SCOOP! in the potty.

Potty Training. It's here.

Our friend Ben, who just returned from China, was visiting when we were starting the process & he  told us how they do it there...I'm not sure which method I prefer.

First, let me clarify to people who have commented about Anderson-He is NOT potty trained yet. It has been 2 weeks and he is doing really awesome with the peeing, but is hit or miss with the other. I have really debated starting potty training because the information about it is SO overwhelming. The internet is not your friend all of the time, I have discovered. Way too much about "signs of readiness", methods, annoying people whose kids were potty trained at 6 months.Too much to wade through. My reasons for waiting were many: he's not ready, he doesn't act interested in going to the potty, diapers really seem easier because you don't have to stop everything to take them to the potty, less pee all over the bed/floor/car/etc, he just turned 2, I don't want to take away his night time milk because the boy needs all of the calories he can get, is this going to somehow affect the PATCH?? (you just never know)

But, I read a botlegged copy of a potty training e book  was inspired/annoyed. A bit too much smugness, but some helpful info. Best of all was to just go cold turkey. No more diapers, no Pull Ups, no gradual transition, no excuses. It sort of made sense. Anderson has ridiculously sensitive skin and, despite the multiple creams/prescriptions/hippie diapers that we use, he has the worst diaper rash. Plus, my mom is some kind of potty training champ (it's that patience thing that she has), so, we decided to go for it.

Day 1

A lot of time spent on the floor of the bathroom, just in case. Usually we (me, Anderson and the dogs) were all hanging out in there together. I also kept trying to cram drinks at him- KoolAid Kool bursts!

Because I am an awesome mom, I waited to start until one day when I was not even home. Seriously, mom had him all day & then I had to go to a basketball game that night, so Brandon was in charge.Mom basically followed him around, cleaning up accidents & trying to catch him mid pee. She said it went well, but she is also a very positive person.

We did not do pull ups or anything at night for the first week because I didn't want him to save it up until nighttime. This means that he peed everywhere at night. Smelled pretty rank in his room the next morning. LOT of laundry in the Glover house.


Day 2: Was not awful. We, of course, did not leave the house, get dressed or actually get much done, but after much stalking, we did get almost all of the poop and a bit of the pee in the potty! It is the patch all over again. You know, if the patch was a tropical vacation. Ha, I kid. But, really the patch experience is why I think this potty training thing is not going to be terribly awful. The way I look at it, the absolute most number of times he can pee cannot possibly be 20 times in one minute, so it is doable in comparison.


I love his hat choices. He has a Pirate Potty Book and insisted on wearing his pirate hat the 2nd. day. Day 3, he was a construction worker. We didn't put any pants on him for the entire weekend to make it quicker to get him on the potty. He hates clothes, so, despite the fact that it was freezing outside, he was pretty happy.

One of the fun things we did to try to occupy our trapped in the house time was clean random things. I am pretty sure the area under the stove has never been cleaned. This picture does not do it justice.


He did not care at all about the cute potty charts I made with pictures of his favorite things on them. I even put a moon on one & had train stickers for it. Zero interest. He did care about trying to hid from me when he had to go, so I knew it was go time and could force him on the potty. That was literally what we did-just followed him around ALL day until he was about to go, or had started going, and then ran him to the potty. It is just like training a puppy, only I didn't stick his nose in the accidents. By ALL day, I mean ALL day. Every second. It was pretty intense.

We sort of used fruit snacks to motivate him, but it was kind of hit or miss if he ever cared. At one point, he told me I should go potty so we could get some fruit snacks. He did like to call people, especially Uncle Zack. At one point Anderson said, "Pee in potty. Uncle Zack be so proud of Aesson!"

At one point he yelled what sounded an awful lot like, "POOP!", so I grabbed him, running toward the bathroom. He was kicking and screaming the entire way (not completely out of the ordinary...), until I realized he didn't have to poop. He was yelling, "Scoop!", as in his bobcat.

I put a few beach towels between his sheet & mattress cover that night & it was a bit better. Just really wet towels instead of the mattress cover. I actually woke him up about 10:30pm to try to get him to go. It did not work at all and was hilarious because he was really mad about it.


Day 3
Not quite as successful as Day 2. I caught him when he started a few times & put him on the potty to finish. There were a few accidents, but he did tell us most of the time when he had to go (usually after he had already started, but I still count it). The one thing that concerned me that day was the fact that he didn't want to sit on the potty at all anymore.


Day 4 
Progress, I think. We actually left the house and went to visit Jack and he used their potty! There was an accident when we got home, but just one that day!

As of today, he mostly tells us when he has to pee. He maybe has one pee accident every 3 days. On the other hand, the pooping situation is no fun at all. He will tell us he has to go, but he is not the kind of kid who just sits, so trying to make him wait does not work. Mom bought some "poop toys", but we still have a need for some progress there. We just carry a few extra sets of clothes with us everywhere we go.

He is not "potty trained" yet, but I am pretty proud of his progress. Here are my thoughts/suggestions if you are at all interested. 

1. All kids are different so what worked for us probably won't work for anyone else. Boys are not harder. Some kids are just harder, some parents are less consistent and some kids aren't at the right timing. I know that the advice I got at the doctor office at his 2 year appt. was NOTHING at all like we did and he actually went on the potty during that visit. I can't imagine if we had done it the doctor suggested way, BUT, that is just because all kids are different. Pick one thing and be consistent.  

2. Cold turkey with no diapers was the best thing we did. We didn't use any pull ups because they are diapers, let's be honest.  He does have to wear pull ups at Mother's Day Out, but he hasn't peed in them yet! KNOCK... He does wear them at night now and I will fight that battle later. 

3. Set aside a few days and stalk your kid. S.T.A.L.K. You will catch them starting to go and run them to the potty immediately. You will just have to do this for a few days. It is annoying, but stick with it

4. Be consistent. You can't half way or 2/3 of the way try and then go get a snack, try to do laundry, take a break and then say it doesn't work. 

5. Figure out what works for your kid. Anderson would not sit on the potty at all unless he had to go, he kind of cared about fruit snacks, but really was not driven a lot by incentives.Some kids might be, though. 

6. You have to time it right. I think we hit the perfect time because he just turned 2, so he is old enough to be aware, follow directions,etc. But, he is not in the full force, defiant stage of 2 yet. But, that is just what worked for us.

7. Possibly have my mom move near you.

8. Have your kid wear an eye patch all day because nothing will ever seem difficult or challenging again.

stella, deltas and the fellas

We had our annual Tri Delta get together over the weekend in Nashville & it was so great to catch up with everyone, eat lobster pizza (too much back story there) & realize that even though we don't see each other that often, having great friends is a special thing. We had a celebration for Baby Stella (who is training to be a Kung Fu Master based on all of her kicking) and Baby Girl Moss (no name yet...). I cannot believe that the next time I see Emily she is going to be a MOM!!!I love it. 

 Someone had to take the picture, but I swear I was there. I tried to wave in the mirror and get my reflection in the pic, but no luck. Lindsey, we missed you!

 Totally ignoring the cheese covered potato on his plate, but chowing on the edamame. He really likes the ones that are still in the shell because he gets to open them. Part of the desperate hunt to find what he will eat.

 His eye looks a little crazy here, but I love the no diaper shots.

 Lily has been here this past week & they have played so wonderfully together in our dreams. Seriously, my mom is such a trooper because they are basically siblings and play the classic sibling games of "Mine", "No! Mine!" and, their personal favorite,  "That's Mine!" I love that they get to spend so much time together.

 Helping me make cupcakes. I swear, he is such a person.

 We had a Birthday Playdate with Anderson's 2 best friends (the aforementioned fellas) last weekend & it was perfect. Just pizza, cupcakes, dogs locked in the garage, construction hat treat bags & playing.

 Jackman! He is starting to talk so much & I am really working on Sissa. Jack brought Anderson 2 Diego dvds! This is wonderful so we are not stuck watching the same hippo one multiple times.

 Ring pop as an appetizer. How great is this shirt?? I bought it here & I love it because it is not monogrammed (he is a boy so we have to start straying from that), it washes so well & was only about $15. I highly recommend her stuff.

Their hats so have their names on them & I had grand plans of a really cute pic of the 3 of them wearing them. This is not what I imagined, but Jack is clearly loving it so it works out pretty well!

At some point his birthday is going to actually be over...

the other eye

I am so much more aware of eyes than a normal person. I see them everywhere. Especially when there is only one eye. I decided it is time for me to focus on "The Other Eye" for just a few minutes because I don't want to take anything for granted and we really, really love that right eye.It is our guarantee, our default, our thank goodness.

Look at that boy without his glasses or patch. The right one just rocking it out. Brandon just walked by and said, "Why is there a baby picture of me on there?"So true.

An actual baby pic of Brandon. Love the cars that he is holding-those are the ones Anderson plays with at GG's!

2 year old Bug.

2 year old Anderson is a pretty fun time so far. I know the "Terrible Twos" will hit soon, but I'm not that scared. Brandon & I figured that name is for people who have not spent the previous year trying to keep an eye patch on their kid. To me "Terrible/Awful/Exhausting/Overwhelming13month-23 months" sounds much more accurate. Tantrums, not sharing, throwing stuff...it's whatever. As long as the patch is on, we can handle anything. Perspective is pretty nice sometimes.

The official measurement on his chart. 

Stats:  He is in the 20th% for weight(25.10), 25th for height (33 3/4) & 60th % for head. A bit unproportionate with the head, but his weight is increasing!!

He knows all of his shapes (hexagon is least fave, but he knows it has 6 sides, crescent is fave for sure. The boy LOVES the moon), colors, animals and can recognize a large handful of letters (loves A , B and F the most). He can count to 10 (really 9 because he always leaves the 4 out). He can hop with both feet off the ground for massive periods of time, can hop on one foot briefly, climbs EVERYTHING, talks ALL of the time, does not share at all with Jack or Lily (I think he sees them as siblings) but is really super sweet to Sunny because she is precious. He is grumpy as heck when he first wakes up, but is usually a pretty fun, happy little thing most of the day. He is a bit in love with me at the moment (It's a pretty mutual feeling) and he is usually attached to my leg for most of the morning.

He has ridiculous eczema and we are going to see a dermatologist because nothing will clear it up.  I freaked out over the weekend and sent Nicole a picture of a bump on his leg that looked like lyme disease so Hughes could verify that we needed to go to the ER immediately. Turns out, it's just eczema. So, that's good. One less thing.

He is potty trained* to some degree.  *He hasn't worn a diaper since last Thursday, but it is still a work in progress. More to come on this later...

Favorites: Anything related to transportation (shocker), his tractor blanket, making all animal sounds (especially lion & monster noises), the ipad,  certain books (Goodnight Gorilla, Goodnight Construction Site, ABC Book, If you Give  a Moose a Muffin), doing everything himself (MY do it!), his recliner chair from Cousin Shae, being OCD (he always says, "No touch knives!" whenever he sees any, at the doctor office the other day he threw a HUGE fit after they weighed him & I realized it was because he wanted to put the little bottle of lotion back on the table where he got it, etc..), going to Noni/Bop's to play choo choos, pointing out every kind of construction equipment/jeep on the road, imagining (when I ask him to back up from the oven or the door he will say, "Beep,Beep,Beep" as he is backing up, he has developed this new thing where he gets the tongs or can opener from the drawer in the kitchen & incorporates them into his train/construction table set up, being energetic (this is a constant. As Clare said, "He never actually walks. He hops or runs."),rocking with GG, answering questions (he will answer the ones that Mickey & Dorao ask, which always cracks me up, I ask him all of the time "who loves you the most?" & he says, "Bobble!" smart boy), the moon (LOVES the moon. he will eat the mini pancakes if I make them into crescent moons.)

 He insisted that I give him his used patch and he pushed it around in his bobcat. So many purposes those patches serve. 

 New crane from the CVS Clearance from Bobble Cole. Playing in the kitchen- always on the lookout for something random to put in this trucks.

 Playing with Lily...while Lily was trying to eat. Just one of the differences between our kids.

NOT so favorites:
-The boy is not an eater.  He continues to demonstrate none of my genetics, as the entry in my baby book for 2 is "You love to eat." So, that's awesome.. If I weighed 23, Nicole must have weighed 15. If you have seen any of our baby pics, you know what I am talking about. Noni does a much better job than I do getting him to eat. I cannot explain the food situation, "Picky" eaters still eat. Anderson does not eat. Most nights he just doesn't even eat dinner. We always offer it to him, but I barely flinch anymore when he literally does not even eat one bite. I am pretty excited about 2 because we have started the "My First Flinstone" vitamin, which is way better than the nasty Enfamil vitamin drops I have been giving him. The only catch is that he has to eat them with food. So, some days he doesn't actually eat one. He did randomly eat quite a bit of edamame the other night, so that was random but exciting.

-He is sleeping way better than when we first switched to the toddler bed and goes to bed by 8 and sleeps until about 5:15. It actually was better before we started the potty training, but now I don't want to make him  go back to sleep if he is covered in pee. I can't get him to nap that well at our house, but my mom can get him to sleep at her house. I lock him in his room, try to rock him, lay with him...he just doesn't sleep and after an hour or so of trying we don't have any more patchless time so I give up. Every now and then we might get 30 minutes or so, but there literally are no words to describe how much I miss nap time. I had no idea I was going to lose it before he turned 2.

I love that he puts his arms like this when he is tired or sleeping. Brandon does this, too. So sweet. (What is not so sweet is the missing eye patch. He has started taking it off, handing it to me and saying, "No eye patch. Just gyasses." This is better than when he would try to flush it down the toilet, I guess.)

This face!! AAAGHH! I just love it.

He LOVES the ipad. He watches videos on youtube, which is actually kind of annoying because the train videos are like 1 minute long so I am constantly trying to find another one. He doesn't want to actually watch the Thomas episodes as much as he wants to play with trains. I think maybe he will once he decides to sit down for longer than 10 seconds. We mostly have the free apps that you can get just part of it without paying, but we have a fun alphabet one that is really interactive. We are working on letters because the sooner he can read an eye chart the sooner we will know some vision feedback.

I love my 2 year old Bug!

A bit irrelevant

I did not vote for Obama. I do not agree with him on most things. (Most, in this case, means all)

I did attend his inauguration with 3 other teachers and 44 teenagers.It was awesome.

I realize this was 3 years ago & seems totally irrelevant, but because I live in this constant state of paranoia, I am always afraid I am going to delete all of my videos, so I want to upload this one for eternity.

It is very badly recorded & very short, but I like it because it is proof I was there.

So many cool things about that event, most of which were not even overshadowed by the fact that I did not support Obama.

I LOVE History so attending an Inauguration of anyone is just fun. We actually started planning the trip a year before we went, which means we didn't even know the candidates, much less who was going to win. When Obama won that Nov, most of us were a bit disappointed. But, over the few weeks between the election & inauguration, we started to realize what a HUGE deal this whole thing was going to be.

We were there 2 days before, seeing the sights, worshiping some statues, etc.The actual day of the Inauguration we got up at 3:30 am because we had to leave the hotel by 4. We dressed in ridiculous amounts of layers because it was 14 degrees (14. that was the temperature, it was like 2 with the windchill factor). Our bus took us to this shuttle stop.where we waited with thousands of other people to cram on shuttles to take us to the National Mall. We spent about 4hours waiting there & were so afraid we weren't going to make it, or were going to be sitting on a shuttle when it started.

 Lots of people waiting in semi formed lines. It was FREEZING. And, I was reminded, yet again, why I love teenagers. They started a mass hokey pokey to try and get everyone warmed up/excited/whatever. I don't have a picture of that because I was busy participating, but you can sort of imagine.

We finally made it on the shuttles, got stuck in crazy traffic and were let off about a half mile away from the National Mall. We divided up into groups with 10 or so kids per teacher and tried our best to stay together in those groups. There was an estimated 3 million people at the Inauguration. If you have never been around this many people, you cannot imagine. The only point of reference I had before this was Neyland Stadium. I thought 107,000 was a lot, actually. Once we made it to the Mall, we staked out our place and then didn't move for a few hours. Literally. We.did.not.move. I could barely lift my arm up to take pictures because we were so crammed together. Had there been any kind of problem/situation, we would have just stood there watching as we would not have been able to escape.

It was incomprehensible.

 This was my group. Love. Please check out the giant orange scarf, made by my mom (of course), that served the purpose of keeping us all together. I made them hold onto it as I tried to pull them through crowds. I was only slightly terrified that I was going to lose someone's child in a mass of humanity where there was no cell phone reception.

 The actual swearing in/Inaugural speech was really just surreal. After teaching about presidents and showing pictures/videos of them, it was insane to actually be present at the largest Inauguration in History. Being a speck in the mass of humanity was such a cool feeling. Thinking about the fact that I didn't even vote for this man was ok because what proof that democracy works!! There I was, a non supporter of the president, but a supporter of the office of the president and AMERICA! I could just smell the democracy all around us.(It's not the freshest of smells, to be honest. Like I said, there were a lot of people crammed together.)

Because we left the hotel at 4am and didn't make it out of the mob until about 2pm, we went a long time without a potty break. There was no "running to the bathroom" during this event. I was serious about the not being able to move thing. When it was finally over we made our way to a set of port a potties that we found by their smell. This cute, clean picture was taken a few days before the Inauguration, BEFORE a few million people had used them. We had no choice but to participate in the sewer situation and I hope I never encounter anything like it again in my life. I have no idea how some of that stuff got on the ceilings.


So, there you have it. Random pics from a trip 3 years later. It was, at least, during this time in 2009, so at least that is a bit relevant.

TWOriffic.

I have a 2 year old. Weird. And, perfect.

Jack came by on the big day to bring a balloon & a new Diego DVD!

Breakfast pancakes shaped like the moon!

No birthday is complete without a visit to the construction site. Love the complete look of adoration on his face as he watches the power shovel in action. Sigh.

He was SO excited about blowing out candles & kept talking about it so we decided to do a brownie on his actual birthday since the party wasn't until the next day. He really likes fire. We are trying to keep that under control.

We didn't do an official party but we focused on transportation for the celebration. I got this sign at shindigz.com with a code that made it $7 total (shipping & everything!). You have to check hip2save.com because she posts all kinds of random deals like that.

Noni & Bop came to celebrate despite the fact that my poor mom has walking pneumonia, bronchitis & a sinus infection. Not sure where she keeps getting sick from...Ahem, Anderson.

Excited about GG!

He loves to stare at Uncle Austin. He always has & I swear it is because all of the Glover boys look so much alike.

Mommy & the Bug. Yes, MOMMY!! He woke up on his birthday and started calling me Mommy. I had no idea who he was talking to at first. He literally just decided on his own that Bobble was for 1 year olds. I am still grieving the loss of being a Bobble, but I am enjoying the Mommy gig as well.

Aunt LoLo brought Anderson his favorite presents, a dump truck! He literally tried to just run away to play with it while he still had presents left to unwrap. She always does a great job of finding things that are perfect for him.

Dog ice cream treats for the girls!

The glasses presents are my favorites!

Anderson got his very own bulldozer from Uncle Curtis & Bailey! He feels very official and important ordering the rest of us around, as he is clearly the foreman.

More fire! Yay!

Keep away from the 2 year old is actually quite entertaining.

The Birthday Book! I highly recommend this book. It is written by one of my favorite people ever, Amy Krouse Rosenthal. There is a page for each birthday & it asks very simple questions, my favorite being, "When I close my eyes, this is how I picture you." Then, once you hit 4 there are interview questions for the kid. It goes to 18. I just love it because I already enjoyed looking back on last year. It is a nice, simple way to capture a bit of him each year. I know I have the blog books & a million pictures, but this is concise and efficient. If you ever invite me to your one year old's birthday party, this will be your gift. I am warning you. Toys break and get overlooked, but this is a gift that lasts forever!

We asked Anderson what he wanted to do for his birthday and he said, "Eat!" Um, ok. He never wants to do this. After asking him what he wanted, he said, "Eat Black Bean Soup!" Because I was not prepared to make this, we had to make an Ingles run where he got 2 sprinkle cookies for his birthday and lots of attention from everyone in the check out line who thought he was precious.

We took him to Hobbytown to play with the trains, which he likes much more than his own train set, and let him pick out a new toy. He was stuck between 2 different bobcats-he settled on the one with the track. I have no idea what that means.