We jumped off the ledge and sent William to school in underwear starting last week. So far, he's doing great. In fact, he hasn't had more than one accident on any day and Stokes didn't have any accidents for the first time a few days last week! This week we've already had several school days with no accidents for either one. Is that a light at the end of the tunnel that I see?
It seems like William is able to hold it longer (I'm talking about maybe an hour or 1.5 hours, not hours on end) but is not quite as motivated to use the potty. Stokes, on the other hand, will have an accident every 10 - 15 minutes when he's at home, even if we just took him to the potty a few minutes prior. He is somehow miraculously better at using potty and having fewer accidents at school. Hmmm. I need to investigate that a little further.
Anyway, I guess we've stepped into a phase where we are officially potty training 2 out of the 3. Keep the good vibes coming!
And because I like to make light out of (not so) fun situations, here are a few potty training funnies I found on the worldwide web. Enjoy! :)
This past Sunday was a birthday party bonanza! We haven't historically gone to very many birthday parties, but all of a sudden we were invited to 3 parties all in one day! One of the parties was for our friend Grant from the NICU days but was about an 1.5 hour drive away and we couldn't swing it. The other 2 parties were local and close by so we stopped by each one and stayed for a little while.
First up, our friend Wesley from church. We didn't get to stay at this party very long, due to nap schedules, but it was a great day to get together and spend time outside.
Sweet ONE year old, Wesley
Gigi holding Ryan
Clapping icing-laden hands
Not sure about all this attention!
Leigh and William (believe it or not, that's a "smile" on William's face- haha)
Cake for everyone! Happy birthday to Wesley!
Baby convos
Playing ball in the backyard
Boys with their friend, Wesley!
Next up we went to our neighbor's party with this HUGE inflatable slide. I knew this one would be a big hit! These neighbors of ours just turned one. They are triplets, but unfortunately, one passed away a few days after being born due to complications from NEC. I knew this would be a bittersweet day in celebration of Hunter and Savannah and in memory of James.
As you can guess, it did not take long for Stokes and William to get going on this big slide. I had taken Stokes to an inflatables place once before and at that time, he wasn't able to climb up the ladder to get to the top of the slide, and I had to hold him and climb up and then slide down with him. This time, though, both little guys were able to climb up by themselves. Dada, Ryan and I got to watch and enjoy!
Stokes on the slide
William just slid down
Happy birthday!
Cake time!
Awesome playset in their backyard
Savannah
Time to get that icing washed off!
Hunter
Video of the boys on the slide
After going to the Clemson game on Saturday and then attending church and not just one, but TWO birthday parties on Sunday, I'd say this weekend was a fun one. The boys all seemed to have a great time and were worn out from all the activities. We're thankful to our friends for inviting us to their fun parties - it was a great way to end out an awesome weekend!
To say that I was excited about this day is a major understatement. I have been (patiently) waiting for the day that I got to proudly take my boys to their very first Clemson game! I was always a little jealous of people that got to take their kids in utero or people that can claim, "My first Clemson game was when I was three months old", or whatever the case may be. It just hasn't been feasible up to this point for us to take them to a game, although they have visited Clemson before (see this post from May of 2014 when they were less than a year old!) just not on a game day.
Peery picture: #1 Tiger Fans!
Keep in mind that both Thomas and I had been season ticket holders ever since we graduated and very rarely missed a game (one I can remember were due to being in my cousin's wedding). When we found out we were having triplets, we knew that our season ticket holding days were going to have to change. It's been a struggle during football season to not be there, and watching on tv instead - because let's get serious, it's just not the same - and I've been counting down the days before we could show up with our kiddos! We needed good weather (aka not rainy or freezing, although it was pretty darn hot on Saturday), a decent gametime (no 8 PM games for these fellas), a Saturday that we didn't have other things going on, and a willing MaSha to take care of Ryan for us.
There are a few reasons that we decided to leave Ryan with MaSha for the game. First, it was going to be a hot day. Ryan's medicine does not allow him to sweat so it's harder for his body to cool off when it's hot and he can easily get overheated, which is dangerous. Second, we weren't sure where we were going to be able to park and it's definitely much easier to have toddlers with you that can walk, as it would have gotten heavy to carry Ryan across campus, especially if they all got tired of walking and we had to carry all 3 of them. Third, we were planning to carry two of the boys in with us and just have 2 tickets (and keep the boys on our laps) so that we didn't have to buy 4 (or 5) tickets. We can get away with it for 2 kids, but not for 3! So there you have it!
You just never know how a toddler is going to react to a new situation, and it can be scary to think about dealing with meltdowns in public, but you never know until you try it. I just figured that if behavior got bad, we could just pack it up and come home. No harm, no foul. This wasn't a "big" game since we were playing an FCS school, and it wouldn't be the end of the world to miss a lot of it, so we went for it!
Boys snacking in the car while we were sitting in game
day traffic. I had them say, "Number one! Go Tigers!"
We left a little later than we should have, but we found out on Saturday morning that Carole and her Clemson tribe had an extra parking pass in Lot 2 and 2 extra tickets for us so we didn't have to worry about a thing! No scalping tickets and no parking far away and schlepping across campus. WOO HOO! What a relief and we were, and are, so grateful!
Kickoff was 12 noon and we didn't pull in to Lot 2 until around 11:30. Yikes! We didn't want to miss any of the pre-game traditions and we especially wanted the boys to see the players Run Down The Hill, so we parked and only had a few seconds to say "hi" to the tribe before we had to get into the stadium and find our seats.
William - he means business
William and Dada
Carole (aka Mimi) and Stokes
Family picture pre-game (and pre-sweaty mess)
William and Kate
Our gameday tribe :)
GO TIGERS!
The Andresen girls and the Peery boys. LOVE!!!!
We hurried on in there and had FABULOUS seats! We were in the lower deck and had a great view of the field! Our former season tickets were wayyyyyy up in the upper deck. We felt like high rollers down here in these great seats. ;)
We made it in time!
Stokes and Dada taking in the sights!
William and Mama
Players at the top of the hill
So Excited!!!
Woo hoo! The band was playing the Tiger Song (aka Tiger Rag)
YAYYYYYYYYY
Loved the fanfare!
Video that Carole took of Running Down the Hill
Starting to get hot....
Go Tigers!
He was a trooper!
Getting a little hot (and one of the little
guys didn't want to cooperate....can you
guess which one?!?!) LOL
We had a few empty seats in front
of us and this little stinker liked to sit here
and drink from his water bottle
Stokes and Mama
Enthralled
Stokes watching the SC State halftime performance
Clapping for the band!
Loving the show
William watching the band
In-game family picture
That's the band that shakes the southland behind us!
We made it through the first 2 quarters, with a few walks up to the breezeway for bottled waters, diaper changes (no, we didn't even think about trying any potty training) and a hot dog lunch! Stokes was definitely squirming around quite a bit and wasn't very cooperative when we wanted him to sit still, sit on our laps, take a picture, etc, but he did OK. William, on the other hand, was totally captivated by the whole scene. The only thing he got upset about was that he wanted to "play with the Clemson tigers" and I had to explain to him that he has to be older and bigger before he can play with them! HA! They both loved watching the half time shows by the bands and the balloons that get released during the Running Down the Hill.
By the time the halftime shows were over, we decided to head back to the tailgate for a little while before coming back home. The stands were emptying out due to the heat and total game blowout (final score was Clemson 59, SC State 0). We got several shout outs for staying as long as we did with the little ones! Before leaving the stadium, we went down to the first row to get a picture or 2 taken and we ran into Carole, Corey and Molly!
Carole giving William a hug
Hugs all around for Mimi!
3 generations of amazing women
We all walked back to the tailgate together. It was so nice to see that the tigers seemed to have found their offensive mojo and we put up a lot of points! I think the boys got enough of a Clemson game day experience in the first half and we were ready for some shade. I do not exaggerate when I tell you that we were all drenched in sweat.
Kate chilling at the tailgate spot
Drink up!
Kiddos playing
Mimi, William and Susan
Coco and Kate
Sweet thing!
Tailgate Tigers!
We stayed for a while at the tailgate just to catch up with everyone since we were pretty rushed before the game started. It was so great to see everyone and let the boys play with Molly and Kate! Stokes, especially, couldn't stand having to sit still and stay in one area at the game, so it was nice that he could roam a little at the tailgate. The boys were serious troopers and were having a blast, so we managed to avoid any meltdowns. I was a proud mama! It eventually became time for us to get the boys in the car and head back to Greenville. William fought off his nap for a little while, maybe he was just too jazzed up by all the excitement he'd witnessed, but it didn't take long for these 2 buggers to conk out.
Sleepy little fellas
Oh yeah, full head tilt
The boys were waking back up by the time we pulled back into our driveway and shortly afterwards, Thomas went and picked up Ryan. We sure did miss him during the game, but he had a great time with MaSha and Gran-O. They went to an outdoor farmer's market, randomly ran into and met an old neighbor of mine and had some down time as well. I think his low key day with MaSha was just perfect for him. But we will definitely get Ryan to a Clemson game at some point within the next few years!
Corey told me later that everyone from the tailgate was saying how well the boys were behaved and how cute they were. Let me just tell you, not many things sound sweeter to a Mama's ears than hearing awesome compliments like that! It made my heart soar.
We were so grateful and thankful for the tickets, parking pass and amazing day. We're thinking about maybe taking the boys up for another tailgate sometime this season, even if we don't go to the game. We'll see!!! Until then...GO TIGERS!
