Potty training = epic fail

Meg had been doing so well on the potty training front. She was ready. Then she did it! My girl went from diapers to panties and didn't look back.

Except. Well, now she's totally looked back.

So during the week, she doesn't mostly well at school. But once she's home with me, no amount of prodding, bribing or "racing" to the toilet seem to make a difference. Andy has become a champ at fake-racing where he tries to motivate her to go by challenging her to a, "Who's first? I'm going to beat you!" race. But even that has lost it's appeal. As a result, she has ruined about a half dozen pairs of girls panties (actually, they may not have been ruined, but I was not in the mind to do the scrubbing necessary to save a $.50 pair of girl's underwear). It's gotten so bad I practically have her in diapers or a pull-up most of the time at home because I was tired of cleaning up the carpet from accidents. 

Any tips out there on battling potty training regression? I know she can do it, but she's still a two year old for another couple of months and I have (somewhat) learned it's not worth it to get into a battle of wills with a person that age. 

Regression

So both kids are in the middle of some weird regressions. Meg has discovered waking up at night is fun! I suspect she's 1) teething 2) having dreams/nightmares 3) she thinks me straggling in to give her a sip of water, hold her for a minute and set her back down is comforing and 4) she thinks Mama looks best with bags under my eyes.

To make it more interesting, Andy has been wetting the bed a lot lately. It's weird how it happens. Since around Christmas, he will be fine for two or three weeks in a row with maybe one accident, then he goes like three or four nights in a row having accidents. Naturally him having an accident means he comes to my room and tells one of us (hopefully Bjorn) that he's had an accident. Sometimes he will have changed into new clothes and crawls into bed with us to then kick me the rest of the morning. Other times like today he came in at 2 a.m. needing help with new clothes and sheets. Poor guy was so exhausted he could barely sit up straight. I made him wear a pull-up after this. I explained to the extent I could that his body is growing right now and it's so busy growing overnight that it doesn't have the energy at the moment to tell him to wake up. We'll see how well that goes over tonight.

Adding to the fun is that Meg has had the barfs twice in a week. First instance was Wednesday afternoon so she was home Thursday (after waking up at 3 a.m. to throw up and then rally into such a good mood she was up until 5 a.m. just being happy. Crazy kid). Then yesterday out of nowhere she woke up from her nap and threw up on me. I gave her some Pedilyte and she threw that up later, too.

Needless to say, I'm sleepy today.

You know, I've been debating changing the title of this blog beacuse until recently, they were pretty good sleepers a lot of the time. It just didn't seem right. But now? Now I am in desperate need of a good night's rest.

Letting the terrorist win

Aw, sleeping baby. Adorable, right? Young Margaret actually has it out for me (and herself) these days. We've been having several power struggles where she looks right at me and does something she's not supposed to, like hitting or running into the street. I think it's a ploy for attention so I need to think about how best to address it. While she doesn't like being told "no" by everyone in the house, she definitely gets attention by it so I need to shift the dialogue and the attention to catching her doing something good. That has to exist, right? Right?

She's back to sleeping in the crib...for now. I am going to further remove everything interesting from the room and then try again. I initially thought this weekend, but maybe I'll wait a couple more weeks. She's also very interested in potty training right now (my girl went no. 1 and no. 2 on the toilet this morning!) so I might take one huge milestone at a time.

Here's to a Pull-up free 2010

Andy's now gone two nights without a Pull-up or an accident. He might get a pony for this. I have been going in before I go to bed walk him to the bathroom to pee. It's sort of hilarious walking his sleep-drunk self to the toilet to perform.

Last night was New Year's and we went to celebrate with friends who have kids the same age. We talked about putting the kids to bed in their house, celebrating until midnight and then going home, but we decided instead to have dinner, wine and celebrate early and then each put our kids to bed in their own beds. I did make it to midnight though. That alone in a bit of a miracle.

Someday I would like to go to Times Square to celebrate -- but later when we're older and can get a good spot without having to stand outside from noon to midnight. In the meantime, I'm content not to be hungover on New Year's Day. I can't say I miss that.

Teeth!

Meg got her bottom front teeth a few weeks (months?) ago. Since then, she's been working on her front two teeth. The one on the right is fully broken through and the one on the left is slowly working its way down. Somehow is the slow unfolding drama that is her two front teeth, I failed to notice that she's getting FOUR others. That's right four. She's now also getting the two on either side of her front two teeth and the two on either side of her bottom two teeth. I know, great parenting at work.

After two rough nights of Andy waking up saying he was "scared", i.e. he woke up and wanted attention, he slept okay the last two nights. In more good parenting, on Wednesday evening, I offered him the rest of a package of cookies (five in all) if he slept through the night without waking Mommy or Daddy. I wasn't even ashamed when I served him five Keebler cookies for breakfast Thursday morning. He earned every one in my opinion.

Yesterday, I stocked up on some Nutter Butters to reward him with this morning. At least I got cookies with peanut butter, right? It does have twice the amount of protein as an Oreo (I actually checked.) I think part of what's waking him up is he's starting to wake up when he has to pee. He's not exactly sure what to do about it yet, because I think the urge is waking him up, by but then he's peed in his diaper. I'm keeping an eye on it though in case this is a good opportunity to work on staying dry at night. Frankly, I'm not too worried about it, but if he's ready, I'll give it a shot, so long as it doesn't mess with my sleep too much.

The most disgusting car ride ever

We drove down to Norfolk this weekend to visit Jennifer and Mark at ODU. It is a simple three hour drive. Just take 95 all the way to 64, through the Harbor Tunnel and you're there. Or not. Instead, it took us 5 1/2 hours down and 5 hours back due to ridiculous traffic on the way down followed by accidents and bad weather coming back. Was I prepared for that extra time in the car? No.

My new, beautiful car has now been christened a family wagon in ways I did not expect. On the way down, Andy spilled chocolate milk all over the back seat. That was bad enough, only to be followed today by his sister. We hadn't even gotten on the highway when she threw up all over herself. Outside of Richmond, Andy decided he had to pee and poop RIGHT NOW. So Bjorn pulled over and took him into the woods (most likely through poison ivy). He did one, but not the other (thankfully, and thankfully he didn't have to later).

Then about 3 1/2 hours in during a particularly bad stretch of bumper to bumper traffic, I felt her and realized needed a diaper change pretty immediately. I quickly pulled her out and laid her on the floor of the car for a quick change only to have not noticed that the diaper was completely full of poop so I managed to get it all over myself fixing it (a poor Thomas towel Andy was using as a blanket had to temporarily be sacrificed). Then because traffic was so horrible, we couldn't pull off the highway the next time Andy demanded to pee so I just took my empty Starbucks cup and let him pee in it. I'm not proud of it, but it did get the job done. I never imagined that boys really could pee in a jar or whatnot on a road trip, but it really did work.

Horrible drives aside, we had a nice visit with Jennifer (Mark was working most of the time so we didn't get to really see him much). We took nice walks through ODU and saw the mysterious monorail that was built on campus, but never used, saw the restaurant where Mark works, ate in Ghent and hung out briefly on Virginia Beach. It was a very busy weekend.

Meg, meanwhile, continues to have spurts of throwing up her whole dinner. About once a day, she coughs so hard it brings up the works. It certainly concerns me (as does her recent bout of not sleeping through the night again), but her doctor has it's not a problem so I'm trying to take a more zen approach that she's growing fine, she's healthy, she's not dehydrated, it's just that temporarily she is a laundry problem. Plus, she has her six month visit next week so I plan to bring it up again then.

Boy pants

Now that Andy is mostly potty trained, I've been shopping for more boys underwear and it has seriously been a fascinating experience. What I've found is that underwear for boys only comes in packs of two or three where girl underwear seems to come in packs of five or more. Apparently boys need fewer pairs?

What's also weird is that you can't buy just white underwear. No, it all has to come with some branded thing on it. Now that he's a bigger kid, I can shop for him in the boys section at Target versus the toddler section. So instead of the toddler choices, like Diego or Thomas, it has more mature choices like Spiderman, Superman and SpongeBob Squarepants. Stranger still is that they sell little boy underpants in characters that are really not aimed at little kids. Like Ironman with Robert Downey Jr. is definitely a more adult movie (or at least elementary school) as is Speed Racer and Transformers, yet they market them in sizes for little kids who couldn't possibly see those movies. It just seems random to me.

What is also odd is that the boy underpants all come with the little flap in front. You know, because Andy is going to be unzipping his pants, reaching in, pulling his penis out through the little pocket and peeing rather than just pulling his pants and underpants down to get to business.

Support

Andy has been having good luck making poop on the toilet (sorry, Internet, I'm looking for better ways to say it, but damn, this post is all about crap so cute phrases are not going to work here). The cool thing about it, other than not having to change dirty diapers, is how supportive our world has been about this. Last week at playgroup at the library, he said he had to go poop, we went to the bathroom and, sure enough, he went. When we went back inside, he proudly told the room and everyone cheered. It made him feel great. And today at his grandmother's, he went again and she rewarded him with a cheerful high five and some ice cream. It was perfect. He loves the sweet rewards of ice cream and popsicles, but I think he likes the cheers from everyone else almost as much.

The exciting news is that he didn't have a dirty diaper all weekend. I take that back, he did mostly poop in his underpants at the toy store only to catch himself 3/4 of the way through and finish on the toilet. Once he was done, he proudly declared he wanted ice cream for pooping on the toilet. I didn't get into it, but does he deserve a reward for that? I still had to rinse out his underwear in the bathroom sink and without a spare handy, he went commando until we got home. And while him going on the toilet is somewhat cleaner, I do find I still have to help pretty significantly with the wiping part which can be just as gross as changing a diaper.

In other news, Bjorn's darling cousins are visiting from Sweden. Don't you love this picture of everyone with their eyes closed? (There are a few better ones that I added to Flickr, but this cracked me up.) It's been fun seeing them and they came bearing cool Swedish gifts, including an awesome Elsa Beskow book for Andy in Swedish that will certainly help me piece together a few more words. They also brought blue and yellow hats. Can you tell?

Public toilets

Andy is doing great with the potty training right now. I can't get him to wear his new underwear. He insists on wearing a pull-up or a diaper, but he is telling me when he has to go and then goes. It's going to take some adjustment on my part to be able to jump when he says he has to go. Like yesterday at Target, we had sat down to a fine meal of chicken tenders and nachos from the $2 menu when he announced he had to pee. I had to quickly put lunch in a bag and rush to the toilet. We ended up eating lunch out of the bag later as we shopped. Fortunately, it was just the two of us. If Meg were with us, it would have been a bigger challenge to quickly get moving.

This all brings me to the subject of public restrooms. I'm not a germaphobe by any stretch and I'm not afraid of public toilets. With a bladder as small as mine and my affection for wine, public restrooms are something I got used to a lot time ago. But I just sit on the seat. Andy, meanwhile, has to lean his little legs up against the toilet and sometimes rests his penis on the toilet bowl because he's not quite tall enough. I always make a point to wipe him down afterwards, but still, ick. And last week at Chipotle, there was a line for the Ladies room so I had to go in the Mens (and is it Ladies' and Mens'? I need to look that up). Anyway, we went in the Mens' room which was just disgusting to begin with and having to touch the nasty toilet seat with my hands to get him ready, well, ick. Sure, I washed down afterwards, but it was still gross.

In the last few months, Andy has gone to an every other day bath schedule, but with Meg spitting up on herself all the time, I've taken to giving her a bath every day to wash the smudge off her hair and neck. I think he's going to need one daily, too, until he's at least tall enough to not molest the toilet when he pees.

Green poop

Andy pooped on the toilet TWICE today. (God, when did my life get to the point where this is the most interesting thing happening?) He went this morning before I took him to his pediatric ENT appointment to check that his ear tubes are in and doing what they're supposed to. As a reward, I promised him ice cream after our appointment. The deli in the medical building sold cold treats and I let him pick one out, a very large, phallic green Popsicle. He was psyched. He started to eat it when I realized that today was picture day at school so I made him take off his shirt to eat the Popsicle. What a lovely redneck mother I was today sitting with my shirtless kid in the parking lot of an office building while he ate a Popsicle.

After school, he came home and I immediately stripped him down to just a shirt. He played and played, occasionally saying he had to poop, trying briefly, then going back to playing. I was impressed that he could feel it enough and kept trying to go. I was upstairs getting Meg's bath ready when I got the call.

"Mommy, I made poops! Come look!"
"Yeah, Andy! Good for you. That's great."
"Come look. They're green."
"..."
"Come look!"
"Why, yes, they are green. Just like your Popsicle earlier."
"Yeah! That's great!"
"..."

And then I proceeded to give him another green Popsicle.

And not to be out shined by her brother, darling Meg slept from 9:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. Of course, when I woke up and realized neither of us had been up, I panicked, worrying that because of her cold, she had somehow stopped breathing in the night. Rather than rush in and definitely wake her up, I turned up the baby monitor all the way and waited a few seconds for a good deep breath. Phew.

Rewards

Less than 24 hours in, the reward chart seems to be a decent motivator. Andy was proud to get the smiley faces (all green, naturally) for doing the things on his list. This week, on his list is:

1. Get dressed
2. Wear underwear (this wasn't a official selection, I cut out a picture of underwear from the Spiderman underwear label)
3. No whining
4. Take bath
5. Get ready for bed
6. Brush teeth
7. Put away toys

He got them all yesterday except for whining so we talked about it and he said he'll do better today. We'll see. Now that we have the chart, I need to back off and stop pushing these things. I need to offer it and if he initially rejects, let me know he won't get a smiley and move on. As it was yesterday, he didn't want to take a bath, but once I backed off and he realized he wasn't getting a smiley, he came around. This is going to be an adjustment for all of us, but hopefully we'll get the behavior we want.

I took Baby Meg to the doctor. The good news is she doesn't have an ear infection or signs of anything other than a cold. She said if she didn't improve within a couple of days, to bring her back in. Fortunately, she seems to generally be feeling better and is back to her smiling and cooing self.

Getting enough sleep proves to still be elusive for all of us. Meg has fortunately only been getting up usually once a night, lately between two and three. Unfortunately, Andy likes to wake up, too, usually around five and wants to insist someone sleep with him. Last night I made the mistake of caving on that request because I didn't want him to scream and wake up the baby. Now I'm afraid he's going to insist on it.

Oh, and breaking news, Andy pooped on the toilet this morning. He said he didn't have to earlier in the morning, but I let him eat breakfast naked and by the end, he had to go so he declared it, ran to the toilet and went. Just like that. Fingers crossed that this is clicking for him finally.

Potty training

Thanks, Internet, for your support against the tyrant formerly known as Andy. I wish I could report that after that incident, he's been a perfect angel. We haven't had any flare ups like the one at Chipotle since then and I think he is recognizing that my campaign against crying and whining is serious, but we're a ways off from him stopping his really obnoxious behavior. My theory is that there are several things at play. I think the preparation and arrival of Baby Meg allowed us (me especially) to overlook some behavior that I should have put an end to earlier. That combined with him being three and wanting to test limits combined with a cold combined with his erratic nap/sleep schedule these days has created a perfect storm of irritating behavior. I'm hopeful this stage will pass, sooner rather than later.

In exciting news, Andy came home from school yesterday having worn his new Spiderman underpants all day (including nap time) without any accidents. When we got home, I told him if he pooped on the toilet, that I'd take him for ice cream. So he did. Just like that. So I scooped him and Meg up and headed to Baskin-Robbins. He absolutely loved it. Strangely, all the canisters are too high for little kids so I put him on a chair to look at the selection. He was amazed and thrilled. A boy after my own heart, he picked Chocolate Mint in a sugar cone. I love that flavor for the taste and he just picked it because it was green. He was thrilled with what he had done and the reward, declaring all the way home that he wanted to poop again and get more ice cream. Then he did. In his pants. Oh well.

Does anyone know how to make my kid less regular? I swear he must go three or four times a day. If it was just once or twice, I think we'd have fewer problems with this aspect of potty training. Like this morning, he was excited about his underpants and then pooped in them. And when he came up to tell me about it, he subsequently peed. On the floor. Yuck. On the one hand, I'm ready to shelve this potty training nonsense until he seems more ready. But on the other hand, he can totally do it when he wants to and at times, he seems so close. If anyone has suggestions, please post them. I could use some new ideas.

P.S. I posted a few more pictures on Flickr. There are some cute pictures of Meg practicing holding her head up as well as a picture of Andy and his friend Daniel naked from the waist down in a car. We were trying to practice potty training by letting them run free from the waist down and it was so cute and gay we had to take pictures. That will be my reward for surviving this potty training ordeal.

Game on

Today we went to the house of a friend's who is also trying to potty train her three year old boy. It's a nice day here in Virginia so we let the boys play alfresco in the backyard. Well, they did have t-shirts on. We took lots of pictures (to be posted once I get my act together) of these adorable boys and their scrawny little boy bottoms running around, climbing the ladder, riding in the car. Unfortunately, they were too engrossed in playing really to want to do much peeing, but it was a good experiment that I will have to repeat in my own yard as the weather improves. The only downside is I fear by the end of the summer he won't want to wear pants anywhere.

After a very long Thursday day due to an exceptionally long and weird Wednesday night, I managed to get both kids in bed and asleep by 9:30 (special thanks to Jennifer for helping get Andy down). Meg woke up once at 4:00, ate and went right back to sleep within 20 minutes and slept until 8 a.m. Andy slept until about 7 a.m., but still, big improvements. Plus, that hour I got to spend to myself after they were both asleep and the good shows were finally back after the horrible, tragic writers' strike was a welcome break. And if those MILF Island t-shirts weren't $24, I might have to have one.

One step forward, five steps back

So the part about potty training success? Yeah, not so much. So Monday, Andy went to school in underwear (under his clothes, not just his underpants, thanks Jennifer). He came home in them, having been dry all day and getting lots of praise from his teachers. Tuesday, he again went in underpants and came home in a different outfit wearing a diaper. Then yesterday, he refused to wear his underwear, exclaiming, "Only girls wear underwear. I'm not a girl!" No, I can't explain it either. He steadfastly refused to use the toilet all day. Nice. Today he did let me put underwear on him so fingers crossed that it works out.

Meanwhile, the baby is sleeping somewhat predictably (knock wood), waking up once between midnight and 9 a.m. The late bedtime is not ideal and I'm working on it, but she has proven she can often go four or five, sometimes six, hours without waking. Andy, however, keeps getting up in the night.

I've been trying to move his bedtime earlier to avoid some of the customary meltdowns that come with him trying to drop his afternoon nap. Yesterday, he was somewhat ornery and I've taken a new stand that when he acts up by whining or crying, I'm going to send him to his room until he calms down. About six, he was giving me grief about dinner, shouting that, "It's NOT dinner time! NO! I don't WANT dinner." So I sent him to his room and laid him in bed. I came back a little while later and he was asleep. I kept thinking it was a catnap, but when I checked in on him about 7, he said he was tired and wanted to go to bed. He then slept like an angel. Until 3:30 a.m. I retucked him and went to bed. At 4:30, she woke up so I got up, fed her and put her back to bed. In the meantime, Andy woke up bright eyed, happy and hungry. Bjorn got up and gave him some dinner/breakfast and Andy refused to go back to bed. Bjorn kindly let me sleep until about 7 when we traded off again.

It's weird. The sleep thing with Andy as a baby was a pain, but we muddled through it and he eventually started being a good sleeper. When we had Meg, I figured we had him more or less solved so we could focus on her. It somehow didn't occur to me that we'd be up and down all night with him, too. I can only imagine folks with big families of five or more kids NEVER get any sleep.

Pictures

Bjorn and Meg in the middle of a much needed cat nap.

Meg trying to bust a move. Her movements are still pretty herky jerky so when she is under the mobile, she looks startled most of the time.

The chart in the bathroom. For every five pee stickers, he gets a piece of chocolate. We've upped the ante to a piece of candy for each successful poop since he has yet to earn one.

Andy's hot Thomas the Tank Engine underpants. Notice the green motif, complete with green sippy cup with matching green top. It is clearly his favorite color .

Having my hands full all the time these days, I'm having a hard time finding time to find my camera and then get the pictures uploaded. At least I'm taking the pictures. That may change as Meg gets more mobile and I have to spend more time chasing her around.

Potty training

We're working on potty training -- just what I need when my hands are newly full, but it's a step in the right direction that Andy is finally interested. For the past few days, he has been occasionally wearing underwear at home. The rub is that we have to bug him every 15 minutes to see if he has to go on the potty, but after enough prompting, he's been going. He now proudly stands on a stool in front of the toilet and pees standing up "like Daddy." It's real progress on the potty training front, but I'm finding it challenging to have a baby attached to my boob in one hand and helping Andy pull up and down his pants. I have a new appreciation for the phrase/word multi-tasking, that's for sure.

Andy had his three year check-up with the doctor yesterday. He weighs 33 pounds and is 37 3/4 inches tall, 75th percentile for weight and 50th for height. He passed all the motor skills and language challenges Dr. Staats posed him (as he flirted with her by showing his gymnastic moves while wearing only a pull-up and his green socks). They also asked him to pee in a cup. It seemed like an odd challenge to a kid who can't regularly pee in the toilet, but I took him into the bathroom and he surprised me by performing. Now, naturally after getting so much praise, he wants to pee in a cup at home, too. They also screened him for anemia and cholesterol. I was surprised by the cholesterol test, but apparently some kids have bad diets and need the early monitoring. He passed both tests with flying colors, scoring a 95 on the cholesterol test (under 150 is considered good, apparently).

To no surprise, Meg's sleeping continues to be a challenge. I actually don't mind getting up to do a super early morning feeding, it's when she refuses to go back to sleep afterwards that I wish I were dead. The smartest thing I have done this time around is hire a night nanny to come twice a week to help out. A friend recommended a woman who is a full-time nanny during the week, but who loves babies so she picks up some evening work taking care of newborns overnight. Maria has only been twice, but it's amazing the difference is makes to know that twice a week, I'll get a good night's sleep. Maria will give Meg one of the feedings and then wake me for the second so my boobs don't explode. She'll also do all the changing and rocking back to sleep. She's not cheap, but I figure my sanity is worth it. If only I were Christina Aguilera and could afford a 24/7 baby nurse. No wonder these silly celebrities talk about loving having a newborn since they have help that takes care of the baby while they go to premieres along with a personal trainer and chef.

Target practice

When my mom was here, we went shopping at Babies R Us and among the loot, Mom picked up some Piddlers, which are designed to be toilet training target practice. I moved them to the upstairs bathroom and put one in the potty for Andy. He still sits to pee (we'll worry about standing up later) so instead of it being a target, the game is to make it float. The exciting thing is that it has proved to be an incentive and he's actually peed on the potty 4-5 times this week. (His older brother, Mark, who turned 19 today, also likes to use these and I only know because flushing the toilet is not his strong suit. I know, ew. We tease him about it.)

Andy's usually is successful on the potty in the evening, either before or after his bath. Our attempts in the morning have been less successful. We're thinking we are going to just have to wake him up when we get up and get him to the toilet before he has a chance to go in his diaper. I think we're a ways off from being potty trained and I certainly don't intend to spend a ton of time on it since the new baby will likely cause some regression, but progress is still progress.

Andy has generally been darling this week. I try to remember to talk about him when he's being great and not just when he's making me insane. We had a host of parties the last week and he was a good sport at each and played nicely (mostly) with the other kids. Even tonight, Liz and I went to dinner and he managed to eat and entertain himself nicely with some blocks afterwards so Liz and I got a chance to really catch up. That is a pretty rare occurrence. It would figure that he's becoming better in social situations just in time for us to ruin it with a new baby.

Speaking of the new baby, I am now on to weekly doctor's visits. It's a good sign that I'm getting closer, but it also sparks the return of physical exams. I suppose it's just getting me ready for labor and delivery where I'll be flashing dozens of strangers. The good news is that everything with me and the baby look good, the bad news is that 25 days out, she looks perfectly comfortable where she is. I'm generally getting tired of this pregnancy business. My clumsiness has reached new heights. I probably spill a drink of water a day (I try to stick to water as it's easier to clean) and last night I moved too fast off the bed and smacked my knee, hard, as I fell on the floor. I do hope my balance and coordination return shortly after delivery or this kid may need to wear a helmet to survive.

Merry Christmas to the enormous pregnant lady

As an early Christmas present, Andy has managed to use the potty successfully twice in two days. I still think we're a ways off full-blown potty trained and with a baby due in five weeks, I'm figuring whatever we do now will succumb to regression as he gets used to all the changes in the house. But I'm encouraged that his interest has picked up again. Certainly the fuss we make over it and the special cookies (a piece of Cookie Crisp cereal) help.

We're officially ready for Christmas around here. Andy has been loving the Christmas books we've been reading, especially the Polar Express. Bjorn has hidden lots of the presents for their big debut on the 25th and we have a separate special pile to take to his mother's tomorrow for the Swedish celebration. Jennifer and I even went out today to get our nails done -- pedicure for me and a manicure for her. If Santa looks at nails to determine if we've been good or bad, we're all set.

I'm definitely feeling more and more like a pregnant whale these days. When shopping the other day, I had to park pretty far away and found I had to pause half way there. It's wasn't that I out of breath per se, but seemed to develop some type of a walking cramp kind of thing in my side. I know I'm out of shape, but dang, that's harsh. I'm also finding it harder to sleep more than a few hours at a time (cruel irony since I know what's coming). My left ear is still stopped up and the cold is not showing signs of going away. I'm now resigned to the fact that neither will improve until after I have this baby. Now if I could just figure out how to have the baby, take a week to recover by getting lots of sleep and perhaps drink plenty of wine and THEN start caring for a newborn, I would really like that. That's possible, right?

The last piece of office furniture -- the filing cabinet -- is now out of the baby's room and into the basement until we figure out exactly where it should go permanently. Andy and I spent some time getting the baby's closet together and putting some baby clothes away. I haven't packed a bag yet, but it's definitely starting to seem more real. Yikes.

Meanwhile, as a little Christmas present from me to you, check out this really awful school picture over here. The crying kid combined with the bizarre phallic mushrooms and creepy lizard combine to make a portrait that this kid's parents will use for blackmail with friends and girlfriends the rest of his life. It's gorgeous.

Penises

In addition to showing more interest in potty training, Andy is showing more interest in his penis. It makes sense really. That's where pee comes from and it's got to be pretty cool for him to be figuring out how all that works. Of course, now we're getting into the awkward gender stuff.

Andy: Daddy, you have a penis?
Bjorn: Yes, just like Andy.
Andy: Like Andy...And Markie, he has a penis?
Bjorn: Yes, Markie has a penis, too.
Andy: And Mommy has a penis?
Bjorn: No, Mommy is a girl. Girls don't have penises.
Andy: Girls don't have penises?

So naturally that set up a whole list they had to go through of who had a penis and who didn't. This is all good. He's learning about his body, he's using the proper terms. The only bad part is now he feels the need to announce a random times, "Mommy, you don't have a penis?" It hasn't happened yet, but I feel sure the time is coming when he asks that during check-out at the store.

Say cheese

Andy loves to get his picture taken. Although I'm not sure if he likes getting the picture taken as much as he likes to see himself on the screen of the digital camera more. Lately he's been quite obsessed with taking my camera out so he can look at the pictures saved and take more (of course, it also gives me a good reason to take more pictures, like getting out his Spider Man costume that my mom got him for Halloween last year to see if it fits and take his picture in it). Now that I've figured out how to upload video to Blogger, I wanted to take some video of him on my camera, but the little bugger can only stay for about 20 seconds in front of the camera before demanding to see the picture so not the highest quality video shoot.

We're still working on potty training. He's not waking up and asking to go, but when we remind him at night, he will sometimes go. He will go often enough in fact that I've had to switch to smaller cookies. Andy's not going at school really yet, but they do put him on the potty there as well and I think eventually it will sink in. Certainly before third grade starts, I imagine.