I Think Thomas Potty-Trained My Baby

Great day! I mean besides the storms, nearby tornadoes, broken umbrella in the pool, missed Park Day with friends, and stupid tough roast beef. : ) I'm still smiling-there was a lot of good today too!

We are getting into a pretty good pattern (less griping, more complying..) with our days home from school. Ches leaves by 8:30ish, and we already have a good two hours of breakfast and random playing under our belts by then! We've been settling down and doing some work. hehe. Today we did some math (see above griping) from their workbooks. Mary Claire loves it and always wants extra work (like Clay used to!), so I try to oblige. Today Clay had to write a word problem to go with a math problem: 9 + _ = 15. He just whined and complained and really didn't see the potential for fun! So I tried to get him involved writing a dinosaur story problem, but he did not want to play along.

I was in the midst of making snack: parfaits. I made butterscotch pudding first (lighter brown), then chocolate fudge pudding (darker, so as not to have to wash my beater/bowl in between!), then layered them in tall glasses for the kids' snack (okay, they sound big, but they weren't very full). After all that hard math work. Ethan helped me make them, and then ate most of his. Mary Claire ate hers as she finished up her math, and Clay finished mad (as he spends increasingly more time these days). He grabbed the glass, and headed toward the tv. I told him he had to eat it in the kitchen, and he *slammed* the glass down on the counter with a small slide, and walked off. (If he couldn't eat it where he wanted, he didn't want it.) Yeah, he didn't say that part, but the words were so loud and clear.

Well, our new slogan, "Be respectful or be in your room" (thanks to a friend!), started to play right in there. I got a notebook, and told him to go to his room and write 10 times "I will not slam my glass on the counter" before he came back down. I absolutely hated writing sentences when I was young (and had to do it allll the time: "I will not talk or my hand will ache" was Mrs. Bishop's favorite for me), but we both needed a time out. When he come back, I had some brains and patience back, and we talked. He again (only this time with words) told me he wanted to eat in front of the tv (we don't do this, but we have twice-and the second time was Sunday night-hot dogs on beach towels in front of Nemo, so did I cause this?). I had to go through what should be perfect common sense: I made you a yummy snack, took my valuable time, made it look pretty, could've given you pretzels, I even used a glass, and you couldn't even say thank you? And he just stared at me. ? Who is this kid (and didn't my mom tell me they'd get harder as they got older?)? So, I tried to be patient, and gave him the snack again, and he said thank you and ate it at the bar.

That's just one incident. Ahh, to list or not to list? Not.

So. We are still in Potty-Training Land. It's a great land. I had no idea it'd involve so much Thomas the Tank Engine (why he's called this, I don't know, as he is a steam engine...tank of water?). Ethan immediately sits on the potty chair, and says, "Watch Train!" Which helps with the potty-ing. My research has proven he will sit longer, and produce lots of #1's and increase the likelihood of a #2, if he is engrossed in Thomas. And that helps my bottom line (and his, heehee). So, now I go around humming the Thomas song. (If you clicked, sorry to do that to you. Good luck with the rest of your day!)

Ok, so on to the rest of my great day! Ethan actually WORE UNDERWEAR MOST OF THE DAY today! Had to emphasize my enormous excitement at this great achievement! (Maybe you too have a young child? You will one day understand this pride and excitement. Hopefully before age 4?) So, I was over the moon when I found him ON the potty chair, Sans underwear, Peeing, By Himself! : D Woo Hoo! This is real news, because, if you've been following along, he was only 'trained naked. Then, we progressed to undies too soon, and he peed them. Then he sat on the potty chair and peed in them (small progress, yes?), but now. The Real Thing!! So, that alone makes my day. And I was so excited (and surprised, really), that I hung up on Mom (on the phone). Sorry, Mom. Then when I tried to give him two M&M's to share my excitement, he wouldn't even take his eyes off Thomas. So, maybe I should thank Thomas for potty-training my baby.

So, in all my home-ness, I've really been a better (friendless) Mom. I have made a nice, nourishing meal every evening, fresh hot lunches (except for Bagel Bites today...), and today was no exception! I put a roast beef in the Crockpot this morning with some carrots and onions, and set it on low to cook slowly all day. Well. It was tough. I used to have roast beef mastered, back of my hand, didn't even think about it. Now, it's work all of a sudden. I screwed up somewhere along the way, and can't figure out what I'm doing wrong now. It used to be all fork-tender, fall apart. But now-I have to use a knife. Geez, who has time for that? And I made mashed potatoes (my newest learning expedition: this morning when I wasn't four-o'clock-crazy, I cut the potatoes, rinsed off the excess starch-that causes browning-put them in cold water, and when I was ready this afternoon, put them on to boil!), and gravy (but, not enough). We hurried through dinner, got a few compliments-second greatest thing today!- and then Mary Claire and I went to the movies!

We went to see Imagine That! It was very sweet, and was a great story about a father and daughter, and was pretty clean! Mary Claire laughed at the word poop-twice in there, I think? What was hardest (besides the longing for popcorn when she was almost 300 and having to take her to the bathroom during a good part), was all the talk about the daughter, Olivia, and where she lived. She lived with her mom, but her dad was keeping her for the week. She just couldn't understand the living arrangements, and Olivia had told her dad she wanted to go home. That was tough to explain, well, why she couldn't go home yet. We've talked about divorce-came up last week actually-but, it was hard to describe. But the movie was great, and I'd recommend it! Not just for kids, but for busy dads. Yes, Ches was going to take her, but he's taken the kids to the last few kid flicks, so he figured it was my turn. Awww.

Afterward, when her b.s. had stabilized, we got some ice cream for a late night snack (9pm!-I never thought I'd see the day I'd take a child to a late/regular movie!!). Ches was out of ice cream, so we got him some too. Just plain chocolate, as he didn't feel like branching out (or maybe knowing I'd eat the rest?). We got to talk, and she's a little nervous about second grade (again). She thinks it'll be hard. She's so ready-and still an awesome reader! She read a Junie B. Jones (Jingle Bells, Batman Smells) on Wednesday-in one afternoon! She said she just wanted to know how it ended. It makes me happy to see her love reading! Sometimes I miss not having shared the book with her. But she's growing up.

Clay read in a huge Lionel train book, then started the third Indian in the Cupboard book (The Secret of the Indian) today. I'm not sure how long he read-we need to chat! I'd guess 2 or 3 hours. I eventually sent them outside after the storms cleared. I mean, who better to run mail out to the box, and where better to make necessary kid-noise? Heehee-outside! Yay, summer!

Just a nice, normal, average day. But good. All my kids being themselves. It doesn't happen so often-I have to clear my agenda to see it.