Potty Training: Jacob Style

Once again, Jacob has defied my expectations :)

Yesterday, I was going about my business and he came up to me, grunted, and pointed to his pull-ups.

I asked him if he wanted to go to the bathroom, and he nodded. Then he took my hand, and pulled me into the bathroom where we have the potty training toilet.

Now, mind you, I haven't pushed potty training on Jake for the last couple of months because of the chaos of school. I wanted things to settle down before I pushed it on him again.

But once we got into the bathroom, he had me help him take his pants and pull-ups off, and POOPED right in the toilet. 

For any of you that have potty trained before, the potty always come first, and then months down the road, they get the hang of pooping. 

Nope.  Not Jake.  He wants to cut to the chase and master pooping first.  

Needless to say, the next couple of minutes were filled with high-fives, laughs, giggles, and squeals from his mother.  I guess we'll be doing some serious potty training these next couple weeks.  Jacob insists on it!  

Boo Boos and Buses

Today is a short entry...thank goodness.  

It's not my favorite, but it's part of life. 

Yesterday was picture day at the school.  Wahoo!  It's always fun to see how much Jake has changed from year to year.  

He chose out his own shirt, we put mousse in his hair to keep the cowlicks at bay, and he was stylin' by the time we were outside waiting for the bus.  

Three minutes before the bus was to arrive, as luck would have it, he was running up the driveway and tripped.  This isn't one of those oops-I-tripped-now-I'm-going-to-get-back-up kind of trips.  Oh no.  Not my Jake.  It was more like a trip over your own feet, skid for 3 feet, and check to see if any teeth are missing kind of trips.  

When the bus arrived, I had a white washcloth that had blood all over it, my T-shirt was bloody, and I was still picking debris out of his mouth from the roadway.  Plus, he had a road rash the size of a silver dollar on the bottom of his chin.  Yeah, school pictures are gonna be fantastic this year.  Not. :|

On the upside, Jake is beginning to really start babbling.  I'm hearing tons more consonants coming out of his mouth, and he's trying to say entire phrases (yes!!!!!).  This morning it was "I did it!" and this afternoon, he said "buh..." as a school bus drove by.  I squealed.  It's the little things when it comes to speech for him.  And progress is still progress.  It's great to finally see some coming out of his mouth!

But, of course, we couldn't leave this little entry on a good note.  Because it's important to see that Jake is multifaceted.  He's smart, he's feisty, he's funny, he's clumsy, and...he's a runner.  

Today when the bus came (and I silently celebrated a no-trip day), I walked four steps to get his back pack.  I kid you not.  FOUR steps. In those four steps, he decided that standing still was not enough.  After all, he saw the bus and he wanted to get on!  So when I turned my back, he put on the gas, and ran out into the middle of the street to great the bus.  GAH!!!!  I don't think I've ever ran so fast as I did trying to drag him from the middle of the road.  Luckily, the bus was still 1/2 a block away and she slowed the second she saw him step foot on the street.  But it's scary nonetheless.  And the driver and her aid had a good laugh about the situation - thank goodness!

A random story about Jacob

 *All names, locations and information was made up to protect the innocent*

Once upon a time there was this little boy named Jacob. 

He had 3 big brothers and sisters who always seemed to have fun.  Jacob wanted nothing better than to run and play with his brothers and sisters. 

But because he was so little, he was often left behind.  

Poor Jacob.  He was so sad.  Being little was nooooo fun. 

One day, little Jacob decided he wasn't going to stay home any more.  

So he filled his backpack with goodies, and decided to go on an adventure of his own. 

During his travels, he want to the botanical gardens,

National Forests,

And even the grasslands of Africa.

Every day was an adventure for this little fellow. 

After traveling the world, little Jacob decided it was time to go home.  

He packed up his bags, and made the long journey back to his family.

His big brothers and sisters greeted him with open arms and told him how important he was to the family.  They had missed him soooooooo much!  Jacob never realized how important he was to his family, and decided that he would save the rest of his travels for another time when he was much much older.  

The End!

P.S. ~ This was just an excuse to showcase some of my favorite Jacob pictures from the last couple of weeks :)

This Too Shall Pass....Wait, Maybe Not!

If you've ever been to my house in the last, say, 10 YEARS, you'd know that I really like my motivational quotes. At any given time you can see quotes taped up all over my house - in the bedroom, bathroom, next to my computer, the kitchen, next to the treadmill...anywhere that I spend any significant amount of time.




I use those quotes because I live an extremely chaotic life filled with running to and fro from task to task until I collapse into bed in an exhausted heap in the wee hours of the night...or morning. These quotes are used to make me stop, pause for a moment, and reflect on what I am actually trying to achieve in the midst of this chaos. Sometimes it is weight loss. Sometimes it is increased spirituality. Sometimes it is just to create a certain sense of inner peace. Occasionally, when someone I care about is having difficulty, or needing a bit of motivation, I will pass one of my favorite quotes or pictures onto them in hopes that it helps them in some way to get through the trial or the goal they have in their lives.



One of my favorites for those going through difficult times in their lives is a quote that says, "This too shall pass....like a kidney stone". It's my way of giving support, while inserting a bit of sadistic humor to the situation. So, as I began going through my list of motivational quotes and pictures in search of a 'motto' to help me get through my most difficult moments trying to come to grips with incorporating Downs Syndrome into our home, I rested upon my "This too shall pass" quote and realized that this label, as nice as it is, doesn't exactly fit for me any more.

(Click on the picture to order a mug or a T-shirt)

Yes, certain stages will pass, but the Downs Syndrome itself will never go away. Short of marriage, and the mere birth of a child, NOTHING in my life has been so permanent as the diagnosis of Downs Syndrome for our child. It's not going to go away. We can't cure it. We can't ignore it. Baby Jacob won't grow out of it.



I thought about that for quite some time. And I came to the conclusion that even with all of the new information I collect about Downs Syndrome each and every day - the risks, the problems, the horror stories, and the not-so-horror stories. I'm OK with that. I'm OK with this change in my life - as permanent as it may be. Whatever God and life decides to throw in our family's direction...BRING IT!!!!!!! Because nothing is going to detract from this beautiful new spirit we are about to bring into our family and ultimately the world. Baby Jacob will truly make the world a better place.



By merely being Jacob, he has already made me change my focus from candy bouquets to where it should have been all along - my children, my husband and my family. That one change, in and of itself, will make our family stronger, happier, and more at peace with those around us.



So, this WON'T pass. So what? I have a new picture and motivational quote on my wall next to my computer for all to see. It's a picture of a lighthouse in the water in the middle of a huge storm. Waves are crashing 4 stories up the lighthouse and crashing all around the building. And, if you look really really hard, you can see a lone man in the doorway of the lighthouse, near the railing calmly standing there watching the raging waters crashing all around him. Underneath that picture there is a quote that says,

 "Sometimes God calms the storm...Sometimes God Calms the man and lets the storm rage!"