sybrowsky year-end review - march 09

In addition to Grandma Holly's visit in March, we celebrated March with a family getaway to Great Wolf Lodge (aka Grateful Lodge according to Addy) near Olympia. Not only is it a huge kid-friendly hotel, it is an indoor water park. Eighty-degree weather in March? I'm there.

We watched movies,


ate treats (in our underwear for some reason),


played kung-fu with the fountains,



went on HUGE waterslides,


tried to spray Mom whenever she was in squirting distance,


went to story time with the wolf,


and got really, really wet!


Boy were we tuckered out when we got home!

sybrowsky quote of the week - rhetoric

Mr. Crazy Pants here has developed quite an interesting use of language as of late.

Me: grumbling under my breath about the construction workers on our street and their never-ending traffic stops.

Adam: "Suck it up, Mom!"

Me: "What? Where did you learn that, Adam?"

Adam: "From Grandma."

Me: "Uh, I highly doubt that. Did you maybe hear it on Sponge Bob?"

Adam: "Yeah, I learned it from Sponge Bob."

Really, my three-year-old is telling me to "suck it up?" Maybe we need to limit the Sponge Bob watching for a while. Or Grandma's visits. (Although I'm pretty sure I've never heard my mom say "suck it up", but you never know, I guess.) He also responded with, "Blah, blah, blah" the other day when I was getting after him for something. However, he has spouted a few nice statements lately, too, such as "Great job cleaning the kitchen, Mama!" and "You're a genius, Mom!" So I guess that evens it out.

addy's his own man

When it was time to potty train Addy, I was extremely reluctant. I had a very bad experience with James, and I was dreading doing it over again. We waited a little longer with Ads and tried not to push him. He's seemed ready for a long time. So about a month after his 3rd birthday, I finally threw him a "Potty Party."

For those of you unfamiliar with this concept, it's basically an all-day potty training session, which at the end of your child should be 100% potty trained. It ends with a big party with a cake and presents and lots of hooplah. And it works--for about one day.

Addy actually did great for a few weeks, with only minimal accidents. He even rode 16 hours in the car without a problem. He was a pro the whole time we were in Utah for Christmas. But something happened when we returned. Suddenly, he was having an accident every time. He wasn't going in the potty AT ALL. For three weeks I felt like I was beating my head against a wall. My friends watched me freak out as he had multiple accidents at every play date. I was sick of washing a load of wet/poopy clothes each night, and ready to put him back in Pull-Ups full time. We even tried a "potty watch" (really just my running watch that has a timer) that sounded an alarm every hour to remind him to go potty. Nothing worked.

Then one day I was out of Pull-Ups, and I didn't want buy a huge box from Costco, or to go all the way to Wal-Mart for a small pack. I stopped by the Fred Meyer down the street and was totally shocked by the price of the Pull-Up brand there. So I opted for the small, cheap Fred Meyer version, determined to get this kid trained before they were gone.

The next couple of nights I put Addy in a pair of the cheap training pants to sleep in. One night that week, Christian went up to quell a disturbance (as is his nightly ritual), only to find Addy running around his room buck naked. He had removed him jammies and training pants and refused to put them back on. He wanted to wear big-boy underwear because he's a big boy now, and the training pants felt "yucky." Christian, no doubt wanting to get the kid back in bed so he could return to his TV show, relented and put him in underwear. Best parenting decision ever.

The next morning, to my great surprise, he was dry. And from that night on, he hasn't had a single accident. I haven't had to remind him or drag him to the bathroom--he has gone completely on his own. I guess he just needed to decide for himself that he was going to do it. A testament to his independent nature. You gotta love this kid.

So if you're struggling with potty training, try switching out the cushy Cadillac training pants for the cheapest things you can find. Or go a size smaller so they're really uncomfortable. You can tell them they're getting too big for Pull-Ups. And maybe they'll decide on their own like Addy did. Or not. Who knows--this parenting thing is definitely a crap shoot sometimes.