No More Diapers!

AHHH!!! I'm so anxious, nervous and every other emotion under the sun. I have made the decision to potty train Brady by taking away his diapers while he is awake and allowing him to only wear big boy underwear. Starting tomorrow, he will be a BIG BOY! He gets to wear either his McQueen underwear or his Mickey underwear! I will be taking him to the potty every 30 minutes ALL DAY LONG (except during nap and at night obviously). I'm going to be setting the kitchen timer on the microwave for every 30 minutes. This way I don't have to sit around watching the clock. And once it beeps at us... we will celebrate and go use the potty!

I know that there are many other philosophies about potty training. I have heard a million times about the checklist of readiness signs. But when I was introduced to this proven technique of training your 2 yr old to use the potty in a shorter amount of time... I jumped on the bandwagon. If it doesn't work, I'll stop and try something else at another time.

So, I've been feeling all gung-ho (<-- is that how it's spelled?) about it and getting all prepared. But now I'm terrified to go to bed because I know tomorrow will be a LONG day! Let alone a LONG weekend! But I need to remain enthusiastic for Brady's sake! What I'm most nervous about is knowing that eventually we'll have to leave the house. And I haven't a clue as to what we'll do. Guess I didn't think it all the way through. Hmmm...

So, today I made a Sticker Chart for Brady using my scrapbooking supplies. Basically, every time he pees in the potty, he gets 1 sticker on his chart. Every time he poops in the potty he gets 2 stickers on his chart. When he accumulates 6 stickers, he lands on the STAR space which indicates that he gets a reward from the reward bag I made up with a number of small gifts. (matchbox cars, playdoh, small books) I have 5 rows of spaces leading up to 5 star spaces. When he fills up all the rows I slide the chart out of the plastic sleeve that I put it in and put a new sleeve on there where the new stickers will go. So since the stickers go on the plastic sleeve, I always have a fresh chart to work with.

AHHHHHHHHHHH!!! What have I gotten myself into??!!? I can't really turn back now either. I've made it very clear to Brady that tomorrow he's going to become a Big Boy and we're going to have a Potty Party all day! (I even decorated his bathroom with streamers) I put a magazine rack next to his potty chair filled with books.
Wish me luck... and keep me in your thoughts! If you have any pointers... feel free to leave them in the comments below.

Boxers or Briefs?

McQueen Briefs, OF COURSE!

Never thought I'd ever write about going pee pee... but as a mother apparently there are no limits as to what you can write about! It's just too exciting for me to resist!Brady has gone pee pee in the potty chair twice! Tonight was much more than the first time 2 days ago! YAY! He got his first pairs of big boy briefs tonight (Lightening McQueen style)! We tried them on and he ran away from me caressing his behind as he ran! hahaha (must've felt good to have soft cotten against his smooth little behind) Well I got so distracted with taking pictures of my big boy in his undies... and I wasn't paying attention close enough until when he said uh-oh and looked down. Yep, he had his first accident! But that's okay. He was able to stop himself and we ran upstairs to the potty and finished there! I explained to him that we don't want to get McQueen wet with peepee... so we need to use the toilet. :) Don't worry. I'm not ready to just switch him imediately to undies. But we may start pullups during the day when we're at home!

Bye, bye toenail...

***WARNING*** Not for those with a weak stomach

Last February I had my Right big toenail removed ("permanently") since it was severely infected and chronically ingrown. It was ingrown for nearly a year and a half with numerous attempts by the podiatrist to alleviate the problem. The procedure for the removal was horrible. My toe was injected with numbing medication numerous times. Then the doctor yanked as hard as he could to get the whole toenail to come out. He exclaimed as he was bracing himself and pulling with all his might that I had a really strong nail matrix (bed). Then he applied a chemical acid substance to the nail bed to kill it and keep it from growing back. That was the worst pain of the whole surgery! It felt like someone was drilling holes through my toe with a very dull hot poker (slowly). Apparently I'm not very sensitive to the numbing medication... cause I was feeling more than expected.

The recovery for this was awful! It was horrible throbbing pain for days!!! I couldn't lower my foot below my heart or I'd wail in agony. Soaking it in Epsom Salt was killer! Finally after 2 months, it seemed to be feeling back to normal (minus a nail). Then I was noticing that it was awfully callused... only to find out it actually was portions of nail growing back in. The sides of my nail were growing back despite the attempt to kill the nail bed.

So I waited till after my reunion, so I could wear cute heels. Then I went in last Friday to the doctor to have the nail removed again! My parents came to watch the boys in the waiting room while Josh came back with me to hold my hand through the procedure as he did last February. It was just about as painful as I had remembered it. He tried to inject an excessive amount of numbing meds in my toe to relieve any pain... to no avail.

However, I'm pleased to announce... the recovery is NIGHT AND DAY! It doesn't hurt hardly at all! I feel completely normal! I soak it once a day, change my bandage and dressings and wear flipflops outside the house (what else is new), and that's it. HOORAY!!! I'm positive it's cause it wasn't infected this time. GEESH that must've been some infection last time!! I do remember the doctor commenting that it's the worst ingrown toenail infection that he had ever seen!

For those of you who like bloody stuff (Michaela, Sherri, Diane)... here are some before and after photos...

Only click on these links if you want to see pictures of a bloody toe - or are just too curious to restrain yourself.

2 weeks post first surgery in February '08

5 months post first surgery in July '08

day before last surgery in Oct '08

2 days post last surgery

I CAN'T BELIEVE I JUST POSTED PICTURES OF THAT!!


after all this is said and done, I NEED A PEDICURE!

Cosby, Cosby, Cosby...

Well, Cosby has been with us for about a month now. He's fitting in quite nicely (once we got over the bathroom issues). All the cats seem to really like him. He's very feisty! He loves to play with us and the other cats (especially Lexi and Maya). Brady has even learned to play with him using an old shoe string. It's hilarious, and he's quite amused too!

Morning pets with Daddy. (Nice look Josh!)

My 2 boys

Morning cartoons

Brady shows Dylan how it's done...

Dylan's ROLLING!

Yep, that's right. He started rolling last Thursday from back to tummy! Opposite of how Brady started. This means that he can go from being happy and content on his back playing under his gym, to being upset and frustrated on his tummy - unable (most of the time) to roll back over.

Check out more happy pictures of Dylan!

Michaela making Dylan laugh

Baby blues (I think they're gonna stay blue)

"I love my feet Mommy!"

Dylan's girlfriend, Addie

Dylan met his future girlfriend, Addie May Foster last week! They are 3 weeks apart and are both happy babies!

Addie is the first daughter of my dear friends from highschool, Jake & Melissa!