What's it going to take?

Jeff asked me on Friday what's it going to take to get you to clean again?

Apparently he likes a clean house while he watches basketball.

I guess it takes a "you're mad at me so I'm mad at you for being mad at me for no reason" kind of day.

At any rate, all bedroom and living spaces were dusted and vacuumed on Saturday. Minus Pearl's room. A room has to actually be clean - like as in being able to see the floor clean - in order to dust and vacuum.

The kitchen cupboards got a quick wash down. Kitchen counters scrubbed. All paper junk and knick knacks that seem to accumulate on the counters found a home. 

Beds were made with clean sheets. Which is quite the feat with Pearl's collection of stuffed animals piled on her bed. 

Laundry washed, dried, and folded. Don't get me wrong, I forgot to put the last load in the dryer until today. There's got to be some give and take here. 

Dishes washed and put away. 

Garbage taken out. 

Breakfast served. Lunches made. A week's menu plan written {this is torturous for me}. And groceries bought at 11 p.m. after attending the Young Women LDS Conference Broadcast.

And a run-in with the Easter Bunny to make sure the kids had been good before heading off to bed.

Oh, and I showered. That's important.

I am exhausted and so hoping whatever cleaning bug I've caught doesn't come back!

Just kidding on that last part. Kind of. Sorta. Can't I just get a house elf instead?

Captain Underpants

Meet Captain Underpants.

Or as we've learned today from Wreck it Ralph {awesome movie... watch it!}, Admiral Underpants.

We have officially begun the potty training phase. 

For months, we'd been asking Cole if he wanted to use the potty. A resounding "No" was always the answer we got. So we figured he'd be the only kid in his kindergarten class still in diapers. Jeff even told the kid he'd buy him anything, anything he wanted if he got rid of the diapers.

Nope. 

I tried the whole, don't your friends wear underwear at school routine too. Apparently not. I almost called one of his best friend's moms to bribe her with getting Gio potty trained so Cole would follow suit. 

But if I learned anything from Pearl's potty training phase, it was to back off and let the kid do it on his own time. And a little peer pressure at daycare always helps.

Well, one day Cole informed me he wanted to go buy "underpants" at the store. Batman underpants to be precise. We waited a couple more days, practicing with diapers, and then took Cole to the store to let him pick out whatever underwear he wanted. He picked a pack of Super hero and Cars II underwear.

The first day he wore his new underpants to school, he didn't have a single accident! I was completely shocked and totally underestimated the little guy. A week later and he still hasn't had any accidents at school. 

Home? Well... that's another story. Apparently Cole missed the memo that you have to not only pee in the toilet if you have underwear on, but poop too. We've had #2 accidents for four days in a row. Starting on the day I took these pictures. I should have known better than to curse our more than good luck with this whole potty training thing.

But gosh. If you aren't a mom to a little boy, you have no idea how dang cute those little bums are in Super Hero underpants. It almost makes up for having to clean up after potty training mishaps and frustrations.

Almost.

{On a serious note. I am taking advice on how to convince Cole to poop at home. In the toilet. He has yet to do this since we started potty training. I don't know if it's that he doesn't know what that sensation feels like yet or if he's scared or just stubborn because as he's told me, "You clean me underpants Mom!" Hmmm... on second thought, after re-reading what he's told me I'm going with stubborn.}