Memorial Weekend

Memorial weekend was pegged on our calendar as a three day weekend that we'd tackle potty training so I didn't have terribly high expectations for a fun weekend.  However, two sick kids, two sick parents and the most stubborn potty trainer in history made for an even more interesting weekend than I'd anticipated.  We buckled down and quarantined ourselves and made the best of the situation.  

Next year I vow to partake in some of the community events celebrating the true meaning of the holiday.  This year, I dressed the boys in some cute American flag shirts and spent the best 99 cents ever on a box of red white and blue otter pops. 

RED

(free standing jump, this kid has hops!)

WHITE 

& BLUE

Graham and I are perfecting our selfie

In order to avoid complete cabin fever I did something I haven't done in months, maybe even years, I broke out the craft supplies and went at it.  I made Graham his first personalized name pendant and updated our family "Happy Birthday" pendant, which I will proudly display this summer for my big boys birthdays. 

I used to cringe on blogs and in conversations when folks went into stories about potty training their kids.  I used to think to myself, "this is not really appropriate conversation and aren't there other more important/interesting things going on?". I know, that was not nice but I am being honest here. Whelp, I am sorry because I was wrong and I get it now.  This is a big deal.  Grady's been "ready" for a while, but we just haven't been ready to fight him on it after having major power struggles on previous attempts. But a warm three day weekend presented the perfect opportunity to try to start to tackle this head on.  So through three awful days we had a battle of the wills in the Johnson house. There were no real "accidents"  there was just a refusal to go.  He literally would hold out for ten hours, which doesn't make potty training very easy and made me worry about his health! We made a little progress over the weekend and went into the week exhausted.  Luckily, our nanny was able to build on the progress we'd made and Grady did awesome. On day four, he just got it.  Two weeks and probably 50 mini Oreos and gummy sharks later, and I can say that Grady has tackled stage one of potty training.  After our awful weekend, he hasn't' had a single accident.  He is so proud of himself and so are we.  While I know there are likely going to be setbacks, it is just so amazing how he has risen to the occasion and really made us proud.