Grumpy Boy

Yesterday evening was a bit rough with Noah.  He reluctantly ate dinner and ended up throwing some blueberries on the floor.  He spent all day begging Amanda to play a game on the Wii, but when I played it he lost focus after about 10 minutes.  He went to bed OK, but he clearly was not right.

Lately we've been getting him up for one last pee when we go to bed.  He barely wakes up for this, but it helps him get through the night and well into the morning.  But last night he woke up around midnight.  I helped him go to the bathroom, but he started crying again shortly afterwards.  The problem is that he had to poop, but he wouldn't do it.  Amanda ended up getting up with him twice last night, but he was so out of it that he didn't go.

Let's hope that a little activity today will grease the works.  He had been doing really well with this lately, so hopefully this is just a single aberration.

Little Man

After a brief setback a month or so ago we are trying to press forward once again with Noah and the potty.  Saturday night I left him in his underpants for bedtime instead of his nightly diaper.  He had been doing so well that I thought we should try again.  It's gone well for three consecutive nights.  One thing I have done differently is change his teeth brushing routine slightly.  I used to give him a few sips of water after he brushed his teeth, but have stopped doing that.  It seems to be helping.

Not only is he sleeping in big-boy pants, but we are working on peeing standing up.  So far it's a pretty messy process as he isn't quite sure what to do, but he is into it.  We realized that this was not something we could force, so I just kept asking him if he wanted to try.  Eventually he did.

It's going to be great when he can pull his pants up on his own.  I can see a day coming in the not too distant future when Lily and Noah each go to the bathroom by themselves.  I hate to wish away time and I want to enjoy Noah while he is particularly sweet, but I really won't miss these trips to the bathroom when we're out and about somewhere.  I would welcome correction on this point from any parent out there who has been completely through potty training.

Standing Tough

Lily had something of a Marsha Brady moment at the bus stop yesterday. She was playing catch with Noah and Chloe and took a soft baseball off her nose.  Apparently it even bled a little bit.  Amanda was happily surprised that she still got on the bus.  Fortunately, it never got purple or swollen and you would never know it happened.  We were happily surprised by her toughness.

Meanwhile, Noah ended a little bit of a strike that took great toughness to maintain.  He hadn't pooped since Saturday, but I got him to go yesterday.  I told him that he was going to sit on the potty until he went.  I had sat with him for about 10 minutes and then I left the room.  I wasn't gone for 30 seconds before he proudly announced, "Daddy, I'm done!"  Sure enough, he finally took care of business.  I got him to do a bit more before he got up.  Let's hope that he goes again today.

Our Regular Guy

I want to give a little update on the potty training.  He's now taken a day off, but Noah had gone poo-poo three days in a row.  The only problem is that it tends to happen after he gets put down for a nap or for bed.  That's a little inconvenient, but we'll take what we can get.

Lately he's been waking up at some point during the night with a potty need.  I know that many of his grandparents can relate, but we're not thrilled about this.  On one hand, it's great that he knows he needs to go.  On the other, it's not a lot of fun to get up with him at 1:00 AM like Amanda did last night.  I think he'll be ready to sleep in underpants after we finish this last box of diapers.

It Keeps Falling

We had an inch or two of snow yesterday morning.  Fortunately the roads were still warm from the weekend and nothing stuck.  It was still very pretty when I went out jogging in the late morning.  All the trees looked like they had been sprayed with flocking.

I felt badly for Noah though.  He wanted to go out and play in it and the snow melted before he could.  It's just as well though.  I think he would have been disappointed by how little you can do with an inch of snow.

Noah did something new yesterday on the potty front.  He had a little bit of an accident Wednesday night, but still put some poop in the potty.  We got him to go again at lunchtime yesterday and it only took a few minutes.  There were still plenty of tears, but he did what he had to do.  We keep hoping that he is turning a corner, but time will tell.

Huge News!

Amanda had the kids tonight while I was in class.  Tonight was bath night and Amanda noticed Noah getting a certain look in his eyes while in the bath.  She seized the opportunity to put him on the potty.  He had to get readjusted a bit since he's been scooting way back to watch himself pee, but once he was centered he put a big ol' poop in the potty.

The plan right now is for us to go bowling in the late afternoon/early evening tomorrow (Wednesday).  We want to make this as big a celebration as possible as quickly as possible.  If anyone has some free time tomorrow it would be great if you could call to congratulate Noah.

More Waiting

I've had a morning with the kids today.  Amanda is at the small group leader summit at our church, so I got to take the kids.  So far it's been OK, though not without some hiccups.  Noah and I shopped at Trader Joe's a bit while Lily was at dance class.  Then we went to my seminary library, the grocery store, a hobby store, and home for lunch.  Lily finds creative ways to get herself into timeout sometimes, but overall things are going well.  We will meet Amanda at church this afternoon.

After lunch I had Noah sit on his potty seat for about 20 minutes while I played Pac-Man.  Still nothing.  He's keeping his pants dry, but not always clean.  We'll keep at it.

Dry as a Bone

I think that this blog is going to be dominated with potty-training updates for a while, including a lot of fanfare when Noah finally puts something solid in the potty.  Amanda was laid up yesterday so Lily was my only ally with the Pook.  It took a lot of attention on my part, but he managed to keep his pants dry all day.  In fact, his diaper was dry when I got him up this morning.

Things quickly turned south.  He did not want to go when I put him on the potty first thing.  In fact, I got squirted on my pants for my trouble (I don't think that will be the last time).  It took some fighting, but he did it.  Overall, he's doing pretty well, but there have been two small accidents today.  The good news is that he only let out a little bit instead of making a full puddle.  He still needed new pants, but the mess to clean up wasn't bad.

He didn't eat a very good lunch.  I think he is filling up and eventually will have a bad accident or will finally take care of business.  We're all set to go bowling when he does.  Of course, I'm not sure what will happen for an incentive after that.

Lily is off of school today because of the weather.  The secondary and tertiary roads were legitimately icy this morning because of the sunshine yesterday and low temperatures last night.  Plus, we had no power from about 5:40 - 8:45 this morning.  The good news is that I could work from home.