Not what I was expecting today.

*Warning, the following is a frank and somewhat graphic discussion of bowel movements. May not be suitable for some readers.*

Quiet Saturday. Katherine took Lyla to Target and Meijer to get the necessities, I stayed home with Will, vacuumed and then had a nice video conference call with 'Pa (aka Katherine's dad, aka Jeff). Katherine and Lyla came home right as Jeff and I were wrapping up so they go to say hi. Lyla really liked seeing 'Pa on the 'puter. Then Katherine fed Will and I went to pring in the groceries.

As I was finishing up I heard Katherine say to Lyla, "You need to poop? Do you want to poop on the toilet?" Lyla said yes, so I took her in there. We've been going through the motions with her as a bit of pre-potty training: If she looks like she's pooping or mentions pooping, we'll ask her if she wants to sit on the toilet and take her in there. Usually, as soon as I set her on, she'll say "All done" and want to get off.

This time was different. This time she sat up there.

We've been talking about potty training for awhile now but have yet to buy any gear for it because we haven't zeroed in on a strategy yet. So Lyla is sitting on the regular seat with me holding her up. She's so tiny that if I were to let go, she'd *kerplunk* right into the toilet.

So she's sitting up there and we're talking about what to do. She notices the toilet paper, so I explain that to her. Then I look and she's making her "pooping" face. It's unmistakable, the strained look she gets as she pushes... well, you know how the mechanics of it work.

So she's pushing, and I'm holding and... poop starts coming out. Right in the toilet. It was awesome... except for the fact that it was poop. Just because it was my little girl, didn't make the actually poop any less, uh, gross.

So she's pooping and I just start crying. I'm yelling out in excitement "great job Lyla!" I'm yelling to Katherine, who is feeding Will in the other room, "She's pooping! She'd doing it!!!" See, part of our strategy is to be as encouraging as possible. We don't want to shame her in any way, so we've been making a big deal about every positive steps she makes toward going potty on the potty. Telling us when she has a dirty diaper is rewarded with congratulatory affirmation. Wanting to sit on the toilet is cheered.

You have to realize, though, that our excitement isn't fake. We have two kids in diapers right now. We change at least 10 diapers a day... maybe more. We're really looking forward to Lyla being potty trained. But again, we're restrained because we don't want to put any undue pressure on her... she's not even two yet.

But this time, I couldn't hold back the emotion. I'm crying, I'm cheering, I'm beaming. It was an onslaught of emotion for me. My little girl growing up. My little girl figuring out how to poop in the potty. My little girl offering Katherine and I some much needed relief of the constant demands of this current situation. I'm pretty sure I heard "Cat's in the Cradle" in the background.

So she poops. She gets down and I wipe for her and we get to wash our hands in the sink. Then I send her out to tell momma what she did (sans pants since I didn't have a new diaper ready). Much rejoicing. Some discussion as to whether or not we should take a picture... we decided against it. Who wants to look at a picture of that, regardless of how significant it is? Hugs. Kisses. High fives. It was a glorious moment in the Ring household.

Chances are that this was a one time thing, that we still have a lot more diapers in the future. But the thing you have to realize is that today offered Katherine and me some hope that one day soon our kids will be potty trained. That our kids are getting older and as much as I don't want my babies to grow up they are able to take care of themselves more and more. We have a long way to go still, but at least we know that it won't always be like this, taking care of two kids under two, twenty four hours a day, seven days a weeks.

And that, my friends, is something to celebrate.

Lyla's words

We were at the doctor last week for Lyla's 15 month check up. During the examination, Dr. Wallace was asking us questions to gauge Lyla's development levels for areas like motor control, growth, socializing, and learning. One of the questions he asked us was "Does she know at least four words?" Katherine and I both looked at each other and we both were like, "Uh, yeah."

Here's a list of as many words I can think of that Lyla can say:

1. Turtle - her first word
2. Mama
3. Dada
4. Please
5. Thank you
6. No
7. Yes
8. Nose
9. Eyes
10. Ears
11. Couch
12. Wall
13. Door
14. Outside
15. Upstairs
16. Downstairs
17. Achoo
18. Blocks
19. Ball
20. Knock knock
21. Juice
22. O's (Cheerieos)
23. Cereal
24. Nana (Banana)
25. Yogurt
26. Open
27. Closed
28. Up
29. Down
30. Roar
31. Boom
32. Wheee (when I swing her around)
33. Star
34. Toes
35. Elbow
36. Button
37. Belly
38. Baby
39. Heel
40. Arm
41. Coat
42. Hat
43. Hot
44. No no (Danger)
45. Mouth
46. Teeth
47. Cheek
48. Hair
49. Shirt
50. Socks
51. Shoes
52. O (in response to pointing to a letter and asking her what it is)
53. All done
54. Bottle
55. Papifer (pacifier)
56. Bear
57. Off
58. On
59. Yum yum
60. Blueberry
61. Strawberry
62. Apple
63. Melon
64. Cracker
65. Beard
66. Mmm
67. Mem-mim (medicine)
68. Hand
69. Night night
70. Spoon
71. El-la-ant (Elephant)
    
72. I-no (Rhino)
73. Squirrel
74. Um (when you ask her a question)
75. Brrrr (when it's cold)
76. Duck
77. This
78. That
79. Dude
80. Really
81. Ready
82. Blue
83. Book
84. Toot
85. Burp
86. Uh oh
87. Hi
88. Buh bye
89. Home
90. Beep
91. Brother
92. Bottom
93. Amen
94. Jejeh (Jesus)
95. Ring
96. Again (her way of requesting that we do something again... like read a book, or swing her upside down)
97. Help
98. Ta-Da!
99. Sonny (the name of Grandma's bird)
100. Bird
     

Words she uses signs for:

1. Please
2. Thank you
   
3. Hungry
4. All done
5. Sleepy
   
6. Butterfly
7. Cat
8. Fish
9. Frog
10. I love you (blowing kisses)
    

Animal noises:

1. Rawr - bear
2. Rawr - lion
3. Rawr - tiger
4. Ooo ooo ooo - monkey
5. Eeeee eee - dolphin
6. Eeeee eee - mouse
   
7. Sssss - snake
8. Wah wah - duck
9. Heh heh heh (panting noise) - dog
10. Peep - chick
11. Bwap bwap - chicken
12. Mmmoo - cow
13. Kneee - horse
14. Hapiow (while sticking her tongue in and out) - frog
    

The names of her friends that she can say:

1. Abbie
2. Josh
3. Liam
4. Ian
5. Anna (the famous Aunt Anna)
   
6. Matthew (the super cool Uncle Matthew)
   
7. Luke
8. Sadie
9. Meggie
10. Ellie
    
11. Grace

There are others, I'm sure. And most of what she says is either "please," "up," or "no." She's so cute.

It's a boy!!

Or at least it will be sometime around March 17, 2009. For all y'all (that's southern for "those of you") who didn't know, Katherine's pregnant!! Again!! I know!! I can hardly believe it either!! Especially because Lyla and her little brother are only going to be 15 months apart in age. Next year is going to be CRAZY!!

Anyway, yesterday we went in for the ultrasound and the baby looks real healthy. We also found out the child's gender (we like to know the gender. I respect those who wait to find out a lot but Katherine and I both really enjoy knowing). During the ultrasound the little guy was being shy but the tech was able to get pretty good confirmation that he's a he. I personally hadn't spent much time before the ultrasound speculating about the gender, mainly because I didn't want to expose myself to the possibility of being excited. And also because I remember the rush of emotion when we found out Lyla was a girl and just the onslaught of anticipated future Daddy/Daughter experiences that came flooding in.

And yesterday the same thing happened. We saw that he's a boy and immediately I started thinking about my little man and playing catch and wrestling and teaching him to work on stuff and teaching him to be respectful and polite and chivalrous. It was (and continues to be great). Another thing I'm excited about is that he's the first boy among Katherine and my siblings. He has an older sister and two older girl cousins. Man are they going to terrorize him. It will be so much fun.
We've already received a number of suggestions for names from our family. Fortunately we have a lot of great names among the males in both our families. Right now the working name is "Michael Jeff-Jeff Stephen IsTheBest David Robot Awesome Dude 3000 Ring". Katherine and I are going to keep the real name to ourselves (probably) until he's born (like we did with Lyla), but think that might be easier said than done this time.

Anyway, we're super excited and it was so great to see him on the ultrasound. He's so cute. I can't wait to meet him.

Safe baby handling lessons

These have been very helpful and improved the level of care we're providing for Lyla.

The pictures are from the book Safe Baby Handling Tips by David and Kelly Sopp. http://www.amazon.com/Safe-Baby-Handling-Tips-David/dp/0762424915

Home again (or for the first time)

Katherine and Lyla were discharged yesterday. We spent the morning packing up and making sure we have all of the information we will ever need to know about raising a child. Fortunately someone was able to combine it all into one single worksheet, should be smooth sailing.

We got home around noon, turned the heat back on (it was 55 degrees in the house), said hello to Dr. Jones (who's doing well, slightly curious but keeping his distance). I don't really remember what we did the rest of the day. I know I ran some errands. I held the baby a lot. Last night we caught up on TV shows and then spent the night taking turns being semi-awake with Lyla. When you have a baby, there is a lot written and said about sleepless nights. Like most things with this pregnancy and birth, I understood the information presented to me (of course I'm going to not get a lot of sleep) but I had a difficult time putting it into context and really anticipating what it would be like. I will say this, despite the fact that I did not sleep until 5 am last night (except for 10 minute stints while holding Lyla), it's worth it. Katherine and I are figuring out how to strike a balance and trade off so that we both can get some sleep. I feel bad because Katherine has to wake up to feed Lyla whenever the little girl is hungry, so she can't take a break. (We've decided to try to exclusively breastfeed the first six months of Lyla's life. We're convicted by what we've learned about the superiority of breastmilk over formula, information that I actually learned while working on a project for a infant formula manufacturer at my last job. Obviously, there are other factors that go into Lyla's feeding and I wouldn't be surprised if circumstances influence what we do more than ideals, but for now it's the choice we've made.)


Another observation about parenting (or parenting preparation), all parents are self-righteous, it's hard not to be. I think you get caught between the emotions of being really really scared because you see how fragile and delicate your baby is, and you get overwhelmed by all of the different elements (and multitudes of varying and often contradictory opinions about how to manage each of those elements) of developing, birthing, and caring for a child, that you grab onto what seems right and (as you spend more time with the baby), what works for you child. Anyway, I already feel self-righteous (see previous paragraph) but the reality of the situation is that only God can perfectly provide for this child and shape her life. Understanding and believing that helps to replace those two emotions with peace and emboldens me and fills me with a true confidence about my ability to raise this child. And I hope that when you look back on all of the choices Katherine and I make when raising Lyla (and any other children we're blessed with), our faith in God is reflected.


And now for the pictures - Getting ready to go home.

Waiting for baby

So, Baby Ring is due sometime between next Monday (the date indicated on the most recent ultrasound) and next Saturday (the date I am actually 40 weeks pregnant). But we want her to come now!

Nothing has worked so far. We've tried enticing her out with promises of new toys and fun times, but no go. We've been going for walks everyday, but it's gotten so cold I think that might be more of an incentive for her to stay in. We're collecting ideas from friends and books and websites about other ways to make her hurry up -- bumpy roads, painting nails and eggplant parmesan are the top three contenders right now.

In some ways this is so incredibly bizarre, because I know when she gets here everything in our lives is going to change. Kevin and I were talking about it last night, and agree that this is good training for the total pace-of-life change that will take place when she arrives. It's going to take us longer to get things done, and take more focus on our communication to decide on how to do things. It brings up questions about how we do things now and how we want things to be with our family in the future. And for every question we answer it looks like ten more will be raised.

So while we're waiting for her to get here, do we try and figure out all of these things? Or watch TV and read and eat delicious meals? I vote for the latter.