Poop in the Potty!!

We have spent the past two weeks focusing on potty training for Campbell. My goal was to have her completely potty trained before Cuckoo arrived and I know, I am cutting it really close. She did great for everyone else, but when she was at home, she refused to have anything to do with the potty. She would not wear her panties, would not use the potty and there were many screaming fits when trying to talk about it. Rather than force it on her, I decided to let her do it on her time and sure enough she decided she was ready and it has been a breeze. We have had very few accidents and now she comes to tell me when she needs to go and can even go all by herself. She still uses the potty chair instead of the big toilet, but I am not going to be picky at this point!
On Thursday she came downstairs to tell me that she had to go potty and that she could do it by herself. She went in the bathroom and after a few minutes I heard the bathroom cabinet slam shut. When I went to investigate, I found her with a new roll of toilet paper (she had used all of the old one and gotten herself a new one) happily wiping one square a time. She proudly showed off the poop she made in her potty. This was the one thing we were still struggling with, so maybe we are over the hump! It has cost me several "Littlest Kittiest Pet Shop" pieces as rewards, but it going to be way easier than two kids in diapers in a couple of weeks!!
I will spare you any pictures on this one. Did you know that Littlest Pet Shop even makes panties?

If I Were President...

What would you do if you were president? How would you answer this question? Brandt's class spent much of February learning about presidents and they were given a chance to answer this very question.


Couldn't we all use some good rules?

Feeling Old

This time of year always make me feel old. The holidays are over, Will and I have both celebrated our birthdays and not surprisingly, we are both another year older. By this age, birthdays are no longer a big deal. We go out to dinner and have a cake for the kids sake. There are candles on the cake, mostly so the kids can blow them out. Brandt however, is all about birthdays - how many more days, how old you are going to be, who has the next birthday, where the party is going to be. Not surprisingly, this year he was all about how old I was going to be. To him I am sure that 37 is about the same as 137. He is counting down to turning six after all.
So last night when he was telling me all that he has learned about presidents at school, I guess I should have been prepared for his next question.
"Mommy were you alive when Abraham Lincoln got shot? It was a long time ago." Mommy is old, but not that old.
On the upside, he has learned quite a lot about Washington, Lincoln, FDR and several other presidents.

Cracking Up - Part 2

As our kids are learning to speak and use the English language, I am enjoying the misuse of a great many words. I am the first to admit that I am a horrible speller. So much so that if something does not have spell check, I will type it in a program that does and paste it in so that I know it is correct. I also admit that I am no great wordsmith myself. It is one of the great side effects of Topamax - "having trouble finding the right word and losing your train of thought". Along with taste change and weight loss, of course I only get one that makes you look stupid.

At school Brandt has a special place to put his backpack, lunchbox and jacket. What most of us would call a cubby, right? Oh no, his is a cuvy. He is very insistent. Much like my dear friend, I'll leave her nameless for now. Her husband puts their glasses and plates in the covert, not the cupboard. They have very sneaky glassware. Lastly, years ago my friend and her then boyfriend were going to watch a movie. He got out blankets to put on the floor and make a pallet, right? Oh no, he was making a pavilion for them. They are now married have two beautiful children - I hope he is still making pavilions for them!
Boys keep using whatever word you want - it cracks me up!

PS - Dr. T has decided that Cuckoo may in fact be a little too big and is going to induce the week of April 5. I didn't even have to beg :)

The Kids Crack Me Up

My kids say and do a million things a day that make me laugh. I know that I should be writing them all down because I will forget. How many things besides Gorka the worm eater and his brother Colton Powell did Ryan talk about that we no longer remember? I was really good about it with Brandt when he was younger, but have not done so well with Campbell and I'm sure that Cuckoo won't have a chance.

Two things this week are just stuck in my mind. The first 20 to 30 minutes after Brandt gets home from school are a little chaotic. He needs time to unwind, he and Campbell both want snacks, I need to unpack his lunchbox and check his packpack(Campbell's word). He gets to watch a little TV before we do reading, go for a walk or bike ride, or do any homework. This particular day, I came out of the bedroom to find Sponge Bob on and the TV paused. B came running out off the bathroom, unpaused the DVR and continued to watch. When I questioned what he was doing, he explained he did not want to miss anything while he went potty and then proceeded to rewind the part I had just interrupted so that he still did not miss anything. 5 1/2 and already a technology master.

Friday afternoon he and Campbell were arguing over what to watch. She wanted to watch Noggin and Wow, Wow Wubbzy was coming on. B thinks he is too old for Noggin and wanted to watch something else. His response to her was "Wubbzy is lame" (a great word he learned at school). She immediately started to cry that "It's not yame, it's not". (L's still come out as Y sometimes). I am not sure why it was so funny to me, but something about hearing a 3 year old cry that her cartoon was not lame and knowing she had no idea what it meant, was more than I could stand. In the end she was more mad at me because I could not stop laughing.

All Many is still my favorite and we say it all the time, but I'll keep working on writing down the others before they are forgotten just like Rachel's crowtons, which I still don't like in my salad.

The Baby Brother

Cuckoo doesn't equal blog time because I don't have many stories about him yet. All he does is kick me, wake me up at night, give me heartburn and make my hips hurt. Nothing really fun to read about in that. I have a few pictures of him, but they are not that clear and even I have to look at them a couple of times to figure out what they are.
I did have another ultrasound with the perinatologist last week, so I got to take another peek at him. It is getting harder to see him, even on the high resolution screen, because he is getting so big. At 34 weeks, most websites and books say that a baby should weigh somewhere around four and a half pounds. Last Thursday our little Cuckoo weighed 5 pounds and 7 ounces and was 16 inches long, by Dr. Rhinehart's best estimate. I think that the risk of a low birth weight baby from Topamax is no longer an issue. I have one more appointment with the perinatologist, just to be safe, but I think that he is fine. Yesterday I even had someone ask me if I was having twins! I was so caught off guard and still halfway talking to my friend Lesa, that I really did not realize what she was asking until later. Twins, really?! I can still wear my regular jeans. Okay barely, and they are low rise 7's, but I still wear them and I am only up 14 pounds. Oh well.

6 more weeks to go - only a name to pick, room to get ready...
Are we really going to have three kids?!!