Update on the POO POO...

Thank you for the encouraging words about my post yesterday.... and yes I have had many people say "I can't believe you put that on your blog" or if I was telling them in passing they would say "I would not tell many people"... but remember I am being authentic... and was hoping to get lots of advice... but as I learned from you... not many of you have had a similar story or had any advice... so...

I can report that it has been 2 full days since we have had another occurrence with the touching of the poo... we have resorted to two things in our communication prior to quiet time.

1) If you touch your poo you will get a spanking..
2) If you touch your poo not only will you get a spanking but you will not earn a sticker on your reward chart...

So now lets talk about the reward chart... back in Jan. of this year we were having a hard time getting Pierce to take a quiet time... no he does not have to sleep but he has to be in his room somewhat quiet for at least an hour of the day... every parenting book I have ever read talks about how crucial this is for small children... Well Pierce would fight it so I read the 1-2-3 Magic for Christian parents and they talked about using a reward chart... alot of people and books have problems with reward charts bc they say it teaches your children to covet the reward and not the act of doing what your parents have told you to do... I understand this to a degree but it works... and the only thing we use the reward chart for is for quiet time (and now the poo thingy during QT).

How is works... if Pierce takes a quiet time (no screaming, no crying, and stays in his bed) for the time I shut the door until I open it again... he gets a sticker to put on the reward chart... for every 10 stickers on the chart he will get a reward... this makes it easy for when we are in stores and he wants something I say "That is a great idea... when you earn it we will come back and get it"... or "You have to earn presents... and you need 6 more stickers"... so that is the short and skinny... he can not loose stickers once they have been given (very important)... but he can not earn one for the day or the next day... once he gets 10 stickers and get a reward we draw the reward that he choose (or I did) on that section... as you can see below (his first completed reward chart) he can look back and see all the things that he has earned and boy does he remember everyone... I am not the best artist but he knows which each ones is... and if it is a book he remember an animal book.. not just a book...

There are plenty of days that he does not earn a sticker (for when he cries or whines in bed, or starts throwing toys, etc.) Now we have added if he poo's and touches it... he will not earn a sticker...

So there you have it... a reward chart... and it is something you can make at home.. we used the back of a wrapping paper for this one and drew lines with a marker... I did not spend much time on it bc I was not sure how long it would last and if Pierce would get it... but as you can tell below... he earned 90 stickers.... which is a total of 90 good quiet time days.... which if you assumed there were 2 days for every 10 that were not good quiet time days... it would have taken almost 4 months to complete... so we are sticking to the program and it seems to be working... Pierce now takes a quiet time everyday and has been for quite some time now... and still sleeps 12 hours a night... just love our little sleeper... and thanks to all the books and friends with all the advice... I could not do this without you.

It's time for BOO's not POO's...

Well most of you have barred with me for several weeks now as I show you the happy times in Singapore with loved ones... and yes there are many but I want to spend a little time today talking about parenting and the times when you just don't know what to do.

Sometimes as moms we share the great things about our children... all the praises... all the blessings... all the great times... and we (I) fail to be authentic at times and share how hard it is to be a parent at times...

Now don't get me wrong (a little disclaimer)... I feel truly blessed to be a mom and we all should be but lets not act like it is NOT the most difficult job we have ever done... I am in a MOPS group here in Singapore and that is one of the things we are learning to do... to live on Planet MOM and part of that is learning true authenticity with our friends, husbands and children... so here I am being authentic with you.

I am sure we could all share a moment in our life with our child(ren) that was just really HARD... and this one might not seem like a big deal to some of you but it is starting to totally rock my world...and just pure GROTESQUE... (of course all of this is written light heartedly)

MY SON likes his poo... yes I mean poo poo... (I have to give you a visual but it is fake)

He will go poo in the potty at times but he loves to store up and "crap" in his bed and then play in it... am I grossing you out yet...

Well there have been many days that I have walked in his room and found pellets of poo everywhere and then spent the next hour scrubbing his bed, his room, his toys, and him... but yesterday (thankfully Blake was home)... I went to his room to find him smiling with so much pride... and poo poo was everywhere... the worst yet... and then I took a closer look and found little reminisces around his mouth... I then asked him if he ate his poo poo and he said...

YES

Can you believe it... what would posses a child to do such a thing... I spent the next hour cleaning... Blake (after giving Pierce a bath and brushing his teeth) spent the next 30 min on-line to see what we needed to do (medically)... and Pierce spend the next 30 min. in time out (after getting two spankings)...

After all that time we had a talk with Pierce and I told him that mommy was very disappointed and that I was going to need some time... I was not in the mood after scrubbing poo for an hour (I did not tell him that part)...

So I am coming to you as a mom without any idea of what to do about this... any suggestions... I have looked on line and nothing really concrete... just boys will be boys... but lets face it this is very gross... and I need it to stop...

So mom to mom... any suggestions?

Yes... what a sweet face... looks so innocent... love him though... even in his mischief.

Update...

Pierce is doing great.... We are no longer running around the house naked but now he is wearing big boy underwear. When we go out we are still wearing pull ups (and I know alot of books that I am reading say that is a no no) but we went to the zoo yesterday and I just did not have time for alot of accidents and Pierce did great.... We were there for about 3.5 hours and he asked to use the bathroom 4 times and sure enough all 4 times he had to go... and no accidents... we did get home and he went poo in his pull ups (a minor set back but we are so proud). Today was a little more difficult we had a birthday party this morning and he never asked to go potty.... I saw him pee in the pool about twice and the other time he went in his pull up... alot of distractions going on today....

We are very proud of him and really give God all the glory on this one... Pierce has alot to do with it as well... but I have been asked what my secret is and I don't really have any other than praying about it... I have heard of some nightmares when it comes to potty training and I guess our God (our very gracious God) knew that I could not handle a nightmare with the potty training... public restrooms give me the creeps anyways... Thank YOU!
Wasn't sure if I wanted to post this pic (look a little scandalous) but it is the only pic I have of him with his undies (he just finished his toast here and was drawing) but I do have a funny story...

When Blake and I went to the store to get Pierce his underwear (Pierce was not with us) I wanted them to be some fun underwear that he would like (i.e. spider man, batman, trains, etc.) But we could not find any in his size but we did find the Mr. & Mrs. (descriptive title) character ones... like Mr. Strong, Mr. Wiggly, Mr. Bouncy, Mr. Tickle... Pierce really likes these but I would have much rather the picture of the character and title to be on the back and not the front (if you get my drift).... :-)

Image via Wikipedia

Weekend times... some good and some bad!

Friday was our norm but good... Blake gets home from work and we head to the best Mexican rest. in Singapore.... Margarita's... we usually go with Blake's co-workers but this time we invited some friends with babies... Jayme, Gillian and Violet and Jessica and her boy Kaelan came...

Pierce wanted to sit with everyone but mommy and daddy... isn't that how it usually works.

But then when mama got baby Kaelen, Pierce wanted mama... and then Kaelan was like no way dude... she was holding me first... so cute... stripes were in that night.

Saturday was uneventful... Blake worked and Pierce and I hung out, then mama and daddy had a date and Pierce stayed with Cena... a good day but nothing crazy happened..

Now Sunday was bad... we woke up, hung out a little while and then headed to church... after church we joined Gillian and Jessica and their families for a lamb roast at a near by pub (which was great) but Pierce was done... TIRED... we had to leave early bc of his behaviour... consequence for getting to 3. After we got a taxi and arrived home... Pierce was still whinny... I was trying to make him stop pushing the elevator buttons (so we could get home) and I was making a game out of it and held his arms above his head and said no what... and was twirling him around (trying to make it fun... distraction)... remember he is tired and has a water bottle hanging out of his mouth... when we step out of the elevator he trips and I still have his hands in the air... but I am not really holding him up... just holding his arms up... so down he goes with no hands... and totally lands on the water bottle... blood everywhere and a screaming tired baby... mommy felt really bad but after we accessed that he did not need to go to the hospital we put him to sleep... he was out like a light... but the pic. below was taken 2 days later... it was pretty bad and I did not get a pic. at first bc I did not want to touch it...

Potty training is still going really well... he does best when he is butt naked.... when he is wearing big boy underwear he forgets that he has to go to the potty for #2 but if he has a pull up on you might as well forget about it... so the best case scenario is to have him butt naked... do you think i will get arrested if I keep him naked in public... at what age does indecent exposure take place??? (JK)...

Mission Potty #2 - Complete!

Pierce is making this potty training business seem so easy... he is a super star.

Yesterday we had a busy day so there was no pee in potty... we started the morning going to the bird park bc when Pierce woke up he said he wanted to go ride in the blue taxi and then I asked him where he wanted to go in the blue taxi and he said the bird park... so we got ready and had a great morning and lunch at the bird park..

Today was a different story... we decided to take it easy today and really focus on this potty training business... as soon as Pierce woke up we stripped all his clothes off and we both went potty together with success... he was so proud of himself he was dancing and the first thing he ate or drank today was a dinosaur treat for his reward. I decided to leave off the diaper and let him prance around naked for the morning... he was in his room playing and heard his little pitter patter run to the restroom and then the music started (who ever invented the singing toilet is a GENIUS)... I ran in there so excited and we were both dancing... I later went into to his room and found a couple of drops of pee pee... but I told him it was ok bc he did the right thing by running to the toilet... so good.

We soon finished breakfast and ran down to the pool for some time outside... after pool time we came back up and left the diaper off again... and Pierce used the restroom (with zero accidents) 4 more times... he is so excited he empties his bladder when there is just a few drops... what ever floats his boat... I am so proud of him.

I was in the kitchen after lunch baking some cranberry rolls and Pierce came running in the kitchen saying "Its dirty, come mama".. so I followed him to find POO in the toilet... yes POO... we did a POO dance but Pierce just wanted the poo out of his toilet so we soon cleaned it up and had to pee.... I just can't believe how fast he is getting this... wow.

We are now taking a nap in a diaper and mom is on her way out to get some big boy underwear.... yippeeee...

Since we were naked all morning Pierce wanted to lie down on his bed in the living room with all of his scouts, eat some popcorn and watch Bolt... we were celebrating so why not... so cute.

Mission Potty #1 - COMPLETE!

We have pee pee... I repeat we have pee pee!

Let it be known that on July 16th at 1:15pm Pierce Blake Denton at the age of 2 years, 6 months, 1 week & 5 days old he sat on the potty and went peeeeeee and all it took was an audience. Pierce has been trying to pee in the potty for weeks but was distracted by books, water, toys, etc... but on this date his girlfriend Violet was right beside him, his mom was sitting on the toilet across from him and G (Gillian) was waiting in the doorway... all eyes on Pierce and the potty chair started singing... Pierce's mom was so excited she did not know whether to hug Pierce or G. A big celebration took place with high fives, a dinosaur candy treat, hugs and lots of singing and shouting "great job Pierce"... what a day this family will remember... "We are so proud of you Pierce".

How it happened: Mom saw that Pierce's diaper was full, she took off his diaper then asked if he wanted to sit on the potty... he ran to sit on his potty and then we all gathered around and then it happened.... yipppeeeee!

Update on the Potty thing...

Well you guys saw this pic on Sunday but after all the emails I had to do it again... yes Pierce will kill me in about 20 years when he realizes I posted this on the web for all to see... and it will be seen again at his wedding for sure... :-)

We are trying to learn how to use the potty... but Pierce just thinks it is his throne for quiet time and reading... he loves to wake up and go to the potty (this is a new thing) and we both just sit there waiting... waiting... waiting... with water running... but nothing... he likes to go pee pee in the shower, in the pool and in his diaper... go figure... we are not stressing out about it and letting nature run its course but this picture was priceless... we are still trying and people have told me that he will not be 16 and still wearing a diaper so don't freak out... so we are not... still enjoying all the times we are out in public and don't have to run to the toilet (with all the germs) every hour... I do not look forward to that at all... germs... yuck...