A little bit of this, a little bit of that

It has been a pretty busy month so far. I am sitting here trying to list everything we have done in my head and it is all getting jumbled together...... Maybe I haven't done anything at all, but you will never know. So, yep we have been busy.

Roman is all potty trained (except for naptime and bedtime).

 I have started this cookie reward system for  every time he craps in the toilet he gets a cookie. So now he feels the need to push a turd out every time he goes to the bathroom. As you can imagine this has made him standing up to pee a little difficult. All in all though he is doing pretty dang good for his age.

I personally have grown to hate the cookie system. I have learned that when there are sweets in the house I have no self control. It is pretty bad when I am sneaking cookies at 7 AM while making my morning coffee and breakfast. It's my best chance of not getting caught though. Roman is in toonie land, Milo is outside (and yes he counts, that dog just sits and stares at me...... judging....), and Josh is catching up on his ZZZ's from a long work week.  So it is just me and my 5 morning cookies. Not a bad way to start a day!

We are all decorated for Christmas. It was pretty exciting getting the tree! We got a big one this year to make up for our sad little two footer fake tree last year. When we went to go pick it out Roman met the sweetest dog, Sandy. He sat on the ground and started talking to her in his own little animated way. She came up and laid her head right on his lap. It would so cute I could have died.

He loves our outside decorations and has befriended the blow-up Christmas penguin. He hugs it regularly, has conversations, the whole nine. Sometimes I wonder what he thinks it is saying back to him. One day on our way to the car he goes "Hey penguin, are you ok? Did they try to hurt you boy?". REALLY??!!! Where he comes up with this stuff, I have no idea.... but it definitely has me wondering.

Buying presents for Roman has been another story. I will be the first to tell you that I have a HUGE shopping problem. My mom says she is to blame. I really don't think that, but I won't argue it. If she wants to be responsible for it she can be :). (Thanks ma!)

For his one BIG gift I got him this Little Einstein's Pat Pat Rocket. He has loved this show for as long as I can remember. It is probably where his love for music comes from. Here was the issue.... Little Einstiens has be discontinued back in 2009 and now the toys are considered collector toys. Of course my child would obsess about the one show where they no longer make the toys.

Pat Pat Rocket toy

Anyways, I found one on EBay and feel I got a great deal on it! With a little help from family he will have the complete Pat Pat Rocket set.

Leanne-1
People trying to charge a crazy amount for a plastic toy -0

I cant wait until he can start making lists for Santa. That will be fun!
Speaking of.... My friend shared a blog post she found and it was insanely funny. You should check it out!

DADSPIN- My Kid's Insane Christmas Wish List, Annotated

I will definitely be doing this with Roman's lists when he gets older haha!

What are some things your kids asked from Santa?

Happy Holidays from our chaotic home to yours!!

Bloglovin

You can now connect with me on Bloglovin!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

What a fun website! Not going to lie... I am kind of excited and wondering why I am just now finding this site. haha!

I will be posting another blog tonight.... hopefully. They say if you write it out you are more likely to follow through.

 Lets all hope this is true. ;)

See you tonight! MAYBE. BAHAHAHAHAHA

It's Official!!!

It has been about two weeks and I can officially say ROMAN IS POTTY TRAINED! No more poopy diapers for this lady **raising the roof**!!!

His transition really was not bad at all. I think he already had the peeing situation down... I mean yeah, we had a few accidents here and there, but it happens.

Now pooping on the other hand..... OH MY LANTA! I could not get him to go!!! So I pulled out the potty chair we have (because I feel the need to have 3 different brands and styles of potty chairs and seats) and set it in the living room for him so hit on and watch TV. Doing this says a lot, because I personally hate potty chairs. I feel like they are another form of diapers. The point of potty training (in my opinion) is to not have to deal with as much clean up. But Roman was going on day 3 and this kid. needed. to. go!  Long story short, he wouldn't go so I stuck his undies back on him so I could go start dinner. Next thing I know I come back into the living room to roman "hiding". (AKA pooping). So at this point I am all "Oh he will just go in his undies and realize he doesn't like the feeling", until I look over and realized he no longer had his undies on... they were chilling by his potty.

This story ends with a big 'ol pile of crap right on my floor. I can tell you there is one person that got a good laugh out of this... my mom! Yep... My mom laughed harder than I have heard her laugh in awhile. I am glad my poopy misfortunes bring her such joy. You're welcome mom. You. Are. Welcome.

Well two or three floor incidents later, I finally got him to go! One of my best friends described it as the "Potty Olympics". I wanted to keep him moving until he REALLY had to go. "Jump higher, run faster, push harder!" , ha ha.

We would chase him around the table, and jump around finding things for us, until he absolutely needed to go! It was on the verge of being..... no, it was ridiculous.

Roman discovered potty yoga... and it is a new and upcoming trend. You saw it here first.

 We colored, read, and built with blocks...

And the blocks is what did it!!! I had him bending and grabbing blocks from one side and building towers on the table.

With all of these potty training powers combined.... I can now present to the world...

SUPER POOPER!

I know he is going to kill me for posting all of these someday. O'well, I can say it is payback for his rebellious teenage years to come!

Please feel free to share some funny stories of your own! :)

Until next time....

Hey there! (Two months later)

Wow I guess I really suck at keeping up with this whole blogging thing.
Quick run down of what has happened the past two months.....
We traveled to NY the end of September to visit my family. It was seriously the best ever! Josh was able to come this time around! So in my Nitro it was me, Josh, Aunt HeyHey (You're welcome), Roman, Milo and a partridge in a pear tree. It. was. packed!
I saw my bestie since 4th grade!! This is how she greeted me when I first saw her. (As she steps out of her car, doesnt even say hey) "SOOOO I am due in May".... UHH EXSQUEEZE ME?! lol At least she got right to the point. I am SOOOOO excited for them though, She is a really great mom and I know she will be double great the next time around.

Roman and Corbin

Me and Mandy

October, we ..... ummmm.... well we trick or treated! DUH! Roman was the big bad wolf. He had his roll all figured out, He "  ah puff and ah puff and I bwhoa your house daown".
This is actually the first year we took him trick or treating. It was interesting. All week I made sure he watched the Halloween episodes of all the toonies he loves. Of course the one that stuck with him the entire night was Little Einsteins. (For those of you who don't know what Little Einstiens is, it is a cartoon that incorporates famous classical music, art and certain geography into each episode.) My neighbors probably think I am some educational freak because all roman would talk about is the Buckingham Palace, and the Palace of Versailles.

On top of that, here is basically how the night went.

First house:  
Roman: "Trick or Treat"
Nice woman handing out candy: " Aw, Hey there, do you like Lollipops?"
Roman: "No" (and walked away)

Second house: He walked into!!!! No lie, straight up walked right past the guy with bins full of great candy and into his living room.
The rest of the night he wanted to just pull the wagon, haha. Out. Of. Control!

Now that November is here, I think it is time to start the potty training thing again.  The things I do for this kid, there should be some sort of reward. I would even settle for him just using the toilet!

A couple of weeks ago I was doing something in the other room and when I turned around, there was roman, with his potty seat around his head. "Look mommy I'm a lion, RAWWWRRRR!!!" I was mortified. I looked at him and said "Um, that's not even funny. That is just gross."
Then, I did what any sane mother would do. I sanitized his face. Luckily with the right brand because not long after I noticed I was cleaning his poor hands with Clorox kitchen wipes! Yep. Mother of the year award goes to me.

Also, I have never felt so encouraged to use the toilet. Now I receive applause, praise, and a "Good job mommy, you get a skittle now?" But all the praise also comes with a little head by my butt making sure that everything is going fine? Who knows, I don't question his technique.

Monday is when we start and I refuse to go back. I told roman tonight that he has to start going pee and poop all the time on the potty starting Monday because they stopped making diapers, and there is a sever diaper shortage. So that means all we have now are undies.

Good thing he isn't too smart, because I would be questioning why all of a sudden there is a mysterious shortage in diapers. I guess he will never know. ;)


Oh and I will leave you with one final thing.... you should probably watch this video:

CLICK ME!

It's roman's new fav video, haha! Thanks Aunt HeyHey!

Ranting and raving.... but mostly ranting.

Well, lets see.... Not much excitement has been going on here. Roman decided that I need to continue changing crappy diapers after-all. What a bummer. Not exactly sure what happened with all of that, but he was all gravy then just randomly decided he was over the whole potty situation. Most people would just keep on pushing it but the way I see it as he just really isn't ready for all the fun the porcelain god has to offer. We will try again in a couple of weeks.

We recently discovered this sweet new playground just up the road from us. I am pretty sure it is the best playground I have ever been too. Like, its a little inappropriate all the cool things our children are getting to enjoy now compared to what was available back in the early 90's.  Who am I kidding?! I am totally jealous because when I was young all we had was a wooden, wasp infested one. It was complete with those little pebble stones that would sneakily find there way into the bottom of your sneakers or jellies. Annoying.

Just so we are on the same page, let me share some pictures of the new park.

View as you are walking in

This. Park. Is. AWESOME! There are areas that have bells, drums, a color wheel, kaleidoscope, and tons more. Not going to lie, I can get a little edgy when I have to wait in line for the roller slide. I constantly have to remind myself that this is all for the kids, ha ha.
The only negative thing is there really is no place for parents to sit and NO SHADE (unless you like to hide under the playground its self). But lets be honest, I can only slouch like Quasimodo for so long.
It is hardly ever busy when we go there. I think people are just starting to hear about it since it is new. If you live in Wilmington and haven't been to Olsen Park, I highly recommend checking it out. Just make sure to sunscreen your little's up nice and good, and bring lots of water!

Oh and here is the park I grew up playing on....

Yeah, yeah, yeah... its big, and I did love playing on it. But when you leave with a couple of wasp stings, probably a few splinters and jellies full of rocks, you will start to question how much fun you really had. ;)

Face Yoga

I have been starting to notice the small signs of aging. I won't bore you with the details at this moment, but I have decided to start trying this facial yoga.
I hope this works! ha

The Joys of Potty Training.

I have been dreading this point for a very long time now. To the point where I was sort of prepared to just let Roman wear diapers the rest of his life. The positive part of that would  be he eventually would be able to change his own diapers and it would definitely keep the ladies away when he gets older.


On a serious note though, it hasn't been as bad as I imagined. I was planning on waiting until we got back from our trip to NY at the end of the month (Could you imagine two 14 hour drives with a newly potty trained toddler?!). Roman however had different plans and randomly asked if he could go pee on the potty. His ambition to keep going was that he loved putting toilet paper into the toilet. Well one roll, and a clogged toilet later I knew it was time to come up with a new potty plan if he was really going to do this thing!

Toilet paper in hand, and very excited about it.

A while ago we received a bulk size box of skittles from a good friend. They have become our new reward. He goes pee, he gets a skittle. He goes poop...... I plan on giving him a present and tons and tons of praise!

On the first day, he had a couple accidents as expected, but then he learned that if he went on the toilet that he would get a skittle. It got to the point where he would go a little, get a skittle... go romp around for awhile until he wanted another skittle and would go again. He would go a little and hold it over and over so he would keep getting more and more skittles. Sometimes I think he is a little too smart. But whatever gets him to go!!

The second day he did sooooo good! He woke up dry from sleeping and his naps. No accidents except for pooping in his underwear. OH MY LANTA!!! I wanted to gag. No way was I ready for this shit. Literally. I will spare you the details. You're welcome!


We are only on day 4, but things are still as good as day 2. My major obstacle right now is figuring out how to get him to poop on his porcelain throne. Here is what I have tried so far......

We started a poop band... yes you read that right, a poop band.
I really thought this was going to work BUUUT it hasn't.

Here are some of our top hits :

Roman had a Little Poop (Mary had a little lamb)
Twinkle Twinkle Roman's Poop
American Poop (American Baby- DMB)
The Itsy Bitsy Poopy
and many more!

My good friend was giving me some tips on potty training and it came up that kids like to feel grounded so I should try to keep his feet on something.

This is what I came up with lol... there is a small DVD player with Little Einsteins on it. Good news... he got to watch a whole episode of toonies. Bad news, he didn't poop.




We read books, played with iPhone apps, and consumed an inappropriate amount of skittles and chips. Hopefully something will work soon.

UPDATE--- as I was typing all of this up, you will not believe what happened! He pooped on the potty! WHOOP WHOOP!!!

What an overachiever. ;)

How funny is it that we get so excited over our children taking a dump on the toilet? The show and praise that goes on is pretty comical. I don't remember it, but I hope my first crap was just as fun and rewarding as Romans. (MOM- feel free to NOT share. Seriously, I won't approve your comment) haha