Poor little Scout woke up at 4am Saturday morning with intense pains in his lower abdomen. He was able to get comfortable in some positions, but as soon as he moved, he would have a sharp and intense pain again. After hours of misery, I finally called the nurse. She questioned me and had me feel around his stomach to pinpoint the pain. Her conclusion was that he needed to be seen. When I asked what the possible ailments were, she mentioned an appendicitis. (Which is still fresh in my mind from Jakey’s appendicitis a few weeks back.) I asked her if 2 year olds get them, and she said “OH YEAH”. So we headed over to Mission. (Funny how stuff like this always happens on the weekend.)
We headed over, and my poor little baby was still miserable. After an hour or so, they called him back. Once they weighed him and took his height, he realized he wasn’t into the whole hospital experience, and started screaming, “Get me out of here! I want to go home!” When we finally got into the room, he was clinging onto me for dear life. The nurse came in and took some info, and somewhere in there, I felt a warmth on my side. My poor, little, perfectly potty-trained boy had wet his pants. Almost immediately after, the nurse came in with a cup and told me that if it was possible to catch some of his potty in a cup, that it would be really helpful. I showed him my side, and said it might be a while. In the meantime, I told Scout the process of urinating in a cup, and told him I would help him when he needed to go again. (The nurse also told me that kids his age usually had a hard time with it, so they might have to do things a different way — a worse way.) I felt so bad for him at this point…especially since the totally uncrowded emergency room experience had already consumed over an hour of my little pain-ridden boy’s life.
And then suddenly….for no reason at all….he felt better. He wanted to color. He wanted to check out all of the machines in the room. He wanted to jump off the ER bed. He was rearing to go. SWEET! Glad I had already given our insurance info. I felt like taking my kid and running before they started racking up the bill.
Then he told me he had to go potty. He was totally excited to try out this cool new thing of urinating in a cup. He got it just right, and I literally had to scream for him to stop before it overflowed. Afterward, he inspected his potty like it was the coolest thing he had ever seen. He couldn’t take his eyes off of it, and kept telling me step by step of how he did it. He was literally so proud of his accomplishment. I even snapped a picture with my phone.
When the doc finally came in (after all of this), she inspected him for a couple of things. She also tested his potty — which really bothered Scout because he didn’t want anyone to take his cool new cup-o-urine away. Everything came back clean, and we were on our way. Breakfast at Ruby’s Diner afterward, was his little prize. Yeah — he definitely felt fine.
I guess it is better to error on the side of caution — at least that is what my mom said because she was really the driving force behind me taking him to the hospital in the first place. (I’ll send you the bill mom.) But he was stoked to have been to the hospital just like B, Jake, Trey and Doey. (Mostly Trey was mentioned, but the others got a shout out.)
The best part of the day…..when the nurse came back with his cup-o-urine, and said he could take it home. He was SO excited to show everyone. And on the way home, he told me everyone he was going to show. My favorite was “Royal’s mom”, who was going to think he was “so big”. When he got home and I made him take a nap, he asked if we could put it up on his shelf, “so [he] could just look at it.” I put it there, and he even made me move it to a better spot. And on his shelf it sits, like his own little personal trophy. (Think there is a bacteria issue with that?) (Tristen or Gary — are you guys still doing urine therapy? Because I have some pretty potent stuff on my hands. Call me.)
Ickity Dickity Dock has spent the last two months mystifying me. She constantly says a word — that I can not understand. It is actually kind of frustrating, because I have tried to figure out the words many times — to no avail. The main part of the word that I could understand was a “long e” sound. At different points of these months, I thought she was saying “birdEE”, or “trEE”. So after awhile, I just gave up. I figured it would work itself out in time.
So a few days ago, I was in the other room and heard her say the word over and over. And this time after she was saying the word, she was grunting really loud like if she wants another bite of dinner. After she did this a few times, I headed in, and she was pointing to all of the books in the book case. So I said, “Read”? And she said, “rEEd”!!!!
Ever since, I have noticed that she is always saying “read” when we are in the “Family Night Room” (according to Scout), where all of the books are. I also remember that quite a few times when she was saying the mystery word, she had a magazine. So, while grasping at straws, I helped her find a “tree” in the magazine. My poor little girl just wanted her mama to read to her. Is that not so cute!!! She was saying read all along. So as a celebration — we headed to Borders Books to have a reading marathon.
Megan posted all of her photos from Navy’s first birthday party. It is amazing how much better her photos are from her nice camera, than the ones from my point and shoot. Here are a few more to look at –
I love her out of control hair.
When Megan does a party…she goes all out. So when Chloe said she wanted a pig themed party, of course Megan got a real live pig for the attendees. Scout had a great time, but I think Navy had the best time. She was in her element all day long.
The table with everything pig. Although this picture doesn’t feature the perfectly cooked pigs in a blanket that I prepared.
The millions of goody bags the party goers got to take with them.
Icka was a little hesitant, but ended loving the pig by the end. She pet the pig without any problem.
Unlike Scout who was holding on to Trilby for dear life!
One of the many activities — painting individual piggy banks.
Icka — just hanging out with all of the girls who all loved her.
Icka with the birthday girl. By the way — isn’t it cool that all of my kids cousins would hate a party (with their friends) if their cousins Scout and Navy weren’t there.
Sissy getting her squirt of whipped cream. Delish!
Last but not least — my mom didn’t want the helium in the balloons go to waste.
Why is this woman purely CLASSIC!
Happy B-Day Chloe!
I just cleaned out our toy room, and am amazed at how many toys we have amassed over just a few years. I am also surprised at how my kids focus on their few favorites time and time again. It’s funny how I would have never bought half of the toys we have if I would have known that my kids would pass over them regularly. Or how I would have bought multiples of some of our toys. You just never know what your kids are going to kind of like, and what they are going to LOVE. Well, in retrospect, I can say that the best money EVER spent on a toy was on this:
The mini Kick scooter.
Talk about the best scooter around.
Scout can be seen on his scooter at least one hour a day — on a slow day, and possibly up to three hours a day on a good day.
He rides it while I cook, while I am feeding Icka, and whenever anyone is downstairs to watch him — and that is only when he is inside.
His regular is to hop on his scooter, stop by the bread drawer, and scoot to his little heart’s delight.
Sometimes he is so anxious, he skips the whole part of putting his underpants on before he runs down to scoot.
For anyone looking for the best toy a little boy could love, INVEST.
It is worth every penny.
(Look at his gasp!)
I have heard horror stories about potty training. I have a friend who potty trained her boy four months ago, and he still refuses to poop on the potty. He has the potty part completely down, but won’t take the next step. So you can imagine her frustration when her boy wears pull ups that he never potties in, but always poops in. Kind of defeats the entire purpose of potty training — don’t you think?
Then I have Trilby and my mom (mostly Trilby) always wanting me to get Scout potty trained. They try to entice him by saying things like, “your friends or cousins don’t wear diapers….do you want to wear them?” or “when you poop in your diapers….you STINK! It’s yucky! Do you want to be yucky and stinky?” (to which he says…that he does want to wear diapers, and does want to be stinky).
So one morning when Scout woke up, my mom pointed out that he was completely dry for the 5th day in a row. She was really trying to urge me, but I wasn’t dying to potty train Scout in the first place. I always see mothers rushing their frantic kids to the potty in the middle of shopping or a movie, and I didn’t want that to take over my life just yet. More importantly, I wasn’t that bothered by changing diapers. I already have to change Navy’s so another set of dirty buns didn’t seem like that big of a deal to me.
In an attempt to humor my mom, I decided I would see if Scout wanted to go on the big boy potty after he woke up dry. He said he didn’t, and I wasn’t going to push the issue. But when I saw my mom peering at me in my peripheral vision, I said, “Come on Scout…let’s just try.”
We got on the big boy potty, and Scout had absolutely no problem. He went potty immediately, and then we ran to get him a treat to celebrate. I told him to tell me if he needed to go again, and I would help him, and the rest is history. Scout wouldn’t let me help at all, and went into the potty about six times throughout the day to use the facility. He had the potty part, the washing his hands part, the flushing part, the coming and making me look part, and the getting a treat part down to a science after day one. My mom was so impressed that she took him over to Costco for a box of Pull Ups right away!
Then about three quarters of the day through, he called me in to show me his potty. To my amazement, it wasn’t potty…it was poop!!!! My boy had literally potty trained himself! When I told him I would have to wipe his bottom, I told him to turn around. I started cracking up like crazy because he had a dingle berry that was half bubble gum. And to top it off, it wasn’t wiping very easily because the bubble gum was still sticking to his booty. Poor guy — who has a very immature mother as I was dying laughing the whole time.
My mom and Trilby, and everyone else for that matter were amazed at the ease of my potty training experience with Scout. He seriously was shown one time, and had it completely mastered. What a smart little dude!
UNTIL….
The next day Scout got right up and went potty without a problem. He got his treat, and did it a few more times. At this point, I was bragging to everyone about my little boy. I even told my friend mentioned above that I was going to try and make a few bucks on the side by writing a book entitled, “How To Potty Train Your Child In One Day”. She gave me a courtesy laugh. I guess karma got me when Scout pooped into his pull ups that afternoon. Then again the next day. Again the next. He has never had a potty accident, but he spent the next two weeks pooping in his Pull Up.
I was starting to get frustrated, because I didn’t understand why he had reverted. Then when I finally asked him why he wouldn’t go on the big boy potty to go poop, he said with a sad little face, “because if I go poop, I will get a dingle berry.” CAN YOU BELIEVE that I was the reason he reverted. I keep asking my self why I couldn’t be professional about the dingle berry!?
Well, it did take about two weeks, a tricycle bribe to get him pooping on the potty, and his new Nemo underwear he was going to get to wear before we saw results. I told him that when he pooped on the potty for three days in a row, he got to wear his big boy “underwearpants” and go and pick up his trike. Funny how when the bribe was just right, he had no problem doing it. Smarter than I even thought!
Well, I am proud to say that I have a big boy on my hands. He is SO excited to be in the elite crowd with Jake and Cade and Trey. Too bad I delayed the process, but the story might even be worth it. Can you believe that I even have pictures, but they are stuck on my stinking broken camera? What a rip!
(Cutest Big Boy buns I’ve ever seen!)
Calin announced that she didn’t feel good, so Scout went over to her and told her,
“NayNay, I know what will make you feel better.”
Calin — “you do? What would make me feel better?”
Scout — “Fruit Snacks make you feel better all the time.”
Calin — “They do?”
Scout turning to me — “Go and get NayNay some fruit snacks right now.”
So I did.
Upon returning with the fruit snacks for NayNay,
Scout announced, “I feel sick”.
Icka was playing with her cousins (Camden to be exact — but I don’t blame), and I heard the scream every mother dreads. You know — the scream that informs me that she is hurt instead of ornery. I ran in to find a bloody mouth. I figured she had bumped her lip or something. Come to find out, her bottom front tooth was knocked loose. So after calling a couple of doctors and Megan (who is an expert on kids knocked out teeth), I figured that gently pushing it into place and watching over the next few weeks is the only option I have. So I am watching, and crossing my fingers that I don’t have a darling little girl with a gray tooth for the next seven years. (No offense to those of you who do.) The poor thing. I was worried all day long, and kept holding her and checking on it. Tristen couldn’t believe that I was so worried all day long. (I wonder what kind of mother that is going to make her?)
After looking through the pictures Megan took of Icka’s birthday party (the jump house party that we had the day after the incident), I came across the perfect picture of her crooked tooth. Now imagine that I told the orthodontist that my daughter had perfectly straight teeth just a few weeks back…and now look:
Isn’t that so sad. But I guess if it is white and crooked, I don’t care too much. It just adds character and a new nickname — Snaggletooth.)
When I heard Bryan was out of town, I packed up the kids and headed to San Diego to surprise them. The surprise was on us when we got there, and they were nowhere to be found. Luckily it was only 30 minutes of hanging out in their empty house before they came home. We had a great time…until Navy had to go to sleep in a foreign closet, and Scout was expected to not talk as he went to bed (because it was a school night for Doey). Besides the going to bed part, we all had a good time. Megan even canceled working in both Chloe and Trey’s classrooms to hang out with us this morning.
The highlight for the kids was definitely feeding the ducks at Lake Poway. I love the juxtaposition between Scout and Navy. Notice him backed away from the ducks, and Navy is right there where all of the action is taking place.
We then hit the park.
And when we headed home, I told Scout that if he took a nap in the car on the way home, that he wouldn’t have to take on at home. He was all over that, but stinks for him that squinting like he is napping — and really napping are two different things.
My favorite was when he wanted to open his eyes, he would put his hands over his face and peek through his fingers.
Classic!
After my mom seemed a little unnerved that her bath looked like a total mess, (due to Picasso and Rembrandt Denison) she asked Scout when he was going to clean it up. He said, “Never….Nonnie, it is my artwork.” Hence…..it is still currently on display.
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