The End is in Sight

After more than four years of being intimately involved with dirty, stinky and wet diapers, it appears the end is in sight. It seems like just yesterday I was writing about Daniel's potty training accomplishment, and now it is Sammy's turn already.

For the past week or so I have been leaving Sammy's diaper off whenever we are at home and I have the time to watch him and help him use the potty. Without a lot of encouragement Sammy was good about telling me when he had to go shi-shi (pee) and had no problem getting on the potty, holding his penis down and letting loose. Then on Wednesday he had his first poop in the potty. It was only a small amount, but boy was I excited. Then on Thursday when Sammy was sitting on the pot and seeming to try and poop I asked him if he wanted to be left alone (I remembered that the key to getting Daniel to poop on the potty was to give him privacy). Well, I didn't give Sammy total privacy because I wanted to see what he was doing, but I hid outside the door and peeked in. Sure enough Sammy pooped and this time he was just about as excited as me, and I don't think it was just because he gets a Hershey kiss each time he uses the potty. I think he was really proud of himself.

Fast forward to Friday night. Dan and I had our Lenten bible study, so Nana was watching the boys. As Nana tells it Sammy was sitting on the potty in privacy and then ran out excitedly yelling, 'I made plops! I made plops!', and then sprinted back to the bathroom saying, 'I'm gonna make more plops. Big plops!' Yep, that's my boy!

This weekend Sammy continued to use the potty and even kept his diaper dry during a nap and told me he had to shi-shi when I went and got him. This whole potty training has taken me completely by surprise. I didn't really expect for him to potty train himself so quickly, I was just getting him geared up. I guess my little baby is growing up. The only downside to Sammy getting potty trained is I will have to move him out of his crib once he is wearing underwear for naps and nighttime. Hopefully that will not be for a while because Sammy not confined to his crib is a scary thought. But not having to change another poopy diaper might just be worth it.

Catching Up

This past month has been a whirlwind of activity in the Walls household. I still haven't yet caught my breath, but I will try to catch up a little bit before another month flies by.

A Hotel Stay in LA

My sister, Chrissie, and her two girls, made the trek down to the parents house to enjoy some Papa and Tutu time and mostly sunny weather. Since my parent's house was already packed with the addition of Chrissie, Leina (2 1/2 yrs.) and Kulia (10 months) we decided to stay at a nearby hotel. I have to admit I had my doubts about staying in a hotel with the boys, but it was terrific. The boys loved staying at our hotel (they called it our house). They did well sharing a room for the first time, although they giggled, laughed and played for an hour and a half before taking their naps. The hotel was really nice. It had two bedrooms, a nice breakfast buffet and was close to my parents house.

It seems like each visit with my two nieces gets more and more fun. This was definitely the best visit yet. Sammy, Daniel and Leina truly enjoyed running around together and playing, and Kulia did her best to keep up with the pack. The conversation between the three was priceless. We crammed so much into those three days, and wished we could have had more time. The memories that stand out most: taking the kids to the beach, having dinner at a little pizza place, going up to the park and Sammy skinning his knee running downhill at full speed, going to the farmer's market, the kids playing race while waiting forever for our takeout lunch, Leina's sad face each time we had to leave and her excitement each time we came back and watching Daniel interact with Kulia. What a perfect trip we had and how hard it was to say goodbye.

A Visit from the Tooth Fairy

This month has been the month of the dentist. Between Dan, Daniel and myself we have had five visits to the dentist just this month! If you ask me that is five times too many. It all started when Daniel started saying his tooth was hurting. At first I though he was just kidding because our neighbors were losing teeth and we had been talking about Sammy's teeth hurting because he is getting his molars in. Well after more than a week of saying his tooth was hurting I decided to take him to the dentist to have it checked out and since Dan and I had not been to the dentist for a while we decide to have check-ups too.

Dan took Daniel to the dentist and everything was going fine. Daniel was a perfect angel getting x-rays taken and having his teeth cleaned. Then the dentist came in to look at his teeth. It turned out that the reason Daniel's tooth was hurting was because he had an abscessed tooth that we think resulted from a crack in his tooth. So last Thursday Daniel went in to get his tooth pulled out. The whole event was extremely stressful and traumatic for Dan and I, but Daniel handled it better that most kids or adults. He didn't whine or cry once throughout all the probing and pulling. The worst part was he got a giant canker sore on his lip from chewing on it while it was still numb. And today, while in Costco, I gave Daniel and Sammy a tic-tac and told them to suck on it not bite it. Sammy of course asked 'Why?' and I replied, 'So you don't crack a tooth'. Daniel added, 'But that's ok because then you can go to the dentist and he will pull it out and you can put it under your pillow and the tooth fairy will come and leave you money'. Sammy seemed to agree. So now my kids actually want to go to the dentist and get their teeth pulled out.

A Visit from Papa

Last weekend Papa came for a short visit. Of course the boys were excited to play with Papa, and I was excited because we were planning on pulling out the disgusting, peed and pooped on carpet in the downstairs bathroom. Well we installed about 3/4's of the floor before running out of planks. This was no big deal since the day before I had Dan call Costco to make sure they still carried the color we had. Well it turned into a much bigger deal when we went to Costco the next day and discovered that they had informed us wrongly and actually did not carry the color we needed anymore. The upside is Papa left his cool tools so I could finish the job without him and that certainly means I get to keep them too, right?

Papa also made me three canvases for some painting I volunteered to do for our church's vacation bible school. And these aren't just any old canvas, they are enormous. They are over seven feet tall and when put together span thirteen feet. I am suppose to paint a beach scene on them to use as a backdrop for the skits. Now I am wondering what I have gotten myself into. I have never painted anything on this scale, although I am quite excited about getting out my paints again. The hardest part is finding a place to put this monstrosity. Right now the canvases are in our room. We have to scoot them back and forth so we can close the door or get into our bathroom. What I really need is my own art studio...

And More

Nana has recently started up a knitting group at our church. We get together once a month and knit together and talk. Right now I have three different knitting projects going on and am really enjoying it. Dan and I have also been going to a Lenten Bible Study at our pastor's house, thanks to our great babysitter, Nana. I also have a handful of other sewing, scrapbooking and gardening projects going on.

So, as you can see I have been very busy. Hopefully the dentist visits will lessen, although Sammy is next to get his teeth checked and cleaned. Dan and Daniel have a trip to the east coast to see Dan's brother and family coming up and Sammy and I will spend spring break with Papa and Tutu. The weather is warming up and I am looking forward to spring and starting my vegetable garden up again. So much to do and so little time.