Adventures in Potty Training, part VII

One word: success.

William had been waking up with dry pull-ups in the morning and had expressed an interest in wearing underwear to bed. We told him that we could try it again if he didn't have any night time accidents in his pull-ups for two nights in a row and he made it happen. Starting on Thursday evening we let him sleep in underwear. And....

...it was a miracle! He woke up dry! We put him on the potty in the morning and voila! Yayyyyyyyy!

He has done this before, but not been consistent from one night to the next. With as many dry pull-ups as he's had though, I think this time feels different.

I was so proud of him. I made him take a picture right after he woke up and I realized that he didn't have any accidents. It was pretty early and he was still half asleep. I wanted him to put his arms in the air and give me a big smile, as if to say, "Yay! I did it!". But here's what I got. Beggars can't be choosers, right? ;)

Potty-trained William

I would say William is there. He's potty-trained. I'm sure we'll have some night time accidents here and there, but overall, he's there. 

Stokes is about 99% there. He's doing MUCH better at #2 on the potty, but we'll still get some accidents on occasion. He, too, has expressed an interest in wearing underwear to bed, especially since William got to do it, but his pull-ups are usually soaked every morning. Not. Quite. Ready. We gave him the same rule that we gave William...two nights with dry pull-ups in the morning and we can try underwear. I think it may be a while. And I'm totally fine with that! Keep the pull-ups as long as needed!

This will probably be my last Potty Training post in reference to Stokes and William, unless some catastrophic regression happens (please, Lord, no!!). It has taken a while, but I'm so glad that these two are potty trained! Maybe we started too early at 3?!?!?! Is that possible?!?! Anyway, now is what matters. I'm not sure about Ryan's ability to potty train. I'm hopeful that he'll understand the concept at some point. Only time will tell! 

Impromptu pool time

As the summer draws to a close and the looming Labor Day/pool closing date approaches, we realized that we need to try to get in as much pool time as we can. In case you haven't noticed from previous posts, the boys are BIG FANS of the pool. I think it's awesome for them to be playing and swimming and expending lots of energy in such a fun and useful way. I also want them to get as much practice swimming as they can before the pool closes because it will be a long winter and spring until Memorial Day, when the pool opens back up. I don't want them to forget what they've learned this summer from a swimming stand point. The more comfortable they get in the water, the more comfortable I'll feel letting them swim. It's pretty much a win-win.

Since Thomas and I both work full-time, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of time in the evenings between school pick-up and bed time, however, this past Tuesday, we decided to go to the pool on a whim. Like I said, with the closing date drawing in on us, we're more cognizant of our pool time and want to maximize when we can!

I called Thomas on the my way to pick up the boys after school/work to make sure he was on-board, which he was, and set the plan in action. They boys were so pumped when I told them where we were going! Surprise!!!! We got home, got changed, packed a quick picnic dinner, and headed out. The boys ate their dinner at a little picnic table at the pool and then it was swim time! They had so much fun splashing and playing.

We will try to get several more pool trips in before it closes in a few weeks!

Ryan's first day of school 2017

Ryan's special needs school started up their fall semester this morning. I drove him to school this morning and took him to a new classroom. His new teacher had some health things come up and isn't able to start the school year, so I regrettably did not get to meet her. I did see from familiar faces, however, and Ryan was happy to see Ms. Natalie as one of his class assistants this year, since she was also his class assistant last year. He gets to keep all his same therapists that he had last year and over the summer and his best friend from his old class is in his new class, too.

I can't wait to get feedback on how the first day of school went!

Here's some pictures of my sweet boy from this morning.

Stokes and William posing with their brother.
We're teaching them how to hold Ryan's hands to help him stand.
But....we need some more practice here. It was a little "iffy".
I was standing verrrryyy close by. 

Ryan: First Day of K4
8/17/17

Oh hey, Handsome!

With Ms. Natalie

With Ms. Jasmine (aka Jaz)

Outtakes....

Leannnning backward & getting scared

Leannnnning forward and getting scared

Poor baby! :(

Christmas in July! Dabo's Ladies Clinic 2017

Apart from going to the beach, this may be one of my favorite things about the summer. It's DABO'S LADIES CLINIC!

Last year's Ladies Clinic was my first time going and I was beyond excited to come back this year. This clinic took place at the new Football Operations Complex a few weekends ago and it once again lived up to its hype. I actually LUCKED into getting a ticket this year because Katie Hinkley had a conflict and I was able to buy her ticket from her. On the day the tickets went on sale (last NOVEMBER, and no, that's not a typo), they sold out in 21 minutes. I leisurely logged in about 2 or 3 hours after they went on sale and was literally shocked that I wasn't able to get one. I was really grateful that I was able to get Katie's ticket. I would have been so disappointed to miss it! I have learned that lesson and will not stray from the tribe ever again! So anyway, Dabo actually congratulated all of us on being there since the tickets were so hard to come by and there was apparently a black market. Too funny.

Anyway, this particular clinic was so anticipated because of the new football complex. We knew we would get an inside look at this spectacular facility and it totally rocked. We also knew that Deshaun was nearby in Liberty, SC putting on a kids football clinic in the morning and we were hopeful that he would make an appearance in the afternoon, but {spoiler alert} he didn't. #sad

The thing that I appreciate most about this event is the access we get to both players and the assistant coaches. Dabo is really, really popular, so you really only get to take one quick pic with him and maybe, possibly get an autograph really quickly, but the other coaches are available for talking, autographs, shooting the breeze, etc. There are around 1300 ladies that sign up and attend this event and it's so well organized and run. It's a fave.

We gathered in the indoor practice facility in the morning for the kick off.



Coach Pearman is heavily involved with the planning of this event and he opened it up for us. He is hilarious. He had us laughing the whole time.



"We are the Champions" sung by the Clemson coaching staff



My favorite rotation...the weight room! The guys dance through this conga line and everyone is hollering and laughing and giving them high fives. It's so funny! The only negative this year was that this was our group's very first rotation and it was still early. I think it gets a little more raucous, both from the players and the ladies, later on in the day. It was a little tame being the first rotation, but still super awesome!

Matt Bockhorst doing a SPLIT.
He's a true freshman. What what!

Twins: Jacob and James Edwards
We have THREE sets of twins on the roster!

Dexter Lawrence aka Sexy Dexy & DJ Greenlee

Albert Huggins aka Huggy Bear

Cornell Powell

Isaiah Simmons

The man, the myth, the legend
CHRISTIAN WILKINS #42

With Cornell and Isaiah

Wilkins dead lift

Simmons dead lift

They were showing us the proper weight lifting technique. ;)

Jordan Williams, Gage Cervenka, Christian & Coach Greenlee (?)

My BFF
Christian Wilkins

Me, CW, Carole and Cason

Same group with Sexy Dexy

With Garrett Williams and DJ Greenlee

With the Edwards Twins
I told them I was a triplet mama & love multiples
LOL

The end of the weight room rotation made me sad because I love it so much. But there were lots of other fun rotations still to come!

With Kelly Bryant (our starting QB) and Shaq Smith

with Andy Teasdall

With Tee Higgins - he is seriously SO CUTE!

Jalen Williams was DJ'ing for us

With Adam Choice (my other new BFF) and I think Amari Rodgers

Tribe!
Kristen, Brittany, The Natty, Jalen (he surprised us and snuck in!),
Carole, Cason and me

With TJ Chase

With Jalen Williams
(he gave me a shout out for dancing!)

Cason and me with Will Swinney (Dabo's son)

Cool waterfall wall

The ALL IN chip that Tee gave me after
I told him that he was super adorable and I loved
him and I liked his Clemson decision video
with the fireworks. ;)

Carole and I met up with Polly during lunch and got a pic!

Lunchtime entertainment
Family Feud with Hunter Renfrow, Tanner Muse, Christian,
Maverick Morris, Albert Huggins, Clelin Ferrell and some lucky
ladies that were chosen at random

With Tyler Grisham (remember him from last year?)
#crushalert again.

Coach Venables!

Carole with Coach V.
She made him sign her natty ticket in a specific
spot and he told her that he "is coachable" hahaha! 

Coach Bates and his All In poem

Impressive facility

Jeff Davis talking about P.A.W. Journey

Panel of players that are benefitting from P.A.W. Journey

P.A.W. Journey was really cool to hear about. It's a program that Jeff Davis started and it's basically there to help our football players become well rounded young men, not just good football players. They know that not all of them will go to the NFL and those that do may not have a long NFL career. This program wants to support them and get them prepared for life after football. There are three pillars to the program:

• Striped (personal growth)
• C.U. in Life (life skills)
• 5th Quarter (career development)

The director of the program told us about a few cool things they had going on this summer. She told us that the football players only have 2 weeks off during the entire summer and that's their free time. They were offered an opportunity to go on a mission trip to Haiti during those 2 weeks and more than 15 of the guys went. They got to distribute shoes to children in need, help provide meals and be mentors. Several guys on the panel in the picture above went on that trip and said it was so eye opening to see how other people live and how fortunate we are. I think it's amazing that they gave up their only summer break to go help others and to hear about what a great experience it was for them. Another cool thing is that Clemson teamed up to Adobe to do an internship program. Adobe was planning to take 5 guys and they came and interviewed a bunch and took 7 instead of 5.  Those 7 guys went out to Silicon Valley, were in meetings with C-level execs, got a glimpse of corporate life, helped out in the office doing whatever tasks they were given, and now have an incredible internship that they can put on their resume. I'm so impressed with this program and the great things they're doing for our players. 

I did a google search and found some neat articles about P.A.W. Journey: Developing Players Off the Field and Trip to Haiti (which has a cool video).

Coach Scott

Coach Elliott drawing up some plays

the infamous indoor slide
It was blocked off so we couldn't slide down :(

NFL wall

with some uniform mannequins

Ode to #4 on the wall

Rotating uniform mannequins

In the locker room rotation, we learned a little bit about recruiting from Coach Streeter and how Clemson manages the recruitment of players (it's so intense and busy!) and Grady Jarrett's mama was there and spoke to us about the recruitment process from the standpoint of a parent. Very cool!

with Carole in front of Hunter's locker!

Panorama of the locker room

"Put me in, Coach!"

Official gloves

with Clelin Ferrell
We had a nice long convo. Super nice guy!

It was a fun filled day for a tiger stalker enthusiast like me. I wish that I had printed out a roster or studied it beforehand so I would have known every player that we saw. I recognized most of them and didn't remember names and positions. It has been a good 6+ months since we've played a football game. My memory is not as good as it once was. So, let's just note that this was an awesome event. I got all my pictures done...#notshy...got to have some nice discussions with several of my friends, I mean football players, and got to see the new facility first hand. It was a good day.

We also go to do some shopping and there were lots of vendors there and they brought allllllll their Clemson/Tiger/Orange and white things to this event. I got 2 new tiger books for the boys and got them both signed by the authors. The boys LOVE their tiger books!

Let me give a shout out to my rock star husband that took care of the kids all evening on Friday and all day on Saturday so I could have my Clemson football day. He's so good! Last year Stokes was throwing up and I felt horrible, so I was really glad that they were all well this year. Thomas was able to fit 3 car seats in his truck (we've never even tried before and thought they wouldn't fit!) so I was pleasantly surprised and impressed that he took them out to run an errand or two. Go Da-da!

Thomas sent me this picture during the day on Saturday!
YAY!

With as much fun as I had in Clemson, I was excited to get home to this sweet view!

Two of my handsome fellas

Ry Ry in Dada's truck