Potty training update

The first two days of potty training were good. The third...well, not so good. And now on the 5th day, I'm having to fight them to go when it's time to practice. They are not keeping their pull-ups dry anymore and they are back to pooping in the pull-up and then telling me they don't have poop in their pants when they really do. Seriously?! Who in their right mind likes sitting in poop for over an hour?! I'm just having a really difficult time and very frustrating moment. Savannah and Emily think it's hilarious to call me "butt" or "poop". In fact, everytime I ask them to do something or tell them we are going to do something, Savannah's response has been , "Okay, butt". I have told her I don't like to be called that and it doesn't sound nice. I have also told her if she keeps saying "butt" and calling me names that she will have to go stand in the bathroom until she can use nice words. I have told her "butt" and "poop" are potty words that are okay to say in the bathroom when they are using the potty chair or toilet, but we shouldn't call someone those words. I don't know how else to explain that it's just not good to call someone a butt or poop.

So, here I am, trying to get them to use the potty chair again and they start with the potty talk and name calling. I took away, TV, I took away music, and I even told them they would go in time out. Still, they continued to call me butt. Then when I told Savannah to stop ripping the toilet paper into tiny little pieces and throwing it on the floor, she looks at me and says, "no butto!". What a brat! Eariler today she spit in my face all because she didn't want me to get her toilet paper when she was sitting on the potty chair. I told no spitting on Mommy, and she looks at me and spits in my face again. Needless to say she got a spanking. ARGH!! I don't know what to do when some of these situations come up. I try to take the calm approach and it almost never works. My girls are just so stubborn that they don't seem to care if they lose fun things...and saddly the only option left is spanking. I hate that.

Another potty training attempt

So I've decided to give it another go. This time I have a sticker chart to help motivate my girls. They are almost 39 months old...so I'm hoping they will just keep on with using the potty chair or toilet and not go back to pull-ups. So far it's going well. Emily had her very first poop in the big toilet today. She was so happy, this is what she said to me, "Mom, I had lots of poo-poo in the toilet! I'm so proud of myself! Now I'm a big girl!"

It's a bit exhausting to try to potty train them both at the same time, but they are in phase where if one gets something, then the other thinks she deserves it too. So, by offering them chances to earn stickers everytime they use the potty chair or toilet, I'm hoping they will encourage each other and be proud they are becoming big girls.

Sweet Awakening

This morning, Savannah greeted Seth at the bedroom door before he went off to work and sweetly told him "goodbye Daddy" and he told her he loved her and she replied "me too Daddy" which is her way of saying I love you too.

Then she climbed into bed with me and laid down next to me, and said "I love you mommy, I like your hugs and kisses and snuggles. You're the best mommy in the whole world!". Then she gave me a hug and a kiss. What a great way to wake up! Such an awesome start to my day.

Anger Venting Session!

I am so angry with both of my girls right now. I could just scream--if only my voice would come back so I could do so! Seth and I have been dealing with this newer "testing" behavior with both girls and I think it's reached it's high point.

Today, I wanted to take the girls to Target to pick out a toy for the Toys for Tots box at our dentist's office. I thought it would be a neat way to teach them about giving. Well, we never made it inside the store. As we pull into the parking lot, Emily starts using potty words--freely, almost in a sing-song name calling kind of way. We have been having a problem with this kind of talk (i.e calling someone a bottom or butt, and now poop). Mainly Emily and Savannah both seem to use this language at the dinner table. They get this really aurnery laugh--almost cackling laugh (I'm not exaggerating) and then you know that bad behavior is about to follow (at least I get a warning signal, right?). So, in the van Emily is saying these words over and over and just laughing and laughing and of course Savannah joins in. I try to remind them that it's not okay to talk that way outside of the bathroom. They just laugh and say, "Okay, bottom!".

So, now I'm getting really mad. I give them a warning not to say those words for call people names or they won't get to watch TV tomorrow morning. What does that do? Emily ups the pace and is now saying these words over and over, fast, in many variations of poop, butt, and bottom. So I take away TV. Still Emily keeps on and so does Savannah, I take away Halloween candy, no change. I take away playing outside, still no change. So, I then tell them that I will not take them into the store with them talking with potty words. STILL NO CHANGE! For the next 10 minutes, Emily and Savannah keep saying butt, bottom, and poop over and over, directly disobeying me. I am seething with anger at this point. Finally Emily then says, "Okay I'm done saying those words now". Savannah keeps on and then Emily again begins saying the potty words. So, I start the van back up, pull out of the parking lot and basically I'm yelling at the girls at this point--telling them they are acting bad and I will not go to the store with them when they are disobeying mommy and using potty words. When we got home, I sent them to their rooms and told them I didn't want to be around them when they were talking with potty words. What does Emily do? She looks at me and says, "Butt!". She got a spanking and then I told her she couldn't come out of her room for awhile. They have been sitting up in their rooms for the past 10 minutes and I am still angry. Right now I really feel like I could just leave them up their for another 2 hours until Seth gets home...and then leave, by myself to go to the store and get our necessities and totally forget the toys for tots teaching moment.

I am so sick of everywhere we go, my girls totally disobeying me and acting crazy and using words that don't sound nice. Seriously I have almost chosen to become home bound during the day because they have been acting so badly. It's frustrating to say the least. I don't know what to do to correct it, I've tried all the giving options and choices. If you warn Emily she'll have to go in time-out for disobeying, she'll look you in the face, continue to disobey and then tell you "I'll just go put myself in time-out", and she says it with a smile. ARRGGHHH!!! What am I doing wrong?!?!?!?

They'll be in diapers until they are 20!

So, we just moved almost 3 weeks ago, and I haven't really hit the potty training thing very hard since early this summer. I've made the potty chairs available and even bought the small toilet seats to put on the big toilets. Sometimes they use them, some times they don't. Now, almost every time I tell my girls it's time for a diaper/pull-up change they throw a big fit and fight with me during the whole process. Even with a poopy diaper, they are content to sit in yucky poop mush for over an hour--often until their poor little skin is red and raw. What is the deal here? Why do they resist so much? I just don't understand. When I suggest using the potty chair I get a loud "No!", and then I offer the toilet...same response. I'm convinced that Emily and Savannah will be happily content to stay in diapers until they are 20 years old! The problem is that they are almost too big for the traditional sized pull-ups and diapers. Something has got to give.

Two 3yr olds and a paint store.

Do I really need to say anything more? Be forewarned--vent session about to begin! So, the 3's are really taking hold of my girls these days...either that or it's the fact our lives have been in total chaos with our quick sale of our home and rush to find another one. We move in to the new house in 5 days. Boxes and laundry are all over our current house--oh yeah along with every toy my girls own! I've packed tons of their toys and the fewer toys they have available to play with, the more they seem to spread them throughout the house. Behavior later has been challenging. Lots of direct defiance going on. It's different than a few months ago. It's almost like I can see them doing something wrong...while being warned to stop, and then taking a few seconds to think about it, and choosing to do it anyway. What's with that? Then, when they get in trouble they cry and act as if the world has ended. I keep telling them to do what I say and they still get fun things, choose to not to do what I say and get things taken away. It hasn't made much of a difference. I do simplify it and reword it and the result is always the same.

So, today I took the girls to a paint store to pick out paint colors for their rooms and bathroom. What did they do while I was speaking with a staff person? Run wildly all over the store! They took out over 40 paint color chips and scattered them all over the shelves and floor. When I told them to stop they would just look at me and then take another chip. I would then take away the chip and they'd get mad and sit on the floor. Then I would go back to talking with the staff person about paint colors--all while trying to juggle 3 pillow cases and a bath towel and shower curtain. The chaos resumes...I tried sitting them in chairs so I could finish up choosing my colors. No good. The girls then were standing in the chairs, crawling under the chairs and under the tables...and yes more running in the store. I was getting so embarrassed! My kids were totally disobeying me and I felt I had no control, nor any respect from them. I hate that feeling. When it was time to pay for the paint, Emily and Savannah were playing tag in the store. I pulled Savannah aside to stand next to me. She stayed, Emily on the other hand, just grinned and ran away from me.

I repeatedly apologized to the paint store staff and then tried to leave, hands full of paint can, and pillow cases, etc. and my girls decide to run out into the parking lot! AAAAAHHHH! Scary! I yelled at them to stop, Savannah stopped, Emily took it as a challenge, paused, and kept going. I got the van door open and almost tossed them both into their seats. Then the struggle began. They both tried to fight me on getting into their car seats. Emily even jumped out of the van! Argh! I was getting so mad by then. All during this process I took TV watching away, no listening to music, and put a stuffed toy in time-out. I was fuming at this point. I finally got the girls buckled in. I was practically shaking I was so frustrated. I cannot believe they were acting so badly!

I have no idea what to do. Nothing seems to make them listen and obey. Spanking even doesn't always work, unless it's a really hard spanking, but I don't like to do that because I'm usually spanking out of anger. What am I supposed to do? Stay home-bound during the day until Seth comes home? I'm sorry, I just don't feel like that's realistic. My kids have to learn how to behave in public. Suggestions?

The 40 minute tantrum

Well, the 3's are definitely eventful. After a good afternoon of the girls pleasantly playing together, snuggling and playing with mommy...the happy times came to an abrupt halt. Just before dinner, we experienced the usual pre-dinner defiance of getting hands washed. Once the girls were in their booster seats, I put a bib on Emily and rolled up her sleeves because we were having spaghetti tonight and I didn't want to get sauce on her shirt. I proceeded to do the same with Savannah and she got mad, rolled her sleeves down and started throwing a fit. I told her to roll them back up or she'd have to take her shirt off to eat because I didn't want spaghetti sauce stains on her shirt. This made her even more mad and she yelled "no" and started kicking at me. I told her fine, then took off her shirt. Then the ultimate tantrum began. Lots of kicking and screaming while in her seat. Seth then took her to her room and put her in time out. The screaming got even louder and more shrill. This went on at this level for about 30 minutes and then she couldn't scream anymore, but she was still throwing a fit for another 10 minutes. We are trying not to give the girls any attention when they throw fits like that...so I sat outside her door, just waiting for her to calm down before I could go in to talk to her. That was hard, she was crying and very upset, but I knew she would learn that screaming and crying will not get her attention if I ignored it.

Finally once she calmed down I went into her room and picked her up and sat her on my lap and hugged her and told her we loved her and then explained why she was put in time out. The rest of the evening went so smoothly after that. She was extra cooperative at bedtime--no resistance at all. We'll see what tomorrow night holds.