Pee Pee in the Pott-y! (a la John Travolta and Kirstie Alley)

Zane will be potty trained.  Period. The end.  I know that's not the proper mindset, but the kid is driving me nuts.  He is 22 months and shows all the signs of being developmentally ready - and has for some time now.  He knows when he's gone, knows what the potty seat is for. He's dry when he wakes up.  He brings me diapers on his own when he needs to be changed and lays down in our diaper changing "spot" on his own (unless Gabriel is yelling at him to "ESCAPE! ESCAPE, BROTHER!" and frantic running around ensues.  Thanks a ton, G.).  He has even started pointing to his diaper after he has soiled it and saying, "Yuck."  Yesterday he took his wet diaper off twice.  Luckily it wasn't poop.  Thank God for small miracles (and I say that sincerely).

My problem is is that I don't remember at all what I did to potty train Gabriel.  It was less than 2 years ago and rather momentous - you'd think I'd be able to remember.  We timed it with the almanac dates (scoff if you would like; I've used it for all the major things - weaning from nursing/bottle, pacifier, and the potty - solid gold it is, I tell you).  Did I let him run around naked?  Did I take him to the potty every 15 minutes or was it 30?  Did I buy him special underwear?  Were we confined to the house for a day? three? a week? at all?  Gah!  So many things to consider!  Two things I do remember - it was summer and I used chocolate chips as an incentive for about a week because I didn't have anything else in the house the day we started.  Super useful, huh?

So starting tomorrow: If you call and I randomly throw the phone down, please don't think me rude.  If you come by and my children are naked and I have fecal matter and urine all over my house, please don't call DFS (I'm a good mother, I swear!).  If I look like I haven't combed my hair, my pajamas are still on and I don't have my contacts in, please ignore me.  We'll be back to as close to normal as we come in a week or so!

For my maiden post, I have a confession: I have no idea what I'm doing - on this blog; every day with my kids; heck, with my life for that matter.  I play it day by day, and that's tough for me.  I like things to be planned, orderly, or at least organized chaos if I can have it no other way.  I am starting this blog as a means of communication with my husband, who was deployed for the first time today.  I'm hoping that even if he doesn't have time to Skype or even to send an email, he can read a post or two to see how things are holding up on the home front.  We've been apart for long periods of time before, but he's always been in the States and able to call almost, if not every night to tell the boys good night.  He will miss some major life events while on this deployment - most importantly the birth of our daughter in July.  I know that being gone is harder on him than me so my goal is to convey some semblance of normalcy in my posts for him to read and have one less worry.  And hopefully it will be therapeutic for me as journaling is said to be. I don't know if that's true - the longest I've ever kept a journal is about 3 days so I may be expecting a lot out of myself.  

 Our "official" family picture - 2011

Warson Photography

What was really happening - complete and utter noncooperation on the part of our children...

...and this is the story of my life...

Happy reading to all who may find me and bear with me as I organize my thoughts into words that hopefully make some sense!