6/27/2017 0 Comments potty training part 1 bazillionBecause I know you are all DYING to know how potty training is going.... I think we've got it for Child #1! I know that as soon as I publish this post he's going to revert to diapers... But I'll just count this as progress with a temporary setback.. Right?! Right?! Oh please. Any other mothers feeling my pain??
We have gone two days with a #2. I'm bracing myself for a mass explosion while he's most likely sitting on my mother's new furniture, or we are out in public with no easy bathroom access. But he doesn't normally wet himself!! Guys this is so much progress for me that I could sing and dance and skip all over!!! I had all but given up. No joke. So far potty training has been the thing I've hated most about parenting. I'll take Shiloh as a baby (read looooooong sleepless nights) over potty training. Please don't remind me I have 2 more kids in diapers. But along with Jackson's beautiful progress comes A LOT of nudity. Teaching him to pee outside has been the key to his independence but has come with a price tag. Like today at the park. Jackson decided to pee literally right on the side of the wood chips. And Jackson is blinding white so it's like a light bulb went off when he pulls down his pants and everyone can't help but notice. Or he continually pees in the same spot at my moms house that now smells like an outhouse (down the downspout extender thing). Jackson has also whipped down his pants to pee through a chain link fence on my grandma's neighbours chickens. While her 13 year old daughter had a birthday party. He's peed while talking to the neighbour. Like it's no big deal to pee mid conversation. Or he gets ridiculously distracted and carries on playing without pulling up his underwear or shorts. He's peed on Xena. He's peed on every tree in my mom's yard. He purposely peed beside the toilet at his speech assessment today while I was washing my hands. Just to see where it would go. As anatomically observant as he is, Jackson still doesn't understand that Shiloh's parts don't work quite like his do. He spent some time trying to teach her to pee on the trees. Thankfully she had a diaper on. But my two lovelies were running around the back yard, he actually peeing on the trees and Shiloh squatting on them in her diaper. Jackson has insisted on calling everyone he knows when he poops in the toilet. It's that big of a deal. Shiloh is also the greatest encourager for Jackson. If we are in public using the bathroom she stands close and cheers him on. "Way to go Jackson! Yes! You are doing it!" "Oh goodness buddy. This is great!". Today she bent at the waist, put her hands on her face and just gave the biggest sigh. "Oh Jackson. Yes. You did it!" I never thought I'd say this, but some days I miss the diaper days.
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6/23/2017 0 Comments once upon a timeMy kids love stories. Stories of any kind, read to them, told to them or even sung to them. And thanks to their Grandma, they are very much into 'once upon a time' stories.
Now they are just starting to grasp the concept of telling a story and how to tell a story about something that isn't necessarily true. I'm guessing this is going to become a skill set of theirs that I am not going to enjoy. But Jackson is the master at mixing in some truth, some fiction and a lot of what he would like to happen. They, very surprisingly, involve a little boy named Jackson. "Once upon a time there was a little boy. His name was Jackson. And he looooooved ice cream. Especially before bed.' "Once upon a time there was a little boy named Jackson. He loved to live with his Grandma. He did not want to go to his home, no no no. His mommy told him he had to go home and he hid under his Grandma's bed and did not come out for a long long time" The subtlety eh? And the pure love I feel radiating from my firstborn. But I love their stories the most when I put them down for a nap at my mom's house. They share a bed there (lately quite unsuccessfully) and today when I put them down, they snuggled under the covers and immediately began telling 'once upon a time' stories. "Shiloh let me tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a princess named Sophia. She had to fight a huge scary monster T Rex! She used her power ranger suit and chased the dragon away!" So cute right?! 5 seconds later I'm upstairs breaking up their power ranger battle and moving Shiloh into a different room. 6/16/2017 0 Comments stitches(Forgive my lack of posts! We bought another house and are in the process of selling ours so life is.. pure chaos. Moving posts to come.)
I managed to go 29 years without doing something my daughter accomplished before she turned 3. She got stitches. Okay okay I had two stitches when I had Jackson but that doesn't count right? I mean I pushed out a child but no one wants to hear about those stitches. They either start to shudder out of sympathy or turn green/white because it's gross). What was supposed to be a morning full of strawberry picking goodness, turned into an wonderful use of our OHIP coverage. When we arrived at the strawberry patch with 5 kids under 4 only to find out the berries weren't ready despite website notifications that they were, we moved on to our always plan B - a hike of course! Not even 5 minutes after getting out of the wagon to run, I hear a thud, Jackson yelling not to worry he isn't hurt and Shiloh starting to cry. By the time I walked the 10 feet to get to her she could barely see because of the blood streaming down her face. It's also super awkward trying to calm your preschooler down while coralling your other one, keeping the blood of your baby in the carrier and trying to convince your nephew it would be way more fun to ask his mom for a wipe than to watch the blood waterfall. And reassuring everyone walking past that yes we are fine and yes we can look after our kids. We aren't sure exactly what happened but given my children's history, I'm guessing they ran into each other out of excitement and Shiloh hit the pavement with her sunglasses on leaving a gash in between her eye brows (I'm SO disappointed it wasn't Harry Potter enough of a mark). We bundled up the kids and went off to the hospital to have it checked out. Jackson is a super wonderful brother and proceeded to explain to Shiloh everything that would happen to her at the hospital including having her blood pressure taken, her temperature taken, an XRAY to make sure all her bones hadn't fallen out, shots to keep her from dying in the hospital like Grandpa and she might run out of blood which her heart needs to pump around. In all fairness he totally redeemed himself when he said "I hope the doctors can fix her. I really love my sister Shiloh!". My sister-in-law took Jackson and Harper home thankfully so I could deal with just one kid in the hospital. Of course Shiloh went into hysterics, not because she had cut open her head, but because her brother was leaving her. I bribed her with a candy bracelet and ring pop which we just happened to have in our van because we are moving (potty treats for the win!). The candy kept her blissfully entertained while we waited. Shiloh proudly showed off her bracelet, covered in her blood, which she ate in front of the nurse to her horror (and my amusement.. whoops). By the time the nurse saw her into a room we weren't sure what was red candy on her face or blood. Shiloh had a patch of freezing gel taped to her head while we waited for the doctor and told everyone walking past she was a unicorn. I, being supermom of course, fell asleep on the bed and the doctor had to shake me awake. Shiloh was wrapped in a sheet like a mummy and took her stitches like a champ. I don't think she had any idea what was happening and has refused to take off her bandaid since so pretty sure she still doesn't understand she has stitches. She giggled and made faces and talked in her made up language. Not sure why the doctors didn't think she hit her head too hard.. Pretty sure the most traumatic part of the whole event was that Jackson wasn't with her. She's a champ! It seemed to me that my brothers had stitches constantly but I managed to avoid them. I don't pass out from blood at all but I can't say it's my favourite thing. Reuben weirdly loves this kind of thing (not his children getting cut open) but you know, anatomy stuff so I was hoping he was going to be there when this eventually happened. But I survived and didn't feel queasy once. Pat on the back for me! Childhood rite of passage accomplished. Motherhood rite of passage accomplished! |
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