Fleeting Sleep

For some reason I have had a hard time sleeping lately. I woke up at 3:30 all of the past 3 nights. I am not worried about anything that I can think of I am just waking up. This blows! I love sleep. If I do get back to sleep I have either been woken up at 6 am or have just opened my eyes then.

My small people have taken to having a bit of snuggle time in the morning. This is all well and good but I only have 2 sides and I have 3 kids. They seem to have started a competition to see who can get up first and claim a side. Last week one of them came in at 4:30 trying to claim a side. I was, shall we say, pissed!

Not only do they come in early in the morning but they seem to have gotten back in the habit of climbing in bed with us during the night. Kees is particularly sneaky, maybe because he's small. Bob is always shocked when he wakes up with Kees next to him.

Last night I decided to get back in the habit of going to bed at 9:30 or 10, spend a little time reading and hopefully fall asleep shortly after that. I did and it went pretty well. Then at midnight or so, Kees arrived. I had to make the decision to let him stay or get up and take him back to bed. If I really wake up it is very hard to get back to sleep....alright, he can stay. Next Sophia came in. She just crawled onto the "Chair Bed" and went to sleep. Fine....try to sleep, try to sleep....ahhh.. sleeping.

But then at 3:30 I awoke to the smell of dog poop. "Please be a fart, please be a fart." (I wish big don't I?) After 10 minutes I knew this was not fart. I turned on my bed side light and there was a bunch of poops by my dresser. Iva, our dog, usually wakes me up if she needs to go. I am not sure what was going on there but she obviously needed to go.

I get out of bed and start to clean up the dog poop. "Oh good. It's really solid so it's easy to pick up." (Again, BIG expectations) But there are lots of pieces. "I better flush these in two batches so the toilet doesn't get clogged." Good plan but it didn't work. The toilet plugs up. "Damn it." I go down stairs to get the plunger and the dog follows me and wants to go out. She goes out and poops more and then seems to wander around aimlessly for 10 minutes. I finally convince her to come in. I have to clean her feet, get the plunger and head back up.

The stupid toilet is really plugged. Push, pull, push, pull....nothing. Push, pull, push, pull....nothing. "Man this is really getting frustrating." Meanwhile I have poop waiting to still be disposed of. It's sitting neatly wrapped in TP. Push, pull, push, pull....still stuck. This goes on for 5 minutes or more and finally, it goes down. I finish the job. Squirt the offending area with pet odor stuff, wash my hands and go lay in bed. Of course I have now been out of bed for more then 20 minutes and Kees has taken over my spot. He's like a jell that fills the gaps. "Shove over dude."

Again, sleep alludes me. But I know I did go to sleep because Coulter woke me up at 6 to snuggle. Ah, a night in the life......

So today I am a bit tired. I need some coffee ASAP. Maybe that will get me out of this funk. And tonight, everyone better stay in their beds and the dog better behave her self. Mommy is tired. And when mommy is tired it effects everyone.

Wish us luck....

More POOP

Why is the word mom synonymous with cleaning up poop. I know that babies poop and so they need to be changed and cleaned. I know that dogs poop and in today's world that poop needs to be picked up, bagged and properly disposed of. Mom's wipe butts when kids potty train. Hey that is a big improvement over the previous step of cleaning the butt after pooping in the pants. Moms clean shoes when kids step the poop that daddy didn't pick up. Come on daddy. OK it's not ALWAYS daddy's fault but I like to blame him and he takes it pretty well (read "by ignoring me" there). We wash underwear that has poop on it because I wasn't there to assist in the last step of the pooping process. Maybe they were at school. But this morning was a great poop story.

So Tuesdays and Thursdays are my days to drive the carpool to school in the morning. We take another boy from down the street with us. I try really hard to get everyone in the car before he gets here so we can be at school on time. So this morning the dog decides she is going with us. As soon as the front door opened she ran out and jumped in the car. I don't really care if she comes with us, that is fine. The only problem I usually have with her coming is when we get out of the van she runs around inside in a total panic like we are NEVER coming back. She barks and goes wild and in the process gets nose prints all over the inside of the windows. I have actually gone to the trouble of parking so that the back of the van is pointed in the direction that I have to walk. That way she stares out the back window and nose prints that window up instead of the windshield in front of where I sit. But I digress...... So she is in the car. Everyone is buckled in and Iva, our dog, is sitting in the drivers seat. I shoo her out and notice that there is poop on my seat. Gross! I wipe it up with a baby wipe. Thank goodness for baby wipes. I then look over at Iva and see that now there is poop on the passenger seat. She is sitting there staring at me. "What? You don't have to clean this up." I march around the car, open the passenger door and quick grab Iva by the tail because she is trying to jump in the back. Yep, there is the offender, a poop blob stuck in her fur. I grab more wipes and try to clean her butt. I try and try and try....about 15 wipes worth before I realize this is a bath situation. I really didn't want it to be a bath situation. Meanwhile in the back of the van there is a chorus of poop talk and laughter. Oh man there is nothing funnier then poop when you are 4. "Ha ha, you have to clean the poop." He he he ha ha.... Shut up! I am thinking this really loud. This is not funny and I am now getting to the late side of things and you boys are totally annoying me. They are having a great time, I am not. I drag the dog out of the car and into the back yard. I have never left her outside when I was gone but I don't really have a choice. I hope she didn't bark but I am pretty sure she did. The hilarity ensues in the peanut gallery. Everyone gets to school safely and I go back home. The dog is laying on the ground with her snout shoved under the gate so she can watch for us. I get her and it is into the bath tub for her. If you have a dog you know how much they love to be in the slippery tub all wet. She is fighting it. I get the water flowing, pour water on her and ah, yes, nothing finer then pulling dog poop off your dog with your bare hands. Yes, yes this is great. I get her clean and try to dry her off. No go. She eventually leaps out of the tub and does the doggy shake all over the house. My house is now damp and smells a bit like a wet dog but there is no poop. Oh wait, Kees is screaming from the upstairs bathroom. "I pooped." More poop duty. I am living the dream.

Potty Time

So today I took the boys to school. Before we got there Kees insisted that I spend some time with him in his class before I left. He's never cared if I was there or not. Now let me remind you that Mondays are almost sacred time to me because this is the day that I have 8 hours to myself. The boys are in school all day. But, I promised to stay with Kees through "Circle Time." So I sat there with him, read a book, sat through circle time and then kept reading. 5 minutes into reading after circle time Kees says, "I need to go poop." Now if you've read any of my stuff over the past few days you know Kees and poop are a big topic. This explains why he wanted me there, he hadn't pooped at school and wasn't sure about what happens when you poop at school. So I jumped up and took him to the bathroom. Now you need to know he had been to this bathroom many times because he has been peeing in the potty for the whole time he's been at school. So we get to the bathroom, go in and I close the door. He says, "There is a door on this room?!!?" Seriously, he was totally shocked! So he tried to go potty but he was so enthralled with the door that he couldn't go. It was too exciting. It had never occurred to him to look for a door. I guess his little world is totally changed and he now will look for a door but he still may not connect a door with a bathroom for a while.

Amish Way. Cruel or not?

OK so yesterday I used the Amish way to clean my boy off. So it was about 60 degrees out and the water was fairly cold but it wasn't torture. If it scared him or something I wouldn't have done it but it was just unpleasant. Wait..... wait...... Kees just came in from outside saying he needs to poop. Wait here... do, do, do, do, dat, dat, da, da, da, da, boopy, ba, ba, do, do, do, dee, de, hum, hum, YEEE HAWWWW!!! He did it, he did it, he pooped in the potty. We're doing the potty dance. I can't believe it. This is the first time he has pooped in the potty because he decided to. Oh, man this is great. I am freakin' happy. If you told me the stock market only fell 100 points today instead of the usual 500 I couldn't be happier. That is how happy I am.

Well I originally was writing this blog entry to get your opinions. My question was, "Is the Amish way cruel and unusual or just uncomfortable?" Kees just answered that question for me but what do you think? What measures have you implemented to potty train your kids? What have you heard of other people doing? What has worked?

I sure hope this sticks.

Ahhhh.... Never Mind

Re: That last post. I just came in from another hose off for Kees. Seriously, how much poop can a poop, pooper poop if a poop pooper could poop poop? That is 3+ poops today. I can't do that even if I try! I am loosing my cool.

What's the Deal?

What is the deal with kids and pooping in the potty? My youngest son is 3 and soooooo knows that pooping in his pants is taboo. He has to poop in the potty for school because at his school, if you are not potty trained, you can't go there. But he's not potty trained because he doesn't want to be. He goes to school and God bless those people there, they love him and when he has an "accident", or in his case, an "on purpose" they assist him into new clothes. I have threatened him with no school but really that punishes me more then him. If the school calls I will, of course, pick him up. Maybe that would really get across that there are consequences for his actions. Obviously the consequences I have put in place don't have the desired effect.

I have tried everything I can think of. Now let it be known that my other two didn't really finish potty training until they were 3-1/2 and of those two, Coulter was the easier of the two. So now here I am with #3 and I think he is willing to hold out until college. I have tried bribes, taking things away, swats, treats, ignoring it, sitting with him for hours in the bathroom AND having him clean himself and the clothes after a poop and then the bathroom after all that because it is filthy. His cleaning skills really need improvement. Today I am trying the Amish way that a friend suggested. I love this and he is beginning to hate it and believe me, if it goes much longer he's going to hate it even more. If you poop in your pants in an Amish home they take you outside, strip off your pants and clean you off with a hose. This wouldn't have worked in the summer but now that it's starting to get colder.....well you can see that there might be some motivation on his part. It is 1:30 and I have already used this tactic twice today. At about..... wait right here.... he SAYS he pooped in the potty..... I'll be right back..... do de doooo, da, da, da.. hum a little tune. La, lala, la dup de doo. Wait, hold the blog...... HE DID IT!!!! HE DID IT!!! You can't imagine how happy I am right now. Just 10 minutes ago I had executed the second application of the Amish technique. He was standing RIGHT NEXT TO ME and started to have an "on purpose." I stopped him mid stream, took him outside, squirted him off and put him on the potty. He sat in there and screamed and cried at me for about 10 minutes that he couldn't poop. My ass, I know Waaaaayyyy to well his pooping habits. There was more in there. So I did my best to ignore him while he screamed and sat on the potty. I was willing to go one of two routes. Route one, he poops in the potty and we celebrate. Route two, he screams, refuses to go, wears himself out and then takes a nap. Either way I win. Yes, yes I know it's not about "winning" and it is certainly not about me. Right? Right. I guess. He did it and now we both win. He got LOTS of praise, we called daddy to tell him about it, he got a bag of M&Ms and he says he'll go poo poo in the potty next time. If he goes in the potty with out pooping in his pants next time he'll get a cake party after dinner! So this started out being a frustrated entry and now ends up as a really happy one. Well there you go, we went on a little journey together from Argggghhh to WAHOO!!!!

Have a great day..... I am!