New Badges on my Mom vest

Thanksgiving was spent at my parents house in Indiana. I gorged myself on turkey and stuffing I didn't make, slept in and rested. I enjoyed hearing my son playing with some of my dad's old metal toys, and some of Alex's old toys. He was pretty worn out by the time we got home! While we were there, Dave and I were able to go out. Alone. For hours. Whoa! We really needed to reconnect, and it was fun to hang out at the mall and window shop a little.

Badge #1 First ER Visit: Dave's birthday came around on December 7th. I'd like to say I baked a nice dinner, we ate cake and ice cream while running through a meadow, but that's just not reality. Eli and I went to the store to buy some cupcakes and ice cream to celebrate (Eli insisted). Everything was fine until we were on our way out the door. Eli fell backwards on a shopping cart and cut his head open. Sigh. I didn't freak out and the employees were really sweet to me. They offered to call an ambulance, which I declined. It didn't seem all that bad, but I preferred to go to the urgent care center near my house just to make sure. So we went, and they said we'd need to go to the ER because he needed a couple stitches and they don't do stitches on kids this young. So off to the ER we went. I called Dave, who was on his way home by then, and said "Happy Birthday! We're going to the ER, wanna join us?" Eli ended up getting one staple in his head, which didn't require any anesthetic. As we were walking out of the ER, I saw a teenager, a child, and a toddler in line for assistance. And, guess what...they were all boys! The funny thing is that Eli had no clue he was supposed to be in any pain at all. He screamed at the staple being put in and at me applying pressure to stop the bleeding afterward, but as soon as my hand came off he was fine, and trying to twirl around the bed.

Badge #2 Christmas Potty Training: Let me tell you, Christmas is the perfect time to potty train. I bribed him with gifts that came in, which helped with the training and not overwhelming his senses with all his gifts at once. I started by giving him 4 M&M's if he'd pee in the potty and I made a really big deal about it when he finally went for the first time. But then he started going potty every 10 minutes and was at risk of getting a really big sugar high! So then I set the timer for 20mins. After each beep, we went to the potty and he got an M&M if he was dry. Over then next few days I increased it to an hour. For the most part he's really good. He stays dry for his naps and when we go out anywhere, which is nice. I have a box with some small things in it, tools mostly, and he gets several opportunities to earn a gift throughout the day, if he's dry at lunch, after his nap, when we get home from somewhere.