Is This Normal?
The chaos that is the KerbersArchive for potty training
Wow, I’m so honored
Earlier this evening Ben and I were building Legos in the front room. Dave had washed up a ton of Legos that had been saved from his childhood and after they had dried a bit we dumped them all onto the floor of the front room to finish drying. So after dinner we dove in. It was nice…we were chatting and building and I was really enjoying our time together. I was laying on the floor and Ben was sitting next to me building away. It was really one of those special times that you don’t want to forget. Meanwhile, Dave and Emma were doing something in the family room. I could hear them talking, and it seemed like they were having a nice quiet time together, too. What a peaceful family evening we were having.
A couple of minutes later Dave came into the front room and I asked what Emma was doing. “Using the bathroom”, he replied. Ok. A minute or so after that, I hear, “MOMMY…I’m DONE!” Dave looked at me and smirked. I could tell that he was so happy it was my name being called for wiping duty.
“Why does it always have to be me?” I asked as I was getting up, apparently loud enough for Emma to hear.
“Because,” she yelled without missing a beat. “You awe the best wipuh theuh evuh was!”
How can I possibly argue with that one? I mean, really, being ‘The Best Wiper There Ever Was’ is really something. I’m pretty sure I may never top this.
It’s official…she’s trained
That’s it…I’m callin’ it. Emma is officially potty trained! I don’t know how it happened, exactly, but all weekend she was in underpants (I mean panties…if I call them underpants I get corrected by both Ben and Emma. Girls underpants are officially called panties, apparently) all weekend, and she only had one accident. I can’t even believe it myself. With Ben we tried on three different occasions and on two of them we stopped trying and went back to diapers lickety split. With Ems, it was an instant success. I’m so proud of my big girl. Potty trained and turning three all in the course of just over a week. She’s a superstar.
Emma’s birthday, part 1
We came up to Sycamore last night so we could celebrate Emma’s birthday up here with Grandma Judy, Grandpa Scott, and the Swartzies today. Emma really had no idea of our plans until I had her presents set out by the door in anticipation of packing when Dave got home from work. Ben asked who the presents were for, and I told him, “Well, we’re going ot have Emma’s birthday party tomorrow at Grandma & Grandpa’s house.” Emma perked up from behind the couch and said, “We AWE????” She was so excited.
I must say that the party didn’t disappoint. We started with presents, which were all pretty awesome for Emma. The problem was that she was literally ripping through them
at lightening speed and neither Dave or I could even keep track of what she was getting and who it was from! Ugh, I was going crazy! She was thrilled to get two new Barbies for the bathtub…one from Grandma and Grandpa and one from Swartzies. 
I guess great minds do think alike. She also really liked her new swimsuit from the Swartzies. It’s so nice having a girl who actually gets excited to receive practical gifts like clothes! She was really excited about everything, actually, which was nice.
After presents we had a nice dinner and then it was time for cake. The bes thing about Emma’s birthday is that she always joins right in on “Happy Birthday” and sings it to herself. I love that about her. 
She was very excited to blow out the candles, but may possibly be the world’s worst blower, so there was a little delay. You see, she puts her teeth against her bottom lip when she blows, so there’s very little air actually coming out of her mouth at all. Thankfully Grandma Judy helped a little, so Emma finally got the candles blown out.
It was still early enough that there was plenty of time to play outside with some of her new toys. We had a great time and I was really happy that we went up to celebrate with just the Atherton side of the family. I like the small parties so much better than a house full of people and a marathon present opening session. It was a great day.
Woo woo…all aboard!
This morning something came across me and I decided to try Emma in Pull-Ups. She had been going potty sporadically, and something told me it was time. So we tried it, and it really went pretty well. At first I was just taking her potty periodically. A couple of times she had a wet Pull-Up, but by this afternoon, she stayed dry from nap time until bed time! She even told me once that she had to go potty. I’m scared to put this in writing, but I really think we’re on our way.
All aboard the potty train…woo woo!!
Toot, toot! It’s coming…
Can you hear it? The potty train is comin’ down the track! Yesterday when I went to pick up the kids I heard the big news…Emma went pee pee on the potty! She really didn’t seem too excited by it all, but boy, the big kids were! They were running around celebrating like crazy. I would have to say that I had mixed emotions. I was excited and proud of her, but also kind of dreading the whole process starting all over again.
I’m pretty sure that Emma doesn’t really get the idea at all yet. Put her on the potty, she’ll go, and she’ll get a big smile on her face about it. 
She actually really likes going, but I think a big part of that is the thrill she gets when she unrolls and tears off the piece of toilet paper. But it’s obvious she doesn’t have any idea of how it feels before she goes, so I don’t know that the train will be taking off from the station any time soon. We decided we’d start putting her on the potty more often to try and catch her before she goes in her diaper or Pull-up. Maybe the light bulb will click on, and suddenly she’ll get it. We’ll see what happens.
Update
Just as an FYI…Ben’s Pull-Up has been dry the last two mornings! Woo HOO!!! Maybe I just needed to put it out there for the world to see sooner!!
Wetting through
Most of you who read this blog regularly (all 5 of you) know that potty training Ben was a challenge. We tried and gave up twice before he finally caught on and mastered it all in the late fall. Once he got it, it was like the light had been switched on and he was a potty master. He even got to the point that he could wear underpants to bed for naptime. It was really pretty great. We did put him in a Pull-Up for bed; just in case. But most mornings (and I’m talking like 5 out 7 days) the Pull-Up would be dry. If it wasn’t, it would be barely wet, like he stopped himself from going if he started to. He was so proud of himself, and I kept telling him that when he went a lot of days with his Pull-Ups staying dry, he could start to wear underpants to bed, too. The thought of that would make him light up and he really seemed to want to hit that landmark.
Then we hit a speed bump. Lately, his Pull-Up has been soaking wet every morning, and I have found myself washing his sheets five times in the last week and a half because he wet through. Now, I understand bed wetting…believe me, I remember it well. But it’s so bizarre that he didn’t have a problem staying dry for months, and now suddenly it’s becoming a huge problem for us all. He’s upset when his bed is wet, and apologizes, but then he generally shrugs it off with a casual, “That’s ok.” I certainly don’t want to get angry with him, yet I am getting really tired of washing and changing sheets so often. I’m getting more and more frustrated every morning, and I need help dealing with this. What should I do?? I don’t want to punish him, but I don’t want to shrug it off, either.
Tonight I told him, “Now let’s really try for a dry Pull-Up tomorrow morning.” He said, “Ok,” and crawled into bed with a smile on his face. Let’s hope he can do it!
New Year’s Eve
This holiday has never really been a big deal to me. We rarely have any plans, and to be honest, I often don’t even stay awake to midnight! But it is definitely time for me to reflect on the year that was and the year that is coming up.
2008 was the year that:
- We lost Dave’s Aunt Ruth
- We finished our basement
- Ryan had ACL surgery
- Emma turned 1
- Emma learned to walk
- We made the move to a minivan
- We discovered the public library
- Ben turned 3
- We spent a lot of time at State Farm pool
- Ben mastered swimming alone with his swimmies
- Dave and I both turned the big 40
- Ben started Sunday school and preschool
- Our basement flooded
- We lost my Uncle Jim
- I started this blog
- Ben got potty trained
- Emma got 4 stitches on her forehead
As you can tell, there were many more good things than bad this year, for which we are thankful. I hope that we can always remember the good things, and think about the lessons we learned from the bad. As everyone always says, the year flew by. It is so true that the older you get the faster they go. Sometimes I just want to slow things down so I can soak in everything that’s happening around me. Of course, other times I want to speed up time…but just when the kids are making me crazy!! 
Who really knows what 2009 will bring our family. A few of the things I’m looking forward to are:
- A trip to Vegas with school friends in January
- A trip to Florida (we hope) over Spring Break
- Tearing down our deck and building a patio
- RyRy graduating from high school and starting college
- Celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary
- A new challenge at school when my current coworker retires and I begin working with a new media specialist in August
I’m sure there will be so many more joys and challenges for the Kerber family in 2009, and I look forward to finding out what they are. May you all have a safe and fun night tonight, and have a healthy and happy new year.
Who knew peeing would feel this good?
Holy cow, I can’t believe the last 24 hours we’ve had! So you all know we’ve been working on potty training…again…for the third time. Last night when we got home from Danielle’s I set the timer and we were all happy as clams. When the timer went off, signaling it was time to sit on the potty, all Hell broke loose. Ben literally went ballistic…crying, screaming, and letting out these guttural sounds like something out of the The Excorcist. It lasted for at least 10-15 minutes and in that time, we went from “I don’t want to” to “Going potty is NOT good” to “AAAAAAGGGHHHHHH”. I literally didn’t know what to do. This was not my sweet little boy who is usually so eager to please. Dave got home from work to join in the fun, and somehow we convinced Ben to calm down and get up in his chair for dinner. We also somehow convinced him that we would just leave off his pants so he could go into the bathroom and go pee-pee whenever he was ready. Now, I know what many of you are thinking (Mom) and believe me, I would not have ever thought that we’d resort to having him sit and eat dinner naked from the waste down. BUT…it totally worked! About halfway through dinner he got a little smile on his face, scootched his chair back, hopped down, ran into the bathroom and by golly he went potty!! We were all so excited. Well, Emma wasn’t really into it too much, but the rest of the family was thrilled!
He went again later in the evening while I was up putting Emma to bed and he and Dave were sitting on the couch reading a book. Again he flashed the little grin, got off the couch and went in to do his business. It was awesome. But the kicker of the night came later. Dave put him to bed and about 20 minutes later he heard an urgent “Daddy!” from Ben’s room. When he hurried in there, Ben said, “I have to go potty”. Dave said, “have you gone in your diaper yet?” and when Ben said, “no” they rushed into the bathroom, got everything off, and he went again! This was after he had been laying in bed, when he was almost asleep, and while he was wearing a diaper.
Now I know this probably doesn’t make you all that excited. In fact, I’m sure that there are many of you chuckling while reading this. But let me tell you, I was never prouder of my little guy. It was like this light bulb going off inside him and me. All he needed was a little control over the situation, and things went so much better.
I wonder where he gets that from???
Freezing days and Mondays…
So I wake up this morning with the worst headache. I hadn’t had an inkling of one coming on yesterday, but BAM, here it was. And it was bad. So bad that my kids paid the price for it with my complete lack of patience this morning. So bad that I ended up coming home at noon, taking a ton of the good drugs (you know, the ones you have to get straight from the pharmacist, and not from the aisle) and slept the entire afternoon. Ick.
Thankfully my wonderful husband picked up the kids from the babysitters for me. But, the report when he got home wasn’t good. Ben wouldn’t go potty today for Danielle. I don’t know if he just refused of if he just went in his pants all day, but either isn’t good. Just when I thought things were going well with the training, here we go again. He’s also started saying things like, “I don’t know how to do that!” or “I don’t want to do that!” whenever we ask him to do something. Where in the world is this coming from?
I can’t help but wonder if my bad morning had a direct affect on Ben’s day. I mean, things were going so well, and then we just have a huge setback day. And seriously, with all the trouble we’ve had training him, and when he starts acting so naughty I just feel like such a failure. I worry that my kids are going to turn out to be those kids that no one wants to be around. I fear that I’m turning into one of those moms who laughs off all her kids’ bad behavior. And then before you know it, there’s a British woman named Jo showing up at my door.
I know that I’m just having a bad day, but jeez…can a mom catch a break already? I feel like we try so hard with the kids, and sometimes I just don’t know what else we can do.
Does every parent go through this?
