Yesterday, Eden left with my mom and sister to go to Wyoming to visit my grandma. Eden was VERY excited at the prospect of going on a trip with Grammy and having “four sleepovers.” She is still enjoying herself so much that she hardly wants to talk to me on the phone. She did, however, make sure to check and see how Honor is doing. She talked to him on the phone way more that she talked to me. I guess this is really the first time that they’ve been apart.

With Eden being gone, it’s amazing how low the level of Yap is around our house. Honor is such a quiet kid when his sister isn’t around. He’s been doing well, really behaving himself (I guess the two egg each other on) and he’s been my big helper. Good thing too, because things are getting down to the wire. But I’m feeling pretty confident that everything is going to come together.

Monday, after two weeks of hearing every day “when is swimming lessons?” we started swimming lessons. Eden was more apprehensive than I expected her to be, but I think it’s mostly because her teacher is a boy. (dern boys!) Luckily her best friend is in the class with her so I can actually coax her into the water. Once she’s in, she’s totally fine, it’s just that initial moment of shyness that overcomes her.

Honor on the other hand is… Honor. I’m doing the mommy and me class with him so he’s not scared at all, just a wiggly, slippery ball of energy. Honors favorite part of swimming lessons is when we’re done and get to go play on the Splash Pad. Our pool just installed a series of fun fountains at the pool and so far it’s a HUGE hit. I’m still a little concerned about the combination of water and concrete, we’ve come home with some scrapes, but it is pretty cool nonetheless.

(Photos courtesy of my good friend Melissa.)

Yesterday Honor pooped in the potty all by himself. Today he did too.

It almost makes up for Monday when he smeared poop all over himself.

Almost.

I think I’ve mentioned before that Jim is an amazing guitar player. Like truly, truly mindblowing. So good that I don’t even know how good he is. Not long after I met Jim, he formed a band with his roomates. The band was called SMA – Shadrack Meshack and Abednego. The were together for several years – they recorded an album, recorded a couple songs for a widespread sampler album and traveled all over the place playing any gig they could get their hands on.

The band broke up when we all started getting married. And then they got back together a few years later just as we were all starting to have babies. The music was bigger and better, it reflected, I think, the maturity that the three guys had gained in the past years. And it was a fun ride while it lasted. Being in a band doesn’t really lend itself to family life, and I think that’s eventually why it didn’t last.

Yesterday, Jim spent the day collecting everything they had ever recorded, he’s getting together a little website with all the music on it. Click Here to listen to the first song they ever wrote together. This song evolved and changed as the guys did. It’s my personal favorite. Jim is singing and, of course, playing the guitar.

Jim started guitar lessons when he was 4 years old and he decided that it was time to start Eden’s lessons too. Honor got a little ukulele so he wouldn’t feel left out. They learned yesterday how to hold the guitar and Eden told me all about how you should pick the ukulele and strum the guitar. But I think the thing she’s most excited about is her hot pink barbie pick.

Here are my little musicians in action:

Mid strum, singing Old McDonald.

Several days ago, Honor asked me, “When I get big, can I say the “b” word?” So I told him, “Yes, Honor, when you’re big like me, you can say the “b” word.”

I’ve been trying to get him to go poop in the potty. He does fairly well with going pee in the potty, but no poop. After the carpet incident, I decided that I’d better step up the motivation. I went and bought him some super soakers at Target. The super soakers sat in the bathroom for DAYS and DAYS until last night. We were watching a movie and even though he hadn’t had an accident all day, he still hadn’t pooped.

I brought out his little potty and I had him sit on it to watch the movie. About 20 minutes later, he looked at me and excitedly whispered, “I’m going poo poo.” After the excitement died down from opening the squirt guns and I praised and praised him for being a big boy, Honor turned to me and asked, “Can I say the “b” word now?”

Today is Stash Re-organization day, so I’ll leave you with a few photos.

By the way, still no response from Starbucks. response came, I’ll write about it Monday.

Friday Jim took the day off and we had a nice leisurely day of shopping at Target and drinking coffee. We came home and put the kids down for a nap and I walked over to get a pattern from the yarn store while Jim took a little nap of his own. Little did we know that when we thought Honor was sleeping, he was instead finger painting with the contents of his diaper. All over the carpet. Again. I guess he got bored with it, because he decided to go ahead and take his nap, commando.

And that’s how I found him. Sleeping peacefully with poop smeared EVERYWHERE. I just turned right around and walked away… for his own safety. So I decided that I didn’t want to scrub any more poop off the carpet. I think that this is the fourth? time he did this? And I decided that I was done. So I convinced Jim that we needed to rip out the carpet. RIGHT THAT MINUTE. And that’s what we did. I had peeled up a tiny bit of the carpet around the heating duct and saw what I thought was a pretty decently finished hardwood floor. But, yeah, not so much. What I actually found was this:

(Sorry, no photos of the room with carpet, I’m trying real hard to keep from posting pictures of feces on the internet.)

By this point, Jim was quite unhappy. So I dug through the paint closet and found some leftover paint from the kids walls. He helped me get all the carpet tack up and I got the floor all cleaned up and the first coat of paint on it. We ran to Home Depot to wait in line for 45 minutes for more paint and then got more coffee and came back home to finish the floor.

It was seriously the easiest project I’ve ever done. (Thankfully.) And it’s left me with a renewed desire for home improvement. I’ve got plans for all the walls in my house now. I’m just afraid any other project will tarnish the memory of this perfect project. If only Honor would poop on the floor more often. Yeah. Not really.

Tuesday I decided that I could no longer take Honors hair looking about as long as Edens. We have to keep that distinction between the two, because I was starting to get asked a lot, “Are they twins? Both boys?” Yeah. So I bribed him with a popsicle and got him to let me buzz his hair. Sort of.

Really it went more like this: 20 minutes trying to talk him into getting his hair buzzed, followed by setting him on my lap and just going for it. Surprisingly he wasn’t too freaked out about it and let me get about half-way done. That was until he wiggled and the clipper attachment jabbed him in the head a little. It was nothing major at all, but then he decided that I had lied to him and getting his hair buzzed did, in fact, hurt.

By that point we were at the point of no return. There was no way I could let him go out in public with his hair half buzzed, so we had to push on. Eden went and got the popsicle out of the freezer for Honor to see while I tortured him. It’s always good to see what you’re suffering for.

The popsicle held him off for awhile, but it didn’t last long and I just had to hold him down and finish. He was screaming and wiggling and hair was getting everywhere. Eden was even covered with hair. But it was done. And we ate our popsicles in the bathtub.

Lately Honor has taken to tagging the word “Butt” onto the end of every sentence. Like, “I love you mommy, Butt!” “I don’t want to sit on the potty, Butt!” At first I figured, at least he’s not saying “ass” or something worse, but it’s gotten a little excessive and over the weekend Jim banned the use of the “B” word.

See the problem is, these children, they learned the word from their parents. And it seems their parents use the “B” word a lot. So now through the house you’ll hear, “Buh…ottom” or “Buh..ooty” or “Buh…hiney.” Telling your husband to “stop being a bottom” isn’t really all that effective.

We also reside with the “B” word patrol.

“Mom, Honor said the “B” word!”
“Honor, did you say the “B” word?”
“Yes, mommy tootie, Butt!”
“Mom, Honor said the “B” word again.”
“I know. Honor, don’t say the “B” word.”
“Ok, mommy, Butt!”

So yesterday was the big boy underwear wearing day. Suffice to say that we went through all 6 pairs, I washed them and then we went through some of them again. The culmination of the underwear wearing came at dinner time. I was in the kitchen cooking dinner and talking to my sister on the phone, I thought the kids were playing in their room. Suddenly, Eden came in and told me, “MOM, there’s poop everywhere!”

It WAS everywhere. The floor, the walls, his hair, all over him, some toys, some clothes and somehow there were BBQ tongs involved. Don’t ask. And yes, Honor is still alive.

All I have to say is that even though he JUST sat on the potty, he had a little accident and tried to clean it up himself. But I am resolute, if he can try to change his own diaper, he can be potty trained. Today the underwear wearing continues and this kid will be potty trained.

(How many days will it take for me to eat my words?)