Snots & Sneaks

A smattering of news … here and there and everywhere …

I don’t wanna jinx this, but potty training is actually becoming “training.”  I think he’s getting it.  I think we might just be out of pullups quite soon.

YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!  B’s potty chart is filling up with stickers, and he knows the drill: 1) Potty. 2) Get dressed (as he insists on taking off pullup and pant each time). 3) Clean hands. 4) Treat. 5) Sticker.  We’ve been consistently doing this routine every day for the past week, and he’s only had a few wet pullups (like after naptime or a trip to the store).   But these potty treats… well, they’ve created a monster.  Back in the fall we found these little candy dogbones and Ben loves them.  So…we started using them as potty treats.  Thursday morning I came downstairs after feeding Annie – not having heard a peep from Ben and assuming he was still asleep – to find Ben standing on a dining room chair in front of the microwave, holding the empty ziploc dish where I kept the dogbones.  All gone.  Ben went without potty treats the rest of the day, and maybe I should have extended that to the rest of the week.  I don’t know.

Last night I got out a tootsie roll bag and put it on top of the fridge.  This morning I gave Ben one after he had success, once again, with the potty.  However, later this morning I was changing Annie in the bathroom after she’d woken up from her nap; in the time it took me to change her diaper, Benjamin rushed downstairs, pulled a chair to the fridge, and climbed up – trying to reach the bag of tootsie rolls on top of the fridge.  He didn’t notice that I’d come downstairs, so I stood watching him for a few seconds before I said, “BENJAMIN HOUTS.”  He jumped, looked at me with wide eyes, and immediately said, “I’m sorry, Mom.  I’m sorry.  I’m sorry.”  Tears.  “Why don’t you please go change Annie’s diaper? Can you please go change her?”

He’s been sneaking around lately…whether it’s sneaking out of bed, or sneaking a snack from the kitchen…and when he gets caught, he asks us to please go back to what we were doing.  Well, and ignore his sneaking.  It’s so darn cute and he means no harm; but he knows that we’ll mean business when we catch him.

Benjamin enjoys carrying around a little cloth puppet and pretending it’s his “goody bag.”  He’ll fill it with all sorts of toys, bring it to us, and say, “Close your eyes!”  It’s a wonder how many times Mom and Dad can be happily surprised by a little digger toy and a nickel.  But this “close your eyes” thing is really big with Ben right now.  He’ll wrap something up in his blanket and bring us our “birthday present,” saying, “Close your eyes!” while he unwraps the loot.

Ben is sitting on the potty a few days ago.  I’m waiting in the kitchen.  I hear: “Close your eyes, Mom!”  I do. 

Trickle, trickle.

So that’s my cue.  I know exactly when Ben will succeed in his potty attempt because he’ll preempt it with: “OK. Close your eyes, Mom!”

B has started to pray along with me at bedtime.  BUT…he will only do it when Annie is also with us.  When it’s time to pray, he reaches out to grab her hand and mine, bows his head, and prays along: Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep; the angels watch me through the night, and keep me in their blessed sight. And Benjamin’s favorite part: And all God’s children say, quiet as a little mouse: A-men.

Annie had her 4-month appointment today.  Fit as a fiddle.  Healthy as a horse.  She weighs 14.5 pounds (like the 66th percentile), and Annie takes after her big brother for length.  She’s up there in the 80th percentile.  I continue to be amazed at what a calm baby she is; she smiled when I undressed her and propped her up in the weighing seat, and she looked intently at the doctor while she checked her out.  Poke time came, and after a confused look as she swallowed her rotovirus dose, she didn’t flinch when the first needle went into her thigh.  The second one, though, got a startled cry.  And then it was over.  Annie gave the nurse a big smile on her way out.

Annie is reaching for toys now and can balance in her exersaucer for a few minutes at a time before getting her arm stuck.  She often goes through much of the night without needing to eat; but she’ll be restless and need her pacifier to calm down.  When I’m really tired, I’ll just plop her into bed with me because I know she’ll sleep soundly.

The reach 'n roll

Annie has also entered the shrieking phase.  I don’t know if there’s any other way to describe it.  It’s not a scream, and it’s not a wail.  It’s not because she’s upset, and not because she’s happy.  She just shrieks.  It’s loud and piercing and I think she’s just experimenting with her newly-found voice.  I think it’s kind of fun.    She is so, so, so ticklish around her ribs and underneath her chin.  And Annie still falls asleep almost every time she rides in a car.  It’s been that way ever since she was born.

almost four months old!

In other news, we’ve got the snots at our house.  Both kids have perpetually running noses.  Clear, thank goodness.  I’ve stocked up on Kleenex boxes. Ben has quite the hacky cough, though, and our doctor told us to try a half teaspoon of Mucinex to get it cleared up.  B was extremely excited to be able to take medicine.  Like, jumping out of his shoes excited.  He really enjoyed the cherry-flavored chewable tylenol I gave him a few months ago when he had a temp that wouldn’t break, so every time I ask whether he feels sick, this is his response: “I think I feel sick.  I think I need some medicine.  Mm-hmm.  Why don’t you please go and get me some medicine, Mom?”  So…for any of your toddler moms out there, a half teaspoon of children’s Mucinex (just not the cough suppresant kind) is A-ok.

chillin with Dad

Both kids are awake now and I think we’re heading to a free pony ride downtown!

Giddy up!