It’s beyond time to start potty training this boy. I’m done holding my breath for extended periods while I try and wipe up a poop explosion. So I’ve decided that this week will be a crash course in sitting on the potty for Honor. The problem is that his brace is so hard to get off. And if I put it on under his diaper/pull up, it just gets disgusting. So this week will be brace free. My hope is that I can get him to get good enough at sitting on the potty that he can start to wear his brace under a pull up or, dare I say, underware (I wish I could find little tiny boxers) and we can keep his brace clean.

And just now as I paused from writing to make him sit on the potty, I realize that I’m crazy. I should just succumb to the fact that he’s going to be wearing diapers in High School. Even though I’ve done this before, it seems like all my old tricks don’t work. If he sits on the potty and goes, he gets a piece of candy. He could care less. This boy could care less about bribery motivation. I guess that I should not be surprised that my children have very strong opinions about things, although I don’t know where they get it from?

Honor is feeling much better today, and the rest of us are feeling fine. I could tell last night that he was starting to feel better because the space between the times he was getting in trouble great decreased.

Honor came down with a fever around dinner time last night. He fell asleep on my shoulder a few minutes later and I transferred him to his bed. A couple of hours later he woke up, so I put a movie on for him and Eden in my room. Awhile later Eden came out to tell me that Honor was puking all over my bed. yum. He puked all night long, trying to get some sleep on the pallet I made for him on our bedroom floor.

Today he’s still got a little fever, but is keeping food down (so far!). He’s relaxing on the couch with his Batman pillow and Batman blanket wearing his Batman jammies. The puke bowl is close at hand. And I’m tired.

I just finished putting Honor’s brace on. He cried and cried the whole time, saying “I don’t want my brace.” It was sad. When we were all done I told him he was a big boy and he said, “I not big, I widdle.”

And onto more cheerful things…

I sewed this! With a lot of help from my mom, who designed the pattern.

And I finished this modified cabled purse. I’m looking for test knitters, so let me know if you’d like to knit this! Thanks, I’ve got lots of test knitters now!

with broach

with bow

I also finished a shawl for my grandma, but this was the best picture I could get of it. The photo really doesn’t do it justice. It’s Kidsilk Haze and a Japanese yarn.

Honor had to get his leg brace and his shoe insert yesterday. I bribed him with a new batman toy so he did pretty good when he was getting it fitted. (It’s actually sort of cool how it works. It’s all soft and held together with velcro. Different straps pull his leg into the right position.) With his brace and his shoe inserts his feet line up perfectly. Now we just have to get his muscles trained to do that on their own.

He got to take them off for his nap, but when we had to put them back on he totally freaked out. It made me so sad! Poor baby! I know he’ll get used to them, but I feel bad that he has to have them. It will be worth it though, he already can run without tripping.

On the bright side, Honor did get some cool new shoes out of the whole ordeal.

edit: I wrote about his needing the brace here and here.

And the winner is… A tie! Tish and Joelene. They both gave him three days. Email me with your address Tish (I already have Joelenes) and I’ll mail you out your prize! Here’s a hint, it will be something in the yarn department!

Honor decided that he need to smear foot cream all over my bedroom carpet and my bed. Then he went to the bathroom to wash his hands IN THE TOILET. Then, just for kicks, he dumped the whole roll of toilet paper in the toilet.

I think Joelene’s prize will be HONOR. If I ship him next day air, he should make it just fine…

Yesterday I caught Honor coming out of the kitchen with a handful of butter. Do you think he intended it as a snack or finger paint for the carpet?

That’s what Honor kept saying when I took this picture.

He’s been dragging all these little toys around. He usually stuffs a few in his pockets and I discover that he has all these little things when we’re out somewhere. It’s funny how I treasure whatever he does. These are my treasures too.

Don’t forget to sign up for the scarf swap spectacular, there’s only a few spaces left.

Over the last week Honor journeyed into the land of sleeping without the walls of his crib, again. And again, it didn’t work out. I’m just getting used to the fact that he’s going to be sleeping in his crib until he’s 10.

I think he was most tempted to get out of bed at nap time. One day he got up, climbed up onto the dresser and got the lotion, two kinds of diaper ointment and Eden’s princess lip balm. He then preceded to smear all of it all over himself, his sheets, and his friend that was napping in the port-a-crib. He also took every single wipe out of the wipe box. And that was just what happened one day.

We thought we could stick it out this time, but there is only so many times you can wipe diaper ointment off his slimey face or refold an entire box of wipes. So he’s back in his crib again. Maybe we’ll try again in a few months… maybe.

Last night, as I stepped over the hot pink stains from the princess toothpaste Honor had squeezed on the kids’ bedroom carpet to make sure he was covered up, I thought, “The reason they are so sweet when they are sleeping is to deter their parents from strangling them while they sleep.”