I really am starting to love it here. I love the big city. There is still so much that I want to see and do here. I really love our ward (church congregation). I teach the 14-18 year old Sunday School class and I love it. I will really miss it. I will miss the people that I've gotten to know here.
Trent is doing very well in his classes. We were talking the other day about his classes and how hard they are. He is taking around 24 semester credit hours every 4 months. It's a load of information thrown at them really fast. They have two, sometimes three, tests a week. They are not only required to pass the classes, they are expected to excel in them. If the students don't maintain an 80% average they are kicked out of the program. Trent's class lost 5 (I think, may have been more) this last semester. That's almost 10% of the class. Sometimes the students get recycled into another class (meaning they repeat that semester) and sometimes they don't. Trent is doing really well and I think that has a lot to do with his nursing background. Some of the people in his class have no medical background at all, so I can see how having his BSN really has helped him do well. He's up at the classroom from 7 am on test days and 8 am on other days till about 5 pm each night. Sometimes class gets out before 5 but he stays to study till 5. We eat dinner and get kids to bed and then he studies till he goes to bed. He spends most Saturdays studying and after church on Sundays he goes up to the classroom to study more. Living on post has made it really nice for him going up there to study, as there really is no where in our house for him to get some quiet time. And he has to find time to do PT in there as well. They had a PT test in the middle of April and Trent didn't pass the taping (body fat measurement). He was 2 inches too big. There were a lot of people that didn't pass, too much sitting for these students. Since he didn't pass he had to go to PT every morning at 5 am. He worked really hard for two weeks and was re-taped this last Friday and passed! Wahoo!! No more 5 am PT. Although, he still gets up that early to go to the gym. He is training for a triathlon that he is doing Labor Day.
Warning: There is lots of poopy talk below. I keep this blog as a journal/scrapbook for our family and this potty training adventure needs to be documented as it has taken up a large portion of our lives the last few months. You have been warned....
I feel like I have so much to get caught up on. Our lives have been on hold for the last few months as I've tried to potty train Hunter and had a newborn. We really didn't go anywhere unless I had to. Potty training started last February when he wanted to use the potty all the time. Although he never really got the pooping thing down, he would pee on command. Sit him on the toilet and every time he'd pee. Then things started to really change in our household. I got pregnant, we were selling the house, we moved a million miles away, had a baby, took a big vacation back to UT. All the while trying to sneak in potty training. I kinda gave up when I was first pregnant, mostly because I was too sick to care about anything. And he didn't care about pooping in the toilet, cleaning up poop accidents are no fun! He just wasn't quite ready yet. However, he'd still use the potty if we asked him too.
Once Andrew was born I decided that it was time to give it a real effort. Hunter no longer cared about potty training. He could care less if he was poopy. He'd sit in a nasty diaper till someone noticed it. Asking him to use the toilet was torture. It was a BATTLE! We would do really well for a couple of days, then have weeks that were horrible. So we took a break. I bought a box of cheap diapers, which I HATED, I will never buy them again. Once those were gone, in mid March, I told him I wasn't buying more diapers. He had to figure this potty thing out! So, I let him go naked. The first day I set a timer and we went to the potty every 15 mins. He did really well! After everyone got home he had one little accident, stopped himself and ran to the potty. But he wouldn't poop. The next day was the same thing. Still wouldn't poop. By the third day I was giving him apple juice and loads for fruit to make him go. Nope. He'd run to the potty, but he just couldn't figure out how to make it come. It was terribly scary to him. He'd cry and scream because it hurt. As soon as he had a pull up on he'd poop. Put underwear on him, he'd poop. Keep him naked and he'd hold it. Gah! I threw away lots of poopy underwear.
The second week I put him in underwear, but no pants. Still we had pooping problems. As long as I kept him in my sight I could watch for the signs of him pooping, I'd rush him to the toilet, but he'd flip. Scream. He didn't know how to get it out. I desperately tried to hide my frustrations. Keep it positive, it was HARD! It has been my experience in potty training that the child has to be ready AND want to do it. They have to know how their body works and be able to communicate their needs. If not then it's a battle. Hunter knew what he was doing, he'd go hide when he pooped, but he didn't know how to move that urge to the toilet. We fought this battle for almost 7 weeks. Then one day last week he ran into the house and just went. He was SO proud of himself! We made a HUGE deal out of it. He is still so proud of himself, just the other day he said (while doing a fist pump) 'Hunter wins!' It was kind of awesome.
He is growing up so fast. He packed his own bag for our little trip last week. He can reach the drinking fountain at the church by himself. He takes a bath by himself. Dresses himself. He even wants to wipe his own bum. The others I had to make learn that around 4. He wants to help me cook everyday. We keep a stool in the kitchen so that he can reach the counter. Everyday he wants to make something. Today he wants chocolate cookies. I'm hoping to persuade him to make a lemon sugar cookie instead. He is just so big and it kinda breaks my heart. He has been a very challenging child and baby. But I love him. Love his little smile. Love it when he says 'I so sorry momma' when he get's in trouble. And then when he says 'I lub you!' It just doesn't get better. As much as I want him to get bigger and experience life I mourn for the time that he no longer needs me. It's very apparent that the time is coming quickly. I watched him walk down the hall at church with his hands in his pockets and just smiled. He is such a silly boy. BOY! Not baby, not toddler, but a big (little) boy. Sigh!
Andew is also getting big. The other day we were out and someone asked us how old Andrew was and I said, almost 5 months. Carter looked at me and said; 'Mom, isn't he 5 months old today.' Sure enough, it was May 3rd. Time is just flying by and he keeps getting bigger and bigger. He is a challenging baby at times. He wants to be held ALL the time. He refuses to nurse covered up, which makes going anywhere a little hard. He would rather just not eat than eat with a cover on. One afternoon he went 6 hours without eating. He was happy most of that time, he just wouldn't eat, even though I knew he was hungry. He is a terrible sleeper, but we are currently working on fixing that. We were going to try and sleep train him while Trent was on break, but it just didn't happen. His biggest problem is he wakes up a lot in the night to just nurse. He doesn't nurse long, just enough to fall back asleep, but it still is a problem for me. I also don't think he needs to be up every two hours to eat. He loves being outside and will sit outside and be happy for a while. As soon as we lay him on the floor he rolls over to his belly, and he hates that! He will scream and scream till someone rescues him. I've tried showing him how to roll back onto his back, and he's done it many times, he just doesn't do it. He is a drooly baby! His shirt is soaked minutes after I put it on him. I keep trying to remember to put a bib on him, and yet I never do. He remains a chunky little guy! We are pretty sure his chunky cheeks extend further than his little nose. He has rolls on his arms, neck and legs. I love it!
Holy cow, this post has taken me ages to write. I know you can't tell, but I started it just after noon and it is now almost 5:30. And just for the record, Hunter would not go for the lemon cookies. They had to be chocolate, so we made a sugar cookie recipe that I pinned the other day and wanted to try and then made a chocolate ganche to dip them in. He was happy, I am happy, so is everyone else. Speaking of pinning, did I mention that Hunter loves to look at pintrest with me. He'll point out something and say 'mommy, we make that.' Of course it is a treat of some sort. :)
2 comments:
I miss you and I want to munch on that baby!
Can't believe you've been gone that long already. I want to chew on Drew's little cheeks and he is really taking on his own little look. So glad you are all happy and doing well.
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