Oogles of fun

We have been pretty busy this week.

Here is a brief overview of the last 10 days here.

Last weekend Kyle and I went to the Dream Marriage seminar at our church. It was perfect and just what we needed.

Valentine's day Kyle had to be at the hospital at 6:30pm for his 3rd sleep study. The following day he also did a daytime study where he had to take 30 minute naps periodically throughout the day. We took him lunch and I had to take a picture. Can you imagine sleeping with all that? He had them super-glued to him. He still has glue in his hair. We will get the results back in a couple of weeks.

 Gunnar got unhappy with me.

 He seems to find himself trouble to get into more and more.

Gunnar went potty a lot on the toilet. He is still doing great. I think he is OCD, he insists on putting the stickers on their "eye." He also preferred putting stickers on the boys rather than the girls.

 Gunnar spent some time watching movies on the ipod. Usually this is a treat in the car, but we needed a few moments of piece and quiet. And apparently he needed some clothes. What kind of parents does he have anyways?

 We practiced safety. He has on a bullet proof vest. You can never be to safe!

 We finally got out garage cleaned out so we can park our car in there. Apparently Gunnar wanted to park his bike in a safe place too.

 Ryker did some more bouncing.

 My sister Jami came to visit for the weekend. We went to Charlie Safari an indoor play area with bounce houses and jungle gyms.

 Gunnar had a blast bouncing and climbing.

Ryker had fun too,

but I am not sure if he had as much fun as my sister.

Ryker got in some cuddle time with Auntie J.

 Gunnar played the Wii intensly.

 Sadly we had to say goodbye to Jami. She didn't even offer to take one of the kids with her....

 Ryker ate some carrots and rice. He doesn't really like carrots or rice, but he likes them mixed together.

I...well, I got mastitis AGAIN. Kyle even got to watch me go out cold for about 10 seconds because I was go sick Thursday night. It was pretty scary, but I am doing much better. Sorry, but no picture of that for you all.
Life is crazy and busy, but boy I love my boys!

Just Ryker

I realized my writings usually revolve around Gunnar and I thought it would be nice to share more about our Ryker.

He truly is the sweetest, happiest, chubbiest, and most content little guy ever. He loves to cuddle, loves to laugh, and he thinks his big brother is the funniest guy on the face of the earth (which worries me a bit). He loves to be held my me, his mama, but he doesn't mind others at all either. He has a great time in the church nursery and likes to spend time alone with his daddy too.
Ryker enjoys playing in his bouncer or just rolling around on the floor. He really plays without me so much more than Gunnar ever did, it is a nice change of pace. I am sure it helps that Gunnar is always running around entertaining as well. I can even put them in their bedroom together, close the door, and take a shower without anyone getting upset, I come out of the shower to two happy kiddos.
Ryker recently started "crawling." I am not really sure what to call it, a low-crawl, a shimmy, hmm...He gets from point A to B in a forward moving motion. It cracks me up, he doesn't get anywhere to fast yet, which is great. However, if I had it my way he would not be crawling at all yet, they get themselves into all sorts of trouble when crawling starts.  Here is a little video of him demonstrating his crawl.

He can sit up without anyone holding on to him, but it usually doesn't last to long. Something will catch his attention and he will fall over then roll or crawl to his desired location. He really is an expert roller as well.
With Gunnar I was always wanting him to do things quickly. I was worried he would be behind developmentally or something. Just crazy new-mom syndrome I suppose. With Ryker I am taking my time. I gave him rice cereal a few times, but after his 4 month well-baby check-up and the doctor telling me how much better it is to really wait until the are 6 months old, I decided I would wait. I am sure by this point in Gunnar's life he had already had a hamburger, not really, but close. So for now, he is just breastfeeding, he only has had 2 bottles his entire life.
Sleep. Apparently, my kids are not blessed with the sleep through the night gene. Gunnar didn't start regularly sleeping through the night until he was around 9 or 10 months old. Thankfully he now goes to bed around 7 and then he gets up when Kyle's alarm goes off at 5:30 (on the weekends he sleeps until around 7 or 8 with no alarms going off). He usually crawls into our bed and takes Kyle's place, I put on a cartoon and I continue sleeping until around 7. Sometimes he goes back to sleep and other times he just lays there patiently watching TV (or makes unsuccessful attempts to wake Ryker and me up so we can start our day). As of lately Ryker has been going to bed around 8, waking up between 1 and 3, and then sleeps until 7. It really isn't that bad. I would love if he slept through the night, but I don't mind getting up with him. He isn't up for more than 10 minutes before going back to sleep again. Usually I go get him from his crib, and bring him to bed with me where I feed him and we both fall asleep so he stays in bed with me the rest of the night. I love cuddling with him, but I don't think Kyle appreciates it so much. :)
Really, I am one blessed mom. I have two adorable, happy, healthy kids. I thank God for the blessings they have been in my life. I remember being so upset when I found out I was pregnant, I simply was not ready for baby #2. I cried A LOT about it. But now, I wouldn't have it any other way. My boys bring me joy and happiness. Life would be so dull without them.
Here is another video of Ryker. He was just laughing up a storm at me today. I was just looking at him and he was just cracking up...apparently I look REALLY funny today or something. Ignore my bad video taping skills and enjoy a minute and a half of Ryker laughs.

Boring?

These days boring sounds kinda nice. It has been a long time since I have been bored. I actaully think I might enjoy being bored for at least an hour or so. Between the potty training, Kyle's medical appointments, three dogs, Ryker, and Gunnar just being Gunnar, I am busy.
My house is rarely clean, the laundry usually needs folded, and there is usually a few dirty dishes in the sink. I try and focus more on keeping my three boys happy. While I wish all those things were taken care of, reality is they rarely will be taken care of. That just means that when I do actually get them done I feel like a super mom. :)
Here are so pictures from my not so boring life.
The WIC office here gave Ryker this shirt. I thought it was pretty funny.  He is so cute. I just can't help but kiss his chubby cheeks all day.

Gunnar heard the bath water and went running for it. It was for him as he had covered himself in a green marker, but the kid loves baths so much he couldn't even wait for me to get his shirt off.

Gunnar can reach up on the counter-tops now. So annoying, because this means I have to try and keep them as clean as possible. He got an empty ice cream carton on the counter this morning and was drinking the melted ice cream out of it, yum-o. He was very pleased with himself.

Gunnar wasn't feeling to well on Sunday and Monday which resulted in a lot of cuddling. It wasn't boring by any means, but it was nice to have him calm and chill for a couple of days.

Gunnar also had recently mastered the "evil eyes" I don't really like them, and he gives them to me quite frequently. I want to get a pictures of them, but I also don't want to encourage him to do it. They crack me up though, I wonder if I give him "evil eyes" a lot or something.

Public Restrooms

(photo taken from http://greenbabyguide.com/2009/05/25/a-potty-training-solution-for-public-restrooms/)
Today was the first day of venturing out of the house without diapers for any real amount of time. This meant that Gunnar had two choices, to use a public restroom or pee his pants.
I am going to make some curtains for the boy's bedroom and went to get some fabric this morning. Gunnar did great. He went potty before we left and came home accident free. We were gone about 1 1/2 hours, he slept most of it, which was good for me, much less to worry about. He did take care of some major business when we got home, but it was on the potty so everyone was happy.
Then during the afternoon we had to run some errands with Kyle. The first hour went great. I told Kyle that Gunnar would be needing to go potty soon and I wasn't sure what to do, as no potty was available in the car and we were in traffic. So, about 5 minutes later, Gunnar did the potty dance in his seat and had an accident. Poor kid.
We got to our destination and I took Gunnar to the restroom to change his pants. We got in there and I put him on the big potty. He did great, hanging on where I put the covers and at first I was helping hold him, but he was doing so great I let go (like a dummy). Then he let go because he started to pee and he had to do the usual clapping of hands for himself and cheering. The excitement quickly stopped as he found himself in the toilet. Eww...Gunnar fell in a toilet...in a public restroom toilet. I told Kyle it was a good thing it wasn't a port-a-potty or he would have been in real trouble (I get shivers thinking about it). Being the good mom I was I was busy cheering him on and getting him some jelly beans out of the diaper bag for his success going potty so I didn't even come close to saving him from the grossness.
Gunnar didn't seem to care about it all (he loves any water, even toilet water I guess) and came out cheering so he could get some high-fives from Kyle. I was probably more scared by the incident then him. 
How does everyone handle public restrooms with little kids? The toilets are to tall for Gunnar to stand at, do I carry a step stool around with me? Carry his potty seat with me? Maybe we should just let him pee outside when we are not a home, it just seems so much easier...plus the cold air really speeds the process along.
Oh and in my searching for public restrooms tips when potty training I found these...cootieguards and the my pee-pee-bottle. I think the cootie guard is pretty neat, the pee-pee-bottle, really? Pretty sure any old water bottle would work just as well..haha. The video cracked me up.
Hopefully this is the last of my potty training blogging for a while. Gunnar is doing awesome and we are so proud of him.

More potty talk

The potty training has continued here at our house.
I guess I have learned that you have to do what works for you and your kid. I don't really think there is some magical method to potty training, and I am totally not buying that very many people can potty train there kid in just 3 days.
Gunnar has done AWESOME the last three days (which would be 6 days of potty training). I won't say it has gone perfectly, but we have had way more success than failure. He is really starting to recognize that he has to pee and attempts to communicate that to us. Whether or not we always understand his dances and jibberish are another story. He also had his first poop in the toliet without any promopting from Kyle or I. Usually I see him working it up and rush him to the bathroom and but today he did it all on his own.
His first potty chart all filled up. He loves putting the stickers on, and is really sad when he doesn't get to. Oh the simple things in life.

 The potty chart we started today.

 We have made a few outings without diapers, mostly short trips, but so far he has done great on them.
 Ryker has been a trooper through this all, because it doesn't matter what I am doing, nursing, changing him, rocking him to sleep, etc, if Gunnar has to pee he has to be set down or tossed to Kyle. Poor kid, but he still loves me.
I have a few pictures to share and then a video of Ryker. I can't believe how fast this little guy is growing up. He rolls all over, and is very close to crawling. He inches forward a bit at times, but finds the roll is the most effective way to get places.
Kyle isn't naked...haha. Apparently they were having an underwear party at nap time.

 Something is wrong with this? Why does Ryker think things like this are so funny. Boys will be boys.

 

 Short pointless video of the boys...

Day 3

Word of the day: FAILURE

Let’s just say potty training didn’t happen in three days here at the Pettit house…not even close. It’s probably our own fault for not following the rules exactly, but oh well, we will live with the consequences.

I don’t even know the stats of the day. I lost count as I was scrubbing our carpets from all the pee. I really think this kid goes pee way to many times in a day. We weren’t even pushing the liquids down him, just a normal day.  

We did have some success today, but we had a lot of failures too.

On the bright side, Gunnar now realizes it isn’t comfortable to pee in your undies. This was the first day it actually seemed to bother him, sadly, this brought me joy. I liked when he cried after peeing in his pants (what a mean mommy I am).

So, we are now focusing on potty training in 7 days. We ARE going to keep at this. Gunnar will get it. It may take him a little longer, but we will not quit.

Now for the Day 3 picture. I understand that at some point Gunnar may not appreciate all these pictures of him I am posting. However, I feel that he is young enough it is cute and not weird (It would be weird if I posted pictures of me going potty). Even  as he gets older, I hope he thinks that, really I am not trying to embarrass the boy to death.

But…I did get this awesome picture of Gunnar today. My nicer shoes are in the closet in his room and he LOVES to put my shoes on. He is actually a quite accomplished heel walker….possibly better at walking in them then me.  He had to get ready for church last today, and just as I was ready to get him dressed I turned around and found this…..

He just cracks me up. Gotta love this kid even if he pees and poops on my floor.

Final thoughts:

Dad says: “Ummm, snacks. I wish when I pooped on the toilet Beth would give me snacks.”

Mom says: “Even if 3-days seemed like a far-fetched goal, we tried it. It may not have worked, but we are going to see this through at least to the end of the week. He is a smart kid and can do this. “

Day 2-Potty Training

7- Successes

2-Semi Successes

6-Accidents

This morning started out great. At 10 o’clock Gunnar had gone 3 times in the potty and had ZERO accidents. I went to lay back down and Kyle took over. Right before actually laying down, Gunnar went to the doggie door (sorry kid, not a dog) and went pee in his pants, accident #1 of the day. About an hour and half later when I got up, Gunnar had no accidents for Kyle, but wouldn’t potty either.

I took him after about 10 minutes of being up and success #4.
THEN……..it happened. I was busy making lunch and Kyle was on the phone. I took my eyes off of him for no more than 30 seconds when I went to put leftovers in the microwave and I turned around to horror. He went #2 on the floor. We knew it was coming because of the gas he was having, so we were watching him like a hawk, it only took 30 seconds of us looking away. I rushed him to the bathroom and he finished the job there. I am counting this as an accident, because very little made it to the toilet.  (I will leave out the nasty details of what happened to Gunnar’s mess on the floor while I was back cleaning him up, just remember we have 3 dogs…YUCK, it was way worse than their being poop on the floor). I do appreciate the fact that Gunnar chose to poop on the linoleum in our house rather than the carpet!

So the first poop incident is over and done, and now we move forward.

Our thoughts at lunch time:

Dad said: “Plop, p-o-l-p like turd on the floor.”

Mom said: “I am feeling a little better about it today, at least about the peeing part.”

Naptime was a success. He woke up dry and he went potty after getting up.

The rest of the afternoon we had up and downs. It seems so much worse than it actually is.

Today Kyle got frustrated with it all and sounded a lot like I did yesterday. I just look at the numbers and know we are improving. It is hard because Gunnar gets so busy playing that he totally forgets he has to go potty. AND pee (or poop) doesn’t appear to bother him when its running down his leg or in his underwear.We also have a hard time keeping eyes in him 24/7 and its a little difficult for Kyle to do any rushing to the restroom with Gunnar as Kyle is still in a wheelchair.

Tomorrow is Day 3, the magical day. Day three will be the last of my detailed journal. We plan to stick with this potty training in hopes to not confuse the boy, but I will probably give more weekly updates rather than daily….it just makes more sense, and one can only write so much about the potty and poop on the floor without it being overwhelming.

Day 2 closing thoughts:

Dad has nothing to say tonight. He is with some friends having what I will call a “Dork Night.” They get a bunch of dorks together and play video games into the wee hours of the morning. I will be picking him up tomorrow around 10am on the way to church. :)

Mom says: “This isn’t fun, but today was better. Gunnar is sneaky, so someone always has to be watching. It almost never failed that if one of us looked away he went potty. We are going to stick this out.”

Note: Tomorrow we will be not following the three day potty training rules in the fact we will be going to church. Not sure yet how we will handle this with the nursery, but I imagine we will be taking turns leaving to take him potty or putting a diaper on him for that hour. Oh the life as parents.

Day 1-Potty Training

Carpet Cleaner – check

Paper Towels –check

Big Boy toilet seat (that after two stores we could only find in pink)- check

15 pairs of big boy underwear- check

Day 1 of potty training – check

IT’S POTTY TRAINING TIME

Potty Training- Day 1

Today we ventured into something you never knew could be so fun….Potty Training. Gunnar is 21 months old. We have thought about potty training him for a long time (Kyle has been thinking about it since birth), but never taken the plunge.  We read a lot on the 3 day potty training method, because, really who can argue with three days. With all our reading, people agree and disagree on a lot. So, Kyle and I took the ideas of all, and are doing things our way…what works for us, and hoping it works for Gunnar.

This morning when Gunnar got up, he got his big boy underwear on. We decided to try with underwear, rather than naked as some suggest.  By 10 o’clock he had gone pee in 4 pairs of underwear and gone on the potty ZERO times. So, we decided it was too hard to catch him with underwear on, and took them off. So now we have a naked wild man running through the house. However, it is much easier to catch him peeing . He is able to stop when we tell him, and then we rush him to the bathroom where he can finish.

At lunch time our stats were:

2 Successes with no prompting from mom or dad

5 Semi-Successes (started to pee on floor, and then finished in toilet)

9 accidents

Dad said: “This sucks!  But I’m excited not to have to change his diapers.”

Mom said: “I was ready to throw in the towel at 9am. This is taking more effort than I am sure I am willing to put forth.  I’m trying to stay positive and keep this a positive experience for Gunnar. Let’s just say, I really hope the 3-days is no lie.”

After lunch Gunnar stayed dry for his nap, but didn’t make it to the potty after the nap. Could have been that I was asleep on the couch and didn’t know he was up…oops.

By 3pm I was done. Gunnar had gone pee on the floor 3 times in less than 30 minutes. Does he seriously need to pee this much?

Kyle sensed my frustration, I was ready to get the diapers out (I just don’t think he is ready)  and he took over.  Gunnar did some more peeing on the floor for him. Each time he starts to pee we rush him to the bathroom, but he won’t pee in the toilet. He likes to wait until he gets two steps away from the toilet and pee there.

Before dinner we resorted to putting his hand in warm water to ensure we could make it through dinner without an accident (this is Kyle’s idea and he is very proud of it). Gunnar did awesome and went in the toilet. 30 minutes later we did the same thing, again, success.

Then right before bath he had one last accident before bed. Now he is asleep. Hoping tomorrow is a better day and praying I have the strength to persevere.

Day 1 Stats:

6 Successes with no prompting from mom or dad

6 Semi-Successes (started to pee on floor, and then finished in toilet)

15 accidents

Who pees 27 times a day??? Honestly  I am lucky if I find the time to go 3 times a day!
Notice no #2. Hmm...he usually goes at least a couple times a day.

Closing thoughts on the day:

Dad says: “ Never give up, never surrender. Eventually he WILL wipe his own butt.”

Beth says: “Why are we doing this? Are we really going through with this nonsense? Maybe he isn’t ready? Ahhh….I am definitely going to need a vacation when this is over.”

*Note: I post this with caution. I hope if I post our progress I am less likely to quit. Also in the end you can either laugh at us for trying with him so young and failing, or celebrate our success with us. 

5 and 21

I took both boys to the doctor on Monday. Ryker had his 4 month well-baby and Gunnar and Child and Youth Services (CYS) physical so I could start taking advantage of the free child care we get each month.

Ryker is a month behind on his well-baby check-ups after our move. This is making getting him registered for CYS a nightmare. They say I must have a legal document signed by a doctor with a catch-up schedule for his shots (which my doctor refused to do and said was "stupid"). CYS doesn't care that the shot schedule is just a recommendation. They ask me if I could get his 4 month and 6 month shots at the same time, so he was caught up. Grr....they obviously don't understand there is a waiting period between the sets of shots. Oh well. I finally think we got it all taken care of. However, they told me that it is possible when I take Ryker to hourly care that we be turned away without the catch-up schedule that is on a legal document.
After the appointment we went to immunizations where I got 1 shot (a flu shot), Gunnar got 2 (because apparently they have different requirements here then they did in Germany), and Ryker got 3. No fun. I was probably the biggest baby about it. Shots hurt!

Gunnar's Stats at 21 months are:
Height: 32.5 in
Weight: 22.6 lbs
Ryker's Stats at 5 months are:
Height: 66 cm
Weight: 16.5 lbs

Gunnar is still in about the 5-percentile of the growth-chart and Ryker is in the 30th. I have this strange feeling before to long Ryker will be caught up with Gunnar.
Here are some cute pictures of my boys. I really love them and love watching them play together.

 They had their first bath together today. They seemed to enjoy it.

Dogs

So on top of caring for Kyle and the two little boys, I have these three...

 

We have Suesse our pound puppy, and Oma and Opa our wired haired dachshunds.

They keep life interesting around here. They all are pretty sweet, but I am sure at least once a day, I threaten at least one of them with their life.
Suesse has been very well-behaved lately. She was running away anytime she could sneak out the door, but now that our fence is finally up, she has been perfect.
Oma is a cuddle bug. She loves everyone. She recently was in heat, which was NOT fun! She would have the whole neighborhood barking when she would go outside to potty.
Opa....he is the spaze. He barks, he chews, and he likes to potty on the the floor. But, we love him anyways, and are working on these bad habits of his.
All the dogs are tolerate of Gunnar. Gunnar recently hasn't been very nice to them, so they have put up with a lot.
I am not really a dog person, but I do love our dogs...sometimes.

Point Defiance Zoo

My parents came this weekend to spend some time with us. On Saturday morning, Kyle got up at around 3am and headed out the door to go sturgeon fishing on the Columbia River (I will post about this when we get the pictures from the trip, he forgot a camera). He was gone all day, so that left my parents, the boys, and I to fend for ourselves. At breakfast my mom suggested the zoo. It was a nice day out, the zoo is only about 30 minutes away, so why not!
We loaded everyone up and headed that way. It was the perfect weather for a zoo trip. We didn't even wear our coats most of the time. The boys had on fleece and their hats, and sweaters for my dad and I (mom was wearing her coat). It was cool in the shade, but that was about it. We went to the Point Defiance Zoo and it is in a beautiful setting by the water and a view of Mount Rainer.
While Ryker could have really cared less about it all, I do believe that Gunnar really enjoyed himself. He had a great time pointing at all the animals. It was a great way to spend the afternoon.

 There were two baby tigers...super cute.

 The monkey's were by far Gunnar's favorite. He could have sat and watched them all day. They did put on a great show for him.

 He also loved the slide in the kid zone.

 It was such a great day!

 Kyle didn't get home from fishing until about 9:30pm, but he caught a fish so he brought that home for us to enjoy for lunch on Sunday....it really was awesome. I can't wait until we unfreeze the rest of it and enjoy it.
Saturday night, had to have been one of the worst nights in our lives as parents. I woke up to feed Ryker around 2:30, he was particularly upset this night. I really can't eat any milk products, or Ryker's stomach gets super upset. Unfortunately I had some ice cream after dinner and I paid for it. He sat with me in the rocking chair squirming and full of gas for a good hour. Just as I was putting him back to bed, Gunnar came into my room. He was upset and crying. He is teething. Only a few more to go and I can't wait for it to be over. I put him back to bed, but he had woken Ryker back up with his crying, so after I got him back to bed, I had to attend to Ryker. Then Gunnar got up about 45 minutes later wide awake. So I sat in his room with both my boys wide awake. Ryker finally fell back asleep at about 5:30, but Gunnar was up until about 7am, at which point he only fell asleep for another 30 minutes. At this point I more than gladly handed the boys off to my parents, who I was so thankful were visiting. I slept another 2 hours, which felt GREAT!
Last night was much better, Ryker slept good, Gunnar got up once (but I am pretty sure he was sleep walking) and then he woke up for good at 5:30 when Kyle left for work. Really 5:30 isn't fun, but it is way better than 2:30!
So, we are all pretty tired around here. I can't wait for the day that my children enjoy sleeping .Right now I feel like sleep is torture for all of us.
--I mentioned Gunnar's sleep walking. This is about the third time I have suspected it. We moved him into a big boy bed because he was crawling out of his crib and got hurt one night. The night he got hurt he was screaming bloody murder, but as soon as I picked him up, he was back to sleep instantly. His eyes are all glazed over if you look at him and he just isn't "Gunnar." Weird I know. I am asking the doctor about it tomorrow. Both boys have appointments...one at 8am and the other at 11. They couldn't make it easy for me and have them at the same time.
----Two other randoms.
1) Ryker had his first ceral eating. I did this with Gunnar much sooner. I guess I want Ryker to be a baby a little longer. I am not sure if we will have any more kids, so I really want to enjoy all these little things, and not push him to be a big kid. Although, he acts as though he could crawl anyday now and I don't like it.

2) I found this ironic. I found Gunnar playing with the candle (a no-no). He had his fireman toy in there...a little ironic.