Sorry I have been so bad about blogging lately! I have been so lazy super busy potty training a very rambunctious 2 year old. Whew! I decided that once all of our family visits were over for a while, and things were slowing down a little for the summer, that now was the perfect time to embark on this mommy torture new adventure.

I had done some reading over the past few months and this one particular article stuck out to me as a method of potty training that I wanted to try. It is basically a dive right in, head first, approach. You make a clean break from diapers and start 3 days of focused training. No bottoms are allowed and lots of fluids to give lots of opportunity for teaching. The idea of getting the process going at a good pace was appealing to me. So we headed out to the library and picked out some fun potty books and then picked up some juice and treats at the store. I already had a fun potty training video at home for Aiden to watch, so we were set to go!

The first day was pretty hairy. I had to watch Aiden like a hawk and put him on the potty everytime I thought he might have to go. He did have lots of accidents, but he also had lots of successes. The start of the 2nd day was pretty much the same, but when I got Aiden up from his nap in the afternoon, he went straight to his potty and for the rest of the evening he kept putting himself on it whenever he had to go... and we had no accidents. I have to say, I was pretty excited to see how well this method was working and was thrilled to think that it might be this easy. Well, I was wrong, it wasn't! At least not for Aiden. The next day was awful! It was like he had forgotten everything from the day before and had accident after accident, (with a few successes thrown in just to keep mommy from going crazy). I could tell this really wasn't going to be a 3 day deal. The next 5 days seemed to be much of the same, I kept thinking that maybe he just wasn't ready, but then I would remind myself that if he wasn't ready, he wouldn't have done so well the 2nd day. Aiden's biggest problem was that when he would go potty, he would only go part way because he was just too eager to get back up and carry on playing. A couple minutes later he would then have an accident because he still had to go...grrrr! So after much thought and reading on the internet, I decided to up the rewards and to start reading fun books to keep him on the potty long enough to go all the way. I planned to stick it out a few more days and if, by the end of last week, he wasn't doing any better, we would back off for a little while to save both our sanities (and our carpet).

I am happy to report that by Friday of last week, it suddenly clicked for him. He has been doing so well. We have had very few accidents and he seems so much more comfortable with all of this, he even uses the big potty now and yesterday I started putting him in underwear when we are at home. We still have a ways to go in him being fully potty trained, but I am thrilled by how far we have come. Our biggest challenge now is having him go when we are out. I have him in pull-ups and I have taken him into the public restrooms, but I hate using them and feel so yukky putting him on the toilets (not to mention the fact that my octopus child wants to investigate everything in the stall). Even if they have the liners, he scrunches them up when he tries to sit on them and so it is pretty pointless. I recently saw this on the internet and I am going to order one for him. Hopefully that will help.

So this has been our potty training journey so far. It has definitely been a very stretching time, where I have often felt frustrated and exhausted, but this is just another milestone in our little guys life, and I am so blessed to be able to stay home with him so we can learn this together. I will keep you updated, and if anyone has any tips they would like to share,  I would love to hear them :)

Sporting his new undies!

...and may you be encouraged by it too. How I look forward to that day when our faith shall be sight!

Carl's sister Jenny came to visit for 10 days and we had so much fun with her!  Our days were pretty full and we found lots of fun things to do. Since Carl had just started his new job (which is going very well, thank you for all your sweet comments) he wasn't able to join us very often, but we still had a great time. 

Aiden, of course, loved having her here and all the attention, along with lots of hugs and kisses, that she gave him. I thoroughly enjoyed the company too, as well as getting to watch chick flicks in the evenings after Aiden went to bed... felt just like college days (I never tire of "Never Been Kissed"). We were sad to see her go, but so thankful she took the time off work to visit us.

...and as always we took lots of pictures :)

This morning at 6 am I kissed my hubby goodbye as he left for his first day at his new job! I hadn't mentioned anything yet on our blog because we wanted to wait until the day arrived... just in case things fell through (you never know). We actually weren't looking for Carl to change jobs, but the Lord dropped the opportunity in our laps. About a month ago, a friend of ours called to say that there was a possiblity of a job opening up where he works and to see if Carl would be interested. It sounded great and so we prayed about it and waited to see what happened. About 3 weeks ago the position did open up and Carl went in for an interview. My hubby did fantastic and he was offered the job! I am so proud of him!

The job is quite exciting for Carl! He will be doing similar work, but it is a complete change of scenery. At his last job he worked for lots of smaller companies around the metroplex, but he will now be a Systems Administrator (that's an IT guy) for a very large financial firm in downtown Dallas. He will be working on the top 3 floors of a highrise building (which is quite funny because he hates heights...). He has never worked in the corporate realm before and so he finds that exciting (although he is not so sure about having to dress up everyday :)). He is currently hired as a contractor for this position and it is likely that he will join on as a permanent employee early next year. In any case, the experience that this position will afford him as well as the wonderful increase in pay, we are praising the Lord for his continual provision for our family!

Putting up with me as I take a quick snap this morning... and looking so handsome :)

Meet Putt Putt. This is the newest addition to the Barnes Family! Clearly this car is anything but new, but that is what makes this car so wonderful. As most of you know, Carl's old car died a couple months ago and since then we have been a one car family. We were willing to stay that way unless the Lord brought something that was cheap and reliable our way. Well a few weeks ago, a friend told us of a pilot who was selling his 86 Toyota Camry. It was an airport car that the pilots used for transport to and from the airport. Since it was an airport car, that meant that it was outside pretty much the whole time and that is why it is pretty faded and even a little rusty in some spots. However, also because it was an airport car, that meant that it had low mileage, 116000 miles to be exact, which for a 24 year old car is pretty amazing (side note: my old 87 Toyota Camry had 289000 miles on it when I donated it). Our friend had the car checked out by a mechanic and everything looked good, except for the not so pretty aspect. We prayed about it and decided that at the price that he was asking, it was too good an opportunity to pass up. So 2 1/2 weeks ago, Putt Putt joined our family.

We are thrilled to have 2 cars again! Carl drives Putt Putt for work and I have my Jetta back. I think the best thing that we love about having this 2nd car is that we didn't have to go into any debt for it. We paid for it out of pocket which, Lord willing, means that we can stick to our original budget plan to being completely debt free (except for our mortgage), and that is exciting!!

I also have to say, just how much I love my hubby. I know many guys wouldn't be caught dead driving around in a car that looked pretty old, but not my hubby. He see's it as God's wonderful provision for our family and is happily driving it. He often tells me that he likes his new car and that it is fun to drive. Also, as you can see from the picture, it has Aiden's stamp of approval. As soon as Carl gets home in the evenings he says "drivey car?" and then the boys often out go and spend some time with it while I make dinner. Aiden pretending to drive and Carl doing some touch ups :)