Beth Dreyer Photography Blog

I thought when we moved in with my parents that my day to day at home with the boys part of  life would fall into a more relaxed rhythm, but for some reason it hasn’t.  I haven’t decided exactly why this is.  Perhaps it is because this house is approximately 2.92 times larger than our previous residence and there are now a whole host of new places for Shep to explore and cause various kinds of mischief.  Perhaps it’s because since moving here he was hit his little boy stride and left his baby days behind.  Perhaps it’s because Rhett all of a sudden can’t seem to live a moment without being held and until yesterday felt that he would much prefer crying for an hour to sleeping for an hour.  Whatever it is, I don’t feel like life is more relaxed.  I  don’t feel exhausted and overwhelmed though, so I suppose it’s ok.

Recently we have been fine tuning Shep’s potty training.  He has recently mastered the fine art of taking off and putting one’s own underwear – and it only takes him twenty minutes to do so.  My mom has helped me to have the patience to sit there with him while he lolligags around the bathroom, inspecting the toilet paper, making airplane noises and urging, “Come on Mommy, you can do it!” (meaning ‘You can take off my underwear!’)  If I didn’t have the help and encouragement, the child might never have learned to undress himself because it drives me ka-razy to sit there and wait patiently while Rhett screams in the other room.  Soon he’ll master the fine art of going to the bathroom entirely without observation and supervision, two things to which he still clings.

With all of the bathroom struggles, and let’s face it – since he’s a boy, rarely a day goes by that Shepherd actually becomes and remains clothed for an entire day (pajamas not included).  And if he does become clothed, it is probably due to one of two things 1) we are going somewhere, or 2) my mom clothed him.  He is blissfully happy to run around all day in his underwear.  If I would let him he would be even happier to run around buck naked.  I may not be a bastion of cleanliness and sanitation in all areas but I do draw the line somewhere.  Most days.  I’ll be honest, I consider myself to be ahead if I Shep is wearing clean underwear, Rhett is in a dry diaper, and I have brushed my teeth.  If any of us has bathed, my heart is probably bursting with pride in my mothering prowess.

Although he has been a potty training rockstar when it comes to Number 1, Number 2 has been shall we say more of a challenge.  Having done the appropriate amount of Googling on the subject, I’ve found that this is not altogether uncommon with boys, blesstheirlittlehearts.  Today the poop gods frowned upon me and not only did Shepherd poop his pants right after I had given him a bath, but not 45 minutes later Rhett had the most legendary poop of his young life.  Somehow (God only knows how) I didn’t actually realize that his diaper was ~ahem~ messy until I got him on the table and opened it up.  How exactly I did not hear the offense as it took place, or smell it shortly thereafter I’ll never know.  But you’d better believe I about passed out when I opened that blessed little surprise on the changing table.  Now of course on a day in which the poop gods are frowning upon you, the first wipe you reach for is inevitably the last wipe in the #$%ing box, when clearly 65 wipes would have hardly done the job.  I had to pick the angel up and run his hiney under the running bathwater.  And of course since I use cloth diapers, I had to run the putrid diaper under the water as well before depositing it into a trash bag and racing downstairs to put in on a sanitizing cycle in the washer.  Lovely.  I spent the next 45 minutes or so attempting to clean and sanitize the bathtub while Rhett screamed on my bed and Shep took advantage of my distractedness to bounce all over the bed causing his brother to cry even harder.  My mom who had been blow-drying her hair finally came upstairs to see what all the commotion was.  She was able to calm Rhett down and settle Shep while I finished my sanitation.

Later, once I go the kids in bed for their nap, I sat down and realized that I’ve had a headache for several hours.  This is probably due to my lack of caffeine, which bothers me because I have never liked the idea of becoming addicted to anything.  I popped some Advil and realized with a sinking feeling that it was my night to cook dinner.  It was at this sinking moment that I decided that it is a pasta night.

Here are a few recent photos of the little dears.

(this post was pre-written on Wednesday August 17th)