Little Guy

Little Guy told me this morning that he needed me to cuddle him because he was sick. He's never on his own come up with being sick so I questioned him to find out that his mouth hurt. We cuddled for a bit and that was the last that I heard of it all day. But, remembering this, and needing him out of Princess Sparkley's room so she could clean it without him throwing books all over (which he was apparently doing) I put on a dvd for him and he requested the Pittsburgh Penguins blanket (it's a Steelers blanket) and when I came back a little later I found him like this. Of course, when he saw I had a camera he tried to cover his eyes, or just close them.







Little Guy had some potty success about 6 months or more ago and since then has had little interest in the potty at all. Every once in awhile I can get him to sit on the potty. Some times he pees. Sometimes he demands that he doesn't want to sit, he'll only stand... so far that hasn't worked for him. We got him the book Pirate Potty for Christmas. It comes with a pirate hat that can only be worn while on the potty. And the book comes with stickers to put on the hat. He did pretty well yesterday and today with it.




Little Guy got a gift card for Christmas and decided to spend part of it on puzzles today at Target. (He also requested some chips telling me in a half crying voice, "but I want chips for my birthday gift card.") He's currently and expert and big fan of 24 piece puzzles. He told me at the store he wanted to get one Princess Sparkley would like, one Buddy would like and one he would like. Nice brother. We just picked out two because we don't really have a need for a 24 piece Barbie puzzle.

"More Potty"

Baby X isn't in full potty training mode, but he has occasionally requested to use the potty and been successful. This is a picture we took with the cell phone to send to Daddy. Then Monday, when B was home studying, he pooped on the potty again and was cheered on by everyone.

National Cherry Blossom Festival

Yesterday was the start of the National Cherry Blossom Festival in DC, and, according to Bloom Watch, which I've been checking all week, the blossoms are in the "puffy white" stage, just before peak bloom. Yea!

I know you are all sitting on the edge of your seats waiting to see how my cherry blossom project turned out. The wait is over:


Princess Sparkley modeling her new bubble skirt and cherry blossom t-shirt.

It was touch and go with the skirt. I ended up finishing it and it being WAY TOO LONG. So I ended up taking it apart, and taking 4 inches of the interior (which I haven't even gotten a picture of yet) and exterior fabrics, and then resewing it. Craziness. And it ended up being a cold day, so she had to wear a sweater and leggings. The t-shirt has a brown felt tree, and pink flower shaped buttons as the blossoms. Click to zoom in.

I knew it would be crazy visiting on the first day of the festival, also on the day of the Kite Festival, and on a Saturday, during lots of spring breaks... especially after tourists practically abandoning the city all winter. And it was. We got to the Metro station (11am ish) and had to wait in line more then 15 minutes to buy our tickets from an automated machine (mainly because everyone buying tickets was from out of town and didn't know what they were doing... I'm so past that:) ).
The train was super crowded and we got on at the end of a line, so it just kept getting more and more crowded. And it was me, three kids, a stroller, a diaper bag, a lunch bag, and a picnic blanket. When we got off the train, I hadn't put enough money on our Metro cards for the 10 cent per ticket fee increase that just happened (because they didn't mark the fee increase clearly... it was just a giant green dot on the overall price board, not at each destination. And I was looking at "S" for Smithsonian while the green dot was hanging out by the "A"s. So it turns out I was one of those amateurs. BUT, they had tons of extra Metro employees working due to the large crowds, and our guy just told me the problem but waved us through). Then, I kept the stroller folded up so we could take the escalator and end up closer to the Mall but the escalator was broken, so I had to carry the stroller, Baby X and one bag up it. And it wasn't even the escalator that I wanted, this one brought me up right next to the elevator. Argh.


The Kite Festival was Saturday as well. There were people flying kites all over the Mall.


For some reason, I think I have a picture of the kids in front of the Washington Monument each time we've gone into DC... why stop now. We even have a picture of me, B and baby Princess Sparkley in front of it from December 2002 I'll have to scan in sometime.


The Jefferson Memorial and the Tidal Basin.


Buddy and Princess Sparkley walking around the Tidal Basin towards the Jefferson Memorial.


Me and the kids. I offered to take someone's picture, so they took ours in return. We also saw a man taking a picture of his wife and their two dogs, but the two dogs were facing the other way, so it was a woman, and two dog behinds.


Jefferson Memorial.




Cherry Blossoms up close.


Picnic by the Jefferson Memorial.


Airplane coming in for a landing at Reagan National Airport.


Inside the Jefferson Memorial. Baby X got in trouble for eating (he was holding a bag of goldfish leftover from lunch and our walk over).


Pretty pretty.


Steps of the Jefferson Memorial.


The kids in front of the Jefferson Memorial (my first time here as well).


Washington Monument reflected in the Tidal Basin.


The sign on this tree said it was damaged in the February 2010 blizzard and was guessed to be 80-90 years old and the stump will be removed soon. It's right next to the tidal basin.


PS with some cherry blossoms.


This might have been Baby X's favorite thing... the ducks. We got them to quack at us. He also liked the airplanes landing at Reagan and the kites.


Regular blossoms, not cherry... I think.





The Signers of the Declaration of Independence Memorial. Buddy and PS wanted to pose by Benjamin Franklin's signature. They were also excited to see John Hancock's signature. We also saw the Vietnam and the Korean war memorials for the kids' first time, but I didn't get pictures.


Kites.


Those circles on the Washington Monument are a kite.


The Kite Festival.


The kids loved this airplane kite.


Different organizations/museums had booths to make "kites." We got to the kite area later in the day, so the only booth still doing it was the National Aquarium. So we made kites that look like Stingrays. Buddy "flying" his stingray "kite."


One of the kids' favorites was this octopus/jelly fish kite.


I love all the kites around the Washington Monument.


PS flying her "kite."


Baby X holding onto his "fish kite."


On the Metro on the way home. Princess Sparkly has invented this game called "Fish" that she
and Baby X like to play. He requests is saying, "[PS. PS.] Fishy game." The game consists of them making fishy open and close mouth faces at each other. They also have "shark game" where they clap their hands real big like in the "Slippery Fish" song. And there's a new one when they growl at each other like lions or something.

Going home on the Metro (late afternoon) was just as crowded (or more so) as going. We had to wait in line forever to take the Metro elevator. Then the first train was a short train and really crowded (and I was hoping to not have to fold up the stroller) so we waited for the next one. It was packed. Luckily a bunch of people got off at Metro Center just a couple stops after we got on, and we grabbed a bench with enough room for the stroller in front of us. And we saw a lady get her purse stuck in the train door. That was sort of exciting (as long as it wasn't me or one of the kids).

Potty

Baby X has taken an interest in the potty lately. He tells me when he's poopy, and sometimes, it's before he's actually pooped. The other day he insisted on sitting on the potty after I'd changed a poopy diaper. So I let him. Then later, when he saw a potty in use, he insisted on having his turn, so I got our little potty out of storage and let him sit on it. And he peed. I didn't expect that. And then he peed again later. And once the next day too.





Modeling big boy undies.

Potty Training Success... nearly

In the past 5 days Buddy has pooped in the potty three times, and only in a diaper/pull-up twice (once he woke up at 3 AM to tell me he was poopy and his body felt like it needed his music back on). Yippee!

Buddy poops in the potty... sort of

B read a book called The Einstein Syndrome by Thomas Sowell that deals a lot with late talkers, which Buddy was. But what was also interesting is that late talkers also tend to potty train later than other kids their age. So, at least he won't be in diapers forever, just longer than we'd like.

So the other day Buddy was taking a bath and told me he felt like poop needed to come out. So he sat on the potty for a couple of minutes and then wanted back in the bath. A few minutes later he repeated that he felt like poop needed to come out, but a bit more frantically. I grabbed him and put him on the potty. But first, two tiny pellets of poop went in the bath tub and a rather significant sized poop ended up on the wall of the bathtub... somehow, we're not sure how. (We have pictures if you'd REALLY like to see.) But THEN, he pooped more in the potty. So, sort of a success. So the next day was "Buddy Day" as his reward. He wanted ice cream, cookies, and construction cones made out of paper.

Potty Update

We've been trying to get Boy to use the potty for what seems like forever now. Our kids are less than two years apart, so we never really packed up the little potty once Princess Sparkley was done with it. I've been bribing Boy with movies. He can watch some video if he sits on the potty while he watches. And he'll sit there for like 45 minutes and nothing will come out. Then he requests a diaper and within minutes has peed or pooped in it.

Finally they other day he peed. My husband threw him a parade and they marched around outside and waited for me to return from the store. Since then he's peed about once a day. He earns ice cream each time so we've made it his assignment to make sure he earns us all ice cream each night because it's so hot.

And at last he pooped, sort of. He showered after swim lessons really quickly and then I handed him off to Princess Sparkley while I showered with the assignment that when I got out he had to have something on his bum (ie: diaper, pull-up, underpants). He was still naked when I got out a few minutes later. He ran past me to the play room. Then a minute or two later he came and told me he thought maybe poo poos needed to come out and he needed to sit on the potty. Which is basically code for, "I already pooped." So I look in the play room and there's a tiny little pile of poop on the floor. Lovely. He went and sat on the potty and after about five minutes he squeezed out one more tiny pellet of poop. So if that counts, he has now successfully pooped on the potty.