up the play equipment they had which meant, yes, I had to go in with him. This thing is made for kids not adults. I'm sure you can picture me trying to climb up in this thing with him telling me, "Come on Mommy, you can do it." Finally two little girls who were a little older than The Boy came to my rescue and entertained the little twerp for a while.

After our breakfast we ran several errands then decided to make a trip home to unload so we wouldn't have to do it at the dealership. I drive all the way back to my house, pull in the driveway and realize I don't have my keys or garage door operator. I left them both in my car. Crap!(I'm keeping it clean...I really said something else.) I told Jayke to wait in the car while I went around and tried the back door. No luck. When I rounded the corner to come back to the car Jayke was standing up with a beet red face. I knew exactly what he was doing. I left him alone for 5 minutes and he fully took advantage of that freedom. I got him out of the car and took him back to the patio. Luckily I had our bag for Mom's club with us. Unfortunately I had forgotten to repack it after our last outing. I had a diaper and a pair of shorts. No extra shoes or socks though and we needed them. I never even considered I would have to change him from head to toe sometime! Got him all cleaned up and loaded back into the car. What to do now?

I couldn't go in any more stores because the kid didn't have any shoes or socks. I turned around to look at him and he was fast asleep. Apparently relieving himself in the loner car really took it out of him. It didn't improve the smell in there any though. Since he was asleep I decided to just drive. I was mad at this point and wanted to drive every last drop of gas out of that car before I took it back. I don't know why I was mad at them though, it was my fault I forgot my keys. I guess it is easier being mad at Efrem, my car salesman, than myself.

I finally got my car back and headed home. Jayke wanted to play in the sprinkler. I got it out and blew it up, yes with my own hot air, and it was huge. A huge beach ball sprinkler. I almost went out and laid in the middle of the front yard underneath it after blowing it up. I was dizzy and had a headache, but my child wanted to play in the sprinkler and damn it he was going to get to! I turned it on and he stood there and looked at then told me he didn't want to get wet. WHAT?!? What kind of kid doesn't like a sprinkler?!? What kind of kid doesn't like a sprinkler after their poor mother just about popped an artery in her head blowing the damn thing up!?! I will tell you what kind of kid, MINE! He wanted to go back in the house. Fine. I turned it off and we went in. He yelled at me until I changed his clothes...again. Then went off to play.

When Mike got home he had a little talk with The Boy about what he did in the loner car then went out to put up the pool. 5 minutes later the little turkey came in and told me he had to poop, went in, got on the pot and went. Good job, but um...why the hell couldn't you do that earlier. Oh yeah, because we were locked out of our house? No, not a good enough excuse. He could have gone somewhere other than in his pants. He even used a bathroom at the mall this morning which was an accomplishment since up to that point he wouldn't go in public restrooms. Now I know he is going to have accidents but that today, was not an accident.

Okay, enough of my day. I even took some pictures of all this but the camera is in the other room and I don't feel like walking in there to get it. I'm going to sit here and drink my adult beverage. Thank you Katie! I tried a Cider and really like it! Maybe too much.

Potty mishaps, Cabo, and Good Chips!

Not been a good day in the world of potty training today. Woke up soaked, had an accident on the way to the bathroom, then another one about 30 minutes after getting him dressed for the day. I don't know what is going on with him today but I hope he gets over it real soon.
Maybe he was traumatized last night when he was made to sit on the potty and I did this to him while he sat there...



I doubt it though. He asked for me to paint them since I was painting my own. His dad was not very happy about it. Made it even better that we did this too...



Once again, he chose his tatoo. He has Superman on the other arm. A good balance. I told him to make a funny face so I could take his picture and this is what I got...



He then had to take some very lovely pictures of me which I am not going to share with you. I will just give you one last very sweet picture of The Boy.



So, after my big pity party I was having for myself the other day...complaining that no one was coming to visit, I wasn't going anywhere, etc. Not only do I have a trip home planned but now there is a trip to Cabo San Lucas in the works!



That trip will be at the end of September/first of October instead of Vegas this year. I think I would like to start doing Vegas only every other year or so. I don't need to go there every year. Maybe next year I will have a reason to go to Vegas again, a hem...Angi, Kim. Any way...the Mexico trip is still in the planning phase so I don't have anything else to report on that at this point other than I am ready to go back and go to a different area of Mexico. I've never been to the Pacific Ocean so that will be something new for me too. Note to self...book mani, pedi, and facial as soon as we get there!

When my mom was down here a few weeks ago we had to run into Sam's Club for something and since whe is hitting her Weight Watchers diet hard she was looking for something to snack on that would not ruin all her hard work. She found these chips that at first I thought had to be terrible. I was very wrong. They are so good! How can something this good be healthy? That is what their bag even says.



Flat Earth Chips. The apple and the Peach Mango are the ones I love! I haven't tried any other ones except Berry which I wasn't crazy about. The other two though, I have to stop myself or I would easily eat the whole bag they are that good. Jayke really likes them too. So now I can munch on my fruity chips while Mike is eating his greasy potato chips and we are all happy. I am recommending you try them! You can get them at Walmart also, in case there is no Sam's Club near you. Yummy!

The weather is gloomy today, we are hoping for rain. It has cooled off a lot too so The Boy and I are hanging out doing laundry and running to the potty all day. Exciting times at the Casa de Howell, exciting times.

Lizards, Potty Talk, Dog Pools, and Plans

 

Something I haven't gotten used to yet living in South Carolina. The lizards. They are all over the place. There are a bunch of different kinds too. Some don't bother me, others kind of look like snakes with legs. Those are the ones that scare the crap out of me when I'm working outside. The little green guys that look kind of like this one, only green move so slow I just know I'm going to end up with one in my house when The Boy gets up the nerve to grab one. This particular lizard was just hanging out on my rain chain yesterday. They seem to like my new deck. I guess I don't mind as long as they eat their share of bugs.
Yesterday was another great day for the potty training saga. The Boy went to school in his "Big Boy Pants". I was worried that he wouldn't want to use the potty in a strange bathroom so I packed enough clothes for a weekend getaway. It was as if I thought he would wet his pants every 5 minutes I packed so much stuff. When I got there to pick him up, after his 3 hour class, I was thrilled to find out that he told the teacher when he had to go and went right in with her to do it, no problem. Yeah!
After the triumph at school I thought he was ready to go run errands all afternoon. We headed to Target after getting him his "atta boy Happy Meal", then to Ashley Home Furniture, Petsmart, and Lowes. He decided he needed to christen the Lowe's parking lot so I opened the car doors to make a little stall he could go in without us getting picked up for urinating in public. No problem.
After all that success we had a minor setback when we got home. He took off after a cat and disappeared behind the barn. When he finally came out he was wobbling along screaming, "I had an accident! There's something in my underpants!". At least he isn't constipated anymore. Poor guy. Oh yeah, he wakes up dry and goes straight to the potty first thing in the morning! That only took like 2 days to accomplish.
So enough potty talk. On to what else we did yesterday. While on our big shopping excursion we picked up a little baby pool for the dogs to cool off in now that the weather is getting stinking hot.


Jayke decided that he needed to test the pool before the dogs got it. It is way to small for him but it was perfect to put on the deck and let him play in the water for a while.

 

We don't have our big pool up yet. I'm hoping to wait until after the tree frogs mating season to put that thing up after what happened last year.



So, he went to school, went shopping, swam on the deck, played with his friend from next door, helped Mike in the yard, swam some more, then fell asleep while eating his dinner. It was a very early bedtime last night which allowed me plenty of time to get my friends on three-way to attempt to plan a weekend trip which at the end of the conversation, turned out to be a gambling-camping trip. Not sure how that works yet. And there is a condition that I have to gamble more than $1. It will be difficult for me to part with Mike's hard earned money but I think I will manage.

FINALLY!

The Boy is finally potty training! He got to put his first sticker on his chart yesterday! This is big news in our house. Everyone was starting to think he would be wearing diapers to school. We are starting slowly but so far so good...no accident. Granted he hasn't actually used the potty yet, he is peeing outside (such a boy)and hasn't done the other since we started. He has issues with sitting on the potty, I figured we start with the yard for now and then move to the potty. I will drag that thing out into the yard for him if I have to. Whatever works! First thing this morning when he woke up he went and got a pair of his big boy underwear out of the dresser and brought them to me. "I want my big boy pants on Mommy!" No problem! I was proud of him but at the same time I realized he probably could have done this a long time ago. Little turkey!