Define Successful

We decided, what with Josh being home 4 days in a row, that President's weekend would be a good time to give potty training a whirl. We figured the "nakey bum" route would be our best bet, so Friday morning, we took off their diapers told them if they had to go potty, they had to use the toilet. Simple enough, right?

It was a somewhat stressful first morning. Zeke cried for a solid 5 minutes because he wanted a "biaper" on. Deacon, however, was very pleased to be not only pantsless, but diaperless as well. By the end of the day though, Zeke had pretty much figured it out, he even pooped on the little toilet I set up in the living room during movie time (I'm no fool, I know there's no chance of them going to the bathroom to go to the bathroom when the TV is on). Deacon, however, had had 3 accidents that day, the first involving poop, which I could smell, but could not find. Josh finally found it after I went on about the smell enough.

But now I feel we're in sort of a stalemate. Zeke will use either the little toilet or the actual "big potty" to pee. He has yet to poop again in either one. He LOVES the little toilet though, and I had to move it into the bathroom because otherwise he would just sit on it all. day. long. Seriously, all day. Deacon has yet to do much of anything in either toilet. He's gone twice, I think, but he's happy to just sit there, reading his books and singing his songs. We've tried putting them in underpants, to get used to the idea of them, but Zeke pees in them. We still put them in diapers for naptime and bedtime because, well, because we don't think they're fulling grasping the concept, and we're waiting for them to show more awareness, I guess.

Now, I know that Deacon is still a bit young, so I'm not expecting too much from him. I cheer when he does actually use the toilet, but the fact that he waits until he has a diaper on doesn't really frustrate me. In fact, it proves to me that he has really good bowel control since he's able to hold it for however long he's nakie for. But he isn't even 3 yet, so I'm not rushing him.

What frustrates us most, I think, is Zeke's insistance on wearing diapers. The kid literally cheers when it's time to put diapers back on. He is getting better about not crying when he's not "allowed" to wear one, but he still gets WAY too excited about putting one back on at the end of the day. I know it's something we just need to keep going with, but how do we get him to understand the concepts behind it all better?

So, part of me feels like it's been a good thing, and we've been successful in that they are practicing exercising control over their bowels. They enjoy using the toilet (our water bill will probably be a bit higher this month than normal) even if they don't use the toilet. They are staying dry more often through naptimes. But then part of me feels like, if Zeke can figure all of this out so quickly, why can't he grasp the rest of it? What am I missing/not seeing/grasping myself?

But that's where we are right now. When we're home, we're running around pantsless. When we're sleeping or out on the town, we're in diapers. Is that it? Am I sending conflicting messages by putting them in diapers when we go out/sleep because I don't want to deal with the inevitable messes being diaperless/in underpants will make? Does this post make any sense at all? My mind has started wandering as it's closing in on the end of naptime, so I'm not even sure what I'm saying anymore. Anyone have any advice they'd like to share?

I Have So Much To Say

I really do have a bunch of things I want/have been meaning to blog about.

There's the foot of snow that we got when "Snowmageddon" hit the east coast. Not that there's anything that special about more snow out here, but I have some cool pictures of icicles and things that formed during that weekend that I want to share.

There's the beautiful weather we've been having since that foot of snow dropped (again, mostly for some of the pictures I've taken). Mid 30's and sunny. It's been glorious.

There's the potty-training we started over President's weekend.

There are other just little things that happen here and there that I think would make fun little posts. But some of my pictures are starting to get really dated since we gave the kids haircuts President's weekend as well. (I don't have any pictures of that event though. I do have before/after shots essentially on my phone. Maybe I'll post those from there later.)

Also, in mentioning pictures, I realize that I have not put up any pictures from January on my flickr account, and here February is almost over. At least, I don't think I have. I just checked, I haven't. So there's that to do as well.

But I'm tired. When the boys' naptime rolls around I have been napping as well. Then, when I get up, I always think about blogging and then get worn out by the thought of doing it, and just don't. It's terrible, I know. I'm going to try and be better. Although March is filling up pretty quickly, so don't expect too much from me next month.

Speaking of March, I made appointments for Zeke today. I called the school services and reminded them that we were waiting for them to call and got an appointment for Zeke to be fully evaluated on March 20th. A bit further away then I wanted, but we'll take it. I also made an appointment with the pediatric dentist for March 8th. He'll x-ray Zeke's tooth, then we'll decide if it really needs to come out or if a baby root canal will suffice so he can keep his tooth a bit longer and not have a gap in his mouth for 3 years. Please keep us in your prayers those days.

But, so you're not left with just this post with it's promises of more posts, here's a short video I took the other night. This was Josh's idea of helping me get the boys ready for bed. You may want to make sure your volume is turned down a bit, there's a bunch of shrieking and growling going on. This was also the tail end of it. It took me 5 minutes of watching them go on like this before I thought to get the camera out.

His Daddy Would Be Proud

This morning Zeke let out a giant burp. Usually when we burp/toot in our house, we say "Burp. Excuse me. Burp." I'm not sure why we announce what type of bodily function it was twice, but we do.

As I was saying, Zeke let out this giant burp this morning. He said nothing about it, so as a way of reminding him of his manners, I asked him, "Zeke, what do you say after you burp?"

He looked at me, smiled real big and said, "Yummy!"

Nice one son.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

You See the Hat? I Am Mrs. Nesbitt!

The other day, I took the boys to the store to pick up some groceries and make a few returns and what's it. For whatever reason I decided that that would be the day that I would bring some of Zeke's birthday money and let him pick out something from the toy aisle(s). Initially he had picked out a Lightning McQueen, but very quickly changed his mind when he turned around and saw the Buzz Lightyear action figures.

Oh man, talk about excited. My sweet boy carried his Buzz around the store for the next half hour or so that it took me to get the food shopping done. When I was making my returns he told the lady at customer service all about buying Buzz Lightyear and bringing him home. Zeke even did his best Buzz impersonation for her, lowering (as in deeper, not quieter) his voice saying, "To infinity and beyond!" I had to open Buzz as soon as we got to the car. During the ride home I heard Zeke giving Buzz hugs and high fives. Zeke practically exploded showing Buzz to Josh when we got home. After his bath that night, as I was helping him into his jammies, he had a full conversation with Buzz that started like this:

Zeke (normal voice): Hi Buzz.

Buzz (Zeke's "deep" voice): Hi Zeke. What are you doing here?

Zeke: I put on socks.

Buzz (in a slightly higher, somewhat incredulous voice): What did you say?

Zeke: I put on socks.

Buzz (back in his deep voice): Oh.

And it went on from there. I think you could say he's a big fan of Buzz Lightyear. So, to all of my family who sent Zeke money for his birthday, I thank you. I also thank you for the money you sent me since I spent my birthday money on a Buzz Lightyear action figure for Deacon (it was worth it to save the HUGE amount of drama that might have otherwise been caused).

Here are some pictures of my boys with their Buzz Lightyear action figures, and their Buzz Lightyear jammies that we got them for Christmas:

During our "photo op" Deacon got very insistent that I also take a picture of his dump truck. Very insistent. It's a good thing he's so cute. Of course, by this point Deacon was tired of taking pictures so it's not exactly the greatest picture of the prized dump truck. But with a face like that, I'm sure you'll forgive me:

Finally, to round out the "photo op" (and the post) here's a picture of Zeke just being ridiculously good looking:


Oh, and for those of you who have no idea where the title of this post comes from, here is a clip from the scene in Toy Story that it comes from. It's one of my favorite parts of the movie:

He's Too Much Sometimes

As we were leaving the store tonight, Zeke stopped just outside of the door and said, "Gee whiz! Look at all the snow!"

Thanks Beaver. He is such a funny kid.





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Brotherly Love

Sometimes I just can't get over how well my boys play together and how much they love each other. It's not that I'm surprised by it, it's more that I'm surprised how how much it still makes my heart swell every time I see them interacting with each other in such sweet ways.

For example, here is a picture of Zeke "reading" the picture Bible (or "yellow book" as it's called here) to Deacon. Sort of a side note here, this Bible is great. Friends of ours in Germany gave it to us when we had Deacon, and lately it's been a favorite. Every night before the boys go to bed, Josh "reads" one of the stories to the boys. I think they are on their third time through now. But the illustrations are wonderful, and it's just really neat. Oh, it's the See With Me Bible, in case you were wondering.

Josh took this picture and said that Zeke was actually telling the stories to Deacon, and was pointing things out on the pages, asking Deacon the questions we usually ask during book time: "What's this?" "How many ____ do you see?" "What color is the ____?" So sweet.

A day or two later (hence the same jammies, which we hang out in all morning some days, and there is nothing wrong with that) I found Zeke showing Deacon how to put together the puzzle we got Zeke for his birthday. Until recently, Deacon had a very hard time with it, so here Zeke was "instructing" Deacon by showing him how all the pieces fit together, as Deacon held the board and watched.

Now, I don't have any pictures of this, but lately they have been role playing bed time. Basically, Zeke tucks Deacon into bed, goes to the door and says, "I love you Deacon." Deacon then replies, "I love you Zeke." The door is closed, then opened and they switch, with Deacon putting Zeke in bed. The other day they added "Sleep well" after the "I love you", all of which is how Josh leaves the room at night when he puts them to bed. So basically, they're reenacting what is modeled for them every night by their father.

What just about killed me the other day though, was Zeke and I were headed downstairs to put him in bed for naptime. He got 3 steps down, turned around and called, "Good night Deacon!" Deacon quite happily yelled back from his bed, "Good night Zeke!" Pleased Deacon could hear him, Zeke then yelled, "I love you Deacon!" And, with just as much enthusiasm, Deacon yelled back, "I love you Zeke!" It was almost too much.

And finally, just to further drive home my point, here are two pictures from the other day. I set them up on the bench with crayons and some paper to color while I went downstairs to turn over the laundry. When I came back up they were both happily at work on the same chair.

Notice the happiness on Deacon's face. First of all, he's coloring. This kid loves to color. In fact, I have a nice collection of his work building up if anyone is interested in owning a Dee Dee original for themselves. Secondly, his best friend in the whole world is literally right there. Does life get any better? Or any sweeter, for that matter?

I submit that it does not.