Ups and Downs and Veiled Threats

Last week was a busy one for us. My kindergartener graduated on Friday. It was such a cute ceremony...and thankfully quick as it was HOT in there! Each of the five classes sang a different song and then received their "diploma". The finale was the entire grade singing "First Grade, First Grade" to the tune of "New York, New York". For some reason that song just killed me. I was fighting tears through the entire number. My precious little guy, the one my doctor told me I might as well abort because "the fetus isn't viable" is growing up into a big person! He brought his report card home and Justin and I were both amazed at how well he did his first year in school and how far he had come. (And as for that doctor- I'll tell you that story another day.)

The same day as the graduation was the first night of Alex's dance recital. I worked back stage on Friday so I didn't get to see much, but I had a really good time being back there. Saturday the whole family came to watch and I think they were all really impressed. The entire production was just so interesting and thoughtfully planned and really executed well. I'm so happy to have found this dance school...but I'm sure my friends feel differently. It's all I talk about! How much I love the teacher, how nice the studio is, how much fun it was to help out, yada yada yada. I signed Alex up for a summer course there and Hudson wants to go as well in the fall. That should be interesting!

Ethan has had his ups and downs. Up: Today he went into the bathroom, pulled down his pants and successfully peed into the toilet by himself! Down: Yesterday he threw a big rock at his brother's playmate and made the kid cry. Up: He sat through his sister's entire dance recital being a very good boy, clapping and saying "More dancing!" Down: He peed his pants in the dance instructor's very modern, clean, white carpeted living room Up: He played nicely with his little friend Meredith at Alex's soccer game last night Down: He bit a child on Alex's soccer team. Up: He has taken to calling me "Momma"- never has he done that before. Let's leave it on an UP!

Ethan is a challenging and delightful child and he loves to push Mommy's buttons. I told the kids I would take them out for ice cream before Alex's soccer game to celebrate the last day of school (which was yesterday). The only condition, they had to eat their dinner. Now, this I barely even have to tell the big kids, because they know that ice cream is a treat and in order to get a treat you have to finish your dinner. It has been ingrained in them. We are still working on that with Ethan. He refused to eat his dinner. In fact he put his ravioli in his cup of milk! Ok, I told him, you will not get ice cream. So off to Gullace's we go and I order 2 kiddie cones and one rootbeer float. I pass the cones out to Alex and Hudson, and Ethan is standing right at my leg. The girl behind the counter looks at Ethan and then back at me and I just shake my head. She must think I am the meanest Mom around- but if you don't follow through, what is the point of making a threat? We eat our treats and although Ethan's asks me a few times for ice cream, he never cries or throws a fit about not getting any. Then we are off to soccer, and Ethan decides that it will be fun to be CRAZY. He's jumping all over my friend Sue and running out into the playing field and just being obnoxious. I pull him to my lap and say, "Settle down or I am going to put you in the van." A Dad next to me hears this and says, "Well that's a veiled threat." You don't know who you are dealing with buddy...I don't make veiled threats.

June Bug

Ethan turned 3 on June 6th and I turned 33 on the 13th. It's funny how birthday's just don't matter all the much when you are over 21. That was the last time I was really excited about my own birthday...and I ended up throwing up all over the side of my friend Marcy's car. Sorry. But kids are so excited about their age. My daughter is jealous that most of her friends are 8 and she's still 7. I'm like, what is the big deal? You'll still be 39 when they turn 40...she didn't get it.

Oh.....June has been a busy month and it only half way over. School is over for Alex and Hudson next Wednesday, so they are cramming all sorts of "activities" into these last few days. Field day, beach day, volunteer appreciation day, kindergarten graduation. I volunteered in my daughters class on Monday for 2 hours and there were 2 fire drills! They needed to fit in a few more by the year's end (state law?) Soccer has started for both kids and some how Justin has been roped into being the assistant coach for Hudson's team. He loves it, and its so cute, but his schedule won't allow him to be there all the time. Alex has her dance recital this weekend. Two nights of performances. I can't wait to see it.

Ethan is still working on his potty training- just like his brother thought, he thinks that somewhere there is a potty train. Choo Choo!

Potty Training Ethan Update

Oh he's just not ready yet. I wish he were...I'M READY! Except for the occasional (and I mean OCCASIONAL) day away from the kids I have been changing diapers non-stop for 7½ years!!! Since 1997! Do you know how many diapers that is? A lot! Its like 18,000 diapers. Wow. Anyway, yesterday's diaperless experiment was a complete failure... not only did we have the incidents I listed yesterday, but these new ones: peeing right down and into the yellow rubber boots incident, peeing in the sandbox incident(has he seen the cat do that? I hope not) and the ulimate-diarrhea in the driveway incident discovered by his 7 year old sister. That one was fun!

Potty Training Ethan

I think I am going to go crazy. And you'd think that with my third child I'd have this whole potty business down to a science... but each child got harder I swear. Alexandra was the easiest. At 2 years and 3 months she just handed me her diaper one day and said, "I'm a big girl... I don't need this anymore." Well, I thought smuggly, that was easy. Why does everyone make such a huge deal out of potty training? Then came Hudson..... Hudson was a challenge. He was supposed to start preschool in September, a month and a half before his 3rd birthday. I told him that only big kids went to school, and that babies who wore diapers had to stay at home. Well, we ended up pulling him from the program 2 weeks before it started. He just wasn't interested. But then Alex's first day of kindergarten came. I watched with such pride as she marched onto the school bus, without so much as a glance back at Mom or Dad. She was so mature (and not quite 5 yet!) and sure of herself. Then I looked at her little brother Hudson. He had jelly smeared all over his face, he was wearing a dirty diaper, and he could have cared less. Ok, I said...this is it! You WILL be potty trained! That very day I put him on the potty every 15 minutes until finally he peed. I cheered and jumped around the room and really whooped it up. (The next time he sat down on the potty he said, "Don't yell." I guess my happy cheers were too much for him.) And it was like a lightbulb went off in his head...OH- so this is what Mom and Dad have been trying to get me to do. I get it. And he pretty much did. From then on he did pretty well on the potty. Whenever he had a successful bathroom visit he would say "You're so proud of me."

And now it's Ethan's turn. He will be 3 next week, and although he has peed on the potty several times (usually before bath) he really doesn't want to have much to do with it. We are trying the cold turkey approach of no more diapers. This is day 1: We've had one peeing in the pants right down to the sneakers incident, one sitting on the potty but spraying Mommy as she waits sitting on the floor incident, and one pooping in underpants incident. Ethan is taking a nap right now, and I know I must be absolutely CRAZY becasue I put him to bed naked.