What a title, huh?

So, I know I am not good at this blogging thing, but there are some stories that just need to be recorded somewhere so I can remember them and share them with Eli's future girlfriends or something.

We're working hard at this potty training thing and it has been going really well in general. Within the last week, Elijah has decided that he will not poop on the toilet. Only in his pants. He will tell me when he is going to poop, but will NOT go to the toilet.

Idea 1: Okay. You poop in your pants, you help clean it up. Eli has to get in the bathtub with his poopy self and clean himself off. After being sad the first two times, he decides this is fun and it only encourages the pooping in his pants. No good. That idea is done.

Idea 2: Fine. Wear diapers. Still go potty on the toilet and then if you are insistent on pooping your pants, go for it. This works great for 1 day. Stays dry all day, still uses the potty and I don't have to clean up poopy underwear. Great. Day 2 of this great plan Eli announces he will only poop in his underwear. He goes into his room, takes off his diaper and tries to put on underwear to go poop in them. I did not let that happen and wrestled with him to get a diaper on.

Today is Day 4 of the current plan. This morning Elijah announces "I need to go poopy." I give him the options of his diaper or the toilet. He responds with "I go poopy on the floor." Of course, I tell him this is not okay, it is yucky, that is naughty, etc, etc, etc. He agrees with me and says "that naughty".... and I believe him. Probably 2 minutes later I hear Eli yell very proudly from his room "I did it! I pooped on the floor! Mommy, you want to see it?" Argh.

I did have a difficult time not laughing at him.... seriously, that kid?!?

Of Elijah, that is.

Somehow M & I ended up with the most extroverted, imaginative 2 year old. He will strike up conversations with the homeless guys downtown, people in the grocery store, random people in the neighborhood.... anyone. And he is just so amazingly imaginative.

Brief summary of the day.

Wakes up and run into our room. "Mommy, there are monsters out there." He proceeds to first hide in our closet, then 'roar' out the door to the hall, tell me he has scared them away.

He gets out his play cups, takes his chair to the sink, and 'makes' our coffee.

After breakfast he informs me that our bed is race car. He tell stories about driving it.... who is winning the race, etc.

He later gets out his metal mixing bowls. After he has made M & I pancakes and had us each eat them, he puts one and his head and one on M's head. He asks M to go upstairs with him. He gets in our bed and tells M that they are in a rocket ship. He continues to tell him about all the things they are flying by (the moon, the sun, etc). M tells him the sun is too hot, so E goes to get a screwdriver and proceeds to turn it off. When I came up to check things out he told me that there wasn't room in the rocket ship for me.

Afternoon: E goes outside, finds the nozzle to the hose, and proceeds to fight fires in the backyard, in the house, etc. The entire time he is talking, telling me that I'll be safe, etc, etc.

After dinner: Our bed turns into an airplane. I'm cleaning up after dinner, so he again takes Daddy with him. They called me on the phone and E told me about how they were on the airplane going to see Grandpa and his combine. Then he had to go for some very important reason (something like "it's so windy" or something).

Seriously, he talks non-stop and has a new story every time that we talk to him!?!

I'm making my best attempt at blogging regularly (since I just know that all of you all who actually take the time to read this on a regular basis are just dying to know what is going on inside our household!). We are pretty entertaining around these parts.

The latest with Elijah. Monday he had 'one of those days.' It is hard to tell without living with Elijah, but he is a screamer. Few people get to see it. Basically the lucky few are me, Janny (his daycare provider), and occasionally my mom's group friends (since we see them every week and I am also there, it apparently makes it a safe place to scream/tantrum? I don't fully understand). Let me remind you all that from the time Elijah was born, he was screaming.... and I don't really think it has ever stopped.

So, day to day, since Elijah has always screamed/thrown tantrums I haven't thought much of it (which, nearly all 2 years olds do, so I really haven't been concerned about it). I remember him starting to throw tantrums before he was one year old and I was really disappointed that it was starting so early, but that has just always been Elijah.

I digress, back to Monday. It snowed on Monday. Every other day it has snowed, we have gotten dressed in our snow clothes right away and gone outside to play. But Monday was a Janny day. When we got to Janny's house Elijah realized he was not going to get to play outside with Mommy and he started throwing a fit when I dropped him off. When I picked him up 9 hours later, he was still throwing a fit. Janny said he had basically been throwing a fit the entire day.... didn't eat lunch, didn't nap, just threw tantrum after tantrum after tantrum. His poor little eyes were evidence of this (still through Tuesday morning) because they were all swollen, etc. He is a very determined little boy.

Wednesday was his next day at Janny's house. When I dropped him off, Janny basically said 'we need to talk about this' (in a very nice way). So, we talked for about 30-45 minutes about how we are addressing it at home, what she does at daycare, etc, etc. She also said that in her 25 years of providing in home daycare, she hasn't ever watched a child who has been capable for throwing tantrums for that long (way to go Eli, I know you are one in a million!) For all the other kids, timeouts have been effective..... but time outs for Elijah don't seem to make a difference. (Which we are very aware of at home also).

The good news is, every day is not as intense as Monday. After our conversation on Wednesday (and de-briefing with half a dozen other moms), I've started to count his tantrums (the full screaming, laying on the floor kind) and what the precursor is to those tantrums. It is interesting to say the least. And I guess that some days really are pretty intense, I just am so used to it that I don't notice. Which is probably part of the problem.... if I don't see it as a problem, I'm definitely not working with Elijah to make it better.

Now, those of you who haven't been in the loop about Elijah and his tantrums, don't be scared of the kiddo. He is great! At Sunday School he is a total teacher's pet and they are always telling me how he is one of their favorites (but they can't have favorites) . My girlfriends all love watching him (at least so they say) and he has never had a constant tantrum day with anyone but me or Janny. Interesting, huh? And I have a bunch of theories on this and I 'think' I have some ideas about how we are going to work on this going forward.... this is just to share the drama of the week in our house!

Aside from that.... life is good! Marty still has a job. He has one more week of work and then he is off for a week. That is the scheduled shut down week 1 of 10 for 2009. (Maybe some of our house projects will get done?!?)

I am LOVING being an admin assistant. I get to organize things and check things off a list.... and the best thing is that I don't have to worry about staffing or maintaining company vehicles! Yay!

And that is the end of my long and rambling Friday afternoon blog. Have a great weekend to anyone who made it through!