Can This Be True?

For the past three days, Jack has not had any pee pee accidents. While that is not that great of an accomplishment, because I would usually force his little bottom on the toilet every hour or two just to make sure there were no accidents forthcoming. And this usually resulted in great crying and saying "No Mama" because the boy did not want to sit on the toilet. I was beginning to think that I would have to remind him to go to the bathroom during first grade.

However, things have changed for the better in the Jackaroo house in the last few days. He will say, out of the blue, "I have to go to the bathroom" and actually go into the bathroom and do his business! He even attempts to put his underwear and pants back on (usually backwards, but I don't say anything because he is so proud of himself for doing that). He is so cute as he runs out of the bathroom yelling "I did it!"

Even last night as I was getting him ready for bed, he started to toot toot. I asked him if he needed to go to the bathroom. He looked at me, thought for a minute and said very seriously, "yes I do". And sure enough, he went in there and pooped on the toilet - a rarity. He has been waiting until the first minute the diaper hits his bottom to do the poop thing.

Have we turned a corner and can this actually be true? Is he actually day-time potty trained? I think it is time to celebrate!

Next up - night time trained. Not even going to try that one for a few months.

Big News

Well it looks like I am going to be having a baby around September!!!! Now that I caught your attention, it will be a part-time baby and definitely not mine. I am going to be taking care of our Pastor and his wife's new baby when she goes back to her nursing job. They are expecting a baby boy at the end of July and will be needing childcare for only two days a week. She works three days (12 hour shifts) at the hospital and her husband is going to take care of the baby one day. So I piped up and said that I could take him the other two days. When I first offered my services, I was mentally kicking myself. What am I going to do with a baby two days a week? Yikes. That is a lot of work. But now I have to say that I am a little bit looking forward to the experience. It will be fun to have a little baby around again and this time I get to give him back to his Dad for the night! HA! And I can sleep in peace. Good arrangement.

The other big news is news that I am kinda reluctant to even share because it has been known in the blogging world that once you say something about your child achieving something, it comes back to bite ya in the butt. But I am going to go out on the limb and say this. I do believe that Jack is daytime potty trained!!!! That doesn't mean we don't have the occasional accident and he does seem to freak out a bit about the pooping thing, but he knows what he is supposed to do and when he is supposed to do it. He has been staying in his big-boy underwear all day and staying dry for the most part. The key is that I have to make sure the kid goes to the bathroom at least every couple of hours or we are needing a change of clothes, which I carry with me at all times. I talked to his teacher and told her that I was thinking of sending him to school in underwear since he has stayed dry in his pull ups for the last week and she told me to go ahead. So we shall see how that goes next week with underwear at school.

So long story short, I think he is potty trained enough to semi-trust him in his underwear all the time during the day. Of course there is the issue with naps, but since he so rarely actually takes naps, it is a non-issue unfortunately. The problem is that when he does take a nap, it usually is the kind where he just kinda passes out from shear exhaustion and I don't have time to change him into a pull-up, which ends up very messy in the end. And lots of laundry.

The next thing is to get rid of that nasty nasty diaper champ. Yuck. I think that since we are down to one or two pullups a day, it will be going out of his room in the next few days. Of course, come September, I will need it again with that new baby boy coming into our house two days a week.

Potty Training ... Update

I haven't had a whole lot to write about these days. It has been same old same old here in the Jackaroo World. He still doesn't seem to need as much sleep as the rest of us human beings... namely me. Most days he goes full steam from 6 am until about 8:30 pm without stopping much. How he does it, I will never know. I keep trying to come up with stuff to do that might wear him out enough to just sit, but haven't found much that will do that. A day of school, playing, an hour walking, and another hour riding his bike doesn't seem to phase the kid. Man do I feel sorry for his Pre-K teacher when he is 4 years old and getting him to take the required nap everyday. Maybe I should warn her?

The other big thing going on is the potty training, otherwise known as "The Major Frustration" in our house. Somedays I think he is about 75% daytime trained, then there comes days like yesterday where he just didn't seem to care that he peed in his underwear 3 times. I have started to venture out of the house with him wearing underwear with a little bit of success. The other day we were gone for about 4 hours and he stayed dry the entire time and went to the bathroom at Barnes and Noble. And yes, I bribed the kid with the Salty train that I bought him that day. It was pretty funny watching him trying to decide which train he wanted. It came down to Diesel and Salty and I swear he took 10 minutes trying to decide. Important things these trains are to the boy. However, I do know that I am going to go bankrupt getting this kid potty trained.

I just have to remember that he will get it and it will be another milestone that he passed, just like crawling and walking and talking. Just those things were fun to watch him learn. Going potty in his underwear and the subsequent clean up is not so much fun. Sigh.

By George Again!

I have no idea what triggered in Jack's brain in the last 48 hours, but some light has come on in regard to potty usage. He stayed dry on the hour long car trip up to see Grammy and Aunt Ann for lunch, even with drinking a full sippy of milk on the way. And when we arrived at the restaurant, we went to the rest room where he proceeded to go potty in the toilet! He was a good boy all through lunch and then ASKED to go to the potty where he both pooped and peed!! Miracles do happen!

I just have to say that using the public toilets is a real pain. Or at least it is for us because the boy literally has to strip down naked from the waist down in order to go potty. The whole idea of just pulling the pants and pull up down half way is not good enough for Jack. No, we have to kick the shoes off, take pants and pull-up completely off and then we are ready to sit on the toilet. Not before.

Since we have been home, he has kept his underwear dry. But geesh that boy has a lot of pee! In the past 3 hours, I swear he has gone at least 5 times and all times he has half filled the little potty! No wonder we were going through diapers so fast! I really should have looked into stock for Pampers over the years.

So maybe, just maybe we can be potty trained by his third birthday. Or at least daytime trained and worry about the night time later. Yay! We are definitely on the right road and I can not wait to stop buying diapers!

By George I think he's got it

It is a miracle. Yesterday Jack stayed dry almost all day long! And went in the potty many times. In fact there was one time that I was standing in the kitchen and I see him run out of the kitchen yelling something that I couldn't quite understand. I thought it had something to do with a train or a truck. But no, he was yelling "I have to go potty!" and before I know it, he is in the family room (where his little potty now sits) and he had his big-boy underwear off and was sitting on the potty going peepee. Big time peepee because the potty was singing to him constantly for about 3 minutes (yes, we have the one that sings).

So yesterday when Jim took Jack out, they went by the train store (aka Barnes and Noble to you and me) and Jack brought home the James train. He was soooo proud. And Daddy even said that Jack went potty at the store! He stayed dry the entire time they were out. In fact there were no accidents at all until I put a pull up on him when we went for a walk. I didn't want to be a half mile away and suddenly the boy have a wet spot and have to walk back with that. And indeed there was an accident. But I do have to say that we might have turned a corner in the potty training department. Of course the weepy, sappy, emotional mother that I am is now mourning the loss of my baby once again.

We are going to be driving up to Hattiesburg to meet my MIL and SIL for lunch and maybe some antique shopping, we shall see how the hour drive and subsequent lunch time goes with the whole potty thing. I am not expecting much, but who knows, the kid might surprise me!

Sigh.

Well it is now noon and Jack has both peed and pooped in his underwear this morning, despite sitting on the potty at least 5 times with no success. Sigh. I do not like this. I even told him that if he went on the potty we would go to the train store (Barnes & Noble) and buy James (Thomas engine). Well I guess he saved me $20, but caused a lot of laundry and clean up time.

And to further frustrate me to no end, the boy gave his entire hot dog that I made him for lunch to the dogs. Piece by piece the dogs were treated to a Ball Park All Beef Frank. And now? The boy says he is hungry. Sigh.

Ya know days like this make me think that working the tax season doing tax returns for hundreds of grumpy people would be a walk in the park. Yeah that is exactly what I was doing 4 years ago right now. Pre-Jack. And I thought working two jobs and working 70-80 hrs a week back then was hard. HA HA HA. Sigh.