And with the good so comes the bad ..

I'll be the first to admit that the 'sleep over' night was totally cute and heart warming. I should have known that after such an episode, we would face more challenges.

Potty training at our house has not been an easy road. Prior to Mia's arrival, Sasha was in pull ups and could go number 1 consistently but wasn't successful on his number 2 visits. We felt like it was okay and we kept trying. When Mia arrived, potty training regressed as did many other things (he wanted to be fed, be carried .. basically be treated just like Mia). This is normal so we played along and he eventually lost interest in being treated like a one year old.

During Christmas, we started talking to Sasha about 'big boy underwear' and how awesome it would be when he decided that he'd like to use the potty again. A few days after Christmas, he was ready. We talked about the process and the reward for a successful number 2 - a malted milk ball (yes, our children are deprived. We don't give them access to sweets much . While Mia does well on sweets, Sasha unfortunately can get really crabby). On the first day, we left Gdaddy in charge (no, not because we wanted to flee from potty training but because we needed items from Sam's and there's no way I was going to Sam's during regular hours). When we returned, news of Sasha's great success on the first try permeated our house. This was great and so easy! Why had we waited so long?

Within a few days, Sasha began 'soiling' himself. At first I thought it was due to my not reminding him frequently enough so I switched to potty reminders every 30 minutes. He still had accidents and, if he was put in a time out, he would always soil himself. After a nightmare week and a long discussion with our social worker, we came to the conclusion that Sasha was using this as power over us. After all, children only have control over a couple of items - sleeping, eating and pottying. Ugh .. So we moved him back to diapers and I wrote a note to his teacher explaining the thought process behind the switch. He was able to hold it together at school but the social worker was adamant that he not be able to be a big boy at school and then insist on being in diapers at home. It is all or nothing. I told him that when he's ready to wear big boy underwear (and he has a very cool assortment of underwear, I admit to being a little jealous - batman, spiderman, ironman, dinosaurs - fun stuff!), we'll give it another try.

On Monday, when we were getting dressed, he asked for his big boy underwear. I was excited and he had a great day sans incident. Unfortunately, yesterday, thirty minutes from my verbal reminder and a trip to the potty, he had an accident.

I have to tell you that I've improved a lot in the whole gag reflex category. I used to almost throw up cleaning up dog vomit or urine. I would NEVER have thought me capable of cleaning, smelling and dealing with all kinds of completely icky substances without missing a beat. I mean you've never lived until someone throws up on you in a restaurant. Oh and then had to sit through eating your own meal (this is a really good weight loss technique. It is almost impossible to eat when you smell someone else's throw up on you). Nathan once suggested that we go shopping after the throw up lunch. Fortunately, the look I gave him helped him understand that we were going home immediately. Despite all the this great training, cleaning up soiled underwear ranks high on my list of least favorite icky things. Our social worker suggested that Sasha has to help clean everything up when he has an accident. While Nathan doesn't see the issue, having Sasha armed with poop in his hands doesn't sound like a great answer.

And, lest you think that we're just dealing with regular potty training issues, in the past five days, Sasha has put a hole in his wall, dumped vast quantities of water (where he's finding this water source is still a mystery), has dumped an entire, full roll of toilet paper in the potty causing a problem almost outside our skill set to resolve and during a potty outing he decided that it'd be a great idea to use the garbage can as a potty water scoop, dumped a half roll of toilet paper into it (possibly trying to clean it up?) and got most of the bathroom wet (YICK!). When I arrived on the crime scene (seriously, I answered the phone, he headed to the bathroom and three minutes later arrived back damp ... he's very fast), I quickly noticed that the sink was not wet thus knowing that the only other water source was the shower, which was dry and the toilet. A quick survey of the open toilet confirmed my suspicions (have I ever mentioned that having two toddlers sharpens your detective skills? I can replay an entire scene as if I'm there based on the splash patterns and the various objects in the crime scene vicinity. Once toddler motherhood passes, perhaps I can get a job on CSI: Chicago).

On a more positive note, I booked our tickets for Saturday's Disney on Ice show. Sasha is very excited. On Sunday, our super neighbor, Randy, is going to give Sasha his first ice skating lesson while his fabulous wife and I hopefully drink coffee and enjoy the show which is sure to occur when you teach a little boy how to ice skate.

Next week is Sasha's fourth birthday. Nathan is taking the day off and we're going to have a fun family day most likely at the local children's museum and some place with ice cream (Sasha's big request for the day). On Sunday, we'll have his birthday party at the ice skating rink including ice skating lessons for the kiddos. Should be fun.

February will be wild .. Valentine's Day (Sasha is already talking about the heart-shaped goodies we need to make), our Mardi Gras party and then we're off to Disney World. I made all our reservations this weekend including dinner at Cinderella's Castle, breakfast with the Playhouse Disney characters, lunch with Shamu (I'm totally psyched!), meeting other Lighthouse families (our adoption agency for Mia), celebrating Mia's second birthday, geocaching (like I could keep Nathan from geocaching in a place he hasn't cached before), staying at a three bedroom condo with my folks which has a heated swimming pool and getting a break from a very chilly, snowy Illinois winter. YIPPEE .. I can hardly wait!