potty training sucks

I am so tired of potty training baby Doodle and we have barely made any progress. In fact, I think he's regressed a little bit if that's even possible given how little seems to understand about using the potty. These are the things he knows:

• I can tell Mommy that I have to go on the potty at nap and bed time to prolong my awake time with her, even when I don't have to go.

• I know I'm supposed to tell Mommy or Daddy that I have to go on the potty when something is going on in my diaper -- usually after it's already happened.

• Sitting on the potty for long periods of time is a good distraction from what I am supposed to be doing.
  

These are the things I know:

• Baby Doodle asks to sit on the potty after he's already pooped in his diaper.
  
  
• He doesn't seem to know when he has to pee or what that sensation feels like. He has never peed on the potty. Once in a while he'll say he has to pee, we'll go to the potty and he'll squeeze his penis until a drop of pee comes out and he'll squeal, "I peed in the potty! Aren't you proud of me, Mommy?" I always say yes and hug him and praise him for sitting on the potty at all, but I don't think that's working since he's not learning that he didn't actually pee.
  
  
• Baby Doodle almost never asks to sit on the potty unless it's time for him to sleep. Since I don't want to discourage potty use I always acquiesce but I'm getting really tired of spending 20 minutes in the bathroom when he's supposed to be sleeping and he doesn't pee or poop. It's obviously a stalling tactic, but I find it so difficult to tell him he can't go on the potty when he asks to go. I say, are you sure you have to poop? Does it feel like you have to poop? etc. . . Yes is the response I get, then --- nothing.
  
  
• I'm frustrated and tired of dealing with it and we've only just begun!!!!
  

Quotes from baby Doodle

"I don't like the delicious dinner you made."
While coaxing BD into the bathtub: "No, I do not want to be clean. I want to be dirty."

Baby Doodle no longer has a lump

At 5:10 this morning Mr. D's alarm woke us up. I showered, ate a granola bar standing in the kitchen, then woke baby Doodle when I carried him to the car -- he was in his pajamas and soggy diaper with one of his blankets wrapped around him.

We checked in at CHOP at 6:10am, waited a few minutes and were called to the pre-op room. Baby Doodle asked when we were leaving a number of times but never got cranky or whiny. His vitals were taken, I changed his diaper and put him in the hospital pajamas. The nurse gave me three syringes to give to baby Doodle -- one with Tylonol, one with a magical serum that made baby Doodle delirious and had amnesiac properties, and one with apple juice to wash down the bad-tasting serum. He sucked as much apple juice as he could from the tip of the last syringe -- he hadn't had anything to drink since his milk at 8:00 the night before. About ten minutes later baby Doodle started laughing and acting silly. By the time they wheeled him off to the OR he was downright drunk. Mr. D and I were laughing hysterically along with our giddy two-year old. He was quite funny. If this was a foreshadow of what he'll be like when he drinks when he's of the legal age of 21 I think he'll be a happy drunk, rather than an angry one. The nurse who wheeled him to the OR was pointing out things in the hallway that BD thought were hilarious. He didn't seem to mind that Mr. D and I weren't with him. Whoever invented that serum deserves to be thanked by kids and parents alike. I thought I would have a hard time watching him be wheeled away but we were all laughing so much that I didn't shed a tear.

We waited in the waiting room with my mother, who wasn't allowed in the pre-op room with us (two adults only). We waited for almost exactly 45 minutes (I knitted, Mr. D checked his fantasy sports teams on the computers they provide, and my mother watched the Today Show). Baby Doodle's surgeon found us and told us that everything went fine. The lump did not have many veins connecting it to the rest of his body as he suspected. It was a lymphangeoma, also as his doctor suspected. The lump was filled with fluid and was sent to a lab to make 100% sure that it was harmless.

Mr. Doodle and I went to the post-op room (same area as pre-op but different room). Baby Doodle's eyes were half open. The nurse said he came out of the anesthesia right away and asked for me. He had an IV taped to his hand and a blood pressure cuff on his leg. The nurse was amazed how quickly he wanted the IV out. I told her it was from his hospital stay in April. We sat with him for another 45 minutes and then his IV was removed and we got him dressed. I carried him to the parking lot where he threw up. He threw up again when we were home.

He watched about 6 hours of television today (Thomas DVD - twice, Thomas on TiVo, and PBS), ate dry cereal, graham crackers, animal crackers and toast mid day, then pizza and cookies for dinner. He's extremely tired and ready for bed now. As soon as I finish typing this I'm going to put him to bed.

Our day is finally over.

Cuts to the City of Philly's budget

Mayor Nutter announced yesterday, or the day before I can't keep my news days straight, that he was making significant cuts to the City's budget. He's taking a 10% pay cut himself, not paying the police force over time, closing the majority of the City's pools, a few libraries and a few fire ladders and engines. I am getting a lot of emails from my mom friends, some of whom I know, some I don't, saying to call the Mayor's office and insist that they don't close our fire engine and protest the closing of our neighborhood pools. I will not be making any such call.

First of all, I hope that some of the same people who are complaining didn't also file official reports saying that their way-too-low property taxes should not be raised for the first time in more than ten years. I hope some of these same people didn't cheat the city of the taxes its owed by reporting to the city that they bought their house for $1 when they really paid hundreds of thousands of dollars so as to not have to pay the real estate transfer tax. If you're not willing to pay the city what it is rightfully owed then don't complain when our services are cut.

Second, times are tough. The City doesn't have as much revenue as it had in the past. The responsible thing to do as the leader of our city is to balance the budget and make significant changes that will keep the absolute necessities operational -- a police force, fire fighters, trash removal etc... Not a single police officer of fire fighter is being laid off and all of the City's recreational departments will remain open.

Having said all of this, I do agree with one woman who wrote to my mom's group about all of the City owned cars that its employees drive around -- gas paid for and all. That should definitely be eliminated and would save the City tons, I'm sure.

the morning after . . .

It was pretty clear by last week that Obama was going to be victorious on election day but I'm thrilled and relieved that he won by so much. It was not a close race in the end. Winning Virginia and Indiana were huge victories and a too-close-to-call margin in North Carolina and Georgia are victories for the Democratic Party in general and Obama specifically. The previous two elections were depressing, especially 2004, and made me disappointed in my fellow Americans. But the tide has turned and I am proud of the American electorate for electing an African American, for yearning for a change from the last eight years, for realizing that their own selfish stakes in a candidate is not what is necessarily best for the country as a whole (Obama won white voters who make more than $200,000 even though they knew their taxes would be raised.). What a fantastic day to be an American.

For a more local and much more personal race that ended yesterday I am sad. My mother lost her bid for re-election to the Vermont House of Representatives. She lost to a member of the school board who served in the National Guard. She lost by about 200 votes. I'm sorry I'm not there with her to cheer her up, but she should know a few things. She should be proud of her good service to the people of my hometown. She should be proud of herself for taking the risk and running in the first place. It is not easy to put yourself out there, meet every one of your constituents, like she did, and allow near strangers to judge you, and then accept the results with grace when you lose. Mom, I'm proud of you. You are a better person for what you've done.

Halloween

After a herculean effort to get to the Phillies victory parade and a pretty easy trip home, baby Doodle napped and then we got him in his costume and we hit the neighborhood streets for some candy. Two different people driving by literally stopped their cars in the middle of the intersection to yell out, "that's the best costume I've ever seen!" and "That's the greatest costume." Other trick-or-treaters and people hanging out outside told him how awesome he looked. He got a ton of attention, despite the positive reinforcement he didn't want to wear his costume the next day or even at the end of trick-or-treating. Here are a few pictures.

This is actually from Boo at the Zoo the weekend before Halloween.