Pet Sitting

I feel like I have been such a slacker, which I know I have been, and it is because I am extremely behind on getting my pictures and thoughts up on this blog. Have you ever seen people's blogs in a book and think, YES! that is totally what I want for my blog. Well, I want it too but the bad thing is, it takes time and a lot of effort to document all the good things in life. And more so, when you want to get all the little details in. One day when I get this book into a blog, all my random thought will be so worth it. But for now, I tend to feel like it is a chore. One more thing to add to my to do list. Bare with me, while I post, things that seem very insignificant but for me will be important later. Every night, when Matthew and I lay the kids to bed, Matthew has a new story for Eva. She wanted me to tell her stories about me, and I hate to say it but I can't remember! I am not even that old, but I just don't have a good memory. So now, when I think about this blog, I think about how important it is for me to write this stuff down, especially the little things. I don't' want to forget anything anymore. These are the things that make life interesting and what the kids will want me to remember for them when they are older.

With all that said, this is a rewind blog post. Rewind because it happened back in July but still something that happened in the kids lives that was exciting for them. We dog sat for some good friends of ours. The kids were SUPER excited to have something different in the house that wasn't River. And I actually got kind of attached to the dog. Daisy was super nice and I felt bad for her most of the time because River did nothing but herd her. River wasn't very nice. There was one night where Daisy wouldn't even fetch her toy anymore because River intimidated her. I know, my dog has issues. However, on the other hand, I couldn't blame River either because Daisy got a lot more attention. They kids snuggled with her and she in meantime snuggled and cuddled on with everything that River felt was hers, like Eva's blanket, bed and my bed too. She was only here for two days, but the kids feel in love. In fact, when she got picked up it was in the middle of Elijah's nap. He didn't notice she was gone until the next morning when he was asking for "Deesy." It took me awhile to know what he wanted, but eventually it was clear to me that he was asking for Daisy. If you know Eli, you know he doesn't speak much yet, so for him to make the effort and say Daisy's name meant he really liked her.

With the start of Eva's second week in school, she has been doing great. On Wednesday she was able to bring Mickey Mouse home from school because she had behaved so well, and then over the weekend she was able to keep the class pet turtle as well. I wasn't too thrilled about the turtle but didn't mind because I thought it was tiny enough that she wouldn't be an issue. Well, boy was I wrong. When bringing her home from school the thing was trying to escape and I started to get worried she might be able to bust free. So on Friday night, I had a girls night and Matthew texted me while I was gone wondering if i knew where the turtle was. He thought that Eva had taken the turtle to bed with her, seriously Matthew??, so he went into her room moving the sheets looking for the turtle. He even woke Eva up asking her where the turtle was. Well, apparently, the thing managed to break out of her cage (which really isn't a cage, it is more like this open bowel) and was in the corner of the kitchen. Mind you, she had a huge fall! Luckily the thing didn't die on us but I seriously cannot wait to take the turtle back to school.  Because of this turtle incident, I am not sure if I need to tell Eva to start misbehaving in school so we don't have to pet sit, or if I should be more cautious when it comes to bringing creatures home. The other funny thing about the turtle, is my brave Eli who loves dogs and cats and is fearless of most living things, was scared of the turtle. He eventually warmed up to the thing, but lets just say I am thankful tomorrow is Monday so that Alejandra (the turtle's name) can go back to school.

Clearly, not that excited to take a picture with the turtle

Just because I wanted to share...

Elijah still wears diapers

Oh, I wanted it so bad. I wanted to teach Elijah to poop and pee in the potty but it didn't happen. I thought that because Eva was so easy, Elijah would be the same. I started on a Monday. I was determined and ready with the m&m's, a small potty, and underwear. The only thing I was missing was a willing participant. We spent the entire first day avoiding the potty at all cost. Originally I bought the m&m's to give to him when he peed in the potty but that quickly changed to him getting them if he sat on the potty. The truth is that by the end of the day I was thinking that we didn't learn much about the potty. Day two seemed to be better. I felt that if I could just get him to go in the potty once than he would be excited enough to keep going in it. So for almost two hours we sat in front of the tv on the potty with lots of fluids. I gave him juice, water, even soda and he held on for a long time, but eventually I got him to to pee in it and he was so excited. He kept wanting to pee in it more and more. I was super excited. Once I thought he was done, I let him play outside with a new pair of undies but it wasn't even a few minutes that he peed in them. I changed him and then a couple minutes later he tinkled in them again. I wasn't too annoyed but I realized that he had more self control if he wasn't wearing any undies. Then for the rest of the day, I was stuck watching Elijah naked and catching him pee all over the house. Once I would see him tinkle on whatever, I would run him to the bathroom but, of course by then he wouldn't go. It was exhausting watching him 24/7 but I really wasn't upset at the process. I know it was a boring two days for Eva but we managed. Then, Matthew came home to no dinner and the house in disarray for two days straight and I was questioned whether or not Elijah was really ready. At this point, I questioned it too. He wasn't figuring out when he needed to go and I had to watch him all the time. After a long talk, we decided to call it quits with Eli. I was super disappointed that I couldn't do it at this time, and I am wondering still, if I kept going how much longer it would have taken him, but I think it was the right thing to do. I am still determined to get it done soon, but what I really need him to do is learn to tell me he needs to go and that requires him speaking. I am hoping that he will speak more soon. He seems to be more verbal than a couple months ago, but I know he is nowhere close to where he needs to be. For now all I can do is enjoy the cute pictures of him in his undies and now realize that I now have to end this post to change...you guessed it, a poopy diaper. I can't wait until this is over.