This has been a HUGE week for the King family. Like, seriously HUGE. I’ve kept this rather quiet, for risk of being shamed by mothers everywhere, but up until this week, Miles, who is three and a half, was not potty trained. Wait, I actually think I just heard a gasp from judgey moms every where. (Or wait, perhaps that was choosy moms choosing Jiff….they sound very similar.) Anyway, we have been working on potty training for two years. TWO YEARS with no success. (Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating, but we’ve been potty training for what feels like forever.) Oh we would have glimmers of success, but they ended up to be teases. I had one friend whose child was Miles’ same age and not potty trained. Other than that, it’s been something where we just felt like loser parents and have been super frustrated by the whole experience. Oh and very alone. Most people potty train in one day or with minimal drama. It’s maddening to hear that because we have worked SOOOO hard to potty train and for most of it, I was pregnant with a huge belly. (Not an easy feat!) Here’s the thing though, Miles can READ but he wasn’t potty trained. He was definitely smart enough to be trained, he just didn’t WANT to be. So it was a power struggle. Awesome. Everything I read said that we just had to leave it up to him and he’ll do it. Well, as much as we wanted to just ignore potty training for awhile, we were still cleaning up messes every day. To wrap this rambling up, potty training has really sucked.

So anyway, this week, he finally just decided to BE POTTY TRAINED. He went in the bathroom, shut the door, came out a potty trained kid and so far, has not looked back. THANK YOU GOD!!! You just have NO IDEA how amazing this is. It’s life changingly amazing. We are so proud of him!

If Miles can go the rest of the week being potty trained, he gets to do what only potty trained kids get to do at his preschool, and that is stay an hour longer for lunch bunch. So I told him he could pick out his own lunch box. What did he choose? This one:

I’m telling you, this kid keeps us on our toes! We showed him a website full of lunchboxes with Spider Man, Mickey Mouse, you name it on there and within two seconds he chose that one. Watch out lunch bunch, here comes Miles!

Another awesome thing that we have been noticing over the past couple of weeks is that Miles is really settling into his role as a big brother and hasn’t been acting out anymore, which is another huge relief. A few weeks after Jocelyn was born, he had a rough time adjusting to everything. I mean, he has been the star of the show for three years, so I don’t blame the guy for feeling the pain of sharing our attention now. It’s been great to see him happier and back to himself again. Having him reading with us has been HUGE as well. SO much change these days!

I haven’t gotten photos of Miles and Jocelyn snuggling together yet. He usually interacts with her when I’m holding her, so therefore, no snuggling photos. The other day, Miles was watching tv and so I popped Jossy down next to him. He was rather annoyed. I mean, he gets to watch two shows a day and so he does not want to be bothered! This cracked me up though, it’s like a mug shot or something. (Yes, that is a cloth diaper Jocelyn is wearing. I’m finally hopping back on the cloth bandwagon. This time I get to do pink ones! Squeal!)

So along with Miles being potty trained (que the hallelujah choir) I’ve really been feeling a peace about being home with my kiddos right now. That’s really huge considering it’s very rare for photographers to take a long leave like I have, if any. So I’m feeling pretty alone in my choice to take a long break from shooting clients. (Though this photographer has taken a long break from shooting clients to focus on her kids and her art. She is awesome and has helped me see it’s OK to do that.) My friends have all been super supportive, it’s just rough sometimes watching the working world bustle around me. However, now more than ever, with a second baby, I see how fast time flies. So I’m staying strong and remembering to stay in the moment.

I’m probably going to jinx myself here, but Jocelyn is a DREAM baby. She is rainbows and kittens and warm wooly mittens all wrapped up in a little baby girl. She’s smiley, loves to be held and is so perfectly healthy and happy. Sometimes when I’m changing her clothes or running around town with her I feel like she’s a little doll I’m playing with.

This week I have done what all new moms do and take a million photos of her just doing nothing. I’ve spent the past two years chasing Miles for photos and to have a captive model again is just too much fun. This one was a funny little shot that I got playing around with photos at the house.

Wow, that was a very discombobulated blog post. Thanks for hanging in there. I’m super exhausted tonight (must be the gross cold November weather sucking the life out of me) so hopefully this all made sense. Night night. Thanks for tuning in. Wish us luck that the potty training sticks!!!