Potty Training + Sick Kids = Good Times

Monday-Apollo is running to the bathroom saying "hurry Mommy!" all the time because he wants that piece of candy (whether he has to go potty or not). Every hour on the hour I sat with him, reading, singing-for 4 minutes (I timed it so I wasn't in their longer than necessary). He pulled down his undies (this is a giant process for a 24 month old) and afterward would take his tiny potty apart to dump his pee into the big toilet and then put it back together. Then, he would flush and pull up his undies. At last, he would wash his hands and dry them on the towel. Sometimes we would hurriedly rush several times with no luck, each time saying "maybe next time", all to have him pee on the floor or chair or sidewalk (I did venture outside to attempt to do laundry) right after. This has been my life this week. I now feel I deserve some award for what I feel is a great accomplishment. A week on a deserted island sounds great. Apollo is doing awesome and I am proud of our potty trained little man. Just as we worked out the whole pottying thing, they got sick. Apollo has had a fever and Annie has a cough. I was glad to have some friend get-togethers this week and have something to look forward to.

One of the highlights this week was going for a long run by myself. I didn't worry about pace, just enjoyed Freakonomics-ever read it? We download books from our library onto cds for our road trips and have just started to download them onto the ipod. It passes the time even faster than listening to music.



.
Such an interesting book. Is the crime rate going down because abortion was legalized and the future murderers were never born? This guy won a Nobel prize and studies numbers to come up with the answers. He says that all of us have incentives for what we do whether we cheat or are honest. I thought about raising kids and how they react to what we reward them with. If a kid is screaming in the grocery store for candy and the mom frustratedly gives in, the child learns that screaming gets her what she wants and does it again. If a child screams when she's going down for a nap and is held, why wouldn't she keep it up if she is rewarded. I thought of how I need to reward my kids for being good. Pick Annie up an play with her when she is being good and give her a moment when she whines. We had friends over on Wed. and each would announce "I went potty" when they came out and everyone we cheer (along with Apollo). Everyone would cheer when he would come out after going potty. That was the 3rd day into training and he had no accidents during that time and has done great since. I really want to think about rewarding good behavior and telling them when they're being good kids.

We ordered a new camera. I always think-oh this would be a great pic.