Monumental day

Gabriel around 7 or 8 months old.

Wow. Yesterday was quite a day. I spent the whole second half of the day fretting about the dog's poop and trying to get Gabriel to pee in the potty chair, which he did several times before Jav got home.

Molly has had what we'll just call tummy issues for about two weeks. At first we just assumed she had eaten something crazy that messed her up for awhile. But when we realized it still wasn't better I called the vet. He suggested taking her off food completely for 24 hours (which was awful). Then the next day she got 1/4 of what she usually eats, then 1/2, etc... I was really concerned that something serious was wrong with her since this has never gone on for so long before. But finally, yesterday afternoon, (and an hour after I had called the vet to see why she still hadn't gone), all was better and seemingly back to normal. So now we realize our original diagnosis was correct: She ate something crazy. She's such a hound. But I sure am glad she's back to being a healthy hound!

After trying to be pretty laissez-faire about potty training for the past two months or so, (Mr. Metcalf would be so proud of me for the proper use of that term!), we decided it was time to get a little more pushy about things. It's now becoming a hinderance. I was going to sign Gabriel up for his first soccer class at the Hurst Rec Center, but they only take potty trained kids. So Jav and I came up with a strategy of telling him, "you have 5 more days with diapers. Then they're going away." Plus we got him a really neat toy that he could play with for a short time every time he used the potty chair. He found a mobile crane at Target that he just fell in love with, and off we went. We weren't supposed to start until Saturday, but he woke from his nap wanting to try. He was successful (for the first time, ever) around 6pm last night. I tried to call Jav but couldn't get ahold of him. He called on the way home and congratulated him like crazy. After that we took him every 20 minutes or so to try.

Today has gone well, although we're continuing the bribes for now. Gabriel got bored with the crane at some point this morning and asked for a diaper. So we had to come up with a continual "prize" strategy. He's gotten a new puzzle, an Elmo potty book, and a whole bunch of matchbox trucks, buses, motorcycles, etc.. And he got a chocolate cupcake with pink frosting after dinner tonight. He goes in every 10 minutes to see if he can go enough to extract a prize from the prize cabinet. Tomorrow we'll try to back off of the bribes a bit and see what happens. I'm truly amazed at how well it's gone, although it has been exhausting. But he's made great strides and hopefully is building his confidence every time he goes. We'll see.

Now if Joel starts crawling tomorrow we will have ourselves one humdinger of a weekend. I'm just joking, really. We already have. I'm just bursting with happiness because my Molly girl is better, and of course for what Gabriel's done.