Diaper Leak

Whether it was an intended leak by Bri or not,  yes diaper freedom will be short lived in the Butler house.  Very short lived.

Potty Training . . .almost flawless

Originally written the week of February 13, 2011

I let Lexi run around our house bottomless for several weeks after I discovered that when pantless, she was essentially potty trained- wouldn't even tell anyone she needed to go  . .would just go to the toilet and do her thing.  It was great, except that she had to be naked.  If she was wearing any sort of bottoms. .pants, panties, diapers . . .she had no issue going in them.  So I was stuck with how to make the transition to panties so that she could be potty trained in public and not just at home (figured I couldn't drop off my half naked child of  at the gym daycare or in nursery).  Well eventually, at the beginning of last week to be exact, I decided I just had to pull the trigger and deal with some accidents while she transitioned into panties.  So, away went the diapers and to church she went like a big girl.  A big girl that later peed a little in her pants in nursery, but we were on our way to success hopefully.  The week progressed well-very few accidents and no poop incidents.

Then came Thursday . . .a  day I would like to take back and redo if I could.
I had a visiting teaching appointment and I am a firm believer in not switching from panties back to diapers so away we went with Lexi in her big girl pants. . .allbeit a little nervous as it was the time of day that she normally had a BM and she also hadn't peed in several hours.  Well I kept a close eye on her for a while knowing that sometimes she would just start taking her pants off when she was ready to go. . . but eventually we ladies got chatting and Lexi wandered upstairs to go play in my friend's twin girls' room.  Shortly thereafter Lexi comes wandering back to us . .naked and saying "poop".
Panic hits me as I grab my bag and go upstairs to see what has happened.  Well, I find Lexi's little pile in the carpeted closet and she shows me her underwear that she had placed in the nearby garbage can.  Why can't she just poop her pants like a normal toddler?  No, she has to know she is going to poop and take her pants off first and then do it.  And why can't she have nice formed poop instead of being queen of loose stools?  Well, I miraculously get it all up and really you can't even tell where she went-although I am so embarassed and some got on little purse that my friend just told me to throw away.  I put new panties on her and she runs away again before I even get pants on her.  (Looking  back this was a big mistake as I know her and they way she does things in groupings)

So a few minutes later she is back naked again saying she needs to go poop.  I take her to the potty and she does pee and poop and then I got upstairs only to find her panties in the bathroom (which she didn't use) and another runny pile in the middle of the girls' room instead.  I am thinking "this isn't really happening" and run back downstairs to grab my "supplies" again.  It only got worse as while I was grabbing my bag, Lexi then stepped in this runny pooh and proceeded to walk around the room forming nice little poop footprints all over the carpet and on a blanket!  I vigorously start scrubbing with diaper wipes but soon come to the reality that it isn't going to clean up all nicely this time and yell to my friend asking her if she still has her steam cleaner.  I wanted to die!  I  was seriously just mortified and told her I was never coming back.  She sprayed it with carpet cleaner and said she would just run the steamer over it when she got back.  She was so nice about it (even if she wanted to kill me deep down) and assured me it was nothing compared to her daughters who were "poop painters", but nonetheless, it wasn't her daughters and she had already been there and done that and shouldn't have to do it again with someone else's kid!  So I left her girls' room looking and smelling like an outhouse completely wanting to erase the last 20 minutes of my life!

It is said that visiting teaching blesses the lives of those we visit. . .pretty sure this doesn't count!
My only saving grace is that while typing this Lexi just told me and went poop in the potty just like she has done ever since that horrible day!

And now here we are at the end of March and I haven't had a child in diapers day or night for 7 weeks for the first time in over 7 1/2 years.  It will be short lived, but enjoyed nonetheless.

A Gingerbread Village

So we've learned that it's a lot less trouble using graham crackers than actually baking gingerbread since it's going to be quickly devoured anyway by the children.  This year we decided to let each of the children make their own.  When we piled them all in the microwave to keep them out of child's reach we thought it kinda looked like a village, thus a new tradition was born.  Here is the first annual Butlerville Christmas village (soon to be destroyed by Dallaszilla).

Some things get sweeter with time . . .our anniversary isn't one of them

Our celebration of 8 years together a few weeks ago went something like this:

We don't set an alarm because Trenton always wakes up before he is supposed to and wakes the rest of us up (he's been doing this since birth) in time for the boys to get ready and off to school.  Well, out of the blue, he didn't wake up on our anniversary until 7:15 (the bus comes at 7:10).  It was a rushed morning to get them out the door and have Dave drop them off on time at school  on his way out.  So, no goodbye hug or kiss or salutation that I can recall for our "special" morning. . .although Dave did kiss me on the forehead at midnight to wish me a happy anniversary in my sleep).  I sent him a text about an hour later when I realized I hadn't said anything that morning.  

My parents were also in town for the last day of their visit and scheduled to fly out that afternoon.  I had it planned out perfectly to be in the car ready to go when the boys got home at 2:50 so that I could drop them off at the airport and make it back home in time to meet Brooklyn's bus.   At 2:35 I get a call that I don't answer cause I didn't recognize the number only to retrieve the message a minute later and learn "there has been an incident with Dallas on the bus, that he cut his head and is bleeding pretty badly and will need to be picked up back at the school.  I quickly return the call and they tell me while standing on the seat trying to open a window he fell and cut the back of his head on the window latch.  I ask if they think he'll need stitches and while initially unsure because they couldn't really see the wound, they shortly came back with, "yes, we think he will".  I ask them where his brother, Trenton, is and they inform me that he is still on the bus.  (So somehow I am supposed to come to the school and get Dallas but not be here to meet Trenton when the bus gets here in 10 minutes.)  I explain the dilemma but tell them I will check with my neighbor and be there as soon as possible. 

 My window to get my parents to the airport is quickly disappearing.  I leave to go and get Dallas only to turn around and go back for my phone that I left behind, but that detour allowed me to spot Trenton's bus in the neighborhood and flag it down to get Trenton.  All the while, I get a hold of Dave and ask him if he can help me .  , ,"well, where is he cut because if it's in his hair I won't really be able to help," he tells me.  I clarify that I don't want him to do the stitches, but can he help me either with my parents ride or a trip to the ER?  He gets his patients transferred and meets me at the hospital where I drop Dallas off on my way to the airport. 

 My neighbor gets Brooklyn for me, although I miraculously make it back just behind her bus.   

Dave spends the rest of the afternoon at the hospital where Dallas receives 4 staples in his head but makes it home in time for his indoor soccer game that night . .where his head injury helped him secure a hat trick.  Unfortunately Lexi having sympathy pains for her brother (combined with a sippy cup of chocolate milk followed by a juice box from me) decided to hurl in my lap at the soccer game.  So I'm covered in vomit and so is the turf where I was sitting.  The staff graciously offers Lexi a leftover flag football shirt from the previous season to change into and they offer me one as well . . .but seeing as how all the puke was on my pants, I was unsure (even in Kentucky) how socially acceptable it would be for me to walk around in nothing but a t-shirt and was forced to decline.  Dave insisted that I at least wipe the chunks of vomit off of myself and then I sat there for the rest of the game in all my glory.  Dave drove home with his head out the window and well that's how we celebrate marriage in our house.

Isn't motherhood grand?

Did you know all you have to do is puke to score a new shirt from the Y?

For the first time, I am glad for the wretched cold I have because I can't smell  the vomit I'm currently wearing.

Acting like a dog with my head out the window is better than smelling my wife right now.

**Lest you should feel bad for us, which I 'm sure no one does, we did have a wonderful date a few days earlier. . .thanks to my parents for staying home with the kids while they were visiting.  Dave planned a surprise pottery class for us to take together  .. big surprise for me as he and I both know that I don't have a creative bone in my body.  However, we had a lot of fun and well as far as the pottery goes, I haven't seen the final pieces yet, but the process was more fun than I thought it would be.**

I went for the ever original pencil holder.

Lexi Discovers She Can Move Her Eyebrows

New Family Photos

After a lot of self-timer and photoshop we were able to get a few updated pictures of the family, it actually went relatively smoothly and miraculously we had a few pictures that everyone was smiling without photoshop!

Lexi actually gets to enjoy some alone time with me on some days now that everyone else is in school.  Shopping with only one kid climbing out of the cart and crying=bliss.

All ready to go on the first day.

First day of second grade August 11th.  Only 19 students in class . .. schools are a bit better here than in Portland.

First day of Kindergarten Aug 11th.  He leaves and comes home happy each day.  You'll see what goes on in the middle at the end of this post.

First day of preschool  She's thrilled and loves school.  I actually got teary-eyed sending her off, unlike with the boys :).

The second week of school for Dallas went like this.  I was initially beside myself but have communicated with his teacher more and now that I understand her personality and his . . . I'm not expecting perfection, but he has improved dramatically thank goodness.

Potato Heads