Archive for the 'Toddler Times' Category

Mystery Odor, beware!

Chuck September 22nd, 2007

Hello everyone!

This has been a pretty interesting week. Work went well and things at home are still on the move. Rooms have been cleaned, furniture readied for the new baby coming, laundry piled high and ready to be put away. As usual I always look forward to Friday’s so we can spend family time together for the weekend.

On the way home from work, Rae filled me in with progress on the kids health insurance, and other tasks she had accomplished during the day. The kids are both coming down with a cold of some sorts, but they are still in decent spirits most of the time. As we walked into the front door, I immediately asked my wife… “Ummm Hunney, what is that smell?”

She went on to tell me that our oldest Brittany, for whatever reason, did not wipe her rear properly, and had a mess in her underwear. I went off a little bit on her, because she will be 8 this November, and honestly it is time for her to realize good hygiene is a part of a healthy living, and it is expected of everyone in our household.

Shortly after that discussion, my wife went to get herself and Brittany ready for a shower while I cooked dinner. Rae called out, “Hunney, you might want to come here… that smell is still not gone!” Let me tell you… she was RIGHT ON! I walked into the kids bedroom, and not to get graphic, but I was going to spit pea soup hanging out in there. The unknown stench was overwhelming, and honestly to me, it smelled like poop.

We searched high and low for whatever was making that room smell so bad. After about 10-15 minutes of looking around, and crawling under beds and so on, did I decide to give up. Rae and I told Brittany she had 10 minutes to find what was making the smell, or she would be on punishment for the weekend. (as we were still under the impression she had made a stink in her underwear again but was hiding it to stay out of trouble).

Rae and I went out into the living room to wait out Brittany’s trial, when a few minutes later, Vincent came walking into the living room with 2 sippie cups. Rae paused and was looking at him when he took a drink from one of them, and his face cringed up and he looked at her holding the sippie cup up high and cried MOMMA! At that very moment, we knew what the smell was.

Apparently, god knows how long ago this was… Vincent had taken a cup of milk to his bedroom and played a bit. He eventually forgot about his cup, and left it in the wagon in his room, which is filled with stuffed pets and people. We guess after a while, the milk went super sour, and began to leak from the cup. The poor defenseless stuffed animals sat there and soaked up the rotted milk, rotting them in the process.

Once it was all over, 2.5 large garbage bags of stuff pets and dolls went to the curb, and salvageable things were cleaned.

That is one thing you will learn when dealing with a few young kids in the house… you start to learn who you can believe and who you can’t. Usually we would not believe Brittany, because she does this sort of thing on a regular basis, and gets in trouble for it just as much. This time we jumped the gun (almost), but she was actually innocent … THIS TIME…

Moral of the story: Get to the bottom of what is causing that mysterious smell… first!
Then call out the jury! Have a great weekend!

A Growing Vocabulary

Rae September 2nd, 2007

It never ceases to amaze me how a baby transforms through speech into a child. Through a game of copy cat Vincent has been speaking more words and creating new sounds. When a child starts to form their own vocabulary it is usually only the parents or closest people that can understand it. Here is an example of Vincent’s growing vocabulary.

Boom Boom = Thunder
Yain = Rain
Ight = Light
Bogcu = Burger
Fie = Fries
Ba Ba = Pa Pa as in his grandfather Papa Red
MomMom = Mother
Mittning = Brittany
Ink = Drink
Gigky = Kitty
How = Meow (We named his favorite stuffed kitten “How” because we thought that he had named it that. Then we found out that it was meant for the sound not the name. )
Gahr = Car
Dop = Stop

There are many others, but those are the ones that come to mind. He also has many animal sounds that he adding to almost daily. He has mastered a few words like; eat, ear, eye, tea, go, dad, nine, yes, yep, and yea. I  can’t wait to hear what he will say next. Two word sentences are around the corner.

Nakey Potty Training

Rae August 21st, 2007

For Vincent’s second birthday we bought him a potty chair. He was showing signs that he was ready. He can say the word potty although it sounds more like Pah-ey. Chuck and I were so thrilled. Vincent was so happy with his potty chair and would come sit with us in the bathroom. Only Vincent would not pull down his pants and sit. I thought ok this is fine. He will start to copy that soon. One week.. Two weeks.. Three weeks later and the new potty chair sat empty. Vincent had lost his flair for it. I guess he figured it was just easier to stay in diapers.

So today I was sitting on the pot and he came in the bathroom. He said Pah-ey in his little boy voice. So following his que I took off his diaper so he could sit on his potty chair. Sure as Florida Sunshine he refused to sit. So I thought hmm lets try a new approach. Brave woman that I am, I refused to put a diaper back on him and pulled his shorts up instead. Brave woman that I am, I was cleaning up a poop mess within 10 mins. All I have to say is Thank goodness for vinyl floors. Vincent of course flipped out. I consider this a good sign. Most woman would throw a diaper back on their little toddlers and say forget this! I think we will give this a try for a week and come weekend if he has a few successes with the potty chair it will be time for big boy pants. Worst case scenario I clean up after him like I would a puppy and we get those cool feeling pull-ups at the end of the week. Wish me luck!