This could go horribly wrong...

Well, our house was excessively quiet today, except for Joey, wandering around, looking a little lost, asking "Where? W-where my friends? Where??"

But I had something planned for Joey, to distract him from his missing friend.  Inspired by Brie's and Geoff's attempts to toilet train Kael, I got to thinking that maybe it was time to give it another try for Joey.  He was doing well for a while, but then he started to steadfastly refuse.  He just coudn't be bothered. Trucks and trains are ever so much more interesting.

But I'd really like to get this over with, already. For one thing, Dennis and I have been dealing with poop for over eight years, now, and it would be kind of awesome to be past that stage in our life. And, for another, it occurred to me that it would be really nice to deal with the inevitable accidents while living in this apartment, with its wood floors, rather than at our home in Kirkland, with all of our carpets.  I kind of like my carpets.

The problem is, when I toilet trained my other kids, I scarcely remember how I finally got Ella and Alex to leave their diapers behind.  I do remember it took an awfully long time with Alex: I recall talking with my grandma and she agreeing that, yep, little boys are much harder to toilet train.  At that age, they're a little less focused on things like cleanliness and sanitation.  Well, at any age, I guess.

And I also remember a more recent conversation that I had a with a nanny.  She'd toilet-trained dozens of kids, she said, and she insisted that the only way to do it was to leave off the diapers, cold-turkey.  Which is why I'm now currently living dangerously.  I've rolled back the carpets, and there's a pale, naked bottom bobbing around my house.

There were definitely some bribes involved with Ella and Alex, to finally get them into underpants, and so I'm trying the same with Joey.  I told him I'd give him one M&M any time he sat on the pot, and if he had some success, he could have a handful, or, what we call "a whole pile!" It took him just a few hours of this before he started self-administering his rewards.  I'd hear him skitter into the bathroom, grunt for a moment, and sigh, "Just one."  And then I'd hear him patter off to the kitchen, and then the distinctive rustle of the bag of chocolate.

Unfortunately, there was only one "whole pile" of chocolate distributed today.  No, really...it was unfortunate.  Our laundry machine has been running nonstop.

And I think Joey's been getting frustrated, too.  A couple of times this evening, he would sit, and try, and then grumble, "Not working....You do it, mommy!"  Sadly, a mother can only do so much for her kids.

Since Joey was naked for most of the day, I don't really have any pictures to post of him, here, but I do have a lovely one of Alex, who played no fewer than four games if Kinder Bunnies with me today on the patio, while Ella colored and listened to Harry Potter cds and generally recharged her batteries.

And then, because I was starting to go a little stir crazy from mopping up floors, I decided to take the kids to the pool, even though it was kind of cold.  But today was the first day in a couple weeks when it was considered warm enough to keep the pool open for the afternoon. (Our pool is always open until lunch, when they have classes, but the after-lunch hours are set at the whim of the pool director.)  The kids were all excited to go into the water, though, and splashed right on in.  But then retreated, shivering, after about ten minutes.  I hated to leave so soon, so the boys sweet-talked Ella into reading them a story. They knew better than to ask me, I guess. I'm lost in a good book, myself, these days. Because that's what summer's for.