Adventures in Potty Boot Camp

Warning:  This segment has a lot of poop and pee talk...

Let me go ahead and say that if anyone is on the fence as far as potty training goes, everyone I have consulted with and used the three day boot camp method has had success with it.  We were no different.  Max first started going pee in the potty at 14 months.  And although at the time we thought it was the coolest thing ever, it ended up being more of a curse.  He became easily bored with it, especially when we were pushing it and none of the other kids in his class were doing it.  It took away from his play time and he HATED that.  For the next almost 20 months, he was inconsistent at potty time and with everything else going on we never really pushed the issue.  Well, I just basically woke up one day and decided I was done with cleaning up diapers and oddly the same day my mom told Max she was not buying any more diapers.  All week we told him we were going to be done with diapers and really talked up the boot camp and got him pretty pumped about it (even excitedly told his teacher at school "yay, I'm going to boot camp this weekend"),  He even got so pumped about it he decided he didn't really want to wait and started going potty that Tuesday night before.  So much so I even decided he was ready to be sent to school in underwear.  He had a couple accidents Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday but it seemed to be all centered around when he was tired.  So when his Mimi brought him to me Friday after school and had dinner with us he was already in big boy pants and ready to go. 

Friday night after the cookout I previously wrote about, Max did have a couple accidents on the couch getting ready for bed (like his teacher told me, seemed to be when he was really tired) but slept approximately 9 hours and was dry when he woke up and immediately was ready to go potty.  According to the potty training research I did, the first day we can go outside (normally just in the neighborhood) once and then the next day twice depending on how it goes and I stayed pretty true to this just going out in the afternoon to visit Melissa and see her progress on moving into Harley's and bring her some garden veggies and afterwards Brook and Amber and Mimi came over.  I was however somewhat productive cleaning out the refrigerator and planning and getting future project advise from my dad when he came to fix the refrigerator door...

The only issue we had on Saturday was pooping.  He knew he had to go and would run to the bathroom and even sit on the potty for a little bit but never would go.  Then he would get to playing and realize he needed to go only to not want to sit down again and I couldn't get the potty seat up in time and he ended up pooping on the floor twice.  Oh well...cant win them all on the first day I guess.

Sunday started out with a wet bed and therefore sheets in the washer which its Sunday so that would have been done today anyways.  And he still had to go pee as soon as he woke up so I really think it was more my fault than anything.  I probably should cut him off from liquids at a certain time so somewhat of a lesson learned for me.  No one ever said potty training was just for the kid.  Well I decided since I got two outings today that we would go outside and play in the hose during the morning.  I kept him in his big boy pants and he went pee a few times pulling down his big boy pants while we were out playing so I was pleased with that. 

washing his toys...among other things (mommy)

I even let him drink from the hose...don't call DHR

He took another 4 hour nap and woke up dry and ready to potty again.  Then Mimi and Aunt Cici came for dinner (on the potty training meal plan from Thursday nights cooking) and I got a slip and slide at CVS for $7 thanks to extra bucks...

No peeing accidents all day on Sunday and he didn't poop at all but luckily have one more day.  I did get to do one thing Sunday that I wanted to do which I had never done before, drying chili peppers a customer had given me from their garden.  I basically set the oven on the lowest setting (170 degrees for mine) and let it sit in there for about 12 hours until they were dry.  I am now storing them in the freezer in a freezer bag and can't wait to make something to put them in...



Monday and the final day started out great, no wet bed, ready to go potty as soon as he woke up.  I have been wanting to go hang out with Max at school since he so sadly asked me one day while I was dropping off "mommy, can't you just stay with me one time?" so I figured that could be our morning outing.  He was excited to see his friends and go potty and get his sticker when he got there and had a blast playing outside, playing in the auditorium (since they decided after about 15 minutes outside it was way too hot), doing hand print art work, reading a book, playing with dinosaurs, and (one of his favorites) doing flash cards...

But after doing all that he was extremely obstinate in going potty and as his teacher pointed out to me before, seems to be when he is tired.  He cried and threw two of the biggest fits I have ever seen him throw the next two times I asked him to go potty.  One was at school and one at my mom's house afterwards (lives down the street from the school).  Well luckily she was there and was able to calm him down and talk rationally with him about it and more importantly let me cool down and take me away from the situation.  This was about the time I realized we had enough togetherness time and could use a break once this boot camp is all over with.  I love my child but its only natural to get a little stir crazy about being around each other three days straight with minimal breaks and minimal outside the home time.  He and I both are pretty on the go people so I can imagine after cleaning this dirty house he and I won't want much to do with it most of the rest of the week and this weekend.  We were able to calm down and rationalize enough to go to lunch with Mimi, Aunt Cici, and Mimi's coworker Rhonda and he even went to the potty at the restaurant.  After a dry nap time I started cleaning the house for which he wanted to help.  I am all about letting him learn how to do things and help out; He even has taken over the responsibility at home of feeding the cats which is great because with everything else I seem to forget.  And then Mimi came to the rescue and helped clean and watch him while I finished and heated up dinner.  No peeing accidents at all today but pooping was another story.  I really can't complain much seeing as we were 1 for 2 but he was scared and kept saying he didn't want to go poo poo while he was going in the potty.  After he got done however he was super excited about it.  But then while playing outside with Mimi he pulled down his pants to go pee and ended up going poop (luckily on the ground) but not so lucky he decided to put his hand it in and smear a small bit on his cheek.  So thus the potty boot camp weekend ends but is far from over...

Potty preparation cooking

In preparation for our three day potty boot camp starting at midnight tonight, I decided to cook like a mad woman (like typical fall college football Saturday) Thursday night.  I have come to realize I am way more enthusiastic about cooking during the fall than any other time of year...possibly because of my love of doing nothing more than watching football ALL day during fall Saturdays.  And although I was born and raised a Big 10/Michigan fan, I am a SEC fan at heart.  And it is only recently that I have been around more Auburn fans than anything else and not only have found them to be the most relatable fans in the SEC for myself but also have found myself drinking the Kool Aid so to speak (orange Kool Aid that is) and feel like I should officially pledge my allegiance to the orange and blue this year.  Anyways...after all the boot camp talk...I digress...

The potty boot camp basically consists of staying in the house all weekend and doing nothing but be devoted 100% to your child's needs, which to someone with an infant seems elementary; You live and breathe that infant.  But a parent who has gotten accustomed to a toddler has also gotten accustomed to not having to watch their child every second of every day while they are doing house chores like laundry, cooking, cleaning, etc.  Well, that is non-existent to the potty training parent and therefore I decided it would be a good idea to make dinners for the entire weekend as to not take away from the potty time. 

So, I started the evening making my new favorite Wild Rice Casserole
1/2 cup onion chopped
1/2 cup carrots chopped
1/2 cup celery chopped
2 cloves garlic
2 envelopes microwave wild rice
3 cups grilled chicken chopped
4 tbsp butter
4 tbsp gluten free flour
2 cups chicken stock
2 cups shredded cheese
extra 1 cup cheese for topping

Saute veggies, add cooked rice and cooked chicken.  Set aside.

Melt butter.  Whisk flour for 1 min.  Whisk in chicken stock then cheese gradually.  Mix cheese sauce and veggie mixture.  Put in buttered casserole dish.  Top with cheese and cook at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 min. 

Next, I threw together a Mexican casserole

1 box cream cheese room temp
2 cups grilled chicken
1 can rotel, drained
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
teaspoon cumin
teaspoon garlic powder
teaspoon onion powder
teaspoon paprika
teaspoon chili powder
package tortillas
2 cups shredded cheese

mix together first 9 ingredients.  Add 1 cup cheese.  Butter casserole dish.  Layer tortillas in bottom of dish.  Spread 1/2 cream cheese mixture.  Layer more tortillas then rest of cream cheese mixture then last layer of tortillas then top with cheese.  Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 45 minutes.

Lastly, I just browned 1 lb ground beef and seasoned with taco seasoning (McCormick's or homemade taco seasoning).  Let cool and add to Ziploc bag.  Chop lettuce, tomatoes, green onions, and olives in separate bags then store in fridge with taco shells, cheese, and sour cream readily available. 

And still had time to make a chicken salad salad made with leftover chicken salad and wasabi arugula, topped with raspberry vinaigrette

And...made 3 different aqua frescas using fruit (in this case kiwi, watermelon, and raspberries) a little bit of sugar (approximately 1/2 cup), citrus of choice, mint for freshness, then fill with water for alcoholic (add rum or vodka) and non-alcoholic purposes (mostly alcoholic with the type of weekend I probably will have)

Lastly, for the Friday night before P-day so to speak I decided to do #64 on my 100 things to do in my 30s and learned to grill.  My mom was actually surprised that I had never done that before because she just "let me take over" like I had but I have always had someone willing to do it for me before.  I started easy...just corn on the cob, zucchini and squash, hot dogs, and sausages (Ragin Cajun) but guess it counts...

Now, I'm sirring on the couch, watching Season 4 of Breaking Bad and drinking a glass of wine.  Hopefully, my morning won't start at 5:45am like this morning but I'm sure there will be tons to come about my exciting pottying weekend...

Father's day

No one ever said the life of a working single mom was easy.  That definitely was true this past weekend.  Lately it seems like we always have something going on.  And not that I needed anything more but I decided to hand make 4 different art gifts all starting Friday for Sunday.  And all while having a play date with the sweetest, most helpful 7 year old I know...

While I wasn't able to capture any pictures of the kids in action painting because I was too busy cleaning up the floors since Max refused to paint on the newspaper I put out and himself (he looked like a smurf when we were all done).  We ended up doing the canvases for father's/mother's day (since we were out of town for mother's day) painted with the pull off letters like the teacher gifts...

Then when the company left and Max went to bed I put together a picture of him modge podged onto the same size canvas and painted black around the edges for Max's daddy for fathers day.  I did learn my lesson however that when I do this project in the future I will do it with a matte photo rather than glossy but was still pretty pleased with the outcome...

And then I finished the night by spray painting a bunch of different miscellaneous items for future projects.  One of which I finished Saturday night and was my only project for me that weekend.  I used a cork board purchased at Walmart, took off the framing, spray painted it black, then took some fabric and used fabric glue to glue the fabric to the board on the back.  I just used clear push pins to hang my bracelets to it and what little collection of earrings I have since I don't have them pierced yet...

Then my last project was printing pictures from a shared Flickr site which I got for free for signing up at CVS's website for online photo processing (25 free prints) and putting them in a frame I got a Walmart with a poster board backing.  Another thing I would do differently next time would be use actually frame matting for the backing as it bothered me I had to use two pieces of poster board which left a line (although not terribly visible unless you are looking for it).  All in all though I was pleased with Dad's birthday present...

The weekend ended with a relaxing afternoon Sunday by my dad's pool with my most favorite two year old, my dad, stepmom, mom (yep, thats right), sister, and stepsister.  That warm fuzzy feeling I have had since is coutesy of the wonderful, caring, and giving people closest to me. 

Til divorce do us part

Are relationships really meant to be forever?

Many of you who really know me know my opinion on this topic and it may seem pessimistic given that I am officially divorced as of less than two weeks ago but I feel like I have a lot of unanswered questions.  During my therapy sessions I had while I was going through a particularly rough time with myself and my marriage I often had conversations with my therapist as to whether it was actually a realistic notion that every person is meant to be with just one person until death do you part. 

Now, let me go ahead and put a disclaimer out there so I don’t get hate email from my married friends that I am not saying this applies to everyone.  There are people out there who will stay together for the rest of their lives, although some may be for reasons other than pure love, admiration, and desire for each other.  Among other reasons, some may be to not further complicate their family situation (for the kids).  Again being cynical and speaking from an experienced child’s prospective; this may not be a healthy environment for the children after all.  Some parents can become withdrawn, resentful, and/or depressed.  And again speaking from experience, children at any given age are much more aware of their parent’s unhappiness than we give them credit for.  Another reason may be comfort whether monetary or emotional.  Emotional contentment is not necessarily a bad thing but in order to really make things work you must have other reasons to keep the marriage and in some cases the sex life alive and well.  Feeling that physical (sexual) closeness with your spouse is an important part of a successful marriage.  Without it, let’s be honest, both people are more likely to want to feel that closeness with someone else.  But, given the right combination of all reasons to stay with one person their entire life, I sincerely think there are some couples close to me who are meant to be. 

However, I do think there are just some people who are not wired to be with one person forever.  Let’s take other animals as an example.  There are only 8 other animals who have a lifelong soul mate.  Wolves, Gibbons (type of ape), and a human dwelling parasitic worm called a Schistosoma Mansoni Worm are the only animals other than birds that exhibit this characteristic.  And speaking of animals, if it is conceivable that we were once apes ourselves, isn’t it conceivable that we have evolved or evolving into non soul mate beings?  Have we just gone along with what our ancestors say we are supposed to do (be with one person) because we don’t know any other way or are afraid of what other people will think?  Can we really be physically, emotionally, and sexually satisfied with one other person our whole life?  Am I just being too cynical?  It is frequently reported that the divorce rate in the US is 50%.  Although not accurately reported by many, it is actually close to what is reasonably accurate (between 41% and 50%).  The numbers are even scarier for second and third marriages.  So, that poses the question, where are we going wrong?  Why are we unhappy and what would keep us happy?  I really have more questions than answers at this point and of course in true therapist form my therapist doesn’t answer any of these questions just poses another question that gets me thinking and distracts me. 

Keep in mind, this doesn’t necessarily mean I don’t believe in love.  I have been in love before and I hope I get a chance to do so again (other than my undying/unconditional love for my sweet little man).  But will it last forever? 

50 Shades

50 Shades of “Vanilla”

SPOILER ALERT:  Do not read this if you plan to read the book!

So I started reading the 50 Shades series about 4 weeks ago after a friend (Joanne) told me of the references to BDSM in it.  I figured wow, this should be interesting and different and I’m due for a good book.  I got about half way through the first book and was already disappointed.  There wasn’t much sex going on and it seemed pretty “vanilla” (reference to the book) so to speak.  I also had figured out given all the hints that this was actually in fact going to be a love story instead of a sex story.  I immediately texted Joanne and expressed my disappointment in the fact that I wasn’t aware I was going to be reading a love story.  Given my current romantic situation I have been turned off by anything with a romantic plot to it. 

Reluctantly, I kept reading it and although I was disappointed it was a true love story, the first book had a nice happily ever after ending to it and I moved on to book 2.  I went on hiatus from the series about half way through the second book.  I was bored with the same old love story, conflicts, make ups and sex.  I felt like I was married again.  After about a 2 week strike I started reading all the articles and blogs of people who want to ban the sale of the books and are adamantly and unfoundedly against them.  I then decided amidst all the controversy that I had to finish the series.  It took me less than a week to finish the reminder of the second book and the whole third book (with a 2 year old at home, mind you).  After I have caught up on sleep the past few days here is my conclusion about the series.

I’m no literary genius like a couple of the ABDs I know but I wasn’t impressed with the author’s literary skills.  I know she is somewhat new to the game but that’s why you hire good editors (I find the irony of the main character being an editor funny).  She made elaborate descriptions of some of the sex scenes or characters that I found to be too much of a good thing.  It made me easily bored in the details and as a reader I think it is also important to leave some of the minute details up to my imagination.  I hope that there was some censorship issue that forced the reader to call her vagina her “sex” because I found the reference horribly laughable as my friend Melissa and I would make drunken jokes in reference to that.  I have to say though, although there is a lot of sex in this book I was expecting it to be pretty raunchy and that wasn’t the case.  There was only a hand full of scenes where the “playroom” and toys were incorporated.  There was more “love making” than anything else.  I guess given all the outrage from the Christian community over the book I was expecting more.  I also found it to be disturbing how much the main character cried in the book.  Given the fact that her and “Fifty” had only known each other for a short period of time most of the guys I know would have been pretty turned off by all the crying and temper tantrums, especially after sex. 

Ultimately, Ana and Christian fall in love, become a loving a happy couple that transforms into a loving a happy family throughout all the drama and issues and despite their love of “kinky fuckery”.  Although I am not a fan of the writing in this book, I am a fan for what it stands for.  I for one think what this loving and happy couple does behind closed doors is nothing short of perfectly normal yet electrically excitable.