Success (Temporarily) Recalled

(At least I hope it's just temporary! :( )

In looong and hard days like today I wish I could do what my older son Kelvin did the other day.

He has a "daughter," a Cabbage Patch Kids doll which I got as apresent from a friend two years ago and that he promptly adopted as his. He hasn't treated it well, though (throwing her everywhere, trying to "hurt" her) and I don't like that, so we hide it put it away for a while so it can last a few more years. Last month he asked me to get her out and promised that he wouldn't throw her or do anything to "hurt" her, so I gave her to him. He was very careful and gentle, took care of her, had her sleep in bed with him, etc. Before the week was over, though, he did something that surprised me very much. He handed me the doll and told me: "Mama, you can put her away. It's just too hard to be a father." Very wise words from a five year old. He surprises me like that quite often.

I can't do that, though. I can't just decide not to be a mother anymore or take a temporary break even though sometimes I wish I could.

I thought that our trip to Massachusetts wouldn't be a wise move after our recent success in potty training Linton and initially everything went really well. We had to stop more often at service areas than we'd like to so we could take him to the bathroom, but he was OK. It was actually going so well that even though he was wearing diapers to bed, he woke up with the urge to go a couple of nights (in the beginning of the night). We took his little potty and he even used it for "number 2" when we were visiting a friend on Tuesday. Yesterday, though, things took a turn for the worse -- he had two small "accidents" while at grandma's apartment. The drive home was OK, we stopped a few times and he remained dry (in his pull-ups), but then came this morning.

Today he had four more "accidents" of the wet kind and refused to have a BM until I put his diaper on for the night. Sigh. I was so stressed out about all that (and trying to keep the boys from fighting constantly)! I'm praying that this is just a temporary "recall" of the potty training process... I feel apprehensive because next week we're traveling to Brazil and I guess big changes don't bode well for potty training. Today, for example, I think he felt the change of both coming back home and not having daddy with him anymore after hanging out with him during the day for 5 days in a row.

Wish us luck.