Answer: Christopher did it.

I'm quite the "potty mouth" in this post, so if reading about other people's toilet training troubles isn't your cup of tea, feel free to skip it.  And I think this might be a first where I am saying "You're welcome" to a lack of visuals, instead of  "sorry".

So I realize my last post was a little gross, but after potty training with limited success for two solid years, and seriously worrying that I would be buying Depends for him in a year or so,  a little turd in a toilet is a beautiful sight to behold indeed.

And believe me, I've done everything short of promising him the moon if he would poop in the potty.   "McDonald's? Absolutely...  Ice-cream?  We'd love to....  A DS? sure...  Disneyland?  Just as soon as you are potty trained....An iphone? We'll see how desperate I get, but I'll be happy to fix the cracked screen on my itouch..."  I'll even take him to the toy section of Target, watch him fall in love with something, smile at him and say, "You want that?  Go poo-poo in the potty..." 

I've even gone the other direction and taken away privileges.   "You want to be a big boy and play with friends?  Go poop in the potty."  (besides, their kid has been most likely been potty trained for a couple years, handing them the largest size pull-up they make and saying "Just in case. Sorry.", kinda sucks for all parties involved.  It's been a very, very long time since Christopher has played at a friend's house.  (that's no pic-nic for me, either). 

Basically, we knew it all came down to how much Christopher wanted it.  He needed to decide that using a toilet was better than walking around with a load in your shorts, and all we could do to encourage it was to sweeten the pot.  We've been promising "presents" for quite awhile now.

So yesterday Madison was getting ready for a birthday party, and we needed to wrap the present.  Christopher took one look at it, went up stairs, promptly pooped in the potty, came downstairs all proud as punch, and said, "I go store, buy present."  So we promptly left for Target where he picked out a little race track for a matchbox car. (I had to strike while the iron was hot.  Madison was 15 minutes late to her party.) 

As soon as he was bored with that toy, he squeezed out another little turd. (The image of which I so kindly shared on the internet for all to see yesterday.)  I could see where this was heading, so I talked him into getting ice-cream.  It was Saturday afternoon and I had been considering taking the kids anyway.

Then this morning before church he pooped again, and was pretty adamant about going to the store to buy a present.  Fortunately I just happened to have a little box of Legos I forgot to give him for his birthday, which I had decided to save it for Christmas, but ended up giving to him today instead.    (Oh, and PS- both the Legos and racetrack had to be wrapped so he could un-wrap them.) 

An hour later he was unwrapping a large Hershey's bar left over from Valentine's day.

After church he ate a bowl of ice-cream an hour before we were to go to some friend's house for dinner because he pooped a third time.

After all that pooping you'd think we'd be safe to leave him in his "big boy pants" for only two hours while we enjoyed dinner at our friend's house.

You'd be wrong. 

You win some, you lose some.

At least now I have HOPE.   I didn't even have that two months ago.

Guess why this picture makes me happy?

We said "Ciao" to Italy  and our travel companions this morning and boarded a plane for Belgium.

Italy was fun and we have so many great memories.  I can't wait to download some pictures. 

John asked me what was my favorite part, and honestly I don't know.

Rome was cool and in many ways just "wow".  Venice was magical.  The Dolomites were fun. 

We had one not-so-great hotel room (but it was clean and fairly cheap) but other than that we really lucked out with our stays.

We had some "lick-your-plate-clean" food and some "take-it-or-leave-it" food.

John and I spent the afternoon in Brussels wandering around, doing some window shopping, and doing some actual shopping (for chocolate).

Funny story I have to share before I forget- 

I was picking out some chocolates in one particular store (Every other store in the town center is a chocolate shop) and this girl was telling us how much she loved her job.  Apparently we couldn't pay her enough to take another job. "You could give me 5000 Euros a month and I would not leave zis job."(say it with a French accent) I made a comment that I would be afraid to work there because I'd get too fat.  She replied  "Oh no, zee chocolate is so good, you need only a little bit and you are satisfied".  To which I replied that after eating Belgian chocolate I can't eat American chocolate anymore.  "Oh! I will pay you to keep your American chocolate!  One time I accidentally eat a piece of Hershey's chocolate, and I had spit it out!"

I'm pretty excited (and nervous!) for tomorrow.  I'm taking a train to Paris by all by my little old self to spend about a day and a half.

Poor John has to work. :(

A quick update

Kids-

I only have a couple of minutes, so I thought I'd spend a couple minutes updating the blog just in case you happened to check it.

Venice was lovely.  Amazing.  I took lots of pictures and I'll update them later.  Most of just stuff I loved.  Like a door or a house or a courtyard.  I wish I was a better photographer.  We took a boat out to Murano and saw a glass blowing demonstration.  That was pretty cool.

Yesterday we drove up into the Italian Alps.  The cool thing about that was the fact that instead of little Italian towns, the towns are more German than Italian!  German language, houses, food... We even sat next to a table last night were everyone was dressed up in traditional German clothes.  (think Leiderhosen).

Today we will be spending time at Lake Garda, then will be heading to Milan.

Love you!!!!

I'll try to blog later!!!

Buon Giorno from Italy!

Hey kids,  Just a quick note-

been missing talking with you.  Our schedules are so off, you are in school or asleep when we are awake.

Haven't had much time to blog- we're busy from the moment we get up until the moment we fall in bed, and we haven't always had access to the internet.

We are having a lot of fun, and seeing some amazing things, (and eating lots of great food) but we think of you often and miss your sweet faces.

We saw the leaning tower of Pisa yesterday- it was pretty neat.  We were actually pretty impressed.  It really does lean.  And it's really pretty too.

Tomorrow we head to Venice, so I'm excited for that. 

Dad says hi and he misses you.

Love you all.  Be good for Grandpa.  Do your homework.  Brush your teeth. Make your beds.  (sorry can't resist Ü)

Take care of grandpa, he sounds like he needs it.  Love you lots and lots. 

♥ Mom

Arrivederci

John and I are taking off on a long awaited trip to Italy today.  We'll be back in a couple weeks.

My fearless father has accepted the role of playing Mr. Mom while we are away.

So if my kids are looking a little more disheveled than usual, that's why.

But I have to say, I think I'm a little more worried about my dad.

I know the kids will be fine and safe.  They might be late to a music lesson or two, and eat frozen hotdogs (they never hurt me as a kid- in fact I remember thinking that those meat popcicles we only got to eat when mom wasn't home were pretty awesome) but I am sure they will have fun with Pa.

My dad however capable as he is of hiking miles through mountains for days with blistery feet by himself,  hasn't had the joy of taking care of four young'uns for quite some time.  Needless to say, he admits to feeling a little overwhelmed.  I eased into the job of mom one kid at a time, and I'm fairly used to it by now, but there are days when I think to myself - "If I were a drinker...", and then I go searching for my chocolate stash, and possibly a can of something cool and refreshing and caffeinated. 

With that in mind, the fridge is full of his favorite Pepsi, and I will be sure to disclose the location(s) of my chocolate.

Anyway- I'm not sure what, if any, blogging is going to be going on while I am away. I'm not taking my laptop with me.  I'll take pictures and notes and bore you all with an endless slide show of my travels when I return. 

I am over the moon excited though.  We'll be in Italy for 8 days, and we were supposed to return on the 9th, but John has work in Belgium for the whole next week, so I will spend a day with him there, then I will board a train BY MYSELF and head to Paris for a couple of days to take a couple cooking classes.  I'm pretty excited about that. Nervous.  But excited.  I'll head back to Belgium long enough to spend the evening with John on our 15th anniversary then head home to rescue my dad.

So, Ciao for now!

It's a mother's right

To be the very first to sign the cast.

PS- who is surprised she picked green over pink?  If I were a betting woman, I would have lost.