Back in April of this year we had a tornado hit our house and we’ve moved 3 times since. I quit my job at the Village at the end of June and have picked back up with photography.

For Aidan, life has been stressful as well, but he has done rather well. He has been going to bed for a few weeks now wearing underwear and has had only one accident and that was when he woke up in the morning.

Before that he had been wearing pull-ups and had only tinkled in them once or twice this whole year.

He started school Friday, August 12th. At first he had a hard time keeping his hands to himself, but ever since I talked to him about it, he has done well.

Today a little girl came up and kissed him. Apparently he was a little confused about it. How funny! I’m sure he will get a kick out of this when he reads it one day.

His teachers are Ms. Lyndee and Ms. Amanda and he likes them. This morning was his first morning where he did not want to let go of me. When I picked him up, he told me, “I missed you,” in the most pitiful voice…even his teacher was touched by it.

We are still on track to move to Florida in 9 months after the kids graduate. And Aidan can start kindergarten down there. He is excited about it because he loves the beach and the ocean.

We are hopeful that everything will work out for us the way it’s supposed to. As long as we have each other, that is what really matters.

They did a regular check-up on him and told me he is in the 75th percentile for height and weight. My boy is getting to be less like most: he’s so tall! He is 3 feet and 4 inches tall and he weighs 39lbs. I was always such a skinny child and it seems as though he’s following in my footsteps. I remember when I had one of those IDs made by the KPD when I was 7 and I only weighed 47lbs. I was 96lbs up until I was about 16 years old.

Skinny Wendy.

Anyways. So we did not get our application in in time for Aidan to start school this year. It will be next fall at the earliest. I’m really disappointed, but that just means I have more time to spend with him and educate him myself. I like to take credit for what he has learned already and not somebody else. (Well, hubs and I)

I have toyed with the thought of homeschooling, but I want him to be able to have long hours of spending time with his peers. That’s important to me. And I want to be able to have time for myself to work from home.

All-in-all, his checkup went well. He had to get 3 shots and blood drawn. He cried for a few minutes then we had McDonald’s for lunch.

(One reason I am thankful to have  a boy: sitting on public toilets is very rare.)

We are still working on night-time training, but that is something that will take longer to master. He usually wakes up with a dry pull-up, I would say 5 or 6 days of the week, at least. He has gone for over 2 weeks with a dry pull-up before. I’m just nervous about putting him in undies overnight. Why? I don’t know.

But I am thrilled! It only took about 5 months of rewards. Chuck E’ Cheese did it! They have sticker charts, too, and your child can earn extra coins if you bring it in.

We are working on our chart for brushing our teeth everyday now.

I am thrilled and relieved and proud.

My boy is a big boy!

38lbs and 39 1/4 inches!!!

Success. Not full-blown success, but a turd has hit the water in the Chastain house….and not just from the adults around here. We had a little nugget join in on the fun.

On July 7th (last Wednesday) Aidan finally took a dump in the toilet.

Yay…..maybe I didn’t terminally scar him when he first attempted this a year and a half ago. We decided to make it easier on him and let him go without shorts or a pull-up on. He can go in there and just pee…no hassle.

Well, last Wednesday he came to me and said he had to poop so we went running in there. He farted twice so I knew it was there. He got down in the floor and played with one of his toys. I reminded him that if he had to poop to get back on the potty. Well, he did. He was calling for me, but I was busy at the moment. He came out and went to Mike and told him he pooped then showed him a streak on his leg.

Mike feared that he had done it in the floor.

Well…..he had. But the good thing is is that it came as he was squatting and he ran and got on the potty mid-dump. He manage to pinch off a little one in there so that was certainly worth celebrating. Not just the dook, but the effort. We went to Chuck E’ Cheese the next day and he had a blast. He knew his celebration was for that.

We ran into Hollie Stockman and her little girl, Zella. Hollie commended Aidan on his success and encouraged him to keep doing it. It’s nice to have someone else join us on that so he doesn’t think it’s something spectacular to just us.

He has pooped two more times since then, but because we were out and about when he took his other dumps. Whenever he has a pull-up on, he takes advantage of the convenience.

We are having him do without so he gets used to not having pee or poop stuck to him ever.

I put him in underwear the other day while he helped Mike mow and he actually told Mike he needed to pee so they stopped and he did it. He has done tremendously well with letting us know when he has to pee. Sometimes he even makes us leave so he can do it himself.

Such a big boy!

I just wanted to quickly post that, even though we are still using pull-ups on Aidan, he has made vast improvements. He has been dry for the past 3 days in a row when waking up. And the day before the first he was dry. He has had spells here and there.

Also, he actually sat on the toilet and attempted to squeeze one out.

Oh my god, we’re getting there!

***UPDATE: Day 4 of dry mornings!***

Aidan did quite well and improved over time. By the end of the week, he was accruing 6-7 stickers a day! The only bad thing is that he never pooped in the toilet. And he still hasn’t.

This week his reward if he continues to go pee and poops in the potty we are taking him to the bouncy house and pizzaria. Yesterday he only peed in the toilet once and I was getting really upset, but was careful not to show it. I reminded him that he still needs to use the toilet, but he only did once. We still took him to Chuck E Cheese and just wrote it off as a slow day. I’m sure he is getting tired of getting up and going to the potty since he isn’t really used to it.

Anyways. Mike also bought him a bike with training wheels, but he has to poop before he can ride it outside. So he basically has 2 rewards for pooping. I think the bike was too soon.

So, I do believe this is attempt #3 at this. This will be the final attempt. He will get it or he will wear diapers on his first date…..whatever he decides.

Aidan has actually done really well with it this go ’round. We are using the sticker chart and treats for everytime he goes successfully in his potty. He gets one sticker for peeing and two for pooping. At the end of the first week – as long as he has stickers for everyday – he gets to go to Chuck E Cheese!

So far, though, he has not pooped in the potty. The first time around he only went once in it and held it every other time. Well, Aidan isn’t holding it this time; he’s going in his underwear. Yesterday we went to Home Depot and he forgot to tell me he had to go pee, so he wound up peeing all in their floor and on himself. I spent about 15 minutes cleaning it up. My nerves were shot bc it was humiliating and I felt bad for Aidan bc he was covered. Once we got to the car, we had clean underwear and wipes. Then I took a chill pill.

Next week we are going to continue rewards, but will mostly focus on pooping. If he poops in the potty everyday, then we will go to this place kind of like Chuck E Cheese in town that has one of those large bouncy houses in it.

I will have an update next week.

He seems to love it so far as he took over 200 photos within 30 minutes of getting it. I have yet to hook it up to the computer and look at the quality of photos, but so far it looks pretty decent. Decent enough for a $40 camera used by a 3 year old.

And since I haven’t really talked much about it, I wanted to write it down so Aidan can read this later. He is obsessed with Matchbox cars and HotWheels. And we don’t mind since they are only .97cents. That’s why he now has a LOT of them. I would guess around 70. My mother bought him about 30 or more for Christmas and we buy him one basically everytime we go to Walmart or Target….which is about twice a week. He will look at the car then turn the package so he can inspect the rear and the front end of the car. It’s the cutest thing! I’m not sure what he’s checking out, but it’s usually the dealbreaker.

Last night we got him a Delorean, which reminds me that we need to buy the Back to the Future Trilogy. I absolutely LOVE those movies and think Aidan would, too.

So that is where we are at.

Oh yeah, Aidan has been back at playing the X-box and he loves playing Halo, Flatout and Ty. It’s impressive how well he can maneuver around and use the controller and quickly at that! I know a lot of people may gasp at the idea of me letting my 3 year old child play video games – one like Halo, especially – but he loves it and he is learning hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. We also have a V-tech system that is for learning, but after using the X-box graphics, he is not impressed. He is not aggressive as a result. If he does start to show signs, then it will stop. His only problem is he gets frustrated at the difficulty of some parts, but that’s usually because he has put it on a hard level.

Anyhoo.

All is well with is. What’s going on with you?