Not Just a Car

Tonight we had another big event happen at our house....we sold our beloved Pathfinder.  Tony has been talking and talking about getting a new truck/SUV, but we could just never pull the trigger because we both loved the Pathfinder so much.  Finally last week, we bought a new Ford F150 4x4 truck....which meant that it was time to finally say goodbye to our most favorite car.  Tonight was the night that the Pathfinder left our possession...and it was bittersweet.  

When I got out of the shower tonight, this was on the computer:

If I had a blog:

I know people say it’s just a car but it’s more than that. It was the first “Real” purchase that Jenny and I made. I had graduated college and moved to the burbs and it was time to get rid of one of our economical cars and we picked out the one we wanted and it was awesome. It was the first car that someone has said “that’s a cool car” and I felt like they meant it.

It was the car that Jenny drove through crazy Chicago land traffic. I knew no matter what she encountered she’d be safe in it. Snow, uh, 4x4.

It was the car that we would load up when Jenny, Tasker and I would come back into town to visit family. It was big enough to carry the three of us plus the cage. Actually there wasn’t a time when it wasn’t big enough. It was the car that Jenny would come to greet me on late Friday nights from the airport after I’d been out of town all week on business. Again, the car was always big enough ;)

It was the car we took to Buffalo to see the Bills, Michigan to see the Wolverines, numerous states for mountain bike camping trips, Chicago to see the Cubs, and the UP to see that not all Labs can swim.

It was the car we packed up and moved away from the suburbs to head back to Pekin.

It was the car that we would take to doctor’s appointments where they would tell us that yet again Jenny wasn’t pregnant and it wasn’t looking like it was ever going to happen. It was the car that I would sit in to call and tell family to give them the bad news……and after four attempts at IVF it was the car that I brought my perfect little boy home from the hospital in.

It’s much more than a car, it was “Daddy’s White Truck”. It’s been around for 3 different houses, the majority of a dog’s life, and the car that I handled precious cargo in.

Yeah I’m a little sappy about a car, but to me it was much more.

It made me cry....and I thought I would share:)

Potty Training: The Elusive #2

Well, I thought I would get on and update how potty training has been going.  It seemed like we had been at a standstill for a very long time.  He had been wearing pull-ups and it seemed like he would be dry all day, but when we switched to underwear he would pee!  It was getting very frustrating.....and he was refusing to poop on the potty...UGH!  We would have him sit at night (his preferred time of day!) and sometimes we would get a little but never a lot.  He would cry and not sit down.....it was a fight!  Then, without fail, once we left him in bed to go to sleep he would come out 5 minutes later and tell us that he pooped.  We tried every kind of bribery for when he would poop and punishment when he would go in his pants.....nothing seems to make a difference!

So, after a few weeks of going strictly back to pull-ups, I felt like we were finally making some progress.  He had started telling us when he had to go pee much more consistently.  I started trusting him when he answered "NO" to my incessant asking of "Do you have to go potty?" and didn't force him to go every 40 mins.  I really wanted him to tell me....and it started working!  He has also started waking up dry from his naps too most days...so I thought that was good progress as well.  This weekend was our town's local festival (parade, vendors in the park, etc.) and I decided that I wanted to be brave:)  Yesterday, before leaving for the parade I asked him if he wanted to wear underwear...and he said yes.  So, off we went....and guess what?....Dry All Day!  He made it through the whole parade before I took him potty and then we walked around the park for a little bit and drove home before he went again.  I'm very proud of him!  However.....he still does not like to go poop on the potty....what is it with boys and poop?!?!  I really hope this is resolved soon! (especially after having to clean poop out of underwear today!!! YUCK!!)

Oh.....and we were having issues with him wetting through his nighttime diapers as well.  Tony suggested waking him up when we were going to bed and having him go then and seeing if that helped.  Well, he was a genius!  It not only helped with the wetting through, but he has been waking up dry every morning!

So, I would say that he is 95% potty trained....I just hope it doesn't take forever to get that last 5%!

Preschool 2012

Through some of the mom's at the church playgroup, we found out about a local church that has a 1-day a week preschool program for kids as young as 18 months.  I was excited to see if they might have a spot for Owen...and they did:)  It is on Wed mornings from 8:30-12:30 with lunch.  It started this week, so I took Wed morning off to be able to take him for his first day.  They only stayed until 11:30 this first week with no lunch.  I was a little nervous about him making it the whole time because when we take him to the Toddler room at church, he has gotten used to us picking him up after only one service, which is a little over an hour....or he starts to cry...and when you ask him why, he says "because I have to."  So we had a long talk about how we don't cry at Preschool.  He told Gramma he wasn't going to cry there (we picked her up on our way so she would know the procedures when she takes him from now on) so I was hopeful:)

He was not at all apprehensive when we got there.  He spied the toys and got right to playing!  I had to drag him away from a toy to get a hug goodbye!  I didn't cry either:)  When we went to pick him up later, he told me he only cried a little bit:)  So, I think he is going to have fun....and next week he gets to take his "cars" lunchbox which he was mad that he couldn't take this week:)  Hard to believe he is getting so big!

Here are a few snapshots from Wed morning before we left:)  (and don't mind the horrible quality...we really need to get a new digital camera!!)

Love his face:)

And one with a great smile:)

Reading

I LOVE a good book!  I mean who doesn't? :)  In fact, I have really been enjoying my time over these last few weeks to read!  Some of my favorite authors are Nicholas Sparks-good books but when I try to remember the plots from some of his books, they all seem to run together:)  Jodi Picoult-I love how she takes topics that are relevant and morphs them into a very good story!  Of course I loved the Harry Potter books and then there is the Twilight series...couldn't put it down and can't wait for the last movie to come out in a couple of months (GIRLS NIGHT!!!).  I enjoyed the Hunger Games series as well!  Most recently I've read the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris.  The True Blood series (on HBO I think) is based on those books.  I've yet to see the series, but have been tempted to go and rent a few seasons to watch and see what I think.  Most recently....I was sucked into the Fifty Shades of Grey series!  Yes, there is sex...a lot of sex....but for those of you who have read them, there is a love story there....and I am a sucker for a good love story!  I mean, what girl doesn't dream of some handsome, very rich bachelor falling in love with her and sweeping her off her feet....ok, so maybe it doesn't exactly happen that way, but I still enjoyed the series.  In fact....I've read the whole series twice in 8 days!  When I find a good book/series, I get a little Obsessive/Compulsive about finishing it....I stay up late trying to suck in as much time as I can in the books.  I'm a fast reader, so I devour books quickly...then when I reach the end I'm worried that I read too fast and missed some important details...so then I start the journey again.  It makes Tony furious because he can't understand why I would want to read the same books over and over (oh and maybe because I totally ignore him while I read!)...but if they are good, I love getting lost in the story all over again:)  I've done this with all of the recent series that I have read (sans the Sookie Stackhouse because there were just too many of them!).  With Twilight, I had to physically remove the books from my house so that I wouldn't start on them again, I put the Hunger Games away in a cabinet so that I wouldn't seen them laying out...and now I need to do the same with the Fifty Shades series!...because I'm tempted to start them again:)  Although, I have read it a few other recent books on the iPad...so it is hard to "remove" them from my proximity:)  But I am determined not to read them again....so I went downstairs and picked up my copy of Twilight....maybe just a quick chapter before I turn in for the night:)

I'm Sure It Won't Be the Only Time

Towards the end of our summer school program, my mom brought Owen out so he could see all of the buses lined up to take the kids home.  (he loves buses, so I thought he would enjoy this)  While we were outside looking at all of the buses and getting kids loaded, one of the assistants (who knows me, but doesn't really KNOW me) asked when Owen would be getting a little brother or sister.  I quickly responded "He's not!" and then turned to say something to him.  My mom, who was standing there with us, was a little shocked by my abrupt answer and starting talking a little more to the person trying to fill the awkwardness.   It felt a little liberating to say it out loud....and didn't bother me like I thought it would....and I'm sure it won't be the only time I'm asked that question in the future......

Purging Complete!

Well, the purging is complete at our house. We had our garage sale over the weekend. I am not a huge garage saler, so I really wasn't looking forward to it. They are a lot of work, but thankfully my mom was available to come over and help me go through the several totes of baby items that I had.  I was amazed at how much stuff we had accumulated over the past 2 1/2 years! 

It was a little hard to go through the stuff, but surprisingly Tony had a harder time with it than I did. We definitely saved some of his special outfits and toys as we went through things, but we still had a ton of things to put in the sale. I also had some friends come over to pre sale on Thursday night before we started on Friday. 

We had the sale on Friday and Saturday. Friday was crazy busy! We barely had time to sit down at times. Tony's aunts and my mom came to help with the sale (one aunt and my mom put stuff in the sale also) and to help with Owen. He definitely did not like his stuff being out there, and of course any time he saw a toy he liked he wanted to get it and play with it again. They were all toys he hasn't seen in more than a year!:) both days someone finally had to take him and leave the house because he just couldn't handle being there, or rather yet it was just easier for him to be gone:) As busy as Friday was, Saturday was not! We finally started packing up about an hour before we said we were because it was SO hot and no one was coming. I still had some things left, so I bagged up the baby things and sent them to a pregnancy resource center and the rest of our household things went to Goodwill. It was all gone by the afternoon and it felt pretty good.....we are continuing to move forward and this was one of the first steps.

Potty Training Update

Well, sadly this is just another update post about potty training.  I hope there is one soon about it all being over!  So here's where we are:

Ever since we began with the potty training, we've kept Owen in pull-ups.  I didn't want to go "backwards" by going back to diapers.  We tried to take him potty very frequently and were always constantly asking him if he needed to go.  Of course, he would always say no:)  He would still always go on command when we took him.  Of course, he wasn't always keen on stopping whatever he was doing and would sometimes throw a fit.  We started putting him in time out for this...which usually only lasted a few seconds and he would get up and walk to the bathroom.  Pooping is still the most frustrating issues of it all....because he knows when he has to go and usually hides somewhere and does it when we aren't paying attention, or does it when he is laying down for his nap.  Then he walks out, says he pooped and then goes in and lays down on his floor to be changed!  So, I KNOW he knows when he has to do that!  I questioned sometimes how well he could "hold" his pee...so I tried to cut him a little slack in the peeing department.  We offered him "treats" for both peeing and pooping....and he can tell you what he is supposed to do, but just never did it!  Very frustrating at times:)

The last week or so of summer school, he was only using one pull-up a day at my mom's house.  I was feeling pretty positive about that.  I had already decided to really push the potty training after summer school was over, so the fact that he was doing well inspired me.  Of course, it was still because my mom was taking him every so often...he wasn't telling her when he had to go.

I decided to make a chart for him to put up in the bathroom.  We had tried a plain old sticker chart, but it wasn't quite motivating enough for him.  I decided to give skittles, m & m's, and time on the iPad for peeing (which is what we were already basically doing).  I created a "special basket" for pooping which contained juice boxes, trains (inspiration from a friend!!), cars, and candy.  Finally when he had dry pants all day he got to put up a sticker to earn a ride on a city bus.  Of course all these things are huge motivators for him.  

Here is a picture of the chart.  Not the best since it was taken from my cell phone.

So, yesterday was day 1....and as you can tell in the picture, he earned a sticker at the end of the day!  He was totally dry, told me he had to pee a few times, and went poop a couple of times!  Tony and I praised him all over the place last night!  Today is day 2....and it started off well.  I think he pooped 2 times before 7:00AM!  Unfortunately, he pooped again before nap and I did not insist that he keep trying for more.  So, he chose candy and ate it....but then after laying down for a few minutes he came out and said that he had pooped:(  No sticker for today and I'm trying not to be too discouraged......here's to hoping tomorrow is better!

I will update again soon......I really hope he gets this soon!  or I may have to consider barricading him in the kitchen naked all day....