potty training...part 2

You know in that children's book, Once Upon a Potty, when the little boy (or girl, depending on the version you have) poo-poos, but "not exactly in the potty"... Well, Joel understands that part better now!

He has officially entered the "Potty Training Zone", which in the Tombrella house, means you run around nakedy all day until you catch on. Joel had sat on the potty twice already, after showing obvious signs he needed to go. Nothing. Well, just a few minutes ago, I heard Sam and Joel talking in the hall about pooping in the potty and then Sam ran in to get me and said, "Come see Mommy, come see!" Well I thought, "Wow, in just one day we have poo-poo success?! It took Samuel weeks to achieve this!"

Well, no. We didn't quite have success. A lovely present was sitting on the bathroom floor. Joel knew he needed to go and he made it to the right room... progress or a definite leaning if you ask me! So the training continues!

I think the theme of my Christmas will be, "All I want for Christmas is my two sons in underwear, my two sons in underwear..."! he he! Happy Wednesday!

Picture Tagged...

I was tagged a few weeks ago by my friend Jeanna and I failed to respond...this time Diane "picture tagged" me and since it is easier to respond, I did. So here is my picture. Isn't he a cutie, even though he looks pretty serious! That face can still be found quite often on the countenance of my now nearly 4 year old Samuel! My how time flies!

So now it's my turn to tag. I tag Alicia, Jeanna, Kelly Ross, Erin Ball, and Lauren Sok...

tag you're it!

Go to your pictures, look in your 5th file folder, and post the 5th picture in it....have fun!

Thanksgiving happenings to come....!

A Warning About Dollar Store Toys...

Let me begin by saying I am sorry there are no pictures to show with this post...my camera or software is acting up and after 3 attempts, I gave up.
Anyways, back to the warning.
Two mornings ago, Samuel got off the couch while watching PBS and held up his finger to me and whined, "It's stuck!" What I saw was a small orange tube stuck on Samuel's pointer finger. I thought to myself, "No big deal. It's not REALLY stuck. I can get it off. Worse case, I'll lather it up with soap and it will surely come off."
I then asked him what it was and where it came from. He quickly informed me in his Samuel-sort-of-way, "Well, well, it's to my gum (translation: from my gun)."
After a moment of consideration, I realized it was the tip off of one of his dollar store guns (his and Joel's favorite place to go now).
So I calmly took his finger and tried to pull it off. Nothing. I then tried twisting it. Nothing.
Okay, no need to panic. Off to the bathroom sink. Water and soap applied. Pulled. Nothing. Twisted. Yes, it now would twist, but that was it. It was officially stuck on his knuckle.
Now he was crying and I was starting to panic a bit myself. How ridiculous I would look going into an ER w/ this situation.
"Call Rob! He'll know what to do!" I thought.
So call him I did. He offered to come home to try to solve the problem. In the meantime I calmed Sam down and tried to think of other ways to get it off.
My Pampered Chef all purpose scissors! Don't worry, I wasn't going to cut his finger off, though they will cut a metal can. They infact, won't cut you at all! So I slid them up the side of the tube and tried cutting it. It worked, but I couldn't get it to cut all the way to the top. Alas, it was still stuck.
Then Daddy arrived just in time to save the day, as now Samuel was starting to panic again.
Rob tried pliers to pull it off with. He then tried cutting it more. Still nothing. Then he headed to the bathroom for more soap.
Sadly, in the end, he simply had to resort to a good-old-fashioned tug. With Samuel screaming as he held him still between his legs, Rob pulled as hard as he could and off came the tube, with a bit of Sam's skin as well.
Once neosporin and a Spiderman bandaid was applied, all was right in the Tombrella home once again.

So, the moral to our story: beware of dollar store "treats". They can fall apart (and usually do within a day) and result in a crazy morning like this one. Sure glad it wasn't worse!

bunk beds, boxes, and boys...(and Asher too!)

Sam and Joel are officially 'big boys' now because they sleep in bunk beds (though we keep telling Joel he's not until he uses the potty and says goodbye to the diapers)! They love them and today they loved them even more because Mommy let them play with the boxes from the bunk beds! Oh what joy! I think I should add "...& Boxes" to the title of my blog after this post!
This afternoon I let them play in the boxes in the garage and they had a blast! After days like today I always ask myself why we spend money on toys?!
Another recent thing the boys have gotten into is taking pictures with our digital camera. So very glad it is digital and we can simply delete the crazy ones...though some are worth keeping! What did parents do before there were digital cameras? Waste a lot of money I guess. We are getting Sam a kid's digital camera for his birthday next month, so I'm sure I will post some more of his shots over time!
And I included some pics of Asher at the end because he is just too cute not to! Enjoy!

The beds that made this post possible! ha ha

Jumping on the old crib mattresses from their toddler beds...
another benefit of the bunk beds!

Joel's picture of Sam. pretty good.

Sam's picture of Joel. even better...though Joel's expression is weird!

Sam's picture of Mommy and Asher...not bad.

Our happy little guy!

(Mommy took this one.)