"i will throw it at mom"

There comes a moment in every parent's life. A moment they've anticipated and feared. A moment they've read about, talked about, watched how-to videos about.

For us, that moment has arrived.

Toilet training.

Okay, I actually attempted this moment a few months ago. In January we did a "trained in a day" boot camp complete with practicing on a doll, candy rewards, and lots and lots of toilet talk. It was a total fail. We were all tired and frustrated by about 4pm and couldn't go on. After that, I tried the laid back approach of just asking Genghis with some frequency if he wanted to wear his underwear instead of a diaper that morning or afternoon. The response was always an adamant "no".

But the reasons to press forward with some expediency have been piling up. Genghis is ready. Life is only going to get more complicated for the foreseeable future. The thought of changing and washing diapers for three children is completely unimaginable.

So yesterday afternoon, I told Genghis he was too big for diapers. My "method" is to cut myself off from diapers as an option during awake times, remind Genghis of the utility of the toilet (prior experience has confirmed that he does know how to use the toilet), clean up messes like its just spilled milk, and celebrate milestones with high fives and positive feedback.

Genghis' counter-response has been interesting. When I rolled out the plan yesterday afternoon, he refused to wear underwear. He opted to sit in the bathroom for an hour, naked, instead. Here are some snippets of our conversations.

---
"Genghis*, do you want to pick which underwear to put on?"
"No! I want to put the underwear in the bathtub. No. I want to put it in the trash can."
---
"Are you ready to put on your underwear?"
"I will take it and throw it at Mom."
---
"We're going to get ice cream when Dad gets home."
"I want ice cream."
"You need to wear your underwear to go outside to get the ice cream."
"I don't want ice cream."
---
[Enter bathroom, Genghis is sitting in the sink, covered in layers of liquid soap with his underwear piled around him.]
"I am washing my hands and my legs."
"Yes, you are."
"And I am wearing all of my underwear."
---

He finally decided it would be okay to wear underwear if he could put it on when it was tucked inside of his shorts, so they went on together. Whatever.

Today, Genghis took a different tack. He was very excited to put underwear on in the morning. And he made it the whole day without any accidents, and also without ever using the toilet. (The nap time diaper was a sight to behold. Also, we went swimming in the afternoon.) Still, there was a solid 5 hours of morning playtime in there. I have always described Genghis as strong willed.

I don't know whether to consider this a success or not.  But mostly I wonder what he'll do tomorrow.

*Except I used his real name. I don't think he's aware he has an online sobriquet.

friday photos

A few outtakes from the past month.

Xena engaged in her favorite past time. So long, asparagus tip.

Enjoying the sandbox.

Genghis helps me make cookies. He is thinking about grabbing an entire ball of dough. I am in-the-ready.

Xena "I like to feel the wind in my hair" Gong.

Genghis giving Xena a ride on the train. His narration, as he carefully pushed her across the deck:

"Be careful. Watch out. We are going to crash in to the fence. Here we go. We are going to crash. Watch out!"

*crash*

no injuries

Genghis posing in the awesome sweater vest my mom knitted him for Christmas.

friday photos - sneak peak

First off, a sneak peak of our new apartment. This is our deck. I think it was advertised as 800 square feet. The sandbox is a bit lonely out there.

Now, some random photos of the kids. Since coming to a new place and figuring out new routines, Genghis and Xena have had a lot more playtime together. So here are some pictures of them around the house or around the park, which is where we mostly are these days.

Note: Genghis' underwear was a first feeble attempt at potty training. Not successful.

Genghis is wearing Xena's shirt. Xena, as usual, wears nothing. 

 What's she looking at?

Oh yes, him again.

friday photos

For Family Home Evening a few weeks ago (for those who aren't members of the LDS Church, Family Home Evening is an evening we set aside each week, usually Mondays, to have a brief gospel lesson and activity as a family), Abe told us the story of Captain Moroni, from the Book of Mormon. He is a captain of the people's army who tears his clothing into a banner proclaiming their commitment to their God, families, and freedom.

Abe introduced Genghis to the concept of flags, flagpoles and banners through some Google images. Then we turned one of Xena's burp clothes into a flag, writing our family values on it with permanent marker, and tied it to a broom as a banner.

Genghis was pretty excited about the whole concept.

friday photos

Genghis celebrated his second birthday this week. It's been sort of a rolling celebration. Gifts one night, cake the next, and ice cream tonight. Unfortunately, that order of events meant that he covered his new birthday clothes in ice cream. But who wants to give a kid ice cream in a cup?

Note the ice cream cone in the last photo in this series: I think that's the cone dripping at the bottom, not ice cream.

Also, after eating a gigantic cupcake just before bed yesterday, Genghis woke up several times in the night asking for milk. I swear he was being paid to run an ad campaign.

friday photos

 We've been loving some hot summer weather lately. Last weekend we went to a nearby lake and spray park.

It took a long time to convince Genghis to approach the fountains, or "wa wa falls" as he calls them.

 Xena enjoyed riding on Abe's back this time. She is definitely a hand sucker. Sometimes a few fingers, sometimes a thumb. I suppose it's nice to vary it up.

Look out Xena! He's coming! 

I believe Genghis is pretending to be an airplane here. Later in the day, Abe took him out in the water for the "deeper and deeper" game. They would inch out (although my the end Genghis was running) chanting "deeper and deeper" as the water went to Genghis' belly button, chest, shoulders and neck.

friday photos

 Xena has been underrepresented in photos lately, so I wanted to tell you a little about her through photos.

She may look relaxed here, but she always has her hands ready to defend herself against aggressive sibling attention. 

She loves having matching hair with her mom!

She wants to be a pirate when she grows up.

A happy pirate.

Oops. This is her brother. What is he doing interrupting this series? Well, that's sort of part of Xena's life, too.

 Xena spends many family outings wrapped up like a little rucksack on her Mom's back. It's quite comfortable for both, although a bit of a production to watch her get hooked up. Also Xena often spits up all over her Mom's back in the process.

friday photos

Every night we engage in lengthy negotiations about how many stuffed animals get to come into the crib. On this particular night, we lost big time.

the american vacation

This weekend, we took an overnight trip to Holland, Michigan. Holland is historically a Dutch town. They have all sorts of Dutch attractions and, the first weekend in May, a tulip festival. We felt like this short trip was a sort of "test drive" for longer family vacations in the future.

Overall, we did fairly well. In fact, we managed to nail quite a few elements of the quintessential family vacation:

- Stressed mother yelling at everybody while trying to pack up and get out the door
- Father frantically finishing a few last-minute work items before heading out
- Savored moments of quiet in the car
- Child being most excited about staying in a hotel
- Poor night's sleep for parents in crowded quarters
- "Make your own waffle" station at the continental breakfast
- Three trips to the car to bring out all the luggage needed for 1 night's stay
- A slate of outdoors activities and ... cold and rainy all day long
- Emergency trip to a local mall for forgotten supplies
- Watching demonstrations at a historic village (you know, cheese-making, candle-making, clog-making)
- Lunch that includes greasy fries
- Losing the security blanket at the historic village
- Spending more money than we budgeted
- Temper tantrum in the family restroom during a diaper change
- Desperate search for a delicious, unique, reasonably-priced and family-friendly place for dinner in an unknown city
- Child insisting on singing songs all the car ride home
- Zonked out children content to sleep in the morning after we get home, but must be woken up to make it on time for 9am church

Some other quintessential family vacation elements we (thankfully) missed out on:
- Overzealous parent insisting on stopping at every historic monument on the way
- Someone throwing up
- Leaving a child behind
- Endless family photos with multiple cameras
- Car trouble
- Getting lost

Now for a few of the photos we managed to snap.

Dutch dancers at the Nelis Dutch Village.

Can you find the white people in the audience?

At the Grand Rapids Children's Museum. Genghis tucked himself away in the play animal shelter.

Giant light bright!

Bubbles.

More bubbles.

Too many bubbles?

Xena preferred to see the city at a 90 degree head angle.

friday photos

If there's something Genghis was born good at, it was eating. The trend continues. Here he is savoring a graham cracker in the morning sun.

And "helping" me make granola.

Xena's a pretty good eater too, but I don't really want to take photos of that. Instead, here she is with our good friend Kristin and a giant bow in her hair (which Kristin made).

friday photos

They totally look like siblings. I love it!

Captured part of a smile. She is super smiley but haven't managed to get much documented.

Genghis giving Xena a kiss.

Genghis telling her to smile. I guess he's picked up on the fact that we poke and prod the corners of her mouth to get her to smile.

Happy Easter ... yah!

friday photos

I had a really hard time narrowing down photos for this week's posting. Last weekend we had Xena's baby blessing (see description from Genghis's blessing, here). Family came from as far as Hong Kong for the event. But family photos will have to wait until next week because little Xena is just so cute on her own.









The dress she's wearing is the same dress I wore when I was blessed, close to 30 years ago. My grandmother (who Xena is named after) made the dress, as well as the peach blanket.


Here she is the day before, in a beautiful purple dress my mom knitted for her. She is laying on another blanket that my grandmother made for her.


All the family (more shots to come next week).


Nuclear family.


And Genghis looking mischievously adorable.