Lately

Things are a little crazy in the Hoots household and I'm not quite sure where to start.  So let's start by going over what I have not been doing lately:

-Blogging: Ending my 2-week hiatus tonight.
-Sleeping: Not sleeping much is normal for pregnant women, however, my lack of sleep has nothing to do with the baby #2.  Baby #1 with a splash of anxiety over life changes has had more of an impact on my sleeping habits.  Brady has decided to prep us for the new baby with a wave of late night screaming sessions.  Thoughtful of him to ease us into the transition
-Selling our house:  Still haven't done this.  Installing granite counter tops tomorrow to entice some buyers.  Kicking myself for not doing it 2 years ago when I was seriously contemplating it.
-Preparing for the baby: The single thing I have done for this baby was purchasing a double stroller off Craigslist (and that hasn't been assembled or looked at since we brought it home).  I have not gone through one box or pulled out one baby item that we might need.  Not knowing the gender and knowing we won't be in this house long is part of my problem.  That, and laziness.
-Picking out baby names: We were at a wedding this weekend and I found myself surveying the program for possibilities.  Our girl name is locked in but we have nothing in the boy column.  Which is a pretty sure indication that we're having a boy. 
-Counting down the days until the baby is here: Very different from Brady where each day we had to wait for him seemed like agony.  Don't get me wrong, I'm excited for the baby...really, I am!  I just have too much to do before s/he gets here.

What I have been doing lately:

-Buying a house:  Yeah, that happened today.  We bought a house! We put in an offer on Friday, I was a ball of nerves all weekend, and we came to an agreement and sealed the deal today.  So barring any big hiccups along the way, we'll close at the beginning of July. 
-Buying a house without a realtor: This wasn't by design, but we sort of stumbled upon the sellers who dropped their realtor and were looking to sell at a discount to someone without a realtor to save in commission fees.  Thankfully, we have an amazing realtor/friend who was understanding and who has helped us with the offer and all the other junk involved with buying a house. Eric knowing every human in Chapel Hill has come in handy as our lender and real estate attorney are also friends.  God has definitely put the right people in our path during the last week to make a very stressful week just a little better.
-Standing on my head: At last week's doctors appointment, I found out that the baby was breech.  Among other natural methods to attempt to get the baby to flip, standing on my head is one method my midwife suggested.  We have a hospital visit scheduled for Tuesday where they will try to manually get the baby to flip.  From what I hear, its about as comfortable as it sounds.  If it's unsuccessful, we'll schedule a c-section.

So there you have it.  Here's to hoping next week is a bit less exciting.

Potty dance

We've made some progress since last week.  This video is from last Thursday - Brady's first poop on the potty and first chocolate chip as a reward.  Both are great...as long as one doesn't get confused for the other.

 

 

Adventures of potty training

I'm not sure if there is anything more exciting than hearing about a toddler's potty habits.  Ok, maybe one or two things.  When I see a post on Facebook with someone bragging about how Jimbo went poopy in the potty, I have trouble sharing in the excitement and just hope to God they don't feel the need to display photo evidence.  When Janie pee-pees in the potty for the first time, there are usually two people who care, and they both live with her.

That being said, let me tell you about our 3-day potty training extravaganza. I won't break down the play-by-play, I'll just give you the highlights and lowlights (it would be a short blog post if we stuck with the highlights).  Feel free to stop here.

I knew if we waited for the baby to come to potty train Brady, it would likely get pushed back a long time and I wouldn't be able to give it and Brady the attention.  He seemed reasonably ready, and I'd read up on a 3-day method which entailed cutting off the diapers cold turkey, staying home for 3 days straight, pushing lots of fluids, and basically never leaving your child's side.  Sounds awesome, right?

Right.

Day 1 (Monday):
Wake up at 4 am to Brady crying.  Walk into his room and get knocked over by the smell.  Brady, who had pooped 3 times on Sunday, had a very dirty diaper (and judging by the overwhelming smell, had been sleeping in it for a while).  Change him, feel his forehead, and realize he has a 101 degree fever. 

This may have been God giving me a sign.  I chose to ignore it.

Brady woke without a fever, but I could tell he wasn't feeling well.  I figured since we'd probably be home all day anyway, we might as well give the potty thing a go.  Let's just say it wasn't a great day.  Brady slept close to 5 hours throughout the day and every time he had an accident, he wasn't real thrilled about taking off the wet underwear and putting on the dry ones (ie. he screamed).  He starts pointing and asking for a diaper...kid's no dummy and knows what he wants.


No poop all day, guessed he used it up yesterday.



"Big boys" never seem as big when they're sick.  My baby again for the day...

Day 2 (Tuesday):
Due to difficulties yesterday, think about scrapping the whole idea, but as my husband will tell you, I'm a bit stubborn.

Heard of the boy who cried wolf?   Brady made him look like Honest Abe...I think he only lied a few times.  Brady cried poop at least 40 times throughout the day.  The good news, Brady is no longer scared of sitting on the potty.  The bad news, the carpet leading to the bathroom is now well-worn since we took so many trips.

Peeing in the potty doesn't seem like a realistic goal right now, but I want to at least catch the first poop and give Brady the feeling of success.  So I'm ready and waiting for the real wolf to show up, which entails LOTS of trips to the bathroom.  Brady waited until after dinner while we were eating popsicles on the front porch.  He gave me about a 5 second heads-up, which wasn't quite enough time to sprint to the toilet, although perhaps nothing less is expected from a 8-month pregnant lady hauling a pooping toddler.

I'll spare you further details.

Potty training's version of a day at the beach.

Day 3 (Wednesday):

If there is one word Brady says more than "poop", it is"outside."  Seriously, I hear that word in my sleep.  Brady wakes up saying outside and goes to bed saying it.  Thankfully, we had three beautiful days and we spent a great deal our days outside.  But no amount of time is enough to satisfy Brady.  As soon as we get inside, I hear that word again...and want to pull my hair out.

Brady woke up in the morning with a dry diaper.  He waited until around 8 to pee in the entryway. With a fresh pair of underwear on, Brady walks back into the entryway and slips on his (quite large) puddle of pee, which produces some tears.  You can go ahead and crown me Mother-of-the-Year.

Who needs pants when its 85 degrees?

 

Skip ahead to nap time.  Brady goes to bed without peeing all morning.  He wakes around 3pm, I scoop him up as soon as he wakes, thinking he must be primed and ready to fire.  Nothing.  Brady asks to go outside 23 times.  I try to hold him off, thinking the pee must be coming.  4pm, still nothing.  4:30, nothing.  Try putting his hand in warm water.  Brady scoffs...clearly his mother has underestimated his pee-holding abilities.  So we go outside and as Brady is sucking liquid from a straw, liquid starts running out the other end.

FYI, in the nearly 9 hours that Brady didn't go pee, I went about 7 times.

After changing underwear and thinking we were ok to venture a little further from the house, Brady pushes his shopping cart around the neighborhood.  When he gets to the furthest point from our house, he empties the rest of his bladder.  Thankfully, Brady is wearing a long t-shirt on, so I don't think any neighbors get a free show since Brady is now sans underwear.

 

After dinner, I give Brady a bath.  As soon as his feet hit the water, he pees.  Scoop him up and stand him on the nearby toilet... but he won't pee.  Put him back in the water...and the pee stream begins again.  Scoop him up and it stops again.  Stand him on the toilet and tell him to pee.  He does! Much to his (and my) delight!  Not exactly the success we were looking for, but I wanted him to feel the thrill of victory, however small. 

 

Conclusion:

Not sure where we go from here.  Maybe stick with underwear at home and keep with the diapers in public?  Hate to throw away all the progress we've made (insert laughter here).

 

I'll tell you one place we'll be going from here is out of the house...starting tomorrow.

My son, the magician

Some days you're the dog, and some days you're the hydrant.  Yesterday, there is no doubt as to which I was. 

A quick recap:

A week ago, the credit card company called to tell me my credit card had been compromised and they needed to send me a new number.  I received the new card in the mail, but it hadn't yet made its way to my wallet.  Unfortunately, I realized this right before I was about to check out at the grocery store yesterday morning.  I explained this to the checkout lady and she told me she'd stick the cart in the dairy cooler while I went home to get my card.

15 minutes later, I'm back and armed with my card.  I went to the same checkout lady and as she was retrieving my cart, I set Brady on the food conveyor belt (which was off at the time) and held him there.  He reached for the card in my hand, and knowing it would keep him occupied for a few seconds, I gave it to him.  During this time, I was holding Brady with two hands and I probably looked up for a few seconds, but didn't turn around and Brady was in my peripheral vision all of the 10-15 seconds he was holding my card.  He put his hands behind his back and as I went to grab the card from out of his hands, much to my amazement, it was gone.

Vanished into thin air. 

Now, I'm a logical person and a believer in Occam's Razor (the simplest explanation is usually right), so it should be assumed that the credit card was somewhere close by.  And despite the fact that I had 3 Kroger employees looking in every possible crevice within three registers of us, I knew in 15 seconds after the card disappearing that it wasn't coming back.  There was just nowhere for it to go and if Brady did one of his crazy throws (we've seen that happen with a paint can), I would have at least seen some sort of arm movement.  By the time the lady got back with my groceries, I had given Brady a thorough pat-down (and myself one in case he had suddenly become a reverse pickpocket) and had to sheepishly admit that we had another problem on our hands.  To the Kroger employees' credit, they looked diligently for my card and did not write me off as the nutcase that I felt like.  What they said behind my back, I do not know.

So my groceries went back to the cooler.  It was lunch time and nearing nap time, and I couldn't stomach one more trip that hour, so I promised to come back later that afternoon.  I came back, paid $79 for my groceries, and would have gladly paid double to have known what happened to my card, if only to verify that my son is truly a magician.

On our third trip to the store, while our groceries were being retrieved for the second time, I had to laugh when I set Brady on the same belt (with nothing in his hands) and he said, "Uh-oh" followed by "bye-bye."  So eloquent, that one.  He knew the card went "bye-bye" and that we had been looking for it...just couldn't quite manage to tell me where it went.

On my drive back home, a thought struck me.  My checkbook had been in my car throughout this whole debacle and I could have saved myself the entire trouble had I realized that checks were an acceptable form of payment.

Need further proof I was the hydrant yesterday?  During Brady's nap, I opened my computer, which despite the fact that it had been charging, was at 6% battery.  My adapter had died.  I called Eric to bring me one home from work.  He called me on the way home to let me know he forgot it.  No biggie, my taxes and blogging could wait.  Probably better...our refund from the government may have magically transformed into a payment due. 

Oh and also, Brady woke up at 1:30 am, which unfortunately, has become fairly regular.  I'm trying to break the habit of bringing himj in our bed, mostly due to the fact that my hair is his comfort and its hard to sleep when someone's yanking your hair.  So, although it took about 45 minutes, I was finally successful at getting him to go back to sleep in his crib.  I was not successful in getting myself back to sleep and after lying in bed for nearly an hour, I went downstairs to get something to eat and read my book.  I flipped on the light switch in our kitchen and one of the light bulbs burnt out.  I thought darn, I will have to change that before the house showing tomorrow.  Then I opened the refrigerator to get out the milk for a bowl of cereal and I realized I never came home with my milk, or Brady's milk, from the grocery store.  Perhaps its still in the dairy cooler, or my cart, or more likely, it's hanging out with my credit card. 

Looking back at my recent blog posts of ear infections, vomit, paint spills, eating soap, not selling our house, etc, I'm feeling very lucky because despite it all, life is good. 

Oh, and I guess my Greek yogurt is with the milk.  Of course, I didn't realize that until after I went to the grocery store this morning for my milk (for the 4th time in 24 hours).  Unless someone feels like delivering some to my house, my fruit smoothies will just have to wait until next week.

Feeling foolish on April Fools'

It's April Fools' Day, and the joke was on me today.  Unfortunately, it was an inanimate object that fooled me.

Last week, I was at a hair/nail salon and on the entry table were various heart-shaped chocolates, wrapped in red and silver foil.  Perhaps leftover candy from Valentines Day, I thought.  Never one to pass up chocolate, I grabbed one and put it in my purse.  As I left the library with Brady, and as I reached into my purse for my keys, I was so excited to find the chocolate treat.  It was right before lunch and I needed something to hold me over for the 5-minute drive home.  I unwrapped the chocolate and was slightly disappointed to find that it was white chocolate.  Not ideal, but I'm pregnant and hungry...this is no time to be picky. 

So hungry and eager that I only unwrapped a small portion and failed to smell or inspect it before digging in.

While I can't be exactly sure what this is, let me tell you what it definitely isn't: white chocolate.

Although the bite-marks are barely visible and may appear inconsequential, trust me when I say I got plenty in my mouth.

 

Growing up, I remember that my brothers got soap in their mouth as a form of punishment. I never did, probably because I was perfect.  I believe my streak of not eating soap came to an end today.

 

It had a very grainy texture, perhaps a bath salt of sorts, which ensured the difficulty of actually getting it out of my mouth.  Lots of spitting and rubbing my tongue to try to get it all out.

 

When I told Eric of my episode, his response...."And you are responsible for our son all day?"  I do really feel like I lose credibility when I tell Brady not to eat crayons, sand, or mulch.

 

On the positive side, at least I am selfish with my chocolate...I wasn't about to share this with Brady or anyone else!