Potty Training....groan!!

Check out our potty chart. At first glance you see tons of stickers, so you'd think we are having huge successes. Actually, we're not completely there yet. Notice the one lonely star in the blue "poo poo" column. Groannnn!  Actually getting him trained for #1 wasn't bad. He was trained in about a week. He was exposed to the potty chair in our bathroom and we let him try it when he was ready starting at about 2 1/2ish. He could pee in the potty every now and then. No probs. We did a weekend a few months later of potty training on the big potty with a little seat on top. That went well, with several accidents. No biggie, to be expected. So off to daycare. We had some issues on day #1 and #2 at school,  but by the end of the week -- no accidents! Yay Cadester! He wore a pull-up to nap in and outside at recess. Finally we're just wearing a pull-up to nap at school and nighttime at home.

Surprise!

Here's the embarassing part. He has issues with going #2 in the potty. I've read about kids not wanting to give it up. Like they feel like their poo is a part of them. I don't know. It's weird. I don't get it. Apparently I wasn't the easiest child to potty train, so KARMA.  I can NOT figure out how to get him to go in the potty.

We tried the big bribe. We tried "You go poo poo in the potty and you go to the toy store and pick out a big toy!" So the first time he goes (at night...after stores are closed...and mommy is home alone with both kids...FAIL), so the first time he goes we go to the store the next day.

He got a cool toy and then we had to go to birthday party. No time to play with it. FAIL. He comes home, shows Daddy and we play and play. 2 days later he poops in the potty again. Then we realize, this kid will not poop every day. He will wait until the magic moment his pull up is on in bed. And typically when one parent is in the shower or in bed themselves to start to whine, "I go poo poo".  So we get all excited and say "Yay! Lets go, lets go potty!" And he goes, "No.... I go poo poo." #@$!  wth, kid?! 

When? When will it get better? What do I have to do to convince him the POTTY is where poo poo belongs? It is killing me. I can change the baby's poop all day long. (okay, kind of.) But I can NOT deal with this mess in pull ups. Oh, and the weekly accident in the underpants is getting old. I've been nice "Oh, okay, honey it happens. Maybe next time you will get it in the potty."  That hasn't worked. So I've been not so nice. That certainly hasn't worked. I don't get it. So today I change the baby, change my clothes after work and go looking for the little boy who is eerily quiet. I find him stuck behind the kitchen trash can. With wet pants.  And a puddle on the floor. Groannnnn....

I take im to his room to clean him up and he tells me he's hungry for a snack. As I get a wipey and tell him that we'll get clean first then get a snack, he holds out a fist. Then he says what sounds like "I already have a snack" and held out a little turd. w.t.h????!!!!  So insanely not cool, kid. What do I do with that? I have cleaned up this child's throw up so much this week. I've cleaned up his daddy's throw up. I've cleaned up my own throw up. And now this.

Happy Friday. I stop here. My gift to you. Confirmation that your week HAD to be better.
xoxo,
Lambie

 

9 months old

This face takes my breath away. She is such a doll.

Guess who's 9 months old?
Okay, guess again. She's technically 10 months old and I just realized I needed to post 9 month Lambie pics.

 

Her scrunchy face grin. I adore this face!

Typical roly-poly Devyn grabbing her toes.
At 9 months old I was so hoping she'd crawl, she was so close so many days.
Instead, this child decided that rolling was an okay way to move around the room. She can roll and roll and roll herself anywhere. At the end of 9 months she would scoot on her bottom, go down onto all fours like a crawl, rock back and forth, reach as far as she could for a toy, get it, then sit back up on her bottom. So effective for her, but so frustrating! Just a few more tries, keep going, girl! But no.  We did a LOT of baby yoga. Mommy showed her how to crawl, Cade showed her how to crawl. Honey Badger don't care. She's going to do it her way!  She is pulling up on things at school and trying hard to pull up at home, but we don't have quite the same infant sized gym equipment stuff they have at school.

At 9 months Devyn loves to talk. She says "Mama", "Dada", "bye-bye", and "baba".  And "ya-ya". She's my little "ya-ya" and we have "ya-ya" conversations. She can laugh oh so good. It's adorable. A snicker, a giggle, a guffaw. It's so sweet. She mostly laughs at tickles or when she's playing tug of war. Hopefully we'll see a crawler at 10 months, until then I'm kind of enjoying knowing where she is. 

 

Then and Now...

Ten months later, they are so in love.
Baby sister girl has grown to love, cherish, and adore Cade.
She loves to watch him and now she plays his favorite games.
She loves to watch me dance for her.
Come running to her and then stop really quick in front of her.
Tickle, tickle, tickle.
Hide in the bed and wait for Daddy to find us.
Play tug of war.
Grab my nose/ear/shirt/finger and not let go.

Big brother Cade & Baby sister girl Devyn.
Please be friends forever!

Blessed Baby Girl

Flashback to Devyn's baptism. She is wearing the Samusson family baptismal gown that Cade also wore. It goes back four generations. (Or more, right Mom?)

Our family is complete! (AKA I'm not outnumbered!)

Big brother Cade taking the prayers for his baby sister girl very seriously.

The Flemings, Lambs, and Samusons gathered for Devyn.

Godmother Kelly (Aunt - Nick's sister) and Godfather Alex (Uncle - my brother). (**As if the family resemblence didn't already give it away)

So happy that my brother is the Godfather to both of my kids. Cade Andrew and Alex Andrew share a middle name. Devyn Alexis is inspired by Alex (also a family name on the Fleming side).

This baby is so blessed. She has so many people who care about her, but none more than Nick and I.

I hope she has a strong faith and always trusts in God. Trusts in the good of people. Trusts that there is a plan greater than she can see in the current moment. Faith that life is good and determination to live a happy life are two of my biggest desires for my baby girl. Life is more fun when you believe.

I've Never...

A drinking game for parents. That's what we need. Grab a sippy and pick your poison. So many wth moments happen after you get pregnant that I think instead of living in shame and hiding away all those embarrassing, gross, and unbelievable stories we should share them all. By playing "I've never" --- the parenthood version. If you HAVE experienced the event, then congrats, you drink your poison. From the minute that pregnancy test comes back positive start collecting your stories girls and guys, they will come in handy for this game.

So many times we are obligated to not share these tales of horror and humiliation, for fear that our newlywed friends won't procreate, for fear that our single friends will never want to get married and procreate, for fear that our other mommy and daddy friends will realize we aren't the Stepford couple we pretend to be. Let's get real. You're a lot more interested in the "My son peed in my favorite cup while standing bare assed in the back of my Yukon at the gas station" story than the tale of me attempting baby yoga and stats about teething. Because you know you have another story just as crazy and stupid. And because it feels just so damn good to laugh at ourselves together than sit in silence and worry about being good enough.

I won't leave you hanging. My whole purpose for posting today was to share my journey from how a simple trip to the grocery store ended with my 3 year old ruining my fave cup. On the way out of the grocery store today my car started dinging that the gas was in empty. Argh! Hubs loves to just fill up $10 at a time. Drives me nuts. Almost as nuts as $80 gas runs. So we stopped off and I commit to using all of my 30 cents off per gallon discount. About $25 into pumping gas and singing our third round of the ABC's Cade announces that he needs to go potty. I told him that we'd go home and he could potty in a minute. He said, "Mommy I GOT to go potty" and for the first time in his life he whimpered he was holding it so hard. I tried to convince him to wait so I could drive across the street to Wendy's. He just kept saying, "Mommy I GOT to go potty". I looked around. No bushes. I got a visual of him peeing on the gas pump. Stupid brain, wasting time!!! Thankfully I remembered my friend Sara telling me the time she was stuck on the Tollway in traffic and her son had to pee in a water bottle. Yes! I surely have a container in here. I looked at my water bottle. In the death grip of a cranky infant. No dice. I dug through my school bag of Ziplock containers with leftover gridoo from lunch smeared all in it. Another completely unhelpful and yet totally nauseating visual of what that could have ended up looking like popped into my NOT HELPFUL brain. I saw it. The solution. But nooooo.....not my favorite cup! My Presby of Plano cup that I won from giving birth to a seven pound baby would NOT be the pee cup. But the whimpering started. I yelled, "UNBUCKLE YOURSELF!!! Mommy has a plan!"

(As I type this I question what on Earth the man at the next pump must have been thinking. First the ABC's, then this?)

So I yank him to the back of the Yukon, shove aside the groceries and pull down his pants. God bless little boys. He didn't question me one bit. He was totally chill (or in denial) that Mommy was putting his......in a cup. And I smiled up and him and said, "Okay now, baby!". He waited. Then I waited and waited. And waited. Homeboy filled a THIRD of my cup. My trophy cup! Now his cup. Now a cup that lives in the trash at the gas station.

I've never. Until today. I'm going to need to do something badass to score myself another trophy cup. And just think. It would have been perfect for my new parenthood game with friends.

Our Life...March 2012

Flashback to March! We had a 2 year old boy and 8 month old girl. Mommy and Daddy both work. Both kids go to the same daycare. Preparations for Cade's third birthday and Easter well under way. Daddy had a LOT of late nights at the office, so Mommy got a taste of what being a single parent was like. One word to success of doing it on your own? Organization!  Thank God for the other moms out there who gave me their tips and advice. Thank God for Pinterest for recipes and links to other mommy bloggers out there who share their tips, vents, and joys to help me see that it's all worth it. For Mother's Day weekend this year I want to put a big "Thank you!!" out there in the universe to my mommy friends and the bloggers I've never met but who have inspired me and kept me sane realizing that this crazy life with baby and toddler is totally normal. Thank you!

Maybe I should have bought those cute monthly stickers for the baby's onesies. I thought my idea of a cake for each month was SO CUTE! And it was, until months 8 and 9 when Devyn decided it was fun to eat the cake and ruin the cute little decorations on it! I need to do some seriously doctoring before her 10 month birthday so the cake will survive until 1 year old!  I stupidly did not factor in when baby was uncontrollably moving around how this would work and hold it's shape. The monthly stickers for the little white onesies are genius for this reason! No destructo factor to take into consideration. 

I made the decision NOT to buy them based on fashion. I wanted to highlight my favorite baby outfits each month and not be limited to the little white Gerber onesies. So cute outfits we get....the monthly sign on the cake...we will see!!

Switching topics --- AGAIN!  Daddy isn't featured as much on the blog. He loves his privacy. (and I think we've got lots of coworker followers, shout out to Daddy's coworkers! :)  Here is Daddy taking a work phone call. And Cade helping. To be able to be a fireman with Cade and handle business is a huge feat! Good job Daddy!

 

And here is Daddy doing work. This is another typical sight. The multi-tasking around here is INSANE! But we love the sacrifice he makes for us. Being here is so worth it and the kids are just totally infatuated with Daddy.  Well bloggies, thanks for dealing with my randomness this morning. Trying to catch up on our little family diary whenever I can! Time to go wake up Daddy for our family breakfast date!

One final random thought: Have any mommy bloggers out there printed their blogs in book format? I'd LOVE to print one for each year this summer. Which websites do you like to use? Any tips?

Easter time with our Lambies!

Sure enough, Easter fell the day after Cade's 3rd birthday this year. What a weekend!!
Luckily the Easter bunny didn't let us down. Cade kept peeking outside to see if he could catch the Easter bunny in more Easter action. He kept saying, "Oh! What is that? I think that's the happy Easter bunny!"

 

Presents and books? No thanks. More candy please!!

The Easter bunny bought Devyn a sweet little basket filled with a flamingo highchair toy, eggs with yogurt drops and stars, a little pink bunny, a purse with rattle toys, and Baby Mum Mums!  Oh, and a madras sun hat! Cadester also got a madras sun hat. Newsboy style. Adorbs. If only he'd wear it as often as he wears his fireman hat.

 

Cade found eggs galore! They were filled with Starbust jelly  beans, M&M's, dried cranberries (fail), and Cheerios (meh). We played after church and then took a glorious family nap. If you know me, you know I love the rare luxury that is both children napping at the same time. Typically I waste naptimes because I'm busy eating. Stuffing my face with food without any interruptions is sometimes better than napping. I usually eat during dual nappage then immediately regret not napping when one kid wakes up just as I lay down and get my pillow perfectly fluffed. Anyone else out there a compulsive pillow fluffer? I learned this habit from my husband and now I'm a tad psycho about not resting until the pillow is juuuuuust right. Thanks douche. Another ritual that prolongs my procuring more beauty sleep. (They call it beauty sleep because it does nothing for your outer beauty, it only cancels out the crankiness that occurs should you lack sleep)

After everyone woke up we packed up the crew and headed to Lolli & Papa's house where we had an Easter feast with Grammie & Grandaddy, Aunt Kelly & Uncle Eric, and Great Grandma Lamb (aka GiGi!). We had turkey, ham, green beans, sweet potatoes, potato salad, and more more food that I can't recall a month later. In fact, many of the details are fuzzy, but a good time was had by all. No family drama here! Just a laid back crew eager to be entertained by the under 4 set. 

 

Baby sister girl and big brother Cade had a beautiful day! Thanks Easter bunny!

Oh, and FYI. In the world according to Cade the Easter bunny hitched a ride back to his bunny candy farm with Santa. Apparently both operations are run out of the North Pole. Duh, how does Santa get all that candy? Must be that he outsourced to the Easter bunny.

How does the Easter bunny get all that candy? Cade has figured that out too. He talked it out and decided that the Easter bunny has help from his Mommy and Daddy Bunny. They grow the candy and they live in a house in a tree. He hops fast fast FAST and drops his eggs all over. And then when he's done? Click clack clack. You've got it. Reindeer hooves. Santa's magic sleigh. The two magical friends peace out and head to the North Pole for the summer.

Except when you see Santa driving down the highway on a motorcycle or shopping in Academy in the hunting section. He hasn't quite figured out that Santa sometimes summers in Texas wearing Wranglers and Harley t-shirts. The jolly belly appears to be a beer belly. But don't be fooled. It's a jolly bowl of jelly belly.

Peace bloggies.

A story in pictures only...