Pee. Poop. And Parenting.

Updates from our humble little corner of the world...

-- You know you have officially "arrived" into motherhood when you hear your name ... your first and last name being called repeatedly over the intercom at a major chain grocery store ... "Attention, Fred Meyer shoppers... will Britney Colton please come to the Playland. Your son has urinated in the Playland. Britney. Colton. Come. Now."

-- Brae has bonded with his bowel movements. He loves sticking his hands down his pants and playing with his, umm, creations. Lately, he's even taken up talking to them. I changed a poopy diaper the other day and Brae insisted on commenting on its departure to the diaper pail with a "Buh-bye, poop! See you later!"

-- Brae seems to have regressed a little with the arrival of his sister. Potty training has taken a back seat (not that it was ever really in the front seat, anyway), and has also started waking up in the middle of the night. The other day, he wanted his diaper changed in the crib along with his sister. I'm kind of a pushover, so I let him. As I was changing them both (now that I'm writing this, I'm realizing how silly I was for even allowing him to do this), he looks over at Sienna and says "Uh-oh, Mommy. Sienna has an owie." I looked at where he was pointing. It was her nipple.

-- Brae understands that Norm is dead. When I ask him where Norm has gone, he says, "Norm's at church." That confused me for a while. Then I realized that we had told Brae that Norm went to be with Jesus. And, every Sunday, Brae knows that Jesus is at church. This was a good opportunity to tell Brae that Jesus is actually everywhere, and He lives in our heart. This made Brae smile, big. Because now he also believes that Norm is in his heart, too.

-- Brae is starting to understand that he's adopted. Well, kind of. He's starting to understand that "adopted" and "Brae" go together. Lately, he's become accustomed to saying, "I'm adopted. I'm SPECIAL," with a huge grin on his face. I hope he always feels that way.

-- I love how no one person that crosses our path is accidental. I very much believe in divine appointments. On vacation a couple weeks ago, I was at the pool. I saw a Caucasian couple with an African-American toddler boy. Sure, this could have been a biological child (hey, you never know), but I thought it was safe to go up to ask them about their adoption journey. They were very engaging and it ended up being an awesome, divine appointment conversation. We found out they are Christian and we exchanged adoption stories, all the while our boys and Brae's cousin (also adopted) splashed in the pool together. It was such a beautiful picture -- an African-American boy, a quarter Peruvian boy (Brae), and a half Hispanic boy (Brae's cousin) just enjoying a warm summer day. Little do they know the very special bond they each share, and how many sleepless nights, wet pillows, and pleading prayers were spent on their behalves.

-- I cannot let a post go by without mentioning my lovely daughter, the diva. I preface all of this by saying I love her very, very much. But the girl is a piece of work! I need go no farther than describing her sleep style. She's swaddled. Double swaddled. She's in a vibrating chair. The vibrating chair needs to be already vibrating before she goes in, not after. She wants to be fanned. And not with an oscillating fan, but a fan directly on her. She wants the sound of my womb (that sounds silly) playing in the background, and it is, on the sound machine. And she wants to be rocked with a binky held in her mouth (it's too much work for her to suck it in herself), and then gently placed in the chair.

I know. Ridiculous. And I've completely enabled it. Well, no more. I've put my foot down. Stomp.

With Brae, I never read any parenting books (well, I read the "Happiest baby on the block" and determined at Chapter 3 that my son already was, so I stopped reading). Brae was just cool with whatever we tried. He was very adaptable.

Sienna is different. So, after much resistance and gnashing of teeth, I gave in and read "Babywise".

I'm a changed woman. Meaning, since I've implemented the methods in Babywise, Sienna has given me a gift: 9.5 hours of straight sleep at night!

My initial hesitation to Babywise was simple -- I'm set in my ways when it comes to parenting. Or, at least I like to think I am. I've raised a perfectly healthy and happy 2.5 year old boy, and I did it without any parenting book. And, probably the bigger reason, I simply do not have (want to make) the time to read a parenting book.

But, I've been tired of living like a zombie, and I needed my sleep. (Thank you, Kelly).

So, right now, thanks to Babywise, Sienna is in her crib (well, she's in her vibrating chair, which is IN her crib -- hey, no judgment, it's baby steps, people).