Chicago, Chicago, that Toddlin' Town

We're leaving this morning for Chicago to walk in the March of Dimes' Walk America. For those who don't know, March of Dimes is the leading organization whose purpose is to prevent prematurity and save the lives of babies. As you know this cause is close to my heart since Cameron and the girls were all born 2 months early, and I went into labor with Ty 2 months early as well. Ty was the only one of my babies who listened to me and stayed inside as long as he should have, and he hasn't listened to me since! But that's okay, because that was when it mattered the most.

I've tried to explain to the boys as best I can what we're doing tomorrow and why. I explained, with elementary wording, that people were giving us money to take a long walk with a bunch of other people, and that money was going to be given to scientist and doctors to buy medicine and medical equipment for tiny babies who were born too early. I knew they still would probably not understand since what's happening with the money isn't something I can physically show them, but Ty had a pretty good idea in his head about what was going to happen. Last night he told me how he can't wait to go to Chicago "to see the little babies, because I've been wanting to know how they cut you open and took me out." Back to the drawing board.

The only glitch in our plan for the weekend is that late this week Dayne and Tara decided to finally get serious about potty training. They've been wearing big girl underwear for 3 days and have been doing a pretty good job at making it to the potty most times. Dru is still ticked that she hasn't figured out how to "make it happen" like her sisters, so she's digging her heals in and isn't interested in trying anymore. The problem is that with the 2 1/2 hour car ride and all the excitement in Chicago there are going to be a lot of wet pants if I keep them in their underwear. The simple solution is to obviously put them back in pull-ups for the weekend, but I've been trying so hard to get them potty trained, I don't want them to regress and think that diapers are an option anymore now that we've made such a huge leap. But I really don't feel like packing 15 extra outfits and cleaning up accidents all weekend, so I'm going to have to.

The hightlight of my week was yesterday when I came upstairs from the laundry room and found Dayne sitting on the toilet going poop - ALL BY HERSELF! Only a mom can appreciate the excitement in this. For those of you who are tired of reading about poop and pee on this website, I apologize. Sadly, it's a big part of my life right now, but I think I can finally see an end in sight and I'll soon be able to clean up the contents of my blogs.

Have a great weekend, everyone. I'm sure I'll have some interesting Chicago stories to share with you next week.

We Should've Bought Stock in Huggies

Just out of curiousity today I decided to calculate how many diapers we've changed since Cam was born June 22, 2000. Obviously it's a guestimate based on the boys both being potty trained at 2 1/2 years, and the girls being 2 1/2 now. I figured the first few weeks babies need about 10 diaper changes a day, then the number slowly dwindles down to a mere 5 to 6 diaper changes daily. Based on these numbers, we have changed approximately 25,000 diapers in the past 6.85 years, with 15,000 of those being in the past 2.5 years. 5,000 per kid. 25,000 diapers. 25,000. 25,000! I hate to toot my own horn, but I think you could now call me an expert. And I dare my kids to complain when they have to change my diapers in 50 years.

Only 23 days left!

Okay - maybe it's just me, but I truly believe that Ty is still living in denial and doesn't believe that his sisters are here to stay. They are 2 1/2 years old and he STILL doesn't know their names! Don't get me wrong, he obviously realizes that he has three sisters named Dayne, Tara, and Dru, but to save his life he couldn't tell you who's who. Nor does he care to try. Now I realize that the girls DO look a lot alike (hence the term "identical") and most grown ups have a hard time telling them apart, but it IS possible. Cam has been keeping them straight for us from the day they came home from the hospital. He has an uncanny ability to tell them apart from across a crowded room in the dark. We don't know how, but he does.

About a year ago Ty was in a timeout for doing something to Tara. When his timeout was over I told him that he needed to go apologize to her. He walked into the room where all three girls were playing, and with a scowl on his face looked at each one and said "sorry, sorry, sorry". A blanket apology, knowing that one of the apologies would land on Tara. I told him that day that I thought it was time he try to learn his sister's names. His response was "When I'm four, I'll learn their names". That seemed logical to him, and he was turning four just a few weeks from then, so I didn't push him. He turned four 338 days ago. He'll be five in 23 days. He is no closer to knowing his sisters now than he was then.

Another example: A few months ago Ty brought me a project that he'd been working on, and proudly showed me the paper that he'd written the names of "everyone in our family". I was very impressed that he was writing names and sounding out words (see previous T-I-T post), so I read it out loud. He wrote "DAD", "MOM", "CAM", "TY", and "FLE" (he told me to sound it out - it spells "family"!) He said "That's everyone in our family!"
"Everyone?" I asked?
"Yep!"
"Are you sure you're not forgetting anyone, Ty?"
With a look of astonishment that he'd actually forgotten this, he said "Fast Eddie! Can you help me write Fast Eddie?" For those of you who don't know, Fast Eddie is his hamster.
Cam jumps in saying "Ty, you forgot the girls!"
"There's not room for them. Mommy, can you help me write Fast Eddie?"
If that's not denial, I don't know what is.

Over the past couple months I've been pretty persistent with trying to get him to take the time to take some good hard looks at the girls to notice the differences and sort out their names. He still only calls them "Baby" and "Other Baby", or if they're wearing different colors we might be lucky if he calls them "Purple Girl", "Pink Girl", or "Yellow Girl".

I'm at a loss as to what to do. Do I keep persisting, and explain that the girls would be so happy to hear him use their names every now and again, or do I look on the bright side knowing that because of his labels the girls will learn their colors faster?

Spring Break

It's been a busy few weeks, as opposed to the rest of my weeks which are just rest and relaxation, right? The boys had spring break a couple weeks ago and we only had one nice day of weather. They were ready to take out their swimming pool and sprinklers on Monday, but then the reality of Wisconsin springs brought us back to reality the next day with a 30 degree temperature drop. We did make it to the zoo and had a great time. We were practically the only ones there so the boys had the attention of the zoo keepers on several occassions and asked a lot of questions about the animals. The penguins were the big hit for all the kids. The rest of the week the boys caught up playing with friends that they don't get to see outside of school too often. I'll post more later about Easter and more potty training adventures. I've added some new pictures to the slideshow, so be sure to check those out. Check in again soon!