Threenager alert!

Life has become interesting lately. Our sweet little Owen is turning into a threenager. Holy cow does he test my patience…what little of it I have left.

We tell Owen to NOT do something or STOP doing something…and he turns right around and does it.

He has zero attention span when we ask him to pick up toys. It’s a constant repetition of “Owen, please put all your toys away. Owen, please put your cars away. Owen, please put your cars in this box. Owen, put your cars away now. OWEN! Mama asked you to put your cars away. If you don’t, I’m taking them away.”

And every time you ask him to put something away—whether he’s actively playing with it or not—he says “No, I’m just playing!” And then wants to play with whatever you wanted him to put away.

He’ll whine that he “doesn’t want a snack/drink/toy/etc. anymore” and then two minutes later he wants it.

He is starting to get more destructive—he was “helping” by winding Katie’s pack-and-play mobile…and actually doing okay so I left him alone, only to come back five minutes later and it was completely broken off and he was playing with it on the floor. 😐

He’s broken a bunch of toys just rough housing with them or not being careful. I make him throw them in the garbage.

The day care lady had to talk to him today—a first. 😐 He was throwing toys at or with another kid. She said they talked about it, he apologized, and things were okay, but she just wanted to let me know. Oh, and he also snuck into the bathroom and was playing at the sink…his shirt was completely drenched when I picked him up after only an hour. I commented that he has just turned into a threenager during the past week or so and she said it appears to be going around.

And potty training. Oh man, don’t get me started on potty training. He had the peeing down completely after really just a week (with just a few accidents after his nap or in the morning, which was to be expected) and poop has been a challenge since day one. So we get home from vacation, and suddenly he’s peeing in his underwear and ON THE FLOOR. And poop is still a huge issue—he knows poop goes in the potty and he’s excited and happy when he does go, yet I typically spend all day cleaning up poopy underwear and his poopy butt because he either doesn’t realize he’s pooping, he does realize and just doesn’t care, or he’s just being super obstinate. I know he’s still learning, but it’s super frustrating.

One time he called me over to tell me he had poop on his foot. Yes, poop. On his foot. And it was completely dried. So I have no idea when or where he stepped in poop (I haven’t smelled it or found it). And then he threw a holy terror tantrum when I made him stick his foot in the bath to clean it. And this was after I had to strip his bed again because he peed in his bed (and on the floor) during his nap. Yes, potty training might just kill me.

Anyone want our threenager? Just temporarily, mind you?

From utter frustration to melting heart in five minutes…

Look what happened when I left him alone for 10 minutes today…

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SERIOUSLY?! UGH.

I told him I wasn’t happy because he made a mess—and that he shouldn’t take Katie’s clothes out of her drawers, but reasoning with a toddler is pointless at best. I also told him he had to help me pick it all up, so he handed me a few pieces and then he was done. 😐 I didn’t even have the energy to finish dealing with it right then…but he’ll definitely be helping me pick it all up later.

Of course, he followed it up with something super cute…but I was still fuming a bit over the mess.

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And THEN he does something super sweet…Katie was crying so he grabbed the bottle and started to feed her.

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Ahhh, life with a toddler. From utter frustration to melting heart in five minutes…

The pain begins.

So this morning, as usual, I found Owen in his bathroom drinking water and spitting—so I put away his cup. I also put away his toothpaste and his animal flossing strips (because he thinks they’re toys and I really don’t want him losing them around the house—which would happen in about 14 seconds). I told him that we only got out the toothpaste, cup, and flossers when it was time to brush his teeth.

Fast forward 20 minutes or so when I hear the bathroom sink on full blast AGAIN. I go in there and he is…BRUSHING HIS TEETH! That little shit. I couldn’t yell at him because he was doing something good—on his own and something I had just mentioned—but it was still frustrating because I had told him not to play in there.

So, what was the first thing I did? Tell him not to move (because I had to run and get the camera, of course!). 😆

Then I noticed all the toothpaste. In the sink and on his toothbrush and on his face and—WAIT. Where did he get toothpaste—I had put it away!? Did he climb up and get it out of the medicine cabinet??? No…I checked and that one was still there. So he obviously found another one somewhere (from our recent trip to the dentist, I’m guessing—but I don’t even know where it was!) AND managed to twist off the screw top (which, ironically, he can NEVER do when we ASK him to do it), and fill the sink with strips of toothpaste (which you can’t see in the picture). I also wondered what the bowl was doing there…and I didn’t have to wait long to find out: he was using it to drink from since I had taken his cup away.

I flossed his teeth, sent him on his way, and cleaned up the sink. AND PUT EVERYTHING AWAY AGAIN. Yes, it was a bit of a mess…but yes, I know it could have been A LOT worse.

So the pain is starting. He’s turning into a mischievous little boy with a mind of his own. Part of me loves it because it means he’s growing up, getting smarter, and thinking about things. But on the other hand, it’s a shit ton more work keeping an eye on him because you never know what he’s going to get into.

Potty Charts

Owen did really, really well with going potty on vacation. He only had a few accidents (only on an overnight or a nap!) but overall we were both really impressed. He even made it all the way to Michigan—two days and 18 hours in the car—without an accident!

He filled out two of these sheets while we were gone—one star for each potty, with him being able to pick a treat when each line was completed. He LOVED picking out the sticker and LOVED putting it on the star. He even tried to negotiate by saying “Two stars?”

Katie’s Box

We didn’t want to haul a pack-and-play with us, and since Katie isn’t mobile while sleeping yet (other than maybe scooting a few inches one way or another) we weren’t too worried about just putting her wherever. The first night at the hotel she got put on a blanket on the floor. At Papa and Grannie Lin’s, she got a Rubbermaid box. 🙂

Welcome to the real North!

I love this sight:

We were surprised at the amount of tree color in the U.P. considering it was only September 16.

After what seemed like a short 7½ hours (after two long nine-hour days, 7½ felt short), we made it up to the Upper Peninsula to see my dad’s new house…MAN, that’s a drive. (Here is our total one-way trip from North Carolina.)

See that tiny point? That’s where we were—Eagle Harbor. We joke it’s Alaska.

The view from the back deck—I have to admit it’s nice:

And Owen having a blast playing with cars out there:

And Papa meeting and feeding Katie for the first time…

Potty Training: Day 3

Since Owen pretty much has the basic hang of peeing in the potty, we’ve downgraded the cost of the toys in the jar—we started with real die cast Cars cars and are now down to chocolate candies, dollar store trinkets, and Matchbox cars. 🙂

Also, Tom had regaled me with tales of Owen doing everything perfectly by himself. But with me? He apparently can’t ever get his undies off and when he does he pees all over everything. So now, in addition to the cheaper toys, he only gets a toy if he successfully pees in the potty and keeps his undies dry.

About half the time we still have to ask him if he has to go potty. Today I asked him and he said no (he was watching a TV show) but he was crossing his legs so I actually said “OWEN GO POTTY RIGHT NOW” at which time he ran in there and peed just fine (Tom ran in right behind him and I think he may have helped a bit). So our biggest obstacle seems to be him not wanting to stop what he’s doing.

And then there’s the poop. UGH. We knew he was going to have to poop today since it’s been two days…so we were watching him very closely and making him play in the same room as us. Whenever we asked if he had to poop, of course he’d say NO! and then say “NO poop on the potty!” |-| He peed just fine.

Fast forward to this afternoon when I discovered a tiny little nugget in his underwear…which, of course, he hadn’t told us about. So we made him sit on the potty, letting him play with his cars (and future reward) but he pretty much spent the whole time saying “NO POOP ON THE POTTY!” and saying he was going to poop in a diaper. 😐 I told him we were going to try to poop every 15 minutes and sent him off in clean underwear. On our next trip to the potty? Poopy underwear again. >:XX I know pooping is the hard part, but OHMYGOD one of us might not survive this.

And I really don’t know what I’ll do when Tom isn’t around all day…

Owen and Thunderstorms

We learned last night that Owen doesn’t like thunderstorms—he never used to be bothered by them so this is new. We had a whopper roll through last night, shaking the house, super loud lightning, etc… I got up to pee at 5 and saw his light was on so I went in and he was crying. 🙁 He’s apparently very concerned as to where the sun is. 🙂

He calmed down pretty quickly and let me cuddle him (which I fully enjoyed) but neither of us fell asleep as he kept chattering off and on about the storm, the rain (the sound of rain), his new cars, the movie Cars, etc.

I finally left him at 6, just as Tom was finishing with Katie…as I was laying down, I heard Tom in Owen’s room. Huh? I got up and they were in the bathroom trying to pee. Yes, in the two minutes since I had left Owen’s room, he had turned on his light again. He didn’t have to pee so was diapered and put down again. Ten minutes later I heard him get out of bed so I went back in there. I think we both finally fell asleep around 7 and got up at 8.

It’s going to be a long day.

Owen peed in the grass!

Owen and I were in the pool and he was naked and we’ve told him you can’t pee in the pool. After awhile he says “I need a diaper” and grabs his penis. I make a big deal about him letting me know and tell him he can go in the grass—and then I put him there! He wasn’t too sure. I told him he could pick one of his new cars and he was super excited about that. It took a minute with some cajoling, but he did it!! :up:

We celebrated, he was excited, and he got to pick his car! I said going pee in the grass was just like going in the potty…but he wasn’t falling for it.

But it’s a start, right? I think we’ll do a naked weekend soon.

Katie is one month old today!

The little girl did pretty well with her first monthly photo session…I got the shot before she spit up on her outfit! (And the matching sticker and onesie was completely by accident! That was what she had on overnight and it was still clean this morning so I left it on—then got out the stickers and saw that it matched perfectly!)

Subtly telling me what she thinks of this photo shoot? :))

Two decent outtakes:

Owen holds Katie! Owen feeds Katie!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGojz3OUFZo

He finally agreed to hold her today! Thank heavens for iPhones so I could capture it—I asked him like I always do but I really wasn’t expecting him to say yes so I didn’t have my real camera handy.

He was practically giddy with excitement and was all smiles—it was SO cute!

Checking himself out in the mirror!

And then he was done…and off doing Owen stuff again.

ARRRRRR!!!

He said I love you.

Owen will say “I love you” back to you if you prompt him, but he’s never said it of his own free will (that I can recall). I know it’s just part of his language issues, but I still hope for the day when it happens…which turned out to be tonight. I’m sure it was a fluke (I won’t say it’s a normal thing until it happens repeatedly) but I’ll take it…

I was putting him to bed and, as usual, told him I loved him. And he said “I love you” right back, as if he’s been saying it forever.

Yeah, I melted and got tears in my eyes.

Owen’s first trike!

He never really liked ride-on toys. We tried a balance bike—he didn’t like (get) that at all. He showed no interest in a regular bike. So when I saw this trike for a steal, we thought we’d try it. It just might work…

Aside from pushing the bike around the house, this is his entire first experience (outside) with his new trike. I think we have a ways to go yet. 🙂

She finally woke up on her own!

We’ve been super super spoiled thus far, with Katie pretty much sleeping through the night since we brought her home!! (In this case, sleeping through the night = one feeding per night around 3-5a where we have to go in and wake her up.) Of course, instructions for newborns are to wake them up every 2-3 hours to eat, but I just couldn’t do that since she was sleeping SOOOO well. So, I conceded to wake her up that often DURING the day, but NOT at night. And things were going well. And then last night was the first night she actually woke up on her own! And then it was still only one feeding! Yay, Katie!

Executive decision & first bottle!

I tried my hardest to breastfeed again…but I had the same problems as I did with Owen (not a good latch, painful latching, super sore breasts, etc.) so I had been pumping and then we had been feeding Katie with a syringe while she sucked our finger (so she wouldn’t get spoiled by the bottle and would still be able to breastfeed)…but then after lots of thought, I just made the executive decision to give it up and just start pumping full time and feed her with a bottle. It also nicely coincided with my mom and Aunt Marge being here, so they could help feed her! Grandma Jean got the honor of giving her the first bottle!

First Photo Shoot

How could Katie be five days old and we hadn’t had a “real” photo shoot yet? (By real I mean me doing a somewhat dedicated set up and snapping a bunch of shots…not a real session with a photographer.) I also wanted to do birth announcements and I didn’t have just the right pictures. Of course, she didn’t cooperate by staying super sleepy once I started manhandling her…but I did get one really cute one and a few decent ones.

Mama, I’m floating!

We have tried repeatedly to let Owen float in our arms, but he’s not a big fan (he ESPECIALLY HATES being put on his back, even when we have a secure hold on him). So I was a bit surprised when on his own, as he was holding on to the side of the pool (which we usually discourage, since it’s not meant for that), he let his legs float up behind him. And he was loving it! And of course he was splashing and hanging over so far the water was spilling out!

Owen being Owen in the pool:

And more Owen being Owen, this time going through phrases from three different books (see if you can hear lines from Hit the Ball Duck, My Daddy And Me, and Elmo’s Potty Book).

Volcano Take 2 & Owen’s first s’more

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zipn1Pmmqlw

Watching the volcano.

Attempting to roast a marshmallow. He looks close, but he was actually about two feet too far away. We kept trying to move his chair closer, but he kept dragging it back. I guess all our warnings of “FIRE! HOT! DANGEROUS! STAY BACK!” worked a little too well. 🙂

Investigating the still-cold marshmallow.

Where the marshmallow actually spent most of its time…

Daddy to the rescue!

When it finally came time to eat it, he was more interested in watching himself eat it than actually eating it.