What parents mean to Natalie

So we were all sick as you can tell from the past post. But as you can tell from Natalie's assignment, you know where her mind has been.

Pukes and Poops

Last Tuesday morning Benson started the whole mess and one by one we all fell to the wrath of a terrible stomach bug. (everyone but Alexis) We each suffered for three to four days, which is much longer that your regular 24 hour stomach bug. Benson and Ava had the worst cases and when Jut and I came down with it we felt even worse for our two little ones. Natalie had the most mild case and got through it with a very mild fever and only throwing up twice. The kids are back to normal and Jut and I are starting to get there.

Yesterday was the worst of it for me and I am so grateful that I have such a wonderful husband who was willing to stay home from work to take care of me. He didn't feel that well himself but he pushed through and took care of me. He did the laundry and kept the house clean. I am so lucky to have been blessed with such a wonderful man. Thanks babe.

Potty Training

What a scary set of words. :) After training three of my own children and helping with a few others, I have learned a few do's and don'ts. But as most moms know, all it takes is a child with an original personality to throw all you thought you knew out the window. At age two my oldest child practically potty trained herself for bowel movements and she only wet herself twice when I finally put her in underwear. My second was a nightmare, she rubbed poop into the carpet more then once and when she was in underwear she would wet herself and not even slow down to notice. I decided to start number three right at age two and quickly started the battle of "I don't want to go potty" (but only because mom wants me to), I won the battle but it lasted much longer than I ever thought it would.
So now I have number four and I have had many, many very wise mothers tell me that "boys are so much harder than girls". But so far he has been wonderful!!! I am probably counting my chickens but after reading that if you start before they get that "I am not going to do it but only because mom wants me to" quirk, you have a better chance. So at 12 months I started introducing him to the toilet by having him sit on it before I put him into the bath tub. I also would talk to him about the toilet and at 17 months I started putting him on it before naps and bed time. Then the week he turned 18 months I put him in underwear and gave it a go. He wasn't quite ready to go without protection, so I put him in pull ups for a week and then we went back to underwear. He is doing so awesome. I started taking him to the bathroom about once every 40 to 60 minutes and now he is up to two or more hours. He even made it though the night once. (I believe that was a fluke) He has started to tell me he has to go and he even has managed to tell me a few times before he realizes that his underwear are a little wet but he has only drenched himself twice. I am so proud of my little man.

He has been suffering from a stomach bug and he didn't feel very well when I took this picture. Much of the time he spends on the toilet, is spent with mom or dad reading him books. Whenever I put him on the toilet he immediately starts to say "book, book". We have been getting in a lot of reading time lately.