Love Thursday & the happy couple

I thought this was a perfect love thursday photo…

Thanks to Hafiz Ismail

The battle, continue, it must. day 5

Baby is still sick, not as bad, but he is not well. Thanks everyone for your prayers, thoughts and well wishes.

The almost 3 year old is also sick, but clearly not sick enough to have an entire article dedicated just to him! We are still going ahead with the potty training thing… as best as we can anyways…

Almost 3 year old: I am wet
Daddy: what?? again??
Almost 2 year old: Yup! (completely unconcerned)
Daddy: why?? why?? (completely mad because he had just changed him and took him to the bathroom)
Almost 2 year old: well, I was riding my bicycle (while he held on to a tube-like toy as if it were the handle bar) and it was too heavy!

At least daddy is more patient with him than I am!

Croup

Again we were in the hospital emergency with the baby.

As we waited, my husband and I mused about the number of times that we had been to the hospital emergency… 15, 20, 25? Is it normal to be in there this much?

I had vivid memories of coming in by ambulance, all by myself, fearing that I would lose the baby inside me.

I am still tramatized by my husband’s recent illness, when we waited 7 hours for him to be given a half hour IV.

And I will never forget the first time one of my kids made it to emergency… My eldest son, when he was about 14 months, got pneumonia (I was on hospital bed rest at the time); my heart ached for him as I was unable to hold him, comfort him, or go home with him and let him sleep in my arms.

About 1:30am this morning, when the doctor saw us, he said “good work mom, you did all the right things! The croup is under control.” It seems that experienced mother that I am, can now successfully manage croup! I can’t say that is comforting news when your child is barking like a dog, crying, vomiting, and you feel totally helpless, but at least it’s better than my first time around when I had never even heard of croup!

He got his steroid shot and we were out of there in 2 1/2 hours. He’s still glum, but thankfully not coughing as much any more.

In case you were wondering how I kept it under control… I wrapped him in a blanket and opened the window so he could breathe in the cold air, I also gave him tylenol for the fever, and his puffers for the chest tightness. The coughing was not easing though, and he couldn’t sleep, so in emergency they gave him a dose of the steroid that helped to get rid of the ‘barking’

The Potty Wars. day 2

Tired and stressed at the end of day 1, I gave in and decided that he needed to wear diapers before I totally lost my mind.

This morning I woke up with fresh, new ideas… I realized that this potty training thing could not be handled alone, I needed reinforcements… so I called in the 4 year old!

4 year old: Listen to me! When I was your size I wear a pamper too, but then I got big, and was 3, and LISTEN TO ME! Are you listening? Don’t look over there! Look at me! I was big and I wear a jockey shorts and use the toilet! ok! ok? ok!
almost 3 year old: O.K!

Ummm, was that all it took?

So, my friends, apparently we just had to make sure that the almost 3 year old was ‘listening’! Seriously! Also, I put on underwear instead of a pull-ups, and although he did wet them, by the time he was wearing the third pair, he remembered to tell me BEFORE! Yeah!

Ok, so things are looking up. He is taking his nap with a diaper though… I mean, the 4 year old is good, but he ain’t that good!

Confessions of a bad mother

So… I am sure that you won’t remember, but I do, and since I do, I feel like I’ve been lying all this time! And I must say sorry to you, my lovely readers, for misleading you…

You see, almost a year ago, when my second son turned 2, I said that I was not going to put off the potty training thing any more, and since that was the last thing I said on the subject, I am sure that it was assumed that all went well and he has been using the toilet for at least 8 months now…

Well, my friends, I am sad to say that the whole potty training lasted about 2 days before I totally gave up in frustration! Then, I kept finding excuses to get out of doing it, or to justify the use of a diaper… after all, I do have 2 other kids to take care of you know!

Now, I am not the type of mother that would bribe my kids, seriously, I usually don’t believe in rewarding them for desirable behaviour, but out of desperation, yesterday I bought $30something worth of toys from the dollar store to use as “gifts” after each successful toilet deployment!

The truth is that someone had suggested this method to me, and at first, I refused to do it, but now, I am thinking it’s not really such a bad idea… seems good even!

I hope it works! and SOON! because argh, I hate toilet training!