Night Off (sort of)

Andy is away tonight, all by his lonesome, so I have a night with just me and the kids (and my dogs, and the foster dogs, and the cats...) You would think this would stress me out (I have to watch ALL three kids for most of the weekend all by myself!) but it actually doesn't. When Andy isn't coming home I: 1) don't even bother make the half-assed attempt to clean up the house that I usually make before he gets home (dirty dishes on the counter from lunch, unfolded laundry in the living room and the playroom is covered in toys), 2) assume that there is something I can throw together for dinner that will be just fine and don't think about it at all until at least 5:00 (scrambled eggs anyone?) and 3) let the kids watch 3 cartoons instead of 2 because, you know, I'm doing this ALL alone here and I could use the extra break. So, as the kids finish watching Martha Speaks and prepare to watch Curious George, I get to surf aimlessly on Pinterest and update my blog. Life is good. Thank you Martha and George.

The big new around these parts is that Eleanor is officially potty training. She has been wearing her big girl underwear every day this week, and didn't have any accidents until today. She peed in her pants while watching Dora because, obviously, she did not want to stop watching Dora. I will add this to the list of reasons that Dora is evil and my arch nemesis. Like a good mother, I stopped short of threatening to take all Eleanor's Dora DVDs and BURN THEM if she peed in her pants while watching Dora again, but I did ask her to please tell Mommy when she needs to use the potty. The second time she peed in her pants while playing with her brothers, and when I asked her why she didn't tell me she (I swear) rolled her eyes and said "Sorry Mommy! I was playing!" This might not go quite as smoothly as I had hoped.

Those of you familiar with my February schedule (hi Mom!) might be wondering why in God's name I have chosen to switch Eleanor to underwear a week before we leave for vacation in Florida and a week before Eleanor will need to ride an hour and a half to the airport and then fly on a plane, all without (ideally) either pooping or peeing in her pants. Well, the simple answer to that is, I didn't. Eleanor woke up last weekend and announced that she would be wearing panties that day. Well, fine. It was the weekend and I was happy she wanted to practice, so good for you little lady! Well, on Monday when I went to put a diaper on her before we got dressed for school she said "No Mommy! I want big girl panties!" Oh boy. On Tuesday she wasn't feeling well so I decided to put the training underwear on her. These are like the cloth diaper version of pull ups. They are underwear with a little extra padding to absorb any accidents. Eleanor had a full blown meltdown. She started screaming "No I want panties!" on the diaper table. So since then she has been in underwear during the day (she still doesn't object to the diaper at night, thank God for small favors). Of course it had been going so well that I was just about to update my Facebook status to say "Almost a week with no accidents! Eleanor is officially potty trained!" Yeah, I don't know why I never learn either. Obviously my children can read my mind and any time I think something like that they will immediately remind me exactly who is in charge here.

Speaking of which, Curious George is ending and the chorus of "I'm hungry! What's for dinner!" is about to start. Wish me luck :)