Adventures in Potty Training

Noah is in the middle of hard-core potty training in preparation for new baby Eli being born. I really really really don't want to have 3 kids in diapers. (If anyone has any tips on the whole pooing in the potty thing, please let me know!) He's been doing really well, with only 2 accidents this week. Today I decided to take the plunge and take him out to Target to get a couple things. Without a diaper. He usually only needs to go once an hour or so, and Target is only a block away, so I figured he'd be okay in the small amount of time we'd be away from home. He tried to go potty before we left, but nothing happened. Off we went. As soon as we set foot inside of Target I hear his little voice say, "Moooommy.....I have to go pee pee....." Off we went to the bathroom. All three of us. We get in there, and there's only one stall available. A very small one kind of wedged behind a sink. And the old lady standing at the sink. It was a tight fit, me being very uh, thick at this point in my pregnancy, with William on my hip, and Noah being herded in front of me,but we made it in. It took a few seconds to get Noah all situated and I thought we were good to go. Then someone flushed a toilet. William who is not a fan of loud noises, and lost it and went all spider monkey getting as close to me as possible. Thankfully there were minimal flushes after that and he calmed down a little. Noah successfully went potty, we made a pit stop at the sink, and then got out of there. Here's hoping that this gets a little easier in the future. Ah, who am I kidding....in 3 months I'll have an itsy bitsy baby to carry into tiny bathroom stalls too. ;)

5 Minutes in the Life of Me.

Let me set the scene- Noah, William and I are all in Noah's newly decorated room which we are attempting to keep clean. We've just finished picking up everything off of the floor and Noah's getting ready to vacuum. I've just finished putting together (again) the diaper pail that the kids keep taking apart.

Noah loves to vacuum. It's really one of his favorite things to do. I don't get it, but I'll go with it. I can even use it as a way to get him to clean up his room. "Noah,You can't vacuum until you make it all clean." Works like a charm. (Most of the time.) In order to finish the diaper pail job, I need to put in a trash bag. I leave the two boys in the bedroom while I go out to the kitchen to get one. Upon my return, Noah has the vacuum lying down on the floor, and William has already taken apart the diaper pail again. I tell you, that kid is destruction in a diaper.

"Noah, what are you doing?"
"I'm fixing the vacuum. It made noises."
"You should unplug it before you fix it. When you're all done fixing it you can plug it back in again."
"Oh, okay." *goes to unplug it and then returns to his handyman post*
"Mommy, I'm sorry."
"Sorry for what?"
"You a girl. You not a boy, like me. You a girl. Like Foofa."
*At this point there was probably a "William, get down," or a "William, don't eat that."*
"Yes, Noah, you're right. I am a girl."
"Not a boy."
"Right. Not a boy. I'm a girl."
"It's okay Mommy, you a girl."

Noah, the kid who a year ago had a hard time putting two syllables together to say a word, is now using full sentences to apologize and then console me for being a girl, and not a boy.

And this is a 5 minutes in the life of me.

What's in a name?

I have a name! After three years, Noah has finally decided to give me a name. Up until now, he's just always assumed I've been listening whenever he decided to talk and never felt the need to use "Mommy," or "Mama," or anything. II can't really blame him, since I kind of do always listen whenever he opens his little mouth, whether I want to or not. Occasionally he'd use a "Maw-ee," if asked what my name was but never when he was trying to get my attention. This week, he's decided on "Momom." I think it started when William started saying "Ma Ma." Nothing like a little brother for some motivation, right? Now when he's talking to me, he'll start with "Momom, help with gate?" etc. I even get a "Thank you, Momom," when I give him something. Watch, in a week I'll be posting something about how I'm sick of hearing "Momom! Momom! Momom!" all the time. :)

William's Walking!

A Downer.

Yesterday was the 4th anniversary of the day we lost our first baby. I was ten weeks along or so, and we were in Wichita, KS for a job interview. I think I'd be perfectly fine if I never had to set foot in Wichita again. I still think often about what our baby would have been like. For some reason, I've always thought it was a girl. That might be part of the reason I have a hard time thinking of naming a future baby girl the same name we had picked out for if our first if it were a girll. Logically, that doesn't make sense, but I guess I'm not always as logical as I think I am.

The feeling I remember the most was emptiness....and the feeling of not knowing. There's very little I hate more than not knowing whats going to happen. It had taken us a long time to get pregnant the first time, and I worried that even if I were able to get pregnant again, that I would be unable to sustain a pregnancy. Three months later we found out that we were pregnant with Noah. That was a very long first trimester.

At about 12 weeks, just as I was starting to think everything would be okay, we found out that Noah was a twin, but the other baby had gotten stuck over by my ovary (an ectopic pregnancy) and had died at about 6 weeks old. The doctors told us that they'd keep a careful eye on it with ultrasounds, but there was a chance that I'd have to have surgery to remove it, but if it were before Noah was 18 weeks, I might lose him too. Thankfully everything went as well as it possibly could have, and my body absorbed the other embryo over time, and I didn't need the surgery.

I often wonder what it would be like to have two little three-year-olds running around. What would Noah's twin have been like? Would they have been similar, or as opposite as Noah and William are?

When Noah turned one we started trying for baby number 2. That time it took 5 months. 5 really long months. After finding out I was pregnant for the 3rd time it was hard to get very excited about it. I remember going to the doctor the first time with William and having her ask me if I was excited. I told her, "If everything is going well, then yes, I'll be excited." She looked a little confused, but understood after she took my medical history. I feel guilty about the lack of excitement, but it's just not as easy to get excited about new pregnancies after what we've had to go through.

It's days like yesterday that I look at the two boys we have now and I'm particularly thankful for them. We spent what seems like a long time thinking we might not ever have them, that I'm so glad that they're there.

Happy Noah Day!

Tonight I sang Old MacDonald so many times I lost count, and ran out of animals. Well, at least animals that I knew what sound they make which is pretty important in the world of Old MacDonald. I got so desperate that we were singing about Old MacDonald having a mommy on his farm. Who knows...maybe he did? Either way, the mommy says "Love you."

Since my last post, Noah has turned the big 3! We had lots of fun on "Noah Day." He got all sorts of fun stuff- light sabers, a slide, a new fort ('cause every little boy needs a fort), an easel and a tricycle, among other things. He's still workin' on figuring out the tricycle. Right now he sits on it, and William pushes him around, which is pretty cute. Especially when they both laugh. I love it when they both laugh. Noah Day was also Lovely Jan's birthday, so we had her come over that night for steak (at Noah's request) and "ice goop cake" (ice cream cake, also at Noah's request.) She even played light sabers with him.

Noah's 3 year physical was a few days after his birthday. I know, happy birthday! Bleh. Who wants to go to the dr. for their birthday? Anyways, Noah's slightly below average height, and a little skinny butt. Shocker.

William is getting a little braver in his walking attempts. Today I saw him purposely walk to something. In the past he's kinda let go and taken a couple of steps while he's been distracted by something else. He's only 10 months so he's got time to figure out this walking thing.

William has overcome his issues with food textures. At least, the textures he was having a problem with before. He used to gag on his oatmeal, but now he doesn't have a problem with it. The kid will eat anything. I made chili the other night, and he even wanted and liked that. Could it possibly be that I lucked out and got two good eaters? Wouldn't that be nice?!

This last weekend was my birthday so we took a trip up north of Sacramento to Apple Hill. It was William's first experience in the car for longer than a few minutes. Oh boy.... He didn't do so hot. Not terrible, but not good either. It was only a 3 hour tour (ha, I crack myself up) which makes me a little nervous about flying with him to GA around Christmas. Maybe he'll be better when I'm holding him? I sure hope so.

9 months and almost 3!

In honor of William's 9 month birthday (yesterday) a blog post! I didn't even realize it was his 9 month birthday until Great-Grammy reminded me. That's right, I'm Mother of the Year.

The last few days ever last one of the Brahm men have been sick with a cold/sore throat thing. Well, Bob the dog hasn't, or at least if he is, I don't know it. He seems happy enough to me.

This month....let's see....this month William has learned to recognize his name, and his brother's name, which has been useful since that kid gets in to everything. At least he stops what he's doing for a second when I say "William!." When he's asked where Noah is, he'll look around until he finds him, and then usually gets a big smile. It's fun having them like each other.

I almost always feed William in his room in the rocking chair because he's the world most easily distracted baby and there's not a whole lot in there for him to get distracted by. A few days ago I was feeding him, and Noah was out in the hallway talking. William heard him, sat straight up, and started talking back to Noah. They had a little conversation. I have no idea what they were saying, but there was some sort of happy back and forth going on there.

William's trying more and more to let go of whatever he's pulled himself up on and stand on his own- sometimes in the worst places. He had his very first bath today in the big bathtub, (he has been in the kitchen sink, but both boys desperately needed a bath so I decided we'd do a joint bath) and he tried to stand on his own in the bathtub. That kid's gonna give me a heart attack someday.

He's perfected going up and down the stair that goes into our now empty living room...bonus room...den, whatever.....and has fallen many times in the perfecting process. I'm pretty sure that kid is a super baby or something. He very rarely cries when he falls. He falls flat on his face, nothin'. He gets his fingers smashed by big brother in the toy box, nothin'. Rolls off the stair, nothin'. Tough kid.

I've decided that girls will either really like William, or be intimidated by him. He looks into people eyes forever and ever without breaking eye contact. So, either they'll feel special that someone wants to look in to their eyes like that, or they'll feel like he's reading their soul and be intimidated.

Noah will be turning 3 in just under a month. THREE!?! I think this is the first year that he'll understand what's going on when he has his birthday. Every time I mention that he's gonna have a birthday soon he starts singing the Blue's Clues birthday song and pretends to blow out candles. He's also asked for an icecream cake. Well, an "ice goop cake" were his actual words. :)

Our current endeavors are learning our ABC's, and counting to 10. Right now we're working on A, B, and C. He's learning to say them, what sound they make, and how to write them. "'A' says 'aaaaaaaahhhh,' like 'apple,' 'B' says 'buh,' like 'Bob,' and 'C' says 'ka' like 'cat.'" Problem is, that now he's walks around calling our dog, Bob, "buh. Bob." Oh well, at least he entertains me. :)

He's recently had a little bit of interest in potty training. We put on the big boy underwears, and he'll sit on the potty, but the problem is, that he tells me after he goes pee-pee and not when he needs to go pee-pee, so we have yet to be successful. At least he's trying though, right?

Our other problem in the potty area, is that he doesn't want to keep his diaper on. When he's supposed to be taking a nap, I'll go in to check on him, 'cause he's really bad at keeping quiet, and he'll have taken off his diaper. A few times we've sent him to his room to calm down and stop whining, and when we go to "have a talk" he's taken his diaper off. A few times he's peed his bed because of it. Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this?