Mar. 24, 2008

We had a busy weekend. Hannah's first birthday was Saturday, pictures are here. And then there was Easter on Sunday and I'm still working through those pictures.

In lieu of my annual Spring Break trip to South Padre Island, I spent the day with 4 kids under 6 years old. And I realize that many women do this every day and all kids are actually their biological children but I think they must have better access to better drugs than I do.

7:15 Drop off one Ariel. Breakfast - a disappointing bowl of oatmeal. We are out of bogurt.

7:30 Drop off one Hannah, who was surprisingly clothed in an identical outfit to Ariel. Both my sister's blamed the other for the creepiness. Hannah had already eaten breakfast.

Dee-Dee worked her magic on Hannah's hair:



Hannah laughing at Alex:



Oy. The day ahead:



8:00 I finally ate my breakfast with Hannah. I was lacking Cheerios so I gave Hannah some cheddar bunnies. She LOVED them, had quite a few. Then I tried some string cheese, and she did not love it. And for kicks I offered her a sippy of OJ water and she also did not love it.



9:30 Left for our adventure of the day, the Aquarium. I can do this, right?



9:45 Quick side trip to Caribou Coffee. Today I tired a campfire mocha which I found disappointing. The chocolate chips melted into the the mocha so I didn't have anything to chew on. I have found I like little chew bits in my coffee - think java chip frappachino.



10:15 Got to the Aquarium. They had people from the Children's Museum guarding the free parking so I had to pay $6 to park. Darn. It.

And the actual aquarium was great and no harder than taking just the three.



Hannah was either in the stroller or the sling and seemed very interested. More so than this picture would leave you to believe.



I didn't get my camera out again because I wanted to return with the same number of children that I left with.

We walked through the Aquarium twice, went to the bathroom 3 times and ended with a pizza and soft pretzel. Even Hannah ate part of the pretzel.

Hannah had a bottle around 11:00 after bathroom break #2.

1:00 Got home. Both girls fell asleep and transfered to their pack-n-plays (Ellen loaned me an extra one for today).

3:00 Both girls woke up, Ariel wet. Well, Hannah might have been wet too but she had a diaper on.

3:15 Snack - Hannah had creepy spaghetti baby food and Ariel had a sauce and some leftover carrot cake. She preferred the frosting.

3:30 Trip to the park.

Both girls swung.





Other notes of interest from the park:

- The chain smoking homeless guy told me I had a "mini-you" when I walked by holding Hannah.

- Ariel pooped on a port-a-potty. Yes Becky, a REAL port-a-potty.

- Random old guy at park helped Ariel up a rock. After he left a Grandma there said it was creepy that he was there without a kid. I concur.

- Hannah had her other bottle of the day.

4:30 Got home from the park in time for Becky pick up. And sadly, Becky did not leave right way and instead abused my computer. And that's what she gets for reading over my shoulder.

5:00 Laura picked up Hannah. Becky and Ariel were still here. And that last half our with Ariel was 10 times crazier than the entire day. Ariel gets that way with her mommy.

Mar. 20, 2008

For having a bunch of stinking cats, they aren't so good at entertaining us. I'm always on the lookout for a good lolcat moment but they spent most of the time sleeping in normal boring ways. But last night I found Dexter sleeping in Jeremy's clean laundry, I thought that was pretty funny. You know, since Dexter and Jeremy are archenemies.



7:15 Drop off. Ariel wanted to wear a party dress today. And why not? Let's make every day a fiesta:



Laughing at Alex:



See, two kitties (and two gratuitous finger bandaids):



And I usually comb Ariel's hair to the side and use one barrette but today I did two so she would like like her mommy did for her first 12 years. See, Mommy, circa 1984:



Breakfast - bogurt, 1/2 packet of oatmeal and 1/2 a apple/cherry sauce.

8:50 Left for the mall

9:05 Status quo Stroller Class. Ariel peed twice on the little toilet. I couldn't take a picture because she likes me to hold her waist when she's not on her little potty. But it was no big deal.

10:40 After class we went to Starbucks and I let Ariel and Alex split a doubly chocolate frappachino. Alex didn't like his much (apparently frappachinos are only good when you are stealing mommy's) but Ariel liked hers. She also had a cookie from Kristen and Judy's birthday (twins in our class) and a string cheese and no apple sauce or banana.

11:30 Picked up Adam. Ariel fell asleep in the car.

11:45 Got home, transfered Ariel to bed.

2:00 Ariel woke up, a bit damp. But I wasn't surprised, she had a bunch to drink at lunch and I didn't get a pull up on her before we got in the car. Bye-bye party dress.

2:35 Picked Alex up from school. We played for a bit today. It is warm for the first day of spring, though there's a brisk wind too.

Here's something else we do in addition to endless swinging:



And yeah, no shoes. Ariel and crocs and playground gravel do no get along.



3:30 Came home with extra kid - one Gabriel. He'll keep the boys entertained until Ariel goes home.

3:45 Cookie snack. I asked Ariel if she wanted a snack and she said yes. I said, "Applesauce?" and she started crying. Apparently "snack" is a very specific food but I was loath to load more cheddar bunnies in her. She's going to start turning orange at this point.

4:00 Early pick up, Yay!

And tonight is Lost. All you people with that crazy TV reception, enjoy (that would be including my 90 year old grandmother). As for me, I'll catch it tomorrow. Can't. Wait. And in other exciting TV news, we should be getting our Netflix Futurama the Movie: Bender's Big Score tomorrow as well. Score indeed.

And I'm signing out for this week, Becky has Good Friday off so I do too. Have a good weekend!

Mar. 18, 2008

The No Good Very Bad Day Part 4325

4:30 Alex awoke the family by puking in his bed. After several kicks, Jeremy woke up too and used his puke cleaning super power to get Alex back in bed. I have no such puke cleaning super power and I end up puking myself at the mere smell of vomit.

5:30 Repeat

6:30 After more kicking gentle nudging, my sweet husband stopped snoozing and got out of bed.

6:45 More puking.

7:15 Sweet Ariel arrived.

Breakfast - bogurt and oatmeal.

And then, a very lazy boring morning. Alex spent his time in his room napping, puking and playing with legos. Ariel spent a good hour running to the bathroom and peeing. I think she had to poop but as soon as pee came out she got up, for another 5 minutes. Except for imitating Adam and completely taking her pants off, it wasn't too bad since there weren't any accidents. And finally she did poop and that was exciting too.

11:15 Tried to leave a bit early to stop by the grocery store to buy some ginger ale. And discovered my car wouldn't start. It wasn't the usual dead battery problem, the door lights were on as well as the clock but the engine wouldn't turn over and just made clicking noises. Alex suggested that we get a new car.

So - conundrum - I had to get Adam with no car in 10 minutes. Alex was in no shape to ride a bike so I put Ariel and Alex in the stroller and jogged up to the school.

11:40 Picked up Adam, the last lonely kid left.

11:45 Stopped at the grocery store. I bribed Adam with a donut if he would walk uncomplaining home. And Ariel got a donut by default. Alex did not. We also got some ginger ale.

12:15 Got home. Alex threw up one last time.

12:30 Put Ariel down for a nap. She was very sure she didn't want to put on her Dora underwear (pull up) so I said fine and put her down in her regular panties. She fell asleep quickly. The boys watched Star Wars.

3:30 Ariel finally woke up, dry! I sent her and Adam out in the back yard with their boots on. It got up to 50 degrees today which melted most of the snow, but still left some for Ariel to munch on.

4:15 Kids came back inside and had a snack.

Ariel is always happy with her cheddar bunnies:



Suffering from a bad case of hat hair:



Poor, sick Alex. I swear he puked 10 times today and has had 1/2 a ginger ale and a melba toast this afternoon.



4:25 Pick up.

Mar. 17, 2008

How lame am I that I'm sad I didn't get to blog on March 15th so I could tell you to beware of the Ides of March?

But I can say Happy Purim! We went to the temple's Purim Carnival on Sunday. Much fun was had by the boys, I survived.





And in the evening we made hamentashen at Grandma's house. I really wish I had taken pictures. Alex and I made very respectable triangle cookies and Adam baked up lovingly prepared but completely misshaped ones. But they all tasted the same in end.

And today, I can say,

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

7:15 Drop off. Ariel and Adam seem to be sharing a cold and Ariel's wasn't very hungry for breakfast. She did have some yogurt though.

7:50 Took Alex to school through the 5 inches of new wet snow. Ariel got her pants soaked up to her thigh walking in the "snowmen."

9:30 Took a shower and then styled Ariel's hair. Today I tried to go for a perky pony tail on top but it mostly looks just pulled back.





And what a difference a year makes! Here's Ariel last year with the same hair do:



So this weekend I took the last of my winter decorations down, the paper snowflakes on the windows. Cause, you know, spring starts this week. Ha ha:



10:00 Ariel was finally ready to eat her (fresh) oatmeal.

Potty summary of this morning... Twice Ariel took herself to the bathroom to poop in the potty. I took her to pee and once she had a very small accident followed immediately by lots of pee in the potty.

Non-potty summary of this morning... Not much happened. I took care of some chores and Ariel amused herself in a less messy way than usual.

11:30 Pick up Adam from school.

11:45 Got home. Lunch - lots of cheddar bunnies and no homemade bean burrito.

12:15 Put Ariel down for a nap. She complained for a bit and after a bit I took her out to pee again and then she fell asleep.

So this weekend I was looking at the LOLcat bible translation and did some loling myself. How can it not be lol-inducing, these are the guidelines:

At all times, remember that you're trying to produce a translation that's understandable by cats. In particular:

• Cats like having fun. Keep the translation fun.
• Cats have short attention spans. Use short sentences, and feel free to skim the more tedious bits, such as lists of "begats".
• Prefer references to things that cats would understand. A typical domestic cat probably hasn't seen a desert tent, but they have probably seen a sofa.

See, example verse from Genisis, "An Ceiling Cat can haz teh rib frum man maded into wimman, but did not eated it cuz he brot her to teh man. He sai O hai, I maded u a man but wifout teh dingy. Have fun, kthxbai."

How fortunate we are to be living in a time when Ceiling Cat's message can be read by all on the interweb.

2:20 Ariel woke up, very grumpy but with a dry pull up.

2:30 Walked to Alex's school with Ariel crying the whole way.

2:40 Walked home, Ariel was fine. She's got a temper but she doesn't hold grudges.

2:50 Snack - more bogurt. Still no burrito.

3:20 Alex went next door for a playdate which left Adam in hysterics. It's hard to be a younger brother. As a consolation prize I let him watch some Duck Tales and Ariel joined him.

4:30 Pick up once crazy girl.

This afternoon - no more accidents.

Mar. 14, 2008

Potty Training Day #19

(good enough for government work)

Your Adamisms of the day.

#1

Adam: Did you know, Emmett has a twin sister. They were in their mommy's belly at the same time.
Me: Oh, is Emmett's sister in your class, too?
Adam: No, she's 7 so she's in second grade.

#2

While talking about Australia, Adam told us, "Australia is also called Oceania, did you know?"

#3

"Mommy, I want to be a twin too." Uh, a bit late for that, boy.

7:15 Drop off. I was so not awake that I was still in the middle of a dream. Not a good way to wake up. The time change and I are not getting along At. All.

Breakfast - bogurt and half a pouch of oatmeal.

7:50 Took Alex to school... in my cow pattern jammies. Yes, it was that kind of morning.

8:00 We got home and I finally got dressed and ate breakfast and drank coffee. Coffee might be the magic ingredient to my morning.

8:10 Ariel had a nice brown poopy(ies) in the potty.

9:00 Left for the Butterfly Pavilion!

9:20 We met Rachel and Lilianna at the Pavilion.

Ariel was very excited to see the butterflies. At least the kind of butterflies that are stationary. She was not impressed with the flitting ones.



And here we are on potty training day #19 with no accidents and she and Lilianna soaked their pants playing in the drains.



Look at Ariel's little panty plumber's crack going on!



And Lilianna:



Ariel is 8 months older so right now Lilianna does seem much younger. But in a few years that won't matter at all.



Butterfly!



When you are short, you do what you need to do to see:



After the butterflies, we checked out the bug room. Both girls held Rosie:



Maybe some day Ariel's mom will be brave enough to hold Rosie too.



10:30 We had a little snack of string cheese, pretzels and no banana.

11:05 Ariel peed again on a big potty before we left the Pavilion - she went 3 times there, no fuss! And upon leaving, I made a fascinating discovery - there is a drive-thru Caribou Coffee across the street. It took all my will power not to stop by and be late picking up Adam. If you haven't had a turtle mocha, you haven't lived.

11:30 Adam pick up. Ariel had fallen asleep in the car.

11:45 Got home, Ariel transfered to her towel padded bed.

1:00 Ariel woke up, dry!

1:15 Small lunch of mac & cheese.

1:30 Ariel joined Adam in watching some Duck Tails.

Several times Ariel said she needed to go poop and she went in the bathroom but nothing happened. I think she was passing gas.

2:30 Picked up Alex from school. Another double smiley report which was easily rewarded with 10 jelly beans.

2:50 Ariel finally pooped on the potty again.

3:00 We went to the wine store and the salmon store for tonight's shabbat dinner. I saw a wine called Mommy's Time Out but they only had Pinot Grigio and I don't like white. So I got a Australia Shiraz which I will call Mommy's Time Out and consume very shortly.

3:30 Got home. Another nice pee on the potty.

4:12 Pick up.

I now consider Ariel potty trained. She was accident free and initiated several visits AND used a big potty without freaking out. What more could you want in a 2 year old?

Mar. 11, 2008

Potty Training Day #16

(the end is in sight...)

7:15 Drop off. Breakfast - again with the playing with food and not eating it. Ariel had some yogurt and just a bite of oatmeal.

8:45 No accidents before we went to stroller class. Ariel did put some green squirts in a pee visit, but otherwise no diarrhea. She also said "poop" a few times in the morning and went by herself to the bathroom and sat on the potty. I'm not sure if she tooted and thought she had already pooped, or if she's finally getting the idea of getting herself to the bathroom, but I'll take it.

9:00 Stroller class. Again with no pee accidents. Ariel used the little potty three times without a fuss. She did have a little green diarrhea accident but also put some in the potty.

10:45 For lunch we went to the food court and Alex and Ariel split a quesadilla. Ariel ate one section, along with half a napkin.

11:30 Ariel fell asleep in the car on the way to pick up Alex.

12:00 When we got home, I put a towel in the pack-n-play (since Ariel didn't have a pull up on) and transfered Ariel from the car.

1:30 Ariel woke up dry and peed on the potty. Go Ariel!

2:30 Picked up Alex from school. Apparently my biggest accomplishment of the day was not making a dinner dish for the school conferences tonight. I read the note on Sunday and filed it away thinking, "Oh, that's next week." Lots of moms made it sound so easy, "I just doubled my dinner for tonight." Uh, that would mean I had plans and provisions for my own family. Huh. Such is the life of a beta mom.

It was a beautiful sunny day in the 70s so we played on the playground for a while. Ariel looked like she needed to pee at one point and so we visited the small toilet in Alex's classroom but she didn't do anything. Ariel did play with Riley for a bit, go down the big slide head first (I caught her) and swung.

3:30 Got home and had a snack of string cheese.

We had one more small green poop accident this afternoon. The tally todays: 2 small poop accidents, no pee accidents.

4:30 Pick up.

Here's Ariel standing in our last snow pile. And taking snacks from it. I wonder why she has diarrhea?

She also put her panties and pants on all by herself and took some fashion advice from Adam by doing it backwards. Her hair looks like a disaster but she did have pigtails until a 10:00.



And at some point after Ariel woke up from her nap, she dumped out 5 wooden puzzles into a big pile. I'm trying to bribe the boys to clean it up with ice cream. I'll consider it a success if they do everything but the 45-piece USA map. Sigh.



And, first (FINALLY) sign of spring spotted today:

Mar. 10, 2008

I think it's a well know fact that I don't like winter. The only redeeming part is snowboarding and I got a lot in this weekend. Jeremy and I got to go to Breck sans kids and had a fabulous time with Sarah and Devon and downstairs tenant Nat.

On Saturday, Devon noticed that Burton was demoing 2009 boards and convinced me to try too. I didn't think it would make much difference, but now I'm searching my couch cushions for the $900 I need for this set up. It would be like if you had been riding a 50 lbs single speed cruiser bike your whole life and it was fine. You got where you needed to go and didn't know any better. Then someone came along and let you try Lance Armstrong's bike and it was life changing. And then you had to give it back at the end of the day. Anyway, here's the Feelgood board I got for the day (it was supposed to be for an "hour" but Devon and Nat convinced me the Burton guys were not going to take off to the bar with the credit card I had to leave with them).



Much adult beverage was consumed Saturday night but we still were able to get a nice half day in Sunday. My day was a run short because we got to the parking lot and I realized my boots were back in the condo, but I digress. Devon helped me with jumping and on our last run we went through the small terrain park and I did a few "real" jumps. Hot dog!

Here's a random picture of looking back at Sarah and Devon on the E Chair:



Potty Training Day #15

(diarrhea cha cha cha - for complete lyrics, see urbandictionary)

7:15 Drop off. But it felt like 6:15. I hate daylight savings time. I hate it so much I was just going to cut and paste last year's rant instead of dedicating energy to write a new one this year. But all I wrote last year was, "Stupid, cheap daylight savings time." I guess that sums it up fine.

Ariel came in and peed on the potty like an old pro.

Breakfast - half a yogurt.

7:40 Hannah joined us for part of the morning. The more, the merrier!

7:45 Just as we needed to be getting out the door to get Alex to school, Ariel had a small, very green diarrhea accident. Most was contained to her panties but she did squirt some more in the potty. I said a few days ago that I would consider this potty training a success if no one got ebola, but at least right now only Ariel has the plague.

8:05 Got Alex to school late. Sigh.

When we got home, Ariel peed again in the potty. And a bit later had some more green diarrhea. It was less contained than the first accident.

9:00 Grandpa (or Backa as Ariel calls him) got back from his doctor's appointment. He and Hannah joined us in a walk to Starbucks.

When we got to Starbucks, Ariel peed on the big ("Too big, Dee-Dee!") potty and earned a sprinkle donut:



Ariel is a lot like Adam and only ate the top (aka sprinkle) portion of her donut.

Hannah looked like she needed a treat too so I gave her a piece of my donut and she didn't even gag:



Backa is just happy to be here:



11:00 Got home. Ariel peed in the potty again. Then Backa took apart my attic vent and we found that yes, we do have access above the dryer. Yay, we may get the closet fixed sometime soon. Backa also commented there seemed to be something wrong with our dryer venting, the closest was very humid. Thanks Capt. Obvious!

11:25 Ariel and I rode my bike to pick up Adam.

11:40 Adam pick up. He was late because he didn't hear the bell and stayed outside with the kindergarteners.

11:45 Got home. I made lunch - canned ravioli. Ariel had several. Then she peed on the potty went down for a nap with zero fuss.

2:00 Ariel woke up with a dry pull up and I got her out of the pack-n-play in time to pee in the potty.

2:35 Picked up Alex from school.

3:15 More diarrhea cha cha cha. There was more this time so Ariel got a little bath too.

4:30 Pick up.

We are getting real close on this potty training thing. Ariel didn't have any pee accidents and even though she had 3 diarrhea ones she was fine with putting the diarrhea in the potty too.

Mar. 7, 2008

Potty Training Day #12

Today was a different sort of day. Jeremy went skiing with his work and left the house at 6:30 so I did all the morning routines. When we were talking about this last night Jeremy said,

"It will give you practice for when I'm in San Diego later this month."

To which I said, "What?"

"I told you already, I'm going to San Diego for work at the end of the month."

"You did not, for how long?"

"A week."

"WHAT?!?!?"

At least I found now and not the day he drove to the airport.

7:15 Drop off and nice immediate pee.

Breakfast - yogurt and not fresh pancakes.

7:45 Adam, Ariel and I walked Alex to school. Then we walked back home and got in the car and Adam to school on time. It wasn't fun, but it's nice to know the timing is feasible, you know for when Jeremy is out of state and stuff.

8:10 Got home. Ariel sat on the potty again but nothing happened.

8:40 Left for our adventure of the day - swimming at the Apex Center with the stroller mommies.



It was a bit cold in the room but Ariel kept warm running to and from the hot tub:



9:45 I took Ariel to the bathroom to sit on her little potty. When we pulled down her swim diaper, 3 green deer pellets fell out. Then she proudly pooped out a giant green turd. And believe me, everyone at the Apex Center pool would be very happy to know what did not end up in the water.

10:45 Left the pool.

11:30 Picked up Adam

12:00 Lunch - mac & cheese and orange sauce.

12:15 Nice pee on the potty then Ariel went down for a nap.

1:10 Mr. Vent Guy came to look at our laundry closet. He agreed the whole deal was a SNAFU but thought he could put in the correct vent and our new units would work.

2:30 Woke Ariel up. Her pull up was wet but she peed on the potty too.

2:40 Picked Alex up from school.

3:00 When we got home, we got right in the car and got some DQ. Alex got a happy face report again this week! Next week Adam has to start earning happy faces by not making a fuss going to school in the mornings. And Ariel got some ice cream too, just for being in the right place at the right time.

4:00 Got home, pick up. Ariel peed in the potty before she left.

Today was the first day of potty training that did not result in any wet clothes. Of course, we did have a wet pull up and who know what the heck Ariel did in the pool, but I personally think it was a great day :)

Mar. 6, 2008

Potty Training Day #11

(Today will be stress-free, if it kills us...)

After Tuesday's post, many people called or emailed me yesterday to find out if things were going better. Why yes, they were, Ariel spent the day with Grandma and Grandpa. My day was easy-peasy.

In the morning I made Ted's birthday cake:



And in the afternoon we all went to Ted's birthday party at Boondocks. The boys played laser tag and video games and had a fabulous time.



Ellen, Paul and I all tried out Dance Dance Revolution for the first time. And let me just say, I put the "R" in DDR. My first two plays I got 0% correct and when I finally understood what I was supposed to be doing, I got 13% right. I think I need to hang out at Becky's house and practice :)

7:20 Drop off. Ariel peed nicely.

Breakfast - yogurt and not really hot cereal.

Today when I combed Ariel's hair, I tried pigtails for the first time:



I dare say they are the cutest thing since sliced cheese. Alex said that sliced cheese isn't very cute, so I amended that they are the cutest thing since baby bunnies.

8:00 Another pee in the potty.

8:30 Poop in the potty. All stress free! Yay!

9:00 Stroller class.

9:45 We went to the mall potty and I brought Ariel's potty this time. She went right away with no fuss (I think she liked having the choice of the toilet or her potty) and I'm glad it happened quickly because there was a stench like no other in the bathroom today.

10:30 At the end of class, Ariel had a pee accident. But NO worries, it was on the cement floor and stress free.

10:45 Lunch at Starbucks. Ariel was wiggling around again so I took her to the bathroom and she peed a bit in the potty.

11:05 Ariel was acting very suspicious in Starbucks and I checked and she had let out one little deer poop in her panties. We went back to the bathroom but she didn't do anymore. But NO worries, we sat and then got up and left.

11:30 Picked up Adam from school.

11:45 Got home. Put Ariel on the potty and she pooped again, with no fuss. And I nice big poop too. We sang the poopy song and blew out the candle. See:



12:00 Ariel finished her sauce and had some mac & cheese.

12:15 Another happy pee and then Ariel put on her princess pull ups and went down for a nap.

12:45 Finally asleep. And yes, I listened very closely on the monitor for any signs that she needed assistance.

2:30 Woke Ariel up. She had a full pull up and didn't do anything when she sat on the potty.

2:40 While picked up Alex, Ariel had an accident. But NO worries, it was outside.

3:05 Nice pee-pee in the potty.

3:15 Quick run to the photo store and the cookie store.

4:00 Home. Sat Ariel on the potty but nothing happened.

4:20 Pick up. One more fruitless (but stress-free!) trip to the potty.

Mar. 4, 2008

Potty Training Day #9

(It was the best of days, it was the worst of days...)

7:15 Drop off. Ariel was a bit grumpy but did pee in the potty right away.

Breakfast - she only picked at her yogurt and oatmeal.

8:00 I had just got the feeling that it was time for Ariel to go potty again when I found her in my bedroom with poopy panties. Luckily she didn't pee so it was a quick clean up.

9:00 Mall stroller class. Ariel hadn't peed since she got to my house so I took her to the bathroom. One of the family bathrooms has the most adorable kid's potty. Unfortunately it caused Ariel to have a rage blackout:



And it didn't get better, she kept getting up and down and the kid's potty seat I brought with us eventually pinched her butt and really gave her something to cry about.

9:30 She FINALLY peed and we joined the class.

10:00 Ariel was very squirmy again so we went back to the potty. She did cry again but went pee very quickly.

10:45 After class we had our sack lunches at Starbucks.

11:30 Picked up Adam.

12:00 After we got home and Ariel peed, I was bound and determined to have her nap. I put her down and she didn't. She wasn't miserable, just not asleep.

1:00 Got Ariel up and let her sit on the potty. She peed and I put her back to bed. She still did not fall asleep.

2:00 Finally, Quiet.

2:30 I went into Adam's room to wake Ariel up. And... I'm at a loss for words now... I found the most disgusting mess I've ever seen. And I've seen a lot. Like, when Adam was a baby he'd poop in the bathtub - when he was bathing with Alex. And then there were the few times the kids puked in the car, all over themselves and the car and their carseats... But anyway, back to Ariel. Apparently sometime after 1:00 Ariel pooped. And being the good potty training girl she is, did not like it. And she might of tried to call me but all I heard was Ariel not sleeping (and I had the monitor on - I WAS listening). So she pulled down her pull up, took the lump of poop out, set it on the table, then wiped her hands on her sweater and the sheet. And then fell asleep. This is how I found her:



Now remember, it's 2:30 and I needed to go get Alex. There was no way I could wake her up and get her cleaned up and still pick Alex up in time. So I called my next door neighbor and dropped off the baby monitor and and ran to Alex's school with Adam.

2:40 Got home. Riley and her mother and brother came too for a playdate. And Ariel slept on.

And just to show you what a day I had I went to clean up the Memory cards left out from Adam and my's exciting game earlier (Adam still cheated but I won) and the cat had PUKED on a few cards and I didn't see it and put my hand in it. Why????

3:30 Ariel woke up. And since her pull up was around her ankles, she sat up and peed all over the pack-n-play. I dumped her in the bathtub and let her play for a while since she was in a good mood and not screaming at Adam.



4:00 I fully rinsed and and scrubbed Ariel to the best of my ability. I will consider Ariel's potty training a full success if none of us get ebola.

After Ariel was dressed and had her hair combed again, she joined the boys in watching the end of Revenge of the Sith.

4:30 Pick up (and she peed nicely before she left)

PS - At dinner I told Jeremy about my day and said, "Except for the poop incident, Ariel did really well today. " And Jeremy said, "That's like saying except for all the dying, WWII was pretty interesting." He's a funny man, my husband.

Mar. 3, 2008

Potty Training Day #1,543,324 #8

I had a nice restful weekend not worrying about anyone's bowel functions other than my own. Saturday was a gorgeous day, the whole family was able to take (3) bike rides to satisfy each's ability. And then in typical Colorado fashion, it snowed and Sunday was cold and gloomy. But we still had family fun day at the pool, which was less fun since apparently we weren't the only ones who came up with that idea.

7:15 Drop off. Ariel very happily came in and peed quickly in her potty.

Breakfast - bogurt and waffles (fresh because I actually got up at 6:45 and made them).

7:45 Another quick pee before we took Alex to school.

8:15 Got home from school. It took longer than usually because Ariel was stopping to eat snow along the way. "Dee, I eat snowman! Look!" We got home and she sat on the potty and POOPED! Apparently she didn't do that for her parents this weekend, at least not in the potty.

I ate my breakfast and read the paper while Ariel played.

8:45 ANOTHER successful pee!

8:55 I plopped Ariel in the stroller with her Happy Poop M&Ms and we did a quick 3 miles around the neighborhood. It was cold but sunny and she was happy saying her parrot Hello! to all the puppies.

9:50 Got home, more pee in the potty. Ok, is anyone else wondering where Ariel is getting all this pee from?

We took a shower and I braided Ariel's hair and she chose her special barrette. And then...

10:35 First pee accident.

10:40 I put Ariel on the potty before we left for the grocery store and she pooped. AGAIN! Yay Ariel!

10:55 Super fabulous trip to the grocery store. I had carefully done my menu planning and then transfered my shopping list to a new list in the order of the store aisles. And on my way out, I grabbed the menu planning list that I had carefully crossed out as I transfered it to the nice organized list. Argh!

Ariel was doing such a great job on the potty that I sprang for a sprinkle donut for her. She told everyone in the store, "Hello! Look, donut!" And since it was senior hour, all the oldsters were pretty amused at her cuteness. When we were done I put her on the big potty but she didn't do anything. But she also didn't soil the grocery store.

11:30 Got done with the store just in time to pick up Adam.

11:45 Got home. Ariel peed on the potty.

Lunch - Ariel had half a fish-stick-in-a-blanket

After lunch I tried to get her to pee again so I could put her down for a nap. All morning she had sat and peed pretty quickly but after lunch she sat and didn't do anything and didn't want to get up. Finally I put her in a pull up and put her down for a nap. She didn't fall asleep and I got her out a few times to sit on the potty but she still didn't pee. She never did nap and she finally joined Adam in watching the original Grinch movie.

2:00 Finally Huston, we have Pee.

2:30 Left to pick up Alex. Ariel insisted on wearing Alex's pack-pack that he made in school. In k-care they are learning about astronauts and Alex made an air tank. It would have come in handy if a gust of wind knocked Ariel into space.



Here's Adam.



Adam got new shoes this weekend. He picked them out himself. They have my two favorite kid's shoe traits - they are character shoes AND they light up. Yay!



3:00 Got home. Ariel peed quickly again. Then Rachel and Lilianna came over to knit. It was a loud and messy afternoon. I finished up my community knitting project and took a picture of Adam wearing it to show that not all the projects are hideous. Though this hat might look better on a girl but Ariel wanted nothing to do with it.

(Ariel's saying, "Wut?"):



4:30 Both Mommy and Daddy came to retrieve Ariel. Well, Mommy came to get Ariel, Daddy came to look at our sad dryer vent. Ariel did not pee before leaving.

Some notes on today:

1. Ariel did an awesome job with the potty. While she still didn't initiate, she made much less fuss and went much faster. I also didn't read to her or try to make the bathroom entertaining in hopes of getting her to do her business with less dilly-dallying. And an accident to potty ratio of 1:9 is HUGE (and again begs the question, who needs to pee 10 times in 9 hours?)

2. Ariel not napping is not fun for anyone. She gets very cranky which is too bad because she was in such a good mood up 'till lunch.