why my daughter just may go to school in diapers....

When I started this blog, my hope was to journal our ordinary, every day, life. The good and the bad. In that spirit, I thought I would sit down and write about my morning yesterday. Nothing fascinating, just typical stuff in the land of 5 little people and a dog.

Oddly, Mondays are typically my favorite weekday. Weekends are usually spent with much quality family time....aka, Tim is home to give me a break from the kids, and minimal housework. If we have a project going, it is usually via the home improvement route... not laundry :)
So, needless to say, I usually tackle Mondays with huge ambition and a refreshed positive attitude.

Well, this past weekend was a blur of busy, and little break. Monday morning appeared all too quickly, when the alarm went off at 4am for Tim. Fifteen minutes later, Ellery was awake in her crib screaming. One whiff of her room told me it wasn't going to be a quick shove the pacifier back in type of situation. After a not so thorough clean up, I hopped back in bed hoping to catch a few more zzz's before getting the kids up for school. Well, that was a pipe dream, because I finally got Elle settled back down just in time to get them up.

Our morning routine went on as it typically does. One kid crying over her cereal, one kid mad because the other one is looking at him, and one kid telling nonsense stories so loudly, that I have to repeat "If you wake that baby, you're taking her to school with you" no less than 15 times.

Did I mention we have a new, full of energy, not so housebroken, track sprinter wanna be, puppy? We do. She seems to mellow out as the day goes on, but in the morning she is clearly full of spunk, doo doo, and quite frankly...nobody likes her. Sydney tells me through tears almost every morning that we should return her.

The kids get ready, and after many reminders, shhshing, and shoe tying, we walk out the door at 7:04. We see the bus headlight come over the hill, and we say our goodbyes. The dog and I spend some quality time together in the lawn, in an effort to get all of her doggy business out. I can already hear Ellery crying from the driveway. Dashed are my hopes of getting a few moments alone with my cup of coffee.

We head in, and I give Ellery her bottle. After cleaning up dog pee, Stella is up as well.

Did I mention that this is the magical day that I am going to attempt getting the potty training process rolling with Stella? Yes, it is. Since we are clearly "back to school" now, there is no more procrastinating. So, after breakfast we begin the fun.

Stella gleefully sits on the toilet, reads her books, and repeats "momma, i go pee pee" no less than 33 times. Unfortunately, she can't produce anything, so she continues to sit and read, and fabricate her own farting noises.

Have I mentioned that when you set Ellery down, she screams, and will continue to do so until you pick her back up? She does. It's her other trademark move. Actually, she's so smart that she can sense when you are going to attempt to set her down. She stiffens her legs so much, your only option is to lay her flat on her back and let her flail.

She was in this screaming, flailing state while I was helping Stella. When I went back to the living room to pick her up, I noticed the foul odor. And for once, it wasn't coming from Ellery :)

So, I tackled the dog and put her in the garage, lay Ellery back down to scream yet again, and went about cleaning up the doggy doo mess. After it was clean, I scooped up Ellery and we headed to the bathroom to check on our happy 2 year old. She shuttered and twitched a few times as she calmed back down. She had been crying so hard she was choking on her own boogery mess.

Well, Stella clearly had too much time on her hands. An entire roll of toilet paper was unrolled, half in, half hanging out of the toilet and strewn on the floor. With a big grin, she proudly proclaims "I pee pee!" Because all you can see is the white goodness, I have no idea if she actually went. I assume she didn't, but excitedly we put her new Cinderella underwear on, and she is ridiculously proud.

We head back to the living room, and I inform her she is not to go anywhere near my new couch while she watches a little PBS kids. I head to the kitchen with Elle to get some coffee, and notice that the dog is hanging on the screen like a cat, in an effort to get back in. Grr.

As I'm letting her back inside, I hear Stella screaming "Mom! I pee pee! Mom! I pee pee!" over and over again. Not something you want to hear from your daughter who is in the kitchen. Sure enough, she's peeing all over the kitchen floor, screaming as she's watching it run down her legs. We now have a small pond in our kitchen...clearly she didn't go earlier. The big faker.

Well all that screaming is enough to excite the already crazy dog. She happily bounds over to Stella, sniffs it out, and then runs through the pond of pee. She continues to run laps around my kitchen, because now I'm chasing her... leaving pee paw prints everywhere she goes. She got a few extra laps in, because I had to lay Ellery back down to scream before I was able to do a full tackle.

At this point, I am just plain foul, and many explative words are leaving my mouth. I can't decide who i'm more upset with, the dog or Stella. In my foul state, I put them both out in the garage LOL. As I'm sitting on the kitchen floor cleaning up the mess through my tears, both girls are screaming, the dog is yet again hanging from the screen...and it feels more like 5pm on a Thursday.

Our day did improve....but we're procrastinating potty training for another week :) I can honestly say I am never bored:)