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Potty Training Day 7

Today was a great day! Carter got five stickers — nothing different from yesterday, he was just more spaced out. He did so well, holding it longer today and going pretty quickly once he was in the bathroom. He also went twice by himself! The timer was set for 75 minutes, but sometimes we’d forget to turn it back on after he went so he held it for about two hours once or twice. No accidents, but he pooped in his diaper twice — before we changed this morning and then again before bed. It seems morningtime is a regular time for him to poop, which makes me excited as he’s never had a “routine”, he just kind of pooped whenever. So perhaps this weekend we’ll try the trick I got yesterday — you put him in the bathroom with no clothes after breakfast and tell him he has to stay in there until he poops. Sounds a little cruel, but the couple in the article did well. Their son went after five minutes the first day, and after a week he had pooping on the potty down pat! Maybe next week we’ll keep underwear on him at night to see how he does. He stays dry most nights, and maybe he’ll hesitate to go if he has underwear on. We’ll see how he continues the next few days! Looks like I don’t have to buy size six diapers until Lauren needs them… YAY!

Potty Training Day 6

Today was a 7-sticker day, accident free!! :D (Okay, so technically it was accident-free, but he did poop in his diaper before he changed into his underwear.) Carter didn't fight me at all today -- the timer would go off and he'd go follow me into the bathroom to go. We didn't have to count, he went almost immediately! I think now he's finally realizing that he goes, he's done, he can get back to playing! This afternoon I had put Sam down for his nap and was in the process of getting Lauren down for her nap (so I was nursing her in her room with the doors shut) when I heard the timer go off. Normally if I'm not near Carter to say something, he'd just shut the timer off and start it going again -- he tells me he has to wait for it to beep again. I was prepared to fight with him a little when I got done with Lauren, but surprisingly I heard him walk to the bathroom, then the toilet flush, then the sink on washing his hands -- HE DID IT ALL BY HIMSELF!!! :D I came out and asked him if he went potty and he excitedly said yes. The next time the timer went off I started to get up, but Carter looked at me and said, "No, I'm going to do it myself." I couldn't have been happier or more proud!

Tomorrow I'm going to change the timer to go off every hour and fifteen minutes (adding the fifteen minutes) since it seems he's holding it better now. There were only a couple times today that he peed quite a bit too. My goal is to eventually have the timer going off pretty far apart, so he can learn to go in with his own cues. I'm so excited, and hope this continues!!

Oh, and I got a little advice on helping him poop on the potty (thanks, Aunt Roi and Cindy!) so we might try that out this weekend. I think I need Matt home for reinforcements! :) I'll fill everyone in on that when it happens...

Car Update

It's been a week since the accident and I hadn't heard anything. First off, I had to contact the body shop last week to find out if they needed anything from us. The adjuster had already been there from the other guy's insurance company and they had his info, but never thought this was someone else's car! So I gave them my contact info and he said he'd let me know after he did the estimate. I talked with the same guy today and he apologized for no one contacting me -- he actually seemed surprised no one did, but I think he'd be the guy to contact me in the first place since he did the estimate and contacted the adjuster! So, anyway, the car is already torn down and the parts arrived today. The estimate is just shy of $4,000 and it will basically get a brand new front end -- bumper, grill, both headlights, moulding, upper tie bar, emblem, hood, fender -- and then painted and such. I'm assuming the radiator was busted since the fluid leaked all over, but he only mentioned body damage. The estimated completion date is next Monday the 28th.

On another note, I had to take a form to my insurance agent this morning (along with a copy of the crash report). This form had to be filled out and signed by my agent, then mailed to the Indianapolis Bureau of Vehicles within 10 days of the accident or my license would be suspended. Sound stupid? Yeah, I thought so too! None of this was my fault, yet I could face penalties and have to go out of my way to get this stupid form taken care of! Hopefully this will all be over soon...

Potty Training Day 5

Today was only a 3-sticker day. He was reluctant most the day to even go and try! Maybe my expectations were high from yesterday? I thought after such a good day he'd continue on this track. Guess not. :( He had two dirty accidents and two wet accidents -- we even had to throw out a pair of underwear it was so messy!! I know not all of you wanted to hear about that, but I'm just telling you how it is. He always seems so happy and proud when he sees how happy I am that he's dry and going in the toilet, but the other times he just doesn't seem to care much. I know we'll have good days and bad days... I just don't like the bad days all that much! We'll try again tomorrow and hope for the best -- I'm not giving in or giving up! This is going to be the time Carter gets out of diapers for good...

Potty Training Day 4

Today was a great day!! He did poop this morning before we got him in underwear, but I was actually thankful for that. Still wish he would go in the potty, but at least it was easy clean-up. (He also had one dirty accident in the early afternoon that was not fun!) He was excited to put his underwear on and set the timer -- off we went!! He went every time his timer went off, with hardly any fighting to even go in the bathroom (like usual). I came up with a new game to try to get him out of the bathroom a little quicker, since I was the only one home today and had Lauren and Sam to watch as well. We'd pick a number for me to count to -- if I got to that number before Carter peed, I won; if he peed before I finished counting, he won. He loves games and counting and this worked perfectly!! He got so many stickers today that he already completed a potty chart. He picked a train video as his reward, and started his next chart (already has two on it!). I'm just glad today went as well as it did. I was insanely calm about everything today though. Things that normally tick me off or make me have to calm myself down so I don't erupt just didn't do it to me today. I also think that Carter getting more attention throughout the day helps too. He already tried to rebel, knows we won't back down, and is liking the little games, getting stickers, etc. I hope that this continues day-to-day, and gets to where I don't need to set the timer. I also hope he soon realizes when he has to poop and will go in the potty!! Once he gets the hang of this we'll keep underwear on him at night -- he was staying dry overnight, we'll just have to get him into the habit of going to the bathroom first thing in the morning. I'll keep you posted on progress!

More Teeth!

Lauren got her seventh tooth today, so now she has all four on the top!! It was the top second left one. :) I couldn't get her to show me all her teeth, but you can see her top two here. :)

Potty Training Day 3

Today was a much better day. I think I calmed down a lot about it all, so that really helped. He seemed much more eager today also. I'm thinking yesterday was a testing day and since Matt and I didn't back down, he decided to cooperate a little more. He had one start of an accident, but caught himself and told Matt he needed to pee. Later in the afternoon, he did have a dirty accident, but as I said before -- he was still trying to get the hang of going #2 in the potty. He even asked me a couple days ago how you poop! Luckily they're not too messy, and we explain that he needs to do that in the toilet instead of his underwear. Sometimes it's hard not getting mad, but it's necessary so he continues to try. Yesterday we went though eight pairs of underwear -- today we went through two! Sounds like great progress to me... :) Now here's the real test: tomorrow it will be just me with Carter and two babies... how well will we do? Check back tomorrow night!

Pictures are Posted!

There are new pictures finally uploaded! Here are the links:

Lauren's Baptism: http://picasaweb.google.com/hoosier.nik/LaurenSBaptism

Christmas: http://picasaweb.google.com/hoosier.nik/Christmas2007

There are many more pictures in my gallery on Picasaweb, so check them out too!

Potty Training Day 2

So... today didn't go well at all. I think he actually went in the potty maybe two-three times when we took him. He just kept going in his pants!! One time I think he was looking for me and peed when he couldn't find me (but Matt was in the office, where he went to look for me). Most the others seemed a little more accidental, but after one of them he asked for a pull-up (which I don't want to use because it's just like a thin diaper -- we've tried those with no success). One seemed very deliberate -- he went in our room and peed behind the door (he always tells us where he pees so we can clean it up). It was soon after he had asked for the pull-up, and to go behind a door? I don't know for sure, but I do know that Carter just doesn't want to do it. I think we got a little more frustrated with him and pushed him a little harder today, and he didn't like it. Again with this power struggle! Twice, though, we asked him if he had to go and he said no -- ten seconds later he went in his pants both times!! The timer was pretty much ineffective today, but we'll continue to use it as a reminder to at least the parents.

I did have some success this evening when we went in after the timer beeped. Since he hadn't gone very often when we took him in during the day, I wanted to give him a little more incentive or make it a little more fun. So I took Cheerios in with me and put a few of them in the toilet. I told Carter to aim his pee and hit them (he was standing up like Daddy this time). He started giggling when I dropped the first one in, and immediately started trying harder to pee in the toilet! He did go, and hit two of the Cheerios! So I'm keeping a cup of them on the bathroom counter (so guests, it's not a snack in there for you!) so we can play this game more often.

Hopefully we'll meet with more success tomorrow, and I can continue this throughout the week without Matt and while watching Sam. I don't want to buy any more "baby diapers" for my 3.5 year old!!

Potty Training

So we've been working on potty training with Carter for quite some time now. We got him a training potty when he was around 15-18 months, and started trying to use it at two years old. We didn't meet with much success, but didn't want to push too hard as we had always heard "they'll do it when they're ready". We've been ready, and started to push a little harder when he was 2 1/2 -- we wanted him out of diapers either before or soon after Lauren was born! He was doing great -- he'd get out of bed and change his diaper (which he slept in) to a pull-up, and usually go to the bathroom too. He had even moved to the big potty and we put the little one away!

He had a major setback after Lauren was born (which I anticipated), but it got so much worse six months later! At this time he refused to even get himself dressed! Those that know him well know that he likes to do everything himself. AND he was getting himself dressed before even coming out of his room in the mornings! So after talking with other parents of young ones (especially boys!) and searching message board after message board, I finally found some sage advice. This advice was posted by a couple moms, both of which got it from their respective pediatricians. Leave them be for a month or so -- put them back in diapers and don't mention the potty. It was turning into a power struggle, so drop it so you can regain the power. We did this -- at first Carter hated being back in a "baby diaper" and I honestly thought that might do the trick. Nope. So a little over a month goes by and we'd occasionally ask him if he needed to go or wanted to go, but the answer was always no. We didn't push, we just dropped it.

It's now time for the next step -- one mother posted that it was to put them on the potty every hour or so and make them sit there for at least five minutes, but still don't say anything about using the potty. I didn't really like this step, so I came up with my own method (which has probably been used by others). It's something like we've done before, but with an added element. It's a three-day weekend, so I decided that I want Carter mostly potty-trained by the end of it. Might be wishful thinking, but I at least hope to get the general idea drilled into his head to make it easier to continue when the days are a little busier. This morning I put him in big-boy underwear and explained what was going to happen. We set his timer for every 45 minutes (which we used in the past to "give" him the power to go to the bathroom on his own when it beeped) and he needed to go sit on the toilet whenever it beeped for five minutes or until he went. There were times when he fussed and tried to refuse to go into the bathroom, but he did great. We even went to Kohls and to grab some dinner tonight and he told Matt that he needed to go while we were in the store -- and stayed dry the entire time out! We had one accident earlier in the day -- a dirty one too -- but he still had problems going #2 in the potty when he was doing well before. And he recognized that he did it and told me right after it happened, so that shows progress. Ever since he was a baby, he has never minded being in a dirty or wet diaper!

We'll continue this tomorrow, even though he told me that he didn't want to do it again. Hopefully soon he'll start recognizing when he has to go and the timer will go away. My thoughts are that he gets so wrapped up in doing whatever he's doing that he just never wanted to take a time-out to go potty. Let's hope that changes, and I can quit buying diapers for Carter!! I'll keep you updated.

Past Blogs

I've just posted some past blogs on here from last year (from my other blog) just in case anyone didn't get a chance to read them. :)

Update on Sites

For anyone wondering, I will still be updating www.iuwolf.com, although it appears to be down at the moment. I know Matt had to reset our server, so I'll check with him on getting it back up. I will also keep my myspace page (www.myspace.com/hoosiernik) and blog on there, although they will probably be duplicate blogs. Plus, you have to have a myspace account to leave comments there whereas anyone can leave comments on this blogsite. :)

What a Day!

So I was hoping to be on here tonight talking about something else, but oh well... Here goes:

We were contacted by the Psychology dept last week about a research experiment involving 8-month olds and their ability to recognize imitation. It sounded like fun, so I signed Lauren and myself up. I was actually pretty excited about it, and thought it was pretty cool that Lauren would always get to say that she helped with a research finding! I was taking Carter to Matt's work so Lauren and I could go and was at the light at 10th and College (in between Mad Mushroom and Waffle House). All of a sudden, I hear reverse beeps and see the garbage truck in front of me start to back up. I was frantically trying to get my car into reverse while blaring my horn, but it was too late. He backed up and was partially on top of my hood. Luckily, Waffle House parking lot is where cops like to hang out, and there were two of them there. It was a new driver (in an IU garbage truck) and he suddenly had the urge to pee -- so he was backing up to pull into Waffle House! I'm still trying to figure out why he thought it was okay to back up in the middle of the road when would've been able to turn onto College Ave. soon, even if he didn't see me behind him...

So... my car was towed. Leaking radiator fluid all over the road. Nothing, of course, happened to the garbage truck. We called Enterprise, who we normally rent from and has all our information (including insurance) in their computers from before, and they have nothing available. Before we could check with anyone else, the police officer told us to call Risk Management, who's the insurance for IU, to see if they'd set us up with transportation. Matt called, someone had to call him back, and they said we were approved for a compact car. HAHAHAHA!!!!! He said we have an SUV and need something comparable because we have two car seats. I had to squeeze both carseats and kids in the back of Matt's Mustang -- picture putting Lauren in a rear-facing seat in his car!!!! The adjustor from Risk Management called Matt and had us set up with National and Matt picked up a Grand Prix this afternoon, so at least we have something that the carseats fit in and has a large enough trunk for a stroller.

My car was towed to the AutoPlex and when I called them the adjustor had been there. Matt said he was pretty sure he had been, as he said he had pictures of the car already. They said that they were really busy today, but that they'd get an estimate on it, contact the adjustor, order the parts, and fix the car. Not sure how long it will take, but at least I don't have to do anything. I did call our insurance claims office, and they said not to do anything unless the other insurance company does nothing -- then we could file our own claim and they'd go after them. Fine with me...

I was so distraught earlier as I hate feeling like I have no control. I finally called my mom after we got home and I got Lauren down for a nap. Everything came out and I just cried... but at least I feel better now. Hopefully we'll hear something in the next couple days, but at least we weren't planning on going out of town for a while!!

Whew... what a day...

Uh, yeah...

So I told you that most the ramblings don't even make it out of my head!! Let's just say it's been a pretty busy month since the last posting. The holidays were a little hectic, and I'm still trying to get my feet on the ground since then. Things are slowly getting done around here, and I'm excited that we'll actually get to stay in Bloomington on the weekends! Lauren was baptized this past Sunday, and that's our last out-of-town trip planned for a while. :) I hope to get some more posted on here soon, even if it's just a small paragraph like this! We'll see how successful I am! :)