Potty Training Twins: Notes from the bathroom floor

We've finally broken down and started potty training the twins.

Why? Well, I hate to say it, but it all started because my kid sister told me that Natasha, my niece, was working on potty training and learning quickly. Deep in my heart, the competitive part of me said, "No way! She's three months younger than the twins!". Clearly, I needed to get a move on in the training department.

You know what, though? Twins are harder to train than a singleton.

Yup. You're stunned, aren't you? Yeah, two butts to chase around naked and two voices yelling "NO!" when you ask them the perennial question: "Do you want to sit on the potty?"

It gets old pretty fast.

I'm hoping I get them trained before pre-school, which will happen either when they're 3 or when they're potty trained, whichever comes first. Since Caitlin was done a month and a half before her 3rd birthday, I'm hoping to beat that date. We'll see. The twins seem to have come in the Extra Obstinate model. Lucky me.

My observations, thus far:

• After asking nicely, begging and pleading, have been reduced to outright bribery just to get the twins to sit on the potty. Now there is 1 M&M for sitting. More are promised on actual production*, if you know what I mean (And I think that you do!).
• Logan doesn't seem to understand If/Then statements. As in, "If you sit on the potty I will give you a chocolate. If you make a pee-pee or a poopy**, then I will give you more chocolate." Afraid his future career as a programmer is in doubt.
• Emma has successfully made two deposits*** in the potty so far. Much applause and squealing followed on my part. Applied two mini chocolate bars leftover from Halloween. She approved.
• Had to apply half of one bar to Logan who objected to being left out of the chocolate fest. Half a bar for potty cheering?
• Is continual chocolate applications in the potty going to have an odd long term effect on children? Future Emma/Logan: "Strangely, I always get a craving for chocolate when I'm using the bathroom. Isn't that odd, mom? Mom? I said, 'Isn't that odd?' Mom...?"
  
• Emma likes reading potty books in the potty. Need to invest in more potty-oriented reading material. Suspect that buying used potty books would be gross.
  
• Logan supremely uninterested in potty training, but very interested in chocolate. Crying ensues after lack of production means lack of further chocolate. May have put self in for repeated crying jags.
• Am spending an awful lot of time sitting on bathroom floor. May need to actually clean it more while cheerleading current occupant.
• One day...this will all be over.No more diapers for me!
  

Updated to add: Logan just peed in the potty for the very first time! Aieee! (Start the parade!)

* Look at me, being all "delicate". I'm sparing your sensibilities here!
** Sorry about that. So much for delicacy....
*** On either side of Eric's birthday. Happy birthday, Daddy! Still trying to be polite. Really. I'm only doing this for you.

All I Want For Christmas

A psychologist.

1. A massage therapist.
2. A live-in nanny.
3. A maid.
4. A gardener.
5. A cook.
6. Peace and quiet.
7. Booze.

Guess I'm not getting anything this year.

I officially hate the holidays.

Here's hoping yours are going better than mine!

Ms. Manners

Emma has become Little Ms. Manners.

Anytime I sneeze, I hear a tiny "Bess you, Mommy!". If she needs to get past you in a tight spot, "Excoose me! Scoose me!". If she wants something, "Peese!" and if you give it to her, "Tank you!".

I hardly know what to think other than "Hot damn! The manners are working on someone!"

And that makes me very happy, indeed.

Now if we could just get her to stop flipping her bowls of food upside down onto the table when she's "done" with them, or chewing up apples and spitting out the skin everywhere...ahhhh! That would be living'!

We're Doomed!

Emma figured out how to open her bedroom door today.

I watched as she turned the knob and opened the door, then closed it and opened it again. She did this about six times, just checking to make sure that she really could.

Now we're clearly doomed. If they decide they don't want to nap anymore, she's gonna be the one to open the door and let the screaming mini-horde out!

Aieee!

42 Is The Answer

But what was the question?

You can make numbers from candy canes! Woo!

View from the side.

The man himself, blowing out his candle away from the cake. He has a cold, so he was trying not to blow his germy breath all over the cake. He's thoughtful that way. I'm pretty sure that's why I married him. Even though it is his very own birthday cake.

Eric at 42.

View from the inside.

Why are there more pictures of the cake than anything else? Because I was too busy eating cake once it got cut to take more pictures. Funny, that.

Wait! I think I know the question!

It was "How much do I love thee?"

Yup. That's the one. Happy birthday, honey.

Thanksgiving in Canada

So, after hollering that I wouldn't get on another damned plane again until someone died, I realized that I actually might want to see my dad before...well before he fit the terms of my threat. Especially after my Ultra Wheedling wasn't working on mom.

Turns out dad's not up to traveling anywhere anymore.

Thus the abrupt about face on the topic and all 5 of us getting up and out with our 2 car seats, 1 booster seat, 1 giant rolling suitcase, 2 smaller rolling suitcases, a giant baby bag, a computer bag, 2 umbrella strollers and Caitlin's knapsack. Plus a whiny 8 year old ("I'm bored!" Girl, we're just on the BUS leaving the airport PARKING AREA. Can you hold the whining for the moment?!), twins that don't care to be strapped into their umbrella strollers and two adults loaded down like pack mules. This is the part that I loathe. Fortunately we can put the big heavy stuff in the care of the airline and then just lug the twins, strollers, Caitlin, and carry-ons around.

And this is us traveling light. At least, as light as we can.

So we make it through security (Hey, guess what? The security level is still at Orange. Which still doesn't mean a damned thing.) with a minimum of screaming and get on the plane when we realize that in all of the frenzy we didn't pack any toys or books for the twins. Um...snacks I have, plus water bottles. No toys. So I spent the better part of the first flight making the inflight magazine as fascinating as possible for Emma. Eric had Logan, so I assume they were discussing the finer points of computer programming or something. Since I had the snacks, Emma was happy.

They all travel pretty well, those kids. There were only two incidents of screaming and once Emma told me "Ears! Ears!", I was able to resolve that problem with the rapid application of chocolate chips. To eat, you see. Popped her ear drums very nicely and kept her occupied.

So we made it to Canada, with all of our children and all of our gear. Mom and dad met us at the airport and we all piled into this e-NOR-mous vehicle they rented. It was bigger than a small moon and had not one but two DVD players mounted into the roof, seating for 7 and heating controls to make just about everyone perfectly happy. It handled like a pregnant yak, but boy did it ever fit everyone nicely! We dropped mom and dad off at their place and then drove over to Cindy's house where we woke almost everyone up upon our arrival at TWO A.M. local time. Yup. Fortunately, she forgave me for that and for bringing sniffly germ-ridden twins to stay at her house for a week.

"Iz OK. I got de drugs!"
And yes that is yet another black eye. Sigh. He fell on a toy truck. Face first.

The twins were excited to have Natasha to play with...

Natasha - my only niece! Cheek squeeze!

and all of her toys.

"Yes, I AM playing with a pink castle. What's it to YOU?!"

My nephew Daniel was thrilled to see Caitlin again and they two spent alot of time together doing this:

Videos. Braiiiiins leaking out on the floor.

Caitlin also enjoyed playing with buckets of toys that weren't hers and reading tons of books she'd never seen before.

Transformer Buzz Lightyear? Who knew?!

Cindy has this ingenious device across the doorway beween the living room and the kitchen.

Stormin' the gates, 2 year old style.

I believe it's called a "gate". I totally want one that will keep the twins out of MY kitchen.

So we squeezed 4 adults and 5 kids into Cindy's 3 bedroom house and it was great.

My long suffering brother-in-law, Jason. I broke the kitchen sink. Sorta. It was totally breaking before I got there! I swear!

We hung around, talked, and ate. I got suckered into reading Twilight and the other three books in the series because Cindy made me. Then she made me watch the movie. It's totally all her fault. Yup.

Cindy snuggles Emma and Natasha, who totally looks like she has a secret in this picture.

The fudge, peppermint bark and all of the jam I brought all made it there in one piece, so I handed it all out as early Xmas presents. Cindy cooked up a storm, made some really awesome Amish bread and put up with me making a mess in her kitchen to make some AB5M Challah bread, cinnamon muffins and rolls from the same batch of dough. (I love how versatile that stuff is!) We didn't really go anywhere, other than grocery shopping. We didn't really do anything other than hang out.

It was good.

Mom and dad came over to visit a couple of times.

Waiting for Grandpa.

The kids wreak havoc on my father's nerves with the Alzheimer's thing going on, so they don't tend to stay for very long.

Us? Nerve wracking? We don't know what you mean, mother!

We celebrated a late Turkey Day on Friday, since Jason was working on Thursday. Mom brought tons of food because that's what she does. A turkey AND a roast beef. And stuffing and chips and several sides. Also, dessert and rolls that a friend at church gave her since they knew we were coming. We were swimming in food.

"Gramma? You gives me choklits? Peese?"

Emma clearly is practicing her wheedling skills on my mom in this picture. I don't know what she wanted, but I'm pretty sure that my mom gave it to her.

"I gonna eat dis pie. I like pie!"

It struck me, after dinner was over, that if I didn't take some pictures quick, I'd completely miss the chance since we would be leaving at 3 a.m. So I started snapping away.

This is what it would be like to have triplets. Only, louder.

Turns out that Daniel isn't overly excited to have his picture taken.

Four of five cousins.

We had to threaten him with dire consequences, so this is the only picture I have of all five of them together.

Because, of course, once Daniel was ready, Logan was done.

"Do you SEE what I have to put up with? Amateurs!"

No, they wouldn't look at me.

Gamma, I hang out wif you now. I heer you gots choklits.

Aunt Cindy, Emma, Dad, Logan and Mom.

Finally, after everyone was gone, I realized that I didn't have a single picture of Cindy and I together. Until now.

My baby sister and me. She's not such a baby anymore.

There you have it. A week in Canada, in the rain, celebrating the American Thanksgiving and hanging out with my family. I can hardly wait to do it again next year!

Thanks so much for having us Cindy! You're a rock star!

Domestic Bliss

We're back!


We ran off to Canada to have turkey with my parents, kid sister and her family last week. Now I have a bunch of photos to edit before I can really write anything significant about it other than this: I had a great time. As did all of the kids. Four adults, five children, one house. Everyone got along fantastically well except for the occasional scrabbling over toys. Enh. Kids.

Regarding domestic bliss...well, mostly I feel like I'd be most blissful if I could outsource all of the cleaning, cooking, diaper changing, baby wrangling, bill paying and a large amount of the tedious gardening, but when Emma fell asleep on the couch this afternoon I decided on a new definition.

Sleeping babies = domestic bliss.


A lot of it has to do with the fact that once they're asleep, the house becomes very quiet and peaceful, but watching them sleep is so very sweet that I really can't imagine life without them.

So...yeah.

I still struggle with the tedious amounts of work it takes to raise children and keep a house (Where's my Rosie The Robot?!), but there are silver linings in the shape of the people that love me.