Potty training frustrations

Potty training with Dawson is not going as hoped at our household! It seems as though we have one very stubborn son, who could care less if his brand new dinasaur "big boy" pants get ruined. Yes, I said ruined b/c - I don't enjoy the whole "cleaning poop out of underwear thing." The boy has been peeing on the potty for as long as I can remember- probably a good 4-5 months now, so why can't he just poop on the potty too?!? I guess it's more frustrating for me this time b/c Masen was so easy to potty training. He had it down at only 2 years and 7 months old and I don't remember him having any accidents. Maybe I'm expecting too much, but I sure am sick of spending a fortune on diapers!!! And yes, we've tried everything to make it "worth it" to him - candy, quarters, everything! Hopefully he'll at least have it down before he goes to Kindergarten :).

Thumb sucking and humor from Masen....

Just wanted to let everyone know how proud I am of Masen! He is REALLY trying hard to stop sucking his thumb- yes, he's 5, and in Kindergarten, and he still sucks his thumb. For those of you who have kiddos who use binks...BE GLAD! At least you can take away (or throw away) binks.

We have started a new "incentive" approach. Everyday Masen starts out with a jar of marbles (usually 6 - this number will decrease every day). He loses one every time we catch him sucking his thumb. And at the end of the day if he has any marbles left in his jar, he earns $0.50. So far this is working, hopefully it's not too early to be saying this (it is only day #2). He is trying to save up to buy a new Transformer.

Of course, we are also using the positive reinforcement and praise techniques too. Masen really thrives off of praise! In fact last week as I was driving him to his Awana club, I was boosting his Ego and telling him how proud we are of him - he's doing so well in school, in Awana, and at trying really hard to stop sucking his thumb. He then shrugged his shoulders and replied, "Well, you should be Mommy. I'm proud of myself, so you sure should be proud of me."

This is our Masen! The corky, pleasing (yet still stubborn) Masen. How proud we are of him and Dawson! Everday I remind myself how blessed I am to have my two sons (and husband) and I can't wait to see what else life has in store for us.

Trip to Grandma and PaPa's farm

We went to Josh's parents house in Esbon, KS over Labor Day weekend. We love to go there - it's so quiet and relaxing. In fact we barely get out of our PJ's! The kiddos kept busy - swimming in the hot tub, riding PaPa's "train," feeding the donkeys, feeding the dog, Jake, playing baseball, eating lots and lots of ice cream and popsicles. What fun we had! Here's a few pics from the trip. Kristal, John, Owen, Zach and Taylor all were there too.