Back to Work

Tonight was my first night back at work in four weeks. The management has been fantastic in allowing me to take the time off that I needed to let my knee heal. Of course, the fact that they are supposed to be cutting hours helps! They really didn't need me much, so I suppose the injury came at a pretty good time.

It was an extremely slow night, even though it took me 20 minutes to find a parking spot. Everyone is at the theater and restaurants - they're not shopping. Since I hadn't been in for four weeks, I spent a lot of the time reacquainting myself with the store and getting to know all the new products that have come in over the past month. No customers came into the store after 7pm, so we all folding and cleaned and were completely done with our "after closing" work by 8:30. We were scheduled until 10pm to allow time to clean up after we closed at 9pm, but we were headed home by 9:20.

Once I got home, I realized that I was in a bit more pain than I initially thought, but it's been easily dealt with by sitting on the couch with a heating pad. It will be nice when I can work a shift without any knee pain, but I am so thankful that it has healed itself well enough that I am able to go back to work and avoid surgery (provided I don't re-injure it somehow!).

I didn't really realize how much I enjoy having a night or two each week to go off to a job. I've been going a little stir-crazy at times over the past few weeks and it finally occurred to me tonight once I got to work. It's a nice break from being "mommy". I'm just me and I can have real, adult conversations without little children running around, screaming, and destroying things I just cleaned up - something I couldn't say when I worked at Payless, that's for sure!

The boys seemed almost happy that I was going away to work today. Hmm. They didn't complain when I got ready for work, which is something that almost always happens. And when I said goodbye and told them I was going to work, they just waved and said, "Ok, bye mommy!". Maybe they realized how much they like me working too!

My hours will be very limited. I work again tomorrow to help with inventory, but that was a last minute request by the manager - I wasn't originally scheduled for it. Then I have a regular shift next Saturday. I will probably have just one or two days a week for quite a while and I'm just fine with that.

Nathan's 2 Year Check and a Comparison

Nathan had his 2 year checkup today! He is doing great and there are no concerns in any areas.

He had the receptionists cracking up when we arrived because he was giving me the BIGGEST "You have ruined my day by bringing me here" kind of look as we were checking in. They were laughing for a good five minutes. Crazy boy. They said, "We have never seen that look on such a tiny child! He's SOOO cute!". So I guess his angry looks aren't very threatening. Go figure!

Nathan didn't like the nurse asking him to do things, especially stand on the scale. He responded with, "Um, no thank you". She said, "Well, that's very polite of you, but I still need you to stand on the scale". :^D

Once he got all measured, he tried to talk me into leaving. "Let's go to the door, mommy", "We need to go get Aiden" (Aiden was in class), "Let's get in the car", etc. He didn't care that the doctor hadn't even been in yet.

The doctor asked all the usual questions and found Nathan's ever expanding vocabulary to be quite funny. For a kid who didn't want to be there, he sure had everyone very amused! The doctor remarked that Nathan's measurements indicated that he'd a huge growth spurt recently and I agreed. Most of his pants no longer fit! I feel like I just went through and packed away all the too-small things... After the poking and prodding, Nathan got a flu shot and didn't even wince! Once the nurse said, "All done!", Nathan said, "Ok mommy, time to go get Aiden!". He seems much older than his two years sometimes.

This two year checkup prompted me to dig up Aiden's old measurements and see how the boys compare for their first two years. It was interesting to see their differences, especially since we always saw Aiden as the Chubster and Nathan as long and lean. This might not be horribly interesting to anyone else but their mother, but it's nice for me to have it all written down.

Birth:
Aiden - 7 lbs, 1 oz; 19 1/4 inches
Nathan - 7 lbs, 2 oz; 20 1/2 inches

2 Weeks:
Aiden - 7lbs, 2 oz; 21 inches
Nathan - 7 lbs, 13 oz; 24 1/2 inches
NOTE: The reason Aiden is much smaller than Nathan here is due to Aiden's feeding issues right after birth and needing to be hospitalized for 24 hours at 3 days old. Nathan had no feeding issues whatsoever!

2 Months:
Aiden - 10 lbs, 1 oz; 24 1/2 inches
Nathan - 12 lbs, 3 oz; 24 1/2 inches
NOTE: This surprised me. Same length but over two pounds weight difference. We were still working on feeding at this point, though nearing the end of medical intervention.

4 Months:
Aiden - 15 lbs, 8 oz; 25 1/4 inches
Nathan - 14 lbs, 11 oz; 25 3/4 inches
NOTE: Here you can see that Aiden FINALLY picked up the weight gain and gained over 5 lbs in two months. Nathan was little slower with the weight and only gained just under 3 lbs.

6 Months:
Aiden - 19 lbs, 7 oz; 25 3/4 inches
Nathan - 17 lbs, 3 oz; 26 1/2 inches
NOTE: Here Aiden begins his lead in the weight department, but Nathan is getting further ahead in height.

9 Months:
Aiden - 21 lbs, 8 oz; 27 inches
Nathan - 18 lbs, 15 oz; 29 inches
NOTE: And they've found their places! Aiden is a true chunk, while Nathan wants to be a basketball player (not in this family, kiddo).

12 Months:
Aiden - 23 lbs, 12 oz; 29 inches
Nathan - 20 lbs, 8 oz; 29 inches
NOTE: I find it odd that Nathan didn't grow a single inch in three months, but oh well. This is when the doctor began encouraging whole milk for Nathan instead of the 1% that the rest of us drink. He was still nursing at this time, although not often.

18 Months:
Aiden - 27 lbs, 6 oz; 33 inches
Nathan - 21 lbs, 14 oz; 31 1/2 inches
NOTE: These weights and heights do seem drastically different, but I had to go off kilter a little bit here. Aiden's is from his 18 month checkup, while Nathan's is from his 15 month checkup. Nathan didn't end up having an 18 month because of John losing his job and with it, our health insurance. Aiden didn't have a 15 month check because Kaiser didn't schedule things that way.

2 Years:
Aiden - 30 lbs, 4 oz; 35 inches
Nathan - 28 lbs, 6 oz; 35 1/2 inches
NOTE: So today, Nathan is just over the same height Aiden was at this age and is skinnier. I look forward to seeing their 3 year old stats side by side.

I could have done head circumference as well, but I thought that would have made it too confusing. Basically, Nathan has always had a slighter bigger head than Aiden. I could have told you that from remembering their births, but oh well. Ah, the memories of no pain killers! :^)

Could This Be It?

As many of you are well aware, we've been struggling to get Aiden to complete potty training. While he has known HOW to use the bathroom for quite some time, he seems to have had no personal motivation to keep it up. The pediatrician concluded in October that it was a power struggle and he would eventually give it up and decide he was potty trained. We were told to encourage bathroom use, but not make a big deal out of it.

Aiden has been wearing underwear here at home during the day, but has been wearing Pull-Ups if we go anywhere and also during the night. Yesterday, we were getting ready to go to the grocery store so I told Aiden that it was time to get his Pull-Up on so we could leave. Imagine my surprise when Aiden responds, "No, I'm not going to wear those anymore". I was a little hesitant and did finally convince him to wear a pair to the store since he was wanting to go into the playplace. I didn't want to have him end up having an accident, making the poor attendant clean it up. But once we got home, he went right back into underwear and we talked a little more about using the potty all the time.

John has been working 12+ hour days (15 hours yesterday), so the boys and I gathered some dinner to take to him at work. Aiden wore underwear on the trip to see daddy and did great. We got home and began to get ready for bed. Since Aiden had never indicated a want to wear anything other than Pull-Ups to bed, I told him it was time to change into Pull-Ups. He says, "No, mommy. I told you I don't wear those anymore". I had to sit there for a minute to figure out how to approach this.

I was still fairly hesitant and I began to see that it was affecting Aiden. My questions to him were somewhat doubtful and Aiden began to respond to all questions with, "I don't know how to do this". Once that started happening, I realized that this was extremely important to him and as his mom, I needed to show him that I have faith in his ability to complete the potty training process by himself.

So I started over. I smiled at him and said, "Aiden, would you like to be a very big boy and wear underwear to bed tonight?". He got a huge grin on his face and said, "Yes!!". I told him that if he wanted to do that, he needed to go potty right then before he got in bed. He hopped up and did it! Once he came back into his room, I explained that if he went potty in his underwear in the night, his bed would be very wet. So if he woke up and needed to go potty, he could leave his room and go to the bathroom by himself. And first thing in the morning, he needed to use the potty before he did anything else. He seemed quite confident, so I left it at that.

Once the boys were in bed, I paced around the living room feeling very nervous, but I think it was mostly because I was thinking ahead to him going to school today and wondering what would happen if I suggested Pull-Ups to him. We still have two hours, so I can't tell you anything yet.

I eventually relaxed and realized that the worst case scenario was a very wet bed and since his mattress is plastic and easy to clean, it's not a huge deal. We would know in the morning. So what happened this morning?

A very DRY bed and a little, excuse me, a BIG boy who used the bathroom right after getting out of bed. We are so proud of Aiden and are excited about what this might mean for the end of potty training. Now that he seems to have personal motivation, it could be over quite soon.

Preschool Placement!

I am happy to report that both boys have been placed in the classes we requested for the upcoming school year! They will attend class at the same time two days a week, with Aiden attending a third day.

I will be parent helping in both classes twice a month, so my alone time will be limited, but I will still get a few days a month to myself. And if all goes perfectly, we will have a house on the street right next to the school so I would be able to drop them off and be home within two minutes! We are so excited for the boys!