Potty!

We can proudly say that tomorrow we will begin day 5 of Aiden being potty trained during the day (minus one small accident - :^)). This has been a LONG time coming and we're so happy!

We knew to begin with that boys take about twice as long as girls do to potty train, but Aiden was a difficult case. He really never showed any interest whatsoever. But even with his lack of interest, we were doing fairly well and were almost to this point in March, but then John got laid off and everything fell apart. My hours immediately skyrocketed to nearly 40 each week and the potty training got shoved to the side....back in diapers he went!

But I knew that once I started this new job and I'd be home a little more, I'd get him right back into it. And it has been a great week! We woke up on Tuesday and I put him right into regular underpants and told him that we don't go pee and poo in regular underpants like we do in diapers. I spent the rest of the day asking him if he needed to go potty and he would either say "no" or "yes" and when he said yes, he would go successfully. He's even started going in and sitting on the potty without any prompting from me. We've done that every day so far and we only had the one accident this evening when he went to go play outside and forgot to tell me that he had to go.

I cannot tell you how happy and relieved I am that we have finally gotten to this point! I was beginning to feel like he'd be in college and still in diapers. It was causing a bit of stress because he's supposed to be mostly potty trained by the time school starts in one month and I thought there was no way that was going to happen - but he's proving me wrong! :^)

Of course maybe all he needed was for me to go out and spend $$ on a potty training book and then stock up on boxes of pull-ups. No joke, I just bought two huge boxes of pull-ups on Saturday because they were marked down to $16 and I figured that we'd use them, so I might as well buy them. We haven't used any since Monday! Go Aiden!!

103 Degrees

Do they look warm or what?

Poor things. We have a little window AC unit, but 103 is a big number for a little unit to keep up with. It's too hot to do anything but sit and watch TV and it's too hot to cook, so dinner is PB & J sandwiches. These boys are going to be super cranky by the end of the week!

Just to catch up

I've slacked a bit over the past week or two on blogging, but we've been extremely busy. And stressed. But I won't go into most of that.

Aiden had the opportunity to go to not one, but two of his school's summer day camps and oh my goodness, he had a blast! So that's where he's been for the past two weeks. The first one was Splash Camp and they spent all week playing in huge inflatable pools (they even had one that was equipped with two levels and a slide!), slip'n'slides, sprinklers, and making lots of artwork with squirty water paints (most of his clothes are slightly discolored now). The 2nd week was Art By Heart Camp and it was all about making art work with different materials. We never actually got to see what he made because John got sick and I had to work on the evening of their "art show". He had so much fun, he's on the waitlist for the 2nd phase of Splash Camp, so he may end up with a total of three day camp weeks this summer! Lucky boy... It was a little rough on everyone, as he had to be there by 9:30am and he doesn't usually wake up until 9 or so. Both he and Nathan got a little sleep deprived and now they have colds. But I think it was all worth it for him to head back to school for a while.
A couple funny things from the camp weeks: One of the teachers there is named Anastassia, but they called her Teacher Stassi. Apparently, Aiden has a little trouble with that. So he calls her "Teacher Bossy". She thinks it's hilarious - I'm happy she's not offended!
He also really picked up on positive reinforcement while at school this time around. After a day or two, he was complimenting everything we did. I drove him to school one morning and as we pull into the parking lot, he says "Wow mommy, that was great driving!". Ok then. One of the other teachers told me that he kept doing it after every song or game that they played - "Wow, that was a great song!". Keep up the good attitude, Aiden!

Another thing that kept us busy was a visit from my dad. He got to spend Friday through Tuesday with us! The boys had a fantastic time. Aiden was very clear about calling him 'Grandpa Major' and Nathan began calling him 'Papi' right from the beginning. I found it interesting that Nathan found his own way to differentiate from my dad and John's dad - he calls John's dad "Papa" and now my dad is "Papi". We had a great time visiting with him and the boys were very upset when he had to leave. After we got home, Nathan would occasionally call out, "Papi, where are you?". It was so sad!

On the busy side of things, there's also work. These past two weeks have been quite rough and they definitely got as much work out of me as was physically possible. Today was my last day and it was bittersweet. As ready as I was to go home, it felt strange knowing that I wouldn't be going back again (at least as an associate). I know that I'm excited to have a new job experience, but that excitement is currently being overshadowed by some fear. Have I made the right decision? Will I fit in with my new co-workers? I miss my Payless co-workers already!! I guess I can breathe easy knowing that my Payless manager told me I could just call her if I wanted to come back to work there.

We have some work news for John. He was called back this past week to work on a project that will take around 6-8 weeks. They are hoping for more projects to open up while he's there (and right now it seems fairly likely), which would open the door for him to be back permanently. This did make it difficult with me still being on a full-time schedule at Payless for this week, and I won't tell you that we made it through all the stress smoothly, but I'm done with Payless and my new job should just be evenings and weekends from now on. Hopefully the stress levels can lower a bit for a while.

Now that you're basically caught up, I'm going to relax on the couch for a while with a bottle of pain killers. Somehow, I ended up pulling a muscle in my neck (OW!!) and have not been able to look upwards or turn my head to the right all day. It made for a very interesting last day of work! I made the mistake of mentioning it to someone at work, who then proceeded to tell me that they did that a few months ago and it didn't heal for weeks!! I guess they wanted to give me something to look forward to. :^)

And the kitchen sink

Apparently Nathan has developed a bit of an obsession with our kitchen sink.

I was letting Nathan play with my cell phone yesterday, as I typically do since I can lock it, and after a while we put him down for a nap. A little while later, I decide to do the dishes. Nearly done with the dishes, I take the mixing bowl full of old brownie batter water and dump it out.....and out comes my phone. It had been in there for about an hour. Needless to say, it was toast.

Since my cell phone is the number I give most people and the only way for work to get ahold of me, it needed to be replaced pronto. We live right by a Verizon Wireless location and so I went right over to talk to them, bringing my brownie water soaked phone with me in a ziplock bag.
Lucky for me, I was eligible for a phone upgrade and was able to get a very nice new phone for just $20 after my upgrade rebate. They didn't want to touch the water-logged phone (go figure), so everything on the phone is gone and can't be retrieved.

While I'm very happy with my shiny new phone, I was a tiny bit annoyed at my tiny boy. But his obsession with the sink has a bright side. This evening after dinner, I got him down out of his highchair and he went around and picked up all of the dishes he had tossed on the floor. He then took them, one by one, and put them in the sink! He's so small, so he has to stand on tippy toes to barely get them pushed over the edge. It was so adorable and it almost makes the whole situation the day before totally worth it. :^)