And we thought he was lying.

A few days ago, Jacob came excitedly down the stairs exclaiming, "Mommy, I pooped in the potty". Mike and I looked at each other a little sceptical, yet hopeful as we follow him upstairs to the bathroom. He points to the potty, but as we peer in we only see a bowl still refilling with water after being flushed. "Did you really poop in the potty, buddy?" I ask. "Ya, I did, I pooped in the potty." Not wanting to assume he's lying and discourage him from doing it again if he is telling the truth, we congratulate him, do a happy dance and reward him, but tell him we want to see next time he does it, and not to flush. The next day, same thing happens, and he takes me by the hand to show me the potty, but all I find is a freshly flushed toilet. "Jacob, I can't see it if you flush. Next time come get me before you flush." Pointing to the tank he tells me, "just look in there." I laugh and explain to him, "that's not where it goes". I decide to check his bum for "residue" and find nothing. At this point I'm having serious doubts, but he's so earnest about it, and he's usually very honest, Mike and I just don't know what to think. The next morning when I go to change him out of his night pull up, I find he's pooped in it. I finally draw the conclusion that he's lying about pooping in the potty. I make him clean himself up and stick him in the shower for a rinse (which he hates) and walk away convinced he's never going to be potty trained.

That was a couple days ago. Today while I was getting ready to bathe Lizzie, Jacob comes into the bathroom and tells me he is going to poop in the potty. He sits and pees and waits a minute, and when nothing happens he gives up and leaves the bathroom. Fast forward a couple hours, he once again come to me and says, "Momma, come see, I pooped in the potty." I follow him to the bathroom, praying he really did it, but having serious doubts. I walk into the bathroom half expecting to see he'd flushed, but nope. Sure enough, there was poop in there!!! I had him flush and we did a happy dance. I've been doing random happy dances ever since. Oh happy, happy day. I guess he wasn't lying after all!

Perfect Parent Syndrom vs. Hands-off Parenting

And then there’s me. The paranoid one.

While eating at Chick Fil-A this afternoon with the family (and my sister and SIL) we witnessed a very interesting interaction between two very strong-willed parents. In case you’ve never let your kids play there, the play area is completely enclosed in a glass room, so parents can peacefully eat, and still see their children play without having to actually be in the play area themselves. I rather like the set up myself. Anyhoo…

We were sitting there peacefully eating while the kids played in the play area, when I hear the mother at the table next to me say something to the effect of, “that kid is beating my kid up. I’m gonna kick his butt. Honey, go get him.” I look over to see my son, playfully rough housing with two other boys. They, ALL THREE, are hitting and pushing each other with smiles on their faces. However, I don’t like to encourage my kid to hit or push no matter how much fun they are all having. So, as the man with the oxygen tank is dutifully obeying his wife’s request to go kick my kids butt, I immediately stand up and announce, “I’m sorry, that is my kid. I’ll take care of it!“ and proceed to pull Jacob out of the play area. I then make him sit at the table with us as punishment for hitting and pushing. I sit down and continue to eat my chicken ceasar cool wrap, and soon hear another mother approach us saying, “it’s not just that kid, (referring to Jacob) that other kid is now hitting my daughter”. When no one gets up to go stop the kid, she directly confronts the offending parents (who, you will remember, were just about to kick my kids butt, for “beating up” her innocent and helpless child.) “Is that your son in the maroon shirt?” she asks. “Yes”, is all she says. “Well, he’s hitting my daughter!” No response. The woman just sat there, staring at whatever game device she was playing and ignored the concerned mother. Just then, the victimized child comes out, complaining that said “innocent child” had spit on her. She again confronts the couple. "Your son just spit on my child!" No response. So she takes her daughter back to her table and doesn't let her go back in. At that point, Lizzie was the only other child left in there with the two boys and I decided I better keep a close eye on her. The parents of these boys are sitting almost directly in my line of vision, and seeing I’m keeping a close eye on things in there, start making comments about the other mother. “I’m sorry lady, but sticking out his tongue is hardly considered spitting.” AKA, “I can’t believe you are accusing my perfect child of doing anything wrong!” As I’m watching these two boys slowly take over the play area and not let Lizzie do anything I decide to let Jacob go back in and I quickly finish my chicken ceasar cool wrap so I can go sit inside the play area to supervise. Things seemed to be going pretty well after that, other than a heated argument between the two parents, that I didn’t hear cause I was inside the play area, but was told it involved something to the effect of, “I’m sorry you have perfect parent syndrome” And “Well, maybe you should discipline your child.” A few minutes later all the kids were up inside the slide area where I don’t have a clear view of them and I hear one of the boys say, “hey that hurt, that was my peanuts”. At that point I wasted no time immediately ordering my children out of the play area, and announcing that it was time to leave, NOW!! Jacob came down the slide immediately, but I was getting no response from Lizzie, even after counting to three. Shocking, I know! So, I climbed in there and dragged her out myself. (If you know me, that's pretty surprising. I'm a little claustophobic. I've been known to make other mothers, who may or may not have been pregnant, go up in there after my kid before. Sorry about that.) I was not letting her stay in there with these bullying, child molesters. (Okay, I doubt there was any molesting going on in there, but I wasn’t taking any chances!) As we are leaving the restaurant we notice the offended parent had dragged management over to talk to the offending parents, and the argument continued.

We planned to do some shopping after we ate, so, when we got back to the van we got the stroller out for the youngest kiddos, got them buckled in, and I decide I need to go potty. I go back into the restaurant to find “offended parent” talking to management about getting “offending parents” kicked out for letting their children be bullies. I glanced over at the "offending parents" and sure enough, there they continued to sit. The wife, still playing her game, and I’m sure sticking around purely to annoy the other parent. It was quite the stand off. I can’t say I’m sad I didn’t get to stick around to see how it ended.

We did our shopping and it took us a bit longer than expected. So instead of heading to a park where our antsy kids could play in the dark, we decided to take them back to Chick Fil-A to play some more before heading back to our hotel. This time the restaurant is a lot busier. As we are sitting there, a mother walks up to the couple sitting at the table next to us and says, “is that your child? He just hit my child”. We all cringe. But to our relief, the mother stands up, apologizes and goes in and gets her son and makes him come sit with her. We all look at each other, relieved that we didn’t have to witness another cat fight. I don't thing restaurant play areas will ever be the same again. In the words of Mike, “I think we’ve all got PTSD.”

Would you like a foot rub as well?

As I was reading down my facebook wall, I came across this article from babycenter.com about having "kid free" flights and having "kid only" flights. I have kind of mixed feelings about this. While I would LOVE to see more kid friendly flights, to completely not let kids on a flight seems totally ridiculous. If you choose to be out in public or on any sort of public transportation, then you need to suck it up and deal with the fact that situations are not going to be in your control and you are going to have to actually deal with other human beings (and occasionally slightly unpleasant situations). That includes children. I think if you want special treatment, fly first class. I doubt many families are flying in that section. That being said, I don't think its a bad idea to have more kid friendly amenities on flights. It would be nice to have a section in an airplane geared more towards people with children. Maybe not for short flights, but for sure any flight over 3 hours. Maybe a small area for kids to be able to get up and walk around, and a bathroom slightly bigger so you can actually change a child's diaper in it. (have you ever tried to change a toddler's diaper in an airplane bathroom? It's difficult to change an infant's diaper in there, but any child over the age of one is physically impossible.) I also think it would be great to have juice boxes as apposed to giving my fidgety 4 year old an open top cup with a straw. Especially when he is sitting by a stranger that could possible end up with that drink in their lap. I would totally be willing to pay a little extra for that sort of stuff. (Not a lot more, since airfare is over priced already.)

I just don't understand why some average Joes feel the world revolves around them and that we should all bend over backwards to make them more comfortable. It's one thing if you're willing to pay for that special treatment, but if you are sitting next to me or my 2 year old, you didn't. You entered the lottery and got stuck with me, just like I got stuck with you. That's the chance you took. So, deal with it, buddy. It's one thing if a child is acting out and a parent is choosing to ignore it, which does happen at times, but that's not typically the case. If you can't peacefully coexist with all sorts of people, (including little ones) then maybe you should stay home.

What kid friendly (or not kid friendly) things would you be willing to pay for on your next flight?

What's the big deal???

I guess I just don't get it. For the last few years it has hit the news and every year I am baffled as to why it's even an issue. What am I talking about, you are wondering? The Merry Christmas vs. Happy Holidays debate, or "the war on Christmas" as I've frequently heard it called. I just don't understand why people have such an issue saying "happy holidays". People have been saying it for YEARS and all of the sudden people see it as not recognizing Christmas?!? Last I checked, Christmas is a holiday. What is so wrong with including all holidays? Not everyone shopping at Walmart (or wherever) is celebrating Christmas. True, Christmas is in December, but it's not the only holiday. Some people are celebrating Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. What's wrong with wishing them happy holidays? I don't feel like Christianity is being attacked by saying it. I don't feel personally offended because my religious views aren't being singled out. Okay, I had an issue when they wanted to change it to a "holiday tree" instead of a Christmas tree. Because the tree is specific to Christmas, but so far that is the ONLY thing I've had a problem with.

I know what some of you are thinking (because I've heard this before as well), "but Michelle, if a sign has Christmas trees on it, it should say 'Merry Christmas', because otherwise you are not acknowledging Christmas". Here's what I say to that. Just putting a Christmas tree on a sign, is acknowledging Christmas. And again...CHRISTMAS IS A HOLIDAY!! I see nothing wrong with a "Happy Holidays" sign that has Christmas trees and stockings on it. So, I'm sorry, but I won't be boycotting any stores over this. And, I'd like to wish you all...

Happy Halloween!

How did you celebrate? Let me tell you what WE did. Friday we had a trunk or treat at the church. The kids dressed up, (although, Lulu demanded that I take her costume off before we left.) and we went and loaded up on candy and saw some really fun costumes. Saturday we had some friends over and we ate pizza, made sticker haunted houses and frosted sugar cookies. We had a lot of fun. I thought about taking the kids to another county to trick or treat at a few houses, since our county did it on Sunday, but I decided that I just didn't want to. I figured the kids had plenty of candy and I really didn't want to get costumes out again. I know, I'm a party pooper. Sunday I let the scarecrow handle handing out candy...

and let the kids pick out a movie to watch. Would you believe, they picked out Polar Express. Actually, it's not that surprising, since "the train movie" is actually a year round movie for us. Still, I bet people who came to the door though it was strange to hear Christmas music coming from inside. haha.

I'm not gonna lie, though. I'm glad it's over. Normally I get really excited for Halloween, but once again, Mike was not here. I guess doing Halloween without him is just getting old. I'm really grateful for such good friends who have been willing to help me make it fun over the last few years. :) While I had a lot of fun, I'm really looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas. Bring on the turkey dinner and gingerbread houses. Woohoo!

Possible Book Titles

I've been contemplating writing a series of children's books based on my children for quite some time now. I've done a lot of brain storming but I seem to have severe writers block in this area. My kids like books that rhyme or repeat phrases. Like, "...but bear went right on snoring." in Wake Up Bear, or, "THERE'S A SHARK IN THE PARK", in Shark in the Park. So, I started thinking about things I hear myself repeating on a regular basis. Here is a list of possible book titles I have come up with.


Don’t Hit
Don’t Tease, or Leave Your Sister Alone
Don’t Sit on the Baby
You're Driving Me Crazy!
Don’t Poop on the Floor
Screaming Miss Lulu
Don’t touch!
Crawl Jimmy, crawl
Don’t Eat That

Or, here are some titles based on things I hear from my children or see my children do on a regular basis.

I’m sorry
"Raaar"
Dance, Dance, Dance
Personal space
"NO!"
Mama, Can I Have A Puppy?

I think I may be on to something. What do you think?

Run chubby, run!

And you thought I was joking about that new treadmill. Well, I wasn't. This isn't actually the treadmill we got...at least I don't think. To be honest, I neither know nor care. It's a treadmill, I can turn it on and it works. That's all I care about. I was just going to get a used one off craigslist for a couple hundred bucks, but Mike is a little more picky than me. He did some research and evidently no one on craigslist had one he liked. He ended up finding one at Sam's Club for a pretty stinking good deal. He kept asking me, "what do you think of this one or that one?" I don't know why he bothered asking me. I thought, "does it have a power button? Does it have a motor? Okay then."

I have been wanting one forever. Why, because I can put it in a room, put up a safety gate so the kids can't get in and run to my hearts content without kids underfoot. Seriously, have you EVER tried to work out with toddlers around. I have several good workout videos, Wii fit, and Wii active. All great tools. Unfortunately, my TV is in the living room and there is no way to keep kids out. They seem to think it's hilarious when mom works out. They see me start to jump and dance around the room like a crazy lady and think it's hilarious. Next thing you know they are trying to join in, which is cute and all, but then I start tripping over them and they think it's hilarious to try and run between my legs. It turns into a game for them that ends with me getting a sprained ankle...or landing on my face. So, I give up and consign myself to being a fatty forever...which leads to me consoling myself with a carton of ice cream. Good times.

Sure I could run outside...in the heat, with 2 kids in a jogging stroller and one...well...I don't know what I'd do with the other one. For a while I was running outside after Mike got home. It worked out pretty well, until my paranoia started kicking in. We all know my feelings about wooded areas and there are LOTS of wooded areas around here. I start thinking, "how many dead bodies are hidden in there. Someone could be watching and waiting for the slow fatty to bounce by, knowing I'd never be able to outrun them, drag me into the trees and well...who knows." So then I started making Mike follow me in the van. I just felt stupid doing that. And did I mention the heat? And the HUMIDITY?? Have you ever tried running when it's hot and humid? You can't even poor water on your head to cool off. It does nothing. So, again, I would just give up and eat more ice cream. (Go ahead, call me a wimp. I'm okay with it.)

The treadmill in the separate room is the perfect solution. I can work out in one room, watch the kids playing in the other room, have a fan blowing directly on me, watch a movie (because the computer is in that room) or read a book...it's perfect.

Mike finished putting it together last night and I made him try it out to make sure it wasn't going to eat me or anything. This morning I got to try it out for myself. It. was. awesome! I got a 30 minute workout and only had to stop a few times to put kids in time out for fighting. Happy, happy, HAPPY DAY!!! Now back to my 5k training. It's been 3 months since I gave up training for it. I was almost to 3 miles. Today I barely made it 1.5. So I have some catching back up to do. So excited.

Now you will all excuse me while I go eat some ice cream...you know, to celebrate. :)