Silver Lining

Can you guess what I attempted to do this week? Well if the above picture is any hint, I was trying to potty train John. He had exhibited several signs of being ready, but I wasn't sure he was 100% ready. Many of my friends who had potty trained their kids had said that you never really know if they are ready until you try. So since we are spending so much time at home these days, I thought this would be a good time to go for it. I read the books, hyped it up, prayed about it, bought the M&Ms, bought the fun underwear... and I was scared to death. I got John up on Wednesday morning and we got really excited about the day. But by 11 I had him back in diapers. He was not ready at all. Three accidents and no successes left me demoralized. He just didn't care if he went in his underpants, and he didn't mind that he was messy, and sometimes he didn't realize he did it. I am sure I could have pushed the training harder, but I don't think that is the answer. He needs to be ready and he is not. So back in diapers for awhile.

This probably makes me sound like I was completely expecting the potty training to work. That isn't really true, I knew I probably had a 50/50 chance. But I do think I was expecting him to at least care about his accidents or want to use the potty on his own, but he didn't want to do either of those so I think that is what discouraged me.

So I was feeling bad because I thought that I would have come through the weekend with some sort of good goal for our family to have attained (John potty trained or at least making progress on that front). But since that didn't happen the wheels started turning in my head about what other project I could undertake. It was at that point that I decided we would let Adam CIO (Cry It Out). We let John CIO when he was 4 months old and it was one of the best parenting decisions we ever made. We broke him of his pacifier and he turned into a great sleeper who could self-soothe. We wanted the same thing for Adam but we figured we would wait a little longer. Well I was tired of doing the pacifier dance (put it in, it falls out, he cries, put it in again...) so I decided on Thursday to let him CIO and loose the pacifier. And it was SO much easier this time around! John had two days worth of straight crying, Adam cried for about 15 minutes of his naps and now he is on a great schedule and a consistent napper. Oh I feel so much better about life now that he can fall asleep and stay asleep his own. Yipee.

Here is a quilt that our good friend Jackie Swenson made for Adam. It is so soft and she personalized it for him. She made one for John when he was born too.


I wanted to get this picture of Adam's hair. It is like he is an old man because he is bald all up top but he has a little bit of hair all around the bottom of his head. Silly boy.

Happy 4th of July!