Poo Poo Success!!

I cried.
I cried for joy.
I cried for joy yesterday.
I cried for joy yesterday because Garrett pooped.
I cried for joy yesterday because Garrett pooped in the potty.
I cried for joy yesterday because Garrett pooped in the potty on his own free will!

Those of you who know us know that we've been battling Garrett's pooping refusal for awhile. The kid is almost four, after all. Up until a few days ago, he was still pooping in a diaper. Like a baby. How embarrassing. What terrible parents.

He hasn't EVER had an accident in his undies. He's never pooped in them, and he's been wearing undies for almost a year. He has complete control over his bowel movements, and we know this because he holds his poop in until he has on a diaper at night, and then he releases.

Several months ago, he began kicking us out of his room when it was poop time. A few extra-special people have witness the phenomena. Garrett would run around the house, screaming, all the while insisting that nothing was wrong. We'd put a diaper on him; he'd go in his room and slam the door and then moments later call for us.

A few months ago, GrandTom had had enough and did some research and found the first article that I'd seen that was actually helpful. I had tried to research on the internet for some hints, but everything I found just reaffirmed that I am, in fact, a terrible mother. My kid is almost four and doesn't poop in the potty AND (horrors!) I work outside the home. I must not care anything about him. I quickly gave up on the internet research. I'm glad GrandTom didn't, though.

Here are the steps I learned from the article (please don't call CPS):
Step one: get the kid to at least poop in his diaper while in the bathroom. This way, he begins to associate pooping with bathroom. This step was pretty easy for Garrett. In fact, I think he enjoyed the privacy of the bathroom. He'd do his normal frantic running about the house, then run into the bathroom, turn around, scream "DON'T COME IN HERE!" and slam the door.

This was as far as we had gotten when I got a call mid-day on Monday from Garrett's daycare. It seems he was in his frantic state, and was hysterically crying for me. They knew he was constipated, but they couldn't give him any comfort. I left school (thanks to my fabulous student teacher!), picked Garrett up, and then remembered the article and the next steps. Time to put them into action:

Step two: Break the poopoo/pain cycle by making the poopoo less painful. How? Suppositories and stool softeners. Oh yeah... We got home, I took off his undies, and managed to hold a writhing, screaming, strong Garrett down while administering the suppository. It took approximately one minute to take action, all the while I was holding Garrett on the potty. He was screaming like the possessed: "LET ME UP!!!! AAAHHHHH I HATE POOPOO!!" etc. I almost relented, and then I had an imaginary conversation with my mom. In my head, I heard her voice clear as day: "Erin, do not let him go. He is almost four years old and he can poop in the potty." I held on. And then...poop! Instantly Garrett quit screaming. Shock. He looked in the potty almost unbelieving. More poop. A slight smile. More poop. More looking, bigger smile. More poop. He did it!! Immediately, he said, "mom, now I can go to Chuck-E-Cheese, and get ice cream, and get a toy, and have my birthday party...and...and" (all these are things we'd promised him in the past few months in our desperation).

He also wanted Braden to come in and see. Braden was not so big on this idea, but I made him ("You better go look at your brother's poop. When you learned to poop, he looked at yours."). Then, the whole family went to Chuck-E-Cheeses to celebrate.

Step three: I began doping Garrett's milk with liquid stool softener. The package (Fleet brand Pedia-Lax) says it "generally produces a bowel movement in 12 to 72 hours." They must say "generally" because of children like Garrett who will do ANYTHING to avoid pooping. The next two nights, Garrett also received a suppository. It wasn't easy, and it wasn't pretty, but we got the results that we wanted: poop IN the potty.

Yesterday, our work this week paid off. In the middle of the day, Kyle was on the couch watching the A&M vs. UT basketball game, and I was on the computer grading papers. Braden came running out of Garrett's room: "Mommmmmmy! Daaaadddddy! Garrett pooped in the potty!!!!" Kyle and I looked at each other in shock and disbelief. Could it be?

And it was. And it was glorious. And Garrett was SOOO proud. He wanted Cali, our chihuahua, to see. I found her and held her up to see. She wasn't very impressed. I cried. I hugged. We all high-fived. We went fishing to celebrate.

This morning about 7 am, Garrett came to my side of the bed and said, "Mommy, can you take my diaper off so I can poop in the potty?" I took the diaper off and rolled over and went back to sleep. Ten minutes or so later, he came back, naked from the waist down and holding a wipe. "Mommy, can you wipe my bootie?" he asked as he bent down to touch his toes. I did. And then I rolled over and went back to sleep. When I finally got up an hour or so later, the first thing I had to do was go see the poop. There it was. It was glorious. Two poops in the potty on his own!

Later this morning, right in the middle of the sermon at church, Garrett tooted. I gave him my stern mom/teacher look, and he said, "I have to go poopoo." So we went. And he did. And it was beautiful.

It seems as if Garrett's problem is resolved. Thank God. Praise God.

I do have video of Garrett sitting proudly on the potty discussing his poop. The video even shows his poop. I thought about posting the video on the blog for all the world to see, but I think I'll save it for his prom date. I'm a good mom, after all.

Catching up with the Stuttses

It has been a good seven weeks since I've posted. What's been going on? School! Work! Life! Soccer! Family! Fun!

I'm teaching an online course at Texas A&M this semester (Multicultural Foundations of Education), and pretty much any chance I get to be online, I'm working on that course.

Last Saturday, we went down to Seabrook. Here's Galveston Bay from Pine Gully Park as seen with the fancy panoramic function on my camera. Notice the newly rebuilt pier! Braden would NOT join the family picture at the edge of the pier, but here are the rest of us. I was about to leave to run the four miles back to the house on the trails, which is why I'm dressed for running. Looking at this picture, I really notice how Kyle and I have aged...the wrinkles (mostly me) the gray hair (mostly him). Gosh, where did the last ten years go?

Cutie patooties! Here are Garrett and GrandTom walking out on the pier. I love this picture!

Garrett is pointing to the waves. Notice the little green Matchbox car in his right hand. He's been carrying it around for several days now.

Playground buddies!

Braden and his daddy. Braden did NOT trust us near the edge of the dropoff to the water. Like we would scare him or something...

I love this picture! What a fun-loving boy! Hard to tell from this picture how very moody he can be!

Spring soccer is underway! Here is the the Spring 2010 version of the Hurricanes (minus one sick little boy). Kyle and I are again coaching. Braden is collapsing on his good buddy Zachary (Braden says they "fell like dominoes"). Braden and Zachary have known each other since they were three and in the same daycare class. We have to be careful to keep them separated on the soccer field (one plays, one is on the sideline), otherwise silliness ensues. Notice a pouty Garrett in the background. He really wants to play. Next fall cannot come soon enough for him!

Braden really enjoys soccer and has no interest in any other sport. He isn't the star of the team, but he is a pretty decent little player.

It's been awhile...

...and I hope you enjoy this video of Garrett dancing at the Family Valentine's Dance. I think you'll have to turn your head (sorry 'bout that!)

Grocery shopping...

...with two kids and a husband is not fun...especially because HEB was out of racecar carts tonight...and my kids had to sit very, very close to each other...which required them to (get this) touch.

Not really, of course. They could have just sat there like nice little boys, but nooooo, they had to lean, and kick, and push, and touch each other. Boys are like that.

We finally got smart (really, it was me) and just got a second cart. That solved the problem.
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Except then we filled up both carts with food and our bill (minus coupons) was $276!!! And we didn't even buy any beer or wine or detergent!

Yes, grocery shopping with two boys and a husband is not fun.

Pictures of playing with presents

Santa brought Braden a new "big kid" Razor scooter and brought Garrett a bike.

Kyle gave me a camera with fancy functions like "candlelight."

Family is made by love, not just blood.

(a note to my fellow English nerds: figuring out the commas in this post was difficult, and I'm sure I've screwed some of them up. Oh well.)

We are blessed: we have a HUGE family of people who love, nurture, and care about us, and not all of them are blood related. The short version is that Kyle and I both have divorced parents who have remarried, divorced again, and married again. We explain to people that our kids have five sets of grandparents, and here's the breakdown (in no particular order--we love you each equally).
-Kyle's dad, Geary, and his new bride, Sheri

-Kyle's mom, Linda

-my dad, Scott, and his wife, Janet

-my stepdad, Tom who has been in my life for twenty years (if you just stumbled across my blog, my mom died a year ago)

-Jan, my dad's ex-wife and the mother of my littlest sister, and her husband, Rex. Jan has been in my life for twenty years.

Now for blood siblings:

-my full sister, Linsey (who conveniently dates Kyle's brother, Matt).

-my half sister, Katie

-Kyle's sister, Shawna, her husband, Franklin, and daughter, Taylor

-Kyle's brother Matt (who conveniently dates my sister Linsey)

We also have stepsiblings who are important in our lives.

-Kristen, Tom's daughter, has been my stepsister for almost 18 years. She has three kids (Camden, Morgan, and Mitchell) and a husband (Jeremy).

- Steve, Janet's son, has been my stepbrother for 7 years. He has a beautiful wife, Anne. I would love for them to have a kid soon!!!

-Kevin is Sheri's son who we have only met once, but really liked. He has a wife and a kid on the way.

Grandparents:

-Kyle's maternal grandmother, Otero

-Jan's mom, Ruth (who just moved to Houston from Sun City West, AZ)

-Sheri's parents

So...adding up the members of "immediate" family, I get at least 27 people. That's a lot of love!

If I count the people related by blood, I get 9.

So there you have it, people. Family is made by love, not just blood.

Now, that isn't to say that this family was created without some bumps and bruises along the way. There were certainly some big ones. But, time sure has a way of healing wounds, and love and caring sure can trump anger and hurt. I know several people who are currently struggling with divorces and newly blended families, and I hope this gives you some hope. Things may hurt now, but they won't always. The morning after I learned my parents were getting divorced, I made the announcement to my friends at the bus stop, and one of them told me, "at least you'll get lots of Christmas presents." True. I do, and so do my kids. I'm appreciative, but more important than the gifts are the people who share their lives and love with us.

Here are some family pics from Christmas celebrations of the last few days:

The kids and Tom

Garrett and Linda




The kids and cousin Taylor


The kids and cousins Morgan, Mitchell, Camden (and girlfriend Crystal)


The kids, Jan, aunt Katie, and Ruth


Brothers and sisters

Our little family.

The kids, cousin Taylor, and PaPa Geary

It occurs to me how many people are missing from these pictures. I sure need to make an effort to capture everyone on film (or digital file)! I'll do better!

The BEST NIGHT EVER!!!

...declared Braden after each boy received a phone call from the one, the only....SANTA CLAUS!


Thanks, Linsey, for giving Santa our number. I wish you could have seen the awe and the joy...I wish I had had a video camera with me. His mouth dropped, his eyes bugged out! Too cute!

Folks, if you'd like to give Santa your number, you can do so here: http://www.kroger.com/Pages/default.aspx . Click "Ring in the Season."