Potty training follow through …

I think we mothers of boys know the following events all too well.  You think you’ve fully potty trained your son, but then …

You suddenly find yourself desperate for the loo.  So desperate are you that you don’t really care where you go.  In fact, so desperate that you run to your bathroom and sit down on the toilet without even looking at the seat.  Big mistake because then you feel it.  That familiar slippery wetness.  But, it’s too damn late.  You’ve been forced to sit on what you hope is your little boy’s wee.  Again.

Ewwwwwwwww, right?

Looks like it’s back to Potty Training 101 or is it?

This rather annoying stage of the toilet training process is what I like to refer to as potty training follow through.   Yes, that’s right — potty training follow through.  It’s the uglier side to toilet training a boy, if you will.  And, it’s a long drawn out stage that literally can take years. (And, years off the parent’s life too.)

Oh, the joys of potty training boys. 

Not that I’m saying the initial stage of potty training is any easier with a girl, but unless they have a penchant for peeing when standing, when you potty train a girl, it usually ends there.  They sit, they go … end of. 

 With a boy, however, it’s a little different.  It doesn’t just end with getting them to do their #1 in the toilet.  You have to follow through on the potty training.  That is, you must train your sons up on all those little nuances a male needs to know before, during and after a visit to the toilet …

• Firstly, it’s all about the concentration.  You really must make sure that when they need to go to the toilet that they concentrate on only that because the next thing you know they’ve been distracted midstream by some shiny bright object and you’ve got them weeing up the walls, on the floor and goodness knows where else. 
• You also have to train the little treasures to actually lift the toilet seat before going so as not to get afore-mentioned droplets on it thereby causing mummy to shriek in terror. 
• Next on the potty training follow through list is to teach them to put the seat down once weeing has ended.  Never ever during.
• Getting the aim right is very high up there on the potty training follow through list.  Need I say more?  Really?
• Lastly, if they do dribble, how about teaching them to wipe it so as to avoid future potential shrieks.

My littlest one will be 4 in a few short months so I’m now full whack in the midst of this stage.  And, I have to say it’s going pretty well.  Only time will tell if he gets through it with straight A’s.

I fully realise what a big undertaking and responsibility this potty training follow through is for me.  I mean, women all over the world could potentially thank me one day for potty training my boys correctly.  When my sons find that perfect someone and she realises that he puts the seat down AND doesn’t dribble on the floor, they’ll come and worship at my feet, right?  Well, a future mother-in-law can dream.

Tags: children, boys, funny, toilet, parenting, humour, Thoughts, potty, training, bathroom

The Gallery … Nature

So, this week’s prompt over at Sticky Fingers is nature. 

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Here in Florida I find that I have a love/hate relationship with nature.  While I love getting out in to the great outdoors, I dislike the beasties you often find there. 

Take, for example, this beauty of a spider … don’t be fooled … it’s the size of a grown man’s hand.

Or even this … need I say more?

But, I do heart this about Florida …

Tags: Meme, photography, nature, hibiscus, Thoughts, if i could escape, crunchiemummy, florida, trees, the gallery, banana spider, alligator, oak

Musical Monday … The Boys of Summer

I heard this song on the radio the other day and it made me smile and kinda think of my boys.

Tags: boys of summer, don henley, Meme, musical monday, Thoughts, video

Armed with two tampons …

“Mummy, can I play with these?” I hear my youngest one say.

“Uh-huh,” I mumble back … not even looking up from my first cup of coffee to see what it was he was actually asking to play with. 

In my defence, it was not even 8 a.m.

“Mummy, can I really?” he inquires again.

“Sure thing, son.”

This time my head was in my favourite online news provider.

Happy to hear the sounds of my littlest boy playing away with swooshing sound effects et al, I pour myself another cup of coffee and settle back to my morning reads.  Life is good.

“But, mummy?”

“Yes,” I mumble back, engrossed in what I’m reading.

“Mummy, I want to use them as swords,” the imaginative one says to me.  “Is that really okay?”

My youngest son has such a fantastic imagination where he loves to role play.  On any day, he can appear to me as a pirate or a knight or a sorcerer or a veterinarian or a soldier, etc.  I never really know who or what he is going to be, but it was obvious at this time he was going to be a swashbuckler of some sort.  

This time, I glance up as I say “of course, baby.  Just so long as no one gets hurt, you can use your imagination any way you waaaaaaaaaaaaa ….. nt.”

My voice trails off as the realisation of what he’s been playing with hits me.  How the heck do I explain this one?

And, then I can’t stop laughing at my little man.  He’s standing in front of me armed with two tampons and one fierce look of determination as he gets ready for battle.

In my defence, it was not even 8 a.m.

Tags: kids, life, funny, parenting, humour, Thoughts, mothering

Remembering …

I am playing with my friends in our fort in the woods when we hear crying and screaming. We run out and somebody yells to me that one of my brothers is hurt. I don’t know which one until I see J running towards our townhouse. His arm looks massively disfigured. I chase after him and am immediately ushered to the neighbour’s house. I cry. I am worried. What has happened to my brother? I later find out he had fallen off a 10- foot slide and broken his arm in three places. I am 4 and we are living in military housing in Germany.

We are living in Montrose, Scotland. I am 5 or 6 and walking back from my Brownies meeting. The sun is just setting, but I can still feel it’s warmth on my face. I keep as far away from the curb as I can and walk close to the ancient stone wall that encompasses the church where the meetings are held. As I walk, I run my hand along it feeling all its grooves and dents and marvelling how cold it is compared to the warm evening.

I am 2 and we are living just south of Sonoma where my father has been assigned. It has been raining for days and this is the first day it has stopped. I look out the window and see my swing set at the bottom of the garden. It is standing in about a foot of water. I am now outside with my brothers and mother. She is hanging up laundry. I remember all I wanted to do was play on my swing set. I try and climb along our garden fence to stay above the water and get to it. I suddenly hear my mother screaming and yelling at me to stay still. She runs through the water to get me. She hugs me tight and tells me never to do that again.

I am 4. We are living in U.S. Navy housing in Todendorf, Germany. My brothers go out to play and I sneak out behind them with my new shoes on. We jump over a fence and off in to the woods … only I get stuck in mud. I can’t move. I call to my brothers. I think it’s quicksand. They come and rescue me by pulling me out of the mud, leaving my new shoes behind. We walk back home, me in my bare feet, with them telling me I was going to be in deep, deep trouble.

I am sitting in my Granny’s front room in Edinburgh. There is laughter and lots of smoke. I play Sindy dolls with my cousins when all of sudden one of them tells me their Sindy doll is better than mine. I laugh it off responding that dolls are for babies. I am 5.

It is hot. We are waiting in line for our turn on the ride. My dad tells us to wait right there and he’ll be back shortly, but I cry. I don’t want to leave his side. He takes me with him. We buy drinks and when we get back to the line we see my brother is on it, grinning away. I remember that I am not sad I missed my turn. We are on holiday in Washington D.C. where my father is now stationed. He has taken us to the Smithsonian for the day. I am 7.

We are walking along a gravelly path. I skip along beside my mum, kicking the pebbles while holding on to the side of the pram on which my baby sister is laying. We do this a lot. Walking. As a family. Whenever we get too rambunctious or loud, my mum would usher us outdoors for long nature walks as she called them. On this particular route, we always stop on this foot bridge that goes over a river. We peer over the edge and down in to the water below. My brothers throw sticks in to gargling water. I watch and giggle and report which of their sticks I think won the race. And, then we walk some more. I am 4 and we are living in Germany.

This blog post was inspired by Josie’s writing workshop prompt four, Memories of my childhood over at Sleep is for the Weak. I had so much fun with this that I will definitely do it again.

Tags: life, memories, Random, Thoughts, youth, writing workshop, remembering, navy brat

And they thought I wouldn’t notice …

I’m not quite sure how this poor innocent ornament met its unfortunate end, but obviously my boys thought if they just popped his head near enough back on that I wouldn’t notice. It did make me chuckle though.  Boys!

Anyway, the investigation shall continue …

Check out the new Wordless Wednesday HQ!!
hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom
hosted by SevEn cLoWn CirCuS

Tags: kids, life, children, photo, parenting, Thoughts, wordless wednesday, wordful wednesday, broken, mishaps

A novel idea …

Right over the town is the ruin of Whitby Abbey, which was sacked by the Danes, and which is the scene of part of “Marmion,” where the girl was built up in the wall. It is a most noble ruin, of immense size, and full of beautiful and romantic bits.  There is a legend that a white lady is seen in one of the windows. Between it and the town there is another church, the parish one, round which is a big graveyard, all full of tombstones.

– Bram Stoker, Dracula

Tags: Meme, whitby, photography, abbey, the gallery, dracula, bram stoker

Chased by a bee, I was …

Yesterday, it was yet another hot day here in Florida.  In fact, it was one of those days where it was hot enough to knock the wind out of your lungs the minute you step in to it. 

Hot enough to fry an egg on the road. 

Hot enough to make you sweat in places you never knew you could. 

Get the picture?

All through the day I tried to coax my kids in to our swimming pool for some fun and exercise, but to no avail.    No matter how hard I tried I could not lure them out of our sweet air-conditioned house and away from the Dr. Who marathon that was being shown on BBC America.  And, to be fair to them the last thing they wanted to do on a hot day was to jump in to a veritable pot of steaming soup.  Thank you sun.

I finally decided my little couch potatoes needed to do something and told they were getting in the pool AND they were going to have fun.   I even conjured up my best Dalek voice telling them ”resistance is futile.”  Begrudgingly they got ready and jumped in the pool.  The squeals and laughter told me that it wasn’t as hot as they thought it was going to be.  I happily settled in my usual watchful position on my favourite poolside lounger, drink in one hand and iPhone in the other.

Not too much time passed before I spotted it.

A bee.

Stay away from me, I thought.

It did.

For a while.

But, the next thing I knew it had landed on the lounger next to mine.

Keep very still, I thought to myself.

My first inclination when I see a bee is to head for the hills.  I think I can attribute this back to my mum as that is what I would witness her do years ago when she’d come face to face with a bee.  She’s very allergic to them and this was likely back in the days before the epi-pen.

The pesky bee flew away and I thought about getting something to swat it, but I didn’t.  Playing with my new iPhone was far more important, after all. 

Moments later I really wished I had got that swat as the next time I saw my stripey friend, it had landed right on the sleeve of my tee-shirt.  I tried not to panic.  Much.  I shrieked and managed to stay still, however, it then flew up in to my hair.  Immediately, I jumped up and screamed and flapped and yelled and did all those other movements and sounds one makes to get rid of a bee that’s in your hair. 

My poor kids didn’t have a clue as to what was going on.  They probably thought it was just mum dancing away … again in public … to the music on my iPhone.

Call it instinct, but the next thing I knew I was in the pool with them.  Yes, to rid myself of that bee, I had jumped in the pool.  Fully clothed.   Thankfully, the bee that would not be moved was now floating helplessly in the water.

“Mum, are you okay?’ my 10-year-old swam over to me smiling away.

“Mummy, you’re in the pool with your clothes on,” my little one squealed with delight.

After a moment of shock, I laughed at myself and the whole event as I told them what had happened.  They looked very concerned and reassured me that bees didn’t like water and that I should stay in the pool with them.  I did and it really was rather cool and refreshing.

Tags: bees, funny, humour, panic, pool, summer

Walking on sunshine …

I love nothing more than spending time with my family.  I also know how important it is to take a break from my busy role as a mother and a wife and spend time with my friends.  Quality time that allows me to recharge, refresh and get ready for another week. 

Yesterday I was able to do just that.  I escaped to one of the area Gulf beaches (no, there were no tar balls) with four of my bestest friends.  We spent the day with the sun in our hair and the sand between our toes, laughing, chillaxing and catching up.

And, just like the song goes, I truly felt like I was Walking on Sunshine … my choice for today’s musical monday.  Enjoy!

Tags: beach, Friends, friendship, life, Meme, mothers, music, musical monday, summer, Thoughts

A tall tale of some ships …

I think that I’ve written here many times about my love of all things water.  So, it’s probably no surprise that when I heard  there would be three magnificent tall ships visiting Tampa bay last week for Sail Tampa Bay 2010, I about wet myself with excitement. 

I know.

I’m such a geek.

I blame my secondary school days.  After all, the house system at that school was four of Captain James Cook’s tall ships.  To this day, I still remember them all — Adventure, Discovery, Endeavour and Resolution.  I’m quite sure this tidbit of knowledge will come in very handy if I ever make it on to Who Wants to be a Millionaire, but I digress.  I adore tall ships too and I knew that I really wanted to see them.

I had the best of intentions.

Really I did.

But, we had a busy weekend full of birthday parties and I couldn’t persuade my hubby and children to go down then.  So, I thought we’d just wait till their last day of the festival and head in to downtown then, make the last tour of the day and also get to see them sail out of the bay.

See, the best of intentions right?

Except that my little one had a slight accident right before we were about to leave.  Poor baby needed lots of cuddles and consoling and there was blood that needed cleaning which delayed us.  As soon as I got him sorted out we headed out the door only to find that it had started raining.  No matter.  I was still going whether the heavens opened up or not.

I had bribed promised the boys some favourite drinks for the drive and felt obliged to stop at the local neighborhood convenience store to pick those up by which time it was really thundering outside.  I called my friend who was already down there to ask how the weather was and she said that there was no sign of any rain at all.  So, I kept going and sure enough we arrived in town with no rain and about a minute or so to go.

The last tour was at 4:00 p.m., but the entrance to the area had already been barricaded with a notice saying you could not enter without a special admission ticket.  Aaaargh!  I drove around looking for parking that was close by the ships, but unless you were staying at one of the nearby luxury hotels or owned the keys to a penthouse suite, it was near impossible. 

Each time we drove past them, my littlest one would exclaim, “there they are, Mum” or “I see them mum over there.” 

And, with every minute that went by my dream of touring these tall ships was thwarted by the onset of rush hour traffic. 

So, instead I decided to kinda give up on it. 

I drove us on over to the newly renovated waterfront park in the center of downtown where I thought we might still be able to get a glimpse of those ruddy ships.  I did say that I only kinda gave up.

It’s a beautiful, modern six acre park located along the Hillsborough River across from the University of Tampa that comes complete with an awesome playground and splash area.  Even though it was a little hot, it was lovely and my boys had a blast playing, charging about and generally letting off steam. 

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We still couldn’t see those flaming ships though.  I knew where they were … over yonder and just down the river walk and was contemplating walking to them until the heavens opened up!  

And, so ended my tall ships adventure. 

We ran back to the van and I treated us all to dinner at Chipolte or Chipolt-away as the boys like to call it.

*sigh*

The tall ships are apparently headed to Miami and I’m wondering …  if I set off down there now … would I make it on time to see them?

Tags: kids, life, stuff, summer, park, tampa, playground, days out, tall ships