Potty Training.

Oh yeah, that's right. We've been potty training, baby! My least favorite parenting task thus far (though I imagine teaching a kid to drive can be worse).

Harris is 3. Full disclosure--Harris will be 4 in April. He's not even a young 3. But he has expressed ZERO interest in potty training. We bought him a potty for this third birthday. He never used it. I asked him if he wanted to be a big boy. He would tell me he wanted to stay a little boy.

I asked him if he ever got sick of diapers.

No, he did not.

I finally got some courage and decided to make him do it anyway.

The first day he cried a lot. And told me he wanted his diaper back. And asked me if he spun around a lot, if that would make him a little boy again.

What? I don't know either.

But after the first day, he caught on. We are not 100% yet, but we are doing much better.

Do I bribe while potty training? Absolutely. I don't think my kids understand how much negotiating power they have in this situation. If Harris would have told me, "I'll never have a stinky diaper again if you give me $500", I would have gone for my checkbook.

But since Harris doesn't know what money is, I told him to pick anything he wanted for the prize. He picked a potty watch. It has a timer on it to help him remember to go. June also has one. So of course Gwen was feeling left out and I bought one for her too. And now Gwen will only go to the bathroom when her timer goes off. That's what we call regression, folks.

Those first few trips to the potty we cheered like we were at the Super Toilet Bowl and Harris still expects some of that same appreciation one week later. I have to admit it takes a lot of effort to smile and look into the toilet to see what he has done, but he pretty much insists. Such glamour.

In other news, things are starting to get Christmas-y around here, and I couldn't be more excited. We are taking a three-week break from school because I said so.

Some of the festivities:

We spent the weekend stuffing envelopes with our Christmas cards, and the kids helped out with the address stamp. Which means that our address was stamped everywhere except the upper left hand corner of the envelope.

We made fudge yesterday.

Dan periodically receives samples of upcoming Hershey products in the mail, and we always do a big taste test and rank our favorites. This time around, an organic Reese's cup won. 

We have started watching Christmas movies. Can you name these?

Please note the top half-only decorated Christmas tree. It's my signature special. Thanks, toddlers!

June looks naked in the above photo, but alas those are just light-pink pants.

The Jolley Family Christmas Movie Musts:

Elf 

Muppet Christmas Carol

White Christmas 

It's a Wonderful Life

The Snowman

Charlie Brown Christmas

Home Alone

The Family Man

The Preacher's Wife

While You Were Sleeping

We don't all agree on every movie on the list, but this is my blog. So there!

I also found Brady Bunch Christmas at the library and could not be more excited to watch it. I grew up with that movie!

Adding to that Christmas feeling: it snowed today.

Randomness:

We're painting our kitchen chairs.

And our church photo from yesterday:

June has started wearing a mask even before getting into the van for church because she says our van smells bad. She's not wrong.

The End.