all about the potty.... look away all ye squeamish.

poor connor has been struggling since the beginning with the whole potty training thing. some things he does fine... others... not so much. potty time often brings tears. the poor kid tries. i tried everything i could think of.....rewards, punishment, forced potty time, letting him figure it out by trial and error. the errors were winning.

as many moms, i pray for my kids daily. that they will grow up to love God. that they will be saved. that they will be obedient. that they will not do the stupid things i've done. and for connor.... that he will just poop in the toilet. sounds trivial, but at times he has been genuinely afraid of going on the toilet. so you could imagine my shock, my joy, my utter astonishment when he was sitting for his...um... potty time last sunday and suddenly yelled out, "dad! i went poop!" i was feeding meg and i really couldn't believe it. at first, i thought he was just trying to get down. he will often yell out, "i'm empty!" thinking those are the magic words to getting down. but he really had gone. nathan came downstairs and made a big deal of it. then a couple days later he did the same thing! i was shocked. a whole week with no accidents. then three days of straight accidents. i knew i had my hopes too high. "it will happen." i kept telling myself.....with a charlie brown squiggle smile denoting disbelief.

tonight he made my mommy heart proud. tonight i was putting the lights on the christmas tree and i heard a small voice that sounded like it was coming from the hallway.

"mommy.... i went potty." i was dejected.

"in your pants?" i asked. basically just buying myself time to calm down and get out from behind the tree.

"no." it was at this point that a million bad scenarios flashed across the screen in my mind.

nathan got up and turned the corner to see connor sitting on the toilet. he had gotten on BY HIMSELF---which he has only done a handful of times. he had gone poop---BY HIMSELF.

we were totally amazed, and of course we had to make a huge deal of it.

connor proved his own excitement by saying, "MAN, i'm so proud of myself!" i couldn't help but chuckle.

one of his big treats for going #2 is a scoop of ice cream. this has been an easy treat to come by since nathan won a free scoop of ice cream every week for a year. since connor hasn't been the best at going.... well, nathan's been eating lots of ice cream. so last night, connor had gone on the potty and in honor of the big event he was told he'd get a scoop today. he finished about half of it before nap time so i told him i'd put it in the freezer for later. this is when my little boy became a little man.

after dinner, he asked if he could have the rest. i was busy with something so i told him i'd get it in a minute. he is always asking (like any 3-yr-old) if he can try to do things on his own..... this was no different. he was desperate to get that ice cream. i told him to go ahead, but not to get frustrated if he couldn't get it. he popped open the freezer (we have a bottom freezer), spotted his dish, grabbed it, opened the lid like it was nothing. i was impressed that he had been able to open the freezer. sometimes it's tough. surely, i thought, this was the end of the line for his mammoth successes. then i heard the silverware drawer open. his little eyes can barely peep over the edge. there's no way he'll get a spoon by himself! and yet again, i was proved wrong.... in a totally cool my little guy is growing up way. he brought his snack out to the living room, plopped down on the floor and enjoyed the rest. i was thrilled and immensely proud! i went immediately downstairs to tell nathan of our young son's successes. we shared a parental high five and nathan said, "one down, one to go!" we both laughed and smiled proudly.

then i was sitting at the computer when connor finished his snack. i was once again thrilled to see a responsible moment shining through my little cave man. he got up to put away his dish! i was just thrilled. but then i was perplexed by the sound of the freezer opening again. hmmmm.... he had finished his entire snack. what was he putting it back for??? so i turned around to see him putting the lid back on his empty dish. it wasn't going on straight so he tipped it and the leftover drips started plopping to the floor in a sticky heap. i explained that the dish was empty and there was no reason to put the dish back in the freezer, but instead, it should go in the trash. then i looked around for the spoon.

"connor? where did you put your spoon?"

"in there." *pointing to the drawer full of clean silverware

oh, well. one step forward....two steps back. i'll take it. hey, at least he had licked it clean first!


i leave you with pictures of our tree hunting extravaganza!

connor made a good hat. it was FREEZING.

the big kids with grampa and bb... .ava is looking especially ragamuffinish b/c her warm coat was accidentally left at the house. which is why nathan didn't have any gloves... he had given his to av.

with our tree. yes, meg's in the stroller. it was too cold to take her out, so i just uncovered her face for the picture.

i don't have a single good picture of the sherf family. and i took about 10. bunch of goof balls.

we both agree, it's our best tree ever.

connor wanted to carry the "cutting thing" the whole time.

not from trees, but she's so cute! she tries so hard to stay awake in the church nursery and then crashes in the car on the way home. so we've been letting her just stay in her car seat and sleep for a while when we get back. it's been a pretty good deal. nathan just plops the whole seat in the crib.