If you don't like "random", don't read this post!

I can't believe it is already Monday evening. Where does the weekend go? I'm guessing this one seemed particularly short seeing that our last "weekend" lasted 10 days. Coming back from vacation is rough.

Do you ever have those weekends when you actually look forward to doing nothing on Monday...and getting some rest? This was one of those for me. Then I had insanely crazy and realistic dreams last night that left me even more worn out. Ugh!

Anyway it was a fun filled weekend to say the least.

Lily got to experience her first real Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus on Saturday...in box seats no less. Someone had donated them to the ministry that my husband works for and there were two left, so Lily and I got to go hang out with some of the kids he serves.

Wow, the circus has changed a tad in the 25 years or so since I'd seen it last. Never mind all the technology, story plot, opera singer, and the motorcycle cage not leaving us deaf nor smelling fumes...the prices...oh my word...the prices. A circus program? $14. Sno-cones? $12. And I heard from a friend that cotton candy was also $12.

I saw a lady carrying 4 sno-cones and thought to myself...wow, you are carrying $50 worth of sugary ice in your hands. I can feed my family for three nights with that...insanity!

Anyway, Lily's eyes were glued to the stage the entire 2 1/2 hours. Quite a show.

When we returned from the circus I realized my Lantana was in full bloom. These pictures don't do it justice, but it is gorgeous.

I thought (or actually my mom thought) that it wasn't getting enough sun. Apparently it just wasn't getting enough water. It rained 6 days the previous week and, Voila!

Bloom, baby, bloom.

Then we were off to a princess party Sunday where Lily also had a blast.

I can't believe she went for purple instead of her usual pink. This day it was all about the length of the dress though. Duh, mom, the purple dress goes all the way to the floor.

I may need to find my own residence during her teenage years!

We also managed to get a good workout in, go to evening church and join some friends for dinner.

It was late after dinner, but Lily was complaining that I had forgotten about her reading lesson. So there we sat at nearly 9:00 doing a lesson out of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. Have any of y'all used this?

She is loving it...I enjoy it too, but was kind of hoping for a break on the weekends...she will not let a day go by without it though.

And in between all of that, Jade pooped in the potty twice this weekend! She just turned two last month. And yes, I do have a picture with the actual evidence. I am weird like that.

The craziest thing is that she won't teetee in the potty. Strange, huh? We had the exact opposite problem with Lily...and if I had my pick, I think I'm sticking with Jade's issue.

I'm sure it is just all a fluke anyway though. I mean, this is the stuff of dreams, right?

Hopefully not tonight though.

Good night.

Reason to Celebrate!

Have you ever looked forward to a doctor's appointment? I can honestly say that today as Lily and I ventured to her Pediatric GI, that I was completely excited. Excited to brag on Lily and how well she is (finally) doing with her GI issues.

I will honestly miss seeing him. He is the kind of doc that serves more as a counselor/friend type...a parent in the trenches with similar aged kids. He was genuinely proud of her and she just ate it up.

When we left his office over a year ago, we had a plan, medicines to try, and a stack of play therapist cards. We were told not to come back until she was having no problem going potty on her own all of the time. Then we could return to get a plan from him to wean her from her medicines.

12 weeks into play therapy, medicines, and sheer frustration, I honestly thought I'd never reach the day when I was sitting in his office with such good news...able to make a discharge plan.

But 13 months later there we sat...reason to celebrate for sure.

I told Lily we could go to a special restaurant afterward. She was thinking Chick-Fil-A.

Mommy was thinking Cheescake Factory.



I should have gotten my own slice of cheescake. That girl can hold her own.

I couldn't think of a tastier way to test one's GI tract.

Heelys get her there in time.

Two weeks. TWO WEEKS.

I’ve rehearsed this post so many times in my mind. The post when I could finally exclaim to the world that my little girl has conquered the throne.

We had issues. I say we because it quickly became a family affair. Some of the issues were medical, others behavioral and some were parental. Gulp.

But finally the stars aligned in our favor and it all clicked. I am totally kidding there. What finally happened was the Lord graciously decided to end a difficult trial in our life and we got to buy some princess panties. Not that we hadn’t bought them before, but this time we got to buy them with confidence that they wouldn’t all be ruined by the end of the week.

See this face? See the absolute joy?

That is the picture of my sweet Lily several months back when she finally took our word that poop belonged in the potty. The proof is actually in the picture. Aren’t you glad I’m handy with the cropping software?

Why haven’t I posted the news until now? Well, in my mind I just couldn’t declare her potty trained until we went a full two weeks without any accidents, hesitations, or me having to chase her out of a corner and into the bathroom. I’ve learned through this truly sanctifying process that it takes a long time to break a bad habit.

Her prize? 15 minutes later we were at Journey’s, buying our then 3 year old, Heelys. Keep in mind that back then she had only been out of her arm cast for a few weeks. My mom is a nurse and had to inform me that there is actually a CPT code for Heely accidents. Great. As long as she didn’t break her tail bone, I didn’t care.

She of course wanted to wear them right out of the mall. The looks that we got from people would have been enough, but there were actually verbal comments too. I guess I should explain that they don’t exactly make Heely’s in a toddler size 9. Size 12 are the smallest size made. Thankfully they ran small and we own thick socks, but they still do look a little out of place on a 3 year old girl. Although I thought the pink and brown ones would camouflage a little better than say the skull and cross bone ones, apparently not enough to prevent the comments from coming.

But contrary to all of the unsolicited advice, we haven’t had an ER trip yet, and if being able to skate to the potty gets her there on time, more power to her.

Finger Painting With Poo Poo

Warning: Although I promise not to post any pictures, this post is not for the fainthearted!

All I needed were some wipes...baby wipes. We had run out in Jade's room so I proceeded to Lily's room to retrieve the pack I had recently opened. It wasn't where I had left it. When I do find it and pick it up, it is completely empty. Hmmm....then I see a pile of used wipes next to Lily's bed. I decide to turn on the light for further investigation. They are truly used. I'm talking a full pack of 88 wipes! Most of them are covered with brown streaks. NO, Surely NOT, it COULDN'T be POO POO!!! Oh yuck. Then I start to smell it. I pull back her comforter and a TURD rolls out. OMGosh! LILY! LILY! Get yourself up here RIGHT NOW! For some reason she doesn't come very quickly so I start to look a little further. There are 3 pull-ups in various stages of use scattered on the floor. A stack of clean ones lay in her bed. Then I notice smears of poo...just like brown finger paint...all over her precious pink pillowcase. I've always loved the colors pink and brown together. A real favorite of mine actually...I'll never think of it the same. It didn't end there though. Apparently she was enjoying her artwork so much that she needed a fresh canvas...her white bedrails were her choice. Then to top it all off, a few more smears on her lime green bedside table. I have to hand it to her...I like green and brown together as well.

Lily arrived in her room. WHAT is this MESS? She tells me that she knows how to change her own pull-up now. After some pretty severe counseling on how she will not ever do that again, I start to think of how this even happened. I can count on one hand the number of times this child has even gotten out of bed without me being there...seriously...less than 5 times in the entirety of her 3 years, 4 months, 2 weeks and 5 days on this earth. But all of a sudden today she gets out of bed to change her own poopie? How didn't I hear it? I heard her doing her usual talking before falling asleep at naptime. I had heard a few songs and reenactments of her favorite parts of The Ariel Movie (known to others as The Little Mermaid), and then it got quiet. Which means she slept on that yucky pillowcase.....barf-ola! I honestly don't know how I missed all the poopie changing action over the monitor. What is even crazier is that her father didn't notice anything being amiss when he got her up after nap. How anyone could have missed all of that is just beyond me...I mean the smell alone...ugh.

I hope some of the 88 wipes had been used to clean her hands. It was those same hands that later helped me prepare dinner and also caressed her baby sister's face. I did have her wash her hands before she helped me with dinner, but it wasn't the sort of boiling hot, skin removing, scrub down that I would have done if I had known they had been covered in poopie just moments before!

Please excuse me. I am headed to Costco to get the largest size of industrial full strength BLEACH they offer. If you don't see me for a while, it is because I am still scouring my house. When you do see me, you'll at least know why I will be omitting brown color combos from my wardrobe.

***Footnote***
Lily's tenderhearted father just read this post and wanted me to make certain that everyone knew our daughter isn't the type to 'play' with poo, that she was clearly just trying to clean off her fingers on the previously mentioned 'canvases'...apparently 88 wipes were not enough!

***I am on a quick (hopefully, at least) blogging break/potty training sabbatical. In the meantime, I'm posting some fun and some not so fun...okay, none of them were fun, potty training moments.***

This was originally posted February 12, 2008.

Please leave me a comment...I'll still be checking in and keeping up with your blogs too. I just need to refrain from posting right now...I don't need any more poop on my blog.

Can we have a Spring Break do-over?

Spring BREAK? More like wake at the crack of dawn, take the child to the potty on one hour intervals, make her sit there long enough hoping something that makes the plop sound will come out, fake excitement when only tee tee arrives, and for your sake that will be the end of the -ake words!

Spring break is over and as you can tell it didn't feel like much of a break at all. Jerry took on a ceiling project at our house and a floor project at the rental house...why we chose to do all of this while trying to wrap up the poopoo phase of Lily's potty training? I'll never know. I guess we just thought...well, we aren't going anywhere, so let's....well it wasn't a good idea. We're whipped now and although the house projects are done (whew!), the princess still ain't pooping on the potty!

Here are some things I learned this week:

1. Lily is not motivated by rewards...not surprise ones, not known ones, not unwrapped staring you in the face ones, not wrapped ones, not food related ones, not party related ones, etc.

2. My daughter does not care about things being taken away either.

3. If my daughter does not have a pull up on...she will poop anyway...wherever she happens to be.

4. She is not shamed by peer pressure...ie other kids noticing a stinky bottom.

5. My daughter will run past 3 bathrooms to find a quiet place to do her business.

6. When watched like a hawk all morning, she will wait until nap time to do the deed.

7. When we took the nap away to be able to better train her, we ALL became grumpy.

8. Potty training without success makes Jerry and I snippy with one another.

9. Lily is obviously NOT ready to poo on the potty.

10. Jerry and I've decided this might be the best tactic yet for not allowing her to date until she is 30...how attractive will she be...still wearing diapers and all?!?

This break coming to a close without having success with Lily has really made me whiny. Can you tell? I know the Lord is trying to teach us through this process, and it has been hard.

***I am on a quick (hopefully, at least) blogging break/potty training sabbatical. In the meantime, I'm posting some fun and some not so fun...okay, none of them were fun, potty training moments.***

This was originally posted March 24, 2008. Five months later we are still trying to figure out what the Lord is trying to teach us through this process...I guess we are slow learners.

Please leave me a comment...I'll still be checking in and keeping up with your blogs too. I just need to refrain from posting right now...I don't need any more poop on my blog.

Potty Training Boot Camp!

We are on the third day of my hubby's 10 consecutive days off from work! Yippee! How are we going to spend our time? Grand vacation? Trip to the beach? No, oh, no...none of those things would do. We are instead running a Potty Training Boot Camp! We already have our very first enrollee...Lily Grace Gibson! And considering our success with potty training in the past, we've decided one student is all we can handle. So, sorry folks, enrollment has been closed.

You may be wondering why we are just now attempting to potty train our 3 1/2 year old. It's actually been going on for some time now...about 15 months to be exact. Oh the excuses we could give...we have been on track several times, and then Jade was born, and then we realized there was a medical issue too. I won't go into all of that...I really don't want to relive it, and plus who wants to read details like: chronic constipation, will not poo in potty, Miralax, will not poo in potty, abdominal x-ray, will not poo in potty, rectal exam, will not poo in potty, mineral oil, will not poo in potty, deinnervation of the rectum, will not poo in potty, absolute frustration, will not poo in potty, serious prayers, will not poo in potty, more rectal exams, will not poo in potty, visit to Pediatric Gastroenterologist, will not poo in potty, Benefiber, will not poo in potty...All of this while we have poo poo prizes, charts, videos, treats, rewards, and THREATS (just kidding) in place.

So anyway, we now have an "All Clear" from the Pedi GI, so we are pulling out all the stops this week...let the Potty Training Boot Camp begin!!

I promise no pictures...even if we have success! Wish us luck though...better yet, say a prayer for us!! We are dealing with one "precocious" little girl...as the GI said over and over and over again.

***I am on a quick (hopefully, at least) blogging break/potty training sabbatical. In the meantime, I'm posting some fun and some not so fun...okay, none of them were fun, potty training moments.***

This was originally posted March 17, 2008. And to think that St. Patrick didn't send any luck our way. Shame on him.

Please leave me a comment...I'll still be checking in and keeping up with your blogs too. I just need to refrain from posting right now...I don't need any more poop on my blog.