{monday mumbles}

{monday mumbles}

• Potty Training is going VERY WELL! Brice has been in underwear 24/7 since Thursday morning. He's had a few accidents - mostly at naptime. It's weird --- he stays completely dry overnight (so 10ish hours) but the last two days he's woken up wet from his nap. He's napping now so we'll see... Overall, he's doing fantastic - no pullups, only underwear... all the time... and 5 accidents TOTAL. {I am proud mama if you can't tell}. But here's my concern... pooping. I think he's a bit backed up because of all the barium he had last week. He's only had one BM since last Sunday (yikes!) I keep asking if he needs to poop and he tells me no... I've heard that this can be the tricky part of PT'ing... fingers crossed.
• So far, all of Brice's testing has come back normal, within normal limits or negative - bloodwork, stool studies, nuclear gastric emptying study, VFSS and Upper GI Series --- his upper endoscopy found a hiatal hernia and his duodenum aspirate showed a staph aureus infection.
• Pierce is spontaneously acquiring more and more words! He says Bice (Brice), no (and he knows how to shake his head no), up, down, mommy, daddy, potty, poo-poo, Daisy, Duke, stop (top), Neo, kitty, duck, quack, moo, dog, uh-oh, night-night, go, out, bye, hop and probably a few more that I cannot think of! His laugh and smile are still just as infectious as ever! Some words that I forgot: PaPa, Elmo, woof-woof, ahh-ahh (monkey sound), boat, choo-choo, cat, bubbles, roar, yum-yum, ball, two, cat, blue, hello, hi --- almost 40 words!
• We went to French Quarter Fest on Sunday and had so much fun! George's brother, David, came with us and Brice had so much fun with Uncle Dabe (Dave). You couldn't have asked for a more gorgeous day but it was hot... H-O-T! Brice sucked down 20oz of fruit punch (definitely not in my top 10 of liquids to give to him but we were in downtown NOLA and it was free!)... and he had two accidents around 45 minutes later... both happened within minutes of each other. And it one of my not finer moments... I had a dress on because it was H-O-T... it was also windy... {do you see where I am going with this...?} --- my dress flew up in the back (while I was pushing the stroller) --- I screamed (which probably only brought more attention to me) and made George push the stroller so I could hold my dress down --- sigh...
• Brice's appetite sucks lately... I know it's due to his stomach problems... I don't know if he know has aversions because of the pain - he's made negative associations with food? We give him {almost} whatever he asks for. He typically takes 1-3 bites (if that) and that's it. The one thing he will eat is white bread - toasted or not - it's a guarantee. He drinks lots and lots of water. He no longer wants to take his Nexium - I think he knows medicine is mixed into whatever I have in the bowl in my hand (I typically mix it into Greek yogurt or applesauce), especially since he did not request whatever is in the bowl. 
• We have a few appointments this week for the kids - Pierce is getting his tooth fixed on Thursday and Brice has a follow-up GI appointment on Friday {I can't wait for that appointment}... I just want an answer and a solution to Brice's GI problems and I would love a special way to get medicine into him!
• The boys have been coming into our room around 5:45am (it's cute to see them both walking in with their blankets but I also enjoy seeing the inside of my eyelids at 5:45am too!) My husband is wonderful... he let me stay in bed for an extra 45 minutes this morning - I really needed it.
• I am keeping my fingers crossed that another little path in my life continues to open up - if and when it does, I will share about it :)
• On Thursday, Jenni and I are taking our {four} boys to either the Zoo or Aquarium! I haven't seen her in months... I am excited about spending time with them :)

something had to be easy {our big news!}

In the midst of all our chaos, something had to be easy... yes?
BRICE is only wearing BIG BOY UNDERWEAR!

This happened suddenly and all on his own doing... and we welcomed this BIG change with open arms!

I have to say this whole potty training thing has been a lovely little piece of cake.

We bought him underwear months ago and I was going to try the 3 Day Potty Training Boot Camp --- I made charts, bought stickers, skittles, etc --- we talked for days leading up to The Big Day about how he would no longer wear diapers --- The Big Day came and he was not having it. I decided he wasn't ready and that I was not forcing anything on to him. I would much rather it be a simple process. My fear was forcing him to potty train and dealing with accident after accident for months upon months. So we just left his big boy underwear in his closet for him to access at his leisure... and that's just what he did. Every once in awhile he would would put a pair on but that was about it. Occasionally we would ask if he wanted to use the potty and he would politely decline and everyone went about their business... until Tuesday.

We got home from his testing and he asked to put on a pair of underwear. About 5 minutes later I reminded him that he had underwear on and that if he needed to pee, to let me know. He looked at me and said "mommy, I need to pee." We went to the bathroom, he stepped onto his stepstool, sat on the toilet and proceeded to pee! A little while later he had a very small accident and demanded to wear a diaper. Around a half hour later, George and I were in the kitchen prepping dinner and Brice came up to me and said he needed to pee. We took him to the bathroom, took his dry diaper off and he peed in the toilet again! We were SO excited!!

Wednesday was... well it was Wednesday. When we got home, George and Pierce were in the backyard and Brice and I went to get the mail. He asked me to take his pants off and I assumed he was going to put on a pair of underwear.  I went back outside with all of my boys... I looked to my left and saw Brice's diaper on the ground and my child... PEEING IN THE GRASS! I know I shouldn't have laughed but I could.not.help.it.at.all. George took a picture, we laughed a little more and then I told Brice that even though what he did was funny it wasn't appropriate. He went inside to the bathroom and finished peeing in the toilet.

Yesterday, he wore underwear ALL DAY LONG! He also took it upon himself to start standing and peeing into the toilet. He took a 2 hour nap in underwear - no accident. We left the house for 2 hours once George got home... in underwear... no accidents! He used two public restrooms. His only accident in the last 24 hours was at 2:15am. He woke up crying. I went into his room, changed his underwear, pj's and sheets and we talked about how next time hopefully he can make it to the potty in time.

I think one accident in 24 hours without any "formal" potty training is FANTASTIC! We're not using Pullups for naptime or nighttime because they are just modified diapers. We also feel that it will only hinder how quickly he could learn to gain control during sleep. While it wasn't fun to be in his room changing his sheets, underwear and pj's at 2:15am, it's just another small sacrifice for such a huge milestone!

We are accident free this morning as well! We don't have to remind him to go - he tells us "Oh mom, I need to go pee." --- and off he goes. He turns on the light, opens the toilet lid, pees and wait for it {get excited ladies because I know I was}... he grabs 1 square of toilet paper and WIPES THE SEAT OFF!!! He did this all on his own and I have TOTALLY ENCOURAGED it since the first time!!! I told him he is going to make his wife one happy lady one day!

I can't believe (and I am so relieved) that potty training has been so simple. I would have never thought that in his first day wearing underwear we would be accident free during all waking hours and naptime AND that we would be able to leave the house for 2 HOURS accident free as well! I am so ridiculously proud of Brice! We took him to Target last night and bought 2 more packs of underwear as his surprise for staying accident free all day. He picked out Toy Story and Mickey Mouse ClubHouse - kids underwear is pricey... $12/pack!

My babe that made me a mommy is growing up so quickly!