Excited about Poop! (AKA- potty training break-thru!)

I am soooooo proud of Brian! Tonight we had a potty training break-through. Brian jumped up from his chair grabbing his pull-up and saying "Mommy I need the potty, I have to go poopie." Once I got past the shock (he has NEVER asked for the potty to poop!), we ran to the potty and Brian tried and tried. He changed his mind about 5 times over 20 minutes, but then decided that he preferred the big potty- after about 3 minutes of crying and straining (I know I know, TMI- especially for those with no kids who may have a little more difficulty understanding all the excitement over poop- but Brian has suffered with gastrointestinal issues for over 2 years so the pain involved for him is a real issue) PLOP PLOP! Brian started hysterically laughing and hiked himself so he could "see the poopie Mommy, that's a big big poopie!" Wow, and it was!, poor kid. But he did it! He identified that he needed to go, told me where he wanted to go, and initiated the whole thing all on his own. I am so proud of him!!!! We jumped up and down and danced around the 2nd floor singing our song "A poopie on the POTTY." Brian was so cute- he is most excited about this...Brian loves school buses and the idea of school and one thing we have used as encouragement around potty training is that once he wears big boy underoos he can start going to school. So immediately after, Brian looked at me with big eyes and said "Mommy Mommy! I pooped on the potty, I am big now, I can go to school!!" I wish I had a camcorder running to capture that moment in time for 10 years (or less) down the road when I am sure he will moan and groan about how much he hates school and how he doesn't want to go...
Oh my baby is growing up! I am so happy for him (and happy for us that he may be potty trained by 3 after all!- no more having to buy diapers, woo hoo!) and proud of him but it's just one more reminder that my baby's not a baby anymore. Sniff Sniff.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080721/ap_on_en_ot/savage_autism

I have never heard of this idiot but apparently he has a popular radio show. I think he should go the way of Howard Stern and Imus. How absolutely offensive his words are. I am curious to know if 1. he has children, 2. he has a relationship with those children, and 3. he has every met anyone with autism. Just wanted to share this article.

SCREAM

Sometimes we all find the need to scream- just to release stress and tension. So here is my cyber scream as I am in my office and screaming just does not seem to be appropriate work behavior (especially considering I work in a Vocational Rehabilitation Program where we help people in developing appropriate work behaviors. I would just not be setting a good example....)
AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
OK I feel a little better. Unfortunately it did nothing to reduce the length of my To-Do List. Or the work piling on my desk. Or the requests that are sure to walk into my office, come through my e-mail, or call on the phone throughout the day. But I feel a little bit better. Hopefully now I can focus....

Lessons learned....

Whew, what a week! As with anything else, good intentions do not always equal tangible results, and now it's been 5 days since I have updated my blog. Several times this week, I have stopped and thought, "I really need to blog about that...." or "that was hilarious, I should put that on my blog" and alas, here I am, thinking how to summarize our week in a nutshell. So here it is- in a little diddy I think I will call Lessons Learned....

• Pull-ups really are a diaper disguised as a useful potty-training tool. Good news- Brian said in the car on Wednesday, "Mommy I have to go potty." Which means he is now recognizing the sensation of needing to go. Excellent! Bad news- Upon replying to this profound statement with "OK, you hold it for a minute while I find somewhere we can stop to use the potty" he responded "No, I can go in my pull-up, you will change it." Nice. Real nice. Clearly the pull-up has become the big boy diaper.
• Often the traits we notice and dislike, are the ones we clearly recognize in others, but find harder to accept and change in ourselves. Tardiness/being late. That's my big one. It has always been a struggle for me, and I find it easier to believe that it is fate and that there is some greater reason for me to be running late at any given time. (i.e. If I had left in time to get to work early as I had intended, I could have been involved in this accident that now has me sitting in a 30 minute back-up at the tunnel and will no doubt make me very late for work.) When in fact I really just need to accept that it has less to do with divine intervention and more to do with the fact that I am a habitually late person with poor time management skills. There, I said it. Don't they say acceptance is the first step to recovery? Alright, now what?...Am I now allowed to be really ticked at the person who made me late to pick up Brian after work this week because she was running an hour and a half behind? I hope so.
• Murphy's Law is REAL. And can be very messy. I decided on Wednesday to have Brian start wearing underoos as much as possible (see first lesson learned) and after I picked him up from the sitter, into the Thomas underwear he went. We went outside to play with chalk and I thought I was soooo prepared bringing the potty outside with us. Five minutes later, it thundered. Or shall I say Brian thundered. My advice is that one start the underoos on a day that is free from gastrointestinal disturbance. After a much needed bath, into a pull-up he went. He won that battle but he has not won the war.
• Good things will come in their own time. Especially when toddlers are involved. Brian went to the potty ALLLLLL day on Friday. No accidents. Woo hoo!!!! 'Nuff said! :) An especially nice treat after the messy Wednesday. Wish us luck for the week to come....
  

OK let's try this again

Here is the video of Brian and the Bumper cars that I have been trying to upload for the last couple of days. Let's see if it works this time....
And yes, Brian is the maker of the high pitched squeal and giggles heard throughout the video. LOL...

Kings Dominion

We took Brian to Kings Dominion two weeks ago with my parents, Patrick, America and the girls. It is the first time Brian has been to an amusement park and he had a great time! The fact that it was about 100 degrees with 100% humidity actually worked in our favor as there were hardly any lines. Here are some fun pictures from the day. (I originally posted a video however I have not yet figured out how to efficiently upload a video. That will come later.)


Brian and Lexi were 2 cute peas in a pod and loved riding the rides together

Insomnia

I am too tired to blog a whole lot and the battery on my laptop is about to die (my luck will be that I will write a novel and lose it all...) but wanted to add some pictures from our day. A Classic Car Club adopted our program as the charity/non-profit to collect donations for, as I understood it originally, just for today but as it turns out~ we will get all donations and fees for showing for the next month! Awesome! I went to help collect fees and donations and Steve and Brian joined me to check out the cars, and met up with Alex and some members who also came out for the event. We had great fun, and really enjoyed looking at the old classic cars. Brian had his favorites (especially the ones with the lights on the underbelly of the cars) and asked a few guys "Can I drive your car?" Surprisingly, no one was willing to let my baby drive their babies. Shocking..... And now I giggle to myself, realizing the effect this event had on my husband, as we sit here- me blogging- and him watching a classic muscle car auction. Ha ha ha :)
Only 11 more years until my Protege will be a classic...

I know I promised pics of classic cars but is this not the
cutest picture ever of Brian?

Now why doesn't it look like this under my hood?

LOVE this one- old mafia car, suicide doors, roll down window in the back-
can't you just see the old mobsters in it?

Steve's favorite-1960 Ford Starliner (sweeeeet)

How much more proof do we need that Elvis lives? hahaha

Alex & I posing with our sign; our post at the front "door"

Steve and Brian in front of one of my favorites

So I have decided to give Blogging another shot. I tried this first over a year ago in an effort to keep friends and family updated on our family's life. Including pictures, videos, etc. Of course all this before remembering how truly inept I am, at times, with the computer. After several hours in front of the computer trying to add one picture (just one!!!) with no success, in an effort to save our computer from destruction and myself from insanity, I took a friend's advice about getting a myspace page. Which lead to facebook. Now I officially may be addicted to these social networking sites. Ridiculous, especially given that I am 31 not 21. Back to blogging I go. Hopefully I can figure out just how to make my blog what I would like to be. We shall see.

Not much to report here. I got through my first full week back at work and am EXHAUSTED. Exhausted but still no relief from insomnia, as the exhaustion only makes the body, not the mind, weary. The last few weeks between Patrick, America and the girls visit, the family reunion, and the Fourth of July, I have been off one to two days each week, so being back 5 days a week is somewhat bittersweet. It was difficult because I was so happy, excited, and grateful to be able to spend so much time with Steve and Brian, but to also visit with my beautiful nieces and their parents (alright, you guys are beautiful too, ;) ) . Maybe my big brother will consider moving back to the East Coast?...Back to work- was somewhat of a relief to be back for 5 days as apparently the work and the to-do list don't go on vacation when you do?

Tomorrow I'll be off to a classic car show/event, a local Classic Car Club chose our organization as their charity agency for the month and all proceeds will go to our program. Awesome! I will be there to collect donations and "learn" the people about brain injury and what we do. Steve and Brian are coming too, as we are sure that Brian will be delighted to see all the old cars. (not to mention it's being held in the parking lot of a Harley Davidson shop- we all know how boys love motorcycles) Other than that, taking Brian to the beach is probably the only other plan we have for the weekend....

And that's it, I am inspired to write so much more, but my bottle of beer is running dry....So you will have to enjoy the following pictures from the last month that I will post next! 'Til we meet again.....

Brian & I stopping to smell the flowers