Potty Training attempt #2 Day 2

Things have been going very very well. We are so impressed with Joel. Last night I had to leave to judge a gymnastics meet so Joel was on his own with both babies for an hour or so until Joel III went to bed (with a diaper on of course!). During that time Joel III had another success and Joel was thinking 'man he's really getting the hang of this!' To add to things, Joel had a small meeting at our house that was starting right after Joel III got in bed. Joel left Joel III alone for about 5 mins as he checked on the rest of the house to straighten things up. Sure enough when he returned he found Joel III sitting on top of one of our storage ottomans with a large dark ring just below his bottom. Apparently the feeling of something soft on his bottom was the cue or something as Joel III acted like nothing had happened. Joel felt a little overwhelmed at this point as he had about 30 minutes to give Judah a bottle, get Joel III to bed, clean up the accident and clean up the house! I think he survived.

totals from Day 1
Successes 6
accidents 3


Day 2

This morning we had a similar story to Day 1. Joel did nothing until around 11am. We were sitting him on the potty around every 20 minutes.. more frequent around 11am because I knew it was coming. Sure enough we had a hit at 11am and then another hit shortly afterward with a surprise - watch the video to hear about it -



I was so pumped and then we had lunch. During lunch at some point he peed in his booster seat. He did say to me "Go potty Go potty" near the end of lunch and I whisked him off to the potty only to discover he already went. We put a diaper on and I put him down for his nap.

Joel woke up from his nap pretty cranky and not happy to take his pants and diaper off. I let him sit on the couch next to me (sitting on a towel) and watch a video while I nursed Judah. We had one more hit then it was dinner time. Near the end of dinner he said "Go Pee Go Pee" and I whisked him off to the potty to discover the same pool of urine in his booster seat. Hm.... something about that seat feels comfortable to him I guess. In the evening I knew he should have one more pee so I was sitting him on the potty frequently. The timing didn't work out and while playing with a toy I heard him exclaim, "Pee! Pee!" He was pointing at it on the floor in front of him with a surprised look on his face. Then it was bedtime. Hm.. he does much better in the morning I guess.

Totals from Day 2
Successes 3
Accidents 3

Overall I'm pleased. We are starting to get a feel for when he goes and he is feeling more comfortable with the whole thing. Hopefully tomorrow he will give us some warning before an accident ... most of the hits are from times that we mandate him to sit on the potty. However there have been a few times that I say "ok Joel, your time is up, do you want to keep sitting on the potty?" and he says "Go potty." and he stays there and pees.. maybe he just wants me to leave him alone.

Potty training attempt #2 Day 1

Ok. So I'm not gonna lie. I/We were not excited to do potty training this time. Perhaps it was the failed attempt from last time, or the thought of cooping up a 2 year old inside for 3 days, or the thought of pee everywhere, or maybe the reality of a more opinionated child... or perhaps just the combination of all of these.

Looking at the calendar this seemed to be the best time to do it, and I didn't want to wait too much longer as Joel is still eager to please us and curious about potty things. Fortunately we just had Joel's 2 year birthday party yesterday so we have plenty of new toys to keep him busy. More positives: Joel is realizing the privilege it is to have the full attention of his parents (he gets less and less of it these days) so the bare-bottomed method definitely gives him more attention. oh and lest I forget - we have been working on drinking from a 'real cup' which he really enjoys, this will give us the chance to perfect drinking from a 'real cup.'

Morning of Day #1
Successes 5
accidents 2

Woo Hoo! Joel spent the entire morning playing half naked and drinking 'juice' (full strength G2.. yummy treat for him!) by 11am still nothing had happened. We were getting a little nervous. We sat him on the potty a couple of times for about 5 mins each to no avail. Then of course while playing, he looked at me with huge panicked eyes and started wiping his legs with his hands. He had peed on his legs - nothing major, just a few drops. I could tell he did not like it though. I reminded him that his pee goes in the potty and we tried siting on the potty again. ..no luck. I pushed more G2 in the 'real cup' which he really enjoyed. By this time he's had about 12 ounces and only a few drops of pee so I know something will happen soon. Joel and I start to take turns sitting him on the potty for about 5 mins each, every 20 mins. Joel III and Daddy were playing in the other room and I hear "Belly Belly!" in kind of a whiny voice from Joel III. Joel says "I know your belly is big does it hurt?" Joel III says "Belly Hurt." So Joel takes him to sit on the potty for a little bit. Sure enough a few minutes later I hear "uh oh." from Joel III in a loud voice. We looked with anticipation inside the baby potty. ... a few drops of pee!! yeay! we gave him 1 skittle and then did a big song and dance. (To 'The Lord's Army') He had so much fun and was so bewildered that he got all that attention and a candy from just a few drops that he quickly returned to the potty after the dance and deposited a few more drops. We rewarded him again and Joel and I looked at each other thinking, "how much longer can we do this?" Secret: that time we cut the 2 minute song in half. after the second success Joel shouted 'Go Potty!' again.. and so I returned to the potty with him.. wondering and calculating how many drops it would take to = 12 ounces of G2/milk. This time a huge flood of pee came out. Mommy and Daddy were relieved.

One more accident and one more success and it was lunch time. Great job Joel III.

Here's a video we took this morning

Christmas with 2 kids = more than twice as hectic!

We had our family Christmas a few days before we left for Cincy. I received the coveted Dyson Vaccuum that I have been desiring for a few years so I was pretty excited. I gave Joel a monogrammed shave bag and some new running shoes. We gave Joel III a 'latches board' and 2 things in his stocking - a $1 plastic snow globe and a $5 small firetruck. Judah didn't know it was Christmas so he didn't get anything. Here's a video of Joel opening the fire truck.



We have always traveled to our parents houses for Christmas. We don't mind the drive.. Most of Joel's family lives in the NW Ohio area and most of mine in Cincinnati. It is a great time to see everyone and celebrate. I enjoy it thoroughly. 2 years ago I was about to pop with Joel, and traveling to Cincy and Van Wert was a nice to get my mind off the fact that my feet weren't fitting into my shoes anymore. 1 year ago Joel III took his first steps in Cincy and it was pretty easy to cart him around from place to place. However, this year I never thought introducing just one more family member could increase the 'stuff' level by so much! The amount of diapers and Christmas presents alone would barely fit into my little Corolla with the 4 of us. The thought of then adding our luggage was laughable. So we reluctantly took the huge Moose to Cincy and Van Wert. Hm.. I guess it's time to get a minivan.

This brings me to another 'stuff' issue... TOYS. Joel and I have mixed feelings about toys. We have already decided to not do Santa Claus. We will wrap presents for our children, but they will know the gifts are from us. I love the fact that I can stay at home with my kids. However, a house has a ton less toys and is generally a more difficult environment for a 2 year old than, say, a day care center. Plus, in order to get anything done, the kid needs to entertain himself safely (and maybe even learn a thing or two). Hence the need for toys. The con side - toys take up space (this is my beef) and well lets face it, the good toys usually take up the most space. Joel's beef - more and more toys fuel the consumeristic lifestyle that we would like to discourage both in our own lives and in the lives of our children. Romans 13 speaks of this "Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have" Even so, we knew that we at least needed a few trains and cars for Joel because apparently, rattles just won't do it for an almost 2 year old. So we are very grateful for the toys we received for the boys.
Here's a pic of Joel opening up one of his most favorite toys from Christmas - a train set from Gamma. He has been obsessed with his train set, magnadoodle, and matchbox motorcycle. (Side note to family members reading this blog - don't worry if he's not obsessed with your gift this week, I'm sure he will be next week.)




Here's Indy, Joel's cousin 1 year older than him opening a gift. A highlight in Cincy was attending the show Awaited which we attended last year. This year, we encouraged Joel III to watch the 'show' and he stayed attentive for the entire hour and 15 minute program!! He loved it. When we asked what his favorite part was he thought about it and said "Camel." This was a huge deal to us because normally after asking him a question like that he would reply, "part?" but instead, he actually answered the question with a word that he came up with on his own, and he answered it appropriately! go Joel III!


Here is a pic of the Awaited program put on by Crossroads church in Cincinnati. After Cincy, we woke up the sleeping babies, packed up the enormous amount of stuff we accumulated, drove through some scary snow, and dealt with a cranky boy in the back seat for the 2.5 hour drive to Van Wert. Joel was anxious to see his cousins and Gran and Grandad, I was anxious to take a nap.
Here's Joel with his Gran and Grandad and his closest cousin in age - Lizzie Spath.





Here's a pic of the aftermath of the Penton Christmas present opening extravaganza and a video. Above is Joel's sister's youngest child Kate Crummey, amidst some boxes, Emily's dog Gyver and some other presents in the background.

We had some quality time with our family especially Mike and Lindsey (engaged on Groskopf side) and Matt and Mollie (married with 2 little ones on Penton side) so that was really nice. But, wow, we were excited to return to 4507 Braithway st. I am hoping that next year will be a little more relaxing because we won't have a 3 month old sporadically waking up in the middle of the night, but I fear the relaxing days are over. ohwell. We had planned on another 3 day potty training fiasco, however Joel wound up having some serious diarrhea and green snot So I figured it wasn't the best time.

woops..

I forgot to mention Halloween! Joel III had his 2nd Halloween and went trick-or-treating for the first time. He was a dragon and he LOVED his costume. He literally did not want to take it off. Here is a pic of all of us on a hayride at Northwest Bible's Harvest celebration.
Joel was quite confused when it came to the actual trick-or-treating. He was very scared to go up to people's houses and also did not want to walk from house to house. We tried to toughen him up - We passed some 1 year olds that were younger than Joel and like half his size and were walking! Eventually, to put him in a better mood we took him in the stroller. (after all, we did say that we were going to go on an exciting 'walk' where we would make lots of stops to get candy.. so why would he think differently?) Here's a video of him attempting to trick-or-treat.

November recap..

Life is great. We have two healthy cute boys and my husband is at home to help me take care of them!


Ministry life is slowing down in the way of traveling and speaking, however, now we have entered into a different kind of busy. Book #1 has hit the shelves (well, some of them) and more importantly - Amazon! Check it out here (we will be mailing copies out to some of our supporters very soon!) -

http://www.amazon.com/Stand-Your-Ground-Joel-Penton/dp/0615403484/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1291319724&sr=8-1

We are beginning to work on book #2 and would like for it to be complete by March 2011! (this one will be Jesus-centered) We are also working on various marketing and support projects. Also - and this is super exciting - Ryan is working on his debut album as I type this! He has had a CD with select cover songs for a while now, but we all decided that, for the good of the ministry, it was time to take the next step in his musical career and we cannot wait to hear the new material! If you get a chance please pray for him and his prego wife Emily.. they will be apart for a few weeks as he works hard up in Michigan on the new album.

November was pretty busy, beginning with a week long trip to Texas for Joel and Ryan. During that week Joel had 14 speaking engagements in 7 days. Add to that a ton of driving (apparently, everything in Texas is like really far apart!) and very little sleep and you get one very sick and tired Daddy. He had 1 day to recuperate though. ha. I had an awesome week in Cincy.. I got to sleep in every day until 10:30 while my dad took care of Joel III. It was like a vacation. It was great.

We have bad news to report about Joel's First Christmas Tree that I wrote about last Christmas. At some point it died this summer starting from the top down. I guess it's just like everything else that Joel touches.. he either breaks it or it dies. Guess I shouldn't let him touch Judah now that I think about it. Here's a pic of Joel with his rake and the special tree in the background. Sad.


We had an awesome Thanksgiving in Van Wert and Cincy. We had fun stuffing our faces, watching football and the Macy's parade, and catching up with our families. It was so great for Joel III to see his cousins and play with them. He espeically enjoys playing with 'Ray Ray' (Rachel Spath) on the Penton side and "Sis-ee" (Sydney Groskopf) on the Groskopf side. He likes the ladies already I guess. Here's a video of Joel and Sydney playing in Cincy.


We ordered a double running stroller (side note for moms who are interested - after extensive research and even purchasing a different one online and sending it back we settled on the instep safari, we are pleased with it for the most part, especially the price - originally $250 and got it for $150, one of the best features is the independent reclining of the separate seats, which you can see in the pic) and took the boys out for one last jog just recently.. it was freezing. Judah seemed comfortable but occasionally let out a high pitched squeak in response to the cold wind. Joel loved it as always.
Joel and I had a fun time raking leaves and then messing up all the piles one night.. looks like it's midnight but it was really only 6pm.


Joel III is learning at an insane pace. Seriously, every day we are shocked by something new that he knows. Just recently we taught him to count to 5, see the video here:


now he already knows how to count to 10! He is finally speaking in short sentences and has learned how to control adults by grabbing their finger and saying "peese pay" to get them to play with him which is super cute. But also super manipulative. Here is another video of something impressive Joel can do now!



Judah has been a pleasure. He slept through the night at 5 weeks, but then would sleep through 3 nights in a row then be up at 4am the next night, so he wasn't consistently sleeping through the night until around 7 or 8 weeks. However, he tends to wake up more in the middle of the night if he is just a tad bit off schedule, so that is something to keep in mind. He's extremely easy to get smiling and very cuddly (both are different traits than Joel at this age). I have noticed that as long as I stay on top of his zantac schedule (supposed to be 3x/day) he will only cry when he is due to nurse. Wow, go figure! Here is a pic of him in his typical spot in the bassinet and boppy sitting by the window.

Too Fast!

I cannot believe Judah's already a month old! Here are some updates on the family -

Joel III: Joel has been doing well with his brother. However, sometimes Joel forgets about him because like a typical 1 month old baby, he sleeps a lot. When I hold and nurse him Joel has a tough transition at times. Usually we need to have a long involved chat about how Mommy is going to have to nurse the baby and wont be able to play with him. He is slowly figuring it out.
Mommy decided to purchase a new toy for Joel to burn off some energy -


He likes it a little better in this video -


Joel is learning and speaking a ton and its fun to watch. He is finally putting 2 words together. He loves to pick up two of the same thing and say "Two Balls!" or "Two cups" or whatever it is for the day. He loves to go new places and 'help' with chores and learn how things work. His new obsessions are batteries, pumpkins and fire hydrants.

Here's a video of Joel holding Judah


Here's a video of Joel opening one of Judah's gifts



Judah: Judah is doing well. At his 1 month appointment he weighed 9 lb 3 oz! He is finally needing 0-3 month clothes! I think he has a bit of reflux and so I started to prop him up on the Boppy after feeds and that has cut down on his crying during the day. He still spits up quite a bit but doesn't seem bothered by it. The reflux also (if he has it) doesn't affect him at night at all. He has been consistently waking up at 3 or 4am the past 2 weeks (he's 5 weeks old now) and just three nights ago slept from 10:30 (last feeding was at 9:45pm) to 6:45am!!! Two nights ago he was up again at his usual 3:30 and last night he slept through again! I have high hopes that the sleeping through the night will become more consistent over the next few weeks.


These past few days he has started smiling and that is super fun! After we put Joel III to bed, we have some fun Judah moments where we get him to smile.


Judah does something funny.


Daddy: Joel is very busy traveling. He seems to be waking up at insane hours (5am) every day, so that makes for two very sleep deprived parents. He is drinking a lot of coke zero and mountain dew to make up for the lack of sleep and I think so far it has worked. However, he is getting sick so maybe not.


Two things account for his business this year compared to last: speaking engagements further away, and involvement in our local church discipleship program. Both things are awesome and are enabling us to serve the Lord in even bigger and better ways! However, of course, both make life a little more complicated -

This week Joel will be in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Next week he has a full 5 days in Texas. Because our outreach involves an evening concert, we need all of our sound, light and A/V equipment. That means lots of hours driving. Please pray for safety while driving and effective outreach concerts.

The discipleship ministry at our church (Northwest Bible) is taking huge steps forward. Joel and I are both super excited about the progress. Discipleship is a one-on-one relationship meant to enhance our relationship with the Lord. We both had awesome relationships in college with our disciplers and that spawned our passion for discipleship. Joel has been working with our teaching pastor at the church to work through the logistics of this program. Please pray for the discipleship relationships at our church, pray for them to start, continue, and grow in their knowledge of the Lord through his Word.


Me: I am doing well. I am enjoying the feeling of my body slowly going back to normal. I am also enjoying the short time that my baby is a little bundle. I know it will be over so soon and he will be crawling and walking before I know it. Joel III's activity level has required me to seek out other moms for play dates. I have found these relationships have helped me a ton.. who knew having friends is a good thing! ha. Thank goodness Joel III has my best interest in mind. just kidding. I am still at the point where I feel like I need a short nap during the day to make it through. This cuts down my ability to get anything done tremendously. So I am adjusting to that. Joel is adjusting to more dirty laundry, a messier house, and my inability to complete ministry tasks in a timely matter. ohwell.

Judah Thomas Penton!!

oh man! Judah is here. We are so excited and thankful to have 2 healthy beautiful boys. I have been putting off this post bc I feel like it will be so massive.. we have so much to say!

Here are some highlights of the past 2 weeks -

cutest moment: When we arrived home from the hospital and introduced Joel to Judah, He kept saying 'baby' and tried to pick up Judah by the legs as he had been holding the other baby doll. see the full video HERE.


scariest moment: The Dr. broke my water and found tons of meconium. This could be a life-threatening situation for the baby, if the baby swallows it. (he didn't, and was fine)

most surprising challenge: Adjusting Joel III to his new brother. He still hasn't fully learned but I think now he knows that Judah is a person (he will now frequently hand Judah footballs and guns and offer Judah a drink from his sippy cup) and that Judah isn't going away. However, he still does not like it when Mommy is nursing Judah and attempts to climb on top of both of us... causing lots of stress for Mommy.


biggest answer to prayer: The entire labor and delivery process. Wow. It was truly a great experience! I labored at home for 8 hours (even went to church!) then we headed to the hospital at 4pm. Got an epidural at 6pm, was so comfortable that we joked around and watched some of "Meet the Parents" on TV. Pushed twice, Judah arrived at 839pm. Easy. I guess next time I should try it without the epidural to make it more challenging. ;) Watch the entire Labor and Delivery process (G-rated) HERE.



most precious moment: Praying with Judah on my chest immediately after delivery. We did this with Joel and it was such an intimate time with Our Lord, each other, and our newest gift from Him.


are the two boys different? Yes! We can tell already. Judah has darker, thicker skin, and darker hair. He is also of course way smaller than Joel was. Judah is naturally pretty laid back, but more difficult to 'mold' i.e. conforming him to my preferred schedule is not as easy as it was for Joel. Fortunately the schedule he 'prefers' is pretty easy to deal with.

Joel III after first bath:

Judah after first bath:

was it easier the 2nd time around? Surprisingly, most of the pregnancy was! I think I can attribute most of this to his weight. Also as you just read the Labor and Delivery was no comparison. Knowing what to expect afterward also made things easier. So, all in all, yes!



most surprising moment: Finding out that Tiny Judah was only 6 lb 11 oz! (Joel was 8 lb 4 oz.) Our Dr. did say that the placenta was huge for his size (about half his weight which isn't normal) the cord was very long, and there was a lot of fluid. His size was very surprising to me, however, Joel kept predicting he would be 'small and feisty'



saddest moment: Joel III crying "up, up!" when I nursed Judah and then crying even more when I told him I wasn't able to hold him right now.

moment that makes me laugh: Thinking about Joel (husband)'s face when we were getting ready to go to the hospital. He had a huge smile on his face, he kept making me laugh, and he was running around the house like a crazy person trying to get things ready. My contractions hadn't progressed for 6-7 hours (they were still 10 mins apart and not any more painful than when they started) so we weren't sure it was the real thing until around 3pm. He didn't think I would ever go into labor so the whole thing was pretty exciting for him. You can catch a glimpse of his excitement HERE.

More to come later!