Poopy Woes

I feel like I shouldn't complain. But I have to! Benny is doing great with wearing underwear during the day. We don't do pants yet or underwear when we go out, but more or less, everything makes it to the toilet! But when it doesn't, I really wish I could be somewhere else! Some day, I will invent an 'Instant Toilet Training' kit, not sure what form it will be applied in yet, but you just wait! It will be on the market before I have to do this with another tushie!

Speaking of which, 9 weeks left as of today. Which means there are less than 10 weeks until Pesach for everyone out there not ready to start freaking out. Now's the time!

PS Benny's hair is really getting long. I love it! But of course, everywhere we go, people wonder what his gender is. Regardless of how boyish he behaves and is dressed! He could be wearing a shirt that says 'I am a boy' and people would still question.

Just Some Thoughts

With this pregnancy, I honestly couldn't tell you what week I'm up to. With Benny's I probably could have told you the day and how many were left. I find that interesting. I constantly find myself counting back from my due date to figure out how far along I am when people ask me. At this point, I just say, "Oh I'm due in April."

And now for my standard updates.

Potty training has taken a new turn. The only door left open at home is Benny's bathroom, and he makes use of it on his own! I still remind him when it seems like it's been forever, but more or less, he goes and pees on his own. I'm not ready to talk about his poop yet. All I can say is when it gets too quiet, he's probably pooping somewhere. And I can basically guarantee that somewhere does not happen to be the toilet. And he's not wearing underwear. And our apartment is all carpeting (except for the kitchen and bathrooms). Makes for fun times!

Bedtime has been going pretty smoothly too! I had to restock our prize box today! Thank goodness for holiday clearances! Picked up some great little toys for about fifty cents each, he was super excited to see the new things in there!

We also finally got him a real pair of snow gloves. Tomorrow, Shuky only has one class and it is in the afternoon. Benny requested his prize for bedtime be playing in the snow with Shuky in the morning. He's so excited!! I hope the weather allows it!

Don't forget to get those last minute votes in for my brother, good people!! The contest closes on January 16th and I want to book my tickets for his concert already! :)

And now I will be calling it an early night. Beyond exhausted. Good night to all of you!

No RSVP

There's a party going on in my belly and I wasn't invited!!! This little baby is SUPER active!! All day and night, there's loud music, dancing, and fun stuff going on in there!! :)

In other news, Benny is doing great with the toilet (I feel like that should be whispered).

Shuky went back to school today. Benny was very sad when he realized what was going on. He saw Shuky getting ready to leave and asked him where he was going. When Shuky told him he was going to school, Benny responded with, "Oh my chinny chin chin! You can't go to school Tatty!" This kid really comes up with the funniest things! Needless to say, I jumped out of bed (yes, I was trying to pretend morning had not yet come still) and started something fun so the kid wouldn't be devastated.

Back to toilet news, we've been having him running around naked, a lot less accidents happening that way. We'll have to deal with the underwear transition when he seems ready. I guess the training pants were just too close to diapers! This morning, he was sitting on the toilet and he hand-called me. This was the message he left for me, "Hi Mommy! It's just Benny! I on the toilet but I don't need to make pishies! Ok. Bye."

We've been trying something new with bedtime as well. We get him ready for bed and give him kisses and hugs and ask him to go to bed on his own. Completely. Like, leave the couch and go to bed. If he manages to go to sleep on his own without one of us getting into bed with him, he gets a prize in the morning. So far, out of two nights, he got one prize. I won't mention that it took him over two hours to actually fall asleep. We'll just focus on the fact that he did it on his own. Last night, however, was a mess. Screaming, no make that shrieking, for two hours straight. I finally crawled into bed with him and he was asleep within five minutes tops! I felt bad that I caved but I couldn't handle the screaming anymore. And I knew the morning brought the first day of the semester so I felt bad for all the students in the building that needed to be hearing his insanity. Let's hope for better strength tonight!

Going to go enjoy the sight of the snow from the warmth of my couch!

Let The Potty Training Re-Begin!

Benny was doing really well with his potty training, even making requests in public to use the toilet! We weren't quite at the point of wearing underwear out of the house but we were very close! Then we had all the holiday traveling in September, followed by a two week visit to NY. Over that time, he completely regressed. Refused to even TALK about the toilet! Diapers only! What a major bummer, considering the amount of time and effort we had put into everything! I started him at 18 months and said we were going to take it slow, let him work out a system that he's comfortable with. Yeah, that worked very well!

Now, we are attempting to re-potty train the little dude. This time it's on our terms. I'm not leaving the house this week, unless absolutely necessary. We may have to go hungry if that's what it takes! (I'm joking, in case anyone is getting worried at that!) He is in his training pants, getting more juice than I've given him all year. More chips and salty things than usual. I'm also prepared to do as many loads of laundry as necessary! This time, prizes are working differently. I'm not going to spend so much money on prizes for each time. Now, he's old enough to understand that at the end of the tunnel is something he REALLY wants! During Chanukah, we went to an ice skating event. He had so much fun and has been asking to go back on a daily basis. Guess what he gets when he earns enough stickers on his toilet chart -- you got it, a trip to the ice skating rink with Mommy and Tatty!! And we talk about it every time his little tushie is on that toilet! I still have some left over cars available for days when he does a really great job, but I'm not handing them out as easily any more! We are going to make this happen and it's going to take effort from all of us this time! I refuse to have two tushies to diaper at the same time!!

The current reward chart:

WISH US LUCK!!

Grease Overload

We are home from our two day vacation. We had an amazing time and it was worth the 'way too much' that we spent! We went out to eat, had fun at the hotel, went to IKEA (!!!), and the aquarium. Short as it may have been, it was exactly what was needed and I am glad we got to do it. With cool people too! We still like you Feeleys! Can't scare us that easily!! ;)

*Side note, Benny is rocking the potty training world. Requests left and right to go to the toilet. Even in the car! And he's actually waiting until we get to the toilet to do his thing! Time for a big prize shopping trip!!*

I am happy. My body, on the other hand, has not stopped yelling since our early dinner yesterday. Before you start judging, keep in mind that the last real restaurant meal we had was in, I don't even know. I honestly have to rack my brain trying to remember. Was it when we went to New York last December? Has it really been that long??? So, needless to say, we ordered a lot. And pretty much ate it all. Down to the very last french fry. Literally puked in the hotel room last night. Then, today for lunch, I more or less ate our pie of pizza, single handedly. Ok, I may be exaggerating, but unfortunately, not by much.

My new vacation goal. I will order salads. (Who am I kidding???)

Speaking of new vacations, finally booked the New York trip for me and Benny. You're probably wondering what I'm talking about. Sometimes things float around in my head and when I sit down to write, they disappear. This vacation is one of those things. We haven't seen my mother since the above mentioned New York trip. We were overdue. Talked about doing Succos there, but with classes to make it to, was not a viable option. So Benny and I are going the week after, for two weeks of pure Brooklyn fun! This mom is mucho excited to be going to see her mom! :)

And now, I will let you all in on a cool project my cousin is working on.
"TutoringHut.com is an interactive education website where tutors can connect with students of all ages, teach, and get paid online. The site is in its initial launch phase, and needs tutors!"
In my own words, this site is really cool and has so much potential! For anyone in the education business, this is a great tool to teach and tutor and make some money without having to go out of the house! For anyone on the receiving end of education, this is an amazing place to get help on those homework assignments that just won't do themselves! Check it out, sign up for a free account. Explore the world in front of you and learn new things! Anyone who wants to repost this or link to it, feel free! Let's help my cousin get this site to what it can really be!!! Thank you all in advance!

And now, I bid you adieu.

Toilet Woes & Bedtime Sorrows

Potty training is going dismally slow.
Bedtime is absolutely painful.

I can understand the toilet issues he's having, he's just barely two. But night-time should be much smoother at this point! There are many things I can try to blame this on, but we all know the 'If and Then' games lead nowhere. Facts are facts. Benny does not go to sleep on his own. Sometimes he really fights it and it takes him anywhere from an hour to two. Sometimes he just goes to sleep nicely, with one of us in his bed. Not often, not the nicely part anyway. One of us always has to be in bed with him, putting him to sleep. Tonight, I actually tried bribing him to go to sleep on his own. Put a nice new train next to his bed (out of his reach but within sight) and told him he would get to have it in the morning if he went to sleep by himself. At first he was very excited. Once he realized I intended to leave the room he said, "Umm, no thank you Mommy!" So I put him to sleep and his prize went back in the prize box.

Speaking of prize box, the longer it takes to get him potty trained, the more that box is going to keep costing. I'm not complaining, necessarily, just stating facts again. For #1, he gets a little treat, usually stickers that go into a fun sticker book he has. Sometimes little chocolates. #2, though, now that is a whole other story! This prize box is full of different Thomas trains (Benny got the Take-Along set from his Bobbe last summer), and a nice variety of Hotwheels and Matchbox cars. The good news is, we usually find the trains for cheaper at stores like TJ Maxx. The cars usually come in variety packs so we get those.

Anyway, just venting, I guess. Things will go the way they are supposed to, I'm not too worried. In general, he's a great kid and we have so much to be thankful for!

And right now I will go enjoy my treat I got earlier - I rented The Last Song. :)

Potty Ahoy!

So, lately Benny has been showing signs that he's ready for a potty. Yes, he's really young (not quite 14 months), but developementaly, he has been a bit advanced and this didn't surprise me too much. So, while shopping for his 'school supplies' today, I decided to buy him a potty. I took him into the bathroom, sat him down, and I sat on the toilet across from him and he did it! He peed! He got super excited and started pointing down, like he does with a dirty diaper. Of course, this got me super excited so I started clapping and singing for him and he just went wild, clapping and laughing and singing along with me. Too bad Shuky borrowed my phone's SD card. No pictures or videos for anyone. We'll pretend the next time is the first!

Speaking of school (I think I mentioned it up there...), I've been at the school a lot this week, getting my classroom ready, gathering text-books, scoring all the cool supplies, etc. so Benny has been in daycare. The first day I was ready for the waterworks and him grabbing my leg and never letting go. We opened the door, he ran in for the toys and never looked back! I came back four and a half hours later, expecting to see a basket-case (him AND the teacher!). But, no. Granted, he was super happy to see me. Ran over and gave me a big hug! And then went back to the toys and his teacher. I gathered his things and said, "Ok Benny, let's go home, say goodbye!" He turns to me, waves and says, "Bye Mommy!!" and turns around and continues playing! I literally had to drag him out of there! Taking him back today was just as great, I opened the door to his room and as soon as he realized where he was, he was OFF! The teacher had to wrestle his back-pack off of him! :)

Tonight I was in school for a while, had Benny with me. He found a pencil (unsharpened) and was holding it. He fell down and it hit him right below his eye...nice bruise and cut! I, of course, starting freaking out! This was, after all, the first big booboo in all of 13.5 months!!! A few hugs later (for both of us) and he was all better...

And now, my friends, I must sleep.

But before I go, just a quick mention of a great fundraiser going on to raise awareness for Ovarian Cancer... http://www.kelly-confidential.com/send_virtual_tshirt.html You design adorable shirts and send them out to friends and for every time you do it, a dollar gets donated to OCRF and you get entered to win a new Electrolux Luxury Washer/Dryer combo! Go. Do. Win!!

Good night to one and all!