The Potty Project: "Potty Princess" Part VIII

Mission: Potty Training
Mission Target: Chloe Poston
Mission Status: BACK IN BUSINESS!

Giving up on potty training was the best thing we could've done because apparently our little diva princess had plans of her own... 

So as you all know, approximately 2-3 weeks ago we decided to take a break from potty training Chloe.  We'd pushed hard for about 6 weeks with NO interest from her whatsoever, so we decided to stop for now and go back to it in a couple months.  Well, a few days ago, approximately 2 weeks since we'd last said or done ANYTHING involving potty training, Chloe came up to me and said, "My go pee pee."  She's never told me she had a wet/dirty diaper before so I was surprised at this, but thought she meant she wet her diaper so I clarified, "You peed in your diaper?" and she said, "No.  My go pee in potty."  I reached down to check her diaper and sure enough it was still dry, so I asked, "You need to go pee in the potty??" and she said, "YEAH!" and headed for the bathroom, ON HER OWN.  She took her own diaper off and asked for the potty set which I put on the toilet and helped her up and she peed!  I was in shock.  She just progressed like 3 steps in a matter of minutes.  She'd never told me when she needed to pee, she'd never gone to the bathroom on her own accord, and she'd never taken off her own diaper or underwear to go pee.  Like I said, I was shocked, but it was just one day, one time, so I decided it was a fluke thing and maybe meant we could resume potty training sooner than expected...

So a couple days go by and it's now been two days since the initial "incident" and we're getting ready to go meet grandma for lunch when she does it AGAIN.  The entire thing all over again.  Tells me she has to pee, goes to the bathroom, takes her diaper off, I set her on the toilet, and she peed!  I was shocked AGAIN!  I was so freaking excited and I told her, "Chloe!  Mommy's SO proud of you!" and she says all nonchalantly, "Thanks" and walks out LOL

So we leave and go into town to meet grandma at her work and we're standing at the car fixing to head to the restaurant and she says, "Mommy! My go pee pee potty!" so I run back inside and take her to the bathroom, but she'd already started to go in her diaper, which was okay, because at least she recognized that she was starting to pee her pants.  Then she asked to again at the restaurant and I took her in their and heard some farts, but I think she was too uncomfortable to go.  She ended up pooping her diaper like 5 minutes later, but at least she realized she had to poop and she even tried to go.  Then she asked to pee again when we got home and peed on the potty at home. 

I was just so freakin' proud of her!  I couldn't believe it!  This whole time we tried and tried and tried, pushed and pushed and pushed, but she wanted to do it ON HER OWN.  She didn't want to be told what to do.  Stinkin' little diva.  She knew exactly what she was supposed to do and exactly what we wanted her to do, she just didn't want to listen.  She wanted to take matters into her own hands.  Cracks me up!

So it's been like this for a couple days that she's been randomly asking to go pee on the potty and she's been going.  We haven't forced it all.  We've just been letting her ask in her own time.  She has fallen in love with the potty seat (the little cushion ring you put over the top of a regular toilet to make the opening toddler sized) and today I helped her get up and use it earlier in the afternoon.  Well I had taken the ring off, but when I went in there to pee an hour or so later, the ring was back on...  Cooper doesn't use the ring anymore and Brodie was sleeping, so I know he wasn't playing with it, plus there was pee in the toilet, so I'm like, "Hm....Chloe?" and I go to ask her.  As soon as I walk up to her she says, "My go pee in potty.  My use da seat!"  I just started cracking up and again told her how proud I was!  Then I wanted to know exactly what she was doing so I kept an eye on her for a bit and sure enough she walked into the bathroom by herself!  I peeked in the door and the little booger is using the side of the bathtub to climb up onto the toilet and goes!  I was just amazed! 

So I got the stool out of the kitchen to put in front of the toilet for her, and I went in there with her, again to tell her how proud I was, and she kept getting up and down off the toilet and telling me she wasn't done, so I kept waiting with her and I heard her fart a couple times, but she'd get right down.  I knew she had to poop, but was just nervous.  Then finally she went in there one last time, hoped up there, said, "My go poo poo" and dropped like four turds into the bowl, then hoped right back down. LOL 

I am seriously so proud of her!  Not only for going potty, but for having such an adorable, vibrant, strong little personality to want to do it all by herself!

Cooper's Trip to Children's

(WARNING: Reader beware.  This blogs contains graphic photos.)

Well we've officially had our first big "boo boo"... LOL

So yesterday afternoon Brodie was sleeping and Cooper and Chloe were chasing each other around the house like crazy kids.  It was almost nap time, so they were all riled up and expelling the last of their energy.  Josh was in the kitchen and I was in the computer room entering my lunch into my calorie log when Cooper came running in here.  Not two seconds later, out of the corner of my eye, I see him falling, so I turn around in time to see the "second half" of the fall.  I think he was trying to climb on the cat tree, but lost his footing on the bottom of it and he fell straight backward and smacked the back of his head right on the very edge of the bottom shelf of the bookcase...

I knew as soon as I saw him hit that it was either split already or it was about to split so I yelled for Josh to bring ice, but it was too late. As soon as he sat up blood was running down his head, onto his back, and dripping on the floor.  I scooped him up and brought him to the kitchen where Josh had ice ready, but instead we grabbed a towel to get pressure.  I took a look at it and it looked to be almost an inch long straight across, so I knew just by the length that he would need stitches so we started getting ready to leave.  It was bleeding pretty good, but I knew head injuries bleed a lot so I didn't freak out.  I called my mom to see what I need to do about the bleeding on the way to the hospital and she said to wrap it as best as I could.  I couldn't find any wrap, but I made like a head band out of this finger bandage material and got it wrapped. 

Car ride

By the time we had his clothes on and got it wrapped the bleeding had slowed a lot which was a relief, so him and I loaded up and took off for the Children's Hospital.  He hadn't napped yet, so about 10 minutes into the ride he fell asleep, which was a little concerning since he'd just hit his head, but I kept messing with him every few minutes all the way there and he'd stir a bit, so I again I wasn't too worried about it.

We got to the hospital in like 45 minutes and got checked in. I had to wake him up when we got there so he was a little out of sorts for a minute, but he came around.  He started asking to go home, but I told him we had to have the doctor look at his head and see if it was okay, so from then on all he said was, "It's oh-tay", thinking that if it was "okay" we could go home LOL We saw the triage nurse who was asking him questions like, "What happened to your head buddy?" and he'd say, "Oh I fell, but it's oh-tay". LOL  Then she said, "Does it hurt?" and he'd say, "Nope. It's oh-tay".  Such a tough little man LOL Then she put a numbing cream on it so it would start working right away.  She had brought her own wrapping, but she thought mine was cool enough to reuse, so she used mom's rigged up wrapping instead of her own LOL  I was pretty proud of that. 

Watching "Bee Movie"

We got taken back to a room and another nurse came in and kind of gave us the low down about how they're going to clean it and what not then she said something about staples.  At this point I haven't even really seen the cut.  I saw how long it was originally, but it'd been wrapped up most the time so I never really looked at.  From what I'd seen I thought staples was probably kind of over kill, but hey I'm no doc so I didn't say anything.  After that we started watching Bee Movie and waited for the doc.  A resident came in, picked up the bandage, peeked at it, and also said something about staples...Hmm.  Then the doctor came in, also peeked at it, and said, "Wow.  He did this on a bookcase?!  He got it good."  At this point I'm getting kind of curious as to what exactly this cut looks like...but I don't want to mess with it. 

They gave the cream a little more time to take effect then came in with all the stuff to clean it and do the staples.  This is when things got difficult for Bubba and mommy...I had been preparing myself for it, so I tried to stay calm, but it's so hard when I could tell my little guy was hurting :(  We had to have him lay on his stomach and put his head down to the side.  I sat in front of him holding his hand, and at first he was upset when they tried to wash it, but he calmed down.  After washing it, the three women (some combination of trauma nurses and a doctor I believe) started looking at it further and one said to the other, "She only wants staples?  Are you sure she doesn't want deep sutures?  We need to have her look again."

We're not even pulling it open.  It was just open like that...

This is when I finally got a good look at the cut..."Cut" wasn't even the appropriate word.  More like a gaping wound.  It was huge and super deep.  The deepest cut I've ever seen in my whole life.  I was like in shock at this point, saying over and over again, "I can't believe that."  I was trying not to really freak out or anything because Cooper was doing great.  Just sitting on the bed watching Despicable Me LOL  I didn't want to freak him out, but I couldn't believe the size of this cut.  It was crazy.

Anyway, the doc came back in and looked again and moved it around and stuff, but even SHE wanted a second opinion, so she called in yet ANOTHER doctor who also looked at it and started saying, "Yeah. It's torn.  Do the deeps then the staples."  Now I'm kind of freaking out, but trying to contain it.  The new doc turned to explain to me what he's talking about.  He said the layer covering Cooper's scalp was ALSO split open and needed to be put back together with sutures on the inside to prevent infection.  I was glad he explained it, but also kind of freaked out.  The cut was clear to his freakin' skull!  Insane.  He had to have hit JUST RIGHT for this to happen.  I still couldn't believe it and was kind of in shock, but also worried now because I know sutures are WAY harder to do than staples and now Bub had to have BOTH, and they had to go find someone specific to do it.  The original trauma team could not place the internal sutures, so we waited for another doc to come.

Up until this point Cooper was doing great.  Watching his movie, talking with me, sitting on my lap, hanging out, talking to nurses, telling 'em his story, everything,  He was just doing awesome.  But...the suture doctor arrived and it was time to do his sutures...  I was scared for him, but really, really tried to stay strong and NOT freak out.  They had two nurses holding him down and the doc tried to start the sutures.  She got through once with the hook, but he started to freak out.  She tried to get the hook through a second time, but he was moving too much and they had to call in two male EMTs to help hold him.  It was terrible.  They had two female nurses and two male EMTs holding him down and the doc was still barely able to do the sutures.  I got him to open his eyes and look at me and squeeze my hand and he calmed down long enough for her to finish the hook part and she quickly tied off all the knots.  She was actually very fast and I'm sure it went quicker than Cooper and I felt like it did.  She finished the sutures and quick through in three staples on the outside and he was done.  Just that fast. 

They let him sit up and as soon as they stopped holding him he calmed down right away, so I know he just didn't want to be held down (what kid would?) and he wasn't really in pain.  I picked him up and he said completely calm like, "Doctor fix me right up!" LOL  All the docs and nurses were super nice and said he was absolutely the strongest kid they've EVER seen.  They couldn't believe it took so many people to hold him down and he was still pushing them off, even the men LOL  The doc left and came back with TWO Popsicles for him which he munched down on while they had to remove and replace one of the sutures that wasn't in the right spot, but that took all of 2.5 seconds and Coop just ate his Popsicle.  Then they gave him a Beeny Baby snake which I immediately said, "Oh sissy will love that!  Should we take it home to sissy?" because she LOVES snakes.  Loves, loves, loves them, so I knew she would like that.

Finally home with his new gun :)

At this point grandma was off work and came to see us, so we got our papers and got ready to leave, then grandma suggested we go to Wal-Mart to pick out a new toy.  Yay!  In the car Cooper said he wanted a robot man, but once we got in the toy aisle he went right past the robot men (Transformers) and went straight for the Nerf guns, so grandma got him a new semi automatic Nerf gun that's batter powered and shoots like 10 darts at a time. 

After we got home he told dad and papa all about his trip to the doctor and how they "fixed him right up" LOL Then we gave sissy the snake (which she played with ALL night and even took to bed LOL) and he got to open up his new toy.  :)

He's doing great today, running around and playing like nothing ever happened. LOL  He has to have the staples removed in a week and the sutures will dissolve on their own.  So a pretty scary experience, but Cooper was very brave and was such a good little man. We're so proud of him!

Kid Quotes (# 21): A Collection of Short Stories

"The Dinner Machine"

So the other day we were all playing outside (me and the kids) and it was about to rain, so I told the kids to hurry up because we need to get in the house.  I was carrying Brodie and the big kids were in front of me, and as we came around the side of the garage Chloe starts pointing over to the grill on the porch and says, "LOOK!  The Dinner Machine!" 

If only, if only... LOL



The End.



"A Midnight Snack"

Last night we're laying in bed and hear a funny noise.  I'm a pretty light sleeper specially having the big kids in bed with us so I open my eyes and turn over...to find Cooper, in bed, watching TV, finishing off a Charleston Chew candy bar, and covered in chocolate...

So I say, "Cooper!  What are you doing?!" to which he replies very simply, "My hungry."  I said,  "Well you can't eat a candy bar in the middle of the night!"  and he says again, "But my hungry."  (I'm dying trying not to crack up right now...)  So I asked, "Well wasn't it dark out there?  How did you get that?" and he says, "Yeah, but me climb on counter.  Me hungry."  Needless to say he had to be cleaned up and he fell asleep.

The End.

"Sucker Thief"

Yesterday we were at "the haircut place" (as the kids call it), for a second day in a row, getting Brodie's haircut fixed.  Like I said, this was the SECOND day in a row we'd been there and the first day all three kids got suckers when Brodie was all done.  Yesterday I had my mom (grandma) with me too. She was playing with Coop and Chlo while I sat with Bro getting his haircut.  All the sudden Chlo shows up in front of grandma with a sucker...  Grandma asks, "Chloe.  Did you ask for that of did you just take it?!"  to which Chloe replies with the diva-est of attitudes, "I just took it..." bringing snickers from grandma AND the rest of "the haircut place" waiting room...

Don't worry...She had to come back and ask nicely AND ask for one for Cooper too. :)

The End.

Update x3

So I thought it was time for a little update although there isn't too much going on right now...

For starters, we've obviously made our final decision NOT to start Cooper in preschool this year.  Literally a "last minute" decision, and technically we could still enroll him even now if we really wanted to and they'd have to take him because he has a speech plan, but after much discussion we decided not to start him yet.  A lot has changed in the last few months though.  His speech is MUCH improved and I don't think he's behind at all anymore.  In fact, I think if they did another evaluation right now he probably wouldn't even qualify for a speech plan anymore.  His last evaluation was 8 months ago in January, so I know he has improved tremendously in 8 months.  He's doing great.  He's also completely potty trained now, which was surprisingly easy.  We started him around March and he pretty much had it down within the first 8 weeks and has done great all summer.  So although he's potty trained and probably would be ready to start preschool, we still have some hold ups regarding his "would be" teacher whom Josh has met now as well...I'd rather he start with the 4 year old teacher next year, so that's our plan is to start him next year with the 4 year old class.

As for Chloe, by this time next year, she'll be almost 4 herself, but not quite yet, so if we wanted to start them together we'd have to start him in the 4 year old class and her in the 3 year old class...so I'm guess she might not start until she's 4 either, which really isn't all that "shocking" to me because I was under the impression that kids didn't start preschool until 4 anyway. LOL  So for now, nobody is starting school, but we may begin to look into "Toddler Time" or some other type of "class" they can attend to get some social interaction on a more regular basis.  They do see kids in our family or at the park or the fountains or the mall, but nothing on a regular basis, so I think we'll look into that.

Back to Chloe though, she's becoming a bit of a handful lately.  She's going through that "testing" phase where she's trying to test her boundaries with us.  We'll tell her something and she'll just stare and give us one of her diva looks, which she really does have.  She has such a big attitude for such a small girl LOL  It's "cute" to an extent, but it's also difficult to handle because we're trying to be serious with her, but we also want to laugh at the same time.  We can't always laugh though because one of the boundaries she's testing is hitting and throwing toys....big no no, so we definitely have to get serious with her then which is when she sticks out her bottom lip pouting and puts her hand down...Again, kind of want to laugh, but we have to stay firm.  This has been going on for a couple weeks now so overall I think the boundary testing phase is coming to an end thankfully. 

Although, not so thankfully, potty training has also come to an end... After about six straight weeks of training with no progress we decided she's just not ready yet.  Mentally not ready at least.  She's stubborn (one thing she got from me).  She knows what to do and knows what we want her to do it, but she wants it done in her own time.  That's my conclusion on it LOL  Which, as much as I'd like her potty trained and out of diapers, it's really not up to me, so as long as she's trained before preschool, which at this point looks like she has another two years to work on it LOL, I'm more than happy to wait until she's ready.  She has still been using the potty on occasion, but we're definitely not "pushing" it as hard as we were before.  We'll probably give her a month or two then try again and see how it goes, but she'll come around when she's ready.

And lastly is little Brode man, who's also doing just great.  His speech is REALLY taking off these days and he tries to imitate a lot of what we're all saying.  It doesn't always come out exactly right, but it's definitely close enough that you can tell what he's saying.  He has said pizza, pancakes, cheese, hot dog, and sis, all within the last few days, plus several more and a couple phrases too.  He's drinking out of regular cups or sippy cups during the day, and still having a bottle at night, which I'm not TOO worried about just yet because he doesn't seem all that attached too it, so I don't think it will be as difficult to break him as it was to break Chloe.  She'd STILL take a bottle if I let her LOL

Anyway, there's a little update on the kiddos for everyone, and as always, thanks for checking in!

Kid Quotes (# 20)

I was making the kids cheeseburgers for lunch and I had it almost ready so I told Cooper to go tell Chloe that her burger is ready.  He turns around and yells, "Sissy!  Your burger ready!  Come eat!"  She comes into the kitchen, and I said, "Here's your burger", and she goes, "Uh no.  Me want chicken nuggets." 

Diva *cough cough*

So I started to say, "Chloe, this isn't some made-to-order restaurant" and Cooper interrupts me, turns to her and says, "Yeah.  This not a restaurant Sissy.  This our house!"

I just died.

Oh, and she ate the burger.  Picky kids-0.  Mommy-1.  :)

Kid Quotes (# 19) "Was that you?"

So early this morning I was still in bed with Chloe, Brodie was in his crib kind of/sort of awake, and Daddy and Cooper were upstairs.  Well I rolled over a little bit, kind of like half asleep and I let one rip.  "One" being a fart. It was fairly loud actually.  I didn't think much of it so I continued to roll over, but after the fart sneaks out I hear Brodie's little voice go, "Daddy?"

Yep.  That's how often my wonderful hubby farts.  Our 15 month old hears a fart and just assumes it must've been dad.  Love it.

The Potty Project-"Potty Princess" Part VII.5 Mini Update

Mission: Potty Training
Mission Target: Chloe Poston
Mission Status: In progress...

Just a short update for those curious how today went.  I convinced Joshua to let Chloe wear her big girl undies out in public, and it went okay.  She wore them all the way into town, no problem, then as soon as we got into the theatre I took her and Bub to the bathroom where they both went. Yay!  Then we got our snacks and headed into the movie.  She got through the entire movie just fine, but we were trying to clean up our mess and collect our stuff and we didn't get out of there in time and she had an accident in the theatre.  Luckily the training pants are fairly absorbent, so it wasn't a big mess, and Josh took her into the bathroom to clean up.  He sat her on the toilet, but she didn't go, so he just changed her clothes. After that they asked to play in the fountains and within ten minutes of being at the fountains (only about 20 minutes after her theatre accident) she had yet another accident in the grass.  She just kind of squated and started peeing.  *sigh*  After this second accident we changed her into a Pull Up (mostly because that's all we had since I only brought one change of clothes LOL) and she stayed dry all the way home.  At home she used the potty and put on her big girl undies again, but started to have another accident in the dining room, but stopped herself.  Josh put her on the potty and she finished there.

So overall, I believe it was three hits and three misses today.  Not awful, but not as well I was hoping for.  She still doesn't seem to be extremely bothered by having an accident and isn't at all interested in telling us that she has to go, which makes me worried that she's not quite ready, but since she doesn't seem to have a problem USING the potty and isn't resisting it, I think we'll just keep plugging away at it.

And just for fun....

In her Pull Up at the fountains

And Bro didn't want to get wet LOL

The Potty Project-"Potty Princess" Part VII They're Here! They're Here!

Mission: Potty Training
Mission Target: Chloe Poston
Mission Status: In progess...

Chloe's new big girl underwear are finally HERE!  Got 'em in the mail yesterday.  Of course, she had not taken a nap all day and had been dosing off in the chair when grandma brought them in, so she was not in the mood to see 'em when she woke up. Although (little side note), she'd only been napping for about 20 min and then she sat straight up all the sudden and seemed okay, but a few minutes later she started whinning and crying a little.  I asked Josh if she had a diaper or anything on and he said, "No", so I suggested she probably had to go to the bathroom, so he put her on the potty and she WENT.  A lot.  So she woke up mid nap in order to go potty!  Pretty big step! Not something I'll expect all too frequently, but we were still very proud of her.

Anyway, back to the training underwear.  We got two packs for three pants each and she opened 'em this morning.  They're a size 3T, the biggest they had, and seemed to fit fairly well.  They fit okay in the back and of course have a ton of extra room in the front, but that's to be expected LOL  She was really excited about 'em and seems to like 'em.  She wore 'em for about 30 minutes before I asked Josh when was the last time she'd been on the potty.  He said it'd been a whlie so we decided to put her on it.  She'd been playing in the room with Bubba and didn't necessarily want a "time out" to go potty, but the second I set her on there she starte peeing a ton, so I'm pretty sure she'd been holding it, so as not to go in her new underwear!  Yippee!  (Oh and I should update to say that we've gotten past the "pee on command" thing.  I can now say, "Okay let's go to the potty", and she will hold it until we get to the seat, which is helpful because I can now tell her to go to the potty and allow her to walk in there on her own, bringing us one step closer to her actually going into the bathroom by herself.)

Anyway, we're going on a "family outting" today since it's Josh's day off, and I haven't checked with Joshua yet, but personally I'd like to allow her to go out in her new big girl pants and see how she does today.  Hopefully I can clear that with my boss (*wink wink* because we all know who the REAL boss is).

So here are her new underwear!

Gerber Training Pants (packaged and open to get an idea of size)

From the front

And the back

Toddler Bed was a...BUST

So we made our first attempt at moving Brodie into a toddler bed today and it was a complete bust.  Well maybe not a "complete" bust, but a bust none the less.

I first put him down for his first nap (he usually takes two still) at about 10am.  I laid him in the bed with his baba and put Gnomeo and Juliet on (he likes a little "background" noise). I left and didn't hear a peep from him for like 30 minutes so I decide to check on him.  Awake.  LOL  He was still in the bed though which I thought was pretty good, but he had pooped, so I figured that was probably what kept him from going to sleep.  Of course he climbed down as soon as he heard the door open, so I brought him upstairs, let him play some more, fed him some lunch, then gave all the kids a bath.

After his bath I made another attempt at a nap at about 12:30pm.  I again laid him down with a baba and left his movie on for him.  He laid right down without a problem and appeared to be getting cozy.  Not another peep for 30 minutes so I went to check on him again...awake. LOL  This time he'd gotten out of bed and was playing with Handy Manny tools, so again I brought him BACK upstairs and let him play some more.

About 2:30pm I gave him a snack, then brought him downstairs to try yet again.  Again 30 minutes passed, went to check...awake, and had pooped again.  What the heck?  So at this point I've given up on a nap for him.  He doesn't seem cranky at all, so hey, I'm just going to let him play...

About 5pm rolls around he Daddy finds him asleep on the guest bed LOL, so we bring him downstairs again. He wakes up a little, but looks as if he's going to go back to sleep...nope.  Ten minutes later I hear him at the bottom of the stairs with poop AGAIN.  Now I'm thinking he has to have some sort of stomach bug because that's too much pooping.

He's been awake the rest of the night, had one more poop (now diarrhea), and we tried to put him in bed AGAIN about 8:15pm, but yet again he was still awake when we checked on him, so I guess we'll have to put the crib back and forget the toddler bed for now LOL  I don't know if it was just a "bad day" to start with all the pooping and what not, but he's only 15 months so we'll try again sooner or later.

He's definitely attached to his crib though.  He loves going to bed (nigh nigh) and loves playing in it and will just stay in there and play or watch morning cartoons with the big kids no problem.  It's funny because Josh actually pointed out each of their "security blankets".  Cooper's was the pacifier (his ninny) that he had til he was 2, Chloe's was the bottle (just finally broke her of it earlier this year), and Brodie's is apparently his crib. LOL 

Anyway, here's little man in the big boy bed :)