Venice and Undies

Since Jason started working the beach patrol in Venice, Gavin has asked to see where he works. Yesterday morning he said to Jason "when are we going to visit you at work?" Jason answered "maybe today." Ummm...maybe I should have been consulted?? No, it was fine. We didn't have any plans so it was a perfect day for it. The drive only took us about 45 min and since I have never been to Venice, it was fun for me too. I hear Jason's stories and now I can picture what he's talking about. The boardwalk is crazy and its so bizarre to me that people would spend money buying what the merchants are selling. I mean, who really needs a $3 tongue whistle?? We played on a playground there, walked the boardwalk, had lunch with Jason and his partner and then the boys played in the sand/water. They had a lot of fun. I had to really engage them on the way home since I didn't want them falling asleep in the car (it was almost 5pm!) so we sang songs, played I SPY and told stories. I was successful and they were in bed at 7pm and asleep shortly after.
Another detail that slightly complicated our trip was the fact that I started potty-training Ez yesterday in the midst of all of that. He has been "ready" for awhile, but I have been lazy. With this boy, I had to take the power struggle away and just tell him : We're Potty Training. No arguments. I was sort of waiting for him to do like Gavin did - one day tell me he was done with diapers and virtually potty train himself. Hmm. Not going to happen. SO - he was in undies ALL day - didn't even want a pull-up for the car ride. He did great. We had a few accidents, but I expected much worse, actually. Today is day #2 and he's doing well - yeah - a few accidents, but for the most part he seems to be getting it. I'm looking forward to the day I'll just be changing one kid! The funny thing to me is his motivation. I am giving him treats for every pee and I thought that would be a big motivation because he LOVES candy. While that is a good motivator, the best motivator is the promise that he can go in the Ikea play area with Gavin when he's potty trained. He has seen Gavin go into the play area 2 or 3 times and he has not been able to go because of his diaper (they only take potty-trained kids). Somehow he remembered that and out of the blue yesterday after his first time peeing in the toilet said "does that mean I can go to class with Gavin now??" I was confused and asked him what he meant and he said "at Ikea." Ohhhh...funny boy. Yes, I told him - after you are really good at wearing undies and peeing in the toilet, you can go in to the Ikea class with Gavin. He asked me about it no less than 5 times over the course of the day yesterday. It must look really fun in there!

Venice playground

The boys are "resting" together and its working pretty well today. I've started letting Ez just rest too and have found that it has really eliminated our bedtime battles. He is so tired at night he falls right to sleep instead of staying awake for 2 hours and getting up 100 times. I don't mind that they don't nap...I still have them play in their room or "rest" for an hour. That's enough break for me until bedtime!
PS - Anyone impressed with my voracious blogging?