potty humor

 Potty training- The good, the bad, and the funny...        oh and the TMI ;)

The one thing I know for certain is that my child has a mind of his own. He is a stubborn little guy and everything is done on his terms.  Sitting up, crawling, walking, talking, eating, you name it.  He does things when the timing is right for him, not for me or anyone else. So when it came to potty training I decided to take the laid back approach. I waited for him to tell me. Besides I'm kinda sick of all the "mompetition" out there and I didn't feel the need to have my child completely potty  trained by age two.

Around 2.5 K started showing signs that he was ready. He would go for hours and hours with a dry diaper and he would wake up in the morning and naps with a dry diaper. I knew this was our chance. Time for the reward system. I immediately sent my husband on a hunt for a small candy machine and some Pull Ups.  He came back with a really nice candy machine courtesy of Craigslist. I filled them up with M&M's and the rest was history. He was all about using the potty and getting a penny to put in the machine to get his candy. It didn't take him long to start asking to go on his own and now most of the time he doesn't even ask for a penny afterwards.

Here area few Quotes from Kemper during his potty training that had us laughing:

- While helping K use a public restroom K yells out to me " Momma thanks for holding my penis!"

- " Watch me turn the water on." as he turns a pretend knob with his hand, and you know the rest. Such a boy.

-  Upon seeing his daddy in boxer briefs  "oh daddy I like your pull ups!!"

So just when we thought this potty training stuff was going to be easy we got to the poo poo department. K has no interest in this area at all. M&M's are a joke when it comes to poo poo in the potty.  I needed a better bribe so I had to bring out the toys. Dollar store toys taped to the bathroom mirror, but unfortunately  they didn't work. He wasn't impressed. I even busted out the big dogs and got him a Jake and the Neverland Pirate ship. No go, but I did over hear him tell his father "Daddy if you go poo poo in the potty I'll give you a big surprise!" I can just see the wheels turning in his head "I'll just make daddy go and then he will get the toy and I can play with it too!" Smart kid.

 The poor kid is so conflicted. He knows he's not supposed to go in his pants but is too scared to go in the potty. He just holds it resulting in a serious poo traffic jam. Just for the record 6 days no poop +Miralax +prunes + warm bathtub = disaster!!  We have tried just about everything to convince him not to be scared. He will sit on the potty for what feels like forever just struggling and crying to hold it in. He eventually loses the battle due to the Miralax I've spiked in all his drinks. The whole process has been torture for us both.   If anyone has any suggestions on how to ease my child's fear of poopin' in the potty please share!!

A few more K  quotes during our experience:

Not sure why my child feels the need to use every public toilet while we are out but he likes to label them all too..
"Oh I like the restaurant potty! Oh this is the Target potty. Oh this is the Circus potty...

Once I could tell that he had not  finished doing his business he told me "It's a little poo poo, like Kemper. I'll do a big one for you later. "

And the one that all mothers want to hear:
"Momma I went poo poo, now clean my butt!"

Pre K

Kemper just wrapped up his first week of Pre K at our Regional School for the Deaf. I can't say that he was excited about it, but he did really well and is adjusting nicely.

-

 Very first day, with his sweet nervous smile.

 I walked him to his class and as I said my goodbye, I saw his big brown eyes fill up with tears.  I told him " I love you and you are going to have a great day." He took in a deep breath trying to hold in his tears and just said  "okay" with a choked up voice, then he puffed up his chest like he was going into battle and walked in his room. He was so brave! I had to put my sunglasses on to hide my tears.

The Friday before school started Kemper had "meet the teacher". It took us about an hour to get him in the car. He wasn't interested in anything that had to do with school. After we finally arrived at the school his Aunt Maria and his grandmother Wela surprised him by showing up. My sister is the nephew whisperer and she can get this kid to do about anything. Within a few minutes he was all about the school and showing her and Wela around.

K giving his tour, he really likes the "competers"

K with his teacher Mrs. Adams. Showing us his new square with his name on it for circle time.

Checking out the library. He even found a book that he already wants to check out. He loves the Max and Ruby book series.

Each day Kemper's teacher sends home a list of what they did for the day and a brief note on how he is doing. I was so excited to get this note telling me how he's become the leader of the class. She also sent me one telling me how he is beginning to play with the other children and initiate play. This is huge for our extremely shy child. He has been needing a little help with his social skills and this is the perfect place for him to work on them.

Just when we thought school was going off with out a hitch, after school one day I opened up K's backpack to find my husbands Rifleman magazine sitting on top of his folders. My heart sank. I know we live in Texas and the subject of guns is not that uncommon, but a gun magazine is not exactly preschool reading material. I can only imagine what his teacher was thinking when she saw that in his bag. I was so embarrassed. After some investigation it turns out that my husband had left the magazine at my parents house and my sister happened to see it there and decided to put t in K's backpack so that it would make its way back home. Too bad she forgot to mention it to me!

 In all I'm so thankful that K had a great first week. There were no meltdowns and even though I know he would have rather stayed home with mommy, he still had a good time. I think he will do well and this is exactly what he needs to get ready to be mainstreamed by Kindergarten.

What Happens in Vegas...

 

thankfully doesn't always stay in Vegas.

Today we celebrate 5 years of marriage

 and seven years since the day we met on an airplane to Vegas.

I am forever thankful to have a husband that loves and supports me.

 Good times and bad he's been there, helping me keep the faith that we can do anything together.

Love you.

"You And Me"

Wanna pack your bags, Something small
Take what you need and we disappear
Without a trace we'll be gone, gone
The moon and the stars can follow the car
and then when we get to the ocean
We gonna take a boat to the end of the world
All the way to the end of the world

Oh, and when the kids are old enough
We're gonna teach them to fly

You and me together, we could do anything, Baby
You and me together yes, yes

You and I, we're not tied to the ground
Not falling but rising like rolling around
Eyes closed above the rooftops
Eyes closed, we're gonna spin through the stars
Our arms wide as the sky
We gonna ride the blue all the way to the end of the world
To the end of the world

Oh, and when the kids are old enough
We're gonna teach them to fly

You and me together, we could do anything, Baby
You and me together yes, yes

We can always look back at what we did
All these memories of you and me baby
But right now it's you and me forever girl
And you know we could do better than anything that we did
You know that you and me, we could do anything

You and me together, we could do anything, Baby
You and me together yeah, yeah
Two of us together, we could do anything, baby
You and me together yeah, yeah
Two of us together yeah, yeah
Two of us together, we could do anything, baby

-Dave Matthews Band                       

couldn't help but add this one ;)

School Daze

Yay school is out for the summer!!
No more fighting to go to bed early or rushing to get up in the morning ( at least for a few months ;)

I don't think I have mentioned anything about K's schooling so I thought I would give a brief synopsis on the last three years:

We started receiving services from the state, E.C.I. ( Early Childhood Intervention)shortly after Kemper's hearing loss diagnosis as an infant. We had a deaf education teacher come to our house each week to help us with his hearing aids, teach us sign language, and other ways to communicate with our deaf child.  After Kemper received his Cochlear Implants she worked with us on improving his speech and listening skills. We did this along with Audio Verbal Therapy until he turned three years old.

Last August when Kemper was still two I enrolled him in a Mother's Day Out program. It was one day a week 9:30am-2:30pm. I did this mainly to get him use to being without me and to work on his social skills. He had a hard time adjusting to it at first. He cried and cried when I dropped him off. It broke my heart. I somewhat had expected that to be his reaction because he had never been left in the care of someone that was not family. It took him a few weeks, but he was soon having a great time at MDO.

His first "school" picture.
He hates having his picture taken and usually refuses to smile so I was pleasantly surprised when I got this beautiful picture.

Apparently he did better than me. (Age 4)
 Can you blame me? look at my hair!!

When Kemper turned three in April he was eligible to start attending an Early Childhood preschool geared towards children with hearing loss. The main purpose of this school is to help him get ready to go to local schools with "normal" hearing peers.

 I was very hesitant at starting him right when he turned three. Mainly because there were only a little over two months left in the school year and he was doing so well at MDO. In the end I knew that K was ready to learn and be challenged. He could lean a lot in the remaining 8 weeks. He started full time school a few days after he turned three. I'm not going to lie it was tough. Five days a week, 8:15am-2:15pm. He normally doesn't get up until 8 am so he wasn't excited about the early mornings. It was a long day and he came home exhausted.

 First day at the new school. His little nervous tongue hanging out. ;)

The first three days went by fine but by the fourth he realized that this was going to be an everyday thing and the crying started all over again :(  He would only cry at drop off and would be fine the rest of the day but it still killed me. And just when he would start getting comfortable he would get sick and have to stay home for a few days. In the 8 weeks he was there he was sick three times!  A cold, 1st ever ear infection, and pink eye! I think he spent his days licking all the door knobs at school, because he's never been that sick. Must have been the introduction to all the new germs. Poor kid! 

 His little locker. Modeling his new school bags. His cubby for his Penguin class.

 In all I'm glad that I enrolled him full time. He has learned so much in those 8 weeks. His vocabulary has expanded and he even busted out a 14 word sentence the other day! I can only imagine what a full year will bring.

Now that school is out I'm excited to have my little partner back. I felt a little guilty being at home without him. I guess I'll have to start picking up some more shifts at the hospital come fall.
But for now...

Bring on Summer!!!

Mother's Day 2012

Sleeping in + A massage + Sweet kisses and hugs from my munchkin and hubby + Some time with my mommy + presents + Dinner with the family = perfect Mother's Day!

A yummy cookie cake for the mommies in our family.
Thank you Maria!

The best mommy and grandmother.
Always there for us, never lets us down.
Thank you for everything you do.

Thank you to this precious little boy who made me a mom.

Thank you to my boys that always know how to spoil me.

Mickey Mouse Birthday

 Kemper's 3rd Birthday

April 7, 2012

My mom, sisters, and I love to throw parties, especially themed parties.

Kemper has been obsessed with Mickey Mouse, so it was our perfect opportunity to throw him a Mickey Mouse Birthday!

I decided to go with the classic black, red, & yellow Mickey Mouse colors. I was inspired after I found red/white and black/white polka dotted wrapping paper on sale at Hobby Lobby after Christmas.

We had the party again at our neighborhood clubhouse. Lots of family and friends & it was awesome. I have five million pictures to prove it! ;)

 K's cake and candy table.
 I was so happy with his cake this year. It was so good and they were able to make it with very little fondant It came from my favorite bakery that happens to be 45min. away. Thankfully my awesome  mom was able to pick it up for me.

What's a party with out lots of junk food?
My sister made some Mickey crispy treats, and I made some chocolate Mickey lollipops. There were also cherry sours, red and black sixlets candy, and white chocolate dipped marshmallows with Mickey shaped sprinkles to add to your sugar high.

oh yeah we also had a cotton candy machine, I think all the other parents hate me now ;)

I made these picture cut outs so everyone could be Mickey and Minnie!

A few activities to keep the kids busy indoors.

A little fun outdoors too.
 The bounce house was a hit, even with my husband. I caught him in there on several occasions.

If the bounce house wasn't enough, the kids could work off some of that sugar on the playground beside it.

Time for food!!
Hot dog bar for some hot diggity dogs!
 Pete's Pasta, Goofy's goldfish, & Pluto's popcorn,
fruit and cheese.

Clarabelle Cow's Chicken nuggets, and Daisy's deviled eggs.

Let them eat cake!

Some of the decorations and favor bags I also made.
The kids got to take home Mickey Mouse coloring books, stickers, and a few other Disney related toys.

 They also got their own set of ears!

Family and friends

I guess we were having so much fun we forgot about the Pinata I had bought.
We noticed it after all the guests had left. We let Kemper and his cousin Nolan have a go at it and pull all the strings. It was like Halloween all over again.

 Thanks to all that came out to celebrate with us.
Happy Birthday!!

Happy 3rd Birthday!

• You weigh about 30lbs
• You wear size 2T-3T clothes.
• You wear a size nine shoe.
• You still take naps most days.
• You are a great eater. Mexican food is your favorite.
• You do not care for ice cream much, but you never turn down cake.
• You are a night owl and it's hard to get you to bed.
• You are almost potty trained; #1 yes, #2 no ;-)

• You love to watch the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Peppa Pig cartoons
• You have a great sense of humor, you even make up your own jokes.
• You still take a bit to warm up to unfamiliar faces, but after you do, you're a clown.
• You are a VERY well behaved toddler.You don't get into things and rarely have to be disciplined (your parents would love to take credit for this, but that's just how you are).
• You are a very cautious child and not much of a risk taker, but you still know how to have fun.

•  Your speaking and listening skills impress us everyday.
• You are a very bossy toddler (well at least to your parents you are).
• You go to "school" - Mothers Day Out once a week. You were originally not a fan, but now you enjoy it very much.
• You love music. You will request to have the radio, or one of your CD's, turned on each time you are in the car.
• You are a home body. You love to be home with your parents.
• You do not like animals. Only family pets don't terrify you.

• You are most definitely our Gift from Above

Happy Birthday sweet "Baby K"!!!