That bouncy place

I've mentioned that we've been trying to potty train Isaac, and the first couple of days were pretty rough. In fact, he just kept pottying his underpants and didn't seem to notice or care. One morning I was checking out the website for Bounce U--an indoor bouncy house place. The kids came running over asking when we could go. I tried to put them off, but Isaac just wouldn't forget about it. Every few minutes he would ask if it was time to go to the bouncy place. Finally, I told him we couldn't go until he stopped pottying in his pants. He said, "Okay!" and he ran into the bathroom and went in the toilet. From that moment on for the next few days, he didn't have any more accidents.

Seriously, it was like a button just switched in his head and he only went in the toilet. (Okay, he's had some setbacks since then, but it really was amazing!) So this past Monday, we took the kids to "that bouncy place" for family home evening.

It really was a blast!

Isaac got really brave.

Isaac loved playing basketball with Daddy.

We loved all the fun slides.

I thought it was a great family activity for less than twenty bucks.

We even took Finley in one of the bounce houses, which I didn't get any pictures of.

I love the pure joy on their faces!

After a fun-filled two hours, we headed over to Neilson's frozen custard where we enjoyed some "concrete's."

And some onion rings.

Yum!

They are already asking when we can go back. We're trying to use it to remotivate Isaac in the potty training...we'll see!

Have I mentioned poop lately?

I've mentioned before how a mother's life revolves around poop--here's some further evidence. (If reading about poop isn't high on your priority list right now, you may just want to skip this post!)

Early Sunday evening, I was feeding Finley when I noticed the other two kids were playing upstairs and had closed the door. I assumed they were in their room, but asked Keith if he would go check on them. He seemed not to hear me, and I didn't want to nag, so I dropped it. Wrong decision.
After a while, Sareny came down and told me that she had gone poop. Sniffing the air, I asked her if she had forgotten to wipe, and she said "Well, Isaac was booming it." This got Keith's attention rather quickly and he ran up the stairs where he made a rather gruesome discovery. Apparently, my children thought it would be enjoyable to play with poop. We found it smeared over every possible bathroom surface, including mirror, counter, toilet, tub, floor, walls, and door. I spent a good 45 minutes disinfecting and scrubbing. I decided this needed to be recorded here for posterity. Years from now, when Sareny can't believe she actually did this, here will be the evidence. Let the record show that she is nearly 5.

On another potty note, Isaac is now in underpants. Don't mistake this to mean that he is potty trained, but we are making progress in that direction. Because of his numerous accidents, we are rather limited on our outings, but I decided to take the kids to the park today anyway.
While there, he said he needed to potty, so I just removed his pants and took him in the bushes. He tried for a second with no luck, then turned around. Realizing what he was about to do, I quickly said, "No, Isaac, if you need to go poo-poo we'll have to..." But by the time I had gotten that much out, he had already pooped. Right there. On the ground. In the park. I told him to wait there while I got the wipey's out of the van. I heard him yell to Sareny and two other kids who were there with us, "Guys! Come see what I do!" The kids ran over to see. So much for discreetness.
Hope this post didn't gross you out too bad. And yes, I did pick up his poop and throw it in the garbage.

I can't be the only one going through this...

It seems like everytime I turn around Isaac is taking off his diaper today. He woke me up this morning by calling from his bed "Mom! Potty!" When I went in he had taken off his pants and diaper and the front of his onesie was wet. (Which he had unsnapped.) Later he did take off his diaper, sit on his potty, and go potty in it all by himself, which was a major accomplishment. But since then he took off his pants and pooped on the floor, then took them off again and pottied on the floor. What is a mom to do?