Pee school has overall been going really well. Friday and Saturday Grace got some chips every time she was successful, and it worked great as motivation.
So great, in fact, that not only was she able to hold it in between, she figured out the system, and started asking to pee immediately after finishing her chips from the previous trip! She would repeat this multiple times until the inevitable happened, and she could no longer squeeze any little drips out. Then she got upset, and dealt with the disappointment in two different ways: she asked for help (which we obviously couldn't give) or she decided to wait until she could go (we kept asking if she was done, and she said no).
We decided today to eliminate the chips to try to avoid the trips immediately after the last trip, and the ensuing frustration. We continued to give copious praise, but there would be no more material rewards. We also went on some trips out of the house.
Our first trips to church and breakfast went well, and she stayed dry.
While we were at the local mall for breakfast, we decided to take the kids to see Santa. This did not go as well as hoped...the line was long, so my parents had to help keep the kids happy while I held our place in line.
When at Santa, Grace completely refused to get anywhere near him. Not only by herself, but even sitting on my dad's lap near him wasn't okay. Long story short, we got a picture of Remington with Santa. Though, it was pretty cute, to show no hard feelings, Grace did wave and say, "Bye."
As much as the picture would have been cute, it is a good thing that Grace isn't willing to just go to any stranger and sit on their laps.
Pee school was a little rocky this afternoon, where there was one moment where she told us a little too late, but at least she told us.
We did decide to get our tree today too, and it closes at dark, so almost immediately after Blake arrived home with groceries, we took off, so we could get there on time.
We like this place to get our tree because it is one of the places where the tree is growing until you pick it and then it is cut down for you. We like supporting this place for green reasons as well as for the fact that our fresh cut trees last a lot longer than the ones we used to get from a lot.
But leaving so quickly caused some problems. Problem 1- Remmy hadn't been fed for a bit because he had been sleeping, a fact that he realized on the half hour drive there...and complained about for much of the drive. Problem 2- we didn't take off with all of our normal kid supplies.
We picked our tree fairly quickly (this consisted of us carrying the kids, looking for a tree the right size and price we were planning on, that hadn't already been purchased, and then when we found it, verifying with Grace that we should get it).
After paying for the tree, we drove to where you wait in line with your car for them to cut it and put it on for you. This is where things went from bad to worse. It started with our decision to nurse Remington while we waited. He definitely needed to eat, and we knew it was safe since we weren't going much of anywhere.
Then our newly potty trained daughter says she needs to go...but I'm nursing...and Blake has to drive the car the little bit forward every few minutes. So we (admittedly mistakenly) ask her to try to wait until I'm done or it is our turn to have the tree tied on.
As she gets more insistent, he has a major diaper blowout. At some point I make the call that he has to get a little less to eat for her sake. I put him back in the car, Blake gets her, and they try to make it to the port a potty on the lot. Not only had she already had a major accident (all our fault admittedly), she wasn't willing to use that bathroom.
While we get our tree, we try to get our kids back in shape. We scrounge through our car supplies, and manage a change of clothes for each of them, though it does mean Grace is back in a diaper, because we didn't have spare underwear for her with us.
Overall, I walk away from both of these holiday mini disasters with the knowledge that for now, Blake is totally right, these holiday things are for me, not them. In more ways than one, I made my kids frustrated and upset just to do these special Christmas things that they don't even care about yet! We will learn from our mistakes with supplies, feeding etc., and it will be more worth it when they care.
Alas, so far, Christmas fun with kids hasn't been much fun.
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