The Potty Post

So I had two main things that I wanted accomplished before Button's arrival at the end of September ~ Liam out of diapers and Liam settled into his new room. Missions accomplished!! Miraculously all of our diligent work paid off. Liam has been wearing underpants round the clock for over 2 weeks with only one overnight accident (and this happened at Mammau's house, so it doesn't really count.)

He had been peeing in the potty from time to time since the beginning of the year. Until this past month he was not telling us when he had to go; therefore, wetting his Pullups often in between our random decisions to make him sit on the potty. Also, except for a few isolated times right around his 2nd birthday, he refused to poop on the potty. People were trying to suggest different things I could use for rewards to try to get him to go #2 on the toilet. But I listened to the books and let him continue to deuce in his diaper without pressuring him to go on the potty which would make him cry. We concentrated on the peeing, eventually just putting him in underpants and letting him wet himself down his leg into a puddle on the floor for 3 days and then something just clicked. He didn't like making his big boy pants wet (and his legs, and his socks and his toys for that matter) so he started making weird faces and holding himself when he had to go often just saying "Mommy!" in an urgent tone. This lasted a few days and we hurried him to the commode each time saying "Hold it! Hold it!" Now he just simply states "I have to pee." and walks to the bathroom. For about one week, I was letting him change into a diaper to poo until that one fateful time when he didn't make it and pooped in his underwear. Something clicked again and he has been pooping on the potty (yes the little one that we have to dump and clean, that's reeeal fun) for well over a week.

I can't even express how much easier my life is now. When you are in the midst of training, you think the day will never come, and then it does and it's glorious. He really is growing up!

Oh yeah, and he's been sleeping in his new room in his big boy bed without any fussing, problems, or query about his old room for about 3 weeks now. So except for washing baby clothes and bedding, putting the crib back together, and buying a couple things we need, we're all ready for the baby. Okay maybe not "ready". Am I really ready to get up every 2-3 hours again? Ummm, no.

Button's Party

So we're now counting down the weeks until Baby Button's arrival in single digits. Scary! This past Saturday we had a wonderful pool party/shower complete with beautiful weather, 2 kicked 1/4 kegs and a construction themed cake (Liam's current obsession). We really want to thank all of our friends for enduring their long drives to celebrate with us. Seriously, why do we all live so far apart?

The proud parents!

Liam helping Mommy open the baby loot. Thanks to everyone for the great gifts!

All the girlies chillin' in the pool. Look! Kyle found some topless friends. Pappau and CC taking swing duty. In the final vote in the "Guess the Sex" survey, Baby Boy #2 beat out Little Girl Flanagan 17-16. Pretty darn close. Plus Liam voted Boy and his vote changes daily! However, his name choice never waivers. "Mayonnaise" is still his pick.

Tagged

Nicole tagged me to do this survey. So here's a chance for you to find out some things about me that you probably didn't know and probably won't remember.

Five Snacks You Enjoy

1.) cereal

2.) ice cream

3.) cheesecake (sweet tooth, anyone?)

4.) pretzels

5.) a cool glass of pinot grigio

Five Songs That You Know All The Lyrics To

1.) Don't Stop the Music - Rihanna (Liam's favorite song)

2.) Most songs on the Taylor Swift CD - Liam also loves her

3.) Your Song - Elton John

4.) Yellow - Coldplay

5.) Most Dave Matthews Band songs

Five Things You Would Do If You Were a Millionaire

1.) Travel

2.) Let Kyle open a custom chopper business

3.) Hire a landscaper! No more weeding!

4.) Buy new cars for my family members

5.) Donate more money to charity

Five Bad Habits

1.) saying "you know what I mean?"

2.) eating too much cereal

3.) liking things done my way on my schedule

4.) "forgetting" to exercise since becoming enormous

5.) taking long showers

Five Things You Like To Do

1.) anything with my husband, that's right, I said anything

2.) watch football - 2 weeks to go!

3.) cook if someone else cleans up

4.) hang out in the pool with a beverage

5.) read to Liam

Five Things You Would Never Wear Again

1.) a short skirt

2.) hemp necklace

3.) a Pub shirt

4.) thong underware - unless I'm playing dressup :)

5.) a tank top without a bra (I can sadly no longer pull this off)

Five Favorite Toys

1.) tennis rackets

2.) my camera

3.) the computer

4.) board/trivia games

5.) the pool table

Chocolate = True Love

While I was out for dinner with the ladies on Tuesday night, my sweet husband was at home surprising me by baking a chocolate cheesecake . . . from scratch!! It was a great idea since I LOVE cheesecake and am approaching hugely pregnant. I had no idea he was going to do this, or that he would tackle the task with Liam in tow. He wants to help with everything now and sometimes that makes things messy and time-consuming. Alas, they prevailed and the end product was delicious. Seriously better than any dessert I have ever made before, and I've made some pretty damn good desserts. It was one of the sweetest things he has ever done and seeing how proud Liam was of their creation made my heart melt. I am truly very lucky. Kyle hates how over half of all the photos I have of him are shirtless, but that's pretty much how he spends his time when not at work or in public. So sorry honey, another white boobie shot of you goes into cyberspace.

Liam digging into his masterpiece. He was a bit juiced after this.

Thank you to everyone who called, texted, blogged or mailed me birthday wishes. I felt a big hug from you all and a little grope from a few. Preggers need fondled too!

The Piano Man Live!

Last night my sister, my mom and I went to the Billy Joel concert in Hershey. He is such a good entertainer for a chubby, bald 60-year-old. Of course I was expecting him to be good, but I never thought his voice would still be so great. The band was great, the weather was great, it was a great night except for a few things. Now for the bitch session:

1. The parking lot at Hershey Stadium (which also includes The Giant Center and Hershey Park) is seriously effed up. There is only one way out, at one light. After we walked 25 minutes to our car (I'm not complaining about that b/c I don't mind walking), we literally sat in the same spot in the parking lot for over an hour inching our way with everyone else to the one road out of purgatory. I live 15-20 minutes from the Stadium. We got into our car at 11:25pm. I stepped into my house at 1:30am. Ri-dicalous!

2. Our seats were on the field, pretty close to the back. We didn't mind. You can obviously hear the music fine and they put all the video on the big screens. However, the angry couple from Hell who decided to bring their 11 and 14-year-old kids to the concert sat a few people down from us. Let the drama ensue. First, a security guard walked down our aisle to tell their kids that they couldn't stand on their chairs. (Note: These were not short little kids. The son, okay, I can see him needing the chair. He was only as tall as his dad when standing on it. But the girl was at least 5'6". Definitely taller than me and I wasn't hoisting my pregnant butt onto a chair to try to see the speck that was Billy at his pea sized piano.) Anyway, the Dad started yelling at the security guard and told the girl to get back on her chair. The little old couple from munchkin land standing behind them said they couldn't see. He started yelling at them! The daughter started bawling uncontrollably, uncomfortably trying to crouch down as not to get in trouble or upset anyone yet still standing on the chair at her psycho dad's insistence. Seriously, she WILL need therapy. To sum up the rest of the 1/2 hour bad reality show meltdown, the old man went to get the security guard again, the daughter cried harder, the old lady tried scolding the mother for not listening and being polite to the people behind, the mother yelled even louder than the dad and called the old lady some names, the dad went and talked to some head security guy and got permission for HIS kids to stand on their chairs (who is this guy!?), the kids stood back on their chairs, and a nice young couple consisting of a 5 foot tall girl traded spots with the oldies so they could try to enjoy the concert. I can't stand people that live in bubble of inconsideration for the rest of the humans on this planet.

Anyway, enough of my ranting. It was a great concert and I'm glad I got to see him in my lifetime. If you have the chance, I recommend it. He even played the lullaby I really wanted to hear for the baby, which I never thought he would play in a million years because it is obscure and not a radio fave. I only have pics of us in the parking lot. My sister took some of the stage and video screens with her phone, but why really?

My mom putting us in a weird pose. She's wacky!

Holiday Weekend

We have enjoyed a great holiday weekend so far. Kyle had Friday off and we spent a low key day at home. Liam loved playing with sparklers. I think we went through 4 packs. We also grilled for dinner and Liam ate his corn right off the cob for the first time. He loved it. We tried to take it away from him after he had eaten all of the corn and he yelled, "No, I lick it now!" We went to see big fireworks last night and he did really well. He wasn't scared at all and would say "Wow!" after each one. Saturday we went to the Maryland Zoo and had a great time. If you ask Liam what animal he liked best, he'll say "the snakes! . . . and the goats." He's not hard to please. There was a very cute baby elephant there that had all of the moms "awwwwing" over him. Kyle and I really liked the rhinos (they are very impressive up close) and the chimpanzees. They are hilarious jumping around from tree to tree, swinging on ropes, licking each other's butts, you know, normal monkey stuff. The penguins were also funny "talking" to their trainers, swallowing fish whole and just walking around the way they do. I dare you not to crack a smile watching a penguin try to waddle around as fast as it can.

Liam in an oriole nest replica. Now for a pregnancy update. I'm in the beginning of my third trimester. Only 12 weeks (or hopefully a little less) to go! I've gained 16 pounds and tomorrow I go for my gestational diabetes test and rhogam shot. Hopefully my body has been tolerating all the cereal and cookies I've been eating well. The baby is moving a lot and we can feel little parts pushing against my skin. I can't believe I've been pregnant for almost 200 days! Time is really flying.

Rennovations

We have been doing a lot this past month to get ready for summer and baby button's end of summer arrival. We painted the third bedroom in order to move Liam over and get the nursery ready for numero dos. I know, how could we ever get rid of the creepy "porcelain dolls having a tea party" wallpaper border. It was tough. Luckily the border wasn't as difficult to get off as some other borders we've had to remove from this house. This was our third one. Now all the bedrooms are sans wallpaper. Only the dining room/kitchen to go, but that's probably at least 5 years down the road.

All covered with primer and ready for paint.

I got the idea from Trading Spaces to do subtle vertical stripes. It was a long painstaking process. I was doubting myself BIG TIME, but the end product looks great. The picture doesn't really show how good it actually looks. Liam testing out his new big boy bed. He hasn't officially moved over yet. We still need to hang blinds and all the stuff on his walls. Liam playing in all the junk we put on our bed while we were cleaning. He put himself inside the suitcase like Houdini and tried to zip it up. He loves to hide in stuff.

We also finally got our new pool liner and have been able to swim for the past week. It's great and Liam loves it. Of course we have to deal with a giant tantrum when we tell him he has to get out, but we've been dealing with those regularly and ignoring them seems to be working like a charm.

Old pool liner circa Summer 2006. The mess we had when we took the cover off this summer. Our beautiful new liner!!!