Potty Training or Mommy Training?

So, the question has to be asked. Are they getting trained or am I the one who's actually trained? For the past 2 weeks I have been doing a potty training boot camp of sorts. John Rosemond, a parenting book author tells me that I am "Insulting their intelligence" by not training them before 3 yrs. old. (Excuse me while I roll my eyes) He does give me an idea of HOW to train them, so I decide to go for it! 

Well, they were very gung ho at first and then we seemed to backslide quite a bit, but for the past 5 days, Alison has been ACCIDENT free during the day! (Pull ups at night - I know a WHOLE other beast!) Martin is a little more of a focused individual and I choose to believe he knows to go, but gets really invested in whatever he is playing with and has an average of one accident per day. Mostly tinkle, but sometimes the dreaded accident. I find myself a little unable to completely relax till t

he poo poo hits the potty. 

Last Friday was about as much as I can handle in a day - here is a story that I told my friends at Twinstuff! We had taken Ali and Martin to get their first ice cream cone because they had a (virtually) accident free day... well - no one can ruin a day playing with friends, ice cream and a trip to the park like some 3 yr. olds! Sniff!

You don't have to read below. It's for purposes of torturing the kids later in life! To embarrass them when they are 16 and acting horrible!!! 

It's a BEAUTIFUL DAY and after 4-5 inches of snow 2 days ago, we are LOVING IT! We get to go to the park because there are no accidents and everyone is behaving etc... WOO HOO!! YEE HAW! At the park, my patience starts to wane. Ali's doing the potty dance, but refuses to let go of it after a long time on the potty. Imagine the echoing building with the toilet that the stuff goes to some strange planet below! It's LOVELY. So we go in. We go out. Mathena has to go, we go in with her (Ali's holding herself and crossing her legs) she see's Mathena go. Great, Ali's turn again. Sits and sits and sits. NOTHING. I say "OK, if you have an accident - we are leaving". Go out, Martin has to go. Go in (dizzy yet?). Martin tinkles. We get down, we go out. Everyone is getting ready to leave. Katrine's MIL has to go. As soon as we get out, Martin insists he needs to poop! So, I tell them to leave and bring Ali in the potty. Well she's NOT happy about that. (remember it all echoes!) 

Martin: I need to poop!
Me: Ok - pull pants down
Martin: NO! I don't need to poop
Me: Pull pants up
Martin: Screaming, NOoooooo, have to poop. 
Me: Pull pants down, put him ON the potty (with the foldable seat thingy) 
Martin: NO, no poop (he's PI$$ed NOW!)
Me: leave him there
Ali: CRYING IN THE CORNER OF THE GRODY BATHROOM ON THE FLOOR!
Me: tearing up
Martin: NO! jumps off potty
Me: pull pants up
Martin: No!!!!!!!!!!!! Need to poop. 
Me: Drag them BOTH out of the bathroom
Outside: The people outside the potty are trying not to show me their laughter!
Martin: Have to POOP!
Me: grab Ali and Martin, back in the bathroom
REPEAT ABOVE, but TURN UP THE VOLUME BY 100 Decibels! 
10 min. later we emerge from the toilet, I'm in tears Martin's naked from the waist down and I'm carrying him.
THROW all our CRAP into the diaper bag (they don't have SHOES ON EITHER!) and get Ali's hand carrying Martin. 
Martin: SCREAMING over and over and over all the way back to the car - which wasn't just across a tiny bit of grass and a sidewalk (otherwise we would have used the car toilets). 

My girlfriend can HEAR US and hasn't left yet (20 min. later!). She's trying to help, but I have LOST MY TEMPER completely. I put them in the back of the car on the potties. They are having a fit. I get angry at Ali and that makes her cry - she's the one that was actually being a bit cooperative and I messed that up completely (I gave her a big hug and told her that I was very sorry and the I was wrong yada yada yada). 

Martin on the other hand. I put a pull up on him - thinking he's going to retaliate by pooping in his carseat. Put him in the car and attempt to buckle. NOTHING DOING!!! So I closed the door to tend to Ali who was with Katrine. Martin's trying to climb OVER the seat with the carseat on it and the stroller behind it. Katrine goes around to get him and he's SCREAMING that he has to poop. She's got him, but I am not buying it. I get Ali in her seat (after a long hug and kisses and apologies  ) and finally have to use actual physical muscle to get Martin strapped in. He almost choked himself to death!  

Give girlfriend a hug and get the heck out of dodge! Martin threw a fit the WHOLE way home (5 min. - 6 tops!). Thank goodness it wasn't long. I was crying, Ali was trying to sleep. It lasted till we came in. He tried to leave through the garage! Little rascal! 

3 years old going on 15!

The kids scored his and hers birthday cakes this year. Dora (she really wanted DIEGO) and he got Cars! 

Naturally, they were ice cream cakes. 

We had a nice little party for the kids for their 3rd bday. There are a BILLION pictures. I'll see if I can select a few key photos.
Ali and Martin received so many wonderful gifts. Lot's of CARS stuff for Martin. The mini-Cars stuff is all the rage. Ali doesn't really have a focused interest like Martin does. She's a bit harder to buy for. All our friends with girls her age are really into everything PRINCESS. We only have Cinderella, so she's a little behind the curve on the princess hoopla (phew!). She does seem to like musical stuff. Her little piano toy is something she's really enjoying. She LOVES bubbles and blowing bubbles.

Grammy and Grampy made it on their actual birthday from Hawaii again (same as last year) to see them turn 3!! They loved it and all the presents (The basketball hoop and train set) that they received from them as well. I'm optimistic that the basketball hoop will get more action when the weather is nicer and it can be moved outside.

We had family and 3 yr. portraits taken. Ali was very difficult to capture and Martin was a bit of a camera ham to say the least. We had pictures with both sets of Grandparents and probably more to come with Grandma Knight visiting soon.

The week after their birthday, Papa and Gigi came during Papa's Spring Break. We celebrated with them as well! What fun. They managed to get them a lot of presents. Just kept on giving! 

They love their scooters and are getting more adept at using them.

The week after Papa and Gigi were here, my friend from College, Stephanie and her son Lucas, came to visit. The kids had a great time playing. He's a super sweet little man and smart and very coordinated. He can dress himself from head to toe and totally potty trained!! He was a WIZ on the scooter! He's a very busy little guy, but SO VERY LOVING. A direct result of the love he has received, I am certain.

March was a busy busy Month. At the beginning of March, the kids and I traveled out to DC to meet Jim and we drove to Boston. Jim had a training in the area and I have a lot of Twin Mom friends from twinstuff.com that I was dying to meet, so off we went. It was a hectic two weeks, but the kids are super little travelers. We managed to make it to Fenway Park for a tour. I guess since they beat us in the World Series last year it was a good stop. That and we like to visit stadiums and places like that. It was the coldest week of the year while we were there. Brrrr. We went to the Boston Aquarium with 3 other sets of twins.

One of the other highlights was the Air and Space Museum at the Dulles Airport. Really phenomenal! There is an ENTIRE space shuttle in there!!! Unbelievable how enormous this hanger is! You see one of the family favorites to the left here!! I wasn't lit well, so I had to do a little computer magic to help it out a bit! 

Overall the round trip in the car went quite well and we were really surprised and pleased. They did it all with NO DVD player. Imagine!! (Ok, we watched ONE movie on my laptop!)