***Comment on Comments...***
Thank you Michelle for your suggestions - that's exactly what I was looking for. As far as the anonymous comment goes I think you are somewhat misunderstanding me. I do consider myself a good Mom, a VERY good Mom and I would do NOTHING to hurt either one of my boys. I LOVE THEM DEARLY and would do anything for them. I am not making him sit in a bath tub of FREEZING COLD water... He is
standing in the tub rinsing his undies out... not sitting. The plug is not in so he is not standing in the cold water either. The cold water is just running on his hands. I guess I should have worded it a little different and I hope you understand my purpose for having him clean up his own mess. I chose the bath-tub as the place for the cleaning to be done instead of him making a mess on the counter. I chose to use "cold" so it was less pleasurable for him not to hurt him. If you comment on posts in the future please leave a name so I know who you are. Thanks
Any suggestions or techniques are welcome...
If we allow for Brooks to run around with no pants on he goes to the bathroom by himself - both potty and poop. However come December 1st he will no longer be allowed to run around that way as I return to work and have 11 other kids in and out of my house. As soon as you put pants on him, whether it's a diaper, pull-up, or underwear he feels the need to go to the bathroom right in his pants and as soon as he is done he tells us. We know that he knows exactly what he is doing - however we are just not sure how to get him to use the bathroom. I was told by a couple different people that when he goes potty or poop in his underwear make him clean it out and also clean up any mess he made on the floor. It sounded good to me... so this morning 7:00am he went to the bathroom and I put him in undies... by 7:45 he was wet. As furious as I was I set him in the bath tub and made him take his own undies off and wash them out. He was not impressed and cried the entire time. That was the reaction that I was hoping for... I put him back in undies and about 1/2 hour later he was wet again. Even more furious I did the same... had him clean up his messes - however this time he wasn't bothered by it. And for the 3rd time by 10:00am he wet his pants again. This time he told me he was going to get in the tub and wash his undies. Okay... plan not working too well. So this evening when it happened for the 4th or 5th time (I honestly lost count) I made him wash his undies out but in cold water. This time he cried the entire time. Maybe he will learn to use the potty tomorrow. He will be 2 years and 3 months next weeks so it's not that he is that old, however he knows exactly what he is doing as he uses the potty when he has no pants on. If you have any suggestions or techniques that you have heard works well please let me know. I was hoping to be done potty training him by the time I got kids back. I guess time will tell.
Saturday Nov. 15th the entire family went out just to look for deer. Instead of switching car seats over to the pick-up we took the Denali instead. Obviously by the looks of the pictures we should have taken the pick-up. As we came up over a hill Craig spotted a doe... I look in the binoculars and spot a buck. Craig decides that he is going to shoot it so climbs out of the vehicle. I am trying to keep the 2 older boys quiet so we don't spook the deer as we are waiting to hear the gun shot. Craig jumps down and tells me to get in the driver seat as he is going to walk around the back side and see if he can sneak up on them. I back down the road that we were coming down and he is sneaking around the other side. The doe stands up and walks away... the buck stands up and... BAM... he runs into the corn field. I am trying to keep watching the deer in the binoculars and come across Craig motioning me (like an airplane stewardess) to go this way and that and drive (my vehicle) into the field to come and get him. So across the fields we go... bouncing all the way. (ha ha ha) As we come up on Craig he asks Payton to jump out and help him track the deer as he saw blood on the corn stalks. I thought he had missed the deer and that he ran away. Payton was so excited as he kept telling Craig... "yep, here's some blood... here's some more... THERE HE IS... YES I FOUND THE BUCK!!!" It was so awesome. That is the first time in 29 years that I have ever seen a dead deer before being gutted as well as the first time ever to see anyone ever gut a deer. The 'buck deer' was a 6-pointer but had a good size body to him. Craig said that he was very hesitant on whether he wanted to shoot him beings he wasn't so big... but since he had his family as his audience he thought he better. It was an awesome experience and I am glad that the boys got to be a part of it..JPG)
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So this is what you get when you leave Dad in charge of playing with the boys outside. Brooks was trying so hard to ride his little bike down the hill but was getting no where. Meanwhile Payton was enjoying his ride on his little 'kitty-cat' snowmobile. So Craig comes up with the idea to tie Brooks and his bike up to the snowmobile. It was pretty fun to watch. It was also fun to see Payton being an awesome big brother by making sure Brooks was not running into the pine trees or falling off of the bike. They both had such a blast.
I have been anxious to see how much Braxton has grown since his 3 week check-up. He has slept through the night a handful of times - first time being 6 weeks to the day. Man it sure is nice to wake up at 6am for the first time some nights. We are usually able to just give him his nuk when he does wake up - but sometimes that doesn't work and we feed him. He usually eats every 3 hours during the day and eats 5 ounces for each feeding. I am an anal person so he never eats sooner than 3 hours and never more than 5 ounces. 
Braxton
Chloe, Payton, & Rylie
Uncle Buck, Jim, Travis, Biev, Buff, Trent, Craig, Chloe, Rylie, Tatum, & Brooks
Braxton "Cheese"
