oh, yeah. in case you were wondering.

It took me so much by surprise that I forgot to take a picture on the official "day of," but W is now POTTY TRAINED.

Here he is sporting his Big Boy Underpants:

Who's got the power, the power to pee?

Seriously, one day about 2ish weeks back as we were getting ready for bed, Stinky announced that he needed to "pee on a potty." I didn't take him very seriously, as he had been requesting to do this with no luck for a long, long, LONG time. I almost told him, "no," but I decided to indulge him that night. I wasn't even paying attention. Probably, I was working on getting one of the other 2 into pajamas.

All of a sudden, I heard a little tinkle and a proud voice exclaiming "Mommy, I PEED!" He was hit or miss for a day or two, then I switched him to cloth training pants and put together a potty chart just for him -- no twin to share it with this time.

Well, the potty chart is still pretty empty, since he prefers to wear his stickers on his face, but he is dry almost all the time.

Going #2 was a different story. He'd wait for a naptime or bedtime diaper & fill it almost immediately. I told him he could wear Big Boy Underpants as soon as he started to put his poop in the potty. Daddy even promised 5 stickers and 5 m&m's (as opposed to the usual 2 of each).

No luck.

Until suddenly, 3 days before his 3rd birthday, Grandad was headed upstairs to get some training pants for the little guy & told him to wait on the potty for him and W decided that was the perfect time to prove to us all that he could, in fact, poop on the potty.

After all of that, he's even better at holding it and getting there on time than his brother.

Stinker.

fuzzy teeth

I'm sitting here, thinking I should post about something fun (like maybe a month-overdue post about the Little Man's birthday), but the thought that keeps taking over my mind is that my teeth are fuzzy. I'm trying to remember when the last time I brushed them was.

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful. Or because I have broccoli between my incisors.

Seriously, I don't know when I last groomed myself. I should probably go take care of that now, but I've waited this long -- what's another few minutes while I justify my filth?

On Sunday Shorty was cranky and fell asleep during church. The cranky part is not that unusual -- he is having a few months of hating the nursery -- but the falling asleep part was odd. We had some good friends for dinner (I could also be blogging about the close-enough-to-vegan-to-satisfy feast I cooked up in courses, but no). Then, as they were getting ready to head home, the little one started crying. He had a fever. Later he vomited (in my hair). He didn't sleep more than 30 minutes at a time all night long.

Monday morning he stuffed his face with Kix and then lost them (into my hair), but his fever was down and he didn't puke again all day. Around midnight, his fever shot way back up (way) and he puked 3 more times (in my hair). After spending some time on the phone with the nurse line, I headed to the ER with him. It was 3 a.m.

4 a.m. I was back home with him with the diagnosis of "just a virus" and the solution of "wait it out."

Tuesday at lunch W decided that he would rather go lie down than eat his mac and cheese. This is unheard of from the one who can't stop running long enough to think about a nap (the party is always in his bed) and just passes out while playing. Uh-oh. He woke up crying and writhing and burning up. He lay on the sofa in the afternoon until he puked (thank goodness, not in my hair).

Last night, 2 out of 3 were a bit cranky and fitful. Every few hours the crying had to be stopped. Today, we are without fevers, without vomit, but still pretty high maintenance with lots of tears and whining.

And that, my friends, is why my teeth are fuzzy.

glitches

Some folks like to complain about living as a lefty in a righty's world. Perhaps that is frustrating. But as I have learned over the past year, left handed folks aren't the only ones that this world of ours was not designed for.

Moms with three under three face our own fare share of glitches, frustrations, and general annoyances. Some might even go so far as to call it discrimination.

I'm not that girl.

Well, maybe some days I am. But not today. Today I just call it irritating.

Let's think about some of life's most basic tasks & how, when you've got three under three you become acutely aware that the folks who did the design work didn't have you in mind.

Should I start with cars, carseats, the LATCH system & the like? When you just have one of those rear-facing monstrosities to fit into your vehicle, it can -- if you are lucky -- go in the middle of the back and not cause too much discomfort to either of the front-seat-riding individuals. If you aren't so lucky, then it plops behind the passenger seat & really isn't even an issue most of the time. Now, when you've got TWO of those beasts to try and squeeze into the back of a car, there is no escaping the necessity of scooting the front seats forward & riding a little bit closer to the steering wheel than was previously necessary. Add to this that my hubby and I are both over six feet tall, and you've got some serious discomfort going on. We were actually car shopping when I was 8 months pregnant with the twins and were amazed to discover that even the biggest of the big vehicles were lacking in this area. Oh, and all of those adds that say it's safer to keep your kid rear-facing until he is two or even three . . . oh, I'm sure it's safer for the kid, but there comes a day when you climb into the car and realize that if you were to get into an accident, you are sitting close enough to the steering wheel that the driver's-side airbag is going to go right through you. That is the day you get on the scale with your 1-year-old(s) and thank the good Lord above that he(they) is(are) over 20 pounds.

And then we added one more to the mix. You know how minivans are supposed to be family vehicles and all of that. Well, would you believe that the vast majority of them only have LATCH systems for 3 car seats -- the middle bucket seats and then one more that takes up 2 of the 3 spots on the bench seat in the back. They also don't have locking seat belts as an option for installing car seats. Nice. So I have twins that cry when separated (so they are in the middle), and a baby in a rear-facer that I have to climb around and over to even get into his seat in the very back. Sure hope he doesn't need anything while I'm driving.

What about the grocery store now that I've got 3 under 3? With just the 2 it was usually okay. Most of the stores these days (at least the mega-stores) offer those enormous carts with the extension on the front that you can get 2 kiddos into and still have the whole cart free. Worst case scenario, one in the seat & one in the basket with food piled around him while I give constant admonitions to sit down, sit down, sit down. However, now that I've got one more, I have discovered a problem. It took a while for me to notice, though. When shorty was in the pop-out infant bucket, I just plunked him in the "seat" of the shopping cart, strapped his brothers into the big boy chairs, and off we went. The first time I went to the store after he had gotten too big for that car seat, though, I discovered that the leg holes of the "seat" of the cart were covered over, there was no seat belt, and there was a notice that said that area as for "merchandise only." Fantastic. The little guy is not nearly old enough to ride even close to safely in the basket. Now, the twins are old enough that they CAN walk beside me but it makes for a much slower trip to the store, a lot of fear that they are grabbing something breakable off the shelf, and the constant danger that one or both of them will wander away while I am not looking. They haven't quite become responsible citizens yet. Go figure. So, more often than not, I end up with a regular cart, the baby strapped into the seat, and two nearly three-year-old little boys kicking and pushing each other in the basket while I try desperately to pile the groceries around them in a way that will neither injure them nor harm the food.

Our community swimming pool -- oh, how much fun I had imagined we would have there this summer. Until, that is, I realized that there were absolutely no flotation devices allowed. Not in the big pool and not in the kiddie pool, either. So, there we were in the kiddie pool. It's a foot and a half deep, so it is up to the chins of the dynamic duo (who flail helplessly face down if they slip) and the little one has to be held. I was a nervous wreck. And we didn't go back. Do you think I can get some money back from the HOA since their rules make it impossible to use the facilities?

Speaking of swimming. We are finally getting Thing 1 and Thing 2 some swimming lessons this fall. We had wanted to do it earlier, but -- guess what -- it's not really set up for a family like ours. For kiddos under 3, the only classes offered are "Mommy and Me." That's fantastic and all, but how do you do "Mommy and Me . . . and Me . . . oh, and Me Too!"?

So. I should stop before this gets long. What? It's already long? So sorry. And to think, I only just scratched the surface.