My last day of being pregnant – a bittersweet feeling. I will be so happy to have my body – somewhat – back, but at the same time it was a nice adventure. I’ll be happy to meet this little boy I have had growing inside my belly for 39 weeks – weird how we can have something like that growing inside of us. Tomorrow morning is the final morning I’ll wake up and shower pregnant with Jack – and I just have to say, “Yay!” Off to the hospital at 5:30 in the morning for a 6 am check in and then surgery is at 7:30. I am freaked out only because last time I suffered some complications and it was not an enjoyable experience. I am a little nervous that it will happen again this time – fingers are crossed that it won’t. Scott will post pictures on Jack’s site as soon as he can – it won’t be right away, but soon I am sure.

We went to visit the hospital for a tour yesterday and my little Sammy was tired and probably hungry too. It was all quiet and the nurse was explaining things to us – meanwhile, Sammy began to scream and have a fit because he wanted to go back out and play with the toy they had in the waiting room! Scott was trying to listen to the nurse over the screaming child, and I finally had to yell over Sam to tell Scott to take him out – yikes! I bet the staff is looking forward to seeing Sam again tomorrow!

It’ll be some time before I am going to write a post again – I do hope my two or three readers will hang in there while I am away… Like before when I didn’t write for months. Visit Jack and Sam’s sites to see how the boys are doing and I’ll be back as soon as I can!

Sam seems excited about this baby brother idea – of course it’s just an abstract idea in Sammy’s world. Nothing concrete has been produced from all the baby brother talk. He’ll tell you where the baby is and he’ll tell you that he’s going to be a big brother – but reality will hit Wednesday morning when the doctor removes this idea from my belly and it becomes concrete. I really think Sam is going to be OK with the big brother role; I don’t doubt he’ll want to return Jack from whence he came from time to time, but in the larger picture I believe he’ll love Jack! I really wanted to capture a moment of Sam loving my belly – or giving Jack a hug.

Sammy is so cute! He is on my belly like this all the time! I love it!

Spells success! We have success in our house with the long-awaited potty training. Scott and I were freaking out with everything that wasn’t happening with potty training. Sam showed no interest in the potty, he was happy as hell to have this nifty device called the diaper strapped to his tushie. We kept looking for the “signs” that he was ready, but they never showed up. He, once, showed interest in a kiddie potty from the store – we bought it and set it up. Sammy looked it over, pushed the buttons and had fun playing with it. When we took off his diaper and tried to sit him down he freaked out! It scared him and that was the end of that potty. We then bought one that fits on top of the big toilet and he would scream when we tried to sit him on it. We threw in the white towel (one of many) and simply figured he just was not ready. His preschool was next to put on the pressure by telling us we waited too long and now it was going to be harder to potty train him. I tried to explain that he wasn’t showing any signs of being ready, but they just laughed at that saying, “There are no signs, you just have to do it.” After weeks of failure and realizing his school was doing more harm to the matter at hand then good – we threw in the white towel again. I witnessed a few unpleasant events that his school did and that caused us to pull Sammy out of school there. Now, not only wouldn’t he go potty on the toilet, but he screamed and cried when we even asked if he had to go. Two steps forward and fifty steps back! We did nothing to force the issue and figured that he would let us know when he was ready. We had a bucket full of prizes and Sam could care less about getting the toy. He’d tell us that he wanted the car (or whatever) and then we’d tell him, “You can have the prize if you go pee pee in the toilet.” his response was, “I don’t want the car.” I felt the pressure as a mother that I was doing something wrong – although, I knew within myself that time was key. When someone would say something about how he really should be going potty on the toilet, I would brush them off. What do they know? Then after I’d feel all guilty and bad about the situation. No matter what I never pushed him or forced him! I kept all the negative feelings hidden deep within myself. I never once felt disappointed in him – nor did I ever make him feel bad about not going potty in the toilet. We would just have to wait until Sammy was ready…

The curtains opened up and the sunlight finally came flooding into Sammy’s world as the time we had been waiting for finally arrived! Sammy was looking through the freezer and found a bag of individually wrapped Ghiradelli chocolates and wanted them. I told him – thinking, of course, it would be like the prizes he turns down each time – if he went pee pee in the toilet, he could have one. I took off his diaper and he went to the toilet and went pee pee in the toilet! No screaming, no crying, no fighting, no yelling – just pee pee. We got all excited and jumped around yelling, “Yay – Sammy went pee pee in the toilet!!!” We did a high five and went and opened a chocolate. I was excited, but we’ve done this before where Sammy has gone pee pee once, and only once. I decided to leave him naked for a little while. I asked him often if he had to go and each time I asked I reminded him about the chocolates… It was like magic, he didn’t once pee on the floor that day, and took himself into the bathroom to go pee pee in the toilet. Each time he would come running down the hall in this high pitched excited voice calling out, “Mommy! Mommy, I did it! I went pee pee in the toilet!!!” We spent all week in the house just working on going pee pee in the toilet. The first few days I just left him naked, then we introduced the underwear – which he peed in at first, but that was it. After he got the idea that it was not a diaper he was OK with it. He would take off his underwear all the way – and his shirt – in order to go pee pee in the toilet. A lot of work, but whatever works! Then after a couple days with underwear we put on pants and he did wonderfully! He still had to get all naked to go potty, but we were OK with that. He is now keeping his shirt on – for the most part, sometimes he comes running out of the bathroom completely naked. He still has to conquer the poop department, but we have learned it is par for the course and most children cannot control the poop thing until like age four and a half! *yikes* Whatever – we can handle it, he goes pee pee in the toilet and that’s big enough for right now. Our little fella has just about fulfilled a major milestone in his little life – and we couldn’t be prouder parents! I want to scream to the world, “Sammy goes pee pee in the toilet!” I want to answer the phone, “Hi, Sammy goes pee pee in the toilet!” My heart jumps with excitement each and every time my little fella comes running down the hall with his high pitched voice yelling, “Mommy! Mommy, I did it! I went pee pee in the toilet!”