Perception

Spike let me  know today that he got more out of our potty training sessions last week than I had thought.  This morning I was upstairs feeding the baby, and when I came downstairs, I found Spike with his pants and pull-up off, and his potty on the floor in the playroom, next to the table where he had his cars set up to play with.  Last week one of our activities we would do while potty training was to play cars at the table while he sat on his potty.  It looked like he was wanting to do that again.  I figured there wasn't a problem with it, so I let him.  I then noticed what looked like a wet spot on the floor, and figured he had had an accident.  I went to get some stuff to clean it up, and when I got back he was standing over his potty saying, "wets in potty mama!"  Sure enough he had used the potty.  And there wasn't really a wet spot on the floor, just a shadow. So I helped him clean up the potty, and then he got a reward candy and sticker.  Then later in the morning I noticed he had taken off his pull-up again and was wanting to sit on the potty.  He ran around for a while with a bare bottom half, occasionally sitting on the potty, but refusing to put a pull-up or pants on, and then about a half hour or so later he urinated into the potty again, and then let me put his pull-up on.  I figure I am going to take a back seat on this one for now.  I have a lot of other things I need to get done this week, so I am not going to spend time working with him, but I will let him go at his own pace, and encourage his efforts.

However he had a little traumatic event this afternoon that I am hoping doesn't set him back.   He had wandered outside to play with some of his siblings.  I didn't know he was out there.  He didn't have shoes on, and I guess his pants fell off.  When I found him he was quite upset, and felt like one of the little girls he was playing with had taken his pants off of him.  I don't know what happened, but I am going to make a guess that they fell off.  Since then I have put him back in diapers, just because they stay up a little better.

On Monday nights we have a family time, we call it Family Home Evening.  This involves a lesson usually on spiritual topics, a fun family activity, and a treat.  Tonight it was my turn to pick the activity. The hubs had suggested that we could go to a local tulip festival that I have been wanting to see, and this is the last week.  I thought that could work, and was planning on it.  However, this evening ended up being quite windy and a little cool temperature wise.  The kids were not being incredibly cooperative when I was trying to get them in the car, and it was at this point that I found Spike without his pants.  I was feeling very frustrated, and was short with the kids.  Our plan was to go and pick up the hubs from work, go out for dinner, and then go see the flowers.  The majority of the drive there I found myself stewing over our plans for the evening, and getting more and more upset.  Finally I decided that I would have a rotten time unless I changed my attitude.  So I decided we were going to have fun, and changed the plans so that we went to the local dinosaur museum instead.  I had a lot of fun, and it was a pleasant experience.  It is all in the attitude.  Maybe the hubs and I can take baby with us, and have a date night on Friday and go see the tulips if the weather is nice.