the sum of me

Instead of writing a post, I've managed to waste time creating this word cloud ... the top 150-ish words appearing in my blog since I created it a year ago. The bigger the word, the more frequent it appears. The shape reminds me slightly of a thumb print.

potty watch

The path to successful potty training, not unlike sleeping through the night, for Little Dude has been a long worn one fraught with many ups and downs. With every 2 steps forward, we're almost immediately met with a step back. Last night, when I asked Little Dude when he was going to go potty on his own, he cheekily answered, "Don't worry, mommy. I'll go in March."

This morning at breakfast he announced that he was never going to go potty again. Yikes. Back to square one! I needed a different tactic and went on a hunt while the boys were at nursery school.

I presented Little Dude with the Potty Watch, a $14 purchase, at lunch time. He liked the music it played and agreed to put it on. The idea is that every 30, 60 or 90 minutes a musical alarm will go off to let Little Dude know that it was time to go potty. I set the timer to 60 minutes.

Ten minutes before the music was scheduled to come on, Little Dude came rushing by announcing that he had to poop and off he went to the bathroom to do his deed. "Put the music on, mommy," he asked still sitting on the toilet. And I did. Over and over. Finally, I told him that he had to wait another hour for the music to come back on.

The alarm went off while Little Dude was watching tv. Okay, here we go. The true test. I reminded Little Dude that the music meant it was potty-time, put the tv on pause and helped him out of his pants. Off he ran towards the bathroom. Minutes later, I heard, "Put the music on again! I peed!"

So here we are again. Back on track. How long the potty watch music will hold his interest, I don't know. I hoping much longer than the purple truck and trailer set did.

At least, he's going again.

update: Five hours. That's how long it took Little Dude to figure out that you have to press 2 buttons simultaneously and then the blue button to toggle through the settings to get the damn watch to stay on "play music" mode. The good news is that he's still going to the potty. [Sigh]

a year in review

February 6th will mark my first anniversary of blogging. Given that I haven't posted here in weeks, it seems absurd to even mention it. But here I am reflecting on the year past. My year of blogging sporadically.

So instead of celebrating my blog (a modest total of 63 posts ... 64 including this one), I think it is more fitting for me to celebrate the act of blogging. Briefly. Because it's late and the Good Man has just asked me to not be too long.

Thank you blogosphere for providing me with free therapy as I muddle my way through motherhood.

Thank you all you mommy bloggers out there. I love the way your stories make me think, reflect and laugh out loud.

Thank you to the few people out there who have taken the time to comment on my posts. It means more to me than you'll ever know.

In particular, thank you SMUKKE, a mom living in Europe who doesn't blog herself but followed my ramblings silently. You reached out to me with the most helpful advise and comments during a rough patch with LittleR Dude. You did not know me, yet you seemed to know me the most. I was so self-absorbed at the time that I forgot to really thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I'm sorry I haven't posted lately. To be honest, I've been using my camera more than words to capture my life as a mom raising two boys and have been posting them on a personal site.

I offer you a sampling of the latest photographs I've taken of my family in this video slideshow: