Sunday, April 3, 2011

Worst Spring Break EVER!

The kids were on spring break this week and it turned out horrible.

It started off okay, but went downhill over the week.  We started last weekend sleeping in and being really lazy.  Which is not something I do often so that was kind of nice.

Monday morning it snowed.  In March. In North Carolina.  It stuck a little to the grass in the early morning but even that melted pretty quick.  It actually snowed a majority of the morning.  The kids slept in until 8am that morning.  It’s harder to say which event was more unbelievable – the snow or the kids sleeping in until 8am.   The rest of the week was fairly bad weather as well.  It was cold and rainy the whole week.  Definitely not spring break weather.

Tuesday morning was the last good day of the week.  We watched a little boy from Will’s class whose Dad was out of town and his mom had to work.  Will had a blast having his friend here.  Lindy did her own thing for most of the time but played with them towards the end.   The kids were tired when he left!

After naptime, we started in on POTTY TRAINING Lindy.  We made a big production of throwing the diapers away and wearing big girl pants.  We’d been talking about this for a month now.  I think I brought her downstairs and as soon as I had my back turned she peed.  I stayed next to that girl for the next 3 days.  Wednesday morning I was able to ‘catch her’ and throw her on the potty so that she ended up peeing in the potty a couple times.  We made the biggest deal out of that tiny bit of success.  I thought we were getting somewhere.  Thursday she peed at 9am, peed and pooped at 12pm, and then didn’t pee again until 6pm!!!  She has a man-sized bladder.  It was so obvious she had to pee.  She was holding her crotch and practically dancing but she just wouldn’t do it.  We put her in her chair for dinner and towards the end she actually told me she had to pee and actually peed in the potty.  A complete success.  We were so excited and it really buoyed our spirits to where we could continue on Friday.  I woke up just sure she would start telling us when she had to pee.  Well she didn’t.  She peed about 8 times that morning, never once telling us she had to pee.  By Friday after naptime, we were pretty much done. 

She wasn’t getting it.   She could talk the talk but couldn’t pee in the potty.  I ended up putting her in pull-ups Friday after naptime and we’ve backed off.   She’s worn pull-ups all weekend and we keep asking her if she has kept the princesses or Buzz and Woody (from Toy Story) dry. We’ve started taking her to the potty with us when we take Will.

Potty training is rough.  The worst thing ever.  They need to warn parents before they get pregnant that they are going to have to potty train their kid.  No one warned me!

Besides a completely failed week of potty training, the kids and I all have some kind of cold or allergy thing going on.  Lindy started in at the beginning of the week, even having a low-grade fever one day.  Will’s nose kicked into full-swing and was running like crazy and then mine started up.  The later part of the week he woke up with a fever every day after naptime.  I gave him some Tylenol a couple nights before bed and he woke up awhile later covered in sweat and screaming.  He gets inconsolable when he breaks a fever.  He’s usually shaking, stuttering, and screaming all at one time.  

Friday night after the kids went to bed we had some friends over and we were all able to blow off some steam.  It was exactly what I needed after many days of staring at Lindy’s bum, waiting for her to pee on herself! 

Saturday was the best day of the week.  The Governor Morehead Preschool for Visually Impaired Children and the local police department bomb squad put on the first ever Eggsplosion.   The bomb squad made Easter eggs that beeped, so the visually impaired kids could find them!  It was such a cool idea.  There were kids with varying degrees of visual impairment there, as well as full-sighted siblings like Will.  They would put 25 eggs out at a time and let 5 kids go at a time.  Each kid got to find 5 kids.  Will could obviously just see them but the rest of the kids could use the beeps to figure out where they were.  It was neat to see Lindy the first time she heard the beep.  We got close to one and her head whipped around toward the egg!  What a cool experience for her and the other kids.  They got to trade in their eggs for prizes.  Besides the egg hunt they had a clown, face painting (which Will would have nothing to do with), games, snacks, and then the bomb squad had two of their robots there.  It was such a fun morning.  The robots were really cool to see and hear about.  I thought the clown was really great too.  He had kids feeling his nose and shoes, smelling the makeup (which he said smelled like baby powder).  He really described himself to some of the kids that had no sight at all.  The other great part was that we got to see two of Lindy’s past teachers.  One teacher only served her for a few months but Leslie served her for a couple years.  We switched teachers last July when we moved to a new county.  It’s always nice to see our old teachers!

Because it was a cool event, the local newspaper was there taking pictures and talking to parents.  Imagine our surprise when we opened the paper this morning and saw a picture of Lindy and me from the egg hunt!  Click here to see the article and picture that was in the paper.  We were local celebrities today at church!  I only wish the reporter had mentioned the Governor Morehead Preschool in the article. 

Here are pictures of our failure of a week!  Hoping this week is better!

We got in one last wear of the I love snow days shirt since it snowed Monday!DSC_7491One of the rare moments this week that the kids got along.  There has been a lot of fighting over toys lately.  DSC_7493Will with his friend Aditiya.DSC_7502DSC_7504Potty training at our house means covering the floor with plastic.  It’s stressful enough already that I don’t want to be worrying about the carpet!DSC_7506DSC_7507She looks cute…too bad she isn’t wearing them all day yet.DSC_7510Strange tv watching position for Will.DSC_7512Looks cute on the potty.  Just won’t use it!DSC_7515Getting comfortable while playing the iXL.DSC_7522The one and only success on Thursday night and she was ballistic.  She was SO excited.  DSC_7523DSC_7524Will finally got his hair cut!  Looks so much better!DSC_7530Will’s block city that he built one day.DSC_7537Seeing Jots the clown at the Easter egg hunt.DSC_7544The bomb squad robots.  DSC_7547Lindy zeroing in on a green egg!DSC_7550Found it!DSC_7551Got it!DSC_7554DSC_7555Will hunting for eggs.DSC_7558Got it!DSC_7560DSC_7561The kids with Ms. Leslie and her son Alex.  DSC_7563DSC_7568Lindy’s first face painting!DSC_7587She fell one time and laid there practically posing!DSC_7589Hey look, an egg!DSC_7599McGruff the dog!DSC_7606DSC_7608DSC_7610DSC_7613Playing games.DSC_7619DSC_7629The kids with Lindy’s current teacher, Ms. Pam, and  her assistant, Leah.DSC_7635

4 comments:

becca said...

It must definitely be in the air, last week was a horrible horrible week for us as well.....complete with me winning the mom of the year award more than once for my bad mothering. Oh well. Today is a new day! :) Hugs, love and prayers!

Cheryl said...

Hi Jamie,
Not sure if I have commented on your blog, but been following you guys for a while now. Just look the kidos pics and their smiling faces. Good luck with the potty training !

The Buckley Family said...

Hang in there! I think this is our 4th attempt potty training with the 2 and it appears (knock on wood) that they're finally getting it!!

Jamie

becca said...

Hey hey! I e-mailed you! I'm a "go" and I joined your team. Since I didn't have much time, I set my goal low but already got 1/2 of my goal! YEAH!