Visitors

TellsDonaldDuckStories and QuiltsAlot are here for a visit. TDDS has already lived up to his name.

Muffin Man was eager to show off his new potty skills and his tastefully decorated room (he put up his own artwork all by himself which goes very nicely with the stickers that now adorn his changing station (rewards for potty successes). I'll post a picture soon.)

Yesterday, while he was upstairs hanging his pictures, I was downstairs starting dinner.

"Mommy!"
"Yes?"
"What are you doing?"
"I'm making noodles with pesto."
....
"Mommy!"
"Yes?"
"Can I have noodles with pesto, too?"
"Yes."
"But there's no hurry, Mama."

And he ate it all, too.

What's the word?

Please leave a one-word comment that you think best describes me. It can only be one word. No more. Then copy & paste this in your blog so that I may leave a word about you.

from Beanie Baby (see Andrea? I got around to it eventually!)

I'm a Ravenclaw too!

I'm a Ravenclaw!

spotted at Phantom Scribbler's

POOP! (Warning...contains graphic description of grossness)

He tried. Really, he tried. But he thought he could do the poop thing the way he does the pee thing.

Standing up. Only, y'know, facing in the other direction.

And, as I've said before, he likes his privacy. So I didn't know. I swear to God, I didn't know he was gonna try this.

Then he yelled, "Mama!!!! POOPY!!!! Mama!!!!!"

Now, to give him credit, half did get into the toilet (and boy howdy, the size of that thing!) and half was on the floor at the foot of the toilet, after having slid down the front of the toilet leaving a trail behind.

There was poop on his butt, on his legs, on his feet, on his shorts, his Nemo underpants, his suspenders, his hands, his tummy, his penis, the sink, the towel, and the wall. Thank goodness he'd taken off his shoes and socks when we got home.

I used wipes and more wipes and more wipes. And then the toilet overflowed.

Hey, I told you, it was BIG.

Bathtime!

I can't pick one...

One of my managers is a minister. He doesn't have a church, so he considers our team to be his "flock". Every week he tacks on a homily to the end of the agenda for the weekly staff meeting. The agenda that goes out not only to our internal team, but also to our clients.

Following are some summaries of the two most hideous:

1. PG-13 and R rated movies are like "dog poop brownies" ("Now when this father's kids want to do something or see something they shouldn't, he merely asks them if they would like some of his special dog poop brownies -- and they never ask about it again.")

2. "Help Is Sometimes A Deterrent". This wonderful bit of word-smithing came out for the meeting after a shit-bomb that we had warned all our managers about months in advance finally went off. The tag line in that little beauty? "Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If we went through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us."

Yeah. Thanks. Next time, maybe you'll listen to us. (uh, that would be a "no.")

Well now, that's better.

He was back to being Cooperative Boy last night and this morning. Phew. He even leaned back in the bathtub to get his hair wet (with my hand under his back). That was a definite no-no in the past. But last night he wanted to do it - and then he wanted to do it again! Yay!

Gotta start packing up my stuff from my lovely windowed office here at my current job to move to my new job. I'm looking forward to the new job and better commute, but boy will I ever miss this office.

Proud, yet exasperated.

On the plus side: Muffin Man is potty trained, he likes his "privacy" when he's doing his thing. He pees standing up. At the real, honest-to-goodness toilet! He wipes. He washes his hands (with a reminder, and a bit of supervision). He flushes. He's such a big boy!!!!

With every silver lining, a cloud:

He's being a real pain in my ass.
"I don't want that shirt - I want this shirt! NO! NOT THE SHIRT I JUST SAID! THE OTHER ONE!"
"I want my Nemo underwear, not that Nemo underwear! The OTHER Nemo underwear!"
"NOOOOOOOO!!!"

And that's just this morning.

I'm giving him alot of leeway because of the whole potty thing, but he's still resorting to hitting. And then he laughs at me. And that just drives me flipping crazy.

And he's normally such a sweetie. A loving, hugging, kissing boy. Seriously, he says and does the most wonderful things. Most of the time.

I like Phantom Scribbler's way of dealing with LG today. Perhaps I'll try that tomorrow.

Busy, busy weekend

Saturday morning: SoupAndBread followed by a visit with APL & AB. So much fun!

Saturday afternoon: Naps all around, followed by a visit to Wegman's and dinner.

Sunday morning: Brunch, followed by meeting up with Mr. Spock's sister, her friend, and her friend's two kids at the mall to go shopping for clothes for Muffin Man and friend's son to wear at Mr. Spock's sister's wedding this Labor Day weekend. They are going to be ring-bearers.

Sunday afternoon: Sent Mr. Spock and Muffin Man home for nap, continued shopping.

Sunday evening: Dinner at sister-in-law's house, followed by bath for MM and bed (I finished tucking him in at 10:00 PM!)

Results of shopping: Very good. Got complete outfit for MM.

PT Update: Dry all day 10 days in a row!!!

Oh. My. God. London, I love you.

Read this from the London News Review.

Found via Underpaid Kept Woman.

I still don't want to talk about it.

But Susie Sunshine says it well and so does Scrivener and Angry Pregnant Lawyer and OTBKB.

More Meeting Haiku

Donuts smell so good
Chocolate covered, cream-filled
Fried yeasty goodness.

I'm so not hungry
Why are they...mmmm....tempting me?
Can't I have one bite?

Stop. Don't look, don't touch.
Breathe deep. Remember your goals.
Please, please, don't eat them.

I don't want to talk about it.

And anyway, Phantom Scribbler said it best.

Caught Me

"If, as you live your life, you find yourself mentally composing blog entries about it, post this exact same sentence in your weblog."

seen first at 1B*.

An Open Letter to My Parents

I know you read this blog. How come you never comment?

You may have noticed that I blogged incessantly about your youngest grandson this week. He has crossed a major milestone! Have you nothing to say about that? Come on, come on. Speak up!

Boy, Do I Feel Sheepish

The Phantom Professor has a quiz on her blog that she gave to Sophomores and Juniors at her college.

I'm embarrassed to say that I did not get all of the answers right. One of the three I got wrong I blame on my (mostly dormant) Brooklyn accent.

Houston, We Have Contact!

Dry Days in a Row: 4
Pee standing up?: Check.
Poop in the potty?: Check.
Sitting on the BIG GROWN-UP potty and shunning the little potty?: Check and check.

Go Muffin Man! Go!

So, why the new job?

My current job, the one I'm leaving, is a pretty good one. I've only got the usual amount of headaches from clueless managers (including the one who attaches a sermon to the staff meeting agenda each week). So why am I leaving?

I live in Ashburn, VA - ten minutes west of Dulles Airport. Ashburn is in Loudoun County, the fastest-growing county in the country. I work in Merrifield, just inside the Beltway. If I worked Saturdays I could get to work in 25 minutes.

But I don't work Saturdays. I work weekdays and so does everyone else in this part of the world (our region has been consistantly in the top three worst-traffic regions for the last 5 years). My commute can take anywhere from 35 minutes on an exceptionally good day to 2 hours on an exceptionally bad day. Most days it takes about an hour each way.

My new job is just south of the Dulles Airport. I see the building I'll be working at out the passenger-side window of my car on my commute each morning. The morning of my interview with them it took me 15 minutes in rush-hour to get there. I arrived 45 minutes early (I wasn't taking any chances!).

My worst commuting days will probably never take as long as my best commuting days do now.

I can't begin to describe how much stress I've let go of since agreeing to take the job. Since I'll be hourly for the first 6 months, I could work an hour of PAID over-time every day and still get home earlier than I do now!

Excited/Nervous - Updated

Excited

New job! Short commute! Yay!

Nervous

Muffin Man was dry all day yesterday and today went on the potty at brunch and again before nap! Yay! After we flushed the before nap one down he wanted to go again, very insistant. I thought it was stalling, but...so I let him sit again and it was about 15 minutes and I was getting annoyed and told him to call me when he was done and left the room for awhile and then he got upset and he did pee in the potty after all. So I'm nervous that I may have made him think that the potty's not such a great thing. I hope I didn't make a mistake there.

Update: Seems he's not been inhibited by my before-nap grumps. We had success this afternoon and before bed.

PT Update - Starting to look really good!

Muffin Man stayed dry all day! Went to the potty before and after nap at school and before bed just now!

YAY!!!!!

Stickers and toys!!!

PT Update - Cautiously Ecstatic

Muffin Man went in the potty at school! I was so proud and he was so proud and so I asked him, "What would you like for dinner? You're a big boy who went pee in the potty, so you can choose."
"Pizza. I want to eat pizza at the pizza store." he answered.

So we went to Bravo Pizza and ate pizza (mediocre, but they sell it by the slice) and half-way through he said, "I need to make pee-pee."

So I took him to the rest room and he said, "You first, Mommy."

So I went first and then he pulled down his pants and put the portable seat on the toilet and I lifted him up onto the grown-up seat and...

He peed in the grown-up toilet in the bathroom at the pizzaria!

Strawberry ice-cream cones for everybody!!!!