ILX Parenting 3: Back In (Potty) Training

i think sleep deprivation is making me go "red" as my japanese friend used to say. i'm very close to frothing at the mouth when someone mentions sleeping late. heh.

we're going for liesje first immunization shot tomorrow. scary.

We got some great news yesterday. The "area" of Ben's brain is unchanged, which points more to a developmental anomaly than to a tumor. We'll probably end up still going with surgery at some point, but this means that the urgency is lower, and that the potential for any kind of re-occurrence or other growths is VERY low. Yay Ben!

Yay!!

Also, thanks for the tubes reassurance, guys. :)

best news ever, schwantz!

That's awesome news!

One more update - We went to Stanford for a second opinion, and the surgeon there (who's like top guy in the field) thinks we should NOT do surgery unless Ben is having seizures, or if the area is growing. He is unconvinced that it is growing. So, for now, it's looking more like we will hold off on any surgery, at least for a year or two, unless the seizures come back, or if the area starts to grow.

Having said all that... PICTURE TIME!

Owen gets some air time:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2005/2204617119_f5cf147475.jpg

Owen at the park:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2256/2205413326_546b053dd6.jpg

Ben in his froggy PJs:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2202/2205414342_eb92fd3427.jpg

Potty training update: Edith decided to skip the potty and go straight to the toilet. She is doing very well. I would say it is all done and dusted if I didn't suspect that was tempting fate.

We've *introduced* the potty to Ophelia as well. I place her on the potty after a nappy change. The same day she asked for it, she had told me she had done *poopoo*. Later in the day she asked my mother to sit on the loo. She peed and then freaked out wanting to be taken off. hah!

Eating is a disaster however. She just refuses to eat veggies. We're consciously ignoring it. Also, she's definitely in her terrible twos. She's not really bad, but she has her tantrums. We also decided to step up a bit in regard to disciplining her. We don't care much for "free raising" (as we call it here in Belgium). The other day she just tested us and I simply had it. We decided to be strict again. I simply do not want a screaming kid who refuses to obey her parents. F*ck that. :-)

The kindergarten was a big success. We went back to enroll her and took her along. She loved it! She played with the other kids... and then cried when we left. YAY. And the other day we invited a girl over. It was great seeing her interact. She does this as well in the crèche but this was a one-on-one thing. Obv she cried when she had to share things but that was what I wanted: to let her discover what it's like to play 'n' share.

How do you guys feel about disciplining your kids? How do you do it? Are you rather laissez-faire laissez-passer?

Elisabeth's routine is pretty okay. She wakes up one time in the night for a feeding. Me? I am feeling crap. My immune system is in the dumpster. So why am I sitting here at 11:30? Who knows. :-)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2060/2197850886_87b3904a0e.jpg

Elisabeth with granny. :-)

Third and final post: I knitted both items. Proud? Nah. :-)

Fun "schwantz" fact:

My dad was the original terrible two.

My little Oliver...

http://photos-a.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v167/248/29/1061189419/n1061189419_25292_9484.jpg

yay hi everyone, great kids and pixxx

on monday molly took her first steps; she's now given up crawling and just frankensteins it all around the place

Haha, nice. :-)

(That's wonderful news from Chris some posts back -- any update? Crossing fingers!)

yeah hey I didnt say anything to schwantz but yeah, hell yeah

also sunny molly's getting tubes at the end of the month, she and beeps can bond about it when you guys move to madison wisconsin yay

Hi parents! Haven't checked in for a while. Good to hear your young'ns are all doing so well.

My kids are taking turns at being ill at the moment. David was sneezing and coughing and moping around until Friday then passed the baton to Megan who kept it all all weekend with added vomiting then Mark started yesterday and is off school today. No doubt my wife and I will be next.

I'll upload some new pictures tonight if I remember.

Hello!

My mum is taking Alice for her first experience of swimming today. Given that she screams blue murder even getting into the bath, I am awaiting her report with some trepidation... (but also, haha, if she hates it then at least I'm not the one who's taking the heat.)

Sorry for any pronoun confusion there...

schwantz, your grandmother was supercool. the maids of malvern!

lulu and I have both been illing this week, germs sent over from ava, who is obviously learning how to share. lulu's eyes were so gunky that they were glued shut every morning for a week and she didn't eat for four whole days! but she was still knocking back the cow juice so the GP said there was nothing to worry about and sure enough, she can see again and yesterday she started chowing down again. shew! illness has not stopped the little monkey from learning how to climb up on the back of the sofa and bounce up and down like she's about to jump.

nathalie, for discipline we use 'time out' in a corner of the sofa (stairs are too cluttered for a naughty step, mike and I should go in time out) - two minutes since ava's not yet three. I can't remember the last time ava was in time out, it's been months. we only use it for really serious offenses, like biting lulu. almost everything else seems like just part of the learning process. if she's having a tantrum it's usually because she's genuinely frustrated that the world doesn't revolve around her heartfelt worldview (chocolate buttons for breakfast! stickers make boring furniture look so much better! let's all take 5-hour showers every morning!). but if I just leave her to have a little tantrum on her own she'll always get over it in a couple of minutes and cheer up. then she runs in and announces, "I'm happy again!"

hope alice loves the swimming!

A has been snotty, coughing and glue-eyed for months now, ever since the chicken pox which was the end of November. We have now started wondering whether to blame cow's milk - and her symptoms HAVE improved this week since trying her on goat's milk (and oat/rice milk on her cereal). OTOH I've also been ill with one cold after another all winter, so it might just be that we've been unlucky with our contagions.

then she runs in and announces, "I'm happy again!"

this is so beautiful I almost boo-hooed. i cry at everything kid related these days. sometimes i turn on discovery health (ie the 24/7 birth channel) and its a freakin' flood.

beeps has gotten a short reprieve from tubes even though her ears are still sore and fluidy. we got an appointment with the head of pediatrics at our hospital and his theory is you need to be concerned with not the quantity but the length of an ear infection. 3 months is the number, so if shes still like this March 18 then its tubes. He think that since its coming into spring at that point she might escape but hes also wont hesitate with the tubes if he thinks the infections will mess with her language development. SO, we'll see. We still want to come to Wisconsin though! I saw a downtown Green Bay shot last night while watching the NL Championship and was all "OH MY GOD LOOK HOW BEAUTIFUL IT IS!!!!" to which PP replied "Uh...". I hope Molly does OK. I'll be interested to hear how much it helps her.

O and B look so grown up walking around and Elisabeth has already gotten so much bigger, Nath! Oliver is so gorgeous. All these kids are gorgeous. If any of you ever get sick of them you can send them my way!

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2039/2209178298_ced07380c0.jpg

I knitted the cardie. :-)

Oh and Beeps was in her first car accident yesterday. Here she is thinking about running from the cops:

http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/4822/beatcops1hj5.jpg

(as you can see she came out of the crash just fine)

that cardie is beautiful!

does it look like she'll have dark hair, nath?

Very easy to make. It's a pattern by Debbie Bliss and knitted in one piece, the sides are seamed together.

It really does. We think she takes after Mr Nixed. :-)

Beeps is such a cutie! Lucky you, having such a cute driver. ;-)

pedal to the metal, beeps! of course you can outrun the cops! but seriously, glad nobody was hurt, that's scary stuff.

sunny, I cry all the dang time, especially over kid-related stuff but also friends' flickr pictures of places I've never been to which somehow make me homesick for people+places in the states, terrible movies, soppy adverts, radio call-in shows, law+order (!) - it's totally out of my hands. I know your hormones rule you when you're preggers and then later when breastfeeding but mine forgot to go back to normal. it's a source of amusement for mike, natch.

i never got weepy when i was preg and i didnt breastfeed so maybe my hormones are umm late to the party?? i feel like such an idiot but i cant help it.

this is how i found beeps when we arrived home from visiting her grandparents yesterday:

http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/2416/sockmouthtl6.jpg

http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/1553/sockmouthclosevh1.jpg

Most adorable beeps yet!

(Do the socks have natural sedative properties I wonder, or have you been soaking them in brandy?)

no, but thats a brilliant idea!

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/3638/xmasbeatshs2.jpg

wrong photo! forgive my photo craziness today, i lost my camera usb cord before xmas and just found it last night.

here is the one i meant to post:

http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/7884/fruitbarzwg7.jpg

but I love the christmas one! what are those penguin things? bags of yuletide booty? toys? pillows? what was in the ginormous box on top of the piano? a year's supply of brandy-soaked socks?

what a fabulous festive scene. and the other photos are great too, natch.

the penguins are one big bag. i cant remember what was in it but i do recall she liked the bag much better than its contents. the big box was a radio flyer wagon (wrapped in my little pony xmas paper!).

I'm ready for Elisabeth sleeping through the night. Alas she isn't.
Gotta run, she needs a feeding.

Harumph. :-)

It's so funny how, what with the coloring of the Christmas lights, and the Windsor chair by the piano, and the old fashioned-seeming wrapping paper, that photo of Beeps manages to look like one of OUR generation's baby pictures.

yeah, it really does.

Every time I see the sock-in-mouth photo I start giggling again.

This little one isn't mine, except in the sense that he is ONE OF US...I bring you my nephew:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2297/2216781658_4b0f55f154.jpg

So happy and bright! How old is he?

Four mos now almost exactly! I want to eat him and keep him inside forever.

i bet! does he live near you?

No, not at all: my sister lives in Michigan near my parents and I'm in NYC. Dunno when I'll see the neph again, but he really was a pleasure at Christmas hols. We basically fought over holding him for long periods.

Take 2:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2254/2216781656_745486514d.jpg?v=0

he's cute now but I bet those eyes = superfox by late teens

He definitely got the eyelashes from his dad, those starry eyes don't run in MY family.

okay, we are beginning to think babies got swapped at the hospital - beeps doesnt like spaghetti OR cheese. WTF? if she had her way all she would eat is squash and sweet potato.

also, she took two unassisted baby steps toward PP about 10 days ago. YAY! nothing since though.

I was holding a sweet potato in my hands when she did that.

Don't want to count our chickens, but Ava & Lulu seem to be emerging from their latest bouts of snotdom. (Only today a neighbourhood mum emailed that her youngest was suffering from hand-foot-and-mouth disease, and Ava has had the mouth symptoms (so did we, actually), but nothing else...so maybe she's about to embark on another viral journey of misery altogether).

Here's Ava planning world domination...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2299/2237341375_d1202f2c20.jpg

Molly was having such a good time pointing to all these kid pictures that we thought we should put this new pic up there:
http://i29.tinypic.com/15y68gi.jpg

What a star. (Who is MONSTER CAT back there?)

That's Jake, he was just hanging out. And he's not really all that big, it's just the perspective. (You should see Abe, for instance -- THAT one is a monster.)